Mayuon
Title: Mayuon
Author: hunters_retreat
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: NC-17
Warning: momentary death ... what? it's an honest warning!
Word Count: 9000
Summary: Jared never believed anyone would be crazy enough to fund his research, but every crazier things had happened. Like finding that his belief in an ancestor race was true and he'd found their home planet. Or that the men he'd traveled with had turned out to be mercenaries, ready to kill the king and his people so that they could go back to Earth and start bringing people in to 'colonize' their new home. Or that Jared could fall so completely in love with the king who hated him for the part he played in the mercenaries finding his people. With a race against time, can Jared find a way to stop the ancient ceremony that would kill Jensen and his people? Will he be able to stop the mercenaries in their plot to destroy the Martrikian people? And will he find a way to show Jensen that he really is the man he believed he was when they fell in love?
Author's Note: Written for the J2-everafter challenge. My prompt was the retelling of the movie Atlantis. :P In space, of course.
“You never had any idea what you were doing, did you?”
Jared was pressed back against the wall, his body held in place by the man before him. Angry man. Very, very angry native who had every right to be pissed at him.
“We were looking for a new place to live! I thought if we could follow our own origins that we might find a habitable home for our race. I never imagined anything like this,” Jared pleaded with Jensen to believe him. “Your Highness,” he used his title hoping the formality would help the king see his sincerity. “Jensen, I would never have brought this down on you and your people.”
Jensen glared at him with jade eyes that had turned unearthly green since the ceremony had begun. It didn’t matter what Jared had intended. Jensen’s life was tied to his people. Without an heir to rule when he died, the entire Martrikian race would die when Jensen did. It was hardcoded into their bodies and Jared had unwittingly been the key to their doom.
“Jensen, please, I would do anything to stop this.”
Jensen took a step back and Jared nearly fell to his knees without Jensen to hold him up.
“There is nothing left to do. I will die and my people with me. You and your kind will have a new home. I hope you find it as hospitable as we once did.”
Jared closed his eyes at the bitter, defeated sound of Jensen’s voice. He was right though; there was nothing they could do. Millennia before Jared had even been born, Jensen’s people had done this to themselves. The ruling king had wanted to ensure his line so he’d had every person in his kingdom marked with the same genetic coding. Generation to generation, they passed down the code that would enable nanotechnology to kill them all should they fail the king and his family. Generations of war between feuding nations had brought them to the brink of extinction where they no longer knew how to undo the wrongs of their fathers. They had learned peace and compassion and no longer called upon their kings for a proof of their humility and faithfulness. They no longer asked for the ceremony that Jared had started; the one that Jensen had no way of ending without forfeiting his life and those of his people.
“There has to be a way to stop this,” Jared said with a deep breath. “There has to.”
“Your people are far more technologically advanced than my own Jared,” Jensen said softly. “Once upon a time, we traveled the stars and left our mark on the universe. We planted life just to see how it would grow. It has been long generations since we stopped looking to the stars though and began seeking the knowledge of the inner.”
“There is the Library of Indaya,” a dark haired man spoke up.
“Misha, there is nothing in the Library that can help us,” Jensen said with a soft shake of his head.
“No, there is nothing in the Library that we could use to help us. He is a scientist,” Misha said as he looked at Jared. “They might be able to read the language there.”
“They have no need to save us, Misha.”
The dark haired man walked to Jensen and put his arms on Jensen’s shoulders. “He is Mayuon, we all feel it.”
Jensen closed his eyes and Jared couldn’t help but take a step closer, no matter how much Jensen hated him. “I want to try,” he said softly. “Please, let me try to fix what I’ve done.”
Silence filled the room and for a few minutes Jared feared that Jensen would deny him the chance. If the King told Misha no then it would be the end of it. Misha would not show him this Library and there would be no chance to save Jensen, to save them all.
Jensen’s fists tightened and relaxed as he stood, head down and taking deep breaths. His shoulders tensed before he rolled them and looked up. When Jensen looked at him, there was steel in his eyes. “We will take you to the Library of Indaya and then we shall see what your heart is truly made of.”
Jared wanted to declare his intentions but he nodded instead, afraid of what he’d actually say if he spoke at that moment. I love you seemed just as likely to pop out of his mouth as what did I do to make you hate me so much?
For Jensen did hate him and not because of the mission that had brought him to their planet. Jared had been a simple archeologist with strange beliefs until the day someone had decided to fund his research and send him out among the stars to follow them. He’d believed in an ancient race of beings who had given life to Earth. He’d believed that by following them into the stars, they might be able to find a new way of life; help the human race find a way to live before their own planet could no longer support them.
What he’d found was a tribal people, less advanced than the stories of the clannish peoples of his own planet. They’d lost their way among the stars and were a shadow of what they had once been. War had dealt a death blow to their way of life, but under their king they had found a way to survive and flourish in the green of the wilds.
Now though, they had no way to stand against the men that had come with Jared; mercenaries who had no higher allegiance than the credits they were paid. They had come with the intention of settling a new planet and if that meant killing the men and women living there then they were prepared to kill them all. And Jensen’s people had made it easy for them; they only had to kill the King and the rest of the people would die with him.
In the first few weeks with them, Jared had grown close to the king. They had shared a passion for exploration and Jared had loved Jensen’s dry wit and sense of humor. Jensen had laughed over Jared’s stories of Earth and they had explored the texts that Jensen had; finding their common origins together. It had been natural when they had fallen in bed together. It had been terrifying to wake the next morning to find Jensen’s eyes turned cold.
Captain Lehne had shown his true colors that night as Jensen had bedded Jared, but though Jared had been thrown in with the natives, Jensen didn’t believe his innocence. Jared didn’t know what he’d done to cause Jensen to label him a traitor as he did the mercenaries, but he did. Jared would probably die before he found the truth, but he was going to die trying anyway.
When Jensen turned to leave, a handful of his faithful servants with him, Jared followed with the only member of the ship’s crew who hadn’t betrayed them. The ship’s mechanic - and part time anthropology enthusiast - was an old friend of his father’s and he alone stood with Jared when the others decided on this course of action. Jim, along with Jared, had been forced into the rooms of the King’s palace to tell the King of his impending execution at the hands on his own people’s technology.
**
“How long will it take to reach the Library of Indaya?” Jared asked as they stopped for the night.
Jensen had brought a small party with him and they were all settling in around the fire. Jim was with them, making friends and spreading good will. It was Jared they seemed unable to comprehend and Jared alone that bore their distaste.
Jensen was staring out into the jungles around them. Buried beneath the scrub brush and dirt were steel girders that held the city in the air. Once it had been a looming metropolis the likes of which Jared had never seen. Now, the metal was covered in growing vines and greenery; only the memory of gleaming glass cities was left in the wake of the devastation. The people lived in the open now, under metal roofs grown green as they slept covered in furs to keep out the worst of the night chill that crept in through the monstrous windows that had once held elaborate stained glass.
“We will be there tomorrow,” Jensen said softly. “By noon, we should reach the great bridge and it is just on the other side. We will see then if you can find anything useful.”
“What is the Library of Indaya?” Jared asked, pressing his advantage while Jensen seemed to be in a talking mood. Since the night they’d spent together, Jensen had barely spoken to him.
Jensen sighed. “It was once a great university. People came from all over the world to study there. Our knowledge was collected and it was hoped that one day we would share it with your people. It is why it is of no use to us. We speak your language, but we do not write or read in it. It has been many generations since the Mudana language was taught to our young.”
“Why did they stop teaching it?”
“My ancestor - the same one who decided he should damn our people to this fate - declared that Mudana was in our blood, that the language was a part of our tongue and that there was no reason to learn the written word. He defeated any resistance to the idea and within two generations the knowledge died out. I believe he wanted to be certain that only his heirs would be able to read the words of the Mudana.”
“But you don’t.”
“For generations we did, but my father died when I was a small child. He had begun teaching me, but I didn’t learn enough to continue on my own.”
“I’m sorry,” Jared said softly.
Jensen shrugged. “It is an old wound, and one not worth concern,” he said as he turned to look at Jared. “This city was once our crowning jewel and the home of my throne, but I moved it to the lesser city when I came of age. It will be good to see my childhood home once more.”
“I am honored to get the chance to see it.”
Jensen watched him for a moment before he looked back out into the forest. “We will see tomorrow if it is an honor, or if you are like the rest of the rabble you have brought with you.”
**
The bridge was a steel structure that groaned and protested as they passed over it. Jared could imagine old Earth cars crossing over it but he had no idea what these people would have used. When Jared asked, Jensen had given a small shrug of his shoulders. It was the closest thing to conversation they’d had all day.
The Library was located on the outskirts of the city. Wildlife took over most of what had been the largest city Jared had ever seen. The library itself was massive and Jared sat before it a good ten minutes before he was able to get to the door. Though the glass in all the buildings they’d seen had been destroyed, the windows of the library had been made of sterner stuff. It left the inside of the library intact and free of vermin. As they walked inside, Misha pulled at one of the great curtains and it came crumbling down around him, letting loose a cloud of dust that sent Jared into a fit of coughing.
“Are you alright, Mayuon?” Another of Jensen’s guards asked.
“Mayuon?” Jared asked. Misha had spoken the word the day before but Jared was an archeologist and not a linguist. He had no reference for how to break it down and decipher it on his own. At least not with the time constraint they had.
“Are you well, Jared?” Jensen asked before the other man could answer.
“I am, but what is this Mayuon?”
“Jensen,” the other man started but Jensen didn’t let him finish.
“No, Christian. Maybe you feel Mayuon but I don’t recognize it. I refuse to recognize it. He is a betrayer and nothing he has done so far gives him that right.”
Jared wanted to scream at Jensen, to understand why he wouldn’t believe that Jared hadn’t known what the other men were doing but he held his tongue. Jensen had labeled him along with the others that had come with him, though Jared and Jim had been thrown aside with Jensen’s people when they refused to cooperate. He couldn’t blame Jensen for that. The captain - a man Jared had every reason to trust until then - had found a way to start an age old ceremony called the Ritual of Kingsbond. At its inception, the ceremony had been used by the kings of old to prove their worth. Jensen’s father had died early though and he hadn’t taught his son how to stop the ceremony. If they couldn’t find the information, Jensen’s heart would be stopped by the technology that was supposed to affirm his place as king.
