"It will kill her if you die!" he shot back.
She broke free, but now he stood between her and the fire. She'd have to get past him to get to it.
"You're not supposed to care," she said angrily. "We could have brought Jian-kun if you were going to do this. I was prepared for to die for her. You're not supposed to stop me!"
It was true that while he wasn't really gunning for Mi-chan, he didn't really care for her life as he did Neko's. And he would exchange her life for Neko's in a heartbeat, all things being equal. But when the twins were involved, one's death might as well be the other's death. And he wasn't willing to let Mi-chan put Neko through that torture.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Out of my way!" she ordered him. She ran towards him, ready to take him with her if need be. He stood his ground. Under other circumstances, she might have been impressed. Now his stubborn resolve was just making her more desperate.
She was all set to barrel through him, but at the last second, he took a step back, enough to throw her off balance, enough to allow him to knock the wind out of her with one knee to her gut.
*No, I'm not going down like this! I need to save Neko-chan!*
Once again he had obstructed her from doing what she needed. She struggled against him. "You'd just let her die?! I won't let it happen! It's the only way to stop it! My life for hers� so let me go!"
"It'll destroy her," he said softly. His voice was so gentle, so discordant with the noise running through her head. "She still receives your pain, Michiru-san. This isn't some quick stab through the heart, it'd be slow and painful. She wouldn't be able to take the pain. And to lose you on top of it�."
She glanced up at Neko, who did indeed seem to be affected by the burn on Mi-chan's arm and slightly by the hit she had taken from Jasper. But she was more concerned with the liquid which had just reached Neko's waist. That was where it had reached when the man in her dream had stopped the liquid, making it seem like he was trying to save her family. But he had merely changed the method of their death, and moments later, despite her love for him and fierce gratitude, he had killed them all.
The man in her dream wasn't Jasper. She knew that - it was Jian-wa. Her hostile feelings for Jasper were totally different from her feelings for the guy in that dream, from those for Jian-wa, but his insistence that she quit her efforts to save Neko struck a chord within her all the same.
"Let go of me!" She reciprocated the blow he had given her with one of her own. "There's no other choice. Nothing matters but keeping her safe. I thought even you could understand that!" Now free, she swung at his head, but he caught her wrist. She tried again, but he caught that wrist too.
"I do understand! But there has to be another way."
"There isn't! The nightmare ends when I die! Senken-sama warned us that we might have to. Well, I'm ready. And you aren't going to stop me!"
Jasper's face filled with understanding. "You mean an actual nightmare. That's why it's 'of your own making,' isn't it? This is based off a dream you've had."
Good, now maybe he would understand, she thought. Maybe he'd see that she alone knew how to stop it. Her nightmare always ended just as the man was about to kill her. Her death would surely stop it now. "This is the only way," she told him. She broke free from him. Perhaps he saw the truth in what she was saying, because he didn't fight her this time.
She was just about to make another go at the fire when he finally spoke. "If it's a dream, there's another way to control the ending."
"What?" His words ignited a spark of hope, tailored with suspicion. Her eyes narrowed at him.
"I can help you control it. You don't have to die to save her. You would be able to stop the crystal from filling, shatter it, I don't know. But you can save her."
She closed her eyes. Images from her dream flew before them. Jian-wa stopping her from saving her family, shattering the crystal, killing them all. He had given her hope too, but in the end he had shattered that hope, cruelly killing them all without a second thought. "No!" she screamed making a final rush towards the flames.
*MI-CHAN!*
"Michiru-san!" Just as she reached the edge of the fire, he grabbed her and flung her away with a surprising bit of strength she didn't know he had without the help of a Team Eclipse necklace. "Didn't you hear me?!" he yelled at her. "You don't have to die! You have to believe me!"
"I don't!" Jasper looked as if that was as much of a blow as when she had punched him earlier, but she didn't really give a damn. "I don't trust you. You're not going to stop me from doing what I have to, to save Neko-chan."
"And I'll do what I have to too, but we're running out of time." She suddenly noticed how his eyes had begun to shimmer, as if with tears. "Can't you see how much I want to save her? Her life, her soul, her spirit? Please don't throw those away out of your hatred for me. I promise I can help you save her. Don't let her watch you die. Onegai, Michiru-san!"
She hesitated. Jasper wasn't Jian-wa. He wasn't from her dream. He wasn't asking her to give up or promising her something else like his love in return for Neko's death. He wanted to save Neko almost as much as Mi-chan did.
And what if she was wrong? What if Neko was destroyed by the physical pain of Mi-chan's death by fire or the mental pain of losing Mi-chan? How could Mi-chan do that to her?
"Help me end this nightmare, then," she requested, resignedly.
He took her hand, but she pulled it back. Still she let him lead her to the center of the fire. She had to trust him for Neko's sake. "Close your eyes and visualize this scene. Remember the fire's still spreading and the crystal's still filling up. Don't panic. Just watch the scene as if you were watching a movie."
She tried to do as he instructed her, but couldn't separate herself from the vision. She was too wrapped up in it.
She supposed it would have helped if her mind was more disciplined. Neko and Chibi had always gone in for that meditation stuff. Even in Kempo, Mi-chan had preferred the fighting aspect to the discipline. If it weren't for the lunchtime sessions with Jian-wa last term, she never would've even gotten the katas down for her brown belt.
Jasper must have figured out her frustration. He kept his voice calm and smooth. "Take in some deep breaths. You know everything's going to be alright. Only you control this."
The scene swirled around in her head. The fire was closing in, and the black liquid was up to Neko's neck. She focused on her sister, and her vision was brought to the crystal as if she was floating right outside it. Neko seemed to be looking right at her and through her at the same time. *Can she feel me there?* Mi-chan wondered.
The thought gave her more confidence. If that was the case, then something must be working. And if she really could control something, she could stop the liquid, couldn't she?
She concentrated on it. *Stop* she thought to the liquid, but nothing changed. *Please stop* she tried again.
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