Currently Playing: Skillet - Will You Be There?
"When the sky turns a hideous black color, Hell will rise up, and Heaven will fall...In a final clash between darkness and light, this world will end. Phase three, begin..."
"Come, come and find me, Sakuuya-chan. Come and find me, in the place where the Saviour lyes," Kira's words continued to echo in the very deepest recesses of my mind as I continued to gaze out the window. There was something, almost like a warning tugging at the backs of my consciousness, but every attempt I made at trying to grasp it, or make sense of it, and it would vanish like a dandelion tuff on the wind. Ace was gone, Logan was gone, Max was gone, Rae was gone, everyone was gone. Either killed or having died. The bloodred moon glowing maliciously in the night sky, who's way was an inky almost oily black. My room was silent, nothing heard but the wind outside, and the uneven beat of my saddened heart.
I bowed my head for a moment, whispering a silent prayer to the night air. An wishing Rae's and everyone else's spirit well, praying for them to rest in peace before then bringing my head up, gazing harshly into the distant horizon. As in one lithe movement I had returned to my feet, still keeping my gaze unwavering on the horizon.
"You know what you must do, you know the answer to this yourself. Now hurry, Sakuuya, hurry," urged a soft female voice in the backs of my mind.
Closing my eyes I folded my arms across my chest, an orb of light beginning to form there, as with a quick snap of both my arms, the sphere of light soared into the dark sky splitting into several smaller collections. Which then flashed out like a candle in the wind. I reopened my eyes and glanced back into the night atmosphere, eyes returning to a more sullen rather than angry expression. A soft sigh escaped from my lips. "I understand.."
There was no more denying it, I knew what I had to do, and what my destiny was. There was no chance in running away from it now, not to mention that now there was so much more worth fighting for. Right, because fighting to save the whole world just wasn't enough already. -Sighs.- Iie, I understood what I had to do, and while a part of me was completely against it, there was another part, more stronger than the rest that was tugging and pratically screaming at me that it was time to correct the wrongs that had been done. The hardest part, that I was still fighting against coming to my senses with was the idea that Kira was the one who had done the wrongs, and who stood on the side of the Father of Lies. Something that I don't think that I ever could get over.
But then again, who honestly wants to believe that their best friend was in fact a mass murderer, not to mention had pretty much bound their soul to the Son of Darkness? No one wants to believe that, and I wasn't about to. I just hoped that when we met for our final time that I could somehow bring her to her senses, and at least make the attempt of at least trying to save her soul. After all, she wasn't always this way. So much was already pitched against her, not to mention she was left without her parents, and so naturally someone left like that would cling onto whatever they could find. Some form of comfort, though, in Kira's case she clung onto the wrong sort of comfort, and was therefor thrown head first into this mess between light and darkness. We all were a part of it, that much I could comprehend, but it was all against our own better judgments.
For so long, the only thing that I had ever wanted to do was keep everyone safe, all my friends and loved ones. The people that I loved, and who loved me back, and the people that I cared for. An I had tried, Inari knows that I did, but I guess you just can't be expected to save them all, and now with Armageddon a beat away, there didn't seem anyone that I could save. At least if I acted as I knew that I should, the least that could be done is that I could spare their souls, and maybe give them another chance at life. Humanity is kind. Humanity is cruel, I have seen both sides of the debate. I have stood on one side and watched cruelty corrupt, and I have stood in the shadows and watched the light of life as it began to trickle so idly away, like the grains of sands into an hourglass. But none of that seemed capable to change or stop any of this. Things just kept right on unraveling, and if I tried to reach out and grasp ahold of one strand, another would break free, and then I was right back where I had started. It was a neverending and vicious circle, so much like life; like the threads of life.
An the worst part was that as much as I would have liked to say that things did not match up; the frightening thing was that they actually did. An I wasn't liking it one bit, and I was certain that I wasn't the only one. After everything that we had all been through together, what were we suppose to do? Just chuck it away as caution to the wind, or what? My friends, and loved ones were all gone, either murdered, died, or else refused to have anything to do with me anymore. And as everything added up now, reaching the climax I was again being plagued by the thoughts of my ryooshin, and Rae's as well, not to mention Kira's. Fate's humor was cold and cruel, but even she, I thought, possessed a kind and caring side, was I wrong? It seemed a whole hell of a lot like that was the case. -Sighs.- Iie, if anything was correct, it was what Mallos had said about the end of the world soon to be approaching us. When friend is turned on friend, or brother against brother, that was a for sure sign that everything would then soon begin to plummet in a horrific downward spiral. As it were doing now, and the only way to stop it was if I assisted my once former best friend in ending it altogether.
Flexing my newfound wings just slightly the complete space of the room, I felt the familiar tug of them against my shoulders. Catching the bloodred moonlight, and reflecting the irridiation, mirroring it as if imitating a dancing flame. Whilst the words of, "this is your destiny, Sakuuya, embrace it," resounded in my weary subconsciousment. I seemed to have to be being constantly reminded of that, or else was having to keep being told it over and over again..-Sighs.- Oh well, I suppose that that was just the price that one has to pay for something like this; one of the more lesser prices in this whole ordeal. Not to mention that I was still at war with my heart and my mind, deciding between what I knew I had to do, and what I needed to do. Albeit, by this time I think that there was no room for exceptions, everything was just straight forward from here, much to my dislike.
Folding my wings in against my back, I slowly let my eyes flutter shut as I listened to the evening. The wind in the trees sang a haunting melody, but apart from everything else there was little to no sound anymore. An it seemed almost as if even now, still the world continued to fade away about me, and there was nothing that I could do against it. Again, all of that seemed to have been a part of a floor map, and something that I had no choice but to abide by. As much as I would like to have fought against it, done something about it, I knew that there was little that I could do. There was little that could be done. Everything was laid out as it should be, leaving not even a scrap of wiggle room for anyone to intercept, or foil the divine order.
Standing before my window, I reached over to hug my shoulders, and continued to gaze into the distance. Feeling the dead air finally pick up, as a cool breeze swept the expansion of my room, causing my loose strands of hair to sway to and fro in said breeze. So this was it, hm? This was the beginning of the end, or if you had a optimistic view on things, it was the end of the beginning, and a start into a new day-in-age. Either way was a for-sure sign that things were changing, and that something..was ending. Though I suppose that there were few who could look out their window and exclaim to their parents that "oh, look mommy and daddy the Armageddon is at hand." I doubted that any child would even be able to understand let alone speak the word. They possessed too much innocence and faith to look at something and state that the world was ending, even if that were the case.
However it was the select few who could tell what was at hand, that worried me. Those people, priests and priestresses, anyone with any connection to Inari-sama, and the Holy Book. They were the kind of people who could look out a window, and see what was at hand. Those who would know what was going on, and who could explain this phenomenal, yet paranormal, yet extremely religious occurence. They frightened me, not so much because they would be able to tell that the end was near, but because they would see, and know what was going on, but would choose to do nothing about it. Nothing to prevent it, and would simply accept this--punishment, so to speak. Feeling the need that humanity deserved it, and that very thought was what worried, what frightened me the most.
Albeit, perhaps the reason for these feelings of dread was simply connected to the fact that I was the angel in this war, and that Kira was the devil. I may have been so terrified of people seeing but not doing anything agains the Armageddon, simply because as it were, time was running out, and it seemed to be laddled onto me that I was the one who was suppose to save everyone. To protect humanity from the end. I treasured, and valued every life equally. Back in the day, long before any of this I had simply lived each day as it came. I felt hurt when others were in pain, and suffering, but I lived each day, and probably did take for granted what was all soon to be lost. An yet, here I stood, still capable of saying that now, now that the end was drawing ever-so nearer, I felt only all the more closer to people, and I seemed to finally have learned the true and complete value of living each day as if it were my last. I had always been close to people, I knew that, being what I was--what a part of me was, I was naturally born with a tight closeness with humanity. But even so, back then I had been nothing more-or-less than your typical teenager. Sou, sure I had special talents, and couldn't bring myself to deny someone in need, help, or aid, but I still took for granted everything that I had come to know.
And now, here I was again, finally seeing in a new light the importance of it all. I felt so much closer to humanity, to the earth, close enough to the heavens above, that there was even a part of me that resented Kira, and that hated her. A part of me that wanted to fight her, to right her wrongs, and so on and so forth. All the goody-two-shoe stuff that you read about, or consider related to angels, to heroes and heroines. But even with all of that, there was an even stronger, greated, and deeper part of me that was finding it within myself to forgive Kira for her misdeeds. That part of me, that kept seeing her as the friend she had once use to be, and it was a part of me that was unwilling to give up and in to my angelic half. I hate to say it, but it was almost like being caught between a rock and a hard place. Being caught between doing what you knew was right, and doing what you thought was right. Fate took great pride in making people suffer, her humor as cold, and cruel as any I had ever known.
Though, who was honestly to blame here? Was it Fate, Destiny as she is sometimes called, or was it humanity? Was it God, and Lucifer, or was it someone as common as the merchant peddling in town? Who was to blame? Everyone seemed to possess an equal chance to be judged, and yet no one would even or dare judge the higher powers. Which led to me possessing a third party in-mind in relation to this war, that seemed nothing more-or-less than a political feud. My thoughts, I know are not in the right place, but I honestly don't know what to believe anymore. My best friend turned into my worst enemy, and all my other good friends were gone. Lost to me at my best friend's hand. I didn't understand why this was happening, why were we chosen to carry out the Armageddon? Did it seem fair to anyone in the least that we were nothing more than teenagers caught up in this, and were being forced to be the ones to make the final decision in something so permanent?
My heart ached, and my body felt weak with its sorrow. The tears in my eyes fell for a while longer, before finally coming to a halt, frozen then deep inside me. Within my soul, shards of razor blue, permanently etched into my heart. Now there would be scars remaining from this deep enough to last a lifetime, and beyond. I sighed heavily, letting my gaze linger back onto the horizon, and lost for a moment to soft sentiment, which was then replaced by a bitterness burning from my angelic half. My hands clentched into fists without so much as a thought, and by the time I realized it, there were already faint cresent moon shaped scratches in the palms of my hand from my fingernails biting into the warm flesh. Which was a deeper pain, and which was the profound sorrow? Facing my friend, and risking her life, and my own, or letting it all go, and just watching the world become engulfed in flames and darkness? I didn't want to have to choose one over the other, but I knew by now that everyone, and everything were too deeply involved to believe in the chance that anything would survive at the end of all this.
"What are you waiting for, little angel of mine? There is no alternative route, no way to escape this. There is only one path, and one path only. You've no other choice but to take it, and to embrace that which is inevitable destruction." A voice, probably Yami's mocked me from the shadows. An as much as I would have liked to disagree with him, deep down I knew that he was right. The only way to stop this madness, to stop the pain was to end it, everything, altogether as one. "Will you go out in a blaze of glory, or in a blast of defeat?" The voice continued to mock from the darkness.
My alternative route was to ignore him, and so I smiled into the dense blackness of the room, moonlight suddenly illuminating my form. "This battle is not yet won, and the war has not yet even begun. So don't go getting yourself too excited, shade," I finally answered to the mockery. "I'd hate to see your momentary pleasure crushed, and for that gleeful smirk on your face to be turned upside down." As I finished I snapped my gaze into one of the corners of Rae's room, my ethereal gaze then befalling the villian's form.
"I see you, but do you see me?" I suddenly asked before disappearing in a bright flash of white light, and angel feathers. Taking brief pride in the idea, and the sight that caught my eye; that of the dark lord covering his eyes as my aura pierced their soulless black pools. He was temporarily blinded by the outburst of light, and energy. Bitter energy that I knew had it not been for the shadows the surrounded and protected him, would have besieged him, and torn him to shreds. I hadn't intended on my own magick to be so powerful, angry, or bitter, but it just happened. My angelic half releasing, or rather lashing out with its own power, and its own hatred which was directed uncoincidently towards Yami.
