Together Forever - by Sapfarah

     I like playing fair, so I'll warn you in advance: Jun fans are NOT going to like this.

     Actually, hardcore Tekken fans are unlikely to like this either.

     So why did I pen, er, type it down?

     All right, admittedly I mostly wanted to stir the waters and draw up tension by writing this down

     but I figured why not. Tekken Tag is such a flunk and if Namco cannot kill Jun properly and

     relieve everyone but especially me from her annoying presence, I might as well take matters at

     hand.

     I already know that most of you will say things like "why the fuck did you kill Jun" or "don't you

     dare shun my beloved Jun!" (insert retching sounds here) or even "that bitch Mileena is not

     right for Kaz" or "Jun could kick Mileena's ass" (well, if she could find it in a picture she Might

     do ~ then again, Might) but, I'd really like to hear from those who think "Damn, about time

     someone said something like this!"

    Well, there is NO really rewarding Tekken female (once you played MK none does the trick)

     Anyway, for those who read Forever, Soon to Come this serves as a sequel. However successful.

     Surely unpredicted. Someone asked me for a sequel once (I've not forgotten you Vanessa!)

     but I doubt you'll be satisfied with it...

     Scarlet Breeze and Zephyr, I hope I haven't aggravated you too much. I hope you will forgive

     me someday.

   Here are some songs that will set you to the general mood of this story:

     Mysterious Ways by U2

     Wish I could fly by Roxette

     On with it...

     Together Forever

     The weight of Death is heavy - but not immovable.

          This Mileena knew only too well, having crossed the threshold both ways - but

     had she really been dead? She didn’t lose her consciousness but for a brief moment, in

     which she was swept by a total confusion that her sensors could best describe as black.

     It was as though she was plunged into the abysmal depths of sea, where light never

     reaches, with the currents sweeping her in soft eddies, the water had a light pressure on

     her and the sound was completely drawn, yet she could hear the soft, chaotic hum of

     bubbles of energy - born and blown as she flung her limbs to swim, not knowing where

     for or what for. She didn’t care, she just did. She was pretty much a part of the belly of

     the sea, completely alone but unaware of her loneliness, feeling no pain or sorrow or even

     curiosity. A flavourless tranquillity surrounded her - and then she woke up.

          Rather, she was brought back into awareness, as she would call being in control of

     the sensations she was accustomed to. Hearing, seeing, feeling, sniffing. And partially,

     tasting. Her senses had amplified greatly as well. She could hear the buzz of the wind, she

     could taste it. That’s the flavour of dust. This is the aura of someone - she could

     practically see a halo of somebody before that one came into view, an outline invisible

     even to others of her kin. She could hear the air swish silently, making room for their

     bodies to occupy. Among other things.

          She was seized through her soaring as if by a gigantic hand that had plunged into

     the vessel she was swimming and took for an endless ocean and she was sucked out in a

     gasp to air, so fast she heard the screeching of the medium as she flared through it, she

     was blinded by so many sparks that made her ascension look to be through a tube of

     lightning - she was firm it was an ascension - and then, in a pant that felt like a punch in

     her chest from her very insides, she sat up in a jolt and everything settled back in

     awareness mode.

         For a few instants, as she gasped for dear breath, which she needed now that she

     was no longer plunged in the water, she didn’t know whether she was angry, sad even to

     have abandoned her newfound tranquillity, both emotions having become spared for

     special occasions a while now - but after her surroundings settled into her, she decided

     she was glad.

          Four men were with her in the dark room. She knew every one of them, all but

     one associated with a good thought. She wasn’t very much shocked to find Him there.

     Somehow it was expected, taking what she had experienced. She planed her eyes over

     each of them. Anubis, who had murdered her only hours before. Shang Tsung, obviously

     her rescuer and Julian, her lover and Sire. But it was in His eyes that her stare chose to

     rest. Kazuya. He was sitting on a chair, raptly attending to her condition. When her eyes

     fell on him and he acknowledged her awareness, he even seemed glad… he certainly

     smiled, feebly as always. But she knew him and knew this was his most cordial way to

     say ‘welcome’. She kept herself from smiling due to the other two for a little more.

          “So, it’s all of us then…” she said. As all of them smiled, she allowed her lips to

     stretch.

          She passed her stare over each of them again. Julian. So handsome. Seductive.

     Shang Tsung, as always devious but ever beloved. Now they would both share

     immortality, now they were truly equal. Truly together. Forever. Anubis… (actually, she

     instantly looked away from him, that bastard.)

          Kazuya.

          He was looking rather vaguely at the moment. But she planted her eyes on him. He

     looked up and their stares locked. Julian understood and smiled but it was Shang Tsung

     who spoke.

          “I think we’d better leave you for the moment…”

          His voice hadn’t changed. It would never change. Smooth and fine like silk,

     punctilious and like ever, staining intensity on ‘k’ in this very distinctive, charming manner.

     How glad she was for it…

          Everyone left the room. Julian first. Shang Tsung and Anubis walked behind. And

     it was the two of them now. He and She. Him and Her. For the rest of eternity.

          Alone now, no need to conceal. She got up and so did he. They walked towards

     one another until they stood face to face. She smiled. How could he not allow a grin? His

     eyes, even though so dire, were so bright. His face was alleviated from any burden of

     grief.

          She put her hands on his arms, feeling him. He was real. He couldn’t be anything

     else, she could feel his arms. Substantial and lovely muscular as she remembered. A faint

     chuckle escaped her. He smiled. His hands came up to her elbows. Next, she had thrown

     herself on him, lying on his shoulder as he pulled her closer and they were embraced.

          If only this had been forever…

          Mileena came back from a dream into a dream. Kazuya and she were together.

     And there was Shang Tsung, the ageless wizard and her once upon Immortal Brother.

     There was Julian. There was a whole world to explore. But she didn’t care. Julian was

     lenient on her ‘training’ bah, training! She never required proper tuition, just a few

     pointers and the rest was up to her. Like always. So each night, she grabbed Kazuya by

     the hand and the two of them run through the dark passages that their new life had given

     them. She had to slow down - if it was hard for him to keep up with her before, it was

     impossible now. But for him, she would sacrifice her need for speed. She could give a

     burst and go back to get him, prettily dumfounded behind a polite smile. They run

     together to wherever they pleased, two beautiful fiends, two careless creatures, lovers of

     the night. And the kiss… oh the kiss!!

          The thrill she experienced when she sought his lips after many nights, in the climax

     of pursuing the new, previously unknown pleasures… his face, if it fascinated her before,

     it pained her with its splendour now. He was magnificent, nothing less. They sat facing

     each other, staring one another under the soft light of the moon, wordless like always.

     She found it impossible to resist. She bent forward and kissed him.

          He kissed her back.

          Oh the marvel of the contact! She wasn’t deluded, they were flying. She was in his

     arms, he was in hers, their lips met together firmly, their eyes were sealed but she could

     see… she could feel! An eddy of miraculous wind swept them up in a twirl, blowing

     through her long hair, deafening them with its soft susurration as they floated up higher,

     urges and desires building up in crazy amounts, taking their breath in agony as they

     swirled, twined one onto the other, in a mad dance of delight, in perfect union. One.

     Together.

          Forever.

          Forever?

         ...

          It wasn’t forever.

          It happened upon one night as they strolled near the edge of civilisation, near the

     wilderness yonder. Mileena sniffed and endeavoured the scent of resin in the air. A

     deeply routed love for the constantly evolving nature survived within her, through all that

     befell her. It was something purely carnal, something that had to do with the scents that

     dampness exuded from everything - the tangled mass of pine needles and the mattresses

     of slowly mouldering leaves, turning into the sweetly smelling cloddy mass on the process.

     It was the smell of sodden soil and the mushrooms that sprouted from it, yes, she actually

     smelled the fungi, they had a faint tangy smell and so did the tapeworms, and the wet,

     rough barks of the trees and the inedible berries of the bushes. And dust. And rain. And

     the rich in oxygen air that was intoxicating.

          The wind was gentle on her face and with languorous eyes she looked over at him,

     to see if he too felt it. His face was as ever, unmoving like stone but without the harshness

     in it. He was even more like a statue, with the marble like, assuaged perfection on his

     features.

          Probably this all meant nothing to him. But it could as well mean much that he

     didn’t wish to communicate. Or couldn’t. She could give him time. Oh, Time! She had

     loads of that to give. He met her eyes and in his constancy she found all that she needed

     to.

          And she had to be looking into his eyes when they heard her song...

          She had to see the startle when the soft hum impacted his eardrums, as did to hers.

