Wild ARMs: Off on a Tangent
By: Chibi-chan
Part 23: “Dream a Little Dream of Me”
*
James awoke not with a start, but with that weird disorientated feeling one normally has when they wake up suddenly. He had fallen asleep at Cecil’s bedside not long before and therefore was a little thrown off by being in a room he did not normally sleep in. “Eh? Musta been a dream. I’m not sappy enough to do something like swearing myself to someone’s side…” he mumbled. He paused, then looked at Cecil’s still unconscious form. “Eh, who’m I trying to fool, right, Cecil? I’d do it in a heartbeat. I’ve tried to seem so damned cool, some sort of romanticized ideal of a nameless wanderer, looking for something they could never find… But what happens the moment I start to care about anyone? I become, well, me. An overprotective, emotional fool who thinks too damned much.”
It almost seemed as if Cecil knowingly smirked at this. “Like you’re any better, Cecil,” James said. “You also try to seem confident, but when someone does something big for you, asking nothing in return, you seem like think hell’s frozen over. There are people who do care about you. You think I would be this upset if I didn’t? Do you?!”
There was silence for several moments. “Sorry, but not sleeping well gets me into one of these moods… and for what it’s worth, I’d swear myself by your side in an instant if it’d help you,” the dark-haired boy said.
*
You do know those are all just words, don’t you, Cecil? You know he’d say that, but do you really think he means it?
“He seems so upset…”
Only worried about his future “investment”. You don’t need him. You need only me…
*
“No… no… go away, you demented catgirl…” Cecil whispered in his strange sleep.
“Catgirl? What catgirl?” James asked, surprised and a little excited because the prince had not shown any signs of improvement since he had been brought in.
“The evil catgirl… trying to make me stay with her… you care, don’t you? Tell me you care…!” the prince said, gradually getting louder and quickly more insistent.
“I… Cecil, I…” James stammered.
Cecil seemed to be trying to sit up. “Tell me… Tell me…!”
“I…”
Whatever progress Cecil had made was made null and void. He dropped back the short distance he had gotten off his back and lay one more in silent slumber. “Dammit…” James muttered.
*
An undisclosed amount of time later, somewhere behind the little broken-down house of Zelgadiss in the Naga Dimension, the time when the Sunburst Flower could be grown drew near. “Now, we only have one shot at this, so if you have any questions, ask them now,” Zelgadiss told the Guardians of Life and Illusion.
“We know what we are to do, young man,” Zelas told him sharply. “Xelloss never mentioned how uptight his lover was…” she muttered.
Zel heard this all too clearly. “I am NOT. His. Lover,” he growled.
Zelas let out a chuckle. “Pardon my mistake, young man. He did mention how you only were interested in his other form.”
Gourry looked like he was connecting something in his mind to something else, then proclaimed, “So THAT’S why he looked so convincing when he was in that dress!”
Zel noticed the “moon”, such as it was in the Naga Dimension, had risen, meaning the time for the magical hocus-pocus needed to make a Sunburst Flower grow and bloom had come. “It’s time (thank all that’s good and holy in the world)…” he said. He held out the seed in his hand between the two Guardians and it began to raise and hover in place. A sudden, dramatically appropriate wind kicked up as the Guardians began to glow. Gourry glowed with a soft white light, Zelas with a ruby red light. Soon the glow was all one could see of the two as they began to shift and change into their true forms. The seed sprouted and grew rapidly as their transformations neared completion. Once the flower, one the shone as brightly as the sun, bloomed and turned twilight into day, it was flanked by a silvery-white unicorn and something purple and vaguely wolf-like. Zel took the fully formed flower before it dropped to the ground.
Now I remember why I’m not fond of this form; no one except my “extended family” and the Innocent One can hear me… Zelas complained.
*
“So,
what’re you gonna do now?” Elmina asked the group.
“Return
to Filgaia; I’ve been away too long…” Gourry said.
“As
shall I. After all, where is the fun in
a controlled environment?” Zelas said with a smile.
Xelloss,
of course, followed this with, “I shall follow my mistress.”
Zel
didn’t look all too pleased. “Lovely,
since I’m leaving too, you’ll still be in the same dimension with me. If they didn’t notice I was gone once, why
should I stay here? I’ve gotten nothing
done since I got here.”
“And I’ll be going too so I can fight for justice in Filgaia!” Amelia proclaimed. No one said a word for a while…
*
Once back at the Maxwell house (no coffee jokes, please), a medicine made from the Sunburst Flower was administered to the ailing prince. “Well, it’s all up to him now…” Lina said as she left James with the boy. She closed the door behind her and commented, “What’s that guy’s problem anyway? You’d think I was hurting Cecil from the looks he gave me!”
