I dream of Vietnam.

Not the country--the war. Or rather, the conflict. One would suppose these 
dreams would be nightmares for me: the deaths, the battlefield losses, the 
political ridicule.

But no.

I dream of the American war machine. At the time it was the most effective 
fighting engine on the planet. I've read that they were capable of defeating the 
Vietnamese in six weeks, had they been allowed to. Bureaucracy got in the way, 
however.

So they lost. But even so, they had such wonderful strategies. All across the 
board, they had sound, well thought out maneuvers and the technology to back it 
up.

Especially in the air. Especially with those vast, gigantic, horrendous yet 
beautiful bombers.

The B-52 is a wonder of the world.

Particularly one loaded with 30,000 kilos of napalm.

- = -

Wings of Fate
Chapter 8: Arclight
by Damien Phoenix
created by John Evans and Ardweden

- = -

I found myself outside the forest. I had been given supplies and instructions, 
but I wondered, truly I did.

For a long while, I just sat there and watched. The wind swayed the branches of 
the trees. It was idyllic, peaceful. I could really see why Shuukou liked it 
there.

A pity that she had to die.

At least, I think she had to die. I could not understand my instructions beyond 
that.

I suppose it would have been possible for her to survive, but by my best guess 
her mind would have been ruined by the ordeal. Ah well, I'd never liked her that 
much anyway.

The tools of my trade consisted as such: A 55-gallon steel drum filled with a 
gasoline/granulated soap mix, one stick of dynamite with charges, and a couple 
small magic spells.

It's a shame I couldn't do the whole job without magic. It's certainly an 
advantage, but it's not nearly as satisfying as hard labor and technology.

But orders are orders. I didn't really know what would come of it. We're taught 
not to question the word from on high. If they say jump we do it. If it's not 
high enough, we do it again.

I'd been told what to do, and that's what I was there for. Anything else was 
unfortunately not mine to think about.

It took me a good two hours to get everything set up. I had to make sure the 
evidence would be destroyed, you see. Not that the actual process was hard, it 
was just making sure the spell diagrams were set just right. After I had the 
steel drum ready and set with the right spells, it was as simple as popping the 
dynamite inside, stringing the fuse about half a kilometer away, and setting it 
off.

When that dynamite goes, it's like a ground-level thunderclap. The drum 
evaporates, almost, in a pillar of fire. It's even more impressive if there are 
five or so of them lined up. Then it's a veritable wall of flame. 

Either way, however, you can still feel that blast of heat. Alone it's enough to 
set a few of the trees on fire.

And it splatters: fifty-five gallons of napalm spraying in a semi-predetermined 
direction.

Of course, that's not all that much. At best it's a few trees worth once it 
fires off. That's where the spells came in. As the napalm spreads out, it grows. 
Rather like cell mitosis, I think. Once that process starts, no normal force in 
the world could prevent the fire from spreading. It would be just a matter of 
time before Shuukou's precious forest burned away. 

I would have stayed to watch the fireworks, but being found out would not do for 
me. So I just had to pack up into my nondescript Japanese pickup, and head off. 
It would have been perfect, had I not noticed something as I was driving away.

A specific vehicle parked right outside the entrance to the park. A feeling of 
fear came over me as I studied the car. An American sports car, I'm not sure 
what model, but I _knew_. It was Kenchi's car.

Shit! I couldn't get out of there after that. I needed to go get him. 

Why did things have to be so difficult?

Anyway, I parked and jogged into the forest. Smoke was already wafting around. I 
knew it wouldn't be long before the entire forest was ablaze.

I considered calling for him, but stopped myself when I realized that doing so 
would probably alert Shuukou. I wasn't sure about the goal to my orders, but 
since the best assumption was that she had to die, I wasn't about to subvert 
that. I fervently hoped that it was just her and not any of the others.

This left me having to wander around aimlessly in the middle of a burning 
forest. I sighed and uttered a quiet spell to protect me from the heat. I 
immediately felt drained and tired; it tapped my personal energy resources. When 
I fell asleep, it would fail.

I jogged around for a while. I'm not sure how long; it could have been five 
minutes or fifteen. It wasn't too long, but the fire had been spreading quickly, 
so it soon got around me.

