Out of Bounds and Beneath Dreams

Out of Bounds and Beneath Dreams
Part nine…

I. Three Doors and Three of Us
“There it is; Severnaya Zemlya,” Kurama told his comrades, as he pulled his parka closer to his skin. It was an insane destination, way up in the Russian high Arctic. It was an archipelago across the Vilkitsky Strait from Siberia’s Taymyr Peninsula, and oh yes, it was cold. But it was the place that Hiei pointed to on the map after his altercation which the Aeon Gareth had somehow imbued him some of the man’s memories.

Kurama learned from his web searches that-- save for an Artic base-- the place was completely devoid of humans. They cooked up some half baked story about being collage students doing research on mold spores in sub-degree environments and paid off some fishing captain from the mainland to ferry them out there. The fisherman took them as close to the shore as he could afford, they had to paddle the last few meters in a dingy. The man, needing to go do his fishing, said he would come back to pick them up at the end of the day.

“Is that going to be enough time?” Yusuke asked while rubbing his hands together for warmth.

“It will have to be,” Hiei told him. He didn’t seem to be having any troubles with the cold. However he was aware of his lover’s discomfort. The temperature would be even lower come nightfall and he wasn’t sure if Yusuke and Kurama’s metabolisms could handle it. “Anyway, we won’t need that much time. The entrance is hidden, but I know exactly where.”

Hiei started to lead the way and Yusuke commented, “Well good. Let’s get this over with and then we can go back to the hotel and you guys can help me find my balls.”

“Oh, I’m sure they’ve got to be somewhere close by,” Kurama grinned back at him, “I just had my hands on them this morning.”

“Ya wanna get a hand on them now?” Yusuke flirted.

“My hands are pretty cold, Yusuke,” Kurama teased back, “It might prove counterproductive.”

While this was going on, Hiei just rolled his eyes and walked on grumbling about having these two idiots in his life-- and feeling very lucky that he did. In all honesty, Hiei wouldn’t even have wanted to know how tedious this mission would have been without them. And he wasn’t just thinking about the sex they had in hotel rooms or under the stars while camping. He loved listening to them flirt and banter, it was entertaining. But more than that, just their presence was enough to make him feel… He didn’t know the right word, just lucky.

“Hey how’s about after we do this, the three of us find a hot tub or something,” Yusuke was saying.

Kurama laughed, “A hot tub and a snorkel.”

“A snorkel? What for?” Yusuke cocked his head.

“So I don’t drown while questing for your balls. I image that once I’m down there I’ll be staying for a while.” Kurama chortled.

How could any man be luckier? Well, Hiei had one idea… but that was just being greedy. Two lovers was more than enough.

“We’re here,” Hiei stopped when he felt they were in the right place. They were a ways from the shore by then, on a flat plateau, halfway up a mountain face. It was a good thing they had their demon speeds; otherwise the walk might have taken days. He gestured to a long flat rock that stood oddly vertical along the sheer cliff face, “Here we’ve got to move this.”

Yusuke pushed from one side while Hiei pulled on the other. The rock moved slowly after centuries of being stationary. It moved and behind it they found… a keypad of some sort.

“You know the pass code?” Yusuke asked.

Hiei thought, but nothing came to mind. That’s when Kurama spoke up, “999999. Six nines.”

“How you figure?” Yusuke looked at the redhead.

“You remember that inscription on the watch-- compass thing? It turned out to be the formula n=180-360/s,” Kurama explained. “The other side had a pentagram on it. So you plug in 5 for the number of sides(s) to make a pentagon and you get 180-360/5=108. Then when you draw a star inside the pentagon to make the pentagram, each 108 degree angle is cut into three smaller angles; 108/3. So, the measure of each point on the star is 36. 3+6=9. There are five points on a star so five nines. 9+9+9+9+9=45. 4+5=9; your sixth nine.”

