R-2/Audion/Stana/Shinji:Return to the Temple
R-2/Kit/Stana/Ian
9-18-01

Shinji winced, slowly pulling himself up. But as he leaned on his arm to 
prop himself, he choked back a groan of agony as his right arm went livid 
with pain. Looking down, he saw how his palm was rather charred, his glove 
frayed. With some effort, he managed to move his fingers...so maybe it 
wasn't broken. But damn, it hurt...

Looking around dazedly, he realized he was on the courtyard ground of the 
Fire Temple...or what remained of it. The ground was blackened in places, 
the marble cracked and burned. The grass was no more. Several trees had 
their bark flash-stripped from their trunks, and their branches lay in 
gnarled, ruined heaps in both the canopy and on the forest floor. The sound 
of crackling timber in the distance was almost masked by other
sounds...ones Shinji hadn't realized were there until he'd actually stopped 
to listen. He could hear birds, insects...and was that the sound of Reiki 
the distance? The sound of cart wheels on cobblestone, and the urgent 
murmurings of the crowd?

"My god..." Shinji thought as he looked around at the devastation,  "What 
the hell have I done...?"

Shinji stood there for a while, just letting it sink in. He'd just  attacked 
the Temple of Fire, destroyed some...barrier...of some sort. But he'd had 
to! There was no other way! Turning to look at the entrance, he knew why 
he'd done it. She was inside. The barrier was in his way.

He'd fixed that.

"Teri," he whispered, a mantra that played in his head. Her, his  Chosen, 
his Duty. His...destiny.

In the back of his mind, the Other bristled with old anger.

Shinji began walking towards the entrance, his armor blackened, his  hair 
singed, holding his wounded shoulder gingerly. His limbs ached, burned. The 
Ancients were gone, gone back to that secret place only they knew of. He 
took the steps unchallenged.

As he reached the threshold, he became aware of a dull humm in the air.  
There was the scent of spices, maybe cinnamon, from the incense that  burned 
in the fire pots along the walls. The interior was dark save for the tiny 
glow of hundreds of candles.

"This is a holy place," Shinji thought, "Centuries old and built upon  
blessed earth. I'm the intruder here..."

He entered the doorway, which seemed to sigh at his first step on the  
polished marble. With each step, the feeling of being out-of-place got  
progressively worse. Shinji didn't belong here, and some part of him was 
reviled to even be inside the place. Fleeting ghosts of memories, more 
impression that recollection, skirted across his mind's eye. But they had to 
be his imagination. The things he was "remembering" were events and
faces he had never seen before in his life.

The humm grew louder.

Shinji stopped.

What the hell was that?

((Hold. Something stirs...))

Shinji gave a startled gasp as the Temple began to tremble. The candles  
wavered, the roof groaned and the pillars swayed. He fell to a knee,  
bracing himself for the collapse he was sure would follow...and was caught 
off guard by a sudden gust of hot air that charged through the doorways and 
into the great hall. Shinji was knocked off balance and rolled with the 
wind, smashing his wounded arm on the cold marble and barely stopping a 
scream.

A Presence, familiar yet somehow alien, had just ignited into existence 
somewhere in the temple. Shinji, still on the ground, nearly shouted out Her 
name. But no...it wasn't her. She was warmth and life...this was not. This 
was not like her Fire, which he had sensed and could still sense, nor like 
his which burned wildly and cast shadows. This Fire was 
unnatural...invented? Why had that word popped into his head?

And others, too...Shinji could feel two more, one of which felt like a  
gaping hole in his mind. A void, terrifying in it's depth. The other  was 
familiar too, but Shinji was at a loss for who it reminded him of. He was 
shocked enough as it was that he could even detect their presence! Maybe it 
was the temple, amplifying whatever link he shared with Teri.
Whatever it was though, Shinji was thankful for it.

There were others in the temple, he was sure of it. Were they after  Teri 
too? Or...were they responsible for whatever had happened?

Staggering to his feet, a shadow fell over Shinji's features.  Wordlessly, 
he began walking faster, then nearly running. His right eye smoldered.

Teri.

********

R-2 wobbled for all of three seconds, then slumped heavily to the  floor.  
He could see nothing except a whirling pattern reminiscent of the patterns 
that swirled on one's retinas after closing one's eyes.  His breathing was 
shallow and rapid; his skin felt clammy.  He felt drained, like when the 
Nothing touched him, like the time he'd run completely out of
blood sugar, only this was worse.  At least then he'd had the strength to be 
angry.   Now, there was nothing.  He felt danger -great danger- drawing 
near, yet this was superseded by a sense of exhaustion-borne apathy.

"R-2."  The voice was female, soft and soothing.  He felt a warmth on  his 
earlobe.  Feeling the warmth, a vague sense of being human returned to him.

The wrenching disorientation faded as Stana felt the solid ground under her 
feet with something akin to relief. She had no clue about what just 
happened, but that was nothing new. Nor was the fact that they were now 
someplace they weren't before going to stop her.

