Tenshi restlessly tossed and turned in her bed. Its pink blanket was sprawled diagonally, exposing her pale legs. The hotel seemed quiet and she briefly wondered where everyone was, before turning her thoughts back to Zeller and the strange occurrences of the last couple of days. Atsuri had drilled her about someone called Yasha, until her head was spinning, but no memory of this person appeared. All she could remember was being trapped in a stone prison for so many days she had lost count, then being here, surrounded by people she vaguely remembered as stars. She desperately wanted to see her Zeller, but it had been forbidden. Now it gnawed at her soul because she could feel him, so close and yet out of reach. She could always tell when he was close. Even in her statuette form she could tell when he was close, and it made her heart flutter with life against all rules of stone, to know he was so near. To know that like she, he would never forget. That feeling only lessened by the knowledge that she couldn't reach out and touch him. And now, she was back in a cage of knowing he was close but not being allowed to hold him. Only this time it was worse because she could move, her legs could take her to him. But they weren't allowed. "Oh Zeller" she concentrated her thoughts. "Don't leave me alone here". ***** Dark Star XVIII Together Alone By Laura Knill Started by Lady Chaos Hosted by ImproFanfic ***** Kurayamino gritted his teeth. With love on his side he could break down any barrier in the world. He took a deep breath and hurled his body at Tenkou. The might of his feelings for her acted towards his momentum and force. He became a human rocket headed directly for the force field surrounding his one true love. He knew he had the power to break it. His might was that of a thousand men. So when he connected with the barrier, he was taken by surprise. He bounced off and flew backwards to crash to a skid with the jagged concrete. The impact was painful, but the realisation that he had no power to free his love, was agonising. Hitomi ran to Kurayamino's side. "Don't worry," she said, "we'll think of something". "Why don't we just use magic?" Atsuri asked, preparing his attack. "We can't risk hurting Tenkou" Kyoko replied. Zeller stood slightly back from the rest of the stars. He was trying to ignore the feeling that was pulling him back to the hotel. Back to Tenshi. He had been warned to stay away from her for the moment. That she might be the source of the white evil. But despite the logic that she had given him the Baihai crystal, he couldn't believe that his love would ever hurt him. It wasn't possible. He had stayed away from her so far for the sake of the others, but now he felt her call so strong that it couldn't be ignored. Quietly he slipped away from the group. ***** Queen Yasha watched Tenshi. She did more than watch her actions though, in a sense she watched her thoughts. She saw her longing and chucked to herself. "That's right my dear, bring the star to me. They may have removed the crystal, but I still feel the white evil in his life force. With every step he takes towards you dear Tenshi, you're nourishing the evil, and it will grow until it consumes his soul" Gyoshi listened from the ever-present shadows of Yasha's domain. Losing a star would mean delay in the battle, and that would not make Shiko happy. He would have to remove Tenshi's mind conditioning, then Yasha could no longer use her as the source that fed the white evil. ***** Tenshi blinked as she felt her dull headache, cease. The second after it did he eyes flew to the door as it slowly opened and Zeller stepped through it. Her liquid eyes widened as she took in his tall form. His long brown hair framing his perfect features, those deep eyes and the smile her own face brought to his lips. It had been so long since she'd seen him through anything but stony eyes. She lept out of bed and wrapped her arms tightly around him. His arms followed her lead as a soft "Tenshi" escaped his lips. With his forbidden fruit in his arms he cursed himself for listening to the others for so long. He would be able to tell by now if she was the source that was feeding the white evil. Actually he was beginning to feel a little better. ***** Kurayamino was pacing back and forth. The rest of the group were in various positions, trying to brainstorm, except for Milei who was happily playing, unaware that anything was wrong. "This is most distressing timing," Father Cloud said to no one in particular. "What with the great battle in just over a week..". "What was that?" asked Junta, as the others looked up in curiosity. "Ah, with all the excitement we never told them about our findings." Master Elcid commented, looking towards Father Cloud to explain. "Well, we know that the great battle will occur when the alignment of the stars are the same as they were during the first great battle many years ago. If our calculations are correct this should occur in 8 nights." Kuroi's eyes widened. "This is much sooner than we expected." She glanced at Tenkou and her face filled with