Chapter 10

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY LITTLE ONES?!!"

Meilan and her dragon both spin around a moment too late, the crumbled underwater grave that Wufei had thought he had sent the water wench to. It suddenly vibrates uncontrollably, destructively. The darkened waters pulsate with an undeniable venomous anger that neither of the dragon masters had ever witnessed before in the crazed, ominous look. Unspoken threats scream out in the Water Nymph's frightening, illuminated eyes -- the all powerful light of justice searing behind them...

ROAR!!!!

The thunderous waves impact was deadly. Meilan's Nataku dragon by chance and good fortune alone escapes the torrent that surely would have ended the existence of both of them.

The magic this peaceful Water Nymph was wielding was far beyond what either dragon master expected to find. But when a woman, even a gentle, peaceful soul as Sallie, was angry...

Never before had Wufei, legendary DragonMaster, seen such an impressive display of powers clashing, of wills colliding, of strength being tested to the farthest limits of life and death as he watches the two female warriors clash again and again.

Their force displayed, their strength revealed as back and forth they spar. Neither gained, but neither's spirits would admit to defeat. After all, though Meilan was Wufei's compatriot and life long partner, he would never think to interfere with any fight she undertook. It was the sworn code of dragon warriors to never come between a pitched battle of equally matched souls of fighters.

And at this moment, that was a fact that Wufei's jet black eyes were certain of. He was always aware of Meilan's fierce heart of war, otherwise he would not associate himself with a lowly, weak woman.

But never, upon first seeing the blue transparent visage of the Water Nymph's weak gentility, could he have imagined that she too contained the heart of a warrior. A soul of pure strength and he considers this as the battle rages on before his eyes...

And that revelation excites him more than any battle he had ever given witness to before in his entire life as a fighting soul.

CRAAAASH!!!!!!!

Blue fire blazes at its target. Nataku Dragon's deadly sharp spiked tail slashes out at the Water Nymph. Sallie falls with the tears of realization that her beloved fairies were no more than the dust that was once on their backs. Their delicate little back which could not bear the cruelties that this world offered....

"Ha ha ha ha!! I am more powerful than you, Water Nymph! Ha! Admit defeat and bow down before me. Surrender if it pleases you. Beg for your life. I still won't allow you to live, will I, Nataku?" Meilan pats the head of her evil eyed dragon she was atop conspiratorally. Both beast and rider showed their true colors of malignant evil, devoid of reason or purpose or honor in the wicked laughter that follows her victory speech.

The evil in Meilan's eyes was deep and pervading, and as sickening as her chuckling gloating. She and Nataku skulk in slowly towards where the defenseless Water Nymph lay. The evil of her deeds finishing off the final touch of whatever goodness once was in this daughter of an honorable clan of warriors. A wicked flame now burned in her dark eyes, consuming her soul....

"Every one of your pathetic fairies got down on her knees and begged me to spare her sorry existence! The sniveling, weak things made my job of plucking their wings even more enjoyable as even I imagined! Won't you do the same for me as your little pixies did, O honored Water Nymph? Won't you grovel at my feet before I tell my dragon to eat you?! Perhaps I won't let her if you grovel enough. And then again, perhaps I will." Meilan, it seemed, was beyond salvation. The venom in her voice was as terrible as the scheming lies and deceit in her eyes. Sallie, lying there on the waterbed floor, her grief for her lost fairies--the little ones who were under her protection, who needed her--was too much for her to bear. Perhaps that grief and utter sadness caused this powerful Water Nymph to continue to lay still and vulnerable. Even as the deadly dragon's yellowed teeth smiled its death upon her no longer translucent weakened to mere mortality body...

But Sallie, despite losing her immortality, despite losing her heart--her beloved adored fairies--she had not lost her pride. And no amount of taunting, nor wheedling words of sparing her life from the evil dragon woman or the drooling death dragon hovering mere inches above her body, could take that away from her.

Even in death, Sallie would have that. She closes her eyes, fully prepared for the worst as Nataku's dragon teeth snap open and around her weak body...

"MEILAN! CEASE THIS!!!" His was the last voice Sallie expected to intervene on her behalf. He himself had cackled at her inept weakness just minutes before his evil partner in crime had arrived to finish off the job. What Sallie did not realize until this very moment was that this Dragonmaster--the one Meilan had called 'Wufei'--had something in him far superior than whatever evil, whatever wicked, had corrupted his heart and mind, just the same as it had corrupted Meilan's that fateful day, so long ago.

For inside Wufei, mighty Dragonmaster, was a golden thread that had not yet been blackened by the evils in this world---a binding strand that wove everything the man was together into the strong warrior he had become. And that line ran deep in his soul was the straight and narrow path---

Of justice.

He unleashes his own Shenlong dragon's teeth. The sharp fangs sink deep into the thick scaled neck of its own lifelong partner. Nataku roars in pain as Shenlong lashes it backwards violently in the endless struggle of life and death.

Nataku's fanged teeth and white fire fight back as one turns upon the other. Brother against Sister, evil against evil.