Audion had started forward, but quick and deadly as his intentions, Stana 
was closer, and more desperate to get a straight answer. Her clothing made a 
whisper of sound as she placed herself firmly in front of the prone figure 
of R-2.

"What did you mean" she asked in a deathly quiet tone "that you stand "in 
her absence"?"

Stana's voice registered as vocal noise in R-2's ears, but that was all.  He 
scrunched his eyes tightly and opened them, hoping the play of fire on his 
retinas would be gone.  It only made things worse.  Now he was seeing things 
-talking horses indeed.  He shut his eyes,  feeling a pulse of energy from 
the jiy, still clenched in his palm.  Ironically enough, his ears weren't 
ringing -not that that was any consolation. He mumbled a generic answered, 
shaking his head.  "Yeah.  It din't though. Dunno."

Stana's hands clenched in frustration at the lack of progress. The desire to 
start strangling the answers from his neck was overwhelming. Her fingers 
twitched with the thought but she took a deep breath.

*10, 9, 8, 7, 654321 -*

Then she took another breath to make sure it wasn't working.

*I don't even know why I bother*

"Look-" she began.

"Ah heard." the man in front of her said, looking like he was trying to sit 
up and not having much luck at it. "Fire 'n Earth ain't 'zactly friends no 
more."

Stana opened her mouth to argue, but was surprised to find how deep those 
words had stung. Tears flooded her eyes, water that met the back of her hand 
in a swift wipe. Tired, sore and frustrated, she had let his accusation slip 
in past defenses.

Perhaps wringing his neck was not such a bad idea.

Suddenly a figure lurched in from the far end of the room and she whirled, 
eyes narrowing. Then they went wide with shock.

"SHINJI?!"

He stopped, appraising her with hostility. God was that the only response 
she got these days??

"Shinji - it's Stana." she said, thinking that he might not recognize her, 
fingers trailing her shortened and miscolored tresses.

His eyes didn't look like they were focusing too well, and he was clutching 
an arm. "Teri's friend - Stana."

"Teri." he said in an oddly tight voice. "I thought she was here -" his  
gaze flickered over the other two "I sensed something that felt like her."

"That- that must have been this man here." she responded, flicking her own 
eyes over her should to where R-2 had shifted to a  sitting position.. "He, 
he says that he's taking her place temporarily...but he won't tell me where 
Teri is that she NEEDS replacing."


Shinji's brow creased, jaw tightening. "Replaced? I-I don't understand,  
what do you mean 'replaced'?" He turned to R-2, "And who the hell is he?"

"He is nasty."  Sellie's voice was flat, emotionless, but completely clear 
in R-2's ears.  "He should be your Guardian.  He has fallen, for he reeks of 
old blood and cold iron."

The patterns on his eyes were fading now.  The Stana person looked more like 
a woman and less like Mr. Ed.  The person she were talking at, this Shinji 
chap, he was setting off every kind of psychic warning bell there was.  R-2 
absently wished he could hear, or his vision would clear up so he could lip 
read.  His free hand fumbled with a pouch, slipping into it.  He felt power 
rising in the jiy again, forcing his own reserves to recharge, like he was 
some sort of fleshy capacitor

Stana didn't give R-2 a chance to respond. "We were never properly  
introduced, and... and we don't know what's happened to Teri."  She motioned 
to the darkened chamber they were in, "OR where we are, for that matter."

"Fire Temple," Shinji muttered, his eyes never leaving R-2 as he took a few 
slow steps forward.

The Fire Temple?! Stana was barely able to catch her jaw before it fell.  
First Shinji shows up, and then she finds out she's in the Temple of Flame. 
But...somehow it didn't seem entirely strange. On some levels, it even sort 
of made sense. As much sense as anything made these days.

Audion, on the other hand, looked at Shinji with open surprise. "This...is 
the Temple of Fire?"

Shinji nodded absently.

Audion shook his head, "But that's not possible; the Temple of Fire was 
destroyed. It no longer exists."

A thought seemed to cross Shinji's mind, for his eyes seemed to swim out of 
touch for a moment, but then he was back,

"Not...destroyed. Hidden by magic, hidden for so long people forgot." He was 
closer to the group now, but something about the way he was walking made 
Stana feel uncomfortable.

He was battered, burned. The arm hanging limply at his side was discolored, 
sure to be badly bruised. Yet despite his injuries, there was something a 
little too smooth in the way he moved, like watching a wolf that was only 
superficially hurt. His steps were silent, and had she not seen him, she was 
sure he would have been right on top of them before they even noticed.

In fact...she hadn't even heard him coming.

He was still regarding R-2 with disquieting intensity.

"Shinji..." Stana said softly, moving between him and R-2, trying to stay an 
unease that was growing in her midsection, "What happened here?"

R-2 blinked again and suddenly, the room sprang back into crystal focus.

