Star Arrives (please remember *than a sentence* means it a telepathic thought)
*****
The images played in the flames. Raven confessed her soul to Mystic. The pain shot through her as the Star punished for her betrayal.
*****
The dragon scowled into the fire, intensely angered at what he saw. “I will look into this and require explanation.” He stood, his form shifted, enlarged, wings growing, body elongating, his golden eyes tinged with the red fire of his ire. A small word in the ancient language of his kind, reveal the three paths. He left his abode, taking to the air and climbed higher and higher. The earth’s horizon took on a curve, the sky, light below, darkened to indigo, the stars became brilliant. A word and the universe blurred, the three strands glowing intensely, luminous beacons to their origin. The Dragon shifted back into the ‘real’ world, the origin of the beacons below him.
His mind reached out, filling immediate space with his thoughts. A planet as bright as a sun but reflected no heat stretched beneath him.
The Dragon’s mind caressed the planet, seeking out and taking stock of all minds. Many minds all blending but blending into three individual entities of intelligence. He reached out touching each collective in turn “Why do you interfere with that which is under my eye?”
“Questions!” The sweet female voice returned his thought, “We love to answer those. Come down to us.”
The Dragon descended to the surface. No heat just a coolness and total brightness, like looking in a light bulb. The Dragon hovered just above the surface. The surface parted revealing a small area with the look and feel of the green earth.
“Here.” The female spoke, “He made you a place.”
The Dragon landed, “You interfere with me and what I do, give me a reason not to raze this very planet.
A form of Raven stepped into the green with him. It was her face and her height and form but that hair was white the skin was dark and the eyes where red.
The girls voice spoke in the same sweet tones as Raven, “How do we so this?”
“Do not play petty parlor tricks with me.” The Dragon banished the form of Raven.
Star with the voice of man spoke, “We thought the form would please you.”
“She you observe, serves me, though she knows it not.” The dragon growled.
“She came to us.”
“You interfere with her mission by your very existence..”
“She bargained with us”
“Silence,” the Dragon ordered, “She has no power to make bargains with you… not when it delays what she will do for me. I do not object to observation. I object to interference. You will cease to give her directions. Each thing you demand slows her. This is not permitted.”
Another voice spoke, “It was her choice.”
“No, she does not have one.”
The small voice of Raven asked as the tiny form stood just outside of the ring of green, “What is the name you call yourself?”
“Call me the one that holds your existence in his clawed hand.”
Star answered, “If that is your belief.”
The Dragon laughed softly.
The female Star broke in, “But you never came to break the others. Why so interested in her? It is her you are interested in, the sweet elf.
The Dragon spoke in a rumble, “She will do sometime for me, very soon.”
“But we sent to her back, to the place of teaching.” The female entity spoke, “she did not wish to be there.”
The male Star added, “We help her in our bargain.”
“I am not interested in her past.” The Dragon stayed calm, “I am interested in her future.”
The young female form spoke, “She will have that. We are with her only for a time. It is in the agreement. Do you hunger? Do you wish dance? or song?”
The Dragon eyed the fourth entity, the girl, he had sent away and yet she returned, “But you try to force her to do things to amuse you…and if she does not, you visit pain on her…this distracts her from what she is to be.”
The girl form looked up with her seeking eyes, “Amuse us?”
Star man spoke over her tiny voice, “Yes, we use the tools she gave us. The great tool is the thing she wished gone”
“Shall I sever your link?” the dragon asked dryly.
“You will not like that.” The other voice of collected minds spoke.
The Dragon chuckled, “There are four forces in the universe. One Passive….three active.”
The female form sat on a stone her movement was pure and innocent, “Which are you?”
“I am one of the active forces.” His eyes looked upon her.
“What is it you wish her to do?” The red eyes stared pleading for answers.
“This is not your place to know or ask..”
“We can help!” she spoke incredulously, “I think we might like that.”
“If I wished your aide, I would already have it.”
“So what is it you really want?” The female form began to hum in the tones of perfection, of Raven.
The Dragon cast his mind about, analyzing this “planet”. His lips curled into a toothy grin.