Leaping from Shenlong's warring neck onto Nataku's outstretched one, Wufei grabs hold of Meilan, pushing both of them from the dragons' fierce backs. Green and aqua blood mixed in the waters below as the dragons battle in a way only beasts could do. Savagely, heartlessly, soullessly, and without justice.

"What have you done, Wufei?! My Nataku! Your Shenlong!! Our cherished dragons!! Why have you unleashed them on each other?! Why, Wufei?! WHY!?!" Clasped tight in the strength of his muscular arms, Meilan fights him as he sets her down on the river floor. She pounds on his chest so hard that it almost hurt.

But Wufei didn't care. This was the path of justice. This was right. He was always right.

"Because this is justice, woman! You know it! At least, you used to know it. The just do not taunt the weak, nor prey on their vulnerability. The minute you fall into that trap, you are classed as weak, too. No better than her. Perhaps she is even stronger than you." Wufei's chin juts out pointedly at the Water Nymph still laying there, though weakened and useless. Her high ideals of fighting for goodness now lay there with her, in a weak pile of female tears on the riverbed floor. Her spirit was broken, defeated by a silly thing called grief.

"Justice, Wufei?! Justice?! What does justice matter in the world of strength and power! When Lord Dermail rules over all!! Answer me that, you fool!!" Meilan's fists clench so tightly her red nails dig red blood into her palms. The fire blazing in her eyes was that of a possessed soul of evil as her fists strike out in anger at him.

Red blood escapes Wufei's own split lip, mixing into the waters. In a daze, Sallie is a spectator on the arguing Dragon Masters. She watched as the male strikes the female in the face with a retaliating blow, so harsh, fierce and fast, the slap could be heard audibly over the water currents.

"Wake up, Meilan! You've been fooled! We've both been deceived by Dermail. If he was strong, he would not need to destroy the weak. But if he is weak, he does not deserve to rule this world or any. Justice would not allow it." Wufei states. The fierceness in his dark eyes were so intense that Sallie could feel their strength inside her body. His intense warrior's blood somehow gave her strength as it ebbed into her waters, through the river, and into her fading body...

"Justice...?" The wheels of what was once good inside Meilan's heart begin to stir. His words, his intense eyes, found some piece of her that was not yet overtaken by evil. Meilan's eyes wander the seas, connecting with those of the Water Nymph she had so eagerly wished destruction upon before.

The viciousness in Meilan's eyes faded with the gentle, calming ones in Sallie's eyes. And in those clear eyes, Meilan sees a reflection--Sallie's unspoken warning---of fear.

"Wufei!! The dragons!!" Meilan, Dragon Master, saw in Sallie's eyes, the danger behind him. Their warring dragons' battle was coming closer and closer in their wild, barbaric attacks. Scales, sharp as razor tails and fangs flew towards Wufei's unknowing back in a certain death....

And she throws herself in front of him, knocking Wufei out of the way. Meilan, the evil blackness that had encompassed her being, evaporates in this final act of bravery, of loyalty and friendship--and of infinite justice.

"MEILAN!!!!" Wufei's soul screams out at the horror of her sacrifice. Her blood spills out into the water as her own dragon's tail had lashed out, slicing her body. The waters turn red, swirling about them.

"You were right, Wufei." Meilan whispers her last. "This is justice. I deserve this fate. I've wronged innocents unjustly. Please forgive me, honored Water Nymph..." Meilan's sporadic words were no longer laced with the venom she had address Sallie in earlier. Now, with a new respect for this soul whose eyes had warned her of impending danger. She was a far better spirit than Meilan believed herself to be. But in this sacrifice, it had proved them, if nothing else--as equals.

"Right my wrongs....Take up her cause, Wufei. To free my soul...please..." Meilan's whispers fall upon Wufei's chest. He holds his partner close to him. Both the warrior's within them knew this was the end of their unbreakable partnership as fighters, side by side, together.

Meilan decided, right there and then, that Wufei had found a suitable replacement for her--in the Water Nymph who had shown to her the true path of what righteousness is.

"...For justice..." She trails off. Her last words evaporating into nothingness as her battered body falls limp in Wufei's trembling arms.

"Justice...."

The light Sallie had glimpsed earlier in his eyes emblazens with a fire of raw power. He lowers his dead partner to the floor and stands, with a vengeance to destroy the creatures they once held so dearly, running in his every vein. To avenge his sister dragon master.

A shimmering sword tinted green forms in his hands. Wufei propels himself through the waters, charged with the energy of righteousness and justice for Meilan.

SHIK! CHIK!!

In two flashes of a magical sword's blade, two huge jewels coated in green and aqua, float down to the river's depths. The roaring in pain, once invincible mystic dragons shriek as their power source implanted upon their foreheads are cut off, making them creatures of mere mortality again. Any being of power could now easily vanquish them in this weakened form.

And Sallie takes up the cause, for this world's safety and for justice for a brave, warrior girl that these dragons had just taken the life of.

And for him...

And above all, for justice. With the help of Water mistress Sallie's powers, the solid forms that the dragons Shenlong and Nataku once were melt into the waters surrounding them...