However, that temporary blindness was all I needed, and all it took. For in the moment, there came a rush of wind, which mourned and howled, as a much larger form leapt into it. Pure, snow-white angel feathers fell onto the ground, my windowsill, and my room. The wind blew stirring them up and into the vaccancy of the black night. As within that, I was airborn my wings beating heavily against the current.
I felt the wind press in and around me, and I responded by pushing my wings down and against it, rising up into the air. I was now hovering maybe fifteen feet above the ground. Looking down I saw my house, and the surrounding homes. My wings making soft swooping sounds. Turning myself around I pivoted to face the direction of the full crimson moon. And as I did I felt my heart tighten, as with nothing more or less than my own self-will I managed to stifle that pain, that ache within me. I faced the moon, my sapphire-blue eyes reflecting an unknown emotion. As holding out my hand I happened to catch one of the fluttering sakura petals. Snatching it up, I closed a carefully fisted hand around it, and then reopened that hand, the petal sailing away into the night.
With a couple more beats of my wings, I soared higher up into the sky. Now rising well over the town, I glanced down, my eyes scanning that place one last time. I let myself go for a moment, but then regrasped control, snapping my gaze in the direction of St. Ellen's church knowing well enough what awaited me there. The bloodred moon lingered overtop the edifice, casting its foreboding shadow over it, and I fought down the urge of how I really didn't want to go there. For one, that redlight was creepy, and for two--and for a much more serious means--I didn't really think that I was ready. Ready to face Kira. Ready for the world to end. Albeit, I also knew that it was by far too late now, and there was no positive means in lingering or procrastinating. As, glancing about the area below me, I could feel the cold wind, and saw the ground losing its once vivacious coloring. Everything was dying. So why on earth would I want to prolong that suffering?
Taking a deep breath, I folded my wings in against my body, and allowed myself to begin plumetting towards the very tained ground I had just been observing. I closed my eyes, and the pain, the hurt, the suffering seemed to ebb away. Snapping my gaze open, and unfolding my wings in the same away I caught a current, and it pulled me back, and away from the ground. Pushing my wings down hard, I zipped off towards the church, staying high enough, though, so that no mere mortal could see me. Even though with everything going on now, I really don't think that if anyone had seen me they would have thought much. Probably would have thought that they were losing there mind, or--if they were excessively religious--would have simply acknowledge the scene as a definite sign of the aforementioned Armageddon. Either of which, I suppose that there really was no means to remain hidden, and yet a part of me felt that staying out of sight was a little bit more of a deserving decency that I could give.
My whole trudge towards the church lasted about five minutes if even. I had gained so much speed from my earlier harsh actions against the levanter that I had virtually cut the time it would have taken to get there by foot, or any other means in half. At long last reaching the entrance to the church, I stood on those stone steps, my wings folding once more in against my back, and my eyes gazing upwards, red moonlight ricochetting off my form. I closed my eyes momentarily, and withdrew my wings, and when they opened there was a strange sorrow and yet kindness about them that was hard to describe.
Turning towards the door, I drew in a deep breath, and then reached out with one shaking hand. Gripping the handle, turned, and pushed the great doors open. Feeling my heart make another protest against what I was about to do. Again I quelled that pain, and that warning taking one step forwards and then passing through, and into the synagogue. Inside, it was dark, and dimly lit by candles. My footsteps echoed around me as I made my way to the center of the chapel. There was another set of doors that I had to pass through, and then I would be in the very heart of the church.
Gathering what strength I could muster, I pushed the energy through my body, trying to get myself under control. Albeit, such an action I didn't need to take, for the minute I made the attempt, my angel-half decided to step in and take over. Any fear, or worry, any regret, or pain that I may have felt melted away, and when I entered the chapel I was completely confident, and ready. Ready to meet with my fate, my destiny. I stepped through the last barrier, and entered the chamber, behind me the doors slammed shut, and candles whose lights had been barely able to keep burning, suddenly burst into a bright collaboration of effulgence.
Although, instead of becoming shocked, or taken aback, I remained level-headed and calm. Not a muscle flinched in my body at the sinister display, and actually I was fighting against my kitsune-half to keep it from commenting. "A brilliant display of power, Kira, but how about you just show yourself, and make it all easier on the both of us?" I couldn't believe the words that were coming out of my mouth, never had I ever expected myself to seem so bitter towards Kira, but as I recalled everything that she had done from killing Mallos up until now, it was hard to forgive her now.
All around me the candles exploded with their flames, and then died down. However, that wasn't the end of her show in the least, for once the candlelight ceased, a chilled wind besieged me, and the shadows were rustled. They conjoined into large globs, and collections before they too eased up. I just continued to walk further and further into the center of the room with each exhibition until I finally stood directly before the priest's stand. As for a moment I let my gaze befall the altar, only coming to or showing any sort of feeling on my face when a high-pitched chortle echoed throughout the cathedral hall.
Only then did I turn sharply on my heel to face the owner of that cold, cruel laughter. An there she stood, across the way, acting as if she had just entered the room. She mock-applauded me smiling darkly, her crimson eyes glinting in the candlelight. She continued to make her way towards me, hands slipping to rest easily against her sides. Kira was dressed differently from when I had last seen her. This time she had disgarded her black tank-top, and pants for a form-fitting black sleeveless dress, which was cut all the way up to her mid-thighs, and worn over top a pair of tight black leather pants. And knee high black boots completed her attire, oh, and aa, I couldn't forget the silver cross that she wore around her neck on a long silver chain. That too glittered in the cierge light, and as it did so I caught a glimpse of some sort of taint, or stain on the charm that--no surprise there--looked suspiciously like blood.
Now standing only about two feet from me, she stopped popping one hip out, and resting her hand on the other. "Well, well, well look what the night dragged in. A pitiless child seeking sanctuary," mocked Kira, eyes flickering evilly as a cruel smirk curled its way up and around her lips.
"Kira," I said probably sounding more relieved than I had meant to.
"So, you finally decided to show, hm, Sakuuya?" said Kira in the cold tone of voice that seemed to have become her's since the start of all of this.
My eyes narrowed against my better judgment. "I guess that I just couldn't stand the suffering anymore."
"You guess?" repeated Kira, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. Albeit, I simply shrugged.
"What were you expecting me to say, ami? That I just couldn't stand to see the darkness winning anymore?" My tone of voice called for challenge, and Kira's eyes flashed in acceptance.
"Of course not, Sakuuya. I've known you long enough to know that you would never admit to such a feat."
"Aa, I suppose that you would counter with something like that."
Kira just looked at me, and I couldn't help but smirk at that.
"What's the matter, little devil, were you knocked speechless, or has the darkness consumed enough of you that it's allowing you to retain at least that small smidge of humanity?" I asked, my own eyes reflecting the candlelight with a forbidden danger all their own.
To that, though, my corrupt friend simply smirked. "Well, I guess that I should be lucky that you haven't carried on, or started lecturing me about how 'the darkness can never win, because the light shall always overcome it.'"
"You're right, I haven't. But also, you've known me long enough to understand that as much of my angelic-side as you are seeing right now; that isn't the whole of me. So you should comprehend that I wouldn't lecture you about such ancient means, besides--" I paused for effect. "Why bother to tell you something that you already know."
At that Kira's eyes suddenly blazed, but I simply just looked at her with a calm expression.
"I honestly can't believe that you gave up the life you had, or could have had for this," I said, "and really, Kira, what has this gotten you? A little bit of blood on your knives, and clothes; it granted you the ability and power to dominant, but now..now you're faced with an opponent who won't back down, or submit to you. And for all of what you have done, what truly have you gained? You know that meeting me here is going to result in the end of you..of me..of good and evil..and of the world. So really, truly, honestly..what has the darkness given to you? Has it given you anything worthwhile? Anything that will last, and that won't be destroyed in the end, when the end arrives?"
For a moment, it seemed as it I had stumped her, but it was only a fleeting instant, and then her blood-red gaze had snapped back towards me. She looked like she was about to say something, and yet didn't.
"What's the matter, Kira? Things aren't so easy, aren't so fun once you know the truth. Once you obseved and taken into account the gains and losses, now is it? You brought me here for some means that I don't think even you understand. And if you somehow had managed to grasp the means, I really don't think you would have done this, but now it's too late, and neither one of us can go back now." I met her gaze squarely. "I take pity on you and your soul for having being dragged into this. But being what you are, Kira, I would have thought you would have known. The darkness holds nothing for you, it only takes, and it never gives anything back."
Kira's hands had clentched into fists by this point. She had dug her nails into her skin enough to drawn blood, and at present the crimson fluid was flowing out of her veins, and onto the ground. A fine, but profound trickle.
"You poor child," I said sympathetically.
However, what happened next did happen to take me by surprise. For as soon as I delivered my last line, Kira had suddenly burst out laughing. Quiet at first, but then it erupted into a mass hysteria. She threw her head back and laughed loudly, before snapping her gaze back towards me.
"You really think that I was in this for my own means?" Another cold chuckle. "As it would seem, neither one of seems to have known the other quite as well as we may have once thought we did. How sad." But there was no emotion in her voice at all, apart from bitterness.
I just shook my head at her. "So then it would seem that we both are at fault."
"True," agreed Kira as she held up a somewhat closed hand, almost as if she were clasping something round and spherical showing it to me. However, as the hand rose up, once she could see me between her finger, she suddenly unfolded her fingers as if to be reaching out to me, and then pulling me towards her. Her hand closed into a fist. "It's Final Judgement, Sakuuya. Come, come with me now and help me to cleanse this world of all who are unworthy, or all who have sinned. Together, we can make this world our own."
Again, a shake of my head. "No, Kira..Us being here, means that this world is dyring. It means that this world will be destroyed. Whatever sins this earth had ever committed have finally decided to catch up with them. There will be a cleansing, Kira, of fire and darkness, of life and light..This. Is. The. End." I heavily emphasized on the last.
Kira glared at me, and then pulled her hand in against herself. As an anger as pure, and as consuming as I have ever seen blazed alive in her crimson eyes. I heard her growl, and then she yelled, "Fine then. You've made your choice."
The darkness surrounding me grew darker, and was assimulated by Kira, and the candlelight flared to life again. She was taking all fire and darkness around her into herself preparing for an all out assault. With an angry flash in her eyes, she leapt back, her wings appearing in a burst of black coruscation. And by now I could see her power reflected in her eyes. They had changed to solid pools of blazing blood. She leapt at me, and I barely had enough time to dodge, summoning to my own hand a sword identicle to the one that Kira beheld in her hands. Only mine was silver and gold with angel wings forming at the hilt, and her's was a much darker metal, with the residue of what I presumed was the blood of her victims, and at the hilt of her's was formed twin black demon wings.
When she realized what I had done, she lunged again, as again I dodged. There were a few more futile attempts on her end, and we both landed. My own wings now jutting from my shoulders. We stood facing each other as suddenly both of us began to glow with the light of our more prominent elements (light, and darkness). Both of our attires changed, mine to that of a battle priest's, and her's to that of a demonic enchantress or seductress. She looked at me, and her eyes flashed with her dark power.
"I can't believe that it has come down to this, Kira.." I said, a strange tone stealing away my voice. "I know there was no other way, but I just can't believe that it's happening in this way..I don't want to hurt anyone..But, I know that this has got to be done. I just wish that there had been some other way.." I said mournfully as with that I leapt at her, and as she saw me coming towards her she countered, we collided and parted, collided and parted, and this went on for about fifteen minutes. We both suffered cuts and bruises from the other, and as we stood once more opposite to one another, and yet face to face Kira delievered her final line, and lunged, I responded, and both swords pierced the other.
