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Peace Finally
By RankoSaotome

Disclaimer: Chris Lightfellow and her fellow Suikodenians belong to Konami, not me. This fic concept is mine.

"KILL HER!!!!" Chris cursed as she slowly sidled away along the ground. It was the events in Iksay, only gone wrong. She'd been seperated from Nash sometime during the revolt, and her weapon lay some five feet away from her, herself surrounded by Grasslanders on all sides, all of them holding weapons of equal pain and blood.

She tried to find an opening to escape from, but she couldn't escape the scrutiny of Lucia's gaze, her murderous gaze that filled her so full of dread. She knew she would know pain intimitately tonight, and the thought of the mercy of death was the only thing that even slightly cheered her up.

"Well, well, the mighty Silver Maiden lays unarmed at my feet. Only question is will I give you the eternal silence now..." Lucia stated slowly before snapping her whip back, letting it fly and tagging Chris again along one arm. "Or kill you slowly... paying you back for every life you took from us."

Chris hissed from the pain of her wound, sliding away slowly towards her weapon, dodging an arrow from the large crowd that threatened to take her life. This was her fears personified, her agony and pain given form. "I do not beg for mercy, Lucia, as much as you wish me to grovel at your feet."

"Such a pity." Another crack of the whip brought short backed the silver haired girl up, earning her a slash of a Grasslandian scimitar along her back. With another painful cry, she staggered forward, dropping slowly to her knees. Blood flowed freely down her back, as it stained her clothing and left her gasping.

Another crack of Lucia's whip slashed through Chris' inattention, forcing herself to roll away from the attack least she get hit again. She knew she couldn't take much more, and she only prayed Nash or Percival would save her before she was killed.

"Would've thought I'd find you here. Perhaps we should just capture you and torture you? Give you a slow, painful death? Or maybe we'll drag it out for a few years, make you beg..." Lucia slowly brought the pommel of her whip underneath the knight's chin, forcing her to look up and smiling in delight of the tears in the knight's eyes.

"You b***h... Do you enjoy making me suffer for things I could no better control than you and your people?"

"How else can I take vengeance for that massacre you created when you became Captain? You took the lives of hundreds, yet you feel no remorse! You took my friend Luce's child away from her when you burned my village!!" Another crack filled the air as Lucia leveled Chris to the ground, with a rather large bruise on her left temple.

"Do you really think a moment goes by when that boy's death does not haunt me? Do you really think I took pleasure in killing him?! DO YOU!?!" Chris asked as she nimbly, yet painfully, avoiding another attack from behind, this time from one of the spears the Lizard Clan uses. This only earned Chris another mark along her back from Lucia's whip.

"If you really regret it, then why did you do it? Tell me, you obstinate little girl." Chris' eyes narrowed for a moment, but she refused to move. She just kept her head bowed, trying to fight back the tears. Of course, she was in no mind to avoid the several lashes of Lucia's whip that cracked along her back, nor the strike of the shaft of a spear that leveled her.

"Why don't you answer me!!! Why did you kill him?!" Another crack of Lucia's whip came down, hard along the silver haired maiden's side. She writhed in pain for a second, then settled still.

After a few moments of silence, someone finally spoke. "Is she dead?" That was quickly answered as the still body gained some movement, the previously still form slowly, and staggeringly, got to her feet.

"Why do you continue to beat on me? Revenge? Justice? Or do you just like the pain you inflict in me?" Chris' face slowly rose once more, and Lucia immediately swallowed. Chris was crying, her green shirt slowly staining red in her blood. Now, it was just a small smudge, but was it going to get bigger?

Lucia staggered a little backwards as she suddenly felt her backbone leave her. Sure, she'd wanted the girl to submit to her wills, but not even she could anticipate this!! "What?"

"Do you enjoy making me hurt? Are you enjoying making me bleed?" Chris took a step forward, and Lucia took one back. With a raised eyebrow, Chris advanced again. And again, Lucia retreated. "Why do you run from me, Lucia? You seemed quite content beating me halfway to death earlier... Am I really so dangerous now that I'm standing?"