Hiei and Yusuke glanced at each other. Yusuke “What are the chances this thing is booby trapped?”

“I don’t see any place where any poisoned darts or giant rock boarders could come out and kill us,” Hiei eyed the area, “Punch in the numbers.”

Yusuke swallowed and tapped 999999. The ground shuttered once and then the cliff face swung open to reveal a vast gapping doorway. Yusuke gulped, “Mother-fuck. He was right.”

“Of course he was,” Hiei said confidently, but inside he was willing his asshole to unclench or should it suck his pants right up inside him. With a quick prayer and an inventory of their balls, the three set off down the tunnel.

After some time the space opened up to a large vaulted room, obviously man made. But what man would build such a room? The stone blocks were massive and each cut to fit together so perfectly that they survived centuries without shifting. On one side of the room was a great imposing slab that looked like a door. It had a picture of the sun on it, but no knobs, handles or visible means of opening it.

“That looks important. Ya think the books in there?” Yusuke asked.

“Seems likely. Look there,” Kurama pointed up to an alcove high on the wall. It had little golden sun disk above it.

“You think the thing to open the door is up there?” Yusuke looked.

“One of them. Look over there and there too.” Kurama pointed to similar spots where there was a crescent moon and a group of twinkling things that were probably stars. “I’m guessing that those two aren’t there without reason. There are probably two more doors with their own opening/closing mechanisms.”

“Three doors and three of us,” Hiei put in, “If we split up we can get it over with faster.”

“One second,” Yusuke interjected as he paced closer to the big door, “Why should we bother with separating and running off on some stupid trip to get these doors open when I can just bust the friggen things down?” Before Hiei or Kurama could stop him, Yusuke rammed his fist into the door full tilt. The sound reverberated through the hall like a giant gong. “Gyhhh!” Yusuke yelled clutching his fist, “Damn, what’s that thing made of? I didn‘t even dent it!”

“Something the Aeons brought with them from the seat of the Elder Gods,” Hiei told him, “Besides, you should be glad it didn’t bugle there could traps set, should anyone try to force it open.”

“Yes, that was very reckless. Perhaps you would prefer to wait here where it’s safe, while Hiei and I open these doors?” Kurama said with a slight smile tugging at his lips.

“And perhaps you’d better lay down while we’re gone, you know so don’t fall down and hurt yourself,” Hiei teased.

“Hey! No fair ganging up on me except for in the bedroom!” Yusuke blurted out, “Whatever! Let’s get these friggen doors open already. I’ll take the one with the sun on it, kay?”

“I’ll take the moon then,” Kurama headed in that direction.

“That leaves me with the stars,” Hiei nodded and went.
* * *
II. Like a Friggen Tomb Raider Game
After traversing a long, long twisting corridor Yusuke emerged into a big room. There was little in the way of decoration there, just some fluted columns along the walls, a few horizontal poles that Yusuke could only assume once held banners and a chain that hang down from the middle of the ceiling which may have held a light at one time. From the doorway, he could immediately see a balcony set into the far wall where he could see an unmistakable gold sun disk over a lever. A long narrow staircase led right up to it. Easy. He stepped into the room and instantly his ears were assaulted by a very un-encouraging metallic clank. At the very same second, the floor beneath him sunk a good two inches. There was a click and then the stair case that Yusuke intended on mounting dropped down into the floor. And if that wasn’t enough sections of the walls and floor opened up to spew ragging jets of fire!

“Oh come on, what is this, like, a friggen Tomb Raider game!?” Yusuke shouted at the room. But the room was unmoved by his complaints and continued to be a deathtrap. It really was like a Tomb Raider game, so Yusuke took it for granted that it could be solved like a game. That is, there must be some way to either climb up to the lever or bring the stairs back.