We remained suspended in the air for a split second, and just as I tore my gaze away from Kira to hide the tears that I had been sheading, I happened to look down below us and saw a strange old woman dressed in a grungy grey robe. She bumbled into the room, and placed some round spherical object at the center of the room, as in the next moment the orb had combusted, shattering the sphere divided into two, one part a pale crystal blue, and the other half a pure, deep red. An when the item broke there was a huge eruption of light that parted Kira, and I throwing us into complete opposite ends of the chamber. Shards the the first half were sprinkled across my body, and parts of the second half littered Kira.
I made an attempt to sit up and gasped as the pain inflicted from Kira's blade shot all throughout my body. I doubled over for a moment, before lifting my face up from the ground to look at my fallen friend. She was leaning against the contrary part of the chapel. My eyes were rimmed with tears and a few fell from my eyes. I reached out with a trembling hand towards Kira who just looked at it, and then turned her gaze away, and I fell back to the ground my eyes closing as pain and darkness consumed me; I drew my last breath feeling at the same instant, Himitsu doing the same..
"Sa..sayonara..." I cooed to the darkness, and then was lost.
A brilliant bright luminescence erupted from the church, the light piercing through the top part of the cathedral, and impelling itself into the bloodred moon. As soon, everything everywhere was dyring, and fading away. All colors faded away, and into a dismal grey. Plants, and animals alike drew their final breathes along with their human counterparts as the world befell to its inevitable destruction and death. All was silent, all was still. The light passed through the ozone layer, and into space, completely consuming the earth. But after that once it died away, space reflected on a ghostly grayish-green earth, consumed by the Spiritual plain, or--ghost world. Everything and everyone was dead..And the earth fell strangely silent.
No more words need be said, for I seem unable to even grasp enough strength to speak them. Now do you see the high cost of your lifestyle? With a final clash between light and darkness this world ends...
~Phase Three Completed-
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Armageddon: Phase Two: Trial and Error
Currently Playing: Xandria - Winterhearted
"This is where so many things must be decided. It's time we make our final choices, what is good and what is bad? Phase two, begin..."
At long last I finally brought myself to look away from the window and towards Ace once more. Feeling my angelic powers flaring against my own better judgment and will. Inari-sama's powers flowing through my veins and growing within my heart. My sapphire gaze met Ace's pale blue one. "I know what I have to do. I've got to stop her before she destroys all that we have faught for so long to perserviere."
"We?" repeated Ace slightly confused.
"Our memories of the times that we have spent together. When you think about it, we really were our own guardians, we kept each other safe. We were guarding our own innocence, even when we got mixed up with everything that went on, we always faught to protect one another. An we never gave up once on each other, or on the memories we all shared in. But now, now look at how far we have come, and where we all stand now," I shook my head somberly. "An yet, someone has to right the wrongs, we are torn apart, standing on opposite sides even, but I'm not about to give up on the hope that we can still pull through this. And if we don't succeed in this life, then there is always--another."
Ace glanced at me as if I were crazy. "Sakuuya, you can't change what's happened to Kira, nor can you undo what she has already done. Look at the moon, it's almost full, and she's gone on a killing rampage. She's not the same girl we all knew, the same girl that you once knew. She's changed, Sakuuya, and I don't think there's a chance that she'll want to come back to our side. She's holding a blade in her hand, turn your back and it'll find a new home."
"Ace!" I chided sharply turning to face him with cool blue eyes. "Maybe there isn't any hope for Kira, but I've got to at least try. I'm going to have to stand opposed to her, or she'll continue in this reign, and before you know it then she'll be lost completely to the darkness."
"Sakuuya, she's killed people, and she's going to keep on killing. She isn't the same. You're acting peculiar," said Ace raising a brow.
I just shook my head, and then braced on my windowsill, throwing open said windows. "This is all of our fight, Ace, but I still have to do things my own way."
Turning away, I braced one hand on the side of the window, and drew in a deep breath of the night air. The moon sparkling in the dark sky, and a cool breeze sweeping in through my now opened window, combing through my reddish-brown locks pushing them back away from my own pale face. With another intake of breath, I closed my eyes whispering, "just, trust me," and then I disappeared in a flash of white light and feathers. I reappeared in a room that I had only been in maybe twice, though when I opened my eyes to glance around I noted the exeptionally high level of darkness in the room. I gazed into one of the room's dark corners and saw a flash of silver and crimson as a young girl with flowing black locks and crimson red eyes stepped into my line of vision. The dark aura that she was emitting was enough to make me withdraw slightly.
The young woman smirked at me. "I thought that I'd run into you here, Sakuuya."
"Kira.." I said softly gazing at my corrupt friend.
"Though, I am afraid that you're a little bit late," she wiped her hands and blade off on her black pants. I shifted my eyes to another side of the room, seeing in the moonlight, Logan's shadowy form laying still in his bed. Crimson staining the matress and blankets, his orange hair glistening with blood in the night light, and I stepped back before turning back to Kira.
"Kira, look at what you have done. You loved him, he was your boyfriend, closer than anyone to your heart. He did nothing but love you, and you turn around and stab him in the back? He never did anything to you to deserve this. None of our friends did, why are you doing this, Kira? This isn't you, and you and I both know that.You're letting the darkness control you."
"Control me?" the ravenhaired girl laughed. "I embraced my destiny, something that you seem still yet to achieve."
"Kira! Whoever said we had to do this? Whoever said we had to do anything that pertained to the Armageddon? We are opposites you and I, we are light and darkness, but why does it mean that we have to stand here like this? Instead of fighting against one another, we should be working together, like we had for those few years that we had been friends. We proved then that light and darkness, that fire and earth could get along. Why is this any different?"
Kira's eyes flashed in the moonlight as she quickly sheathed her weapon glancing at me, and smirking. "I suggest you get a move on, little angel. You wouldn't want to lose anyone close to you, now would you? I have one more order of business to attend to. So what do you say, Sakuuya? Up for a little race? Let's see who gets there first," she smirked and then was gone in a blast of dark energy.
I took a quick step forwards, but she had disappeared long before I could get too close to her. "KIRA!!"
But I was left alone standing before one of Logan's blank walls, my eyes fell downcast as I glanced back over at where Logan laid still as stone. My heart tightened and I tore my gaze away, and looked towards the ceiling pondering what Kira had just said. But in doing so my heart gave a nauseated churn. "Rae!" I gasped quietly into the room. I cast one last look in Logan's direction before shifting out once more in a flash of white light and angel feathers, and then reappearing in Rae's room.
The brunette boy turned in his slumber, and then ended up turning and facing me. Lifting an arm up over his comforter, he glanced at me sleepily. "Sakuuya? W-what are you doing?"
I glanced frantically about the room breathing in a relieved sigh that Kira was nowhere to be seen. "Rae?" I asked in my usual soft tone of voice, and the boy sat up glancing at me with his soft blueish-green eyes.
"What's wrong, Sakuuya?"
"Rae, listen to me, we have to get out of here. Ace, Jake, and Logan are dead, and you're next. I have to get you out of here before she gets here."
"Before who gets here?" asked Rae.
However before I could answer a sultry voice said from the doorway, "Me," and Rae spun around to face Kira.
"Oh Kira, w-what are you doing here?" Though before Kira could give him an answer I reached out and grabbed the boy's arm, pulling him behind me, and then meeting my friend's cold gaze with my own warming one.
"Kira, you have to stop this. What are you hoping to accomplish by all of this? These are our friends, they're your friends. Why are you doing this to them?"
The dark haired girl just met my gaze with an unwavering glance, as from her boot she withdrew a blade tossing it back and forth between her hands. A taunt. "Why am I doing this? Why, is that all you can say, is that all you want to know?" her eyes flashed coldy. "You know why, Sakuuya. For them it's time to pay the pied piper. Judgment day has come, and they've sinned, it's time they were punished."
I shook my head. "Dammit, Kira! This is not you! The darkness is messing with your mind, it's corrupted your soul and trapped your logical mind somewhere inside of you. It's frozen your heart, and turned you against those you once swore to protect."
Kira just grinnned maliciously at me. "That being the case, sweet Sakuuya, then perhaps I ought to remind you that your little friends have sinned, and that death is their punishment."
"Who says you have any right to condemn them? Who are you to judge? Just take a look around, and try to remember, look and see what you have done, Kira. Is this honestly what you want? Is this what your heart desires, more than anything?"
My friend's eyes flashed. "What ever happened to me not possessing a heart, Sakuuya? Hm? Someone having second thoughts? So then, which is it, Sakuuya? Do I, or do I not posses a heart?"
"Kira, that is beside the point. Of course, you posses a heart, but right now it's tainted by the darkness, and by the urge to destroy. It's changed you, but it still hasn't taken away your humanity. Whatever happened to the girl that I met over the Internet? The one who I use to stay up late and talk to, till the dawn broke on the horizon? That girl, smiling in that photograph with her friends. Don't you remember any of it, any of them? Any of us?"
Again the other girl's eyes flickered bitterly. "Time's up, Sakuuya, ready to say your goodbyes?"
"Kira, stop this. This is madness, are you even remotely conscious of what you are doing?"
"Does that look as if it matters, or as if I fucking care?"
I winced, holding my tongue, and glancing aside as quickly as if I had been struck. My eyes turning soft and downcast. "I can't believe this.."
"Then don't. Go back to living in your world of make-believe, Sakuuya. Retreat back into the recesses of your mind's memories, and lock yourself there. Don't face this, run away, like the coward that you are," said Kira coldly, crimson eyes flashing in the moonlight. The amount of anger and negativity that she was emitting was powerful enough to make me wince, as I turned back to face my former friend. My own twilit blue eyes narrowing coldly.
"No, Kira, I'm not going to run away. Not this time," I said levelly meeting her gaze, and keeping it unwavering.
Another bitter flash zipped through the dark haired girl's eyes. They narrowed ever so slightly, and the blade glittered. "Then face your destiny, Sakuuya. An always remember," she disappeared in a blur of shadow, her voice dangerously close behind me. "Never turn your back," there suddenly came the sickening sound of flesh being torn, and the splattering of blood. Turning swiftly on my heel, I spun to face my reflection, finding her to be holding Rae in her arms. The blade having been imbedded into his chest; she grinned evilly at me, and then let the boy go, with me catching him as he fell.
"Welcome to Hell, Sakuuya," said Kira in a mocking tone of voice reappearing infront of me, and grinning. She placed the blade to her lips and licked the life fluid dripping there. "You've a good taste in men, Sakuuya, a very good 'taste.'" Just the way that she said the final comment was enough to send tremors of shivers down my spine, but I was cast too deeply into disbelief to say much, just holding Rae as tightly and as close to myself as was humanely possible. The tears rimming the bridges of my eyes, as I snapped a bitter look at ravenhaired girl, and my tears turned from sorrow to anger. But all she did was smile, wave, and then disappear in a flash of black light and feathers, her mock laughter echoing in my ears at her departure.
"Come and find me, Sakuuya. Come and find me, at the place where the Saviour lyes."
"Where the Saviour lyes?" I said softly, shaking my head. That was exactly what Yami had said when I last spoke with him. Shaking my head, I turned to glance at Rae's dying form. His eyes losing their usual luster, and being replaced with a deadness. His body turning cold in my arms, and my powers completely useless to stop the cold from taking him. "Oh Rae," I said softly, nuzzling at the boy's hair. "I'm so sorry, I never wanted or asked for this for you..I'm so, so sorry."
He just looked up at me and smiled weakly, raising a hand to the side of my face. "It's all right, Sakuuya, because now you have found the courage and strength to face whatever has been laid out for you. It's up to you, and besides, it's not like you're alone in this fight." His hand caressed my face lightly, fingertips turning ice cold. He gasped painfully, and then that hand fell limp, and my tears came in a torrent, as I buried my face in his hair. My own back at the time beginning to pulsate with a hot pain, I winced gasping before there was a brilliant flash of white light, and instead of two wings appearing on my back, four did. I had ascended to the second level of angels, from guardian to archangel. Rae's form finally fell completely cold in my arms, and I watched as his soul departed from the body, appearing in the room. The spirit turned to face me, smiled softly, before turning back to the window and disappering as if to be nothing more that a silver silhouette against the night.
