The camp was finally dead, like the landscape surrounding it. While 
everyone else slept soundly in their respective tents, Kyouji mused as 
he tended the remains of the fire. His final exchange with Yumi before 
she went off to bed was still weighing heavily on his mind. Snippets of 
her words and flashes of her expression kept bubbling through. 

	"`I realize this is hard on you, having to put up with us like 
this.'"

	"'We could be a little easier on you, think about what you feel 
about this more often...'"

	The remembered look of pain that flickered across her face after 
he told her how nicely she always treated him.

	"What's bothering her? She wasn't like this when we got down 
here," Kyouji thought. "She was arguing with Twizzler before, and that 
was strange enough. And then she hit her." Kyouji furrowed his brow. 
"That's really not like her."

	The fire hissed a bit, and Kyouji mulled over the situation more 
as he poked at it. "Between Twizzler and Tsugiko, I haven't been 
spending much time with Yumi. I'll try talking with her more."

	Images of fists flying towards him and glomps hard enough to 
knock the wind out of an elephant came to mind next. "No! Yumi's my 
friend. We're all in this together, and I'm not going to let the other 
two keep me from helping her out." His determined look melted into a 
lazy smile. "Plus, she's still really cute."

	His ponderings were interrupted by the sound of the rocks outside 
the camp rattling over themselves as they fell. He rose quietly to his 
feet. There wasn't any wildlife naturally in this area, so he had to 
treat it as something hostile.

	He padded closer in towards the source of the sound.  It seemed 
to come from behind one of the boulders that had fallen when Twizzler 
cast her spell. Anything could hide behind it. His right hand clenched 
on the hilt of his sword. Come to think of it, Riesen was still 
unaccounted for. Twizzler knew she'd wrecked the Tridents, but she 
couldn't say what happened to the monk. And he'd easily fit behind 
there.

	As he drew in near the boulder, the sounds grew still louder. 
Kyouji debated silently over waking the others, but then discarded it. 
If it was anything big, they'd hear it when he engaged it and come. 
Everyone was so tired, he should just let them get their rest. And it 
was his guard, after all.

	Decision in mind, Kyouji poked his head slowly around the 
boulder, body tensed and ready to face down... darkness. No big enemy 
lurked behind the stone. He relaxed just a bit, until the sounds came 
again, from right next to his feet. He looked down fearfully.

	Orange, green...

	"Gika!"

	The screams woke all the others up anyway.

>o< >o< >o< >o< >o< >o< >o< >o<

Starburst Crystal
	Created by Ardweden
Legend Twenty-three: Darkest Chocolate
	Written by Capfox

>o< >o< >o< >o< >o< >o< >o< >o<

	"Come on, how was I supposed to know that it was only the furball 
back there?" Kyouji protested. The group trudged tiredly up and out of 
the cave, towards the halfway point where they left the Kudos. 

"No one's blaming you, Kyouji," Twizzler yawned. Exhaustion was 
plain upon their faces. None of them had been able to get anything more 
than fitful sleep after Kyouji's cries woke them up. After Yumi removed 
Kit Kat from Kyouji's shoulder, the group waited, exhausted, for Kyouji 
to move himself off the side of the boulder. When he finally did, after 
five minutes, he returned to his watch. But by then, everyone was 
solidly awake.

Kit Kat, however, was excited to finally be free. He quickly 
scampered up the steps, and impatiently waited for them at every turn 
of the stairs. Tsugiko treated him to a hearty glare after the sixth 
turn up.

"You know, I'm glad that he's all right, but if he could just 
tone down the energy a bit, I'd be even happier. No one should be that 
awake when I'm feeling like this," Tsugiko said. She guiltily snuck a 
look back at Yumi, trudging up the steps behind her. Her former 
roommate had been the target of that particular thought plenty of 
times.

"Come on, Tsugiko-chan, don't stop him from having his fun. You'd 
be running around everywhere if you got stuck for so long, too. And 
he's probably anxious to get back, like the rest of us," Yumi 
explained. Tsugiko wrinkled her nose at that; as usual, Yumi was the 
biggest morning person around. Yumi followed Kit Kat the most closely. 
Everyone else was at least a few steps farther down. Wonka in 
particular dragged behind them. Upon waking, he'd just grumbled about 
needing his sleep for his mind to work well. Now, he walked up the 
stairs about five behind the group of Tsugiko, Twizzler and Kyouji. 
Tsugiko wondered if he would be able to make the arduous ride back to 
his home in his condition.