     That tune was unspeakably beautiful, a melody weaved of dreams. Whispers in the wind

     of fair maidens and wishes. To her it was just a sound. She could only be entranced by

     beauty she could identify with. She could feel the savage beauty of the ever and

     everything-consuming nature - but that voice? It was solely spiritual. It harboured things

     she couldn’t empathise with. Hope. Purity. Outright cleanness and righteousness. A love

     higher than what her body could provide.

          Jealous? No. Not until she saw the impact in his eyes.

          She would simply disregard it. Walk on by it. It just didn’t get her interest. She

     would forget it the moment she’d catch the twinkle of a waterdrop on a leaf or a sluggish

     caterpillar crawling upon the stem of a freshly sprouted leaf. But he…

          He suddenly stood affixed, absorbing the tones of the music, taking it all in and he

     stared at her with a fearsomely aloof statement…

          Shocked. Stunned. He was indirectly asking her, did she hear that as well as he?

     Did she feel his way?

          And this is what shocked her.

          She didn’t.

          It was over the moment that voice reached his ears and he acknowledged the call

     being for him… He heard her call and then, he had to obey to it. He had to go and find

     her. Her… Whom, Mileena didn’t know. But she knew that their communication was

     suddenly breached. Otherwise, she wouldn’t even have to glimpse to feel his heart - now,

     he was a stranger to her. Distant and ensnared in his own thoughts to which she was an

     outsider…

          She however, dismissed these thoughts. She would accompany him, she wouldn’t

     leave him search alone - for whatever or whomever it was. They were still together - an

     item. United. One.

          Right?

          …Right?

          The Forest was not the kindest to the Kindred. Lupines lurked with fangs and

     claws ready to rip their undead skin apart just for being what they were. Although

     Mileena laughed with defiance at the mentioning, she had since early been told that her

     Speed could barely match the Rage of a Werewolf. Julian had been extremely blunt

     about this. She had thrown a fit and pouted like the little girl she had never been but until

     she could achieve her Celerity which she pledged to herself, Julian and to the world - oh

     boy, you’d better bet on this, she Would! - she also gave her solemn promise to avoid a

     clash with werewolves. Not that she intended to keep it. Werewolves, hah! Perhaps they

     could be indeed a fit challenge - she dealt demons before, Heaven and Hell be her

     witness. They could be all they said them to be - all the better if they could give a good

     fight - and they could be not. Maybe she could pick up their secret somehow. This night

     seemed like it would be the night.

          But there were no werewolves in the forest.

          Or rather…

          She sensed them. She hadn’t met one yet - but she felt their presence in her

     vicinity, as something that naturally rebuked her kind. They were here. But, unlike her,

     they couldn’t detect her because… she realised that they were unable, fallen under a

     greater command that captured every one of their senses. Enchantment was cast over

     them, as with the forest. As with Him… That voice…

          ‘Make it shut!’ she thought violently. And she followed Kazuya opening his way

     through the forest, oblivious to everything and it was her trying to keep in pace with him,

     for her reluctance was weight on her feet and the closer they got and she knew they did,

     not just because she felt this stronger emanation of Presence, throbbing powerfully, truly

     substantially closeby, but because her heart was forced to beat faster, in unison with this

     presence. She loathed it. It had hold of her heart.

          When finally they reached the opening, they saw what caused all this effect in the

     forest and calmed the Wilderness in some disturbing pure glow. She looked like an angel

     or a fairy, pretty in her delicateness with an statement of tranquil hope on her perfectly

     clear and unadorned face. Everything around her seemed sunken into serenity and all the

     beasts, large and small were absorbed into looking at her.

          Mileena came into a halt, staring at her. Young female of slender build, dressed

     like a dryad in a plain white tunic with a broad belt keeping the textile upon her slim waist,

     shoulder long dark hair draped her face like threads of silk, laced by a sash around her

     head. The skin of her face and bare arms was rosy pale of immaculate perfection, which

     made her features stand out more distinctively. Her lips were barely darker than her skin

     and her large doe eyes were of deep molasses quality. But that was all Mileena could

     see. A fairy. Nothing extraordinary. Why the hell were they here???

          She looked over at Kazuya a mere pace ahead of her and in shock she saw that

     he, unlike her, saw more than what she saw.

          She shook in anger but more than it, in fear. What was it that which he saw and

     rendered him unable to utter, approach or move at all, what was it that had transfixed him

     before this female with such a struck statement?

          His name was at the tip of her tongue but afraid of not getting an answer, she

     didn’t dare speak it and therefore, in silence she watched him, looking at the girl and

     her…

          She was looking back at him and something registered on her soft features… it

     was recognition and longing which that even was dignified on her face. Mileena couldn’t

     picture carnal lusts upon this refined canvas but she knew they were there and they were

     answered by Kazuya’s stare…

          Did they know each other?

          She had about gathered the will to speak only then, his lips moved and she opened

     her mouth - the same voice she had heard echoing through the dense forest, she heard it

     again speak, or rather come forth as she attempted to talk, trembling with the joy she

     couldn’t bring herself to believe she had found and he moved forward, same as she, to

     meet with her and there, standing before one another they were studying each other with

     eyes and hands not daring to touch, speculating the surface of their bodies, both trembling

     with similar thrilled agony.

          She should probably be glad - she could tell she meant something significant to him

     - but how could she? It wasn’t long before the touches landed and they looked at each

     other with wild anxiety before they broke off and rushed into each other’s tight embrace,

     firmly holding upon each other, lying each on the other’s shoulder. Mileena could see the

     woman’s face resting her chin on his shoulder, her eyes closed, her lips trembling half

     open and felt totally lost, totally alone, completely out of it.

          Where was she?!?

          Lover and lover, both turned to her and their embrace opened like a book, facing

     her. Transiently, she glimpsed the trepidation on the woman’s face and urgently turned to

     Kazuya for the comforting explanation. But instead she found austerity. She was shocked

     by it. Wasn’t he aware how frightened he was to act this way?

          “This is Jun…” he instructed. Mileena looked from his face to the smiling one of

     the girl to his side and again interrogatively to his face. He wasn’t simply telling her, he

     suggested for her to be friendly to his chosen one…

          His chosen one! He demanded that she were friendly to her and damn! she didn’t

     know her, who the hell was she, how could he…

          How could he ask that from her? Dethrone her and ask her to take it in a smile?

          The other woman beamed with a tearful smile… she hated her. She had got

     everything that was hers in just a glance. He was… She was…

          “His chosen one is my friend as well,” Mileena managed a lofty smile which Jun

     seemed to receive with joy. She reached her hands forward to embrace her but Mileena

     recoiled and her feint dropped as she gave Jun a look of wild foreboding. Her hands

     instinctively came just under her chest, in a naturally efficient defensive stance and Jun

     halted, puzzled eyes seeking for an answer…

          “Mileena is like that,” Kazuya offered. “She needs time to know you…”

          Mileena didn’t remove her warning eyes from Jun as she let Kazuya’s words sink

     into her and found herself irritated by his deduction.

          ‘What do you think, that I’m some wild pet? I will never get enough time to know

     her! How could you… Don’t you know…’

          She paused her trail of thoughts. Of course he didn’t know. Or didn’t he? When

     he kissed her, wasn’t that his emotions and the awareness of her own? When he looked

     into her eyes, when he communicated with her without words, in his language that he

     spoke so well, that only she could decipher and know it all, then, didn’t he… didn’t

     she…

          ‘You Ought to know…’ she thought bitterly. But the bitter sting was as much

     aimed to her, if not more. He seemed unaware of her trepidation and Mileena knew that

     he should… he ought to…

          ‘You Had to know!…’

          Even from the night of the first encounter, Jun joined them to their trips through the

     darkness, despite Mileena’s displeasure, which she kept untold very well. She felt

     however that she was an entirely different creature than what they were, in many ways.

     She exuded a certain freshness that contrasted them both exceedingly. It was salubrious

     and for that it was an affront to Mileena, as thought it was trying to scrape off her essence

     and replace it with nothingness, for that which she bared she could not contain.

          ‘She will never fit. She will never be one of Us,’ she thought and forced herself to

     remember that ‘Us’ was her and him, not all three of them. ‘We shall never be three

     together. Mark my words, Jun Kazama!’

          Her presence alone was possessive of the entirety. Absolute assuredness of her

     purity invaded the area around her. Mileena was annoyed by it and had readily baned her

     out of her reach, which she knew that Jun too had felt and retracted all attempts for

     contact. Kazuya however… seemed disturbingly enraptured by it and was concentrated

     listening to her talking…

          Mileena glanced to her side, looking at her. She walked in the middle of their

     company, between Him and Her, dividing them. She talked to Kazuya in her melodic,

     feminine voice, full of excitement and later concern for his situation when she found out

     what he was. She was sad when her suspicions were verified, that he was an Undead

     when she was the encompassing of all that was Life. Still she welcomed it with gladness

     for she had found him again… She leaned on his arm and walked with him. Kazuya

     sounded distant to her, Mileena noticed with some relief but wasn’t that because he tried

     to hide what he knew he was, which differed from her?