"You must hurry, Sakuuya. Time is running out," a gentle voice whispered causing a ripple of some emotion to flicker throughout my wings. Bringing my gaze up to face the window, I gazed into the night sky, Rae's body still being held in my arms. This was all the final straw, there was no more running away or trying to find alternative routes to solve the problem at hand. This was how far we had come, and this now was where we were at. An as I gazed out the window, a shooting star zipped across the sky before finally going out in a single ember. Though, as I gazed out that opening, my heart had never felt so heavy in my entire life. Nor do I ever remember ever feeling so utterly alone.
"You are not alone. Remember that, Sakuuya. You are never alone," Rae's voice whispered lovingly in my ear. His voice seeming so far away, yet at the same time he still felt so unbelievable close. Of everything that we had all ever been through, nothing was as double-edged as this; whereas in Kira's acts I was actually brought closer to my friends, she was infact pushed so very far away. The double-edge? In order for this to have been reached, Kira needed to breakway, and in order for me to get closer the break had to happen, and this was my final push. Rae's death was it. My body felt cold, and I trembled, yet I glared as I turned to face the now almost full, and completely bloodred moon. Kira's shadow gazed back at me from within the crimson and black, her cruel eyes reflecting sadistic amusement at the game she had just set up for me to play. For a moment, I just kept staring, Rae's body disappearing in a collection of silver sparkles, and white feathers. My hands outstretched and now rested on either side of my split knees; my eyes reflecting determination cloaked with sorrow and anger. As the area surrounding me turned much more darker, my form illuminated in the moon's grisly light.
Again, I repeat that I don't fully understand all of this. Choices need to be made,and when they are is only when we continue pressing onwards. Onwards, towards the inevitable end.
~Phase Two Completed-
"This is where so many things must be decided. It's time we make our final choices, what is good and what is bad? Phase two, begin..."
At long last I finally brought myself to look away from the window and towards Ace once more. Feeling my angelic powers flaring against my own better judgment and will. Inari-sama's powers flowing through my veins and growing within my heart. My sapphire gaze met Ace's pale blue one. "I know what I have to do. I've got to stop her before she destroys all that we have faught for so long to perserviere."
"We?" repeated Ace slightly confused.
"Our memories of the times that we have spent together. When you think about it, we really were our own guardians, we kept each other safe. We were guarding our own innocence, even when we got mixed up with everything that went on, we always faught to protect one another. An we never gave up once on each other, or on the memories we all shared in. But now, now look at how far we have come, and where we all stand now," I shook my head somberly. "An yet, someone has to right the wrongs, we are torn apart, standing on opposite sides even, but I'm not about to give up on the hope that we can still pull through this. And if we don't succeed in this life, then there is always--another."
Ace glanced at me as if I were crazy. "Sakuuya, you can't change what's happened to Kira, nor can you undo what she has already done. Look at the moon, it's almost full, and she's gone on a killing rampage. She's not the same girl we all knew, the same girl that you once knew. She's changed, Sakuuya, and I don't think there's a chance that she'll want to come back to our side. She's holding a blade in her hand, turn your back and it'll find a new home."
"Ace!" I chided sharply turning to face him with cool blue eyes. "Maybe there isn't any hope for Kira, but I've got to at least try. I'm going to have to stand opposed to her, or she'll continue in this reign, and before you know it then she'll be lost completely to the darkness."
"Sakuuya, she's killed people, and she's going to keep on killing. She isn't the same. You're acting peculiar," said Ace raising a brow.
I just shook my head, and then braced on my windowsill, throwing open said windows. "This is all of our fight, Ace, but I still have to do things my own way."
Turning away, I braced one hand on the side of the window, and drew in a deep breath of the night air. The moon sparkling in the dark sky, and a cool breeze sweeping in through my now opened window, combing through my reddish-brown locks pushing them back away from my own pale face. With another intake of breath, I closed my eyes whispering, "just, trust me," and then I disappeared in a flash of white light and feathers. I reappeared in a room that I had only been in maybe twice, though when I opened my eyes to glance around I noted the exeptionally high level of darkness in the room. I gazed into one of the room's dark corners and saw a flash of silver and crimson as a young girl with flowing black locks and crimson red eyes stepped into my line of vision. The dark aura that she was emitting was enough to make me withdraw slightly.
The young woman smirked at me. "I thought that I'd run into you here, Sakuuya."
"Kira.." I said softly gazing at my corrupt friend.
"Though, I am afraid that you're a little bit late," she wiped her hands and blade off on her black pants. I shifted my eyes to another side of the room, seeing in the moonlight, Logan's shadowy form laying still in his bed. Crimson staining the matress and blankets, his orange hair glistening with blood in the night light, and I stepped back before turning back to Kira.
"Kira, look at what you have done. You loved him, he was your boyfriend, closer than anyone to your heart. He did nothing but love you, and you turn around and stab him in the back? He never did anything to you to deserve this. None of our friends did, why are you doing this, Kira? This isn't you, and you and I both know that.You're letting the darkness control you."
"Control me?" the ravenhaired girl laughed. "I embraced my destiny, something that you seem still yet to achieve."
"Kira! Whoever said we had to do this? Whoever said we had to do anything that pertained to the Armageddon? We are opposites you and I, we are light and darkness, but why does it mean that we have to stand here like this? Instead of fighting against one another, we should be working together, like we had for those few years that we had been friends. We proved then that light and darkness, that fire and earth could get along. Why is this any different?"
Kira's eyes flashed in the moonlight as she quickly sheathed her weapon glancing at me, and smirking. "I suggest you get a move on, little angel. You wouldn't want to lose anyone close to you, now would you? I have one more order of business to attend to. So what do you say, Sakuuya? Up for a little race? Let's see who gets there first," she smirked and then was gone in a blast of dark energy.
I took a quick step forwards, but she had disappeared long before I could get too close to her. "KIRA!!"
But I was left alone standing before one of Logan's blank walls, my eyes fell downcast as I glanced back over at where Logan laid still as stone. My heart tightened and I tore my gaze away, and looked towards the ceiling pondering what Kira had just said. But in doing so my heart gave a nauseated churn. "Rae!" I gasped quietly into the room. I cast one last look in Logan's direction before shifting out once more in a flash of white light and angel feathers, and then reappearing in Rae's room.
The brunette boy turned in his slumber, and then ended up turning and facing me. Lifting an arm up over his comforter, he glanced at me sleepily. "Sakuuya? W-what are you doing?"
I glanced frantically about the room breathing in a relieved sigh that Kira was nowhere to be seen. "Rae?" I asked in my usual soft tone of voice, and the boy sat up glancing at me with his soft blueish-green eyes.
"What's wrong, Sakuuya?"
"Rae, listen to me, we have to get out of here. Ace, Jake, and Logan are dead, and you're next. I have to get you out of here before she gets here."
"Before who gets here?" asked Rae.
However before I could answer a sultry voice said from the doorway, "Me," and Rae spun around to face Kira.
"Oh Kira, w-what are you doing here?" Though before Kira could give him an answer I reached out and grabbed the boy's arm, pulling him behind me, and then meeting my friend's cold gaze with my own warming one.
"Kira, you have to stop this. What are you hoping to accomplish by all of this? These are our friends, they're your friends. Why are you doing this to them?"
The dark haired girl just met my gaze with an unwavering glance, as from her boot she withdrew a blade tossing it back and forth between her hands. A taunt. "Why am I doing this? Why, is that all you can say, is that all you want to know?" her eyes flashed coldy. "You know why, Sakuuya. For them it's time to pay the pied piper. Judgment day has come, and they've sinned, it's time they were punished."
I shook my head. "Dammit, Kira! This is not you! The darkness is messing with your mind, it's corrupted your soul and trapped your logical mind somewhere inside of you. It's frozen your heart, and turned you against those you once swore to protect."
Kira just grinnned maliciously at me. "That being the case, sweet Sakuuya, then perhaps I ought to remind you that your little friends have sinned, and that death is their punishment."
"Who says you have any right to condemn them? Who are you to judge? Just take a look around, and try to remember, look and see what you have done, Kira. Is this honestly what you want? Is this what your heart desires, more than anything?"
My friend's eyes flashed. "What ever happened to me not possessing a heart, Sakuuya? Hm? Someone having second thoughts? So then, which is it, Sakuuya? Do I, or do I not posses a heart?"
"Kira, that is beside the point. Of course, you posses a heart, but right now it's tainted by the darkness, and by the urge to destroy. It's changed you, but it still hasn't taken away your humanity. Whatever happened to the girl that I met over the Internet? The one who I use to stay up late and talk to, till the dawn broke on the horizon? That girl, smiling in that photograph with her friends. Don't you remember any of it, any of them? Any of us?"
Again the other girl's eyes flickered bitterly. "Time's up, Sakuuya, ready to say your goodbyes?"
"Kira, stop this. This is madness, are you even remotely conscious of what you are doing?"
"Does that look as if it matters, or as if I fucking care?"
I winced, holding my tongue, and glancing aside as quickly as if I had been struck. My eyes turning soft and downcast. "I can't believe this.."
"Then don't. Go back to living in your world of make-believe, Sakuuya. Retreat back into the recesses of your mind's memories, and lock yourself there. Don't face this, run away, like the coward that you are," said Kira coldly, crimson eyes flashing in the moonlight. The amount of anger and negativity that she was emitting was powerful enough to make me wince, as I turned back to face my former friend. My own twilit blue eyes narrowing coldly.
"No, Kira, I'm not going to run away. Not this time," I said levelly meeting her gaze, and keeping it unwavering.
Another bitter flash zipped through the dark haired girl's eyes. They narrowed ever so slightly, and the blade glittered. "Then face your destiny, Sakuuya. An always remember," she disappeared in a blur of shadow, her voice dangerously close behind me. "Never turn your back," there suddenly came the sickening sound of flesh being torn, and the splattering of blood. Turning swiftly on my heel, I spun to face my reflection, finding her to be holding Rae in her arms. The blade having been imbedded into his chest; she grinned evilly at me, and then let the boy go, with me catching him as he fell.
"Welcome to Hell, Sakuuya," said Kira in a mocking tone of voice reappearing infront of me, and grinning. She placed the blade to her lips and licked the life fluid dripping there. "You've a good taste in men, Sakuuya, a very good 'taste.'" Just the way that she said the final comment was enough to send tremors of shivers down my spine, but I was cast too deeply into disbelief to say much, just holding Rae as tightly and as close to myself as was humanely possible. The tears rimming the bridges of my eyes, as I snapped a bitter look at ravenhaired girl, and my tears turned from sorrow to anger. But all she did was smile, wave, and then disappear in a flash of black light and feathers, her mock laughter echoing in my ears at her departure.
"Come and find me, Sakuuya. Come and find me, at the place where the Saviour lyes."
"Where the Saviour lyes?" I said softly, shaking my head. That was exactly what Yami had said when I last spoke with him. Shaking my head, I turned to glance at Rae's dying form. His eyes losing their usual luster, and being replaced with a deadness. His body turning cold in my arms, and my powers completely useless to stop the cold from taking him. "Oh Rae," I said softly, nuzzling at the boy's hair. "I'm so sorry, I never wanted or asked for this for you..I'm so, so sorry."
He just looked up at me and smiled weakly, raising a hand to the side of my face. "It's all right, Sakuuya, because now you have found the courage and strength to face whatever has been laid out for you. It's up to you, and besides, it's not like you're alone in this fight." His hand caressed my face lightly, fingertips turning ice cold. He gasped painfully, and then that hand fell limp, and my tears came in a torrent, as I buried my face in his hair. My own back at the time beginning to pulsate with a hot pain, I winced gasping before there was a brilliant flash of white light, and instead of two wings appearing on my back, four did. I had ascended to the second level of angels, from guardian to archangel. Rae's form finally fell completely cold in my arms, and I watched as his soul departed from the body, appearing in the room. The spirit turned to face me, smiled softly, before turning back to the window and disappering as if to be nothing more that a silver silhouette against the night.