Lucia was beyond words. Was Chris bluffing? Trying to get her to back down with just her words and no actions behind them? Swallowing her nervousness she forced herself forward, getting up in Chris face so close, they were almost kissing.

Neither moved for several moments, then Chris cruelly smirked and kissed Lucia.

Lucia's eyes were immediately wide as she pulled back and lashed out with her whip once again. The hit struck a rather weak area of Chris' left leg and she gave a cry, then collapsed.

"Why you evil little b***h, I outta!!!" For a moment, it looked like Lucia was finally going to strike more fatalistic blows, but she paused. And a thought formed, one so evil, she HAD to do it.

"You, my dear, are going to get something so much worse than death." And she moved closer and sat on Chris' back, grabbing one of Chris' limp arms and pulling it behind her back. Within moments, she began twisting and Chris was screaming.

It took quite some time, but Chris's struggles eventually ceased, and she began to realize just how little of a choice she had. It was either surrender, or die. To think of it, it wasn't even much of a choice, really. But what other option did she have?

"What... do you want from me...?" Lucia only smiled evilly, then began to explain what she wanted.

"Now, you listen here, Silver Maiden..." Chris lightly bristled at the underlying insult, though she did her level best to keep from commenting. Chris was more aware of the pain that exploded in her arm than how Lucia's breath felt as it danced along the back of her neck.

"Now, you know how you burned my village. Well, you, Silver Maiden, WILL help to rebuild our home. Then, you will abandon your position as the Zexen Captain..." Chris' eyes tore with tears as she tried to look back, fearing what Lucia was about to say.

"Then live out the rest of your life as a Karayan. You will live for us, you will fight for us, you will cry for us..." Lucia paused for a few moments, slowly releasing her vice-like hold on Chris' arm. "And you will die for us."

Chris' thoughts were scattered about as the pain in her arm began to subside, making her more and more aware of Lucia being on her back. For a few moments, she feared her own answer more than anything else in her life before.

But, she had no choice but to answer. Nash and Percival's lives may very well count on her decision at that very moment. If she refused, she and her companions would very well be killed, but if she accepted...

Chris shed her tears as she nodded her head lightly, accepting the chief's terms and her new fate.

- - - - - - -

"Chris, over here! Help me get this up so Hugo can nail it in place!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

It's been three years since the 2nd Flame Champion War, and, true to Chris' word, she was now living amongst the Karaya. It had taken a little while for them to deal with her living with them, but the fact she had to do ANYTHING they said, within reason, was quite tempting.

Thankfully, Lucia had said anything Chris was completely unwilling to do, was outside of those boundries. Such examples included rape, gore, and torture.

Of course, not everything could go smoothly. During the first few months, Hugo was constantly trying to kill her and, since she was disallowed any weaponry outside of battle, she either went home bleeding or ran like hell until she finally lost him at some point. He had yet to place her in a true life-threatening situation.

After those few months, most of the village seemed to have warmed up to the former-foe. Well, they sort of had to, what with the village being rebuilt and expanded for new touches. She and everyone else especially liked getting the bathhouse put in.

She still had scars from that night, a high number of scars along her body that were inflicted from either scimitar or whip. Still, she, after the village's revival, spent most of her time as Lucia's hand maiden, no pun intended.

Now, the village was being expanded once again, since there was no war and peace all over the Grasslands. The problem, though, was that Chris feared she'd never truly be a Karayan, especially not with the past she had with them.

"Chris, watch it!"

"S-sorry!" And she started shoving back against the new wall once again, her arms and those of the others with her straining to hold the walls up while several others were nailing them together to the supports.

From worse to worse, she also became the village scapegoat. Whenever something that involved her went wrong, she was to blame. To the truth, Chris, at first, had had no idea there was a big difference between Karayan punishment and Zexen punishment. When she'd found out Karayan punishment involved either get her a** reddened and blistered, she'd been only too happy to stay out of trouble.