The Crystal Warriors walked up to the wide landing where the 
Kudos waited. After about eight rounds, the conversation died 
completely. They only mumbled apologies from one to another when they 
jostled each other as they walked. They found that between their 
exhaustion and the pull of gravity, getting back up was far harder than 
getting down. That much exertion put a hold on conversation until a 
more convenient time.

After seemingly endless turns, they heard Kit Kat gikaing loudly. 
The four younger travelers summoned up enough energy to run up the 
stairs to meet him, while Wonka labored up behind.

When they reached the wide landing where Kit Kat still cried, 
they noticed a peculiar setup. Two Kudos stood next to each other. 
Between that pair of steeds and the other one, Kit Kat sat washing 
himself, parked in a Kudo-sized hole. They stared at the unlikely 
mount.

Wonka made it onto the landing. He frowned, and pointed a finger 
at each one. "One. Two. Three. Four. Well. Either your guide has become 
the fifth Kudo, or someone stole the last one. The breaking of the land 
didn't affect anything this far up."

Kyouji started, then groaned. "Riesen! We didn't find him last 
night. Like I said, I thought it might have been him behind that 
boulder. He must've come and taken it while we were camped at the 
bottom."

Twizzler frowned. Riesen took her Kudo, and not one of the 
others. Somehow, she doubted that was a coincidence. Attacking him 
probably didn't go over so well. She sighed softly. Riesie'd come 
around. She had the queen's support, after all. Still, if this was a 
hint from him, she'd better stay on her toes, she decided. "So what am 
I going to ride back? I don't think the carret will carry me, no matter 
how light I am."

Kit Kat bristled at her, then jumped up onto Wonka's steed. His 
message came through very clearly. In no way should she even think 
about taking him for a ride.

Twizzler looked around at the other options. "Ne, Kyouji-chan, 
you want to ride with me, right?" She wrapped her arms around his 
stomach. "I promise I'll try not to make you too hot," she purred.

"Maybe you should just walk back," Tsugiko suggested coldly. 
"It's not all that bad, only three days in the heat. Maybe dry you out, 
calm you down some, get you to stay off Kyouji for more than a minute 
at a time."

"Green, I don't want to hear it! I'm riding somewhere, and my 
Kyouji's the best one for me."

"Oh, really? Well, the best thing for you would be-"

"Stop it," Kyouji and Yumi interrupted. They looked at each 
other, and smiled. Kyouji continued, "Twizzler, it'd be better if you 
went with one of the others. They weigh less, and I don't want to 
burden the Kudo too much." He smiled confidently. "We're all going to 
the same place anyway, and it doesn't take too long. We're all way too 
tired for fighting, so let's just split up. OK?"

Twizzler looked up at him. "But, Kyouji..."

Kyouji unwrapped her arms from his stomach, prying himself free. 
"C'mon, Twizzler, you don't want to hurt Wonka's Kudos, do you? He's 
been so nice to us."

She nodded reluctantly, promising herself some solid time with 
Kyouji later, then looked at her other choices. Kit Kat sat on Wonka's 
steed, so that wouldn't work. She looked briefly at Tsugiko. The green-
clad warrior had trained her eyes on Kyouji protectively. That really 
wouldn't work, she growled to herself. At least they'd be separate, 
too. Finally, she looked over at Yumi.

Yumi smiled back at her, and beckoned her to get onto her Kudo. 
Twizzler shrugged. Well, the best of the lot, she thought. "All right, 
Yumi. You're no Kyouji, but you're better than the competition," 
Twizzler stated, giving Tsugiko one more glare before joining Yumi on 
her steed. "Let's go." Yumi waited for the others in the group to 
mount, then headed speedily up the stairs.