"You must hurry, Sakuuya. Time is running out," a gentle voice whispered causing a ripple of some emotion to flicker throughout my wings. Bringing my gaze up to face the window, I gazed into the night sky, Rae's body still being held in my arms. This was all the final straw, there was no more running away or trying to find alternative routes to solve the problem at hand. This was how far we had come, and this now was where we were at. An as I gazed out the window, a shooting star zipped across the sky before finally going out in a single ember. Though, as I gazed out that opening, my heart had never felt so heavy in my entire life. Nor do I ever remember ever feeling so utterly alone.
"You are not alone. Remember that, Sakuuya. You are never alone," Rae's voice whispered lovingly in my ear. His voice seeming so far away, yet at the same time he still felt so unbelievable close. Of everything that we had all ever been through, nothing was as double-edged as this; whereas in Kira's acts I was actually brought closer to my friends, she was infact pushed so very far away. The double-edge? In order for this to have been reached, Kira needed to breakway, and in order for me to get closer the break had to happen, and this was my final push. Rae's death was it. My body felt cold, and I trembled, yet I glared as I turned to face the now almost full, and completely bloodred moon. Kira's shadow gazed back at me from within the crimson and black, her cruel eyes reflecting sadistic amusement at the game she had just set up for me to play. For a moment, I just kept staring, Rae's body disappearing in a collection of silver sparkles, and white feathers. My hands outstretched and now rested on either side of my split knees; my eyes reflecting determination cloaked with sorrow and anger. As the area surrounding me turned much more darker, my form illuminated in the moon's grisly light.
Again, I repeat that I don't fully understand all of this. Choices need to be made,and when they are is only when we continue pressing onwards. Onwards, towards the inevitable end.
~Phase Two Completed-
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Armageddon: Phase One: The First Fall
Currently Playing: HIM - Killing Loneliness
"So here we are, and this is where we stand. Opposites, you and I. It's time, we end this. Phase one, begin..."
I looked then up from where my head was bowed and towards the red horizon, and I knew, I could sense that Kira was also doing the same. Wherever she was. I sensed here near, though, as one might a dangerous threat and almost every part of me was tense. Tearing my gaze, though, from the horizon I glanced back at Max's body, she looked so peaceful, and for a moment I gave to the reverie that maybe she was better off like this. Yes, I thought, that is right. It is better that she be dead now, then to have her fade away when the world ends. And right now that seems to be the inevitability. I sighed, my eyes closing in my thoughts and then opening as I exhaled heavily. Bringing my gaze back up, my sapphire blue eyes looked to the sakura tree, who's blossoms had yet to bloom. Yet, I knew what sort of tree it were. A cherry blossom tree, a sakura tree, why had Max chosen to lye here and no where else?
My heart clentched tightly as I remembered my parents and the accident. The cliff they had went over with their car, at the bottom of it's rocky edges there lyed a single sakura tree, which now when in blossom, the blooms were a horrid bloodred color. And unfortunately, unlike most other trees of it's family and nature, it was in bloom all the time. All around me it seemed that I was the centerfold of a dance of death, with those blossoms parading about my fragile, pale form. I couldn't escape them no matter how much I may have tried or had wanted to, I was boxed in. As taking on last look at Max's solitary silhouette, I stood and turned to face the horizon my hands resting at my sides clentched into fists. All this time I remember that I had promised to Kira that I would protect her regardless of what came about, but now here we were being forced to face one another. She was my twin star, my dark reflection, and the light's archnemesis. Was Inari-sama testing us, testing me to see what I would do when faced with such adversity? I knew what I had to do, but I was hestitant with my decision for if I followed through on it than that would make Yami correct.
What sort of humor did fate have to set us against one another like this? And Inari-sama and the Devil, what were they hoping for? The end of the world, aa, I knew that but I wanted no part of it. I never asked to be Kira's reflection, her twin star, the light in the darkness, and I was sure that she did not want any of this for herself either. Though, who was I to judge? I was only half angel after all, the second part of me bore the cunningness of a kitsune, and something that Inari-sama scorned. Yet she was willing to let me face this battle on her behalf. I had done no favors to deserve this, but perhaps it was sin that led to this series of misfortune. I couldn't say, nor could I come to the conclusion on my own and it was times like this when I wished that I had someone that I could talk to. Who could help me make sense and find some understanding in this insanity. However now as I gazed into the horizon, I could see an almost full moon rising, in three night's time it would be full, and that was when Final Judgment would be passed. Humanity had lived enough, they have done enough and damaged this world enough. Inari-sama would judge as Kira and I met for a final time, on a battlefield. Not as friends but as rising stars, and as archenemies.
A few more moments passed before I finally could look away from the distant skyline, and turned back to Max. I buried her and said a prayer for her departing soul, as once I finished I finally found the courage to walk away, and leave my friend to her rest. An left Yami's prison with a heavy heart, appearing in my bedroom laying atop my bed. The house was still completely empty, not even Rae could be found, but I figured that he was just out with Ace again in my absence. So being left alone as I were, and still feeling the exhaustion of what had just recently played out, I curled up on my bed watching the sun set and the moon rising much the same as it had done in Yami's domain. Turning on my side, I shifted so that my back faced the rising moon as wave of nausea swept over me. An I felt my heart quaking once more, closing my eyes I tried to block out the rotation of the room, and with a little luck stop my insides from turning to ice and churning sickly.
"Let go, let go of this world that hold's you. Let go, let go of this world that you hold ties to. Release your soul, and let it soar. It is time, there is no denying it this time, Sakuuya. Hikari no otome, Daughter of the Light."
Again I twisted and turned this time trying to drown out that voice whispering caressingly in the backs of my world-rid mind. I tried pleading with that voice saying that I was not ready, but they would counter saying that I had been ready long before now. An then images would swim into my mind of a bloodred moon in a pitch black sky. A cold wind blowing, and yanking at the trees casting shadowy figures upon the land. There were screams of pain and sorrow, of the dead dying and of the living being murdered, somewhere people where dying and it was not in small quantities, it was a mass massacre. The world too was dying little by little. I saw trees lose their leaves, and watering holes drying up, lakes, river, streams, oceans too, and the deserts grew weatherborne throwing up great clouds of dust and covering the few plants that made their homes in such a dry climate. An through all of this in the backs of my mind's eye I felt like I was being watched as two bright crimson eyes gazed at me from the darkness of my own mind and of these grotesque images. Continuing to toss and turn, I braced my hands at the sides of my head feeling the urge as if I were going insane. I could feel the pain and the hurt, the sorrow and despair deep within my own form and with the bitter strength of a torrent.
More images and a voice still whispering to me. I saw Max appear before me as well as several other spirits; those of Ace, Rae, Jake, and Logan. All of them looked onto to me. As the voice quietly asked in a ventriloquay as silent as a just breaking wave. "What will you do now, Sakuuya?"
My eyes snapped open and I bolted upright staring into a corner of my room. Wrapping my arms about my knees I brought them to my chest holding them tightly. "What will I do? I don't know what it is that I am suppose to say. I never asked for any of this, but I knew deep down that this is something that I must do. But I don't know, what do you all want of me? What do you want me to do, to say? Somebody, anybody, please help me..." With downcast eyes I buried my face in my arms, sinking into a faint depressive lapse. Max was dead, and Kira was as good as such. She was evil and I was going to have to fight her, and probably end up spilling her blood with my own. I didn't want violence, I never asked for death, but just like those horrid sakura trees they seemed to follow me no matter what I did or where I went.
"You know what you must do, Sakuuya. What is expected, there is still time, but there will never be enough to undo what has already been done or acted upon. You can't change destiny, but you can help make the new world a better place, one worth living. Do not let this end with the beginning being nothing but a historical repeat," again the voice came to me and I looked up with tearstained eyes. "You must be strong, Sakuuya, and you must have faith and believe in yourself, your powers and friends. You must believe in me and in the goodness that this world still does possess within its lowly core. The time is come there is no more left for denial, now awaken, otome, and rise to face your challenger. For she is no longer your friend, her memories of you she may still possess, but her soul and heart are tained by Yami's dark powers, and by Akuma. So it is time to wash away this world and to rebuild it on a newer ground. Look outside and listen, review what I have shown to you, Sakuuya. Too much blood has been spilt and it is time to cleanse this world of evil and the darkness."
I shook my head still not ready to accept. "I can't do this on my own. I can't do this permanently. Fight against Kira, against my best friend for all these years? We've been too close for too long, I could never fight her, let alone kill her which is what you are asking. Which is what Yami was asking. You tell me that you want me to cleanse this world, well I can't cleanse it when my best friend is at the root of all this misfortune. I'm only half angel, and I cannot do this, not on my own, not at all. Now leave me alone!"
"Sakuuya," said a familiar voice. As turning to see who had spoken I felt my heart seem to skip a beat, my blood running cold. There in my room, about three feet from me stood the silhouette of an blond haired, blue eyed boy dressed in his usual attire.
"Ace?" I asked in an awed tone of voice gazing at the other boy with surprised eyes. His form was trasparent and I could see right through him and at the anime poster that hung on the wall behind him. Rotating on my bed, I turned and slipped my feet to the floor, before standing and walking over to him, standing about two feet away. I glanced at him. "W-what's happened to you? You're not really--are you?" I couldn't bring myself to say the words, nor was I so certain I could brace myself against his answer. However the other male did not reply and instead just nodded as if that were answer enough. My eyes widened as I again scanned over his transparent form. "W-what happened? Who killed you?" Dear Inari, I thought, please don't tell me it was Kira.
Ace, though just glanced at me with an almost ironic tone on his face. As if he were silently saying, silently asking, 'are you serious?' And I simply turned away, and he could tell that regardless of the fact if I knew it or not, I wasn't handling all of this too well. Though, he could tell I was making the attempt; bringing my navy blue gaze up to meet his own soft blue one I spoke very quietly, "Just answer me this, was it Kira?" An the boy's ghost glanced aside, but nodded nonetheless. "And just how many of our friends has she killed?" I asked still keeping the same quiet, leveled tone. My friend just glanced at me with a solemn expression.
"I'm not so sure how many of us are left, nor do I know how many of them are still alive."
"Wonderful," I said sarcastically, but then I once again diverted my gaze and glanced towards the forbidden skyline. Watching the moon continuing to rise there, and knowing it would grow with each passing evening till it was full and a brilliant bloodred. "So this is where it all ends, and this is the start of a new beginning, all in one night. So this is where we are and where we stand." Sighing my eyes changed from irritation to sorrow, and I glanced back at Ace my sapphire blue eyes catching a ray of the now fully risen moon and sparkling. Glancing between the boy's spirit and a picture of the seven of us all together at this year's Otoku festival, all of us smiling, Kira hanging on Logan, Max and Jake caught in the middle of a playful kiss, me standing beside Rae hands folded in front of me, and smiling meekly at the camera, and Ace behind Rae grinning. I'd give anything for things to go back to how they once had been, to go back to the good days. Where we didn't have to worry about Armageddon and could act like usual teenagers, harboring our own secrets. What ever happened to those days of innocence? In simple terms, they were gone and this was where we stood. I had two options give up or stand my ground. I looked back towards the moon.
Whispering quietly to the night air. "Inari, help me..."
So now tell me where to begin, because I now know that we can never go back. From here we can only move onwards, the past is now forever behind us.
~Phase One Completed-
"So here we are, and this is where we stand. Opposites, you and I. It's time, we end this. Phase one, begin..."