He started by glancing around the room, looking for anything that stood out to him. He noted that all the fluted columns reached the top of the room, save for one on each side that stopped several feet from the ceiling. That was when he noticed the shiny silver rings that stuck out of the walls above them. The columns themselves had sustained many deep cracks over the years. Yusuke figured he could reach the rings by climbing those cracks and hopping between the pillars and poles, all the while avoiding the bursting jets of flame, of course.

“Yeah,” Yusuke muttered bitterly, “There any chance I get a save spot before I gotta do this?”

He dashed across the floor avoiding spouts of fire, to where he could see a crack low enough to jump up and grab. Luckily it was right next to one of pillars with the ring at the top. There was another crack above it he could reach. He ascended the column in that manner until he was high enough to jump for one of those horizontal bars. He jumped and much to his dismay the moment his weight was on it, the bar squeaked in protest and started to give under his weight.

“Gyhh! This was more fun when the chick with the big rack was doing it!” Yusuke blathered mindlessly as he pitched himself off the bar toward the next pillar, not even sure if there was a handhold for him to grab onto! He hit it and slipped down a freighting ways before his hands gripped a crevice. He almost stopped to breath there, but then a menacing whooshing came from directly beneath him.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he shouted as he preformed a contortionist’s feet and brought his toes all the way up above his head to where is fingers clung in the crevice. And in one hard jack-rabbit kick he propelled himself up the remaining length of the column. He scrambled over the top just in time to feel the column of heat lick at his back side.

“One down,” Yusuke griped the silver ring and gave it a triumphant pull. The ring came out of the wall and at the same time the column that Yusuke was standing on started to topple over. He cried out, “Oh fuck, why didn’t I read the walk through first!”

As the column fell Yusuke spotted the chain hanging from the ceiling, it was right in reach! He sprang off the column and grabbed the dangling chain in midair. His momentum sprung him forward and he saw the opposite column loom up in front of him. No time to think, he let go and flew out into the open space. He reached his arms out as far as he could… and just barely managed to snatch at top edge. His body slammed hard on the side. It knocked the wind out of him and nearly caused him to loose his grip. He pulled himself up and addressed the second ring.

“Not going to get me this time,” he said shrewdly and looked to either side for a ready escape route. There were more of those bars that could take his weight for a second, and there were cracks on the columns to his right. Route planned, he quickly pulled the ring and dove for the bar. As before it groaned under his weight, but he was ready for it this time and quickly let go to swing over grab a handhold on the next column. That was when a shadow fell on him and he glanced behind. The middle column wasn’t falling toward the middle of the room this time, but to the side-- the side Yusuke was on!

With a flurry of curses the scurried around the column and propelled himself to the next pole and then to the next column. The middle column hit the one he was last on and it started to topple toward the one he was now on. Yusuke quickly dropped down to a lower handhold and from there to the ground with a painful thump. The thump was followed by a whooshing sound. Yusuke landed right on top of a jet. He barely rolled out of the way before it erupted. After that there was an audible click and then the fires stopped and the stairs rose once again from the floor. Yusuke then was able to climb up and throw that damned lever.

About half an hour early, Kurama emerged from a long and uneventful corridor to find a vast open room made white stone that sparkled with frost. It was long, wide, and very empty. It would have made a fine ballroom if it wasn‘t in the middle of a mountain in the artic circle. On the other side of the room, directly across from the doorway, Kurama could see a big lever under a gold moon sign. He almost walked right into the room.

He stopped and muttered to himself, “Too easy. Much too easy.”

He reached up, broke a thick chunk of ice off the hallway and tossed it into the middle of the room. As soon as the chunk of ice touched it, the floor fell away down into a deep black pit, all save for one winding path of tiles that Kurama could see was supported by columns that jutted up from that inflatable depth. He assumed that that path was for those who were supposed to be there. And those who did not know the way, well…. That was not the end of it either, as soon as the floor gave way it must have triggered some internal mechanism, because then huge guillotine blades swung down from recesses in the ceiling, passing at odd angles over the walkway. In case the floor trick didn’t kill the intruders.