          She was distraught. She made him feel ashamed for himself?!! What nerve was

     that? Her act was purification and sorting of what she didn’t approve but did she stop to

     wonder if this was right? Mileena observed how she had delicately avoided to consider

     her similar condition, completely ignoring it, as the fact that she was part of the company

     long before she came.

         ‘He’s bound to see it soon,’ she thought. His fascination with this girl, whatever it

     was, Mileena couldn’t understand but Kazuya appeared delighted and at the same time

     pained by her proximity. The greatness of her beauty hurt him and for his craving for that

     which she reminded him that he was not, he flickered near that dangerous border.

          ‘What are you going to do?’ Mileena found herself questioning. She knew Kazuya

     couldn’t answer. He no longer indulged into their bond…

          If not her abhorrence against them, then her infringement to their company alone

     made Mileena wish for a chance when Kazuya would be similarly upset and wouldn’t

     object to her giving Jun a piece of her mind.

          Otherwise she might have been willing to accept her. Her brother’s lover would be

     welcome to her arms anyway. But not her! She was dividing them, she was getting

     between them, casting her aside and pulling him towards the other end, through a mystic

     barrier that would alter him in ways she dared not think and what’s worse, he was going

     on with it, docilely following her demand…

          He was talking to her no longer. Not even with the telepathy. Whenever she tried

     to access his mind, she found a muddled blank. He was there, that is. Yet he wasn’t. His

     mind was at a loss and he wasn’t even aware of her intrusion to his thoughts. Mileena

     however wasn’t certain whether he was capable of commanding his own thoughts

     himself…

          He and Jun spend long walks on their own now. With this excuse or the other they

     wouldn’t follow her and when she would return after her hunting, she would find them, at

     best strolling in the woods. Often, she would find them where she left them, face to face

     staring at each other with a devotion that was sickening and she wouldn’t accept it as

     mutual. He was staring into her eyes as if her stare was feeding him and she feared that it

     was, infusing him with her thoughts and ideas… and though it broke her to see him stare

     so deeply at anyone other than her, it wasn’t until she caught them at the edge of a hill that

     she was properly worried…

          It was getting late for them and they had to find refuge from the day. Yet when she

     returned to the spot she left them, he wasn’t there! She was mad with panic and

     searching him with her mind was even less effective, especially as he did not respond to

     her Call… She felt it however. Jun’s barring presence had occupied all of his thought. He

     was with her and whatever the reason was, she was fretted.

          She was ravished with wild panic, running around and trying to sense him. The

     night was slowly subsiding into a milky blue light when she reached the end of the woods

     and saw them two at the cliff… Hand in hand they stood there, Jun slightly turned her

     neck to look at him and back at the horizon where they expected the sunrise…

          What was he doing? He knew just as well as she did that they could no longer

     brave the sunlight… but there he was, hand to hand with her, expecting the breaking of

     dawn itself!

          The incident alone was a perfect sacrilege, especially as she recalled the ritual she

     performed long ago. Her tempers ignited. She ensued all of her vexed Presence towards

     him but… it was Jun who looked over her shoulder at her…

          “I’ll bring him back,” she promised earnestly, showing that she was aware of the

     danger she subjected him into and pained for the existence of this situation… but it wasn’t

     her conviction that made Mileena bite the bitterness and hurry for shelter. It was the total

     ignorance of his, staring straight at the rising sun.

          The Sun…

          Mileena scrambled away from it, taking shelter in the shadows but she still

     awaited… testing her limits and also wanting to see. Would he come back? Would he…

          The sun slowly rose and she felt the pain. It hadn’t even begin to emerge yet its

     light blinded her with intensity and she crouched behind some bushes… she bit her yelps

     as she writhed to a ball…

          She didn’t hear their approaching footsteps. He was still walking, although

     somehow debilitated. Mileena couldn’t understand how come his endurance surpassed

     hers so greatly. Julian hadn’t been so resistant to sunlight.

          She tried to stretch a hand but she couldn’t see them. She was showered in horror,

     feeling they would pass her by… eternal moments passed before she felt his familiar

     hands catching her and pulling her up…

          She couldn’t know that her cheeks were streamed with blood tears or that her

     eyes had rolled under her lids but she knew she panted hopelessly and that she leaned in

     the strong comfort of his shoulder as he supported her back to their shelter. Jun should be

     there too, she thought, by his other side. But at that point she didn’t care. In fact she was

     glad for it, because she would now see that they were still caring for each other and that it

     would take much more to separate them…

          Then why wasn’t she receiving any indications from him?

          She slept through that day, feeling that Jun was also in their shelter. She kept

     waking up and in the absolute dark, she saw her holding his hand… He lied like a dead

     man, her hand was holding his… if only she wasn’t feeling so weak…

          She woke up when the night came up again. She thought she would be early. Jun

     was gone but so was he. She stood up…

          She had felt Jun having gone a long time ago. But he…

          A strange gladness erupted silently in her heart. He was there! Just outside the

     cave and he was calling for her!!

          Mileena leaped up and rushed outside. Kazuya often thought of her and he knew

     that she could pick up his thoughts as the most powerful call. He had stayed outside and,

     Mileena realised, he had waited for her!

          So they weren’t all gone!

          She found him standing there, with his back at the entrance of the cave, gazing

     before him. She approached gingerly. She didn’t want to reach explosively when he

     seemed so absorbed, even though her excitement urged her to. She walked silently close

     to him and stood by his side.

          He was there… oh yes, he was also aware of her presence… yet something was

     holding him silent, trying to avoid thinking, knowing that she would read his thoughts…

     but…

          Why?

          Mileena frowned. What was it that he was trying to hide from her? What horrible

     fact did he try to keep out of her knowing?

          Jun… that wretched, prying woman! What did she brainwash him with?

          She clenched her fists. This was war and she wouldn’t stand by and watch her

     taking him away from her. She wouldn’t let her take him at all.

          Using all of her concentration she mentally seized his mind and captured it.

          He resisted her. For a brief moment he tried to keep her out but he resigned. She

     told him he could trust her. He knew he could.

          Mileena insisted in every way she could but she was unable to retrieve information.

     She demanded he would tell her. She gazed intensely at him, until…

          He physically turned to her direction and looked at her with eyes wounded.

          That alone had the force to break her spell and throw her a foot back.

          She trembled to see what she had caused in him. Fear, no, rather… severe

     embarrassment…

          She pulled her hand before her mouth and covered it. Her eyes widened as had

     his.

          They looked upon each other for an uncomfortable while, before he turned away

     without a word and walked off to the forest.

          Mileena waited.

          After she had cooled down, she went to find him.

          She didn’t search too far. He had only gone behind some threes and sat down,

     bending above his curving knees with his head looking down in between. It seemed to her

     that he was feeling guilty. She deduced that he ought to feel so but, after all, it was Him.

     She couldn’t hold grudge against him Forever...

          She walked without making the faintest of noise and sat, not beside him but behind

     him. She slithered until he was between her thighs and she could recline her chest on his

     back.

          She knew she was violating his private space at an inappropriate time but the

     situations asked for it. This was a struggle of perseverance. He would answer her

     question, whether he wanted to or not.

          ‘Her or me.’

          He didn’t stop her. When she thrust her hands over his shoulders around him, he

     put one palm upon her forearm and leaned back, resting on her shoulder behind him. Like

     always, she felt him purr. She had never heard another man do that, purr like a cat in her

     embrace and to her, his purring was something special, reserved for her alone...

          She inclined towards him. Her head now rested upon his. She closed her eyes, like

     she knew he did. If her heart could beat, it was now running at doubled pace. It was

     impossible for her to touch him and not be jarred by this faint quiver, racing her skin from

     head to toe. She pressed her eyes shut in bliss.

          ‘You are still mine…’ she whispered with her thinking. ‘You will always be!’

          She worked on the tension lying like a foil over his muscles. He was still thinking of

     Jun. She was like a duty on him. Whether he loved her or not, hopefully not, he still felt

     obliged against her. Maybe her tales had found their way into him. But redemption had

     never been his hope… what happened and he had all of a sudden altered so much?

          She rested her chin on his shoulder, gazing ahead, deep in thought. What did she

     offer to him that she had him bound under her spell? How could he possibly be thrilled by

     that woman? Was it her simplicity that feigned her connection with nature so well? It

     didn’t fool Mileena who knew what nature was and Jun was not it. How did she fool him

     then? With the mystique of her ‘purity’? With the softness of her manners and the interest

     of hearing him tell her of his state, because she only wanted to know what it was like?

     Making love like torrential rain, filtered through bottle green pine twigs, her body

     fluctuating to warm clouds of golden purity and him knowing he wasn’t part of her

     delight?