“You have the choice to ignore it Jensen, but I don’t. I will follow your lead as I always have, but he is Mayuon and I will treat him as such.”
Christian turned to help the others uncover the other windows and Jensen glared at Jared before walking away. Jared closed his eye and sighed before following Christian the other way.
**
At mid-day they took a break to eat. They sat outside on the front steps of the great library and Jared continued to scroll through the information he’d found. Jensen was right; most of the information had been meant to share with his own people and it had been translated to English. There was still too much to learn to even begin asking the how of it all.
“You should eat, Mayuon,” Christian said as he brought bread over to Jared.
Jared smiled at him and took it, but he didn’t put down the tablet he was working with. It wasn’t the information that would stop the ceremony yet, but it was a place to start.
“I am, I just … we’re running out of time. I know you’re aware of it but there are only two of us that can understand the language. I just … how can I stop when every minute I take, is a minute closer to his death?”
“A break will help you see better,” Christian reminded him. “It will clear your head.”
Jared turned to look at the king and let out a deep breath. Jensen was staring out into the jungle again. His people lived in the jungle; they thrived there in ways their people hadn’t in generations. It was Jensen who had convinced his people to abandon the old ways that had tied them to decaying cities and led them into a new way of life. He was more at home in the wilds than in the cities and Jared could see it in the people themselves. The older generations were still to be found loitering in the old buildings but Jensen was the one that made them see their future led them down another path from their forefathers. They slept under the roofs of the ruins of their once proud cities, but they lived under the canopy of trees.
It made Jared wish he understood more about life like that. He’d been sheltered his entire life. He’d been born into a family of scholars and had been expected to take the same path. When he’d begun talking about the ancient aliens who had to have spawned them and a desire to search them out, his family had been aghast at the idea of setting foot on a starship to do that sort of fieldwork. Jared had laughed at their fears and felt validated when his funding came through. Now, he wished he’d stayed in his library. Without him, Lehne would never have gotten this far and Jensen wouldn’t be in danger.
“I can’t stop thinking about what we’ve done,” he said, looking away from Jensen. “I don’t expect you to believe me anymore than he does, but Jim and I aren’t like the mercenaries that brought us here. I didn’t know they were like that. To be honest, I thought I was chasing a dream. I never would have imagined finding you like this.”
“Like what?” Christian asked. His voice was gentle though Jared had seen the man in his anger. He’d managed to down six of the captain’s men when he’d found out they’d started the ceremony. It made Jared grateful that he, on some level, was on Jared’s side.
“I … I never would have thought you’d have abandoned your technology.”
“And if you had?” Misha asked, bringing over a bowl of warmed soup to Jared.
“I never would have come,” he said honestly. “My people have a nasty history of using technology to take from people who have less might than we do. I would never have traveled here with men and women I didn’t know. I would never have brought this onto you.”
“Why?” Christian asked. “Because he took you to his bed?”
Jared blushed at the open way Christian spoke of it, but he shook his head. “No. I … there are so many implications to what we’ve found here. That part of it hasn’t even come into it yet. What Captain Lehne and his crew did was wrong. What we should have learned from the way we’ve destroyed the Earth was that we couldn’t continue doing things the way we always have. The universe won’t keep accommodating us when we run out of space. I thought we’d learned better than this, but …”
Jared looked up towards the sky and let out a deep sigh. The Earth skies had been polluted long before Jared had been born. It was a constant reminder of a world that had been allowed to grow, whereas his own world had been destroyed by human consumption. “I’m sorry. I won’t let this happen to your world too.”
He looked past Misha and his soup and handed Christian back the bread he’d given him.
“I have work to do.”
They stared after him as he headed back into the Library but they left him be. An hour later he found food left at his table but he didn’t see who brought it in for him.
He would have been surprised at the look of fondness that crossed Jensen’s face as he sat the food down for him and was ignored because of Jared’s attention to his cause.
**
The lights had died down long before Jared was ready to stop working. He convinced them to give him a torch and headed back into the library with Jim not far behind him. They both felt the urgency of their task but even Jim was smart enough to call it quits when he was too tired. Jared refused.
He refused to be the one to let Jensen down, even if he’d begun to doubt what had been growing between them. Yes, he knew in his heart what he felt but could he have been in love so quickly when Jensen seemed to regret that they’d ever spent time together? He couldn’t get his head wrapped around that question but his heart was staying firmly in the ‘yes you can’ side of the argument.
He’d heard Jensen moving around the Library talking to Jim from time to time. He’d even heard Jensen and Christian get into an argument in the strange language of theirs. Misha had been watching, amused at the two. Jared didn’t understand Misha any better than the others. Christian was easier. He said what he thought. He might not like what had happened, but he was clearly on Jared’s side now and not even his king could naysay it. Jared was grateful for that at least.
He rubbed at his tired eyes before setting down the tablet. “It’s here somewhere,” he said to himself.
The light went out behind him and Jared nearly jumped when someone grabbed him. “Calm yourself, Jared. It is just me,” Jensen said, his grip firm around Jared’s upper arm. “It is late and even you need sleep. You will think better in the morning and see better when the dawn’s light fills the Library again. Come, I have everything ready for you.”
Jared would have told anyone else that he needed more time, but Jensen was there and it was the first time the king had initiated any form of contact.
“I was going to stay up all night,” Jared said as he let Jensen pull him towards the back of the room. He saw the others settled in against the back wall underneath a staircase but Jensen pulled him up the stairs instead of joining them.
Jensen pushed him down onto a mat of heavy furs in a small room off the main passageway and Jared was even more surprised when the king followed him down.
“Jensen?”
“Yes, Mayuon?” Jensen asked as he leaned over Jared’s body. Moonlight streamed in from the window above them and Jared could see Jensen’s smile.
“I don’t … I don’t understand.”
Jensen nodded. “I have waited too long to find my Mayuon to have it taken away now. I wanted to be angry with you for being a part of what would end my life but I know you aren’t like the men that did this to me. The only time I’m not angry is when I’m with you, no matter that I push you away. You have been almost feverish in your attempt to find an answer today and my heart tells me it is because you care and that it is not some ruse that you will use against me before the end. I will have faith that you will prove my heart right, that you will prove Christian right. And if you are not able to stop what has been started, I refuse to die with you not knowing how loved you are, Mayuon.”
He pressed his lips to Jared’s then and the rest of the world dropped away.
Jared didn’t know if he would be able to save Jensen or not, but he would do everything in his power to stop the events that had come to pass. Or he would die trying himself.
**
The next morning Jared woke to the press of warm lips against his skin. Jensen was laying half on top of him and one hand was running over Jared's chest.
"Mayuon," Jensen whispered against his neck.
"What does it mean?" Jared asked breathlessly. There were so many things he needed to know, things he needed to be able to save Jensen and his people, but all he could think of was the burning need to be with Jensen and the way the king looked at him with the same consuming passion that Jared did.
"It means, you are loved," Jensen answered softly. He didn't allow other questions as he pressed Jared back onto the soft furs he'd set out for them the night before.
His kiss was almost desperate and the longing it inspired in Jared reminded him of what was at stake. He could have this-have Jensen- forever if he could just figure out how to save him.
He pushed Jensen back and confusion filled the king's eyes. "I have to find a way to save you," he leaned forward missing Jensen one last time. "I need to get back to my research." He smiled at Jensen and hoped that his words could offset he hurt he saw in the other man. "I will save you and then we can run off and hide between these furs forever if you want. I just have to save you first."
Jensen nodded slowly. "And what if you can't?"
Jared rose from the furs, gathering his clothes around him. "I will."
**
People began arriving at the library slowly at first. A handful of travelers arrived the day after Jared’s promise to Jensen and the king greeted them warmly. He didn’t act like a man with only a few days remaining. As more people came, Jensen grew friendlier and spent his time among them, talking and telling tales. Jared grew more desperate in his readings with Jim never far from his side. In the dark of the night, Jensen would come to him and steal him away from his research - hours after Jim had found his bed - and would talk to him of the world he’d once known and the way his people had fallen from their power. He spoke of the first days in the wilderness, away from the decrepit towers and ruins of the life they’d once known.
His people had been slow to move away from their history but under Jensen’s guiding hands they’d learned to flourish again. What was once a dwindling race had become repopulated with youth and vitality. When Jensen lay beside him each night, Jared knew that the reason they survived was because of Jensen’s conviction and his example. In the month before Jared had set off the ceremony, Jared had seen the king go off with hunting parties to bring meat to their tables or going out to the field with his people to harvest or on scavenging trips to see what they could find in the wild-covered ruins that had been abandoned before his time. Jensen’s people survived because of Jensen and not only because of the nanotechnology that threatened them.
It pushed Jared harder, made him work later and wake earlier, but the answer eluded him. He’d even taken a group of young children and shown them a list of words to look for in the library, but neither Jim nor Jared had found the missing information from the books they brought them. Jared didn’t mention it to Jensen, but the king smiled sadly at him some days and Jared knew he didn’t expect Jared to find a way around it.
“They’ve gone,” Jim said softly over the light of the torches.
When Jared looked up, almost dropping his bowl of stew in surprise as Jim continued.
“Jensen has some of their best trackers watching Lehne and the trackers came back today. Lehne and his company left. You know what that means.”
Jared nodded. “He’ll be back in a few days to clean up the dead bodies and claim the planet for his own.”
“And he’ll kill us for the trouble we caused him.”
Jared let out a deep breath. “We have to stop him Jim. I just … how the hell did this go so wrong?”
Jim let out a snort. “You couldn’t have stopped them Jared. Once they saw the Martrikian, nothing we did could have stopped them from this butchery. Lehne saw that they were technologically weak and decided they were easy prey. He just used us as a way to finish them off cleanly.”