I looked then up from where my head was bowed and towards the red horizon, and I knew, I could sense that Kira was also doing the same. Wherever she was. I sensed here near, though, as one might a dangerous threat and almost every part of me was tense. Tearing my gaze, though, from the horizon I glanced back at Max's body, she looked so peaceful, and for a moment I gave to the reverie that maybe she was better off like this. Yes, I thought, that is right. It is better that she be dead now, then to have her fade away when the world ends. And right now that seems to be the inevitability. I sighed, my eyes closing in my thoughts and then opening as I exhaled heavily. Bringing my gaze back up, my sapphire blue eyes looked to the sakura tree, who's blossoms had yet to bloom. Yet, I knew what sort of tree it were. A cherry blossom tree, a sakura tree, why had Max chosen to lye here and no where else?
My heart clentched tightly as I remembered my parents and the accident. The cliff they had went over with their car, at the bottom of it's rocky edges there lyed a single sakura tree, which now when in blossom, the blooms were a horrid bloodred color. And unfortunately, unlike most other trees of it's family and nature, it was in bloom all the time. All around me it seemed that I was the centerfold of a dance of death, with those blossoms parading about my fragile, pale form. I couldn't escape them no matter how much I may have tried or had wanted to, I was boxed in. As taking on last look at Max's solitary silhouette, I stood and turned to face the horizon my hands resting at my sides clentched into fists. All this time I remember that I had promised to Kira that I would protect her regardless of what came about, but now here we were being forced to face one another. She was my twin star, my dark reflection, and the light's archnemesis. Was Inari-sama testing us, testing me to see what I would do when faced with such adversity? I knew what I had to do, but I was hestitant with my decision for if I followed through on it than that would make Yami correct.
What sort of humor did fate have to set us against one another like this? And Inari-sama and the Devil, what were they hoping for? The end of the world, aa, I knew that but I wanted no part of it. I never asked to be Kira's reflection, her twin star, the light in the darkness, and I was sure that she did not want any of this for herself either. Though, who was I to judge? I was only half angel after all, the second part of me bore the cunningness of a kitsune, and something that Inari-sama scorned. Yet she was willing to let me face this battle on her behalf. I had done no favors to deserve this, but perhaps it was sin that led to this series of misfortune. I couldn't say, nor could I come to the conclusion on my own and it was times like this when I wished that I had someone that I could talk to. Who could help me make sense and find some understanding in this insanity. However now as I gazed into the horizon, I could see an almost full moon rising, in three night's time it would be full, and that was when Final Judgment would be passed. Humanity had lived enough, they have done enough and damaged this world enough. Inari-sama would judge as Kira and I met for a final time, on a battlefield. Not as friends but as rising stars, and as archenemies.
A few more moments passed before I finally could look away from the distant skyline, and turned back to Max. I buried her and said a prayer for her departing soul, as once I finished I finally found the courage to walk away, and leave my friend to her rest. An left Yami's prison with a heavy heart, appearing in my bedroom laying atop my bed. The house was still completely empty, not even Rae could be found, but I figured that he was just out with Ace again in my absence. So being left alone as I were, and still feeling the exhaustion of what had just recently played out, I curled up on my bed watching the sun set and the moon rising much the same as it had done in Yami's domain. Turning on my side, I shifted so that my back faced the rising moon as wave of nausea swept over me. An I felt my heart quaking once more, closing my eyes I tried to block out the rotation of the room, and with a little luck stop my insides from turning to ice and churning sickly.
"Let go, let go of this world that hold's you. Let go, let go of this world that you hold ties to. Release your soul, and let it soar. It is time, there is no denying it this time, Sakuuya. Hikari no otome, Daughter of the Light."
Again I twisted and turned this time trying to drown out that voice whispering caressingly in the backs of my world-rid mind. I tried pleading with that voice saying that I was not ready, but they would counter saying that I had been ready long before now. An then images would swim into my mind of a bloodred moon in a pitch black sky. A cold wind blowing, and yanking at the trees casting shadowy figures upon the land. There were screams of pain and sorrow, of the dead dying and of the living being murdered, somewhere people where dying and it was not in small quantities, it was a mass massacre. The world too was dying little by little. I saw trees lose their leaves, and watering holes drying up, lakes, river, streams, oceans too, and the deserts grew weatherborne throwing up great clouds of dust and covering the few plants that made their homes in such a dry climate. An through all of this in the backs of my mind's eye I felt like I was being watched as two bright crimson eyes gazed at me from the darkness of my own mind and of these grotesque images. Continuing to toss and turn, I braced my hands at the sides of my head feeling the urge as if I were going insane. I could feel the pain and the hurt, the sorrow and despair deep within my own form and with the bitter strength of a torrent.
More images and a voice still whispering to me. I saw Max appear before me as well as several other spirits; those of Ace, Rae, Jake, and Logan. All of them looked onto to me. As the voice quietly asked in a ventriloquay as silent as a just breaking wave. "What will you do now, Sakuuya?"
My eyes snapped open and I bolted upright staring into a corner of my room. Wrapping my arms about my knees I brought them to my chest holding them tightly. "What will I do? I don't know what it is that I am suppose to say. I never asked for any of this, but I knew deep down that this is something that I must do. But I don't know, what do you all want of me? What do you want me to do, to say? Somebody, anybody, please help me..." With downcast eyes I buried my face in my arms, sinking into a faint depressive lapse. Max was dead, and Kira was as good as such. She was evil and I was going to have to fight her, and probably end up spilling her blood with my own. I didn't want violence, I never asked for death, but just like those horrid sakura trees they seemed to follow me no matter what I did or where I went.
"You know what you must do, Sakuuya. What is expected, there is still time, but there will never be enough to undo what has already been done or acted upon. You can't change destiny, but you can help make the new world a better place, one worth living. Do not let this end with the beginning being nothing but a historical repeat," again the voice came to me and I looked up with tearstained eyes. "You must be strong, Sakuuya, and you must have faith and believe in yourself, your powers and friends. You must believe in me and in the goodness that this world still does possess within its lowly core. The time is come there is no more left for denial, now awaken, otome, and rise to face your challenger. For she is no longer your friend, her memories of you she may still possess, but her soul and heart are tained by Yami's dark powers, and by Akuma. So it is time to wash away this world and to rebuild it on a newer ground. Look outside and listen, review what I have shown to you, Sakuuya. Too much blood has been spilt and it is time to cleanse this world of evil and the darkness."
I shook my head still not ready to accept. "I can't do this on my own. I can't do this permanently. Fight against Kira, against my best friend for all these years? We've been too close for too long, I could never fight her, let alone kill her which is what you are asking. Which is what Yami was asking. You tell me that you want me to cleanse this world, well I can't cleanse it when my best friend is at the root of all this misfortune. I'm only half angel, and I cannot do this, not on my own, not at all. Now leave me alone!"
"Sakuuya," said a familiar voice. As turning to see who had spoken I felt my heart seem to skip a beat, my blood running cold. There in my room, about three feet from me stood the silhouette of an blond haired, blue eyed boy dressed in his usual attire.
"Ace?" I asked in an awed tone of voice gazing at the other boy with surprised eyes. His form was trasparent and I could see right through him and at the anime poster that hung on the wall behind him. Rotating on my bed, I turned and slipped my feet to the floor, before standing and walking over to him, standing about two feet away. I glanced at him. "W-what's happened to you? You're not really--are you?" I couldn't bring myself to say the words, nor was I so certain I could brace myself against his answer. However the other male did not reply and instead just nodded as if that were answer enough. My eyes widened as I again scanned over his transparent form. "W-what happened? Who killed you?" Dear Inari, I thought, please don't tell me it was Kira.
Ace, though just glanced at me with an almost ironic tone on his face. As if he were silently saying, silently asking, 'are you serious?' And I simply turned away, and he could tell that regardless of the fact if I knew it or not, I wasn't handling all of this too well. Though, he could tell I was making the attempt; bringing my navy blue gaze up to meet his own soft blue one I spoke very quietly, "Just answer me this, was it Kira?" An the boy's ghost glanced aside, but nodded nonetheless. "And just how many of our friends has she killed?" I asked still keeping the same quiet, leveled tone. My friend just glanced at me with a solemn expression.
"I'm not so sure how many of us are left, nor do I know how many of them are still alive."
"Wonderful," I said sarcastically, but then I once again diverted my gaze and glanced towards the forbidden skyline. Watching the moon continuing to rise there, and knowing it would grow with each passing evening till it was full and a brilliant bloodred. "So this is where it all ends, and this is the start of a new beginning, all in one night. So this is where we are and where we stand." Sighing my eyes changed from irritation to sorrow, and I glanced back at Ace my sapphire blue eyes catching a ray of the now fully risen moon and sparkling. Glancing between the boy's spirit and a picture of the seven of us all together at this year's Otoku festival, all of us smiling, Kira hanging on Logan, Max and Jake caught in the middle of a playful kiss, me standing beside Rae hands folded in front of me, and smiling meekly at the camera, and Ace behind Rae grinning. I'd give anything for things to go back to how they once had been, to go back to the good days. Where we didn't have to worry about Armageddon and could act like usual teenagers, harboring our own secrets. What ever happened to those days of innocence? In simple terms, they were gone and this was where we stood. I had two options give up or stand my ground. I looked back towards the moon.
Whispering quietly to the night air. "Inari, help me..."
So now tell me where to begin, because I now know that we can never go back. From here we can only move onwards, the past is now forever behind us.
~Phase One Completed-
Jake and Max
Currently Playing: Now & Forever - Xandria-Soft smile.- So alright, this is the third post in this subseries that I've seemed to have created for the likes of my friends, and loved ones..and well..those who were just there. -Laughs lightly.- Anyhow, I don't think that I really need to introduce the two people in this post, but I'll do it anyhow. vn.nv;; Jake and Max, and unlike most of the other couples that I posted they were the first to have gotten together out of the entire Twilight group. -Chuckles gently.- Well, actually they had been together even before Himistu moved to Kagawa, so I suppose they are also the couple that's been together the longest. Oh..-Sweatdrops.- And let's not forget the most shameless. Sou, sou, remember that little incident between the two of them where they'd make out in plain sight of the other students during our--Study Hall class, I think it where? -Laughs again.- Sou.
Anyhow, so here's their pictures, and well a little bit of a re-intro on their relationship. ^n.n^
Monday, June 27, 2005
Concept of Twilight: Light and Darkness 003: Sorrow
Currently Playing: Lacuna Coil - Self Deception
"There is so much more to this life than you are seeing. Through the shades of your own vision I see a glimmering light..but around us the world is now ending, we can never go back..Not now..Not ever..It's over..I'm sorry..."
I don't know what over came me in the instant, but I had suddenly and completely befell to an apathic notion. I lost all of what I had been feeling, even my eyes reflected inner betrayal. Their lively sapphire color reflected a clouding feeling. Their livliness had been quelled. I looked to Himitsu and she just looked back, a strange look cast unto her own face. I could not tell if that expression, though, were of sadisitic happiness or a deep unseen self-destruction. I couldn't be for a certain what she was feeling. But her eyes were vivid a crimson color as I had ever seen before. Their color darkening and brightening into pools of what reminded me of blood. Her long black hair blew in the now chilled autumn breeze. She just looked so much more forboading in the shadows now. They almost gave her a powerful look. And I, lost in my own mind and thoughts. Still trapped within the shock and surprise of her betrayal, seemed so small. One hand rested in my lap, my legs folded at the side, and my second hand just braced on the floor of the gazebo.
I trembled slightly. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be. All this time I had a least thought that Himitsu could fight the darkness that threatened to take her over, to fully control her. But now I had seen just how wrong I was. A little voice in the back of my mind chuckled, whispering, "A fool of an angel." I had not seen just how strong that darkness within her had been growing. I was so blind. I should have seen. I should have known. I had sensed a change in her since our last meeting with Yami, everything had begun to spiral downwards then. Himitsu had become so much colder towards, and barely spoke much to me. She just preferred to ignore me, and now it seemed as in her avoidance of speaking to me, she had already marked me as her enemy. But was it truly Himitsu, or was it simply the darkness within her that precieved me as such? I didn't know..and now there was no chance of understanding. Mallos was dead. I no longer had his soft words of comfort to help me clear things up and to understand easier. I didn't have his comforting knowledge, nor his soft voice to offer comfort. In this time of need, there seemed no one any longer left for me to turn to.