It was like one of those games Yusuke plays, the one with the busty British girl. In that game you’d be expected to execute a series of complicated, heart stopping jumps, drives and rolls to get to the other side. Yeah, Kurama wasn’t doing that. Instead he reached into the hood of his parka and pull out a handful of what looked like dandelion seed. He blew them out into the space and watched them land on the blades and the walls. And then all at once, they exploded in a wave of greenery. Roots tangled around the guillotine shafts as stocks and leaves reached out to tangle with the plants that were rooting themselves to the walls. In a few short seconds the whole apparatus was chocked with weeds and ground to a halt. Kurama tucked his hands in his pockets and went on his way whistling a jauntily tune. There were no surprises after he pulled the lever, so he turned back the way he came.

While Kurama was assessing the deadly moon room, Hiei was puzzling out the room he’d come into. It was a tall room but no more than fifteen by fifteen feet in floor space. There were several vertical fixtures of varying height raising from the floor. At first Hiei thought were ice stalagmites, but farther inspection proved them to be some sort of crystalline sculptures. As soon as he walked in he noticed the star disk, bolted to the wall over a hole. He examined it and found no buttons or levers, nothing at all that looked like it could open a door, only a hole.

Other than that, the only other curious thing in the room was one crystal that protruded from the ceiling that glowed brightly like a light bulb and threw a shaft of light off to one side. Hiei wondered about that. Was it enchanted, like that floating ball that Ianto had? Hiei faltered in his thoughts as his mind alighted on the blond. Not for the first he was struck by the absolute surrealism of his memory of the blond. He knew he never really touched him with his hands, never really kissed him with his lips. The man was just a ghost of a consciousness that lingered in that strange world that wasn’t real, but somehow existed. Yet, Hiei couldn’t forget him like any other whimsy. At that moment as he was standing there, Hiei half felt that he could turn around and find Ianto standing there with that absent smile playing on his lips and that unknowable look shining in his Atlanta green eyes.

Hiei glanced behind him and then scoffed at himself. Silly. Though if Ianto were there, he though, he could probably have told him exactly how the damned light worked. In all likelihood it wasn’t magic at all, but simply light from outside, refracted off a series of crystals.

“Wait a second,” Hiei muttered to himself . He went to the spot where the ray of light touched the floor. He brushed away the frost and found a circle painted on the floor. He sneered, “It’s a puzzle, then. Great.”

He soon discovered that the circle he found was on a thread-like line that formed a loop around the room. Sweeping away more frost he found more circles on lines, twelve of them. On that note, there were twelve of those crystal sculptures. And on farther inspection of the latter Hiei found what he recognized as astrological symbols carved on their stone bases. Hiei smiled, feeling quiet clever. Of course the twelve stones stood for the stars-- or plants as the case may be, revolving around the sun. All he had to do was move each crystal into the spot of its proper solar rotation. Okay, it wasn’t that easy, Hiei couldn’t remember exactly what symbol stood for what planet and he got a little mixed up on the order.

Eventually, he got it right. When he put the last one in place the light refracted through the crystals and into the hole under the star sign. Hiei would probably never really understand how it worked, but the wall opened up and there was the lever ripe for the pulling. That done, he booked it back to main room at top speed. He was apparently the first one back. The sun door was still closed so that meant that Yusuke hadn’t pulled his lever yet.

He wondered how his lovers were doing. He figured Kurama would be fine, the moon room was anything like the room he’d been in. The fox once made a living out of doing stuff like this. He’d probably already pulled his lever and was one his way back. Yusuke on the other hand… Hiei contemplated heading down the sun corridor to see if the ex-detective needed a hand. But then as if the thought triggered it, he heard the sound of stone grating on stone. He turned expectedly toward the door to find a slab of the stone floor was tipping up on one end. It turned itself completely over and on the other side-- another lever!