“It would have been quite a battle,” Jensen joined them, startling Jared as he sat next to him. Jensen braced his body so that he was leaning in towards Jared, sharing the warmth of his body as the air grew chill.
“What would have been?”
“We do not have the technology that your people have, but we are not defenseless. Once the ceremony is initiated, I cannot act until it is complete, but we have many ships from our ancestors that would have given Lehne a fight he had not prepared for. It is a shame we will never see that battle. My people would have given him a fight like they had not before seen.”
“We’ll find a way Jensen,” Jared reassured him. “We’ll find a way while you make plans for this battle. I’ll fight with you. Lehne has to be stopped before he can hurt anyone else.”
Jensen smiled, but Jared knew that smile all too well. He was humoring Jared, already accepting his fate and that of his people.
Jared wanted to weep in frustration. Instead, he dug into his stew and returned to the library. When Jensen came to call him back to the warmth of their bed, Jared refused to leave.
He would find a way.
**
“Jared, you have to stop.”
Jared closed his eyes, trying to ignore the lethargy that filled his limbs. He was exhausted and he knew it well enough but the kindness in Jensen’s voice was almost his undoing. Jensen would die if he stopped and yet Jensen called him away anyways, with warm eyes and soft lips and a welcoming heart.
“I just need to look at this one thing.”
“My fathers would not have left this knowledge for anyone to find Jared,” the king said softly.
“What?”
“They would never have shared that information with your people, not matter how they hoped to find them one day.”
“Then why would you bring me here?” Jared demanded. “Why would you let me look if there was no hope?”
Jensen gave him a small smile. “There was a little hope, that perhaps you could divine the nature of the technology, but I did not bring you here to save me. I came to test your heart. You said you were not one of them, though you traveled the stars with them and broke bread with them. You spoke their language and you wore their strange apparel. You led them to us and you showed them the Ritual of the Kingsbond. You were Mayuon and I had no way of knowing if you’d played my heart false, or if you truly had led these men to us unknowing of their designs.”
Jared let out a shaky breath. “So what? All this time you’ve been waiting for me to fail?”
“No,” Jensen said, coming forward to take Jared’s hands in his own. “I have been watching to see if you were - truly - Mayuon.”
“I don’t know what that means,” he said, his voice breaking as he spoke. “Why does it even matter, if you die?”
“Because I will die and two days after they kill me the nanites will look for my heir. I have no blood heir, but I have you, Mayuon. If they find my true Mayuon it will stop the destruction of my people. So long as you live, and you produce an heir for my throne, the Martrikian race will survive.”
“Jensen, I-”
“I know you don’t want this Jared and I wish I could have lived long enough to show you the true beauty of my people, but I know you will defend them well. While you have researched, I have given Christian and Misha all the knowledge I have of our people and the technology they need to fight for our home.”
Jared understood the acceptance he’d seen in Jensen’s eyes now. He would never have accepted the death of his people, but when Christian had called him Mayuon Jensen had seen a way out for his people. He would die but his fate wouldn’t be shared by his people.
“I can’t do this without you,” Jared said, defeated.
“You are the only one who can, Mayuon,” Jensen said, pulling him close. “Beloved,” Jensen pressed his lips to Jared’s bowed temple and Jared wasn’t able to hold back the sob that had been threatening.
He was pulled away from the library then and Jared followed Jensen blindly, aware only of Jensen as he led the way. He wasn’t surprised to be pushed back onto the furs that had been their bed for so many nights now. How many? Had it been two weeks? Three? Surely it had been a lifetime, as weary as he felt.
“You have given more of yourself to this cause than I could ever have believed,” Jensen said softly as he began pulling Jared’s clothes off. “You have been faithful and loyal and I cannot believe that I have been so lucky to find you.”
He kissed Jared then, the soft sweep of his lips before he licked across the seam of Jared’s mouth, asking for permission. Jared gave it, opening to Jensen, unable to think of anything but the man who held himself so carefully above him.
“I love you,” Jared whispered against Jensen’s lips.
Jensen pulled back enough to look at him, his smile reaching his eyes this time. “I know, Mayuon. I can feel it, as can all of my people. Mayuon. In your tongue it would mean soulmate, though that is too simple a word for what you are to my people. You are my mate, the person who will rule my people when I no longer can. You are my guardian and my most protected. You are my beloved and no matter how little time we have life, know that I have loved you beyond rational thought and with every beat of my heart and breath of my lungs.”
Jensen leaned closer again, whispering. “When the ceremony ends and my heart stops, I will die knowing that my people are well cared for and that I have been loved in return.”
He silenced any words Jared might have said by kissing him deeply. Jensen’s hands were on his skin then and somehow they were both bare and Jared moaned at the press of Jensen’s hard body against his.
When Jensen entered him, Jared felt the world still around him. Every touch of Jensen’s hands, every press of skin and flesh imprinted on his mind as he felt the full weight of what it meant to love Jensen. Unexpectedly and unexplainably, Jared could feel Jensen’s love. He could feel the commitment Jensen had to his people and the joy he felt at having Jared with him. He felt the brotherhood of the company of men Jensen call his own; the honor and respect he held for Christian who was both childhood friend and confident, the humor and intelligence that Misha shared, and the unlooked for father figure that Jim had become when Jared had been too busy in his books to notice.
“Jensen,” he gasped at the connection between them and saw the way Jensen’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Jared, Mayuon,” he spoke with awe in his voice and Jared wanted to ask what it meant but the heat between them was too much and orgasm crashed over his senses, his and Jensen’s. He was shaking with the intensity of the physical act and with the rawness of the emotional connection, but exhaustion saved him from himself then. As Jensen pulled gently from his body and pulled him close, Jared fell into fatigued slumber.
**
When Jared woke Jensen was gone. He sat up quickly - too quickly for his shattered brain that began to spin - but realized quickly that Jensen was simply away from his bed and not gone for good. He let out a deep breath and that helped to still his head.
“Mayuon?”
Jared opened his eyes to find Misha moving towards him. “The King asked me to bring these to you. He said you had woken weary. This will help.”
Jared looked at the mug he brought forward and took another breath before reaching out and taking it. “Where is the king this morning?” he asked.
“Among his people. They have all arrived, at least those who could travel.”
“How did they know?” Jared asked.
Misha smiled. “For all that your people have advanced over us in your technology I believe that we still have much to teach you. We feel it. We felt the moment the ceremony began and we knew where to travel to find him. King Jensen is always in our thoughts and in our hearts, as you are now.”
“I am?”
“You are Mayuon. Christian has called you so and Jensen has explained what that means to us. Did you believe we would not feel you too?”
Jared shook his head. “I haven’t honestly had time to think about that.”
Misha nodded. “It’s good that you have me then. I will make sure you are well cared for, Jared Padalecki.”
He left then and Jared sipped from the mug slowly. It was warm and sweet, like honeyed tea though the taste was earthier than anything he’d ever had. He felt revived after a few minutes and set the mug aside to find his clothes. Someone had come in the morning and left new clothes for him. They weren’t his usual clothes though the style wasn’t that far off. The pants could have passed for his own, except that the fabric was foreign. The shirt that had been left was a pale cream color with billowing sleeves and pale green ribbons that hung loose or were used to wrap the sleeves tight against his arms when there was work to be done. His boots had been cleaned and left behind as well as his jacket though he knew he wouldn’t need it today. Someone had wanted to dress him in their own garb but had wanted to give him the look of his own people if he wanted it.
After he shoved his feet in his boots, he took the mug and headed down to the lower level of the library. To his surprise it was empty except for Jim.
“They all wanted to be with Jensen today,” Jim said before Jared could ask.
Jared wanted to curse the boys who had been helping them for abandoning their research when it was obvious the ceremony was coming close to the end but he could feel the call himself. He wanted nothing more than to find his lover and bury his nose in Jensen’s neck but he couldn’t allow himself to leave his search just yet.
“This tea,” Jim said softly, holding up his mug, “it’s supposed to make you one of them.” He took a sip and sighed. “My fifth glass this morning. If Christian had told us about this before we might have been able to stop all this.”
“Why?”
“He offered me the first mug this morning. It was an honor, he said, to know me. Then he pulled this tea out and said if I took it I would be one of them. I would live and die as one of them.” Jared watched with wide eyes as Jim took another drink. “And I drank five mugs. If we’d been able to dose Lehne and his men before this they’d never have dared to bother Jensen.”
“No,” Jensen said, coming up from behind them. “He’d have locked me in a cell to ensure my protection and killed my people instead. I will remain grateful that we have offered it only to friends who have proven their true hearts.”
Jensen smiled up at Jared and looked him over quickly. “You seem better rested Mayuon.”
Jared couldn’t help but smile at his words. There was a joy in Jensen’s heart that Jared couldn’t refute. “I am. The tea Misha gave me helped as well.”
“I must be among my people this morning, but will you walk with me in the afternoon?”
Jared nodded. “Of course. I’ll be here when you’re ready.”
Jensen left them with only a brief kiss for Jared but Jim was smirking at Jared when Jensen walked away.
“I never took you for an intergalactic playboy,” Jim teased.
“Shut up, Jim,” he said with a roll of his eyes. He sat at the desk he’d claimed as him own during the past few weeks but looked up when Jim dropped a tablet onto his desk.
“I think you need to read this Jared. At first I thought it was more of the same sort of history we’ve been seeing about the past monarchs but then they began talking about the Mayuon. I admit I read more of it than I would have if you hadn’t been dubbed Mayuon as we walked here but I wanted to understand what they were saying. I don’t know if it means anything, but it’s worth a deeper read and I think you’ll understand far better than I will.”
“Thank you,” Jared said softly as he took the tablet and began searching it. He looked up then as he heard Jim shifting in his chair to look through another tablet. “Jim, thank you. Not just for this but for all of it. You could have stayed with the others and lived a happy, rich life.”
“They might have paid me well, but I would never have been happy Jared. You aren’t the only one who saw what they were doing and wanted to stop it. I don’t plan on stepping aside and letting Lehne get away with murdering a people. If I have to stand here by myself and fight him I will.”