Elmina told her, “Let’s just say he’s… very, very repressed.”
*
“She said it’s all up to you, Cecil…” James whispered. “I only wish I could help you…”
*
Very well, let’s see what a noisy boy like you can do…
*
“What is this?” James asked himself, suddenly finding himself in the middle of a flower garden.
A little golden-haired boy of
four or five and his mother walked into the garden, taking no notice of the
confused young man. “Look, mummy, a
butterfly!” the little boy said excitedly, pointing at an insect on a nearby
flower.
“Yes, yes, I see, Cecil. It’s a very pretty one at that,” the mother
said.
“This is my earliest memory, and
one of the few pleasant memories I have,” the Cecil we know and…
yeah, well, the Cecil we know’s voice said from nowhere. “Even back then, Father was
distant. Mother was the only one who
seemed to care about me. Care to see
what became of her?”
“If it makes you feel better, of
course,” James said.
The scene then shifted to that of a graveyard. Child Cecil stood crying before a large grave marker with the royal crest of Adlehyde upon it. “Mommy, why can’t you come back? Daddy wants to send me away now that you’re gone. He says I remind him too much of you and that he can’t bear it. I don’t wanna leave here! I don’t wanna go away! Mommy, make him stop! Make him let me stay here! Mommy…!” the little Cecil cried.
“I was sent away the next day. Just when I needed him most, Father just
abandoned me. And it was that day I
started on the course I’m on now. After
a week of weeping, I never cried again…” present Cecil said.
“How terrible…” James breathed.
“But it doesn’t end there. Oh no, it never ends…”
The scene shifted to the chapel
in the Curan Abbey. An older, long
haired Cecil was having a conversation with Sister Mary. Cecil suddenly stood up and stared at the
sister in shock. “Mother was WHAT?!?”
“Poisoned, my child. It seems someone on the inside laced her
personal chocolates with some form of it,” Sister Mary calmly replied.
“But I used to sneak them and I
was…” the prince began until he remembered something. “Oh no… The year Mother
died… I got very sick after eating a
few of them…”
“I had lied and said I didn’t touch them because I’d be in trouble if I did… If only I had told the truth, then maybe…” present Cecil said slowly.
“Maybe they’d have found another way to kill her,” James finished for him. “You were a child then; how could you have known in the first place?”
The scene faded to darkness and
present Cecil appeared some distance behind James. “I should have… I should have said something… The only one who cared about me died. I never get what I want most. I only cause others annoyance and
suffering. No one cares about me, so
why should I care about them? Why
should I wake up?” he said with an eerie resigned to fate tone.
James turned around to face him. “What do you mean, ‘no one cares’?! Elmina cares! If she didn’t, do you honestly think she’s the kind of person who would stick around someone she doesn’t give a damn about when she could just do whatever she feels she needs to do alone? Laine cares! If she didn’t, would she still have given in to Calamity’s demand?! And I… I…”
Enough, a voice said. A wild-looking catgirl materialized behind Cecil and latched onto him. He is mine, boy. I have been waiting to a heart of ice like his for a long time. So much pain, so much doubt, and so much power. I will not surrender him to the likes of you.
“So that’s the evil catgirl you were talking about, huh?” James said to Cecil. “She doesn’t look so dangerous to me…”
The catgirl pushed Cecil aside and stepped toward the less-than-terrified young man. You dare challenge the great Dream Evil Queen Elizabeth? Prepare to dream your last dream, boy…
*
“’Very, very repressed’? Just repressed?”
“OK, lovestruck and repressed.”
*
Fighting off a very fast dream
demon with only a two-shot Peacemaker ARM is not an easy task, especially when
you only have one shot left and you missed with the other like James here. He was faring a bit better than expected,
however. The catgirl demon had
consistently failed to land an attack on the also quite fast half-Hiadan boy.
“Hey, Jamie, this is a dream,
right?” Cecil asked.
“I think so, why- ACK!” James
replied, barely sidestepping a lunge by Elizabeth.
“And you can do anything in a dream, right?”
“Get to the point, Cecil!” James complained, eyes still hurting from a Flash Bomb attack from the catgirl.
“So why should you only have a limited amount of shots?”
Because I control the dream, stupid, Elizabeth said. Just a physical attraction, eh, “Jamie”? Because it can’t be his mind you like.
“He is not stupid!” James snarled as he took his second shot, which missed as well.
“She’s not worth your anger, Jamie,” Cecil said, “And, Lizzie, if you completely control this dream, then how come you haven’t hit Jamie once yet? Will is worth something here, isn’t it?”
