[ussbansheec] Awaiting the Enemy
- From: Andy Maluhia <CaptainAndy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ussbansheec@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 06:47:08 -0500
_Awaiting the Enemy_
by Nightwalker, Xian Lang, Iruvande S'Akhiy'Rhienn, & Hakan Swiftwind
/Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will
be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten
to battle will arrive exhausted.
*- Sun Tzu*/
Drawing in a deep lungful of station air, the old Native American
quirked the corner of his mouth up in a smile. He knew of so many of
his people who hated being off-world, either their Earth home or Dorvan
V, but not him. He'd been born in space and he still loved coming back.
He wandered away from the small group of Earth Swiftwinds, winding off
to find the Dorvan contingent here on the station, but he had no real
idea if where they were and no intention of asking a machine to tell
him. Instead, he simply let his feet guide him.
"Damn that bat eared woman," Xian muttered as he stalked through the
corridors. "She must know why I'm here. I cannot believe she is
avoiding that evil thing. She can't be that much of a coward, even if
she isn't Xian."
It was the power of the thing that hit him first and he frowned with it,
his mental and spiritual shields going up automatically. As the being
brushed past him, he snatched out a hand and grabbed the man's arm.
"Why do you walk here, ancient one?"
It took every bit of Xian's self control to not snap off the offending
hand but even he had some manners. Even if the elder was a mortal, he
was still an elder and that entitled him to some deference. "Who are
you to know who I am, Grandfather?" he asked, eyes narrowed.
"Taa'eveameohtse," he said softly, not letting go but holding on tighter
and putting as much of his own power behind the naming as he dared in
such an enclosed space. "Walker of Night."
Xian hmmphed. He'd heard of these sorts of mortals. "Then know that I
am Xian Lang, T'ien's hunter of the evil Icariae."
His eyes instantly narrowed but he let the being go and nodded
approval. "It's here?"
Xian growled deep within his chest. "It must be. It is the cause of
that ship gone missing. It disrupted the balance of chi in the universe
and that was the result. I am convinced of it."
"The darkness we dreamed of," Nightwalker murmured, his arms crossing
across a broad chest. "I have had dealings with it only once but it
knows the Walkers of old."
"It killed the last of the ShaoLin as well. For that alone it deserves
nothing less than eternal torture." Xian looked disgusted. "I somehow
doubt I will be allowed that honor personally but I will drag him to
justice."
One of Nightwalker's fluffy white brows rose to his hair line and he
shook his head slowly. "Even the ancients cannot condemn a being to
punishment for eternity. That puts unbalance where none should be."
Xian snorted at that. "Or corrects the one that is long standing. That
is not my decision, Grandfather. That is for the Jade Emperor to pass
judgement on. I am only his hunter and that was at my request. That
evil thing killed the last of the Guardians of Heaven,"
"Then I pray those of us who are left are adequate for the task,"
Nightwalker said softly.
"I would rather kill it," Xian hissed. "Years. I have been tracking it
for almost forty of your Human years. There is another on this station
who knows what he is but I have yet to find that one."
"My grandson," Nightwalker nodded. It wasn't exactly a lie, more of an
exaggeration. "We are spirit men. We are a line of defense. We can be
of use."
Xian muttered under his breath in Mandarin about another mortal but
then shook his head. "If you say so but I meant the woman with ears
like a bat." One long finger tapped the old man's braids. "Her hair is
as white as yours. Come to think of it, so is her skin. You people
call her race something I don't even care about."
Nightwalker shook his head slowly. "I haven't met her. Ears like a
bat, d'you mean Vulcan, Romulan? I know some of them, my kin in fact.
I can take you to them." His eyes narrowed as he added, "So long as you
do not mess with them, ancient one."
"I only mess with people who piss me off," Xian hmmphed. He thought
about that and made an amendment. "And with those who serve that
replicated swill instead of real alcohol." He still smelled of the
sherry he'd been drinking after all but it hadn't gone to his head yet.
"Romulan? Yes, that was the word though Iruvande gets very annoyed at
that word. My pearl's mother is part Romulan."
His eyes shot up and met Xian's. "Now that name I do know. She is the
lady helping my kin. Perhaps they do know where you can find her."
A slow smile, one that didn't necessarily indicate happiness, appeared
on Xian's face. "Good," he stated. "Then take me if you will,
Grandfather. It is high time that thing was brought to justice."