>o< >o< >o< >o< >o< >o< >o< >o<

	Yumi's Kudo, pulling a double load now, moved more slowly than 
the others'. She and Twizzler lagged behind the other three. They 
didn't seem to be missing much; conversation between Tsugiko, Kyouji 
and Wonka looked very subdued. The heat beat down over them as they 
crossed the waste land, and fatigue kept them from being talkative. The 
exhaustion affected Yumi too, but she needed to talk with Twizzler some 
more before they got back. Free time between the two didn't come up 
often. Still, Yumi couldn't think of what she wanted to say, and 
Twizzler stayed quiet.

	After 15 minutes of riding, squinting around at the white barrens 
about them, Twizzler started swigging water from her canteen. Yumi 
decided this was as good a signal as any she'd get, and just said the 
first thing she thought of.

	"I'm sorry," Yumi said plainly.

	Twizzler gagged on the water in her mouth briefly. "What?"

	"I'm sorry, Twizzler. I really didn't mean to hit you. Normally, 
I wouldn't do anything like that. It was just all built up, and you 
were picking on me, and it was so hot. And small, and I couldn't get 
free. You just pushed me so hard." Yumi looked down at the Kudo's 
frilled neck. "But I still shouldn't have. So I'm sorry."

	Twizzler looked quizzically into the back of Yumi's head. "Hey, 
forget that. Like I said last night, I'm over it. You freed me, too, 
and you healed what you broke. And you don't have the gorilla strength 
of Green behind it, either. Just let it go, OK?"

	Yumi smiled. "All right. Thanks." She got out her own canteen, 
and drank a couple gulps.

	Twizzler continued, "I thought you were apologizing about Kyouji, 
really. I mean, that's way worse than smacking me. Way harder to get 
around, too. I didn't see it coming it all."

	Yumi swallowed hard before replying. "Excuse me? I'm supposed to 
apologize to you for liking someone?"

	"Well, not just anyone. But for liking Kyouji. It's not like 
there's any comparison between us for him, of course. But there just 
weren't any hints, and broadsiding me like that was mean. I mean, Yumi, 
c'mon. You're an intelligent person, and you are pretty cute. But you 
should know, you're outclassed here. If you give up, it'll be easier on 
Kyouji. And maybe we can be better friends, too, right?" Twizzler 
smiled encouragingly at Yumi, hoping it would carry through in her 
voice, since Yumi couldn't see her.

	Yumi worked her hands into the Kudo's frill. "No. I'm not going 
to apologize to you for doing something that feels right to me. He's a 
good person, and I like him. And I'm not going to stop liking him 
because it bothers you."

	Twizzler shook her head. "Yumi, please. He can't even tell! I 
mean, if I couldn't, he sure can't. As long as you're content to admire 
him from afar, you have no chance. Not against me, not even against 
Green."

	"Twizzler, I don't need to throw myself at him. I don't need to 
tell him. My actions will show him."

	"So we're back to the quiet hope, and not saying because you'll 
hurt your friend? Yumi, please, trust me. If that's all you're willing 
to do, you've already lost. It's no better than pining alone. Take my 
advice, and give it up."

	"No, Twizzler." Yumi's voice hardened, thrumming with 
determination. "I'm not leaving him alone, but I'm not doing it your 
way. He deserves his freedom to move around just as much as you do. 
Clinging to him all day won't help my case. I'll show him, in subtle 
ways, that I care. Little things. And he'll notice. It might take a 
bit, but I'm patient, and he will. I'm not sorry, and I'm not quitting, 
and I'm not ceding him as a prize to you."

	"OK, OK. Fine. It's your heart that'll break when he goes off 
with me." Twizzler thought through Yumi's pledge. "Wait. Not to me. But 
you would to Green?"

	Yumi winced, and paused. "I...don't know. Tsugiko-chan deserves 
someone like him, to make her happy. And you may not think so, but she 
could make him happy, too."

	Twizzler snorted. "Damn right I don't think she could. That's the 
most abusive relationship I've ever seen. Kyouji doesn't deserve to be 
smacked around by some insecure girl."

	Yumi paused again, even longer this time. "Honestly, I don't know 
why she does that. She wasn't like that back at school. But then, it 
was an all-girls school. But she really is sweet, underneath. She just 
needs to accept who she is, and she'll stop. I think."

	"Yeah, whatever. That's such a naãve point of view, I can't even 
argue it. The problem won't go away just because the situation might 
change a bit. And beating up on my Kyouji only hurts her case with him. 
Not that I mind, or that she really has a case anyway. But I hate to 
see him get hurt."