I was completely alone.
I gazed into the direction where his body had just recently laid before disappearing, and my heart sank that much deeper. The sorrow reflected in my eyes seemed to be pooling from the deepest recesses of my soul. That was how deep this wound had cut. A few strands of my rosewood locks fell over my shoulder and obscured my face just slightly with shadow. But my eyes seemed blank, only breeched by the reflection of deepening despair and loss, a deeper sorrow that just kept burying inself further and further within me.
I looked at Himitsu and saw her wiping the blood off onto her black tee. The light from the gazebo lamps reflecting off her deep black hair, creating slight crimson highlights. But when she turned her head to gaze back at me they disappeared. My sapphire-blue eyes met her crimson ones and for a split second held, and then I looked away with a soft sigh. Closing my eyes into the motion, my pale hands clentched into fists, though not of anger but still further self-desolation.
"What have you done?" I said, voice a mere whisper. Again I was shaking with my sadness and rage.
"Anger is a sin, Sakuuya, angels aren't suppose to know such." Her crimson eyes flickered in the dim light of the gazebo.
I glanced up at her, my vision reflecting my inner sorrow. She met my gaze and then resheathed her blade into a side-pocket on her black cargo pants.
"We were suppose to be friends, don't you remember?" I asked somberly. "How could you..How could you let the darkness inside of you win and take control. Kira, please. Why cannot you not see the error in your ways..."
"Because emotions are a tool for the weak, that's why. And you above all should have known that this time would come. I am darkness and you are light. How long did you honestly think that our friendship could have lasted? For all you know, I could have simply just been using you. You who's guided by soft, petty emotion. It makes you weak."
"Kira.." I whispered turning away from her, hiding the tears that were still rimming the edges of my eyes. I trembled slightly, though I said no more and once again gazed into my empty lap. Thinking of Mallos. Which caused my heart to tighten painful. What in Inari's name had come over Himitsu that caused her to commence such an act? The darkness, that was it. It was becoming overwhelming, and slowly I thought back to my conversation with Mallos and Yami. About Armageddon. The battle that Mallos had instilled within my mind. The battle between the equal forces of light and darkness. Between Himitsu's and my equal balances. Light and Darkness. Earth and Fire. We were complete opposites, and it was a fool's mistake for me to ever believe that our two rivaling existences could ever coexist in peace. Yet, we had done so well. Until Yami and Mallos stepped into the picture, and things around us began to spin out of control.
I could not simply blame this ill-fate on Mallos and Yami, because long before they even came into the picture. It had already been foreordained that the world was going to end. At some time. One day. It just hurt so much to think that Kira and I were to be the ones who were to end it. With Kira fighting for destruction, chaos and upheavel. And me, fighting for peace, virtue and the right. Her for death. Me for life.
I then thought back to what Max had told us only but earlier today..About how she was going to die soon. And suddenly I felt a sharp jolt. "Max.." I whispered gazing up into the top part of the gazebo. Eyes soft, but seeming blank to most if not all emotion. Yet they were searching, trying to conceal the sadness that glimmered there.
But suddenly Kira began speaking again. "You mean Yami's little kitten? Oh yes, she's just fine. Would you like to see her? Even if you don't, you've no choice. We've got something especially planned for you, little tenshi."
I just glanced aside, not really seeming to have heard what she had said. But I suddenly felt a chilled breeze rising up behind me, and then someone wrapping their arms strongly about me. Forcing me into a standing position. Though, I did struggle. It wasn't much. Though, now back on my feet I found myself face to face with Kira. Who gazed back at me with sharp, piercing crimson eyes. Sorrow masked my face, and I looked away. There was a sudden flash of crimson light and a spur of dark energy as the gazebo and park melted away before us. Something happened along the lines of the transfer. For the next moment, I had suddenly befell to a sharp darkness. My mind lost within strange revelations and recollections. Memories that I really had no recollection of ever having.
I saw two people fighting. And then their images were trapped in a glass sphere which mirrored a globe shape. It was a imitation of the world. And as the two fought, slowly the edges began to crack and break away. The pieces falling away at the edges in the form of ashes, or dust. It was some form of hallucination. It had to have been, but it felt so real. There was a blond fighting against a black-haired opponent. The blond possessed the white-feathered wings of an angel. And the other the tattered-black wings of a fallen. I heard the sound of their blades clashing, as the sphere continued to break away, falling away like grains of sand into an hourglass. And then the image melted away. Like candle wax. Everything suddenly grew obscured. Though, I heard, distantly the soft voice of a young man whispering, "Sakuuya..Sakuuya.."
When I came to, I was laying on a cold-stone floor. It was completely dark, and very chilly. Waking up, I gingerly lifted up my head and gazed before me. There was no one else, or anything else in the room with me. The chamber was empty except for my frail form. Which the shadows seemed to eagerly be surrounding. Waiting, like predators to strike. I shivered slightly, though felt considerably weak. My head was throbbing, and I was not for a certain where I was. I remembered Kira at the gazebo. She said that she was taking me to see Max, and that she, or they, whoever they were, had something special planned for me.
I slowly got to my hands and knees, pulling myself up, I shifted my legs to folding at my side, while one of my pale hands braced against the stone ground. The second hand, was clentched in a fist held against my chest. I felt the shadows growing around me, yet they did not come too close. As my angelic-half seemed to drive them back. But they were slowly growing more and more bolder. I drew my body closer together, gazing absently into the andumbration.
I slowly began to recall all that happened so far. The gazebo, Kira's sudden shift into the dark magicks of the world. She had changed so much, and the change meant so much more than she realized. And none of it was good. Though, I knew that she was too far dug-in, that attempting to talk to her about it would only push her further away, and drive her that much deeper into the darkness, into anger and rage. I shivered again, though not because of the airiness of the room, but rather as I thought back to what had become of my once most dearest friend. I tried to think of happy thoughts, but right now, my mind was more drawn onto trying to figure this all out. Why Kira had decided to join Yami's darkness, why she had killed Mallos, everything. Why I was here in this cold chamber, alone. Where Max was. What that strange dream-vision had meant.
Closing my eyes I listened closely to the sounds of the room. While my mind wandered between thoughts and worries, and then shifted to trying to find some clever way to escape. Basically, my two halfs were in a duel against each other. I needed to find Max. To know if she were safe and all right. But to do that, I needed to try and find some way out of here. So in the end, my first step was to try and find some way out. I glanced about the room, searching for anything that I might have been able to use in a means to help in my escape plan. But there wasn't anything. The entire area was empty except for me. The door was obviously locked. I could tell that from even where I sat in the middle of the chamber. And I wasn't good at picklocking as Kira and Max. But, I was good at wicca. Yet finding a spell that did not require any other physical articles was a completely different story. Just as I thought of a release spell, though, the door suddenly swung open and two men walked in. Each wore a strange mask of deception and an almost blank, mindless look. As if they were wind-up toys that only had a certain amount of time before they stopped.
"Milord and lady, wish to speak with you," said one of the men.
"The games start in about ten minutes. And milady wished you to be present at the time," replied the second one.
"Games?" I repeated quite skeptically.
"Yes, the games. A battlefront that is to take place to exploit the strongest units to be added to our army."
"Units?" I said voice soft, curious, but also slightly bitter. My eyes narrowed skeptically.
"We don't need to explain ourselves to you," said the first of the men. As he and his companion suddenly advanced and reached out to grab my arm. I tensed and prepared to attack, but suddenly their images blurred, and each suddenly reappeared latching themselves onto me. Their grips tight and very strong. I winced. They were far too young to be possessing such strength. Unless they were like Max, gentically enhanced individuals. Then I suppose it would make sense, in at least one way or another. But otherwise, there was no logical meaning to such.
I was suddenly and roughly tugged out of the room. Down several halls, and then out into a very noisy part of--wherever it was that I was. It looked to be some sort of castle from the view that I now precieved. We were in something much like a coliseum. There were people aligning it on all sides. Shouting and talking loudly. Acting as if it were their prime goal was to talk over the next person. I glanced to the side and down towards the battle area. There were further shoutings, and screams. Angry, happy, sadistic. I looked harshly away.
We kept on walking until I came to a the large key box. Were all the important people supposidly sat. Like back in Casear's times. This was the place were he and the commision would sit. Though, the only person who was sitting anywhere near the area was none other than Kira. She sat cross-legged on her chair, watching the batttles intently, as if observing each and every individual. Her pale fingers were laced within each other, and her crimson nails catching a glint of the dying sunlight, flickered viciously. Her long raven-black hair was occasionally blown about due to a breeze that from time and time hit the box. As we arrived, she tossed her head and brushed a few strands out of her blood-colored eyes. Her lips curled into a smirk, and suddenly she turned and looked at me. Our gazes met, but I suddenly looked away. Smiling coolly, Kira stood up, brushing her hands along her thighs and walked over to me.
"You don't seem to be enjoying yourself, Sakuuya.." said Kira in a strange, almost seductive voice.
I said nothing and continued to avoid looking at her. Obviously not impressed with even a little part of this whole set-up.
Kira smirked and then flicked her wrist, dimissing the two men who still held onto me tightly as if afraid to let me anywhere near her.
"You may go, I'll take care of things from here," said Kira in an idle voice. The two men bowed and backed away. Dimissing themselves from the box. However, though, just as the first two men left. Two others appeared from the shadows, grabbed my arms and then shoving me across the way, where I hit my back against a post. Gasping softly and collapsing. They then forced me back into standing position, binding me with rope and chain. Binding my arms to my sides. They stepped aside; Kira stepped up. And still I kept looking away.
"You did want to see your friend did you not?" asked Kira coolly. Her voice nothing like her own.
Again I said nothing, still avoiding to look at her.
Kira sighed. "Are you still upset because of what I had Kira do to Mallos?"
My eyes widened suddenly and I looked up, meeting Kira's crimson gaze. But in her eyes I did not see her, but rather I was Yami's playfulness flickering there. "Did you honestly think that I could only possess the bodies of captives that I held within my dome?"
"You can only possess her, because she has submitted to the darkness," I said softly, though levelly.
"She's become the first half of the Armageddon, Sakuuya," replied Yami coolly.
"Aa, and I still have yet to become the second," I answered quietly. I had again turned my gaze from him, pretending to be either lost in thought or watching the games going on below us.
Yami watched me closely.
"People are dying, Sakuuya," he explained arrogantly. "Slowly the darkness is rising up. The Four Horsemen have already entered this world, and already brother has been turned unto brother. Rivaling blood being spilt, and where is your precious Inari in all this? Has she abandoned her place already?"
I turned apathic on him.
But suddenly Yami approached me and grabbed my face in his cold hands. Though I looked only into Kira's crimson eyes. Eyes that searched my face for emotion, for meaning. Though there was none. He backed away once more and then followed my gaze onto the coliseum.
"Should I reveal Max to you now, my dear?" He asked casually. Though there was an evil glint in his eye. "I turned Kira onto Mallos, because I knew that next to Rae he was the closest thing to your heart. One of your last barriers. In order for the world to end, I needed to revive the ancient magick within you. The magick that is that which belongs to an angel. In order for the world to end, I needed to bring about that power. Though, it seems that my attempts were slightly--misguided. For though your heart is weakened, twice over, you still refuse to releash that power. I need that power, Sakuuya. Show it to me."
"You can just keep wishing," I shot. "Because I'll be damned if I were to ever help you."
"But Sakuuya..people are dying. This world is an evil place. People are killing people. People are dying. Can you not hear them. Their screams as they realize that the ones they thought they could trust were simply wolves in sheep's clothing. Do you not wish to help them? Are you going to betray your position just like your beloved Inari?"