Nightwalker eyed his companion carefully but nodded. An easy smile grew
on his face as he led Xian toward Talibah's cabin. "There is a story to
you," he mused genially. "It should be handed down."
"A story? It would take entirely too long. I may not be as old as
Shang-Ti himself but it is very close," Xian told him.
Nightwalker grinned as if he'd been given a challenge. "I may be old,"
he chuckled. "But I have no intention of dying any time soon."
"Then begin it with this. It is the same thing I told the pearl's
little friend before she said Iruvande was on this station. Do you know
the Chinese have their 'eight immortals' that they are so fond of?
There used to be nine, many years ago." Xian's eyes narrowed in
remembrance of that nameless one as his hand absently felt for the
scabbard of the sword on his back. "I killed that one because he
angered me beyond reason."
"What could anger an Ancient so badly as to kill another?" Nightwalker
mused.
Xian stared long and hard at the old man. It had been so long ago that
not even the oldest of the tale tellers in China knew the story any
more. He shrugged and said, "Even Shan-Ti is not infallible. The
nameless one tricked him into allowing him immortality and I found it
out. The Jade Emperor had me dispatch him and I have been his favorite
hunter since. My own name means Black Wolf."
Nightwalker's easy pace ground to a complete halt. Dark eyes fixed on
the Ancient one, his fluffy brows drawn together. "Black Wolf," he said
softly. "Your name is very dear to me as is one who once held it."
In an unconscious imitation of the one mortal who ever touched his
heart, one of Xian's brows rose. "Xian Lang? There is another with my
name?"
"Mo'ohtavo'nehe," Nightwalker nodded softly. "Matthew Swiftwind who
walks another plain now." He didn't add that, despite his decades of
experience as a Shaman, the boy had never allowed him to see him in that
place. Perhaps when he joined him, he would see his boy again.
Mortals, Xian snorted mentally. They form attachments too easily for so
temporary a span of being. Then again, he thought about the pearl. He
supposed he might be able to understand that, if only a little. "It is
an honorable name," Xian offered, "one that has served me well all my
existence. It serves well on other planes too."
"It is full of glory and honour," Nightwalker nodded as he started their
easy pace again though he seemed more withdrawn than he had been.
Xian nodded. He'd been called an arrogant bastard too many times to
count but it wasn't arrogance if it was true. "Did the one fall to the
winged evil then?"
"He fell to evil but it did not have wings," Nightwalker said sadly.
"Not all evil is so easy to see when it confronts us. This one is the
rot at the core of your white lady's society. It took him from his
people, his wife and his children."
Xian's faced darkened at that. It sounded so much like what had
happened to the Master. "Does it still breathe air?" he asked, knowing
how hard i could be for this sort to exact revenge when their own
existences could end as well.
"It does not," Nightwalker grunted. "It drowned in its own blood."
At that, Xian grinned. "Good," he said, decidedly pleased with the
answer. "Now you know why I hunt that evil thing. The last Guardian of
Heaven also had a wife and children."
"I never doubted your reasoning, my dark and dangerous friend," he
snorted softly. "I'm just cautious when the Ancient Ones walk among the
living."
"Then you will have been cautious a very long time," Xian said mildly.
"I am," Nightwalker nodded with a slight snort.
Xian realized that, as he walked, he was getting progressively more
sober. He hated that. Time, he thought, for distractions. "Where the
hell are we going?"
"To see my grandson's wife and children so that you can find your white
lady," Nightwalker replied simply. "They say drink addles the brain and
affects memory, Ancient One. Perhaps you should try a little break from
it." It was said in mild jest. Despite him being against alcohol
himself, he had no issue with others drinking themselves into a stupor.
"You are certainly more polite about that than the pearl is," Xian said
with a snort. "She kicked me in the shin and said I reeked of a liquor
store." He let out a sigh. "It is simply a way to make time go faster,
Grandfather."
"That is what children are for," Nightwalker said with a laugh. "Have
some, Ancient One, and then let them loose on the unsuspecting mortal
realm."
Xian's mouth quirked up in a rare and odd sight. He actually smiled
without a hint of any malice. "The pearl, sir, is no child, except that
she is the daughter of the last Guardian. She is...almost forty of
mortal years."
"So? If you love her, why can't you have children with her?"
Nightwalker glanced across and beamed. "When you're done with your
hunting, marry her, make her happy."