          ‘Do you enjoy it?’ she demanded. ‘Do you like being her means of elation and not

     being there with her? You cannot go to her realm, she cannot bother to take you because

     of this ‘Free Volition’ thing. She wants you to believe it’s your denial that keeps you

     down while she tempts you by holding the promise right in front of you, an inch out of

     your reach… You don’t suspect that she wants you looking up at her from below and

     admire her because that weakens you before her. Do you enjoy it?’

          The tension rose. He was aware of her question, or at least the essence of it.

          ‘Well do you?’

          Only then, she heard footsteps before she even saw anyone coming. She knew by

     the sound who this was.

          Jun.

          She came in the least auspicious moment. Mileena panicked. She knew that any

     moment now she would show up and she would lose her chances. So she pressed her

     question.

          ‘Answer to me, Kazuya! Do you enjoy it?’

          He didn’t answer back and what she realised shocked her...

          He was sensing her. He knew that Jun was nearby, he felt her inviting heartbeat

     approaching… It more than baffled her. He wanted to go to it. If only to just escape the

     question…

          And Jun came into view. And both stopped thinking and looked up at her.

          She stopped in front of them, looking down at them in horror, apprehending part

     of his emotions, part of her intentions. Mileena frowned in threat and found that Jun

     couldn’t take her agonised eyes from hers… Round one was won. And lost.

          She felt Kazuya shift into her hands. She felt him slide away from her arms and

     getting away from her as he rose to his feet.

          He was going away…

          But her question still remained. Kazuya avoided but she knew that the question

     existed inside him before she put it. The answer would be an act of honesty to himself

     but… he was not being it… She concentrated and sent a blocky telepathic impact at him.

     It made him turn around and face her. Her gaze was cognisant and gave him a startle.

          ‘Answer to me, Kazuya,’ her eyes implored.

          But he gaped, focusing on her eyes and not in her. He was a stranger, abstracted

     at her stranger’s look. Trying to understand her interest but failing.

          ‘Answer to me.’

          Mileena kept looking until he lowered his head and turned his back at her, giving

     up the effort. She saw Jun passing her frail arm over his broad shoulders and escorting

     him away. She didn’t look back but Mileena smiled bitterly, knowing that she had sensed

     her murderous gaze on her back.

          There really wasn’t anything for her to think of. She knew that something was

     about to be worked upon Kazuya but what she had no idea. She couldn’t prevent it

     either. How could she stop something she didn’t see? But why, why wouldn’t he tell her?

     What could be so horrible he wanted to avoid discussing with her?

          He had even avoided meeting her the past days. He was with Jun, she knew it. But

     the need to speak to him was imperative. So she set out to find him.

          She went to the cave that she knew he dwelled now but instead of him, she only

     found Jun there…

          She was absolutely disheartened by it. Jun was making a fire - she was sitting so

     close to it and actually threw wood in it! - and when she saw her, she stopped to look at

     her indecisively. Mileena firmed the line of her mouth and tossed her hair, erecting her

     spine with steeliness. She wasn’t intending to converse with her, in fact she made sure,

     before she turned her back, that she let Jun know how she regarded her as inferior to her.

          She was therefore surprised when a little later, while she sat watching the sky, Jun

     approached her.

          The young woman had been extremely discreet but there was no way to sneak

     upon Mileena. She had sensed her long before she was at earshot distance and had

     prepared herself for her arrival by turning an angry face towards where she would appear

     from.

          Indeed her preparation surprised Jun who at the start stood transfixed, observing

     her as she tried to make words form from her feeble breath. Yet Mileena didn’t ease her

     stare, toying with her like the predator plays with its prey. Finally, fiddling her fingers, Jun

     spoke.

          “I need to speak to you. Please don’t turn me away.”

          Still Mileena didn’t appease her statement. Instead, she frowned deeper and

     tensed her muscles.

          “You’ve got a mouth - use it.” she threw abruptly.

          Jun looked at her in hesitation. Her sharpness thwarted her. She sought her inner

     calmness to face her.

          “I have realised that you don’t like my friendship with Kazuya,” she said. Still

     Mileena cast her icy glare from the corner of her eye.

          “If that’s the way you want to put it…”

          Jun gaped speechless before her. How similar to his was her abrasive stare and yet

     how different! His was a blast of omnipotence and firm grasp of power. Hers was a

     sharp concussion of unrestrained malice.

          “I mean well for him… I want you to know that…” she tried to assure her.

          Mileena’s features crumpled with derisiveness. Jun fought against that sign to talk.

          “Mileena… I hope you will appreciate…” She swallowed and closed her eyes

     before facing her accusing eyes again. “I believe I found the cure to his condition…”

          Her voice was soft like the soothing touch of a breeze upon the soft petals of the

     humblest of flowers. And yet, Mileena received her statements like a megatonic gut

     punch. What??? What exactly did she imply? That she had found a way to Change him?

     That she actually could and Would convert him to mortal and…

          …take him away from her? Deny him the eternal life that was bestowed upon him

     and make him a simple being such as he was? That she could grasp him back to the route

     of Life and… keep him to herself?

          No!! How could this ever be? And this audacious woman… she nearly seethed as

     her eyes grew wide and her lips parted, her fangs peeking through. Her muscles tensed

     and her fingers stiffened to clawlike positions, ready to rip Jun to shreds. She had the

     nerve to stand before her and speak such profanity?

          “You… You can treat yourself too~” Jun began to stammer.

          Mileena never believed her silence could be so effective. But it could be that her

     eyes were bristling with such sparks that they might have shot sheer lightning upon Jun,

     who silenced at the sight.

          “I will hear no more of this!” Mileena worded in ferociously sizzling voice. Jun took

     a step back, shaking in fear. She brought her hand to her face, her wide, innocent eyes

     widened in a plea for understanding but Mileena had none to give her. And yet,

     something in her weak behaviour took away her rage and instead of pursuing the fight,

     she turned her back at her, dropping her long black hair as an obstructive curtain.

          She sensed Jun curiously releasing her defensive strain and, how queer, she dared

     to approach her inquisitively… Did she have a death wish?

          She felt her standing by her side. She glared at her from behind her hair but her

     defeated look was no longer menacing. She couldn’t frighten someone so stubborn in her

     righteousness. Even when this someone threatened her most precious relationship…

          “Why must you be so hostile?” Jun’s melodious voice attempted a reconciliation.

     But Mileena’s hatefulness did not recede.

          “Why must you be so intrusive?” she said in her gruffness. How stupid could this

     woman be? And why couldn’t she just rip her throat open like she wanted to?

          Still her retort acted as a push upon Jun who once more looked surprised at her.

     Yet this time, she bowed her head and retreated backwards.

          “You don’t know what’s best for him,” Mileena called after her. “I won’t let you

     carry on with it.”

          Jun stopped her process towards the cave but other than that, she said nothing.

     She stood still for a time. Then with frustrating calmness she proceeded in her retreat.

          He hadn’t heard.

          Jun only told him that she had spoken to Mileena a few days ago. But she didn’t

     tell him what they had talked about.

          He didn’t ask her either.

          It wasn’t because he didn’t care. But that wasn’t why he was worried.

          He was worried because Mileena wasn’t there. She wasn’t there by his side. He

     was afraid because he realised that he couldn’t take her for granted - because the

     possibility of her disappearing subsisted and her absence enfeebled him. And he also

     perceived her in one more way as being like the wind - a special way that he achingly

     understood that, in her case, it could be that it was only for him…

          Just like the wind that everyone takes for granted, no one pays attention to or

     complements, adversely it is used in derogatory phrases to express triviality... In his

     mortal tuition, the Wind was not recognised as one of the fundamental Elements. But

     what better proof of the tremendous significance of the wind was that, without it there

     was no life? No air, no breath, no flow of the water, no shift of the tiniest grains of Earth,

     no means for the insects to fly and if the smallest cogwheels of Nature were stopped then

     the whole Existence ceased and inevitably came Death…

          She was His wind - his Air, the air that sustained him, the air that he breathed. And

     now his wind was gone. He felt weak.

          Jun couldn’t give him that security.

          She was sweet indeed. Her love met the dark corners of his soul and embellished

     him with warmth and comfort but still…

          He needed Mileena. Not to bury his head in the harbour of her embrace (although,

     by all gods and demons, few thrills could even approach fractions of this exultation!) it

     was more that he wanted. It was her silent understanding and her unconditional approval

     of him. It was the way she looked into his eyes. She bore his stare as no one else had

     ever managed and yet there was no presumptuousness in her achievement. There was

     appreciation of what he let her look at and furthermore, acceptance and admiration of it,

     fondness and this underlying suspicion of daze… and he had not found eyes more

     comforting and enthralling than hers. Her beautiful eyes in the colour of shiny lead

     promised alliance, support and loyalty.