“Never alone, Skiocher,” Christian said as he came into the room.
“Skiocher?”
“Scholar, or something like that,” Jim said with a shake of his head at Christian. The two had developed an odd relationship that Jared couldn’t decipher. Christian taught Jim about their culture and Jim shared his own and in between bouts of teachings they laughed and worked and generally shared thoughts with one another. It was almost like professional mentoring but with a father and son element to it that Jared wasn’t sure either noticed.
“Honor Warrior,” Christian corrected. “Once upon a time, our people learned that the only warriors we should know where those who were the best educated.”
“An educated man has little need of war,” Jim stated.
“So we learned and so we were able to live peacefully for so long.”
Jared wanted to shake his head at the amazement he felt. There was so much to these people that he wanted to learn and share but he had too little time now.
“Read Jared,” Jim said softly. Jared wasn’t sure how he’d known what Jared was feeling, that his heart was beginning to build with the pain and guilt of his unwitting part in all of this, but he was grateful of the chance to bury himself in something besides his grief.
He turned to the tablet and didn’t notice the look that passed between Jim and Christian.
**
Jared slammed the tablet down with all the force he could muster. It wasn’t enough to damage it but Jared felt like he’d lost the strength to move if it wasn’t somehow connected to saving Jensen. He rubbed at tired eyes, wondering why Jim had given him this one to read. Yes, there was talk of the king and his Mayuon and it certainly explained some of what was happening between Jared and Jensen but there was nothing in there to save Jensen. Jared cursed himself because he knew instead of skimming it as he’d been doing with the others that he’d read too much of it, taken up too much time on this things that ran between them instead of moving on to find another tablet to stop the ceremony.
He looked at the desk Jim had taken over but the other man was absent. In fact, the whole of the library was still. There were no whispered words or hushed answers. There was no movement, not the powering on and off of tablets or the swish of pages turned in the ancient tomes that had been collected there.
Jared closed his eyes and his heart was suddenly heavy; with grief, with loss. He knew he’d run out of time. What he felt wasn’t his own, but Jensen reaching out to him in some way that Jared didn’t truly understand but that he’d just been reading about. He ran from the room, ignoring the deadened thud of his feet as they echoed through the library.
He threw open the door and ran. No one was outside in the main plaza but Jared moved on instinct and fear. Jensen wouldn’t spend the last moments of his life in the old cities, but among the trees where he’d led his people. He’d want to die among them there, surrounded by the wilds that he loved.
Urgency gave him a speed he’d never before possessed and his heart led him unerringly towards the king and his people. Jared knew there was a meeting place not far from the library but he’d never thought to ask where it was, any more than he’d taken time away from his reading to go see it. He had to trust that the bond that tied him to Jensen was leading him to his beloved.
The forest itself was quiet, as though it too had understood the importance of the moment. The sounds of Jared’s passage through the underbrush were too loud to his ears, as was the beating of his heart. Tears stung his eyes as he ran, though he never faltered in his path. Jensen was dying and Jared didn’t know how to save him. He was dying with his people there to witness, but without his Mayuon.
“Jensen!” he screamed the name ahead of him and the forest echoed it back around him. He had to be there in time. Jensen had been right that night when he’d come for Jared again. He couldn’t die without knowing how loved he was and though Jared had tried to convey it in the time they’d had, he needed to be there to say it again, to hold Jensen again.
He didn’t have time for the rest of his grief yet and he knew time wouldn’t give him that. He would grieve for Jensen, but the Martrikian people would need him too soon. There wasn’t time enough in the universe to grieve for his beloved.
He crashed through a thick layer of low hanging branches and found himself standing in a clearing surrounded by Jensen’s people. He couldn’t see Jensen but he could feel him close. He ran towards the north end of the clearing and the people opened before him, giving him a straight path to the king.
Jensen was lying on a bed of grasses, Misha, Christian, and Jim sitting around him, talking softly. Jared could feel his heart stuttering before realizing it wasn’t his heart that was failing; it was Jensen’s.
He ran faster, skidding to his knees as he reached Jensen’s side. “Jensen,” he whispered the name as he leaned down to press a kiss to the man’s lips.
“Mayuon,” Jensen answered, raising a hand to Jared’s neck, holding him close.
“Why didn’t you let me know?”
“I didn’t want you to see this,” Jensen admitted. “You would know I was gone, but I didn’t want this to be your last memory of me.”
“It won’t be,” Jared lied.
Jensen smiled weakly at him and Jared could feel the life draining from Jensen. “I won’t say that I loved you at first sight,” Jensen said softly, “but I was fascinated by you immediately. It didn’t take long to know that you were in my heart.”
Jared smiled though his lips quivered as he fought back tears. “It was mutual, Mayuon. When you reached for me, all I wanted was to be here, with you, for always.”
“For always, Mayuon.”
He pulled at Jared’s neck and he kissed him again until he felt Jensen’s lips go slack. The heart that he’d felt beating so erratically was gone now and Jared sobbed, pressing his forehead against Jensen’s. He heard a cry go out among the people behind him but he couldn’t spare the energy to focus on them. He felt hands on his shoulders, knew it was Christian, but he couldn’t move.
“Jensen, no,” he begged.
Christian pulled at him, trying to comfort him but Jared pushed him away. “Jensen, no.”
“No,” he said looking up at Jim. “I won’t let him go.” He did the only thing he knew to do. He couldn’t keep it up for long and he knew the reality, that his actions probably wouldn’t save Jensen, but he started compressions on Jensen’s chest.
“Jared,” Jim breathed his name and Jared ignored it.
“It stopped his heart. It won’t keep it stopped,” he said. He didn’t stop him movements even though he didn’t know if he’d spoken a lie or not. He had to hold onto something. He had to do something.
When he leaned over to breath into Jensen’s mouth, Jim took over the compressions. Jared didn’t have the words to express his gratitude but he shifted to be closer to Jensen, resting his forehead against Jensen’s between rounds of breathing. He didn’t know how to do it but he closed his eyes and reached for the part of himself that had been connected to Jensen.
“Breathe for me Jensen,” he whispered. When Jim finished his compressions, Jared breathing for his love, still trying to find the echo of his beating heart. “Don’t give up on us,” he said against Jensen’s lips.
He felt the press of the others, felt Jim and Misha beside him. He felt Christian - and through Jensen’s oldest friend - he felt the whole of the Martrikian race and their will to sustain their king. It sparked something in his mind, from the tablet Jim had asked him to read earlier.
The life of the king is the life of his people. Where he lives, they live. Where he dies, they die. And where he loves, they love. Thus, the Mayuon is the heart of the people and their king.
The Mayuon was connected to the king and to his people. The life he felt spark within him, the breath and beat of every living Martrikian was his because he continued to live. The Martrikian people were his to command.
Even the king.
“Jensen, I won’t let you go,” he said suddenly, feeling the strength of understanding. “You will live.”
Jim finished compressions again and as Jared pressed his lips to Jensen’s, forcing air into his lungs, he pushed with every ounce of will in him, filling the spot in his soul that had been Jensen’s heartbeat.
He wrenched himself away a moment before Jensen gasped, air filling his lungs on his own this time, his eyes wide as he looked up at Jared. There was a moment of stillness, of absolute silence as Jared stared down at the king then Jensen raised a shaking hand to his face. “Mayuon.”
Jared pulled Jensen up off the floor and into an embrace tight enough that he could feel the steady beat of Jensen’s heart that echoed the rhythm of Jared’s soul. He held him until his tears were dried and then opened his eyes to see the faces of the men sitting next to them. They looked on in astonishment and Jared gave them a weak smile.
When Jensen tried to pull back, he held tight a moment longer before releasing him. Jensen struggled to his feet and Jared staggered after him, taking his hand before the king could move away. Jensen looked down at their entwined fingers and then up at Jared with a smile that made the fear recede to the corners of his mind. He knew they would come back again, in the dark of the night, but Jensen was still alive, still his.
“How?” Christian broke the silence between them and Jared realized they were all waiting for an answer.
“It wasn’t about the king,” Jared said, taking a deep breath. “It was the Mayuon who ended the ceremony. Jim,” he looked at his friend and smiled, “you found the answer. As they live, he lives. And as he loves, they love. As long as Jensen’s people live, he cannot die, not so long as the Mayuon is there to channel their lives through him.”
“You mean,” Christian was fumbling for a way to say it but Misha dropped a hand on his friend’s shoulder.
“Because we loved Jensen and he loved Jared that we gave him the power to keep Jensen alive.”
Jared nodded.
“What sort of damn fool thought that up?” Jim demanded.
Jared laughed then, releasing Jensen’s hand for a moment to embrace the old man. He and Jim were barely a part of these people, but Jim had to have felt what Jared had today and no doubt it had left him stumbling for footing.
“Thank you.”
Jim pushed him away with a brush shake of his head but Jared knew the older man was just embarrassed about the show of affection. When he felt a hand in his again, he turned to Jensen and couldn’t help but lean in to kiss him.
A cheer went up from the Martrikian people and Jensen smiled against Jared’s lips. When he pulled back, Jensen kept Jared’s hand in his own as he turned to address his people.
“The Mayuon has given us hope for our future,” he called out to the assembled crowd. “It is only hope though. In two days time, the Earthlings will come back to claim our home. We will not let them take what is ours!”
A roar when up from the crowd and Jared found his own voice was a part of it. These were his people now. Jim with his gnarled hands and country style, Misha and his intelligence and quirky humor, Christian with his code of honor and the strength of his convictions that carried him through the worst of trials, and Jensen, the king of the Martrikian people who had long ago given life to his own people; these were his family.
“It two days time, they will find a fight such as they have never faced. We will stand and we will fight and we will remind them of the glory of Martrikas!”
The responding noise was deafening and Jared would have covered his ears if Jensen hadn’t pulled him in, kissing him in front of the entire population. Instead, he wrapped his arms around Jensen, let his senses focus in on his beloved and the rest of the world was left far behind.
When Jensen pulled back, it was only far enough to look up at Jared. “For always, Mayuon,” he said barely loud enough to Jared to hear.