"Push!!!" And Chris began shoving with all her might, quite aware she probably wouldn't receive any thanks or any concern if she got hurt. Her whole boy seemed to scream out for her to stop, but she ignored her aches and pains, and shoved onward.

"Just a little more... there!!" And the men and women on the ladders began nailing the walls into the supports, doing their hardest and quickest to lighten the load the lifters were having.

After several minutes of nailing, a new building was finally finished, and it was time to call it a day.

"Good job today, Chris. You might be accepted sometime soon if you continue to work this hard for us." Chris was speechless for a few moments, just watching Beecham leave her to her own devices. Today was one of those rare days that Lucia would allow Chris to get herself a little R&R, but she had decided to help out instead.

After a few moments, Chris started back towards Lucia's hut, intent on checking on her before going back to relaxing. Of course, she held a sort of contempt towards Lucia for bringing her to this position in the first place, but she couldn't help but, as she spent more time with her, gain a kind of affection for Lucia.

'Goddess help me, am I falling for Lucia?' She thought before mentally correcting herself and asking the Spirits instead. While she didn't receive an answer, she really didn't need one, considering she knew the answer all too well.

Chris slowly came to a stop outside the flap to Lucia's home, knocking on the wood of the frame before announcing herself. "Lady Lucia? Are you in here?"

"Come in, Chris." Chris slowly moved the flap that doubled as both a privacy screen and a door, then froze at the sight before her. Lucia was naked to the bone in a little tub of hot water, taking a bath. "What timing, can you wash my back for me?"

Despite the long amount of time Chris had spent serving the Karayan Chief, she had never once walked in on Lucia while she was either in the bath or 'indisposed', as she liked to call it when she had private meetings with a strange, black-haired stranger. Chris could have sworn the man looked like Master Tir McDohl...

"Um, of course, my lady." Lucia lightly smiled at the Zexenish use Chris made of calling her superiors. Lucia found it both odd and amusing at the same time. Of course, not odd enough to warrent her personal attention, since she had long since learned that Chris was the irrepresible type. No matter how much she pushed, she could never make Chris truly submit.

Chris slowly moved over to Lucia's bath. "You might want to remove your clothes, Chris. You might get them all wet." Chris hesitated at that, looking down at her green and lavender Karayan outfit, then slowly began to act of disrobing.

The more she stripped, though, the more nervous she felt. She could have sworn Lucia's gaze was burning through her clothing and stripping her with her eyes. Was there an attraction in Lucia to her, and that's why she's been so gentle with her lately?

Shucking her clothing took very little time, neither did finding someplace to put them take much time. Of course, she wanted to take her time, not hurry. She was about to BATHE another woman, and she'd have no wash her back, her stomach, her brea...

'No, calm down, girl... Get a hold of yourself. It's not like Lucia will make me wash her WHOLE body...' Chris thought, moving over to the wash tub and kneeling down next to it.

Lucia smiled as she bent at the waist, moving away from Chris and handing up her washcloth. Then Chris took it, and Lucia took her wrist. Chris stared at her questionably, as Lucia began inspecting her arm.

Scars ran all along her arms, both of them covered in bruises, scrapes, and scars that would never heal, never fade. Scars that would cover the girl until she died in her grave, which could take eternity if she didn't endanger herself often.

"When I first inflict these upon you..." Chris looked up at Lucia's words, bringing her attention back to the woman. "It seemed like justice, to inflict these scars all over you. Now, though, you're going to live for eternity, and always with these scars..."

'Was that remorse in her voice?' Chris thought as she slowly lowered herself down to Lucia's level, bringing her other hand underneath Lucia's chin to bring it up to meet her gaze. Some of her front had scars as well, including this rather nasty one on her left breasts, but she didn't mind showing them to Lucia.

Chris decided not to bring up she could heal them anytime, since then Lucia would be bugging her to heal away the pain, the scars of three years that forever reminded her of her loyalties to the Karayans. But, sadly, she didn't want to heal them. Their reminder let her step out her door day after day and be treated like a slave, yet still stay with these people.