The catgirl glared at the prince. I’ve had just enough of you, little boy. I do believe you must be punished… Elizabeth then took on the same type of purplish-black aura Cecil takes on when he is casting black crest magic. Darkness… she whispered. A beam of pure dark energy, near imperceptible because, well, it was dark in the dream was headed straight to the mouthy boy and James was too far away from Cecil and the beam too fast for him to do anything.
“NO! I won’t let this happen!” James cried. The beam then splintered and faded
away. Determined to protect the prince
this time, he marched to the blond boy and stood in front of him. “I won’t let you or anyone else hurt
him. I swear this on the honor of the
Maxwell family, however dubious that honor may be!”
“J-Jamie?!” Cecil, for once, was the one stammering stupidly. “Y-you don’t…! I’m not worth…!”
“Yes, you are. Don’t think so little of yourself, Cecil. Laine said it herself; if not for you, we wouldn’t have made it so far,” James told him, for once being the confident one.
Touching, in a sickeningly
sentimental sort of way. Let’s finish
this so I can claim my prize,” Elizabeth interrupted.
“Fine with me. Come on!” the older boy said, taking out a
small Derringer-model ARM out of his left pocket.
“That puny thing against her? It’ll never work, Jamie!” Cecil
complained with a note of panic.
“It’ll have to; it’s all I got left!” James said, trying not to sound as worried as he was. Elizabeth was getting closer and closer, and things weren’t looking good…
*
“She? She who?”
*
“Randomizer! HI-SAINT!” With these words, many white beams of pure holiness burned though the demoness. She died leaving fairly little mess. Cecil, still not exactly up to par, dropped to his knees. “Are… are you OK, Jamie?”
“You’re asking me?! I should be asking you that!” James
exclaimed, going down to Cecil’s level.
“Why did you go and do that anyway?!
You’re…!”
“What can I say? You finally got through to me,” the prince told him, “You broke the hold.”
“I… Cecil, I have to tell you something…” James started, trying to get it out before all his previous confidence escaped.
“I know.”
“You… you know?
Perhaps in part, but…”
“I know,
Jamie. You don’t have to say it,” Cecil
said, now leaning against the other boy.
“I don’t exactly understand why it’s me,
but I think I can accept it now…”
*
*The Goddess Statue shattered!*
*
Ooo, shounen-ai! a decidedly
human female-like Guardian squealed in delight.
“Are any of the Guardians
sane, Cecil?” James whispered.
“Not that I know of,” Cecil whispered back.
Oh, I hate to interrupt your moment, but your *ahem* “friend” here just brought me back to this plane, Innocent One! the goddess-like Guardian apologized/explained. You helped a little too, of course.
“Of course,” Cecil said, less than enthused. “Ironic, the Guardian of Love interrupting now, eh, Jamie?”
“G-Guardian of Love?! You mean that’s Raftina?!” the older boy
asked.
Were you expecting Rocket J. Squirrel, demi-Guardian of Flying?
“Well, n-no, it’s just… I mean… I didn’t expect anyone to show up…” he stammered.
“Forgive him; he’s shy,” Cecil
explained.
Oh, OK. Well, just call me when you need me, OK? the Guardian
said. She, however, did not turn into a
rune just yet…
“Why are you still watching?” Cecil asked.
Well, aren’t you going to kiss?
“If we do, will you go away?”
Certainly, Raftina answered.
“Well, Jamie, you heard the woman,”
Cecil said. Before James could say a
word in protest, Cecil kissed him full on the lips. The poor shy bastard completely froze.
Aw, so cuuuuuuuuuute! the
Guardian who seriously needs a hobby squealed.
/You’re really not making me be at ease by doing that,/ James thought. However, as promised, Raftina then became a rune and the dream crashed down around them…
*
James awoke, for the second time in a short span of time, not with a start, but with that weird disorientated feeling. “What… where… Cecil?” He looked around and saw him standing by the only window in the room.
“You’re awake. Good, I wanted to tell you this in person,” the prince said. He was clearly awake and his hair was back to its normal color once more.
James got up and walked over to him. “Tell me what?” he asked.
“I’m going home, Jamie,” Cecil said. Noticing the other boy’s expression, he added, “I’ll be coming back, of course. It’s just that there’ve been things I’ve been avoiding there that need to be settled for once and for all.”
“I see…” the older boy replied. “There’s just one thing that has to be done before you go, tho’…”
“Oh? What’s that?” Cecil asked.
“This,” James answered. He put an arm around Cecil’s waist and gently but quickly kissed him. “A little gentleness wouldn’t kill you, you know,” he said with a grin. He left the room, still grinning a Cecil-like grin.
Cecil, for once, was speechless…
*
End Chapter 23
Chibi’s notes:
Just wrote for 6½ hours straight. It’s 4 A.M. No notes for you, even after proofreading phase... x_@