Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 00:22:58 -0500
title: a not-so-quiet stroll part 2
authors: teri,stana, ian

**********************************
After Teri left, Stacey's whole body began
shaking. The tears and loneliness she had bottled up raged to get out,
but she pushed them away. If she gave in now, she wouldn't be able to
stop herself. There was no time for that.
Too much. That last effort had taken too much
out of her. She leaned up against a nearby tree and let her body
shudder itself out. She could allow herself that much.
"Keeper?" Clip made a tentative move towards her. He had
followed Teri out when seeing her go after the other girl. Having had
his own dose of her resentment, he had well-not exactly worried...but,
wanted to preserve the health of his companion. Teri had proven a
grave threat to that. He had pitted his strength against the empath
and won out. This time. But he had not done it alone. The girl
had-barricaded herself somehow, and Clip wasn't ready to admit that it
scared him.
"Stacey, Clip. Or Stana. God whoever I am
right now." With a sigh she dropped to the ground, leaning up against
the tree. Her eyes were closed, but she seemed to have regained her
control.
"Humans." she said in an echo of his own
statement earlier. "That was quite a display of emotion. I think I'm
jealous."
He was sure that was an attempt at humor. But
he only saw how tired she was. And how bleak her grin.
"What-what did you do back there?" he finally
asked "you...shielded yourself from her somehow...?"

The hazel eyes opened, but there was nothing of
the girl he knew reflecting in them at all. They were deep and
secretive, old beyond her years and too knowing. Clip shuddered, not
from the cold.
Then she was just Stana again, shrugging
tiredly.
"I'm not sure Clip...sometimes I-I just "turn off"
My way of dealing with things beyond my normal capacity. Or maybe my way
of not dealing. Ever since that time underground with Sullam I-" her
voice trembled as her body had moments ago "I go sort of "numb" Like a
switch snaps me off."
"Since then?" he asked delicately "or before?" he
was thinking of another time, before that when the group had been
attacked by darkness itself. A darkness that no one had been able to
completely dislodge from her. He was thinking of the Unicorn's Medallion
and the tale of the last mortal that wore it.
But he looked again to see that she was fast
asleep. Shrugging he morphed into Unicorn and lay beside her. Keeping
them both warm and protected through the evening. When her hand crept
around his neck, he snuggled closer. It was dark, and by morning he
would have moved away from contact. For tonight, he could give
subconscious comfort.

*****************************************
Teri looked in past the long arches of the doorway from the garden. The
banquet had just finished, and many of the guests had already begun to
leave. Those that remained were just getting ready to do so, so no one had
noticed the Chosen of the Fire Temple return from what they believed was a
simple stroll through the garden. Teri gave a weary sigh as the weight of
the night's events slowly began to take their toll. Suddenly she became
aware of motion behind her, and for a second thought that Clip or Stana had
returned to continue their...conversation. Only for a second though.
"Shinji," she said, "why am I not suprised." She turned to see the young
warrior leaning against one of the many statues in the garden, arms crossed
passively across his chest. Teri began to wonder just how long he had been
standing there.
"What's up, Teri?" he asked, his gaze remaining on the intricate carvings
above the door frame.
"How long have you been standing there?" she countered, sounding more
accussing than she meant to.
"Long enough."
She paused a little. "How much did you hear?"
"Enough," he answered, then fell silent again. Teri just looked at him with
a mix of anger and slight puzzlement. Seeing as he was going to stay
silent, she went on.
"You don't approve?" It wasn't a question.
"It's not that I don't approve, just that it really isn't any of my
business. Still," he got up and walked towards the door, stopping only when
he was beside Teri. "If I were stuck in some strange world, I would keep
any friends I found close. G'night Teri." With that, he dissappeared into
the dwindling crowd, leaving Teri alone once more. She stood there for a
while, having not turned around to acknowledge his leave. A small smile,
it's meaning unreadable in the dim of the night, crossed her face.
"...and my enemies even closer?" she finished, wondering. The only answer
she received was the wind as it blew through the trees.