“For always, Mayuon.”
Author: hunters_retreat
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: NC-17
Warning: momentary death ... what? it's an honest warning!
Word Count: 9000
Summary: Jared never believed anyone would be crazy enough to fund his research, but every crazier things had happened. Like finding that his belief in an ancestor race was true and he'd found their home planet. Or that the men he'd traveled with had turned out to be mercenaries, ready to kill the king and his people so that they could go back to Earth and start bringing people in to 'colonize' their new home. Or that Jared could fall so completely in love with the king who hated him for the part he played in the mercenaries finding his people. With a race against time, can Jared find a way to stop the ancient ceremony that would kill Jensen and his people? Will he be able to stop the mercenaries in their plot to destroy the Martrikian people? And will he find a way to show Jensen that he really is the man he believed he was when they fell in love?
Author's Note: Written for the J2-everafter challenge. My prompt was the retelling of the movie Atlantis. :P In space, of course.
“You never had any idea what you were doing, did you?”
Jared was pressed back against the wall, his body held in place by the man before him. Angry man. Very, very angry native who had every right to be pissed at him.
“We were looking for a new place to live! I thought if we could follow our own origins that we might find a habitable home for our race. I never imagined anything like this,” Jared pleaded with Jensen to believe him. “Your Highness,” he used his title hoping the formality would help the king see his sincerity. “Jensen, I would never have brought this down on you and your people.”
Jensen glared at him with jade eyes that had turned unearthly green since the ceremony had begun. It didn’t matter what Jared had intended. Jensen’s life was tied to his people. Without an heir to rule when he died, the entire Martrikian race would die when Jensen did. It was hardcoded into their bodies and Jared had unwittingly been the key to their doom.
“Jensen, please, I would do anything to stop this.”
Jensen took a step back and Jared nearly fell to his knees without Jensen to hold him up.
“There is nothing left to do. I will die and my people with me. You and your kind will have a new home. I hope you find it as hospitable as we once did.”
Jared closed his eyes at the bitter, defeated sound of Jensen’s voice. He was right though; there was nothing they could do. Millennia before Jared had even been born, Jensen’s people had done this to themselves. The ruling king had wanted to ensure his line so he’d had every person in his kingdom marked with the same genetic coding. Generation to generation, they passed down the code that would enable nanotechnology to kill them all should they fail the king and his family. Generations of war between feuding nations had brought them to the brink of extinction where they no longer knew how to undo the wrongs of their fathers. They had learned peace and compassion and no longer called upon their kings for a proof of their humility and faithfulness. They no longer asked for the ceremony that Jared had started; the one that Jensen had no way of ending without forfeiting his life and those of his people.
“There has to be a way to stop this,” Jared said with a deep breath. “There has to.”
“Your people are far more technologically advanced than my own Jared,” Jensen said softly. “Once upon a time, we traveled the stars and left our mark on the universe. We planted life just to see how it would grow. It has been long generations since we stopped looking to the stars though and began seeking the knowledge of the inner.”
“There is the Library of Indaya,” a dark haired man spoke up.
“Misha, there is nothing in the Library that can help us,” Jensen said with a soft shake of his head.
“No, there is nothing in the Library that we could use to help us. He is a scientist,” Misha said as he looked at Jared. “They might be able to read the language there.”
“They have no need to save us, Misha.”
The dark haired man walked to Jensen and put his arms on Jensen’s shoulders. “He is Mayuon, we all feel it.”
Jensen closed his eyes and Jared couldn’t help but take a step closer, no matter how much Jensen hated him. “I want to try,” he said softly. “Please, let me try to fix what I’ve done.”
Silence filled the room and for a few minutes Jared feared that Jensen would deny him the chance. If the King told Misha no then it would be the end of it. Misha would not show him this Library and there would be no chance to save Jensen, to save them all.
Jensen’s fists tightened and relaxed as he stood, head down and taking deep breaths. His shoulders tensed before he rolled them and looked up. When Jensen looked at him, there was steel in his eyes. “We will take you to the Library of Indaya and then we shall see what your heart is truly made of.”
Jared wanted to declare his intentions but he nodded instead, afraid of what he’d actually say if he spoke at that moment. I love you seemed just as likely to pop out of his mouth as what did I do to make you hate me so much?
For Jensen did hate him and not because of the mission that had brought him to their planet. Jared had been a simple archeologist with strange beliefs until the day someone had decided to fund his research and send him out among the stars to follow them. He’d believed in an ancient race of beings who had given life to Earth. He’d believed that by following them into the stars, they might be able to find a new way of life; help the human race find a way to live before their own planet could no longer support them.
What he’d found was a tribal people, less advanced than the stories of the clannish peoples of his own planet. They’d lost their way among the stars and were a shadow of what they had once been. War had dealt a death blow to their way of life, but under their king they had found a way to survive and flourish in the green of the wilds.
Now though, they had no way to stand against the men that had come with Jared; mercenaries who had no higher allegiance than the credits they were paid. They had come with the intention of settling a new planet and if that meant killing the men and women living there then they were prepared to kill them all. And Jensen’s people had made it easy for them; they only had to kill the King and the rest of the people would die with him.
In the first few weeks with them, Jared had grown close to the king. They had shared a passion for exploration and Jared had loved Jensen’s dry wit and sense of humor. Jensen had laughed over Jared’s stories of Earth and they had explored the texts that Jensen had; finding their common origins together. It had been natural when they had fallen in bed together. It had been terrifying to wake the next morning to find Jensen’s eyes turned cold.
Captain Lehne had shown his true colors that night as Jensen had bedded Jared, but though Jared had been thrown in with the natives, Jensen didn’t believe his innocence. Jared didn’t know what he’d done to cause Jensen to label him a traitor as he did the mercenaries, but he did. Jared would probably die before he found the truth, but he was going to die trying anyway.
When Jensen turned to leave, a handful of his faithful servants with him, Jared followed with the only member of the ship’s crew who hadn’t betrayed them. The ship’s mechanic - and part time anthropology enthusiast - was an old friend of his father’s and he alone stood with Jared when the others decided on this course of action. Jim, along with Jared, had been forced into the rooms of the King’s palace to tell the King of his impending execution at the hands on his own people’s technology.
**
“How long will it take to reach the Library of Indaya?” Jared asked as they stopped for the night.
Jensen had brought a small party with him and they were all settling in around the fire. Jim was with them, making friends and spreading good will. It was Jared they seemed unable to comprehend and Jared alone that bore their distaste.
Jensen was staring out into the jungles around them. Buried beneath the scrub brush and dirt were steel girders that held the city in the air. Once it had been a looming metropolis the likes of which Jared had never seen. Now, the metal was covered in growing vines and greenery; only the memory of gleaming glass cities was left in the wake of the devastation. The people lived in the open now, under metal roofs grown green as they slept covered in furs to keep out the worst of the night chill that crept in through the monstrous windows that had once held elaborate stained glass.
“We will be there tomorrow,” Jensen said softly. “By noon, we should reach the great bridge and it is just on the other side. We will see then if you can find anything useful.”
“What is the Library of Indaya?” Jared asked, pressing his advantage while Jensen seemed to be in a talking mood. Since the night they’d spent together, Jensen had barely spoken to him.
Jensen sighed. “It was once a great university. People came from all over the world to study there. Our knowledge was collected and it was hoped that one day we would share it with your people. It is why it is of no use to us. We speak your language, but we do not write or read in it. It has been many generations since the Mudana language was taught to our young.”
“Why did they stop teaching it?”
“My ancestor - the same one who decided he should damn our people to this fate - declared that Mudana was in our blood, that the language was a part of our tongue and that there was no reason to learn the written word. He defeated any resistance to the idea and within two generations the knowledge died out. I believe he wanted to be certain that only his heirs would be able to read the words of the Mudana.”
“But you don’t.”
“For generations we did, but my father died when I was a small child. He had begun teaching me, but I didn’t learn enough to continue on my own.”
“I’m sorry,” Jared said softly.
Jensen shrugged. “It is an old wound, and one not worth concern,” he said as he turned to look at Jared. “This city was once our crowning jewel and the home of my throne, but I moved it to the lesser city when I came of age. It will be good to see my childhood home once more.”
“I am honored to get the chance to see it.”
Jensen watched him for a moment before he looked back out into the forest. “We will see tomorrow if it is an honor, or if you are like the rest of the rabble you have brought with you.”
**
The bridge was a steel structure that groaned and protested as they passed over it. Jared could imagine old Earth cars crossing over it but he had no idea what these people would have used. When Jared asked, Jensen had given a small shrug of his shoulders. It was the closest thing to conversation they’d had all day.
The Library was located on the outskirts of the city. Wildlife took over most of what had been the largest city Jared had ever seen. The library itself was massive and Jared sat before it a good ten minutes before he was able to get to the door. Though the glass in all the buildings they’d seen had been destroyed, the windows of the library had been made of sterner stuff. It left the inside of the library intact and free of vermin. As they walked inside, Misha pulled at one of the great curtains and it came crumbling down around him, letting loose a cloud of dust that sent Jared into a fit of coughing.
“Are you alright, Mayuon?” Another of Jensen’s guards asked.
“Mayuon?” Jared asked. Misha had spoken the word the day before but Jared was an archeologist and not a linguist. He had no reference for how to break it down and decipher it on his own. At least not with the time constraint they had.
“Are you well, Jared?” Jensen asked before the other man could answer.
“I am, but what is this Mayuon?”
“Jensen,” the other man started but Jensen didn’t let him finish.
“No, Christian. Maybe you feel Mayuon but I don’t recognize it. I refuse to recognize it. He is a betrayer and nothing he has done so far gives him that right.”
Jared wanted to scream at Jensen, to understand why he wouldn’t believe that Jared hadn’t known what the other men were doing but he held his tongue. Jensen had labeled him along with the others that had come with him, though Jared and Jim had been thrown aside with Jensen’s people when they refused to cooperate. He couldn’t blame Jensen for that. The captain - a man Jared had every reason to trust until then - had found a way to start an age old ceremony called the Ritual of Kingsbond. At its inception, the ceremony had been used by the kings of old to prove their worth. Jensen’s father had died early though and he hadn’t taught his son how to stop the ceremony. If they couldn’t find the information, Jensen’s heart would be stopped by the technology that was supposed to affirm his place as king.