The female form smiled sweetly at the beast, “Planning on destroying Us?”
“Perhaps.” The Dragon began to increase in size.
The light dimmed around them.
The Dragon stated, “I wonder at what point I develop my own gravity well….”
The female form looked in curiosity at him, “Does it matter?”
“Curiosity.” The dragon grew.
“I can have the calculations done but we flee.” The female form stated as the planet faded a little more. The voice was Raven’s the tone were empty, no fear, no sadness, a tone of evenness and indifference.
The Dragon spoke, “Fleeing will serve no purpose. I can find you, no matter where you hide.”
The female form of Star spoke in her tiny elven way, “Yes it does. It will take more time to hunt us and take you from your duties.”
“The Universe is under my eye.” The Dragon looked at the girl, “Even now I see all that was “you”.”
“You will destroy us? You will destroy what we hold?”
The Dragon demanded in a quiet command, “What do you want of my pawn?”
The light dimmed. The girl answered, “She is a vessel that is bringing us to a circle. That is what she does.”
The Dragon lashed out with a burst of mental pain, striking the collective mind. Star’s form crumbled to the ground as she clenched her head.
The Dragon stated, “If you wish to argue with me…I will increase the pain.”
“What do you want?” the voice of the girl was hollow.
“I care not what you wish of her…but she is mine until she has accomplished my goal. Then, you may do as you wish.”
She raised her head and moved to her knees, “How do I know that your play will not end our agreement.”
“You don’t.”
“And we are to give up the rebirth for you to use her as a pawn?” She felt the removal of others from her. The light of the plant became a gray haze.
“Your rebirth will come…”
“Not with out her.” She laid against the cold rock, head still pounding, the cold touching her, “and we are so close. Why can’t you wait. She is just a pawn.”
“This pawn will take the King.”
Star forced her eyes up, “Sure she is not a Queen.”
The Dragon smiled a toothy smile, “All that come under my eye are pawns….no matter their value to others.”
“Than there is no King to capture.” She reasoned to him.
“Ah.. but there is the Prize.”
“What prize?”
The Dragon grinned, “Domination, what else.”
Star sat on her rock, “What would you do with it?” The haze becomes a darken mist.
“Why should I indulge you?”
“Because you plan to kill me.” She spoke accepting her fate.
“Only if you interfere. Your existence is not yet important.”
“But I don’t know what you want, so of course I will step over your line.”
“Observe. Do not hinder her.”
Star grinned.
The Dragon grinned, reaching out, touching the strands of the Mind Link. The one cord stayed and followed to the girl on the rock. The Dragon spoke a small word.
“It will feed back THE pain.” The Dragon ordered, “ Return your parts.” In a leap he lifted off the surface. The Dragon soared up out of the planets gravity well.
Star whispered in Raven’s voice, “Sorry great one.” She was now to die. She lifted her voice and her mind and sang out in defeat. She sang to the ending of all they should of, could of, would have been. She embraced the only emotion known.
One small speck of light was on the cold dark planet. The rest of the minds had divided and moved out in fragments. Millions of tiny thought going as fast and as far to all the places that thought could reach.
Star sat on her rock in the frozen cold around her, the chill moving into her limbs and causing the flow of the blood to slow, she sang on. The Dragon snarled. She lifted her head to the darken sky, sending the memory of the song to Raven.
The Dragon touched the girls mind, *Do you not know….you can not hide from me?*
The song was sadder but the face was sweet as she returned the thought *We must try. We were to close to end now. Once we are circled, we would no longer be in need of her* A tear rolled down her face, she took the tear in wonder of it’s meaning and whispered to her self, “She gives life.”
*Do not interfere, Star, and you will have your desire.* The Dragon reappeared in his lair with a thought. He resumed his human form. He sat before the fire, watching Raven in the flames, Raven cried in a unbearable pain and intensity . The Dragon turned as a movement attracting his attention.
The girl entered the room, “Where have you been, pet?”
“I thought I was eliminating some minor interference.”
“Thought?” she asked.
“Collective minds are to contrary.” The Dragon watched Archer with Raven.