I must confess that I got slightly lost. Because of the fire, any landmarks I 
passed were soon altered and consumed. The trees around me were burning at the 
edges and they were already starting to drip with napalm. I had stepped around a 
few small pools of it, not wanting to waste the energy of the spell too quickly.

Then I saw someone I couldn't identify in the center of a small clearing.  The
figure held up its arms, as if warding off the oncoming blaze.

"Kenchi?" I wondered aloud. The figure's arms dropped as the person turned 
towards the sound. I was surprised because I hadn't spoken loudly, and the fire 
did create something of a roar.

But at least I could see the person's face. I recognized him from when we met 
briefly a couple of days previous. That and the dossier I'd been given. It 
confused me, because I wondered how Soshi could have gotten further into the 
forest than I, unless he'd come with Kenchi. I suppose I just managed to turn 
around and run into him.

"Who is that?" he queried.

I considered turning away and leaving him, but a niggling feeling at the back of 
my neck stopped me. I did not want Soshi to be behind me and alive. Besides, I 
could not think of any reason he should survive longer.

I stepped through the wall of flame and looked at Soshi levelly. He blinked a 
few times upon seeing me, but did not look especially surprised.

"I thought it might be you," he said.

"I'm actually surprised you're here," I responded. "You weren't supposed to get 
in the way." I shrugged. "Pity, you may have survived if so."

He laughed. "Do you seriously believe you can hinder me?"

That surprised me. I didn't know what to say, so I just hunched down. A puddle 
of napalm had sloughed off a tree. I dipped my hand in. It stung, but only 
slightly. "Could you do this?" I asked, holding my hand towards him.

"I would not need to."

"Try." And I flicked my hand at him. The glob of napalm arced towards him. He 
instinctively flinched, bringing up his arm to protect his face. Good on his 
part, but also very bad.

The napalm splashed against his wrist, immediately burning through his sleeves 
and searing his skin. His face contorted in pain. He hopped back, flicking his 
arm to get rid of the burning gel.

I don't know why he didn't use his power to stop the napalm. I didn't know 
_then_ that he could erect those barriers. I suppose that he was trying to hide 
his full hand from me. His mistake.

I picked up another handful. "Try harder." This time I threw it at him. He 
jerked to one side. The napalm sailed past him, but I was ready. The next blob 
caught him right in the face.

Soshi screamed. He clawed at it, but only succeeded in driving the napalm harder 
into his eyes, rubbing it around. Very much the wrong thing to do.

"Poor Soshi," I said as I paced around him. He twitched towards the sound of my 
voice and uttered curses against me between his cries of pain. It was really 
quite delightful.

"You really wanted to protect your friends, didn't you?" I sighed audibly. "It's 
a pity, really. You know too little to be truly helpful, but enough that you are 
a potential danger. And because of that, you dangerous to your friends."

I didn't know this for a fact, but it seemed logical.

"You should look..." I glanced down at him; his eyes were already a blackened, 
bloody mess. "Sorry, you should consider the bright side. Without you around, 
they might even be safe."

The trees crackled around us. I looked up as a branch fell in a shower of 
sparks.

I felt a pressure, a presence in my head. It was confusing and frightening, like 
a headache was coming from the outside in. I looked down at Soshi. His face was 
full of intense concentration. He had stopped screaming.

I swallowed and tried to keep the waver out of my voice as I spoke. "I really 
can't stay around and chat, however." I pressed a toe against his shoulder and 
pushed. Soshi tried to keep his balance but still landed up against a tree 
trunk. His clothes burst into flames as he splashed around in the pooled napalm.

I have to commend myself, really. It was a neat trick to get the trees to 
"breed" the napalm as they burned. Within a few hours, the entire area would be 
nothing more than a puddle of burning red goo.

Of course, a few hours after that, and it would be nothing more than a blackened 
scorch on the land. People would wonder at the real reason for the mysterious 
cause of the fire.

"Goodbye, Soshi. Die in pain."

He survived, of course. I didn't know that after I turned away he erected a 
barrier beneath the skin and pushed it outward to protect himself. It must have 
caused him even more pain as he ripped off his outer layer of skin.

He must have screamed, and in my naivete, I assumed he was dying in the napalm. 
My own personal mistake, I assure you.