“You have the choice to ignore it Jensen, but I don’t. I will follow your lead as I always have, but he is Mayuon and I will treat him as such.”
Christian turned to help the others uncover the other windows and Jensen glared at Jared before walking away. Jared closed his eye and sighed before following Christian the other way.
**
At mid-day they took a break to eat. They sat outside on the front steps of the great library and Jared continued to scroll through the information he’d found. Jensen was right; most of the information had been meant to share with his own people and it had been translated to English. There was still too much to learn to even begin asking the how of it all.
“You should eat, Mayuon,” Christian said as he brought bread over to Jared.
Jared smiled at him and took it, but he didn’t put down the tablet he was working with. It wasn’t the information that would stop the ceremony yet, but it was a place to start.
“I am, I just … we’re running out of time. I know you’re aware of it but there are only two of us that can understand the language. I just … how can I stop when every minute I take, is a minute closer to his death?”
“A break will help you see better,” Christian reminded him. “It will clear your head.”
Jared turned to look at the king and let out a deep breath. Jensen was staring out into the jungle again. His people lived in the jungle; they thrived there in ways their people hadn’t in generations. It was Jensen who had convinced his people to abandon the old ways that had tied them to decaying cities and led them into a new way of life. He was more at home in the wilds than in the cities and Jared could see it in the people themselves. The older generations were still to be found loitering in the old buildings but Jensen was the one that made them see their future led them down another path from their forefathers. They slept under the roofs of the ruins of their once proud cities, but they lived under the canopy of trees.
It made Jared wish he understood more about life like that. He’d been sheltered his entire life. He’d been born into a family of scholars and had been expected to take the same path. When he’d begun talking about the ancient aliens who had to have spawned them and a desire to search them out, his family had been aghast at the idea of setting foot on a starship to do that sort of fieldwork. Jared had laughed at their fears and felt validated when his funding came through. Now, he wished he’d stayed in his library. Without him, Lehne would never have gotten this far and Jensen wouldn’t be in danger.
“I can’t stop thinking about what we’ve done,” he said, looking away from Jensen. “I don’t expect you to believe me anymore than he does, but Jim and I aren’t like the mercenaries that brought us here. I didn’t know they were like that. To be honest, I thought I was chasing a dream. I never would have imagined finding you like this.”
“Like what?” Christian asked. His voice was gentle though Jared had seen the man in his anger. He’d managed to down six of the captain’s men when he’d found out they’d started the ceremony. It made Jared grateful that he, on some level, was on Jared’s side.
“I … I never would have thought you’d have abandoned your technology.”
“And if you had?” Misha asked, bringing over a bowl of warmed soup to Jared.
“I never would have come,” he said honestly. “My people have a nasty history of using technology to take from people who have less might than we do. I would never have traveled here with men and women I didn’t know. I would never have brought this onto you.”
“Why?” Christian asked. “Because he took you to his bed?”
Jared blushed at the open way Christian spoke of it, but he shook his head. “No. I … there are so many implications to what we’ve found here. That part of it hasn’t even come into it yet. What Captain Lehne and his crew did was wrong. What we should have learned from the way we’ve destroyed the Earth was that we couldn’t continue doing things the way we always have. The universe won’t keep accommodating us when we run out of space. I thought we’d learned better than this, but …”
Jared looked up towards the sky and let out a deep sigh. The Earth skies had been polluted long before Jared had been born. It was a constant reminder of a world that had been allowed to grow, whereas his own world had been destroyed by human consumption. “I’m sorry. I won’t let this happen to your world too.”
He looked past Misha and his soup and handed Christian back the bread he’d given him.
“I have work to do.”
They stared after him as he headed back into the Library but they left him be. An hour later he found food left at his table but he didn’t see who brought it in for him.
He would have been surprised at the look of fondness that crossed Jensen’s face as he sat the food down for him and was ignored because of Jared’s attention to his cause.
**
The lights had died down long before Jared was ready to stop working. He convinced them to give him a torch and headed back into the library with Jim not far behind him. They both felt the urgency of their task but even Jim was smart enough to call it quits when he was too tired. Jared refused.
He refused to be the one to let Jensen down, even if he’d begun to doubt what had been growing between them. Yes, he knew in his heart what he felt but could he have been in love so quickly when Jensen seemed to regret that they’d ever spent time together? He couldn’t get his head wrapped around that question but his heart was staying firmly in the ‘yes you can’ side of the argument.
He’d heard Jensen moving around the Library talking to Jim from time to time. He’d even heard Jensen and Christian get into an argument in the strange language of theirs. Misha had been watching, amused at the two. Jared didn’t understand Misha any better than the others. Christian was easier. He said what he thought. He might not like what had happened, but he was clearly on Jared’s side now and not even his king could naysay it. Jared was grateful for that at least.
He rubbed at his tired eyes before setting down the tablet. “It’s here somewhere,” he said to himself.
The light went out behind him and Jared nearly jumped when someone grabbed him. “Calm yourself, Jared. It is just me,” Jensen said, his grip firm around Jared’s upper arm. “It is late and even you need sleep. You will think better in the morning and see better when the dawn’s light fills the Library again. Come, I have everything ready for you.”
Jared would have told anyone else that he needed more time, but Jensen was there and it was the first time the king had initiated any form of contact.
“I was going to stay up all night,” Jared said as he let Jensen pull him towards the back of the room. He saw the others settled in against the back wall underneath a staircase but Jensen pulled him up the stairs instead of joining them.
Jensen pushed him down onto a mat of heavy furs in a small room off the main passageway and Jared was even more surprised when the king followed him down.
“Jensen?”
“Yes, Mayuon?” Jensen asked as he leaned over Jared’s body. Moonlight streamed in from the window above them and Jared could see Jensen’s smile.
“I don’t … I don’t understand.”
Jensen nodded. “I have waited too long to find my Mayuon to have it taken away now. I wanted to be angry with you for being a part of what would end my life but I know you aren’t like the men that did this to me. The only time I’m not angry is when I’m with you, no matter that I push you away. You have been almost feverish in your attempt to find an answer today and my heart tells me it is because you care and that it is not some ruse that you will use against me before the end. I will have faith that you will prove my heart right, that you will prove Christian right. And if you are not able to stop what has been started, I refuse to die with you not knowing how loved you are, Mayuon.”
He pressed his lips to Jared’s then and the rest of the world dropped away.
Jared didn’t know if he would be able to save Jensen or not, but he would do everything in his power to stop the events that had come to pass. Or he would die trying himself.
**
The next morning Jared woke to the press of warm lips against his skin. Jensen was laying half on top of him and one hand was running over Jared's chest.
"Mayuon," Jensen whispered against his neck.
"What does it mean?" Jared asked breathlessly. There were so many things he needed to know, things he needed to be able to save Jensen and his people, but all he could think of was the burning need to be with Jensen and the way the king looked at him with the same consuming passion that Jared did.
"It means, you are loved," Jensen answered softly. He didn't allow other questions as he pressed Jared back onto the soft furs he'd set out for them the night before.
His kiss was almost desperate and the longing it inspired in Jared reminded him of what was at stake. He could have this-have Jensen- forever if he could just figure out how to save him.
He pushed Jensen back and confusion filled the king's eyes. "I have to find a way to save you," he leaned forward missing Jensen one last time. "I need to get back to my research." He smiled at Jensen and hoped that his words could offset he hurt he saw in the other man. "I will save you and then we can run off and hide between these furs forever if you want. I just have to save you first."
Jensen nodded slowly. "And what if you can't?"
Jared rose from the furs, gathering his clothes around him. "I will."
**
People began arriving at the library slowly at first. A handful of travelers arrived the day after Jared’s promise to Jensen and the king greeted them warmly. He didn’t act like a man with only a few days remaining. As more people came, Jensen grew friendlier and spent his time among them, talking and telling tales. Jared grew more desperate in his readings with Jim never far from his side. In the dark of the night, Jensen would come to him and steal him away from his research - hours after Jim had found his bed - and would talk to him of the world he’d once known and the way his people had fallen from their power. He spoke of the first days in the wilderness, away from the decrepit towers and ruins of the life they’d once known.
His people had been slow to move away from their history but under Jensen’s guiding hands they’d learned to flourish again. What was once a dwindling race had become repopulated with youth and vitality. When Jensen lay beside him each night, Jared knew that the reason they survived was because of Jensen’s conviction and his example. In the month before Jared had set off the ceremony, Jared had seen the king go off with hunting parties to bring meat to their tables or going out to the field with his people to harvest or on scavenging trips to see what they could find in the wild-covered ruins that had been abandoned before his time. Jensen’s people survived because of Jensen and not only because of the nanotechnology that threatened them.
It pushed Jared harder, made him work later and wake earlier, but the answer eluded him. He’d even taken a group of young children and shown them a list of words to look for in the library, but neither Jim nor Jared had found the missing information from the books they brought them. Jared didn’t mention it to Jensen, but the king smiled sadly at him some days and Jared knew he didn’t expect Jared to find a way around it.
“They’ve gone,” Jim said softly over the light of the torches.
When Jared looked up, almost dropping his bowl of stew in surprise as Jim continued.
“Jensen has some of their best trackers watching Lehne and the trackers came back today. Lehne and his company left. You know what that means.”
Jared nodded. “He’ll be back in a few days to clean up the dead bodies and claim the planet for his own.”
“And he’ll kill us for the trouble we caused him.”
Jared let out a deep breath. “We have to stop him Jim. I just … how the hell did this go so wrong?”
Jim let out a snort. “You couldn’t have stopped them Jared. Once they saw the Martrikian, nothing we did could have stopped them from this butchery. Lehne saw that they were technologically weak and decided they were easy prey. He just used us as a way to finish them off cleanly.”