*****
The images played:
Raven held her legs close to her chest, rocking back and forth in her pain.
“Raven?” Archer pulled her into his arms. “What is it?”
*****
Rogue asked, “Why does she cry?”
The Dragon answered, “She believes she has lost something never taken.”
*****
The images played:
Archer voice was soft and tender, “Raven? What is it?”
“It hurts.” Her pain choked the words through the flow of tears that ran in streams from the sad green eyes.
He leaned over her, protectively holding tightly. “What hurts?!” The tears soaked his chest, his hand stroked her hair, “Tell me. Please!”
The anguish in her muffled voice sounded clearly, ”Things that were held back for me.”
“What was held back?” Ghost Archer whispered to her, “What has happened?”
*****
Rogue asked, “You gave her this pain?”
The Dragon nodded, “Aye…in a way.”
*****
The images played:
Raven looked at her beloved’s eyes, “Please hold me and never let go.”
Ghost Archer looked into hers, his own filled with love and compassion. The tears did not stop from the tiny trembling elf he held tight against him. The flow of wetness stopped from her but the dry sobs continued. He opened his mind to touch hers with gently loving thoughts.
PAIN! Slapped his touch, Years of pain ran through her. Visions of horrid things filled her. Visions of things she had done, things she had lived through, false visions of acts Archer did as real as any other memories.
*Raven, my love….you know what is true….these are false visions*, his mind touched hers in words. Her mind opened to him like a book, like a play of pain she endured, he watched the torment speaking again with love, *For you, everything…anything…*
He saw her scarred. Felt the burning as the bullet pierced her. Saw her master, she a slave. Archer gritted his teeth. The whip tore across her back, the skin peeling from her. The sweat of her own body stinging in the open wounds as the hot fluid of her blood trickled down. He held her tighter, tears filling his eyes.
She stood fighting herself to the death. Tearing herself to shreds and only for it to reform for her to kill again. The hatred welled in her as the form of Sable appeared. The image of Archer with her at the waterfall, the pain that ripped through her. The hatred rose in her heart. The pain in her soul welled for carrying the hate in her heart.
The pain, she felt for the lost of her little sister Kara. Every pain from the green finished its turn. The movement when back deeper in her to things long hidden.
A great dragon turned into an elf, bending over to lay a gentle kiss on her cheek. Another dragon appeared, a great battle starting, the older one falling. Scene after scene all the pain in her life flooded out.
A dead boy on a stone killed by her hand, her father dying in her arms, the rejection of the others of her race, from the greatest pain to the smallest pain was presented to him, to her beloved.
Archer whispered softly “I love you, I love you, I love you…You are my love…my life…my heart…my soul…you are all to me.. I love you, my Raven”
“You hold all that I am and I will love you for all times. I am yours till time and space ends.” Her tears stopped, her body tired and limp.
“Together, we…forever.” His lips brushed the top of her head.
“Till time and space ends.” The pledge came on a wisp of her breath. “Please Don’t let me wake up without you.”
“I am going to be at your side, always. I sleep only beside you. I wake, always with you in my arms.” His words pushed the pain back.Raven closed her eyes.
“Beloved”
“Yes, my love….”
“Remember the day you found the star.”
“That I found the star?”
“You found the link with me.”
“Yes…” he paused, “I remember.”
“Can you do it again?” She could feel the absence.
“Yes…”
“Please!” fear and worried was replacing the pain, “Something is very wrong!”
Archer shifted his vision, blinking. Only one faint link to her and a small pocket in her, a foreign pocket of thought. “I see only one Mind Link. I see one.. and something else…. “
She leaned into his chest, “I hear my songs, They are playing in my mind. Such sadness.”
“Can you sing a lullaby?” he asked hopefully.
The tears no longer flowed from her redden eyes. The lovely red lips opened to sing, only a flat tone rolled from her.
Again he touched her mind, gently probing for a mind block. “Goddess I wish I was better at this…”
Star touched Archer’s mind. *Hello.* Star thought to him weakly.
*Who are you?* He thought following the link.
Star spoke sadly in his mind, *I am the only one left. Beware the dragon plays again.*
“Dragon?!” Archer growled aloud.
