Woah! Talk about things spawning off weirdly…

Disclaimer: I don’t own pokemon, it belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics!
um… that’s it, this is non-profit fanwork, I wrote it so it belongs to me by law, and I’m not infringing on their copyrights or the cash they make.

Warnings: Death, angst, darkfic…

Thanx to Takuya and Akiko Koishii for reviewing

Chapter 14: Tangled and more tangled

She held the ice-blue jewel tightly in her hands as she backed away from them. Yes, them…

A smile of pure blood lust danced on the child’s face.

“Peace everlasting, Winfield? You have an odd definition of peace.” Ashline bantered lightly.

“Hand over the ice orb now and I might spare your life!” Winfield commanded.

“Ne, I don’t think so…” Ashline said; her voice suddenly rising higher and giggling.

Brendan charged… only to hit a shield.

A shield?!

“Fire, ice, lightning… yes, you’re right, those orbs do contain great power… but with power comes responsibility, and unfortunately, by killing the other two guardians, you’ve dumped it all on me…”

“Shut up!” Brendan yelled.

“My, what a touchy child.” Ashline said, as the ice orb glittered, before melting into her, creating silver armor. “But don’t worry, I’ll make your death a quick one.”

Winfield charged, breaking through the shield easily and-.

He howled in pain as he was impaled on the end of a sword.

“This happens to the be the Lightning Blade, which belongs to the third guardian. That would be me.” Ashline said. “Strange how memories come back in times of stress, no?”

Winfield moaned in pain.

“Winfield!” Brendan yelled.

“Concerned about him now, are you?” Ashline asked, as she yanked the sword out viciously, frowning as blood splattered on her arms.

The symbol of the crescent moon glowed on Brendan’s forehead. However, instead of attacking, he blacked out.

How interesting.

Still, thank heaven for small mercies. Ashline calmly beheaded the still keening dog and a few minutes later the remaining senshi appeared, Sabrina looked dazed from the teleport she had pulled off.

“Ash! You okay-.” Misty gulped as she took in the scene. “W-what?”

“They killed Lance-chan, so I had to kill them.” Ash said pleasantly. “It’s a life for a life, ne? Oh! And they killed aneki, too…”

“They…”

Ash nodded. “Yes, well, you need fire and ice to die before thunder can be summoned.”

“But killing them won’t solve anything.” Garina broke in. She frowned. “This isn’t like you at all. Who are you, really?”

“Well…”

Ash seemed to drift. “I guess for a short explanation, I’m a guardian… this realm isn’t perfect… mistakes happen. I think this is one of the mistakes.”

“?!”

“But I’ll fix it, and this won’t happen again. So just relax and it will hurt less.”

< I don’t want to know… >

“Yes, sometimes it’s better not to know.” Ash said pleasantly. “Well then…”

A black glow built up around her, before they all vanished, Winfield and Brendan too.

Ash looked at the chaos and dust around her and sighed.

“I know it won’t bring you back, Lance-chan… but… it will make me feel better, so…”

“Let’s try again.”

As the Scales of Fate and Destiny tipped, and the cleansing tore the dimension apart, she sighed.

“If only’s don’t change anything either…”

The yellow beams grew around her, the coffin waited.

It was time for Sleep of Death. Sleep, and wait, until called again…

What more could a Chosen do?

They couldn’t draw the cards of fate. That fate dealt himself, and … sometimes he was kind, sometimes not.

Being together, for brief moments, were treasures to be grasped tightly.

At least they hadn’t been torn apart…

Right?

She felt bad, though. The others hadn’t done anything wrong either. They had gotten dragged into a game.

…A game of life and death…

A game where the stakes were high and there were no shortcuts.

Alas, it was a maze with dangers around every turn.

There was nothing to be done for it.

That just happened to be the way life _was_.

You can’t decide lives so easily, unfortunately. You just have to live with what you’ve got.

Complaining is fine, but it won’t change a thing.

Nothing can change a thing, you carve your own path but what happens when the path throws you off?

Fortune is not a kind master.

But at least, there are more chances to wait for in the future…

End Chapter!

Completed 5/3/04

Ah! Author’s notes…

I kind of blended the Triple Guardianship with Sailor Moon.

Aneki is what Ash calls Charlotte sometimes. He/she calls Lance ‘aniki’, but usually just ‘Lance-chan.’

Ash is a girl in this fic in case that hasn’t been clear yet.

This spawns off just CCA and Dragon’s love, split universe.

Sleep of Death, as previously mentioned, is when Chosen don’t die in the course of duty, but are no longer needed, so they are sealed. Like toys.

I really don’t like Winfield, but I never planned to make him die. It just kind of…appeared.

Originally, Ashline was not going to be the earth princess and I was going to have someone like Daisy Waterflower in love with Lance but! I changed it at the last minute because that’s what the plot bunny said.

Remember, if you don’t like it blame the bunny.