	"Well...me too. I try to stop her when I can, but I don't think 
she knows how often she does it. She does now, so maybe she'll stop."

	"Really, really naãve." Twizzler shrugged. "I don't know about 
you, but if she doesn't lay off, I'm going to start smacking her 
around."

	Yumi looked over her shoulder. "So fighting next to Kyouji won't 
get him hurt?"

	"I'll get her away from him first. I would never hurt my Kyouji."

	The two girls quieted down again, thinking about the boy in 
question. They drank from their canteens, and watched around the 
blasted landscape. After a while, Wonka's house appeared in the 
distance.

	Twizzler stirred, and tapped Yumi on the shoulder. "Hey, you 
never answered me. Not that it'll happen, but would you leave Kyouji to 
Green?"

	"I. Um. Well, it's not my decision. I'll be myself, and Kyouji 
will decide. And if he picks me over Tsugiko..." Yumi trailed off. She 
cleared her throat. "Well, we'll decide then. But I'm not giving him 
away, even to her, without a try."

	Twizzler grinned. "Well, the quiet approach should be 
interesting. Won't work, but whatever. He'll be mine, either way."

	Yumi was about to respond, but then Wonka's gates loomed over 
them, and Twizzler hopped off the Kudo. "Thanks for the ride!" 

	Yumi watched as Twizzler bounced over to Kyouji's Kudo, and 
pondered. Then she jumped off the side of her Kudo, and headed in. In 
the morning, Wonka would lay out where the other part of Tsugiko's cure 
was. Before then, she just wanted to rest.

>o< >o< >o< >o< >o< >o< >o< >o<

	In Wintergreen's palace, a man looking very much unlike the 
normal type of occupant walked slowly through the hallways. His 
clothes, far from the opulent dress normally found in the Dark Queen's 
corridors, were tattered. His outer raiment could be recognized, given 
a charitable interpretation, as a cloak. His pants and shirt were 
riddled with tears and holes, revealing a palette of blacks and blues 
underneath them, with angry red cuts peeking through between. His face 
bore an ugly gash on the right cheek. He held his left arm out stiffly, 
and he walked as if he had been riding something uncomfortable for a 
very long time at high speed. He stopped before one of the larger 
suites of rooms, and sighed bitterly. A look of exhaustion and 
disappointment crossed his face, and he opened the door.

	Wintergreen sat calmly on the man's bed, looking at the door. The 
man cursed inwardly as he tried stumblingly to kneel.

	"My queen," he said, his head bent down in humility. "I got back 
as quickly as I could, and I."

	"Riesen. Please, spare the long winded explanation," the queen 
interrupted. "As much as I am sure you wish to regale with tales of 
your most recent failure, I am not interested. You had the means to 
destroy everything there, the enemy and the last entrance to the ring 
both, and you failed. That is all that is important here." She crossed 
her legs. "You know, of course, that this string of failures of yours 
displeases me greatly."

	Riesen lurched to his feet angrily, but remembered to keep his 
head down, humble before Wintergreen. "My queen, please, listen to me! 
The plan I made with you worked perfectly well! The Crystal Warriors 
would have been at my mercy. I isolated Yumi from the rest of them. She 
was a sitting duck. The other two and Wonka were in the ring chamber, 
and the Tridents pinned them in the tunnel. I got a hit in on Yumi. The 
Tridents could have melted the cave, and I was poised for victory. And 
then."

	"Yes, and then. That's the way it's been since I set you on this 
task, Riesen. Why this sudden run of incompetence? You've taken down 
kingdoms before, on your own. Can you not handle even a small group of 
teenagers? With everything I can offer you at your disposal? Perhaps my 
musings about making you my second in command before were misguided. 
You seem to be better able to serve at lower levels. There are others, 
of course." Wintergreen's expression turned thoughtful.

	Riesen's heart melted at the threat. He'd worked for so long, and 
now he was going to take the fall? No, he decided instantly. He looked 
up halfway, his taut expression visible to the queen. "My liege, 
please! I am more than capable. I had them in the palm of my hand, and 
then my supposed ally, Twizzler, attacked me! She brought an end to my 
upper hand. She crushed the Tridents. She mauled me with a magical 
attack that served no purpose, no reason. Except, of course, to save 
our foes."