          Facing the conflict of his emotions was frightful. He dared not confess these

     feelings to himself, especially not now that Jun was here - it would break her heart. But

     Mileena was…

          Their blood was connected. Their blood was the same. Their flesh was the same.

     And their spirit…

          It had always been one.

          That is why he decided to seek for her. He was determined to intrude her hiding

     and get her back out of her shell and…

          …back to him.

          Kazuya steadied himself and gathered all his sternness to his face. He would ask

     her what she had talked with Jun. Why she disappeared and didn’t turn up to the

     Conclave where her absence had been quite stirring. Why she no longer came to them

     (him) at nights. He knew he was neglecting her, for which he battered himself since

     Mileena was the only person in this world he could trust with his eyes closed.

          He needed to see her, he needed the assurance that she was there. But still, he

     couldn’t exempt her behaviour and he wasn’t about to let her go easily on that. He also

     knew that what he would find in there was possibly one of the fiercest tests he was ever

     to encounter... He braced himself and stepped into the cave.

         He did find her but she was more of an animal than a woman. Her raven hair was

     unkempt and disordered with stray locks curving on her head like tiny snakes. Dirt was

     all over her, even in her priced hair. She was slumped on the ground of the cave,

     mechanically combing the earth with her fingers as though it was an important task. Yet

     Kazuya knew, just as well as she did, that she was attempting to create a distraction to

     her thoughts and presently, to invent a pretext to refrain from looking at him or as much

     as acknowledge he was within the territory.

          Kazuya held his breath, knowing this would be even harder than what he was

     prepared for.

          “You haven’t attended the Council,” he referred to his concern directly.

          Apparently, Mileena knew just as well as he did, that this was only evidence that

     something was not going right and that she knew he used it as an indirect approach which

     wouldn’t work. It showed in the way she glowered up at him from under her brows.

          Kazuya studied the posture of her dusted figure which had no apparent relation to

     the ladylike woman she otherwise poised as, or the agile fighter full of accurate perfection

     such as she was. This animalistic creature was a side of hers he barely converged with in

     more than glimpses - he had when they made love, in the fierceness with which she

     expressed her complete adoration of him. He had seen it in her viciousness when she

     fought, when her movements were fast as lightning and sharp like a knife cutting through

     her opponents with wild joy flashing in her eyes and her dreadful, fanged smile was more

     seductive than it already was. And she was always fighting by his side… for him…

          Considering this, he felt he had put his finger on the right place but he couldn’t

     quite discern what it was.

          He preserved his eyes unemotional as he looked down upon her. She merely

     glared back. If he wasn’t certain of her affection, he would leap back in a snap, yet at the

     moment even that didn’t feel reassuring enough.

          “You can tell me why you decided not to come,” he entreated her but he knew he

     was clumsy to appeal to their closeness at this moment. By calling upon it was as though

     acknowledging it was…

          …was it…

          !

          It couldn’t be…

          …could it be…

          Breaking?!?

          Was it… was that it? Did she feel they were…

          …did he…

          Jun…

          But it wasn’t so, even though Jun was back and with him, they two were still…

          …

          Suddenly his head was clouded as something mocked him for being wrong about

     something - but what was it he was being mocked about…

          Why didn’t he dare recognise it?

          “You only think of me when something goes wrong for you, do you?” he heard a

     clearly upset, coarse female voice addressing him … Her voice always had this grazing

     quality but this time it was distinctive more than ever.

          She had stood up and stopped before him. Sights of the familiar woman were in

     the savage girl standing before him, behind the soil-peppered snakelike black tufts and

     face dusted from erosion with dirt-messing hands. Her eyes were sunken. Mileena was

     crying. She had cried before but he hadn’t noticed it. He hadn’t noticed her observing the

     vacillation of his eyes a little before, while he tried to sort out the bundle that was his

     thoughts…

          No, I…

          His lips began to form those lone words his mind managed to conjure but two

     fingers mottled with powdery greyness pressed them sealed.

          He allowed his lids to drop. He knew her. He could trust her. He wanted her

     comforting.

          But this time he didn’t understand her. And he so wanted to.

          He opened his eyes to look at her. Her face was serenely sad, her hand still

     smoothed the angles of his face. She looked at him meaningfully. Why didn’t he

     understand her?

          “You know why…” she said.

          The accuracy of her answer shocked him in horror. He opened his eyes wide,

     looking at her in the same stupefied statement as the time when she was asking him

     whether he…

          ‘Do I enjoy it?’

          Why did the question force itself in his awareness? There was no point in delving

     over the matter! Jun was… she was the salvation to his soul! She would bring the joy and

     peace back into his life, she…

          What stopped his thoughts was the feeling of ignition right before his eyes. He

     looked straight ahead. Mileena’s face was afire with frothing frustration.

          ‘DO You Believe ANY of this Folly!’

          He frowned in question. What did she possibly mean?

          ‘She may be good. She may indeed be the encompassment of purity and goodness

     but does that make her suitable for you? Do you really want her to convert you? Do you

     have Any idea what it is that she wants for you???’

          Her eyes were painfully sharp. He had to look away. He did. This was a situation

     he wasn’t prepared to face.

          ‘Why do you refuse to see it? You know it just as well - you don’t need her!

     Damn it, you don’t want her!’

          Which was impossible to think. But why was he this weak?

          ‘She had enchanted you. I don’t know how. Her Glamour hasn’t affected me but

     you are captivated under it - I cannot bare to see you so weak! Where is your

     willpower? Where is your decisiveness?’

          His name was at the edge of her thoughts but she dared not conceive it. No. Not

     this word. Anyone but this.

          She touched him instead. And he recoiled in avoidance. And it tore her heart in

     pieces.

          ‘Why do you avoid answering to me?’ her thoughts screamed and tears nearly

     streamed from her blurred eyes.

          He trembled in similar anxiety, avoiding to face her. He knew he was and he

     couldn’t admit it. She was right in a way he couldn’t understand, but she was. If only he

     let himself trust her - she was like him, she would know, she would make things right, so

     why…

          ‘Why?!?’

          It was impossible to confront that question. He couldn’t answer, he dared not

     answer. He had to flee. It didn’t matter. He didn’t know. He never would. But that pain

     in his chest - in his heart - he couldn’t stand it any more.

          He turned slowly, avoiding sharp moves that could agitate her. He walked slowly

     with his head down towards the exit of the cave, with only one thought, to leave...

          “Kazuya!” her voice, which she was unable to repress, whined. And with her

     breath, all time stood still into that one moment.

          A drift of coldness soared from her chest and poured on her face. In a simper she

     held it all back, her breath, the violent outbreak of words she could not control or think of

     as her own, the acrid tears that welled through her eyes and blurred his image. But she

     could see him. He turned back and stared with genuine aptness at her outburst, unable to

     fathom it, or perhaps unwilling, too scared of it. He saw the tears streaming in her face

     from her now smeared, otherwise dazzlingly beautiful eyes and she knew that he saw and

     heard everything else she hadn’t said, emotions and words that were true to the core but

     which she held back with every fibre of strength within her. That she loved him. More

     than she could ever bear to know. More than he could take. Wholly, totally, completely,

     without conditions or restrictions. A love consuming and searing. A love which, like her,

     he also knew that it was just as deeply rooted within him. He loved her more than he

     would ever know. More than she could ever tell. But she chose to say something worse.

     She called his name.

          Never before had she ever called his name.

          Never before had she ever articulated the sound of his name before him.

          Never before had she called him by his name.

          And there she did.

          He merely stared back at her, confused and maybe shocked even - although that

     he didn’t know. He was surprised that’s for sure. But he knew not what he ought to do, if

     anything at all. He was very much helpless as he stood there watching her - seeing her

     reduced to tears, reclining bit by bit to her knees, her face layered with the salty film of

     her weeping. But he wouldn’t move.

          To go to her and pick her up would be an insult. Besides her possible violent

     reaction scared him stiff. The fear for his own emotions was overpowering even.

          He couldn’t control the situation. Her call was too strong to resist, too sweet to

     give into. He let his head drop and turned away. He walked on, knowing she would be

     devastated, already seeing her collapse with a feeble wail on her hand. He felt her trying

     to clench her teeth shut but rigors of crying wouldn’t let her. And his heart ached like

     hers, constricting in his chest, unwilling to beat.

          “I’m sorry, Mileena…” he muttered inwardly. She couldn’t hear him. He was glad

     for it.

          He walked away, clenching his fist, too tired to sigh, wishing that she could love

     him completely, like he did, more than he would ever know. After her confession, it was

     the least he could do for her, to think of her name.

          That he had actually sought after her meant everything. She couldn’t blame him. He

     was under her thrall. He didn’t know it but he was too captivated to break out of it. She

     had to do something about this and she would.