"Look at me, Lucia. I don't mind, really I don't." Chris knew she might regret this, but she slowly picked up Lucia's hand and brought it to the scar on her left breasts, which involved Lucia's hand cupping said breast in her hand. "See, it doesn't hurt at all."

Of course, Lucia didn't move for a few moments when her hand met bare flesh, feeling Chris' n****e lightly caressing the ball of her wrist, her thumb lightly trailing the scar while her fingers cupped the underside of the fleshy orb.

After a few moments, she gave the orb a light squeeze, watching her hand maiden's expression. Nothing. 'It really doesn't hurt you, does it, Silver Maiden?' "Chris..."

"Yes?"

Lucia was silent once again as she slowly released the breast, bringing her hand up to Chris' unrestricting shoulder, pulling her closer. Chris was silent before following Lucia's hand and moving closer to her lady.

The two were face to face once again, just like three years ago, and Chris once again felt this odd want to surge forward and plant her lips on Lucia's, but she held herself back. Of course, this didn't mean she wouldn't stop Lucia if she initiated a kiss instead of herself.

It took a few moments before Lucia opened her lips once again, and surged forward. Chris thought this was it when Lucia moved to the side and licked her cheek in a very erotic way, with a feather-light touch that sent shivers down Chris' spine.

Lucia smiled that irritating smile of hers before moving back into the tub, relaxing and putting her feet up inside. "So, are you going to start washing me or just stare at me all day?" Chris smiled and immediately went to work.

Lucia's back went first, quickly scrubbed down and rubbed before Lucia rather adamently demanded a massage later. Chris felt she would be only too eager to please, but she was wondering if Lucia just liked Chris' touch, or...

Chris just smiled as she reached into the water and quickly washed Lucia's bottom, giving it a light pinch here and there, a few actually making the woman jump. Chris merely smiled and moved on.

Legs, arms, neck... then came decision time for Chris. Could she get away with feeling Lucia up a little bit, or should she not push her luck and just get it through?

Feeling a little adventurous, Chris wrapped her arms around Lucia from behind, gently cupping Lucia's orbs in her groping hands. Gently, she squeezed, erupting a gasp from Lucia's throat.

Lucia was mildly surprised at the pair of hands that handled her breasts, her eyes ripping downward to stare at the hands in wonder as they played and caressed her tits. Each hand gently caressed her nipples between two searching fingers, her hands slowly coming up to rest on top of Chris'.

When Lucia's hands found hers, Chris was worried Lucia wasn't like her ministrations. But when her hands didn't attempt to move hers, she slowly began squeezing Lucia's nipples, bringing another gasp.

It wasn't long before Chris began to bore of Lucia's melons, idly searching a hand, with Lucia's washcloth, downward, washing her stomach for a moment before moving on. Her hand closly seeked downward, and slowly came to a stop deveral inches from her destination, lightly rubbing right there.

Lucia gasped and squirmed in the other woman's grasp, eventually moving in such a way as to try and force that teasing hand into the cleft between her legs.

"Lady Chris!! Are you here?!" And Chris froze at that voice, slowly turning towards the door and removing her hands from her lady. Lucia slowly started getting out of her tub when Chris stopped her.

After a few moments of QUICKLY finishing Lucia's bath, they both got dressed and moved to the door, Lucia looking out to tell Chris what was going on.

The other knights of Zexen were at the entrance of the village, each fully equipped in their armor and weapons. They all looked a little older too, as did Louis who was now armored as a knight. The Six Knights of Zexen had come for their missing captain.

"I don't want to go back, Lucia. I want to stay with you..." Chris started, but was immediately shushed by Lucia's finger on her lips. On a whim, Lucia leaned in and gave Chris an all-too-brief peck on the lips to help her nerves.

"You're mine now, I won't let them take you from me. Now, you just stay here and hide, ok?" Chris slowly nodded as she hid by a window, covering her head with some cloth before looking outside the window. Lucia just nodded and left through the door.

