Title: Unforseen
Authors: Stana, R-2, Kit, Ian
Date: October 29

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

The pulse... so warm, so... alive. It beat in his hand, making his nerves 
tremble and his muscles twitch, the glass totally smooth under his 
fingertips. His heart was thudding, a strange euphoria sinking in, filling 
him with energy. God, even his wounds didn't seem to hurt anymore...

R-2's expression was one of cold anger and frustration for a moment. Then 
his shoulders slumped and he smiled somewhat wryly. "Evathang, eh?" he said 
quietly, eyes flicking to the iy.  "Wael, 'bout twenty 'r so years ago, this 
gal named Teri wuz bohrn, somewhere onna east coast, Ah reckon."

Shinji could feel the power in the Jiy, heavy yet strangely bouyant in
his hand. It was almost like he could imagine waves coming off it, like heat 
off a flame. It would be too easy to get lost in that feeling, to become 
drunk. Was that what had happened to this man, this R-2? Had the Jiy done 
this, somehow addicted him to the power?

R-2 leaned heavily on the wall.  There was structure in this temple, a weird 
sort of order to it.  Lines began to filter into his mind's eye. Scrunching 
his eyes, he massaged at his temples.  "She led a purty normal life, Ah 
suppose, right up t' th' age a se'enteen 'r ateteen. Den she popped up 'ere. 
  An' dat's where things start gettin' funky, 'cause she's been 'ere f'r a 
yeer 'r so, but's been a coupla yeers back 'ome or somethin'.  Ah ain't done 
th' math on it yet."

Everything was moving so fast...

"Dammit!  Quit playing games!" Shinji snapped, his patience thinning
very quickly, "Where is sh--"

He stopped, a choke and a sudden spasm that made him shift forward, and
fell forward. His arm caught the floor, holding his weight... barely. His 
other hand retained it's vice grip on the jiy, his fingers
strained, digging into the glass.

"W-what's..." Shinji gasped, then screamed as his hand, his LEFT hand,
suddenly ignited into blue and black fire, while the jiy suddenly began
hammering amidst the licking flames.

(Where is she?)

His arm, Shinji realized as he shot to his feet, he couldn't control
his arm! Through gritted teeth he let out a pained cry as
the fire suddenly flared higher, igniting up to his shoulder, charring
the leather and destroying his sleeve. He grabbed his wrist with his
free hand, his glove smoking as it hit the flame.

(Can't you tell, Shinji?)

With a choked gasp, Shinji felt his legs give out, and he fell to his
knees on the hard marble floor. Through his pain he felt something inhumanly 
cold slither in his mind, felt it snaking down his arm
trailing agony in its wake. He could hear Him. The fire drowned out
everything else.

(She's right there, Shinji...can't you feel her?)

"N-nn--"

Lower. His elbow felt like hot embers were exploding
inside it.

(-I- can...)

His lower arm. Burning wire flaying him.

(Come, Shinji.)

His wrist, a vice of coals.

"N-no!"

(We're going to pay her a visit.)

His hand, gripping the Jiy in a deathgrip, slivers of
light arching up from beneath his fingers, as if the glass were itself
bleeding.

Shinji snapped his head back, eyes flaring and wide, "STAY AWAY FROM HER!"

(We're going to set her -free-.)

Then, his arm ramrod straight, the fire swirled around the Jiy, and the 
marble beneath him splintered and ignited. Shinji screamed as the Jiy
flared...

(...Just like you wanted.)

Without a sound, Shinji's smoking form lurched forwards, his head
lolling, as he hit the charred ground. The jiy, its light diminished, rolled 
out from his limp, smoldering hand, the glass almost humming
musically as it ran across the cracked marble of the temple floor.

"What was that?" Stana shot to R-2, making certain she was between R-2
and Audion.

The startled surprise on his face vanished as his brow furrowed.  "Ah
din't do nuthin'," he said, turning his head and looking at something to the 
side.

Her eyes flicked a moment to see what he was look. There was a flicker
on the floor, and the packet R-2 had dropped exploded. The world went
white.

In a world such as Narada, fire, in the form of flickering, dancing
flames, has two primary purposes of equal importance. The first is heat, the 
orange and yellow flames flickering and dancing, emitting
either comfortable, radiant warmth or a searing, scorching burn as the
flames devoured whatever was it could to stay alive.  This is fire's power 
to kill or save -to ward off the cold of winter, to cook food- or to rage 
out of control, consuming everything in its path.  The other, and equally 
important property-particularly in a world such as Narada- is what holds the 
darkness at bay, that invariably gathers when the sun descends below the 
horizon, or in the places where the radiance of sun and moon never shine.  
Light.

R-2 had laced and doped the packet with enough magnesium for a
brilliant flare effect.   It was intended to serve as a possible
momentary distraction.  Imbued with the power of Fire that coursed through 
R-2's body, the flare was beyond anything R-2 could have, would
have expected. Even with his eyes shut, it burned bright enough to turn
the shadows of his eyelids to red.  How much worse it was to Audion, and to 
Stana, who had followed R-2's gaze

R-2 heard Stana cry out in pain.  His eyes opened. Both Stana and
Audion were recoiling, eyes scrunched tightly shut in a reflexive reaction 
to the stimuli.  Ignoring the bluish spots in his own vision,
he took three steps and shoved Stana as hard as he could.  She yelped as she 
fell backwards, crashing into Audion.  Not waiting to see if the pair fell 
down, R-2 ran, stooping down for a second, hand open.  The jiy bounced into 
his open palm. A feeling of elation coursed though him as he felt the giddy 
feeling of power flare within him.  The elation was accompanied by a sense 
of nausea as well.  For a split second, he saw a line of power, dark and 
baleful, tying the jiy to the downed Shinji.

He ignored it- such a thing was of secondary importance- and bolted
through the door.  The first concern was getting away, or at least getting a 
chance to work on his terms.  R-2 left hand caressed the
temple wall gently as he ran pell-mell down the corridor, ducking down a 
side corridor, all the while, following the lines in his mind.

"Audion!" Stana said "Audion are you alright?"

"Fine, what happened?" He motioned harshly to Shinji's crumpled form.

"That little *toad*" she said indignantly "that randy
little *toad*." She was still brishing the remainder
of the spots from her eyes as she stumbled over to
where Shinji was still lying prone. "What a completely
horrible person! Self righteous-high riding ---"
She ground her teeth over the remainder of the rant,
feeling for the boys pulse and puminary functions. She
placeed her hand against his forehead and frowned at
the fever there.

"He's down for the count." she said. "I've never felt
a pulse this low for a human." Stana dug through her
belongings and came out with a piece of rolled animal
pelt, an antiseptic ointment, and a lot of pent up
ire.

"Will he recover?"

"I don't know what happened to him. R-2 says he didn't
do it, and I am not sure if I believe that. On the one
hand, he hasn't exactly been forthright with any
information about what is going on, on the other hand,
he really had no reason to lie...if anything, he seems
the type to lie through his teeth and manipulate the
hell out of things until he comes out as top dog. Good
god, if he's done *anything* to Teri, I'll skewer him
one end to the other and roast him alive."