Desire and Sacrifice

INTRODUCTION: No blatant sex in this chapter, so I apologize to anyone who's reading my fanfiction just for sex scenes. However, there's lots of sexual tension building up, so I hope that'll pique your apetite for what's to come!

RATING: NC-17 (for explicit descriptions of sex, hints of non-consensual activity, some underage sexual activity, etc.)
PAIRING: [ Suikoden III ] Chris x Yun (Primarily), Chris x Others
SUMMARY: After the Second Fire Bringer War, the death of Yun plagues Chris Lightfellow with guilt and sorrow. She travels to Alma Kinan village to confront the reality and tragedy of the young girl's death. However, when a being resembling Yun appears in the forest, will the years of training and discipline save Chris from the temptation that lurks in her heart?

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" . Desire and Sacrifice . "

Chapter III :: Fated Reunion

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Stone columns rose towards the highest arms of the trees, vines snaking over their worn surfaces. Between the columns, an ill-maintained pathway of stone was distinguishable between tufts of wild grass. Moonlight slid over the exposed stones, though here it washed objects in surreal blue, growing weak in the distance where the path descended into the depths of darkened forest. Cool spring air wove with remnants of ancient magic; Chris suppressed a shiver, sensing a distinctly eerie atmosphere in this area of the Kuput Forest. Since the defeat of that Harmonian madman Luc, she had reclaimed her father's True Water Rune. She wondered if the power embedded in her body was now reacting to the presence of old magic that had sealed the rune for years. Or perhaps her senses had yet to recover from her experiences at the washing pool--

"What is it?" Chris asked, breaking suddenly from her thoughts.

Yumi couldn't help but smirk as she turned her face towards one of the columns, pretending to study the markings on stone. So many fell at the blade of the Silver Maiden, yet this night exposed her vulnerability. During their walk to the sacrificial site, Chris had been distracted, seemingly hesistant as her attention was drawn inwards to her own thoughts.

"I asked: will you be fine continuing on your own?" Yuiri repeated; her eyes examined Chris, considering whether they could leave the woman alone. "From here on is sacred ground. Yumi and I have no purpose visiting the ritual site, so we should return to the village."

Chris gripped the hilt of her blade and nodded, the firmness of her voice reassuring Yuiri. "I can take care of myself."

"Then I hope your spirit can find peace, finally seeing the place our Yun sacrificed herself for the preservation of the Grasslands." Yuiri squeezed Chris's shoulder in a show of comradery. "We will come for you if you do not return to our village by dawn."

Yumi took her position at Yuiri's side as the two women departed for home, her body brushing close to her companion's to suggest familiarity and--for the insightful who noticed--an element of jealous possessiveness.

However, Chris did not take notice of the women's behavior, her own attention occupied by the road ahead. She shut her mind against the dull bruise between her legs, treating it as she would a wound from battle. Nocturnal sounds of the forest enveloped her: the call of frogs in the distance, insects flitting blindly in the dark, crickets singing within the grass. Here, the moonlight was choked by shadow; Chris relied on the soles of her boots, feeling for the distinct, smoothed surface of stone laid into the ground.

Around a bend in the path, Chris noticed the trees split, opening into an area where moonlight could once more bathe the world in her hues. The mighty columns now circled around a central structure in the clearing, a monument made of stone, images and carvings resembling that of the Sindar. Rising waist-high from the ground, a circular platform of stone, and atop it--

Chris's breath hissed through her teeth as she loosened her sword from its hilt. Didn't Yuiri say that this site was forbidden even to most women of the Alma Kinan? But unless the moonlight was playing tricks on her eyes, Chris could make out the form of a person laying on the stone platform, the white, naked form of their back turned to her.

"Who's there?" the voice was small and innocent, fearful. A child.

Chris shut her eyes against the voice, shook the thought from her head. Concentrate! But her hand tensed as she reached for her blade, her eyes being called back to the human shape that lay before her--that body obviously lacking strength, the elbows shaking in effort as the girl pulled herself up on her arms...the delicate shoulders, showing bone beneath the ivory skin...two soft curves being drawn from her front, punctuated by small globes of browned skin, much too small, but still showing motion as she struggled with breath...the bones of the hips, too, caught somewhere between a child's and a woman's...legs, definitely a young girl's, showing hardly any flesh...

When the face turned to Chris, features imbued by moonlight, the lady knight grit her teeth against the buzzing in her ears, the heavy drum of her heart.

Under waves of midnight-black hair, Yun's eyes widened, the curves of her lips parted in surprise. She cried out, then put her thin fingers to her mouth, as though to muffle the sound.