Heaven be damned old man is reading me too well Xian told himself. Yet,
he was surprised that the realization didn't truly bother him. Mortal
he might be but there was something..."It was my intent," he finally
said. "There will be no rest, no peace, until the hunt is through."
"That is the nature of our existence," Nightwalker agreed genially.
"When we hunt, we do not rest until vengeance is done."
"And this grandson you spoke of? He is no doubt a youth. It has long
been my experience that the young are not so fearless or staunch as they
say," Xian pointed out. He'd made grown young men turn tail and run
simply with his arsenal of lesser tricks.
"Ah, my grandsons are dead," he said softly. "They were young when they
died."
"Yet you are an elder and so a grandfather to the young," Xian replied,
the respect for the aged well ingrained in him. He pinched the bridge
of his nose. "I speak of the one you mentioned before."
"Yes?" Nightwalker asked softly. "What about him?"
"You don't lack fear but what fear you have is bolstered by the wisdom
of age. I know I'm a damned drunk but I am also one of the xian. What
of this other?"
"He is powerful," Nightwalker nodded. "But he's young. He would help
you. He, like me, believes he's here to protect."
"Who does that one guard then if he knows evil?" Xian wondered.
"The Cheyenne Nation of Oklahoma," Nightwalker said as they approached
Talibah's door. "With others."
Xian bit back the sarcastic reply that sprang to mind. He'd never
heard of Cheyenne or Oklahoma. Perhaps Shang-Ti knew of it but that was
the Jade Emperor's problem--not his. "He'd best hope he doesn't end up
like the Guardian then."
"He will not," Nightwalker said evenly. "He isn't our last line of
defense and nor am I. You are ancient but there are those who guard us
whose age is such that they remember the births of stars."
Xian inclined his head at that. Those were the sort he didn't argue
with unless he was asked to. In Abbadon's case, he had been asked to
and would fight with relish.
Pressing the chime, Nightwalker fixed his dark, deep eyes on his
companion. "I would respectfully ask you not to say the meaning of your
name, Ancient One. As short and fragile as our mortal lives are, there
are those inside who have only recently allowed themselves to live after
the death of our own Black Wolf."
Xian offered a slight bow as an agreement. "Xian Lang has been around a
very long time. It suffices."
It was Matthew who answered the door, smiling up at Nightwalker's
welcome face. "I'm the only one in," he eyed the man with his
great-great-grandfather, "But come in, I'm sure they won't be long."
Another of those star navy people, Xian thought as he looked at
Matthew. They owned this place and usually made faces about the weapons
Xian carried. Xian ignored the comments they made then went back to
drinking. That did not mean that this was the one the old man meant.
He looked at the man long and hard. No, it couldn't be.
"Thanks, son," Nightwalker said as he sauntered in and made himself at
home. "This is Xian. A friend of mine."
"Any friend of the old man is welcome in our home, sir," Matthew said
easily.
Xian nodded silently. He looked around the room. There was nothing
here that screamed he needed to unsheathe his sword. No, this was a
family place he realized as he spotted an infant's toy. Dark eyes
returned to the young man and he almost smirked. Ears like a damned
bat. That sort is rampant on this station.
"Where have they gone?" the old man asked.
"To see the hru'Airifvir, apparently." Matthew sounded more than
dubious. "That woman is more slippery than oil on water."
Xian was not familiar with the word the young man used but he was
familiar with the description. "Iruvande?" he asked, finally speaking.
His voice, now that he was almost completely sober, was not only steady
but fairly sharp. "The white woman?"
"That's her," Matthew said with a sniff. "That who you're looking for?"
Xian glanced at Nightwalker. Strictly speaking, Iruvande was not his
prey. He needed to find her but he wasn't hunting her. "I have been
looking for her since I got here," he said in a diplomatic tine.
"She's staying down in the civilian sector," Matthew shrugged. "I can
give you the cabin number, if you like." he moved to his mother's ISD
and found the code she'd been given. "Section B, cabin Alpha 295."
Xian nodded, searing that tidbit of information into his brain. He
would wait and go with the old man. He couldn't believe that woman
didn't know the evil winged thing was about and, if that were really the
case, she could hardly dismiss his information as the ranting of a
drunkard if the old man was with him. "Why did they seek her?" he wondered.
"She seeks Banshee," Matthew told them. "In whatever manner she's
using. My brother and sister are on that ship and my Ri'nanov wants
them home. We all do."