indecision. "We have to prepare, we have to train.. There's no time.." Kurayamino looked at his family. "Go" he said. "There's nothing you can do here." "What about you?" Hitomi asked. "I won't leave her again." ***** Yasha's body tensed in disbelief at what she was sensing. She could feel the white evil escaping from his soul. Her eyes narrowed and her hands clenched. What could be such a powerful positive force that it cleansed the evil from his energy field? Her eyes fell to the image of Tenshi and Zeller in each other's arms and she scowled. The evil should be growing, not diminishing. "Something is very wrong, and someone is going to pay for it" she muttered to herself, her hand clenching tighter as the word 'pay' left her lips. ***** As the group approached the hotel, they saw Tenchi and Zeller sitting on the front step. Atsuri felt his blood boil that Tenshi dared risk infecting Zeller with her evil. "Tenshi, get away from him" he said, before Kuroi could hush him. Zeller hugged Tenshi closer and began to speak when Kuroi said "Can't you feel that?" "I feel nothing but the evil that surrounds her." Atsuri said harshly, his voice bitter for his brother's pain. Kuroi threw him a razor sharp look of warning, then said sweetly "Maybe Nesuni can feel it. Take a look at Zeller's energy field." "Well... I'll try" She replied, conscious that Atsuri would despise her for this special attention, and the unwanted chance to make him look bad. She focused her eyes on Zeller and concentrated until a field of swirling blues and greens appeared before her. If she looked very closely she could make out remainders of ivory veins. "Why, the white strands are all but gone." She said, her voice exposing her surprise. "Then we were wrong. Tenshi isn't the source." Hitomi supplied. Atsuri grumbled and shot a menacing look of rivalry at Nesuni. She thought she was so good, just because she'd be replacing one of them. He briefly wondered if it were he, she would be replacing, then brushed it off. He was by far the strongest of the stars, if it were anyone it would be Junta. Purity had no place in the great battle. Kuroi interrupted his jealous thoughts with "Enough of this talk, what matters is that Zeller is becoming healthy again, and in good time, as we have but 8 days to prepare for the great battle. As you know I can't take part, since I was in the previous battle.. However I am allowed to prepare you for the fight you'll be facing, the pentagram of pentagrams." "What about the Queen of Heaven?" Junta asked. Kuroi shook her head sadly. "I don't know if we can do it without her.. but we may have to try." Out of the corner of her eye Kuroi saw a movement and swung around to face the furry figure of a kitsune. "Excuse me" it said "but is this where I'd find a demon by the name of Kurayamino Hoshi?" ***** Kurayamino sat alone in the centre of the town square. He didn't know how long he'd have to wait, but he was prepared. After all he'd already waited over 400 years to be with his love, he wasn't going to give up now, just as he'd found her again. He wouldn't leave her this time, not if he had to wait another 400 years. Kurayamino was answered by a thunderous cracking noise. His eyes rose to see Tenkou, with thousands of tiny white cracks swirling in currents around the barrier that protected her body. With the sound of a hundred waves crashing against a rocky coast, the force field exploded into a million pieces that floated, like bubbles, into oblivion. "Ah, my first victim in this new form." The voice that sprang from Tenkou's mouth was high and wiry. She levitated from the ground, giving the impression of height and superiority, which allowed for a condescending tone to enter her voice. Kurayamino held himself tall and said "Tenkou, I know you're there. You're sharing that body too, and your mind is just as strong as hers. You can beat her Queen of Heaven!" Shiko's ear shattering laugh erupted over the town. Suddenly her face gained an image of shock as her mouth opened and her voice lost its harsh tone to speak the words "Go Kurayamino. Run while you'll still can!" "No Tenkou. This time I'm not leaving you!!". "Go! Your Queen orders it!" ***** Well, that's the first ImproFanfic part I've written. Feel free to send comments, flames etc to kittygod@mail.com Thanks to: Lan for being supportive and letting me write this in our time, Luke for almost thinking of 'superior' and for the company while I was up writing until 2am. James Renken for being a great maintainer, and a special thanks for the extension, and for answering all the questions that made it obvious I was a newbie at this. Lady Chaos for starting this brilliant fanfic All the writers before me for setting up the situations. The Great Cthulhu, for not devouring me during this time, and his many minions for not taking over the world. Good luck to the next writer. I hope I didn't mess up this fanfic too much for anyone, I tried to follow ideas suggested in other parts, as well as add my own. Sorry for any of the mistakes you tend to make at 2.30am.. like extra s's etc.