Shinji's eyes flickered to her, then back to R-2. A smirk was pulling at  
his mouth. "You know...I'm honestly not too sure. All I know is that 
something didn't want me in this Temple, and I think I seriously pissed 
whatever it is off."

His hand clenched against his shoulder. "One thing I'm sure about though; 
Teri's in this Temple, and I'm pretty sure this bastard knows why."

"Bastard, eh?"  R-2 began to stand slowly, deliberately.  "You dare defile 
our most sacred place and you call me a bastard?  All because you blindly 
seek Teri?  Is this friendship?  Love?  Duty?"  He rapped the jiy against 
the handle of the sword, causing it to ring flute-like.  "No.  It's none of 
those.  You twist and defile such things if you claim them as justification. 
  True friendship would not shatter the defenses of our sacred place.  True 
love would not slay those whom guard us.  True duty would not clear the way 
for our foes to assault us."

R-2 saw his words strike cords in Shinji.  Probably the wrong cords, from 
the look on Shinji's face, but R-2 didn't care.

The jiy was making him high, giddy with energy.  "I don't know what any of 
your deals are.  I don't care.  If ya'll're Teri's friends, ya'll'll give me 
some room.  'Cause I *am* Chosen, like it or not.  And I alone am the bridge 
by which she can return.  Return before those whom oppose us can triumph 
that is."

R-2's grin was bleak.  "Or slay me, and quench the light of Fire on Narada." 
  The jiy chimed hauntingly again.

"Oh please." Stana groaned. "Can we drop the rhetoric and doomsaying  
prophecy here?" she shook her head, feather tips of her hair flaying her 
cheeks. "I've had enough of that shit to last me a lifetime. What Shinji  
did-or why, is immaterial at this point. It's done and it can't be undone.  
I don't give a flying hoot *who* the fire chosen is right now, I'm here to 
find a friend. Or I was in Seiyo to find her. Now I'm here. And if *I'm* 
here in the Temple of Flame, then there is a reason for it. And if Audion is 
here, there is a reason for that too. And Shinji doesn't seem to care if 
there is a reason or not, since he's here snyway. So stop the posturing 
already. We're impressed," she said, sounding anything but "really. So can 
we find her please?"

"Fine. Through that door over there, second left, third door on the right." 
R-2 was almost a mirror of Stana's as drew his hand from his pouch and 
jerked a thumb in the direction of the door.  A small packet to fall to the 
ground, but he paid it no attention.  "Ain't talkin' to you, lady.  You 
don't cause every psychic warning bell this Temple has to go 'Danger, Will 
Robinson Danger!' in your head every time I look at you.  Ikari does."  He 
took a few steps to the right and leaned on a buttress that jutted from the 
wall.

His pose, his tone, and that absurd, holier-than-THOU speech...contemptible. 
Such was the consensus in Shinji's mind, both between Kintaro and his darker 
Self.

((Insolent DOG.))

Shinji let out a barely audible growl as he lurched forward, almost 
drunkenly, as if he were about to fall over. But just as his weight shifted, 
his figure shimmered into a blur before vanishing entirely.

The blink of an eye. His hand was suddenly around R-2's throat, the other 
lashing out to grab the wrist of the hand holding the Jiy. R-2 choked in 
surprise as Shinji glared at him, face inches away.

"You," Shinji breathed, his hand trembling, "are not Narada's light."

Just then, even as Stana forced herself to move to intervene, Audion's hand 
rose with fluid, if deadly, grace. A low mutter was all that escaped his 
lips as he released the magic he'd summoned, the shimmering ball of energy 
snaking outwards trailed by ripples of excess energy.

Shinji heard the incantation, spun his head, and winced as R-2's fingers dug 
into the nerves of his wrist.

Shinji reluctantly let go of R-2's throat as Audion's magic flew towards 
them.

Then, in a flurry of motion, Shinji spun and placed his open palm on R-2's 
chest. The two locked eyes for a brief moment.  Stubborn, dogged 
determination clashed with barely restrained rage.

The void ball was upon them.

Shinji cursed and, with all the strength he could muster, pushed hard.  R-2 
stumbled backwards and did a quick cartwheel; Shinji used his reverse 
momentum to roll in the opposite direction, letting the magic attack sail 
harmlessly through  the space the two had just recently occupied.

Shinji stopped in a crouch. R-2 pivoted to face the front.

Then Shinji pulled his hand out from behind him and  held up the small, 
swirling sphere that had been in R-2's hand.

'His push,' R-2 realized with a curse, 'he wasn't trying to evade the magic, 
he was after the Jiy.'

The Jiy vibrated, jerking slightly as Shinji held it. An odd warmth was 
seeping into his arm, and he could feel some of that rage ebbing. She felt 
so...close. Shinji was unconscious of the way his finger gently traced the 
contour of the glass ball, almost as if it was being appraised...or coveted.

((Yes...))

"Teri." Shinji said to R-2, the Jiy held in his undamaged hand, "Tell me  
everything. Now."