Due to his injuries, I would guess it's been difficult to ascertain the validity 
of his story. My theory, and it's just my own, is that he remembers himself as 
not only healthy, but more powerful than the others. Maybe it's true. We can't 
know for sure, can we?

But back to my story. 

I stepped away from the little clearing. The flames lapped at me, as if they 
sensed I was the one who brought them to life. I sensed that I had to hurry, 
because if I stayed too long, I would certainly start to burn as well.

Even with my protection, I found myself edging away from the worst part of the 
fire. It's logical to think about it now; anyone who had been caught in that 
part of the blast would have been fried. If Kenchi were there, he would have 
been dead.

But I was getting tired and possibly delusional. I was just wandering, shouting, 
calling at random. I know that napalm was starting to coat my pant-legs.

But eventually, someone found me. My eyesight had blurred, and I didn't even 
recognize the person as a human when I stumbled across him.

But he knew me. "Philippe?" he asked, surprise clear in his voice, even as he 
hunched and flinched away from the popping branches and twigs.

It was like the voice of an archangel came down to healed me. I saw his face 
with astounding clarity. I had been delivered to my goal. A gift, I suppose, for 
my good work.

"Kenchi!" I cried, "I'm so glad I found you."

"What are you doing here?"

I yawned. I'm not sure if it was because I was tired or just that oxygen was 
starting to get sparse in the forest. "I came to help," I forced out.

He coughed. His face and clothes were blackened with soot, but he still 
possessed that wonderful charisma of his. He opened his mouth and looked as if 
he was going to ask another question, but instead he turned and pointed off in 
the distance. "I think Shuukou's that way."

It was deeper into the forest, somewhat towards the fire. "But..."

He smiled. "You're here to help, right? C'mon."

I followed him. At that point, I was hard pressed to do little more than keep 
out of the way of trees and put one foot in front of the other. It's a lot like 
being drunk. If I had been thinking more clearly, I suppose I would have gotten 
out of there as quickly as possible.

It seems to be a danger of the heat-protection spell. Since it exhausts the 
body, but doesn't tell the body that it's being exhausted, one can keep going 
and going until death. A clearly strong danger about unnaturally taxing the 
body's resources.

Remember what I said about preferring technology and my own body to magic. This 
is why. There are all these unspoken rules and hidden clauses in the contract to 
gain quick power. Had I but known...

Still, after a while, I ran into something. Kenchi had stopped. His back felt 
strong. I reached up to feel it more, but he turned away too quickly.

"We can't get through," he said. I must have fallen towards him, because the 
next thing I knew, he was holding me by the shoulders. "You look almost dead, 
man. What happened to you?"

"Gotta get out," I mumbled. "Can't sleep."

He slipped one of my arms around his neck and supported me, then started to haul 
me along. After a few steps he stopped and almost dropped me with a yelp. "How'd 
you get all that stuff on your legs?"

I looked down. A hefty caking of napalm coated around my shoes and the bottom of 
my pantlegs. "Napalm," I said.

"Why aren't you burning?"

I grabbed his collar. "Spell. Get me out, NOW!" Realizing what I was doing, I 
backed off. "Please?"

"Spell? But--"

"Got to get out." I turned and began shuffling away.

"Philippe, you're not making any sense."

Was I talking in French? I don't know. It's hard to remember. But I started 
leading Kenchi out. That became my goal; I had to get him out safely.

Kenchi followed after me. I think it was around then that I dropped the spell, 
because I started to feel the heat. But that helped, for I moved away from the 
worst parts of the fire on instinct.

"Wait!" I stopped when Kenchi grabbed my shoulder. He was pointing to the side. 
I followed his finger and saw a pair struggling through the flames. The woman 
was Shuukou. Even from the distance, through the haze of heat, she looked 
terrible. The bloody mess she was helping along I now know was Soshi, but at the 
time I thought I saw another victim.

I suppose I should have been surprised that Shuukou would stop and help one of 
her "fellow" man. A larger concern came across my mind when Kenchi started to 
make his way towards them.

"We can't get through, Kenchi!" I cried. I'm not sure what worried me more, the 
possibility of losing him, or of Shuukou surviving.