“Really?” Hiei trotted over to it, careful that the floor wouldn’t pivot when he stood on it, “This is as ridiculously complex as that game with that big chested broad that Yusuke likes to play!” He grasped the handle and thought for a second if he should wait for his comrades to return before going forward. Then he thought, well, it wouldn’t hurt to just go ahead and see what’s on the other side.

He pulled the lever. The floor seemed to vibrate for a second and then the sun door opened to the moon door, it promptly opened to the star door and then that opened to the space beyond. Hiei tracked forward, carefully down the short hall and past the first door and the second and then at the third-- He crashed into it, it was like an invisible wall, but colder. It was a wall of ice. Hiei didn’t see it because it was so flawlessly clear. It must have been formed all at once, because layers would have been visible if it was formed over time. Hiei could see into the room like looking into a window. Up on a stone dais he could see their reason for coming there, the Book of Cures and Reverses.

But there was something else in the room which he could not ignore. On the bottom step of the dais, there was a man, sitting with elbows resting on his drawn up knees. He looked so small curled up in his long thick robe-like coat. The only part of him that Hiei could see were his pale, dainty hands where they cupped over his hidden face, like a weeping angel. Hiei recalled those anguished cries he’d heard in Gareth’s memories. “WHY? At least tell me why.” Hiei suddenly thought he tasted bile in the back of his throat. He growled, if for anything than to keep from vomiting. That bastard Gareth didn’t die nearly painfully enough.

No use in regrets, eyes on the prize. He had to get through that ice in order to get to the book. He charged up his fist with heated energy and punched the wall. It cracked, but didn’t fall. Hiei looked at the cracks he made and saw how deep into the room they extended. He breathed, “Shit, the things one solid block.”

That made things a bit more complicated. Curving through the ice would take forever and melting it would risk causing water damage to the book. Then Hiei thought, what the hell, and paced back out into the main room. Tossing off his coat and bandages, Hiei felt that familiar excitement boiling in his gut as he raising to his right arm.

Outside on the archipelago Severnaya Zemlya, the bleak stillness white landscape was shaken when suddenly one of her mountains exploded in a hail of stone and ice. And if there had been anyone there to see it, said someone would have sworn they’d seen a dragon made of black fire surging from the hole in the mountain, clutching a small stone building in its jaws.

Yusuke and Kurama were nearly at the ends of their respective corridors when they heard the roar of flames and felt the mountain shutter. They both emerged just in time to see Hiei dash into the gapping hole where the next room should have been. Yusuke spit some choice expletives as he ran to the hole and looked out. Hiei was sprinting down the torn mountainside as he chased his dragon. Kurama quickly came up beside Yusuke and then Yusuke learned some new expletives.
* * *
III. It Can’t Be
Hiei came to a halt on the spot newly of cleared land, where his dragon had fizzled out. There the vault of the Book of Cures and Reverses sat like a small building with thick ribbons of steam lolling out of its open door. Hiei striated inside up platform, where the book rested. He touched it; dry as a bone. That was his idea, to raise the temperature so fast that the ice would go from solid to vapor without having to go to liquid in between. But at the same time he had to be careful not to go too hot or he would have boiled away the stream too and incinerated the book. Well, he wasn’t the master of the Darkness Flame for nothing.

He took the book and turned to leave. But as he descended the dais, he paused next to where the frozen young man’s body lay. Without the ice to support it, his body now lay limp, face down on the steps. Call it curiosity or impulse, but Hiei stopped and crouched down next to the body, setting the much sought after book on the ground. He placed his hands on the man’s shoulders and turned him over. His dark hood fell back as he turned. Hiei’s heart jumped up into his throat. It was a heart shaped face with a small straight nose and full lips that looked like they should be pink and smiling. But at the moment they were lax and blue. Hiei knew his eyes would have been large and expressive when they were open-- and Atlanta green. He had yellow hair.