	Wintergreen frowned slightly. "She attacked your force?"

	"Yes, my queen. She's the one to blame here. It was all 
coordinated, and she ruined it. If she had just defected to fight with 
me, then and there, we would have killed them all handily." Riesen 
looked up eagerly, seizing his chance. "If you ask me, my liege, her 
contact with the group has been too close for too long. All she talks 
about is that boy. She's dangerously close to turning to the other side 
completely. She nearly killed me, your servant, this time. What will 
she do next?"

	Wintergreen looked him over again, contemplating his condition. 
"What you say could be true. She's ingratiated herself, and she is in a 
position to attack. You presented her an opportunity to complete her 
mission, and she rejected it. To me, there are only two reasons that 
could explain why Twizzler would do that."

	"My queen, it's as I said. She's fallen too hard for that boy, 
and now she's actively ruining your handiwork to keep him for herself. 
Please, allow me to do what is right. Once I've rested for a few days, 
I will be more than happy to take care of both the traitor and her 
newfound compatriots. You may question my competence, Queen, and I've 
regrettably given you cause for that. But please, do not question my 
loyalty, or willingness to bring down your foes." Despite his injuries, 
Riesen fell neatly into his righteous orator stance as he spoke.

	Wintergreen sat motionless on the bed, looking at Riesen with a 
blank mask on her face. After a long pause, she smiled coldly. "Your 
zeal is to be commended, Riesen. But your staunch stand makes me 
wonder. Twizzler, too, has been a trusted operative of mine. She is 
flighty, perhaps, but she knows her work. So then, if she's not a 
defector as you claim, what other reason is there?" She looked at her 
palm in her lap, briefly, and then back up to Riesen's face. "Perhaps 
it was self-defense?"

	Riesen's face flushed, and he straightened up, looking even more 
wounded than before. "My queen, please! I would not jeopardize a 
mission to try to kill that little girl! I know that the priority lies 
with obeying your wishes. Any dispute that I could possibly have with 
her would fall far shy of doing what you require of me."

	Wintergreen snorted. "Come, Riesen. Do you take me for a fool? I 
remember quite well the ways you have dealt with perceived rivals in 
the past. Or have you forgotten Werther yourself?"

	"My queen, I could not forget such an unworthy person. He was 
twice the fool that even the Twixes were. I've yet to meet someone more 
ill-suited to helping you. His death wasn't my fault. He just didn't 
have what it took to be an undercover operative."

	"Werther, Riesen, melted quite well into opposing forces more 
than a few times. And, as I recall, you ran the government that found 
him out and executed him as a heretic behind the scenes quite well, 
too. I've always wondered about that little coincidence. Do you not 
find it strange that your competition would disappear in a country 
where you had power?"

	"My queen, I tried to save him from the other ministers, but I 
couldn't do anything without giving myself away as well. Once he erred 
so thoroughly, my saving him became an impossibility. I tried to save 
him, I did all I could. But his incompetence proved too great an 
obstacle for even me to overcome. To this day, I regret that I couldn't 
save him from his problems." Riesen's face betrayed his deep remorse.

	Wintergreen folded her hands in her lap, and gazed coolly at 
Riesen. "It strikes me that in a country you had in the palm of your 
hard, you could have done something if you thought it served you. And 
certainly, in your work you maneuver enemies to their deaths. If you 
attacked, and Twizzler happened to be in the way, well...how 
unfortunate for her, of course."

	Riesen drew himself up stiffly. "Queen, please believe me when I 
say that I believe Twizzler's relationship with the Crystal Warriors' 
Kyouji to pose more of a threat to us than to them as of now. She's a 
young, boy-crazed child, and romance will continue to cloud her 
judgment. It's only a matter of time before she does irreparable damage 
to our forces, if she's allowed to stay. She just can't finish the job 
correctly if she's letting her heart make the decisions."

	"Remind me, Riesen. How did you come into power in the land where 
Werther met his demise? Yes, I set you up as a counselor. You do come 
with such lovely recommendations from your past employers, especially 
the ones now under my rule." She allowed herself a thin-lipped smile. 
"But you didn't achieve true power until you gained the heart of the 
queen there, did you?"