"We have to!" he shrugged away when I grabbed at his shoulder. "Shuukou!" he 
shouted.

Fortunately, the roar of the flames prevented her from hearing him. Even more 
fortunately a tree fell between us and them.

"Come on!" I pulled at him. He struggled a bit, but moved when another branch 
crashed at our feet. We both danced away from the flying embers.

The forest literally had started to fall down around us. Discretion proved the 
better part of valor. We ran. 

By the time we had gotten out, our bodies were drenched with sweat and breaths 
came in painful gasps. Kenchi and I hunched over outside the forest, gripping 
each other's shoulders to stay upright.

I giggled, high on adrenaline. "Made it." I smiled up at him and had to stop 
myself from massaging my hand up to his neck.

He still jerked away, however. "Shuukou," he whispered. A long sigh escaped him. 
"Dammit, this is all going wrong. What happened here?"

I patted his shoulder. "I'm sorry," I lied. "But we have to go."

It was about then that I realized the pain. The napalm had eaten through my 
shoes and pants, and it was burning my skin. I yelped and kicked off my shoes. 
Within seconds, I had my pants off as well.

I winced as I looked down at the damage. Most of the skin was red and blistered. 
It hurt to move my feet. Thankfully, I didn't see any blackened parts. Third-
degree burns would have been very nasty.

"I can't drive," I said. I looked at him. He seemed ready to break down. I 
prayed that would not happen. "Kenchi?" I asked.

He blinked and looked at me. I felt as if I was a complete stranger to him for a 
moment. Then he blinked again, and recognition was in his eyes. "Okay. Let's 
go."

He helped me along to his car. It was beautiful, so clean compared to the two of 
us. I know that all the dirt and smoke and sweat on us must have ruined the 
upholstry, but at that point I did not care. I was with Kenchi, and we were 
going away...

I admit that my thinking at the time was not very clear. I should have had a 
plan, but I didn't. It may have affected how things went, but I doubt it.

Anyway, I settled into the passenger's seat. After one final look back at the 
inferno, Kenchi got in and started the car. He gunned the engine, and we raced 
off.

From my position leaning against the window, I could see the forest. It was 
somewhat beautiful, all ablaze like that. I wanted it to last forever.

Something caught my eye. I saw three figures burst out of the blaze. Two I had 
already seen: Shuukou and the bloody mess that was Soshi. The third I recognized 
after a moment. Judou. As he pulled the other two away, a second female rushed 
over to them. She immediately lay Soshi down and knelt beside him. I suppose 
that was Akari.

I sighed quietly. Apparently my mission had not been a success. A bit of worry 
came over me about my fate, but by then I was too tired to give it much thought. 
I closed my eyes and fell into sleep.

- = -
Wings of Fate
Chapter 8: Arclight
End
- = -

This chapter was fraught with problems. I tend to have a lot of difficulty 
writing "character" pieces (like HHH and H!F) and WoF is very much a character 
piece. I tend to work out character in regards to a larger plot happening.

I believe that's what you're seeing here.

It's fairly well known that I was not entirely happy with the WoF starter. But 
one section in it gripped me and had me completely hooked: Judou's vision in the 
forest. I said that if I ever wrote WoF, I would have to use that scene.

Ard did tell me it was written into the starter simply to give a reason for 
Shuukou to leave. That's not good enough for me. ^_^ I want Judou to have an 
accurate power. Granted, my interpretation of it may be different than other 
peoples, but I hope I got the gist of trees bleeding burning red goo with the 
napalm.

I'm fairly sure that this chapter will not be liked by all. It breaks some of 
the mold for WoF. The action is fast, big things happen, the viewpoint isn't one 
of the main group. As I said above, this chapter was difficult. I wrote the 
chapter I best could at this time. It isn't my best work, but it's my best work 
on this story at this time.

Now, the obligatory thankyous: Ardweden, Phoebe, and Ravi all pre-read this at 
various stages. Phoebe and Ardweden also helped me with some plotting ideas. 
Thanks to all of you, and anyone else who lent moral support!

Okay, I'm extremly tired and have to start a long trip to LA in a few hours. 
This was fun, in its own way, I hope to do it again.

Damien Phoenix

PS I apologize for the lack of Omake.