"What's going on here?" Lucia asked as she left her home, moving up to the apparent leader of the group, Borus. Chris watched from the window and tried to make out what they were saying without giving herself away.

"You people have Lady Chris here, don't try to deny it. Now, we want her back." Chris frowned at her former comrades. Didn't they get she wanted a peaceful life now, not one of conflict? She idly wondered what Lucia would say.

"Yes, she's here. But, I'm afraid she doesn't want to go back with you." Chris' eyes were wide as she mistakeningly started to stand, then bunkered back down when she was nearly discovered by Louis and Percival. 'That was close...'

"And why not? I swear, if you're keeping her here against her will..." Lucia laughed and started back to her own home, with Chris cowering in the window. Was she bringing them to her?

Lucia turned back with a wicked smile. "Chris loves the peace she has here, and so she likes it here. She wants to stay of her own free will, she even told me so herself. So, just leave her alone."

Chris smiled at her friend for a moment before she peeked back at the knights and gulped down her fear. Roland was staring her right in the eye and she hunkered down once again, noticing with fear that Roland turned and started whispering to the others.

Borus an his group started following Lucia.

Chris started to panic when the saw the others coming her way, lightly swearing under her breath since she hadn't practiced with the sword in all three years she'd been with Lucia. And that inactivity was going to really hurt her if the others decided to use force to bring her back to Vinay Del Zexay.

Quickly, she started looking around before turning to the bath and having an idea strike her. Quickly, she changed the water in the tub, shucked off her clothes, and got in, starting to wash herself. She only prayed this would at least hamper the others' ideas of trying to force anything upon her.

It worked like a charm. Lucia walked in, quickly followed by the others, and Chris turned to them, covered up, and screamed bloody murder. The others were so shocked that some of them fell back on their asses while the rest merely stumbled back. After all, making Chris THAT mad was a one-way ticket to the afterlife. Even Lucia looked mildly surprised.

Once things had calmed down noticably, Chris stood behind Lucia in her Karayan outfit, trying her best to act like she was glaring daggers into the others' bodies. Most of them were pretty well fazed by this, except for Roland, who seemed a bit more detached than normal.

"Um, Lady Chris?" Now Chris' glare came down on Borus and Percival, making them cringe. "Don't you want to go back to the Zexen Federation? Everyone misses you so much..."

"No, I'm perfectly happy here with Lady Lucia. I'm more appalled that none of you could realize I wanted to get away from war." She finished with her glare somewhat subsiding, letting the Knights breathe more easily.

None of the Knights answered for several moments, until Salome finally spoke up. "Are you certain, m'lady?" Chris nodded her head in response, bringing a sigh from Salome's lips.

"I suggest you all leave. The villagers might not take too well you all being here for too long." Chris offered, both thankful and sorrowful as her Knights nodded in turn, getting to their feet and leaving the building.

Once they were gone, Chris collapsed to her knees, tears running down her face as she was left to her own devices with Lucia, the other woman embracing Chris and holding her up. Chris wrapped her arms around Lucia and cried, her tears giving way to sobs that wracked her whole body.

Slowly, it took some time for Chris' tears to subside, but they eventually did. She mentally swore to visit her Knights someday, but not soon. She needed time to think, not time for her heart to be torn apart by their constant appearances.

Lucia didn't know what to do but hold the woman, letting her think before slowly bringing her face up. Without a moment's hesitation, she locked Chris into another kiss, tearing the woman's mind from her troubles to the pair of delightful lips that captured her own.

Lucia found her hands to be natural roamers as she brought her hands down Chris' back to rest on her butt, pulling the other woman closer with her hands before squeezing each small cheek. Chris immediately responded, which inadvertantly grinded her crouch into Lucia's.

Eventually, Lucia released the spent Chris, the girl's eyes euphoric with ecstasy as she swooned in Lucia's arms. Never before had Chris felt so physically weakened before in her life. She felt as if her knees were about to give out from her own weight alone, with only Lucia's hold on her keeping her up.

"Feeling better?" Lucia asked, bringing a smile from Chris' lips as she pulled forward for another kiss.

END