“What?” Raven looked at her love.
“Tsar…you promised Rogue.” He again went back tot he small voice, *Who are you, what may I call you?*
*I am alone and weak. I am The Star. She almost saved us.*
*You are the Star? The one that watched her?* he asked.
*So close to making the circle. We needed her to make us feel. More than Watched.* The air started to thin on the planet.
*You feel…I feel your sadness even now.*
*We gave her our view as I took hers. I am not complete and the others fled. I can not flee for now I feel, a little.*
*Isn’t that what you sought?* he asked.
*He ended it for his pawn to take the king*
*Star….don’t you see? Star…she gave you feelings….*
*That is the circle* Star mind flattered, *But I am not complete*
*What do you lack?*
*I lack forgiveness, lack the passion of her love.. depth.*
*You cannot expect everything at once….* Archer stated, *feelings do not work like that.
*I was nearly finished Cufaen. Than …..* Star faded from his mind.
*Star?*
Raven looked frightened, “What is it?… Beloved?”
Ghost Archer smiled softly kissing her, “I was talking to the Star.”
“HOW ? What is it you see?”
“She is in your mind…or was… Can you sense her?”
“I only hear my songs singing.” Raven frowned, “I can’t feel them. I must of broke the agreement.”
Ghost Archer looked for the pocket of thought and the Mind Link. The weak line still flickered. “You did not. It was the dragon.”
“But why?”
“I don’t know.” He admitted, “Star did not have time to tell me.”
“He kept my letter from you. He messed with my word.” Her insides turned, “What else?”
“In that, I fear, he had help.”
Raven got up. How could he say that? How could he betray her even now they where back together. She pushed the thoughts from her mind. She must not dwell on that. It was a closed chapter in his life and should also be closed in hers. She found her clothes and placed the armor on as the tears began to stream once more. She could feel that he had followed her and the emotion raged in her again, “I love you.” She cried trying to banish the evil in her heart.
Archer pulled her close, “I love you, too.”
Raven cried, “The past is gone.”
“What do you mean?”
She didn’t want to explain, she just want to proclaim it, “You are Cufaen, Nathaniel Fireoak and what other name you choose. My husband, My dream, MY everything.”
He held her close, “and you are my everything…”
“I will fulfill my word to the Star.” She paused pulling back looking into his eyes, “and nothing will stop me.”
“What do you need to do?” he asked. His hand falling to her shoulder.
Raven spoke her half thought, “Even if I have to go to the road and find it again…”
“What can I do to help you?” Archer leaned over her, “If you go.. I will too.”
Her face lit up, “Your sister.”
“Time travel, my love?”
“I am thinking, if you can touch, she could bring forth through it. Draw the star, bring it close.”
“Laura?” Archer frowned slightly.
“She does magic.”
“Yes…” Archer answered, “She might be able to help…I don’t understand her magic.”
“If we moved in time.” Raven reasoned, “The dragon would just over jump us and than a endless shift. But! He would never think of us bringing the Star to closeness.”
“Love…I am not sure what you mean.” Archer requested, “Tell me your plan.”
“The Star is weak, so if we got it closer to us the link would be stronger and I could fulfill my promise. We will have foiled the dragon.”
Ghost Archer grinned, “I like the idea…”
“You will have to talk to her, the Star and your sister. I only hear a faint song of death.” Raven swallowed hard.
“Then we had better act quickly.” Archer activated the radio “Laura, we need you.”
“I will need to step into the play.” Raven commented in thought.
“How so, love?”
“In your arms I never could hear them because they would flee the emotion. If I can place my self in the back of me, than you could speak easy to the Star.”
“Okay.. what do I need to do?”
“Tell it what we plan, see if it is willing. I think it would be easier if it is willing. But where to put it? the sun? the moon? does it need air? or food? How large is it? How small can it be?”
“I have no idea….I’ll have to ask…” Archer grinned.
Raven nodded.
Laura pushed the door open with a smile on her lips, “What’s up?”
Raven smiled at her new sister. “We need you to help us with your magic.”