Xian bit his tongue to keep from letting loose his usual tirade about
that ship and its damned nemesis, the one who'd caused its problems in
his opinion. "It seems a common want. She and I have personal business."
"Perhaps it would be best to wait until my Ri'nanov comes back before
you descend upon the hru'Airifvir," Matthew suggested. "Unless you're
worried she'll disappear on you."
"I've waited this long and she isn't leaving," Xian stated, perfectly
sure of that last bit. "She and I are of long acquaintance and she no
doubt knows I'm here. Probably wishes I wasn't but it is as Heaven allows."
"She's a canny lady," Nightwalker mused. "Let's have coffee while we
wait, eh? Then you'll not smell quite so stale when you see her."
Dark eyes narrowed slightly. "If it is stale, it is because there is
not one decent bottle of sherry anywhere on this Heaven forsaken station."
"Or you could abstain," Matthew suggested before the old man did. "It's
bad for you."
Nightwalker's eyes twinkled as he added, "You've come to the wrong place
for sympathy on that. None here drink."
Xian muttered more than several rude replied under his breath in
Chinese. "It is," he said tersely, "one of the few things that takes
the edge off of the boredom."
"Perhaps you should find something else then, Ancient One," Nightwalker
mused.
"I will," he said flatly, dark eyes staring at the old man as he folded
his arms across his chest. "You know why I cannot just yet." Do you
really want me to start talking about /him /here the look asked. In
front of this one?
"Perhaps," Nightwalker said easily. "Perhaps things should not always
be put on hold simply for vendettas, even ones as powerful as your own."
Matthew rolled his eyes. The old man was talking in riddles again and
it was giving him a headache. "I'm going t'go and see if Ri'nanov's
coming home any time soon. You two just... play nice, ok?" Muttering
under his breath, he grabbed his coat and stomped out.
"I think I've annoyed the boy," Xian said with an almost smile. He knew
it was mean, especially since the elder had been so decent for a mortal,
but irritating other mortals was fun.
"I believe he'll get over it," Nightwalker shrugged. As he rolled to
his feet, the chime rang out and he blinked. "Seems little Talibah's
got a visitor, hold on..."
"And why would I not play nice?" he wondered aloud. "You are
inoffensive and an elder."
As he opened the door, Nightwalker raised fluffy white eyebrows at the
cloaked person that waited to be let in. "Took your time," he grunted.
In her deep green cloak of velvet, Iruvande lifted down her hood and
stared at the Hevam. "I am in my own time," she said simply. "Thy
children decided to eat on the Promenade this eve. Will thee join them
so that I may speak with thy companion alone?"
"Hmph," was all Nightwalker said as he folded his arms. "Not in this
cabin. Find somewhere else to discuss your dealings."
Xian's eyes locked on Iruvande. She looked no different than the last
time he'd seen her. If he were honest with himself, he'd admit that he
thought there was something off about her. In all the time since he'd
met her, he'd wondered if she were someone like him. "The elder can be
trusted," he stated firmly, "but I will not disrespect his home,
temporary as it may be."
"I have had dealings with thine elder," Iruvande said simply. "Today is
not a day for such things as he can aid us with. Come, let thee and I
discuss what we must in a more appropriate setting."
Xian offered Nightwalker a wordless shrug before he stood up again, his
head only aching slightly from his alcoholic excesses. "Xie xie,
Grandfather. We will meet again," he said with a respectful bow.
"I'm sure," Nightwalker nodded genially. He gave them both a wave as
they left then let out a grateful sigh. "White Buffalo, I swear you
like testing old men with the dealings of immortals."
"You," Xian said as soon as the door closed behind them, "have been
avoiding me. You know I've been on this Heaven forsaken station looking
for you and that damned abomination yet you have been skulking about.
Lost your backbone have you?"
"I do not..." she raised one perfect white brow at him, "skulk. I have
been attending to matters of my own. Thy will is not high on my
considerations."
Xian snorted at that. "So I hear," he said, shaking his head.
"Straighten your priorities, woman. That ship will not return until the
balance of chi in the universe is righted." Those dark eyes narrowed
but the light within them was strong. "And I know why it's off."
"Many things are 'off'," she retorted. Her own eyes narrowed but she
nodded. "Thy observation is correct. This aberration that you hunt, it
is not here. But it comes."