          First she washed herself. She cleaned herself from the mud accumulated all these

     days. Then, she cleaned her weapons. Her sais were crafted with great artistry, their

     steely blade was recently coated with a fine layer of silver. She tested her grip on the

     robust handles in all ways she knew - she flipped them swiftly, playing with them a deadly

     juggle, in all positions of usefulness. And once ready, she put on her favorite smile - that

     of seduction through promised danger. And she set off to find Jun.

          Her senses guided her deep into the unfriendly forest. Creatures unknown to her

     lurked in the shadows, watching her. She was unafraid. In fact, she was eager for one of

     them to step out of the hiding and give her the first rush of fight. But she went on,

     focusedly to her destination. She was lead by the unmistakable enchantment of the forest,

     the obvious signs that her enemy passed by. Her every step brought her closer with

     certainty. She simpered confidently. She was a creature of the Night now - and it was

     night. Her own realm.

          She found her in her mystic cave, sorting her miraculous herbs on the bench before

     her. She appeared engrossed in her activity, yet she softly looked over her shoulder at

     her standing in the front of the cave.

          “Mileena...” she softly accredited her presence and after that, she gazed

     wondrously at her brash statement with her seemingly innocent ignorance which infinitely

     infuriated Mileena. She didn’t seem to have a lead on why the other woman stood at the

     mouth of her cave, trembling with anger too much for her body to handle.

          “Is there something you want to tell me?” she encouraged her.

          Something about Jun forced Mileena to search for refined words to speak but she

     was unable to find any, so she stood there glaring at the little female, until finally her own

     instinctive reaction took over and she narrowed her eyes in almost two slits.

          “Yes. Go away,” she spat.

          Jun’s eyes hoisted in surprise. That apparent ignorance for the source of her hatred

     infuriated Mileena even more. Her hands trembled with the slaps she struggled not to

     unleash and Jun, noticing that, braced herself in precaution. She believed she could

     deflect Mileena’s blitzkrieg but she wasn’t willing to try.

          “Have I offended you in any way, Mileena?” she asked, softly speaking her voice

     echoed like the chime of crystal bells. But that didn’t impede Mileena a tiny bit. Her face

     morphed to furious indignity, demanding how Jun dared ask her that but there was lack of

     understanding in the face of the lissom woman.

          “After what you have told me… how dare you ask?” Mileena growled. Her voice

     was inhuman. So was the glow of her eyes.

          Jun stepped back precautiously, shaking.

          “I don’t know what you speak off~” she stammered and Mileena only by little

     didn’t flog her hand to her face.

          “Liar!” she screamed however and that gave Jun a startle. “You plan to change

     him, you told me so, how dare you say else now!”

          Jun began to understand and her lips closed in determination. She looked upon

     Mileena’s face with earnestness, confronting her rage with her calmness as she attempted

     to explain.

          “I know what’s right for him and I know this is the best for him. Somehow he is

     deluded into believing he’s all right, but he isn’t. How can he be all right like this~”

          “How Could You Know what’s all right for him? You are Not him!” Mileena

     stormed, outraged by what she heard. Jun’s eyes grew wide again. She failed to perceive

     Mileena’s thoughts and in her own frame of mind, she was incensed.

          “He cannot possibly be all right living like a leech~”

          “Shut Up!” Mileena’s explosion cut her sentence. She looked at her in shock.

     Usually her presence and behaviour caused creatures to be calm but this woman, this

     demon in the form of a human was too jagged for her to quell. Instead, it seemed as

     though every word, every gesture she performed, further infuriated her instead. What

     kind of a creature was she?

          Thinking better, she maintained silence as Mileena steamed before her.

          “You want him for your selfish needs, to prove yourself right. You want to make

     him as you wish, so that he won’t threaten you, he won’t oppose to you… but do you

     know what it is that you want to do? Efface him completely and render him a spiritless

     puppet to your leisure… You don’t want to be with him… you want to annihilate him in

     the worst possible way - and I Won’t Let YOU!”

          Bowing her head, she tried to get away by shielding herself into her discernment.

          “I feel sorry that you see it this way~” she tried but again, Mileena’s steaming rage,

     forcefully snapped her back.

          “Shut up!” she said. She spoke steadily but the wrath was unconcealed in her

     voice.

          Her tone forced Jun to face her. Her lips were infirmly open, like a girl’s but

     Mileena’s obverse was that of a steely demon. Her eyes ignited and every line of her was

     delineated with harsh iron…

          “Are you then ready to make every sacrifice for him? Are you ready to fight over

     him, bitch? Because let me tell you, you’ll have to! Before you lay a hand on him, you

     have to go through me!” Mileena fumed.

          Resentment sparkled in Jun’s eyes but before she might have tried to reply,

     Mileena appeared to transform into a stream of lightning, so fast had she moved. So

     swiftly had she rushed upon Jun and threw a punch that connected with her cheek,

     catching both jawbone and temple in a knock of full knuckles. Jun couldn’t even shout

     the startle as she fell on the floor and her cheek began to swell as if, filling with liquid that

     surely was blood, if not from her inner mouth being torn on her teeth, then from the

     strength of the punch surely.

          “Get up!” Mileena screamed but before either might have done anything, a

     horrifying growl, appealing to the long subsided primitive recollection of either, resounded

     in the cave and a furious mass stormed over their direction, taking Mileena down in yelps.

          Panic seized her in that instant and she rolled over, moving away as fast as she

     could, fleeting in uttermost fright from the slashing claws aimed at her direction. The

     werewolves! She finally met one and they were every bit what the lore said them to be!

          She saw a huge grey blur while dodging, upon which two yellow eyes glowered

     with the meanness of nature’s benign demons. A werewolf… Her quick thinking which

     lead to this realisation was meant to save her, for, before the possibility to fight a

     werewolf, she was invigorated with new willpower. Finally, a fight of her calibre.

          Jun dragged herself away as one of her loyal werewolves slashed at the fallen

     Mileena who had expected it and offered her side, still the claws severed deep into the

     back of her body and arm. She barely pulled herself away and pushed her foot at the

     lupine’s face, dazing the beast for sufficient time for her to pull back and leap on her feet.

     Yet another werewolf blocked the exit, growling as it launched with paws extended and

     feral claws aiming for her. Jun was surprised at how she rolled to the side and out of the

     way, only by now she had to parry two of them.

The two were beasts slashed at her but she seemed to dance her way out of them

     and then she drew her silver enamelled twin sais. The first werewolf realised the weapon

     only too late and whelped in agony as the blade gashed across his chest but the second

     had time to blow Mileena’s hand away whilst his companion recoiled. Mileena was

     forced to spin along the blow with a new wound to deal with, yet she used her spin to

     direct the other armed hand circularly to slice at the second werewolf’s thigh. The beast

     wallowed with a ferocious snarl and Mileena used all her strength to stab the second sai

     down on his shoulder. This time the beast howled and staggered with only his head jutting

     upwards as a reflex but the silver sai was cudgelled deep inside and as it infuriated him, it

     equally incapacitated him.

          Jun watched while one of her werewolves cringed in pain, rolling his large eyeballs

     as it struggled to remove the silver weapon from the shoulder, unable to do so for where

     he tried to grip, the silver of the blade extruded and all he was able to do was roll and

     bark as he bled and froth came out of his mouth in wallops, while the second bared his

     teeth in a snarl, preparing his claws, staring at Mileena’s eyes, considering to make a

     lounge on the venomous woman. She took her eyes from them to Mileena and, as she

     observed how her wounds had started to seal, she also marvelled at her fighting posture

     and the virulent iciness of her stare. She had been ablaze with hatred before when she

     insulted and charged at her, she was a fierce menace when she fought the lupines, yet as

     she confronted the werewolf in that battle of wills, her stare was unmoving as that of a

     statue and everything about her had a cold motionlessness but Jun knew that rigidity. It

     was the expert fighter’s tension that would shatter the split second the attack would come

     in, into a flexible barrage of expertly landed hits. This the werewolf also realised as it

     heaved, considering his attack and then Jun also observed that Mileena’s eyes, when she

     fought had the very same intensity of His stare… the same coldness she had seen in his

     face as well when he fought.

          ‘She’s not winning him from Me!’ she thought spitefully and concentrated, as the

     werewolf, somehow seeming incited, made a pounce on Mileena, who took a step back

     to give sufficient distance between her and the werebeast for a backspinning kick that hit

     like a hammer. The beast collapsed to the ground and Jun took a step forward.

          “Mileena!” she bellowed and the stout woman turned herself to her direction. The

     brazenness hadn’t left her lofty stare.

          “You have harmed my werewolves and seek to destroy me! Come on! It’s me

     you wanted. Come for me!” she shouted.