"Yun?" Chris asked as she approached, her hand still resting at the hilt of her sword. She circled the platform, studying intently the girl before her, trying to detect any trickery.

Yun followed Chris with her own eyes, as rich-ivory as her hair, widened in confusion. "I...I didn't think you would come back for me." Her voice sounded still afraid, as though she didn't trust that this was the real Chris Lightfellow, either.

"I thought you died," Chris answered, her voice a hoarse whisper. Her mouth had gone dry, an itch torturing the back of her throat. She told herself this was not right, she had been there that night, she knew that Yun had died, releasing the True Water Rune. But even as she reviewed the facts with the same calculating mind used to escape the most desperate, dangerous situations...she could not ignore the pain infecting her chest. Her heart ached for this girl to be Yun.

Yun coughed to clear her throat, but the moonlight had caught the beginning of tears in her eyes. "I did die, Chris." She attempted a smile. "I told you...I knew all my life. I knew I was going to die for you."

Chris closed her eyes, opened them, shook her head and said, "No, Yun, you did not die for me. You died for this..." She raised her hand, the emblem of the True Water Rune glowed through the brown leather of her glove.

"Not true." Yun smiled and wiped at her eyes with her fingers. "That's not true. That's not... I saw you in my visions, Chris...my dreams... Since I was a child, I dreamt of Chris Lightfellow. I begged your father for stories about you. I waited each night for sleep, so I could see you again, knowing one day I could touch your fine silver hair, watch with my eyes as you defended the innocent with your own body..."

"You died," Chris repeated. Her voice was firm, eyes fierce and penetrating, but still her hands shook. Were these words true? Could this really be Yun, the girl she had encountered amidst that bloody and terrible war?

"I did die," Yun replied. Her voice had regained that familiar patience, the tone she had used on Chris during their brief first meeting, trying to explain something Chris was too stubborn to understand. "Do you know why I'm still here?"

Chris shook her head mutely.

"My spirit refused to leave this world...because it was not satisfied." The girl turned her face away, allowed shadow to conceal the pain in her features. "I told myself...everyday...Everyday I told myself I was ready to die, to sacrifice myself. I accepted it. Even when my friends still suffered from the knowledge, I had accepted it. But..." Tears slid from her eyes as she wrapped arms around herself, fighting the sobs so she could speak. "But then I finally met Chris Lightfellow, the woman I chased in my dreams every night." Her voice choked. "I waited for you, Chris, I knew our meeting would be a countdown to my death. But I never...never quite expected you..." She lifted her face, tears leaving wet trails on her cheeks, fogging the usual clear black of her eyes. "I never expected you to be so beautiful. I wanted to be with you forever. I didn't want to leave this world anymore. I wanted to be next to you...I wanted your strong arm to be around me, protecting me from death. I wanted to feel the sun against our faces, together."

Chris now stood near the platform, and she brought one hand towards the girl's face, then dropped it. "Why did you die then?"

"I already told you." Yun rose to her knees, facing Chris. She lifted her hands, taking Chris's cheeks in her fingers. "I died for you. I knew what would happen if I didn't unseal the True Water Rune. Grasslands would be ruined, and...Chris... My Chris..." Her fingers trailed from Chris's face, sliding until they rested against the woman's shoulders. "My Chris, who I love... Knowing the heart that beat in your breast would cease if I didn't... Knowing that you would be a prisoner to death... My soul would wander for eternity, mourning my foolishness, if I didn't do what fate had asked of me."

"You...love me, Yun?" Chris asked. She slipped the leather glove from her hand and ran her fingers through the locks of black silk. The hair felt solid, so real...soft...warm, like a living girl's hair.

Yun nodded. Chris hesitated, then brought her face near Yun's, eyes searching the girl's face. She whispered, "You mean, like a mother, don't you? A friend? A sister?"

To her surprise, Yun threw her arms around Chris's neck, bring her ear close to the brush of the girl's lips. Chris braced herself with hands against the stone platform, heart aching as she heard the words. "Chris...not a mother. Not a friend. Not a sister. I was born to die for Chris Lightfellow, I was born to love Chris Lightfellow." One of her hands tangled in the long strands of silver hair at Chris's neck. "I died before I became a woman, but I want Chris to make me a woman. I want you to love me, Chris... Not as a child, not as a friend... I want you to love me as one woman with another."

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

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Yikes... Well, Chris is certainly in a mess now. If you have any feedback, make certain to send/post it! I do appreciate advice on my writing and the progress of the storyline.