"I knew it. He is the one who caused that ship to be lost. It will not
return until he is seen to once and for all," he said with the
satisfaction of a man who knew he'd been right all along. "And how do
you know he comes here? I have tracked him and know this to be his next
move."
"Convergences of cosmological events," was all Iruvande would say as she
led him away from the cabin and down into the civilian sector. "Is thy
intention still to kill it?"
"Shang-Ti would prefer it be brought to him for justice but if it meets
with a deserved fate before then, it is simply what is already written,"
Xian stated. "There need be evil to balance good but that thing is
throwing off the balance of the universe. It has grown strong in the
last forty years and it wants what it cannot have."
"There is power gathering here and it is attracted by it," Iruvande
mused. "More powers converge. Is thy sight blind to others of your
kind or can thee see them as they see thee?"
"The grandfather is not like me yet he is," Xian told her, "but you know
that. What of the other he spoke of? A boy?"
"Na," Iruvande replied though she paused in the middle of a corridor.
Her eyes narrowed until they were barely slits and she drew in a
breath. "One more like thee. Ancient... remnant of times past..."
The hairs on the back of Xian's neck rise. He didn't care for the tone
of the woman's voice. It made him reach a hand back toward his sword.
"Who and where?"
"It has been many years since I was acquainted with thy lore, Ulhei Io,"
she said with a shrug. "The being is here... Drawn by the alliances of
power."
"It's here?" Xian's eyes narrowed even further and the sword was drawn
silently from its sheath. "Come on, you skulking coward, come to me..."
Iruvande actually snorted at him, her arms crossed under her breasts.
"Put up thy sword, I was speaking of another not of thine enemy." With
a smirk she added, "Thy age has not added to thy wits."
Xian bit back an acid remark. It had nothing to do with age. Maybe, he
thought, that old man was right. Still, he held the sword up to the
light. "Rivals one of your S'hariens, doesn't it?" he asked.
That was when he heard the sudden intake of a breath drawn in shock,
followed by the words, "You know, I'll just be leavin' now."
Iruvande turned around and fixed bright green eyes on the individual in
who had intruded. "Stay," she ordered. "State thy name and business."
The part of him that was a Marine's son was going to answer
immediately. He'd heard that statement, in one form or another, from
his father any number of times. The rest of Hakan railed at being told
what to do by a complete stranger, especially when she and her companion
were so...off. "They cal me Ma'heono'soo."
"Him," Xian said, pointing at Hakan. "That's the other one."
"IE," she hmphed, her eyes hard. "What is thy business, Ma'heono'soo?"
"I am no prisoner to be addressed without the courtesy of a name in
return, madam," Hakan said cooly. "However, for the sake of ignoring
your bad manners, I came here with my father to bring my sister home."
"You are not that old man's son," Xian hmmphed.
"Hey, my dad's close on eighty but I wouldn't call him old," Hakan said
with a chuckle.
"He is avoiding the questions, Iruvande," Xian stated darkly.
"He is also not the one that I was referring to," she said softly. She
prowled around the young Hevam, like a cat stalking a mouse. "Why dust
thee listen to us? Thee has one foot in each realm but thee are mortal."
He wasn't going to ask how she knew that, supposing it was the same way
he knew when he was in the presence of another shaman. He just knew and
that was it. "I wasn't eavesdropping," Hakan said with a smirk. "I was
walking this way and you and sword man here were in my path."
"Go back to thy grandfather, temarr-nveniov," she said softly. "Tell
him we will seek his aid when we need it."
Hakan folded his arms over his chest but kept his eyes on both of them.
"Suit yourselves but be forewarned. You, White Lady, and you, Brother
Wolf, that you are both being hunted by something that stinks of death
and fear." He lowered his arms and started to go. "I smell it already."
"As do we," Iruvande said softly, almost sadly. "Night comes, be
ready." Then she turned to Xian and nodded. "Let us be away."
Xian stared hard at the boy. He was not of the same people as the
pearl's father yet he knew the meaning of his name. He bore watching.
That much was certain. "Go back to your mother, boy, before you get hurt."
"Come, Ulhei," Iruvande said, her attention now away from the young
Hevam as if he was dismissed.
Xian's eyes glittered with an almost feral delight. The fight was
close. The hunter go try for the capture or kill. "Come, Abbadon,
you've been running to long," he hissed.
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- » [ussbansheec] Awaiting the Enemy