“It would have been quite a battle,” Jensen joined them, startling Jared as he sat next to him. Jensen braced his body so that he was leaning in towards Jared, sharing the warmth of his body as the air grew chill.
“What would have been?”
“We do not have the technology that your people have, but we are not defenseless. Once the ceremony is initiated, I cannot act until it is complete, but we have many ships from our ancestors that would have given Lehne a fight he had not prepared for. It is a shame we will never see that battle. My people would have given him a fight like they had not before seen.”
“We’ll find a way Jensen,” Jared reassured him. “We’ll find a way while you make plans for this battle. I’ll fight with you. Lehne has to be stopped before he can hurt anyone else.”
Jensen smiled, but Jared knew that smile all too well. He was humoring Jared, already accepting his fate and that of his people.
Jared wanted to weep in frustration. Instead, he dug into his stew and returned to the library. When Jensen came to call him back to the warmth of their bed, Jared refused to leave.
He would find a way.
**
“Jared, you have to stop.”
Jared closed his eyes, trying to ignore the lethargy that filled his limbs. He was exhausted and he knew it well enough but the kindness in Jensen’s voice was almost his undoing. Jensen would die if he stopped and yet Jensen called him away anyways, with warm eyes and soft lips and a welcoming heart.
“I just need to look at this one thing.”
“My fathers would not have left this knowledge for anyone to find Jared,” the king said softly.
“What?”
“They would never have shared that information with your people, not matter how they hoped to find them one day.”
“Then why would you bring me here?” Jared demanded. “Why would you let me look if there was no hope?”
Jensen gave him a small smile. “There was a little hope, that perhaps you could divine the nature of the technology, but I did not bring you here to save me. I came to test your heart. You said you were not one of them, though you traveled the stars with them and broke bread with them. You spoke their language and you wore their strange apparel. You led them to us and you showed them the Ritual of the Kingsbond. You were Mayuon and I had no way of knowing if you’d played my heart false, or if you truly had led these men to us unknowing of their designs.”
Jared let out a shaky breath. “So what? All this time you’ve been waiting for me to fail?”
“No,” Jensen said, coming forward to take Jared’s hands in his own. “I have been watching to see if you were - truly - Mayuon.”
“I don’t know what that means,” he said, his voice breaking as he spoke. “Why does it even matter, if you die?”
“Because I will die and two days after they kill me the nanites will look for my heir. I have no blood heir, but I have you, Mayuon. If they find my true Mayuon it will stop the destruction of my people. So long as you live, and you produce an heir for my throne, the Martrikian race will survive.”
“Jensen, I-”
“I know you don’t want this Jared and I wish I could have lived long enough to show you the true beauty of my people, but I know you will defend them well. While you have researched, I have given Christian and Misha all the knowledge I have of our people and the technology they need to fight for our home.”
Jared understood the acceptance he’d seen in Jensen’s eyes now. He would never have accepted the death of his people, but when Christian had called him Mayuon Jensen had seen a way out for his people. He would die but his fate wouldn’t be shared by his people.
“I can’t do this without you,” Jared said, defeated.
“You are the only one who can, Mayuon,” Jensen said, pulling him close. “Beloved,” Jensen pressed his lips to Jared’s bowed temple and Jared wasn’t able to hold back the sob that had been threatening.
He was pulled away from the library then and Jared followed Jensen blindly, aware only of Jensen as he led the way. He wasn’t surprised to be pushed back onto the furs that had been their bed for so many nights now. How many? Had it been two weeks? Three? Surely it had been a lifetime, as weary as he felt.
“You have given more of yourself to this cause than I could ever have believed,” Jensen said softly as he began pulling Jared’s clothes off. “You have been faithful and loyal and I cannot believe that I have been so lucky to find you.”
He kissed Jared then, the soft sweep of his lips before he licked across the seam of Jared’s mouth, asking for permission. Jared gave it, opening to Jensen, unable to think of anything but the man who held himself so carefully above him.
“I love you,” Jared whispered against Jensen’s lips.
Jensen pulled back enough to look at him, his smile reaching his eyes this time. “I know, Mayuon. I can feel it, as can all of my people. Mayuon. In your tongue it would mean soulmate, though that is too simple a word for what you are to my people. You are my mate, the person who will rule my people when I no longer can. You are my guardian and my most protected. You are my beloved and no matter how little time we have life, know that I have loved you beyond rational thought and with every beat of my heart and breath of my lungs.”
Jensen leaned closer again, whispering. “When the ceremony ends and my heart stops, I will die knowing that my people are well cared for and that I have been loved in return.”
He silenced any words Jared might have said by kissing him deeply. Jensen’s hands were on his skin then and somehow they were both bare and Jared moaned at the press of Jensen’s hard body against his.
When Jensen entered him, Jared felt the world still around him. Every touch of Jensen’s hands, every press of skin and flesh imprinted on his mind as he felt the full weight of what it meant to love Jensen. Unexpectedly and unexplainably, Jared could feel Jensen’s love. He could feel the commitment Jensen had to his people and the joy he felt at having Jared with him. He felt the brotherhood of the company of men Jensen call his own; the honor and respect he held for Christian who was both childhood friend and confident, the humor and intelligence that Misha shared, and the unlooked for father figure that Jim had become when Jared had been too busy in his books to notice.
“Jensen,” he gasped at the connection between them and saw the way Jensen’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Jared, Mayuon,” he spoke with awe in his voice and Jared wanted to ask what it meant but the heat between them was too much and orgasm crashed over his senses, his and Jensen’s. He was shaking with the intensity of the physical act and with the rawness of the emotional connection, but exhaustion saved him from himself then. As Jensen pulled gently from his body and pulled him close, Jared fell into fatigued slumber.
**
When Jared woke Jensen was gone. He sat up quickly - too quickly for his shattered brain that began to spin - but realized quickly that Jensen was simply away from his bed and not gone for good. He let out a deep breath and that helped to still his head.
“Mayuon?”
Jared opened his eyes to find Misha moving towards him. “The King asked me to bring these to you. He said you had woken weary. This will help.”
Jared looked at the mug he brought forward and took another breath before reaching out and taking it. “Where is the king this morning?” he asked.
“Among his people. They have all arrived, at least those who could travel.”
“How did they know?” Jared asked.
Misha smiled. “For all that your people have advanced over us in your technology I believe that we still have much to teach you. We feel it. We felt the moment the ceremony began and we knew where to travel to find him. King Jensen is always in our thoughts and in our hearts, as you are now.”
“I am?”
“You are Mayuon. Christian has called you so and Jensen has explained what that means to us. Did you believe we would not feel you too?”
Jared shook his head. “I haven’t honestly had time to think about that.”
Misha nodded. “It’s good that you have me then. I will make sure you are well cared for, Jared Padalecki.”
He left then and Jared sipped from the mug slowly. It was warm and sweet, like honeyed tea though the taste was earthier than anything he’d ever had. He felt revived after a few minutes and set the mug aside to find his clothes. Someone had come in the morning and left new clothes for him. They weren’t his usual clothes though the style wasn’t that far off. The pants could have passed for his own, except that the fabric was foreign. The shirt that had been left was a pale cream color with billowing sleeves and pale green ribbons that hung loose or were used to wrap the sleeves tight against his arms when there was work to be done. His boots had been cleaned and left behind as well as his jacket though he knew he wouldn’t need it today. Someone had wanted to dress him in their own garb but had wanted to give him the look of his own people if he wanted it.
After he shoved his feet in his boots, he took the mug and headed down to the lower level of the library. To his surprise it was empty except for Jim.
“They all wanted to be with Jensen today,” Jim said before Jared could ask.
Jared wanted to curse the boys who had been helping them for abandoning their research when it was obvious the ceremony was coming close to the end but he could feel the call himself. He wanted nothing more than to find his lover and bury his nose in Jensen’s neck but he couldn’t allow himself to leave his search just yet.
“This tea,” Jim said softly, holding up his mug, “it’s supposed to make you one of them.” He took a sip and sighed. “My fifth glass this morning. If Christian had told us about this before we might have been able to stop all this.”
“Why?”
“He offered me the first mug this morning. It was an honor, he said, to know me. Then he pulled this tea out and said if I took it I would be one of them. I would live and die as one of them.” Jared watched with wide eyes as Jim took another drink. “And I drank five mugs. If we’d been able to dose Lehne and his men before this they’d never have dared to bother Jensen.”
“No,” Jensen said, coming up from behind them. “He’d have locked me in a cell to ensure my protection and killed my people instead. I will remain grateful that we have offered it only to friends who have proven their true hearts.”
Jensen smiled up at Jared and looked him over quickly. “You seem better rested Mayuon.”
Jared couldn’t help but smile at his words. There was a joy in Jensen’s heart that Jared couldn’t refute. “I am. The tea Misha gave me helped as well.”
“I must be among my people this morning, but will you walk with me in the afternoon?”
Jared nodded. “Of course. I’ll be here when you’re ready.”
Jensen left them with only a brief kiss for Jared but Jim was smirking at Jared when Jensen walked away.
“I never took you for an intergalactic playboy,” Jim teased.
“Shut up, Jim,” he said with a roll of his eyes. He sat at the desk he’d claimed as him own during the past few weeks but looked up when Jim dropped a tablet onto his desk.
“I think you need to read this Jared. At first I thought it was more of the same sort of history we’ve been seeing about the past monarchs but then they began talking about the Mayuon. I admit I read more of it than I would have if you hadn’t been dubbed Mayuon as we walked here but I wanted to understand what they were saying. I don’t know if it means anything, but it’s worth a deeper read and I think you’ll understand far better than I will.”
“Thank you,” Jared said softly as he took the tablet and began searching it. He looked up then as he heard Jim shifting in his chair to look through another tablet. “Jim, thank you. Not just for this but for all of it. You could have stayed with the others and lived a happy, rich life.”
“They might have paid me well, but I would never have been happy Jared. You aren’t the only one who saw what they were doing and wanted to stop it. I don’t plan on stepping aside and letting Lehne get away with murdering a people. If I have to stand here by myself and fight him I will.”
“Never alone, Skiocher,” Christian said as he came into the room.