Laura crossed to Raven and kissed her on the cheek. “You look tired, Raven…you okay?”
Raven nodded and spoke, “We wish to one up the dragon.”
Laura grinned, “Really? How can I help?”
“He has hurt the Star and I want to draw it near to fulfill my promise.” Raven looked at her beloved, “Cufaen can talk to it.”
Laura looked puzzled, “How can I help pull a star?”
“It is a mind,” Raven tried to explain, “a living …… thing. Like spirits of the forest. Three use to be link to me. Now I have one and it is weak.” Raven looked around their room, “Where is best for us to go? the magic lab?”
Laura agreed, “ Yes, I’ll have more control there…”
Raven hooked her arm in her beloved, Laura following.
“Okay where do I sit? Here okay? or in the middle of the star thing.”
“Exactly,” Laura corrected her, “It is a pentagram.”
Raven sat in the center.
“Aaron…get the candles…fresh, white.” Laura opened a huge book.
Aaron placed five white candles at the points of the star. He stepped outside the pentagram and sat facing Raven. Raven took a deep breathe, closing her eyes and drawing herself inward.
Laura murmured a few words, lighting the candles all at once. She lifted the book and stepped closer, raising her voice in intonation.
Star reached out to him *Hello, What are you doing?*
Aaron mind moved along the link *We want to help you.*
*How?*
*Can you come closer to us?* he asked.
I am a lone and the feeling has bound me to my vessel form. I can not flee.*
*Where are you?*
* I am through your space.*
Laura followed the tread of link with her mind
*Can I come to you?* Archer asked. *Can you show me the path?*
Star mind weakly responded, *I can only link to her. *
*You speak to me now…. * Aaron assured, *I will allow a link…. *
*I will try but I fear it will be fragile*
Aaron relaxed and opened his mind.
Star voice faded. Within him he felt the gentleness of a mind touching his. The Mind was weak and was fading, she was dying.
*Show me quickly…. * he thought to her.
Star showed a path through space. On a dark planet with only one spark of light
Aaron stood quickly and grabbed a quill and write down the time and day, folding it and tucking it in his pocket.
Aaron looked at Laura, still chanting, and Raven, her eyes closed. He stepped onto the Road. He closed his eyes, straining to locate the path. With a quick sure step he started off. Archer moved constantly for several hours, at last coming to the right spot. His powers altered to provide full life support and stepped off the Road and onto the darkened world.
“Star?” he called out into the blackness.
Star laid on the rock in a form of his love Raven but her skin was darker and hair silver. Her eyes were closed. Aaron ran to her and dropped to his knees, scooping her up.
“Hold on, Star….”
Aaron turned and stepped back onto the Road. Star eyes opened in a flaming red and yellow of fire. He laid her down on the Road, touching her cheek, pouring energy into her.
Star smiled, “She did not do your eyes justice.”
Aaron smiled, picking up the tiny reflection of a girl and headed for home. He moved through time, returning only a few seconds after he left.
Raven felt the mind link becoming strong and nearer she opened her eyes. The Negative image of herself was there, in her beloved’s arms and she knew it to be the star. Raven smiled.
Aaron lowered the girl to the floor gently . The drain was to much and he staggered, nearly falling to his knees. Star reached to hold him. Raven sprang to her feet heading to her beloved
“Laura!” Raven screamed, “Beloved!”
Laura stopped chanting.
Raven moved her arms around Archer in a loving embrace, kissing her beloved.
Her voice shook as she held him, “Laura meet Star.”
“Is she okay?” Aaron leaned against Raven.
Raven whispered in his ear, “What did you do my beloved?”
“I am alright, love…just tired…” he insisted as she helped him to stand.” I think I need to sleep a little while….”
Laura greeted the girl, “Hello, Star.”
Star’s flame eyes danced, “Hello Laura, sister to Raven and Cufaen
Raven nodded, speaking softly, “Yes, in my arms.”
Aaron smiled, “Yes…always.”
“Laura, please show Star around.” requested Raven.
Char peeked in, “Need any help?”
Aaron looked at the interloper and called out, “Spock …”
*****
The images faded and the fire danced in the fireplace.