“It can’t be,” Hiei whispered to himself, “Ianto?” This was how Ianto died. Hiei remembered again those memories he’d stolen from Gareth, those mournful pleas, so scared and alone, from the other side of a locked tomb. That was Ianto’s voice-- why Hiei haven’t recognized it earlier….

“That bastard,” Hiei spoke, touching Ianto’s cheek. It was ice cold. His skin had always been abnormally cold. Somehow, Hiei knew this was why. He had been abandoned in a place so cold that it leached all the way to the core of his soul and followed his consciousness into Dreams.

“Hey Hiei, what the hell do you mean running off like-- Uh, what cha got there?” Yusuke’s voice startled him from the doorway. He looked pointedly at the body cradled in Hiei’s arms. Then, “Oh, right you said that Gareth had a partner that he betrayed and locked up in here, right. So, that’s him? Shit, what a waste. He was cute too.”

Hiei looked up at Yusuke amazed, “You’ve never seen him before?”

“Huh?” Yusuke frowned in clear confusion.

“You…” Hiei shook his head. Of course, Ianto said Yusuke would have forgotten him, because even though they were together for a year and as close as any two friends could be, Yusuke’s mind and heart were always focused on him and Kurama. Anyway, Ianto was dead-- had been for five centuries. So, there was little point in trying to remind Yusuke of their association. It would have only compounded the tragedy. But, still….

“Could you carry the book, Yusuke,” Hiei instructed as he lifted Ianto’s cold body into his arms.

Yusuke shrugged, “Yeah, but what are doing with that?”

“Taking him someplace warmer,” Hiei muttered, “He deserved that, at least.”

Kurama was just outside when Yusuke and Hiei emerged from the vault. He frowned at seeing Hiei’s burden, but said nothing. At least, not until later when they broke for lunch near the shore. It would still be hours before their ride came back to pick them up and take them back to the mainland. Yusuke was heating some canned soup on a portable gas burner while Kurama unwrapped the sandwiches and Hiei quietly brooded over the wrapped body.

Kurama muttered to him, “You’re all worked up and I think know why.”

“You do?” Hiei glanced up at him in surprise. For a second Hiei thought Kurama actually remembered the blond. But that was soon proven wrong.

“Of course, this young man, whoever he was, was Gareth’s partner and he betrayed him. I know that’s sort of sore button for you. As far I know there’s only one person that you’ve ever let get away with it,” Kurama said coyly.

Hiei smirked, knowing that Kurama was referring to himself and the first time they encountered Yusuke. And soon after when he and Yusuke fought. “Well, it was for my own good. And image all great sex we would have missed, if you hadn’t stopped me from killing him.”

“It would have been a shame,” Kurama smiled and put an arm around his small lover’s shoulders.

Hiei leaned into him, tipping his face up so that the fox could kiss him. But then a sudden clatter drew their attention. As one, their heads whipped round to find the source of the disturbance. It was the can of soup Yusuke had been warming. It had fallen off the stove and Yusuke… was no were near it. The two demons glanced around. It was Kurama who spotted him in the distance.

“There he is. What is he doing way over there?” Kurama stood to jog over to him. Yusuke had his back to them, and from his posture and his up raised hand, it looked like he was scanning the land at the edge of their picnic area. Though he was doing so for an oddly long time. Kurama was only paces away from him, calling his name, when Hiei thought, shouldn’t he be responding or at least moving?

That was when a horrified chill ran up Hiei’s spine and he called out, “Kurama stop!”

Kurama did stop, but too late. He froze in mid-step and stayed like that. Hiei sprung to his feet and dashed closer. He stopped some yards from them, because he was close enough to confirm what he already suspected, and to tell the truth, his legs just couldn’t hold him up anymore. Kurama and Yusuke were turned stone.
* * *
TBC…
A/N: Oh, gasp, a twisty! Hope you enjoyed in spite the gratuitous math video game references. What can I say, I’m a geek. Please review. And as always see ya next time.