          Mileena flipped her one left sai in her hand, clasping the hilt firmly at the end of the

     spin, bringing the armed fist to her chest and presuming a forward dashing stance.

          “I was coming to that...” she said in what was barely a hiss but echoed so hollow

     the cave reverberated by it and Jun had to brace herself. Yet she was ready when the

     other woman attacked.

          She was worn by the scuffle with the lupines and her speed was not as great, still

     she performed a dazing attack. Jun was prepared however. All of her concentration was

     on that exact thing and when Mileena launched at her, she took just a single step out of

     her way and pushed her, using the force of her attack to shove her out of route.

          It might have worked on an ordinary fighter. Mileena stumbled but it would take

     more than this to threaten her balance. Taking advantage of the push, she let herself fall

     down and using her hands, she forced a wide sweeping of the entire floor of her leg’s

     range. Jun was caught by it and was tripped with her back onto the ground.

          She struggled to her feet immediately, readying her hands but Mileena was already

     there by the time she got up and she slapped her across the face. Despite the loudness of

     the blow, Jun’s indignant shout was audible over the slap. She covered her face and

     looked from behind it. Mileena’s face was a menace of rage and her fist thrust to her

     open face like a rocket.

          “Goddamn you!” Mileena argued. “Why must you have come? We didn't need

     you, he didn't need you! Why did you ever have to intervene in our Life?”

          Jun covered her cheek and gazed vehemently at Mileena.

     “There are some things you don't know about us,” she said. “I had found his soul

     and I could bring happiness to him. I lost him and I find him now in this horrible situation.

     You can't ask me to let him go!”

          “Oh but I can...” Mileena fumed. “Only, I won't ask.”

          Again she launched for Jun but knowing better, this time she avoided her fist. She

     grabbed her hand and forced it to a lock but instead, Mileena slipped underneath and

     reversed the power of the hold against her hand.

          “Is your life more important than his salvation?” she asked. “Now is the time to

     answer that question.”

          But somehow Jun managed to slip into freedom and used the stun of the moment

     to gain a pace of space.

          She turned around to confront Mileena only this time she called upon her inner

     powers. Her eyes issued a wave of hypnotism and she chanted her song calling the

     powers of Nature...

          Mileena felt engulfed. That song! How did it hold all her movements like that? And

     then... Succulent tentacles of vine sprouted from the ground and crawled at her ankles,

     wrapping her legs. She realised that she was immobilised only too late.

          Jun continued chanting. The vines grew even more, entangling her in the process.

     And as the song continued, Mileena's anger was again augmented. She allowed the soft

     thorns to penetrate her skin and her defiled blood to be sucked...

          “Wench!” Mileena steamed. “You think you control Nature so well...”

          Jun continued her frantic chanting, knowing her life depended on it. But then she

     saw Mileena's eyes ignite with triumph and heard the rapid withering of the tentacles, she

     smelt the effluviance of the rotting body and saw the vines gain the rigid grey brown hue

     as they were converted to wretched limbs of cursed plants...

          “You wanna see Nature?” Mileena shouted. “I’ll show you nature! I’ll show you

     the full of it! I’ll show you the omnivorous Force you refuse to accept, the Eternal

     Destroyer and continuous Creator of Infinity! Stand and face it without trembling, if you

     Dare!”

          Jun backed away in dread of what she saw.

          “What have you done!” she gasped staring in adversion. “What monstrous deed

     have you inflicted upon Nature?”

          “The Nature you have shaped to fit you, Human!” Mileena yelled. “This is the

     Nature that I know, this is the Nature that be! Do you like what you see?”

          A sad whimper sounded behind them. One of the werewolves was dying as the

     silver weapon embedded on his flesh sipped away at his life power and in a last act, the

     majestic beast committed the ultimate sacrifice...

          It burst into blinding light, brilliant and strong as that of the sun. The radiance hit the

     cave and Mileena screamed like a demon, cowering as her flesh was eaten from the flame

     and screaming she sought for cover.

          Yet the flame ended quickly as the werewolf had spent his last bit of strength for it

     and Mileena found herself badly scalded but surviving. Still Jun had run afar and she was

     at the entrance of the cave. She wasn't strong enough to pursue her and it was unlikely

     that she would be able to defeat her. Not when burned that bad.

          “You cannot win this one, Mileena! At the night of the full moon I will reclaim him

     and there will be nothing you can do against that!” Jun shouted before she fled.

          It couldn't be so! She couldn't let her carry on... she had to find the strength to fight

     her and stop her and...

          “Come back!” she shouted, knowing it was pointless. “COME BACK!!” she

     shouted again.

          She got no reply.

          Jun didn’t come back. And he too... he had disappeared! She had taken him, she

     knew so. She had taken him away for her arcane plans and the time was approaching…

          She had searched frantically for him but he was concealed. She couldn’t detect

     him anyplace and furthermore… he didn’t respond to her calls, he gave no signal… And

     that was worrying. No barrier, psychic or magical could obstruct his calls. She would

     have picked his call from beyond the grave - her blood was his, her heart beat along with

     his. That only meant that he…

          Him, unwilling to call!

          Nature conspired against her. The lucid plantation kept his location clandestine.

     Jun and her wretched magic! All the trees and plants sealed her secret and along him…

          Frustration rose within her. And she dared what she had forsaken when she was

     changed into unlife. She brought forth her own powers over plantation. She had the reign

     over the flora but now death flowed through her veins and she could not cast her call to

     the plants anymore.

          Not the proper plants.

          She concentrated. And withered, thorny tentacles sprouted from the ground,

     grumbling as they forced their way past aged tree roots and battling through leafy bushes

     to do her bidding. She closed her eyes and blood came out from her lids. But when she

     opened her red filmed eyes, she smiled with cruelty. She had found her information.

          The night of the full moon emerged on the sky at the predestined time of the month.

     The howls of wolves moaned in the distance and everywhere. Mileena heard the

     threatening growls surrounding her, occasionally a fiercer yelp and violent shaking of

     bushes cautioned against an assault. But nothing would stop her from getting where she

     wanted.

          She had discovered the secret location that Jun had taken him and hid him, where

     the light of the full moon would enchant her and bring her the power to complete the

     deed…

          That thought alone gave speed to her feet and resolve to her spirit. She ignored the

     threatening growls. She didn’t pay attention to even the plants that tried to hamper her.

     She even resisted the oppressing mood of the distant song - presumptuous and

     challenging to her, for all its purity. She grit her teeth. Soon, she would make that song

     silence. For good.

          The forest ended and right there towered the stony hill, on the top of which the

     cave was located. There. He was in there. She didn’t hear him, she couldn’t sense him.

     She just knew it.

          Striding, she made for the hill, when howls and wild growls sounded behind her. In

     a blur, three large werewolf beasts rushed upon her and this time, Mileena panicked.

     Common sense kicked in - she couldn’t possibly deal them all, she had barely made it

     away with her life in the last encounter with werebeasts and this time the numbers were

     against her. But she was too close.

          Wild eyed, she did what her instinct yelled the moment she heard the growls - she

     was grateful for her senses - others of her Kind wouldn’t even detect them before they

     would shred them to ribbons of undead flesh. She run with her inhuman speed and

     scrambled up the rock, against the howling wind and the offending song, pushing her

     back.

          Pebbles rolled under her clawing hands and feet. A massive paw with fearsome

     claws whisked at her foot and missed her for a breath but the claw tore the tendon of her

     heel. She focused the blood in her veins to command the wound to seal as she continued

     climbing. She wasn’t thinking. The opening of the cave was there. A few more dashes.

          All of her strength gathered all these years pushed her up. Her nimble body

     snapped like rubber and she bolted fast as a dart in the entrance of the cave. She tumbled

     and landed on her shoulder, rolling on her back and her hands and feet, seasoned with

     yearlong training, landed her perfectly, like a graceful feline. She looked up behind her

     jumbled hair and with the breath she received the awareness. Verification of her

     correctness and shock. Fear that she was late and hope. Maybe not yet.

          She had landed on a precipice that overlooked down at the large cave. It was

     much bigger than she might have imagined from the outside and pale glowing torches

     illuminated it. And in the centre of the cave… he was there.

          Mileena crawled to the brink to look better. Jun was also there. She stood at the

     wall of the cave in a step beyond the ground and sung while he stood transfixed at her

     song of serenity, ever distant and unaware of her proximity... Mileena couldn’t see the

     statement on his face but she knew that it wasn’t tranquillity, neither was it entrancement.

     He seemed to be smiling but he was so strained and even though he didn’t realise it, she

     knew he was in pain. Her mind wasn’t spellbound and his heart she could feel should she

     close her eyes and ears forever… He was tormented from this love this woman had

     infused him with - a selfish love which she didn’t reciprocate for she didn’t love him, she

     never did, she never could. She had loved his body for a time and found the opposition of

     his spirit to hers approving - but she never really loved him. She wished to alter him.