	"That was different!" Riesen snapped. Wintergreen raised an 
eyebrow warningly, and he settled back into his aggrieved stance 
immediately. "My liege, I have been doing this for years. I am the 
premier infiltrator in all of Mars. To compare my actions with those of 
an undisciplined girl who can't keep her mind off the enemy long enough 
to remember her orders borders on ludicrous." He lowered his eyes to 
the floor. "I beg your pardon for being so frank, Queen, but I am proud 
of what I have done for you. I don't want to be belittled."

	Wintergreen tapped her foot on the floor, absent-mindedly. 
"Indulge me, Riesen. Let us compare your performance with the Crystal 
Warriors with hers. You managed to last significantly less than a week 
in their confidence before they unmasked you. Since then, your veiled 
attacks have failed; they've found the help they've needed to continue. 
Your overt attacks have failed as well. I gave you Tridents, some of 
the most ferocious beasts on the planet, and a situation in which 
victory should have been easy. And you could not pull off what I 
require you to do." She shook her head sadly.

	"My queen, there are reasons for all of those. Truly, my turning 
of the townspeople in village after village nearly broke them. Their 
magic user, Yumi, fell into despair due to my plan. They only escaped 
from my shadow by a freak chance. If that one worker of Wonka's hadn't 
passed them, they'd be wandering, homeless, unloved by the people 
they're here to save. They'd have been the easy pickings I promised to 
give you!"

	"Chance? In the past, you accounted for it, and succeeded despite 
some astonishingly lucky foes. Chance accumulates, and you plan around 
it. That is your strength, is it not, Riesen? Your plans?"

	He nodded mutely.

	"Well then, perhaps your strength is insufficient to defeat these 
foes. Whereas Twizzler infiltrated them, and still travels with them 
now, after a good amount of time. She built a relationship of trust 
with one of them, of romance. Even now, she drives a wedge further 
between the green priestess and the boy."

	Riesen smirked. "My Queen, allow me to remind you that she failed 
as well. Even with me at her disposal, her plan to keep the group from 
Wonka didn't work. She clung to it, and it fell apart."

	Wintergreen frowned very slightly. "Yes, she failed once. But, 
Riesen, she is still in a position to easily accomplish what I wish her 
to, whereas you are instantly viewed as a threat by their little band. 
I do not doubt your loyalty, for now. You proved yourself to me time 
and again. At the moment, however, I doubt your ability to perform in 
your best capacity. Twizzler's position within their group allows her 
more freedom to act. Her performance at infiltration here betters 
yours."

	Riesen's eyes bulged slightly, and his face tinged red. "My 
liege, I must say you stab at me with your words. I am the best at what 
I do, and I advise you not to trust someone like Twizzler, who would so 
callously attack an ally."

	Wintergreen stood, and looked regally into Riesen's battered 
face. "If Twizzler is truly disloyal, I will find out, and take care of 
her. For now, the hand that's in play favors her. She's doing better 
than you, Riesen." She favored him with one more cold smile. "Rest up 
from your defeat. You will have another chance to prove yourself soon. 
While you heal, however, I will send out Krackel. And I shall leave 
Twizzler to her duties. Good day."

	"Good day, my Queen," Riesen choked out, and knelt stiffly as 
Wintergreen left. After all his work, allowing himself to fall into 
disfavor with the queen couldn't be allowed. He couldn't be only third 
best behind a hostage swordsman and a girl who treated him like a 
punching bag. He grimaced as he walked to his bed. His next plan would 
have to meet with some success. His position, and his revenge on 
Twizzler for injuring him in body and reputation, depended on his 
thinking. He lay down, and began to analyze.

>o< >o< >o< >o< >o< >o< >o< >o<

Author's notes:

For once, I very nearly managed to get done everything I wanted. Oh 
well. At least I ended the run of skips. Which I started, but, well. 
Same old Impro track: I didn't finish everything, but I hope what I 
have is good enough. ^^;

Thanks to Nathan for some prereading, Nicolas and Kenji for offering, 
Illyria for much patience and an extension. And to you for reading, and 
hopefully tossing me some comments and reviews. Please?

-Capfox
tsuwabuki@utena.org
8/9/01