“Skiocher?”
“Scholar, or something like that,” Jim said with a shake of his head at Christian. The two had developed an odd relationship that Jared couldn’t decipher. Christian taught Jim about their culture and Jim shared his own and in between bouts of teachings they laughed and worked and generally shared thoughts with one another. It was almost like professional mentoring but with a father and son element to it that Jared wasn’t sure either noticed.
“Honor Warrior,” Christian corrected. “Once upon a time, our people learned that the only warriors we should know where those who were the best educated.”
“An educated man has little need of war,” Jim stated.
“So we learned and so we were able to live peacefully for so long.”
Jared wanted to shake his head at the amazement he felt. There was so much to these people that he wanted to learn and share but he had too little time now.
“Read Jared,” Jim said softly. Jared wasn’t sure how he’d known what Jared was feeling, that his heart was beginning to build with the pain and guilt of his unwitting part in all of this, but he was grateful of the chance to bury himself in something besides his grief.
He turned to the tablet and didn’t notice the look that passed between Jim and Christian.
**
Jared slammed the tablet down with all the force he could muster. It wasn’t enough to damage it but Jared felt like he’d lost the strength to move if it wasn’t somehow connected to saving Jensen. He rubbed at tired eyes, wondering why Jim had given him this one to read. Yes, there was talk of the king and his Mayuon and it certainly explained some of what was happening between Jared and Jensen but there was nothing in there to save Jensen. Jared cursed himself because he knew instead of skimming it as he’d been doing with the others that he’d read too much of it, taken up too much time on this things that ran between them instead of moving on to find another tablet to stop the ceremony.
He looked at the desk Jim had taken over but the other man was absent. In fact, the whole of the library was still. There were no whispered words or hushed answers. There was no movement, not the powering on and off of tablets or the swish of pages turned in the ancient tomes that had been collected there.
Jared closed his eyes and his heart was suddenly heavy; with grief, with loss. He knew he’d run out of time. What he felt wasn’t his own, but Jensen reaching out to him in some way that Jared didn’t truly understand but that he’d just been reading about. He ran from the room, ignoring the deadened thud of his feet as they echoed through the library.
He threw open the door and ran. No one was outside in the main plaza but Jared moved on instinct and fear. Jensen wouldn’t spend the last moments of his life in the old cities, but among the trees where he’d led his people. He’d want to die among them there, surrounded by the wilds that he loved.
Urgency gave him a speed he’d never before possessed and his heart led him unerringly towards the king and his people. Jared knew there was a meeting place not far from the library but he’d never thought to ask where it was, any more than he’d taken time away from his reading to go see it. He had to trust that the bond that tied him to Jensen was leading him to his beloved.
The forest itself was quiet, as though it too had understood the importance of the moment. The sounds of Jared’s passage through the underbrush were too loud to his ears, as was the beating of his heart. Tears stung his eyes as he ran, though he never faltered in his path. Jensen was dying and Jared didn’t know how to save him. He was dying with his people there to witness, but without his Mayuon.
“Jensen!” he screamed the name ahead of him and the forest echoed it back around him. He had to be there in time. Jensen had been right that night when he’d come for Jared again. He couldn’t die without knowing how loved he was and though Jared had tried to convey it in the time they’d had, he needed to be there to say it again, to hold Jensen again.
He didn’t have time for the rest of his grief yet and he knew time wouldn’t give him that. He would grieve for Jensen, but the Martrikian people would need him too soon. There wasn’t time enough in the universe to grieve for his beloved.
He crashed through a thick layer of low hanging branches and found himself standing in a clearing surrounded by Jensen’s people. He couldn’t see Jensen but he could feel him close. He ran towards the north end of the clearing and the people opened before him, giving him a straight path to the king.
Jensen was lying on a bed of grasses, Misha, Christian, and Jim sitting around him, talking softly. Jared could feel his heart stuttering before realizing it wasn’t his heart that was failing; it was Jensen’s.
He ran faster, skidding to his knees as he reached Jensen’s side. “Jensen,” he whispered the name as he leaned down to press a kiss to the man’s lips.
“Mayuon,” Jensen answered, raising a hand to Jared’s neck, holding him close.
“Why didn’t you let me know?”
“I didn’t want you to see this,” Jensen admitted. “You would know I was gone, but I didn’t want this to be your last memory of me.”
“It won’t be,” Jared lied.
Jensen smiled weakly at him and Jared could feel the life draining from Jensen. “I won’t say that I loved you at first sight,” Jensen said softly, “but I was fascinated by you immediately. It didn’t take long to know that you were in my heart.”
Jared smiled though his lips quivered as he fought back tears. “It was mutual, Mayuon. When you reached for me, all I wanted was to be here, with you, for always.”
“For always, Mayuon.”
He pulled at Jared’s neck and he kissed him again until he felt Jensen’s lips go slack. The heart that he’d felt beating so erratically was gone now and Jared sobbed, pressing his forehead against Jensen’s. He heard a cry go out among the people behind him but he couldn’t spare the energy to focus on them. He felt hands on his shoulders, knew it was Christian, but he couldn’t move.
“Jensen, no,” he begged.
Christian pulled at him, trying to comfort him but Jared pushed him away. “Jensen, no.”
“No,” he said looking up at Jim. “I won’t let him go.” He did the only thing he knew to do. He couldn’t keep it up for long and he knew the reality, that his actions probably wouldn’t save Jensen, but he started compressions on Jensen’s chest.
“Jared,” Jim breathed his name and Jared ignored it.
“It stopped his heart. It won’t keep it stopped,” he said. He didn’t stop him movements even though he didn’t know if he’d spoken a lie or not. He had to hold onto something. He had to do something.
When he leaned over to breath into Jensen’s mouth, Jim took over the compressions. Jared didn’t have the words to express his gratitude but he shifted to be closer to Jensen, resting his forehead against Jensen’s between rounds of breathing. He didn’t know how to do it but he closed his eyes and reached for the part of himself that had been connected to Jensen.
“Breathe for me Jensen,” he whispered. When Jim finished his compressions, Jared breathing for his love, still trying to find the echo of his beating heart. “Don’t give up on us,” he said against Jensen’s lips.
He felt the press of the others, felt Jim and Misha beside him. He felt Christian - and through Jensen’s oldest friend - he felt the whole of the Martrikian race and their will to sustain their king. It sparked something in his mind, from the tablet Jim had asked him to read earlier.
The life of the king is the life of his people. Where he lives, they live. Where he dies, they die. And where he loves, they love. Thus, the Mayuon is the heart of the people and their king.
The Mayuon was connected to the king and to his people. The life he felt spark within him, the breath and beat of every living Martrikian was his because he continued to live. The Martrikian people were his to command.
Even the king.
“Jensen, I won’t let you go,” he said suddenly, feeling the strength of understanding. “You will live.”
Jim finished compressions again and as Jared pressed his lips to Jensen’s, forcing air into his lungs, he pushed with every ounce of will in him, filling the spot in his soul that had been Jensen’s heartbeat.
He wrenched himself away a moment before Jensen gasped, air filling his lungs on his own this time, his eyes wide as he looked up at Jared. There was a moment of stillness, of absolute silence as Jared stared down at the king then Jensen raised a shaking hand to his face. “Mayuon.”
Jared pulled Jensen up off the floor and into an embrace tight enough that he could feel the steady beat of Jensen’s heart that echoed the rhythm of Jared’s soul. He held him until his tears were dried and then opened his eyes to see the faces of the men sitting next to them. They looked on in astonishment and Jared gave them a weak smile.
When Jensen tried to pull back, he held tight a moment longer before releasing him. Jensen struggled to his feet and Jared staggered after him, taking his hand before the king could move away. Jensen looked down at their entwined fingers and then up at Jared with a smile that made the fear recede to the corners of his mind. He knew they would come back again, in the dark of the night, but Jensen was still alive, still his.
“How?” Christian broke the silence between them and Jared realized they were all waiting for an answer.
“It wasn’t about the king,” Jared said, taking a deep breath. “It was the Mayuon who ended the ceremony. Jim,” he looked at his friend and smiled, “you found the answer. As they live, he lives. And as he loves, they love. As long as Jensen’s people live, he cannot die, not so long as the Mayuon is there to channel their lives through him.”
“You mean,” Christian was fumbling for a way to say it but Misha dropped a hand on his friend’s shoulder.
“Because we loved Jensen and he loved Jared that we gave him the power to keep Jensen alive.”
Jared nodded.
“What sort of damn fool thought that up?” Jim demanded.
Jared laughed then, releasing Jensen’s hand for a moment to embrace the old man. He and Jim were barely a part of these people, but Jim had to have felt what Jared had today and no doubt it had left him stumbling for footing.
“Thank you.”
Jim pushed him away with a brush shake of his head but Jared knew the older man was just embarrassed about the show of affection. When he felt a hand in his again, he turned to Jensen and couldn’t help but lean in to kiss him.
A cheer went up from the Martrikian people and Jensen smiled against Jared’s lips. When he pulled back, Jensen kept Jared’s hand in his own as he turned to address his people.
“The Mayuon has given us hope for our future,” he called out to the assembled crowd. “It is only hope though. In two days time, the Earthlings will come back to claim our home. We will not let them take what is ours!”
A roar when up from the crowd and Jared found his own voice was a part of it. These were his people now. Jim with his gnarled hands and country style, Misha and his intelligence and quirky humor, Christian with his code of honor and the strength of his convictions that carried him through the worst of trials, and Jensen, the king of the Martrikian people who had long ago given life to his own people; these were his family.
“It two days time, they will find a fight such as they have never faced. We will stand and we will fight and we will remind them of the glory of Martrikas!”
The responding noise was deafening and Jared would have covered his ears if Jensen hadn’t pulled him in, kissing him in front of the entire population. Instead, he wrapped his arms around Jensen, let his senses focus in on his beloved and the rest of the world was left far behind.
When Jensen pulled back, it was only far enough to look up at Jared. “For always, Mayuon,” he said barely loud enough to Jared to hear.
“For always, Mayuon.”