     Change him. And what was left after that?

          Kill him.

          She might not have done it conscientiously but with or without her attempt, if he

     were to be changed, he would die. Mileena was not intending to stand by and let this

     happen.

          She trawled the ground and found a rock that just about filled her fist. She

     clenched it and gave all her hopes to it. Then she stood up and focused all her attention at

     Jun.

          She shouted in pain and stopped her song when the stone hit her on the cheek,

     tearing a long bloody scar all the way. Covering her face, she recoiled to see Mileena

     looking down at her from above. A malignant smile was across her lips and she

     unmistakably saw the ivory teeth, especially those four long ones of her monstrous nature.

          She was so far from her but Mileena heard her beyond doubt muttering her name

     in a whisper.

          “Mileena…”

          “Expected anyone else?” she snarled and with a smile, she dashed down.

          She walked past Kazuya, without looking at him. She wouldn’t bare to see him so

     powerless right now. She didn’t feel him, he was gone to her. She strode towards Jun

     who was paralysed, not knowing what to do.

          “Let’s set it out,” she said.

          At that time however, mighty growls reverberated the cave. The werewolves

     appeared at the entrance and leaped down, heading for her.

          She had no time to be frightened and no time to reason. But suddenly, the rushing

     werewolves cowered and backed off whining. Mileena was horrified to see such dread in

     their eyes but she was even more horrified when she looked at the cause of their fear…

          Kazuya.

          He had sprung back to life. His arm was extended towards the were beasts in

     clear command but when she looked at his face, she saw what it was that really kept

     them off...

          Few things could look more horrific than what he was. His face was sharp as rock

     and his eyes cold like the gates of Death, promising just as much. Such absolutely

     impassionate front of dread was infeasible and even she wouldn't be much prepared to

     stand it... But what mattered was that... he was doing it for Her! He knew that he was

     opposing Jun by preventing her creatures from harming her but he was doing it

     consciously!

          Mileena couldn't avoid a smile... He was again a master of his own conviction.

     And again, she heard his presence.

          ‘Do what you must.’

          He told her so in resignation, without hope and knowing how dearly he would pay

     for it. But he implored her for her help... He knew he was giving her the knife that would

     painfully severe him from this fraud pleasure... but in his desolation, he beseeched that of

     her...

          And she would.

          “It's time to end this,” she said deeply and looked over at Jun determinantly.

          “You don't know how wrong you are!” Jun demanded with righteous tears in her

     eyes.

  “I know I don't want to efface him for a love selfish such as yours!” Mileena

     shouted.

          “Isn’t your love selfish then?” Jun retorted. “You want to keep him like this so he

     can be with you! Isn’t this selfish?”

          “Maybe so...” Mileena said. “But I’d rather lose him forever than let him dwindle

     under your ‘salvation’!”

          Spitting out her last word with venom, she rushed ahead, so fast that Jun didn't

     have time to even see her. She appeared before her in an instand and pushed her fully in

     the abdomen, throwing her on the ground, mounting her.

          Jun struggled against the weight over her but a punch that broke her nose stopped

     her further attempts. With one hand strangling her, Mileena drew out a sai and readied

     her weapon for the strike. She looked once down at Jun...

          The girl opened her eyes. There was a tearful calmness in her.

          “At least I know... I leave him in good hands...!” she uttered.

          It took Mileena a crucial moment of decision. The grip on her weapon weakened

     and she looked thoughtfully at Jun’s beautiful, bruised face. That little. Then her eyes

     turned back to steel and she stabbed the white throat beneath her.

          Blood splashed over her face and she gathered all her will to control herself and

     not drink any of it. She had to go completely. Not even a fraction of her should remain,

     not even ingested in her.

          She leaped up and watched life abandoning the young woman as her blood poured

     in an enlarging circle around her. She swept her face with her hand.

          It was over. Jun might have been a symbol of purity and innocence to those who

     loved her… and maybe she was for when she killed her, Mileena felt some sorrow

     infiltrating her. But this was about survival. Good threatened Evil, her kind, and to survival

     there is no room for emotions.

          She retreated from the pretty looking cadaver and nodded once with her

     commanding hand. Vines of her poisonous florae sprouted from the ground, thick

     slippery tentacles wrapped the limbs, turning into wrinkled, dry branches of thorny

     bushes, covering it up. The sounds of suction echoed and Mileena turned away, leaving

     Nature take its course. Distillation.

          And so, she would take her own.

          Whether respect or fear kept the werewolves at bay as she crossed the cave,

     Mileena found no obstruction to her way out. Only once she was halfway she knew that

     the problem was only partially solved.

          Kazuya stood in the centre of the cave, without his voice or the spirit in his stare.

     However, it seemed like sorrow had descended upon him. His eyes were larger by a

     fraction and his stare more there…

          Mileena looked at him in pain. Not guilt yet. ‘He lost his addiction,’ she reasoned.

     ‘It will take him a while to recall himself, but he will… I’ll see to that.’

          With her decisions, her statement hardened and she gazed levelly at Kazuya’s

     avoiding eyes. For the first time he tried to look away from her in shame…

          ‘It’s not you who should be ashamed,’ she thought. She readied herself.

          “Let’s go,” she commanded.

          Every trace of emotion died and his stare dwindled. Mileena dropped her eyes in

     resignation.

          “Kazuya…” she said softly and reached out for his hand. He let her catch him and

     hold him tenderly in her clutch but his name didn’t have any impact on him.

          “Please...” she ordered. “Come with me.”

          She towed him slightly to see for a reaction, but his hand slipped from her grip as

     she walked. She looked back and met his gaze…

          It wasn't totally empty. Emotions lingered in his eyes but they hid, taking shelter

     from what he had survived... It seemed like he was blaming her. As if he didn't believe

     she had actually done what he had seen. And yet, at the same time, admonishing himself

     for...

          ...for not taking action? Or for letting things come to that when he could have

     stopped it long before?

          Understandingly, Mileena went back to him and took his hand in hers.

          “Please,” she said and avoided all the other things she wanted to add.

          Allowing his hand to remain into hers this time, he tentatively followed her as she

     walked out of the cave.

          In the limousine, the next night, as they were driving on the dark road taking them

     to the meeting of their Kind, they found one another together again, after a long time. But

     even the constant purr of the finely tuned engine of the vehicle rather enhanced the entire

     stillness of the cubicle, a silence devoid even from thoughts.

          They had exchanged the comfort of their clothes for the appropriate three pieced

     suit and a dazzling gown, but not their attitudes. Kazuya was staring ahead and Mileena

     didn’t attempt to touch him. She didn’t even try to look at him and decided not to even

     prod him with her mental access to his brain. She wanted their link to be unprompted - if

     otherwise, then she had laboured for nothing.

          It would be so easy for her to delve into his mind and find out what he was

     thinking, what it was that he wanted. But what good would that be? If she did that, if she

     used her powers to magnetise and manipulate him she would only gain a servant and do

     exactly what Jun had tried to do.

          But his hatred… his ire… if that was all that was left was it worth it?

          ...assuming something was left at all.

          As she looked out of the window and past her reflection along the speeding plants,

     she gave thought to it. What if she had let her live instead and him be with her? What if

     she had acted out of her selfishness? Perhaps with her, in his dreaminess, he would be

     happy… Preserving him as he was, yes, she had done so… but didn’t she just ruin his

     chances of happiness? If she really loved him, shouldn’t she had allowed him to…

          Her thoughts were abruptly cut and drowned in the dull flooding of anxiety that

     poured from the single, metallic sting on the top of her nape. She closed her eyes as the

     sheer fear gave way to pure delight. Her hand, which she had left upon the leather seat

     was in his, he had reached out and clutched her hand in his…

          His touch was soft as he held her. He had reached out and got hold of her hand,

     clenching it comfortingly. He came to her without her having to call for him, not even with

     her withdrawal. He sought for her and clutched her hand in a gesture that said everything

     he needed to say and felt.

          ‘Thank you.’

          ‘I’d do it for you.’

          ‘I know now.’

          ‘Thank you for being there for me.’

          Timidly, she gathered her fingers closer to the palm and his hand enveloped hers in

     a tender hold.

          ‘I love you.’

          And Mileena smiled with genuine tears. She didn’t weep. She kept that precious

     feeling in her heart.

          They needn’t speak the words or even exchange a glance. Because they were

     again as they were meant to be. That gesture only meant they would never separate. That

     they would so remain. One. Together.

          Forever.

          …forever?

          Forever.

          You can't obliterate all Evil. If you do, then Good itself will become It.

                                                      Sapfarah - February 2001

                                            Thus I bid farewell to the Fanfiction World