"She has betrayed no one. It is only you who've done any betraying.."
"Ah, me and Kira, remember..She killed Mallos."
"Only because you made her do it. You were too coward yourself, so you had someone else do you dirty work. That's pretty low, if you ask me."
"I'm known to do low.." said Yami with a sadistic smile. "Like I could do right now," he stepped nearer to me. "But you're hope-barrier protects me from getting too close. But that doesn't mean that I cannot attack from afar. How many times, Sakuuya must you be betrayed..how many times must your heart break before you will just give in? Give in to the inevitable?"
"Millenias, if need be," I said levelly. Though it was obvious that my levelness was directed outwards as sarcasm.
"You won't live long enough," said Yami.
"Then I guess, you'll just not win this battle, hm?"
Although suddenly I saw a familiar form appear on the battlefield. Her chin-lengthed layered black hair and violet eyes sparkled in the fading sunlight.
"Max!" I gasped. The dark-haired demon smiled coldly at my sudden surprised and shocked revelation. He idly shifted his hands about as if rolling something about in them. But I was still too shocked to be focused on anything save Max. She seemed almost as apathic as I had been just recently, yet she moved with a purpose and with her unnatural speed and cunning. My eyes went wide as I observed her battling. Yami turned his cold eyes back onto me, and I could sense a sinister desire rising up within him, which caused a shiver to run down my spine. Though I did not express that shake outwardly. It was kept, locked within.
"Ah, but that's not all.." said Yami coldly, as I quickly turned my head to face him. Sapphire eyes cold and bitter. And yet, all he simply did was raise his hand and I saw that in it he held Max's seizure pills. Again my eyes flickered in shocked surprise, narrowing dangerously.
"You bastard," I snapped coldly.
Yami just shrugged. "What can I say? It's in my blood. The blood of a cold-blooded killer. The same blood, and the same killer who's entity runs through your own friend's veins." He turned to gaze to the battlefield. "The world is going to end Sakuuya, whether or not you give consent. There is nothing that you can do. Humanity's at the end of its last rope length."
I lowered my head obviously a sign of slight submittance. A few strands of my hair fell over my shoulder, slowly obscuring my unnaturally bright sapphire-blue eyes. Yami turned back to me, no doubt curious at my sudden quietness. He saw my head lowered, my gaze focused on the ground, and smirked.
"You see? It isn't going to take you too long now to break. Words are powerful, at times even more than physical attempts. A few words spoken, and you lose your nerve. Well then, it looks like I am going to win after all."
I snapped my gaze back up, a strange gleam reflected in my eyes, one that made Yami recoil slightly. "Neither light nor darkness will win this battle, Yami. For you know as well as I, as well as Mallos did that together the two will destroy one another. Along with them the world. The world is nothing more simply than a ball of color balanced delicately on an axel that is made up of good and evil. Like the saying goes, remove one and earth will collapse, remove them both. And nothing shall ever last. That's all life is, that's all the earth ever will be. Nothing but a scale, which holds in its claws an orb of light and it's couterpart, an orb of darkness. A balance, a scale, that only exists so long as an equal balance exists between said two elements. Between said good and said evil."
"Mm, how awe-inspiring. Little Sakuuya is speaking in riddles," said Yami with another of his cool smirks. "But either of which, none of that matters now. For we already have our component, our champion. So then, where is the light's? The one who will rise to challenge her?"
"We are not dolls and tools for you to use, Yami. We are human beings. We have a life, and it's one that we ourselves direct. Not some ancient prophecy. Some legendary battle. We control our own lives. While you simply manipulate and use others'. Everyone has their own path to travel their own destiny to chose." My eyes once more flickered with that strange gleam. To which Yami just smiled harshly against.
"You won't win this, Sakuuya, you can already feel Inari's powers coursing through your body. You can already sense the lightness inside of you growing. Your angelic-self surfacing, you can't deny what is meant to be, Sakuuya. For it will always come to pass. Just like right now, just like what will happen in less then three days time. We await for you, and when the time comes you will find us, and you will seek Kira out. Such is your destiny. Such is inevitable. When the time is right, come, come and find us, where the Savior lyes." He then turned and walked away. Leaving me alone to simply wall in my thoughts. In my own self-deception.
A while passed as I simply remained bound to that post, with only the fights to occupy myself with. Albeit, my thoughts were anywhere but cast onto said fights. I thought back to what Yami had been saying earlier, about me becoming the challenger for the light. Their own champion, as he made reference to Kira as. I thought about Max and what would happen now that she did not have her pills. She went missing a while back, but I did not think that Yami would have captured her for this reason. I then shifted my thoughts back to Kira and the sudden cloak of darkness that had cast its unholy grasp onto her. And how if things happened as Mallos had predicted they would, then Kira and I would meet in battle, a battle to end all things. To end all battles, and with it take the entire world down with us.
I glanced up towards the sky trying to think of anything but the whole Armageddon ordeal. I tried to think of Rae and the other guys, and a faint and hurtful ache struck my heart. The guys..they were still untouched much by this evil deed at hand. But still, they were as close to us as anyone or anything else. Atop that, the world around me seemed to be ending as the day befell to a sudden quick night. I glanced back down at the battlefield. Max was still there, still fighting. However, into the third round, I suddenly saw her stumble. She defeated her opponent, but soon after she nearly collapse. Their was a fearful expression cast onto her face. An expression that seemed to read 'dear god, not now.' She turned and ran from the scene. Quickly exiting the coliseum.
"Max," I breathed softly. Where was she going? She couldn't go too far with all the guards and people around the area. And with Yami wandering about..I would have thought that she would know to tread more cautiously. I followed her for as long as my gaze would allow, until she had vanished from my sights. I struggled at my bindings, but they were nowhere near coming undone. My arms fell still in the ropes as I glanced towards the twilight sky with a sullen expression. What was I going to do? How could I help Max from here when I was bound as I were by these chains and ropes. A shift in my position and I heard the metal ching of the chains, but my heart was already sinking.
A sudden loss in the weight drew my attention back towards the bindings. The rope and chains at my sides suddenly fell loose. Surprised, I turned my head quickly to my side, though I did not see anyone. As my sapphire gaze searched the the area, I kept finding that the scan was coming up empty handed. So then--who or what had realeased me? I shook my head, never mind that didn't matter right now. My goal now was to find Max and pray that I would not arrive too late. Another brief scan of the area and then I looked down at my feet and found the vile that Kira had held in her hand, Max's pill phial. With a quick swipe of my hand, I picked the bottle up and then glanced into the distance horizon, seeing the sun still sinking beneath a black horizon, casting a sickly red glow across the horizon. Time as running out. Quickly I rushed from the box and into the direction that I had seen Max vanish through, a voice in the backs of my mind chuckling and mocking me saying "hurry, Sakuuya. Hurry, hurry, hurry angel.." And I ran, to where I did not know, all I did was follow on instinct and my heart. Praying still that neither would be misleading.
I kept running for some time, at least ten to fifteen minutes. Rushing from the colliseum and through the outskirts of the area till I can to an open field, in which a single sakura tree blossomed. A wave of uneasment and unpleasantness swarm through me, and I felt my heart's pace quicken. Dear Inari, I thought, please tell me that I am not too late..I glanced at the sakura tree to find a form huddled beneath it. She was curled up in the fetal position, her hands wrapped about her shoulders and she was shaking. A seizure. "Max!" I cried and rushed through the field till I was at the side of my friend. She kept shaking and without hesitation I reached into the pocket of my bleached jeans to pull out her pill vial. I popped the cap and tipped two pills into my hand. "Here," I said, reaching out and taking her hand in mine, I went to drop the pills into it, but Max suddenly shook her head. She was still trembling, but was in control somewhat of the seizure. She opened her eyes and looked at me, placing a shaky hand atop my own.
"No, Sakuuya.." said Max voice softened. "It's too late for that, this is what Mallos has shown me..My time..has come. But please, you must promise me, promise me that you will save Kira. That you will stop her from what she is about to do..and if not, then I hope that you will pray for her soul's salvation. Be strong, and--godspeed to you.." That hand then went limp and Max stopped trembling, her eyes slipped shut as she drew her final breath. When her hand fell from mine, my hand fell pathetically to my side, the pills dropping onto the ground beside me, and the pill vial also slipped to the ground spilling forth its contents. As for a moment I was cast into utter disbelief, but fought down the urge to try and shake her with the hopes that she were simply asleep. Which I knew she were, Max was indeed sleeping, but it were an eternal sleep. The truth revealed that my friend was dead, and my heart ached. I may not have known her for too long, or even known her long enough to know what she was all about. But we had been through so much already, and in such a short time, but in all that I had felt so close to her. Like I had known her all my life, so then why? Why now did this have to happen? She did not deserve to die. No one really ever did, except for those of the darkness. Albeit, even so, if they were to die then the world would not have survived and existed for as long as it had. There had to always be that balance or else the world was to end for a certain. Fate was cruel like that.
Turning my gaze away from Max's body, I cast my sapphired gaze into the distance. There was a great deal of sorrow masking my face, and pain as well. Tears fell silently from my evening gaze, as I slowly closed my eyes feeling a gentle breeze sweeping the area. No words were uttered save an extremely soft "goodbye," and the wind played through my rosewood locks as if to be a foolish attempt to ease my sorrow. Opening my eyes, they caught a glimpse of the fallen sun and sparkled as I sensed in the distance a dark presence only all too familar. It was Kira, and she too had watched as Max left this world, a single tear of blood slipped from her eyes as she looked on from the distance. Where she stood somberly, her hands at her sides, with me opposite to her on my knees before Max's body, my hands folded in my lap and my head bowed, my eyes closed as if I were praying with my eyes still letting tears fall down my cheeks. A blast of wind past between out two forms, light and darkness reflecting themselves and then everything after that just seemed to go so silent and still. A sorrow shared between the two. I came too from my bowed position, lifting my gaze and then looked into the distance, as Kira and I both gazed into the horizon, our spirits meeting one another's gaze, and still the wind swirled around our forms once more to fall still.
Life, it is a vicious circle. You are born, you live, and then everything must eventually die.
"There is so much more to this life than you are seeing. Through the shades of your own vision I see a glimmering light..but around us the world is now ending, we can never go back..Not now..Not ever..It's over..I'm sorry..."
I don't know what over came me in the instant, but I had suddenly and completely befell to an apathic notion. I lost all of what I had been feeling, even my eyes reflected inner betrayal. Their lively sapphire color reflected a clouding feeling. Their livliness had been quelled. I looked to Himitsu and she just looked back, a strange look cast unto her own face. I could not tell if that expression, though, were of sadisitic happiness or a deep unseen self-destruction. I couldn't be for a certain what she was feeling. But her eyes were vivid a crimson color as I had ever seen before. Their color darkening and brightening into pools of what reminded me of blood. Her long black hair blew in the now chilled autumn breeze. She just looked so much more forboading in the shadows now. They almost gave her a powerful look. And I, lost in my own mind and thoughts. Still trapped within the shock and surprise of her betrayal, seemed so small. One hand rested in my lap, my legs folded at the side, and my second hand just braced on the floor of the gazebo.
I trembled slightly. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be. All this time I had a least thought that Himitsu could fight the darkness that threatened to take her over, to fully control her. But now I had seen just how wrong I was. A little voice in the back of my mind chuckled, whispering, "A fool of an angel." I had not seen just how strong that darkness within her had been growing. I was so blind. I should have seen. I should have known. I had sensed a change in her since our last meeting with Yami, everything had begun to spiral downwards then. Himitsu had become so much colder towards, and barely spoke much to me. She just preferred to ignore me, and now it seemed as in her avoidance of speaking to me, she had already marked me as her enemy. But was it truly Himitsu, or was it simply the darkness within her that precieved me as such? I didn't know..and now there was no chance of understanding. Mallos was dead. I no longer had his soft words of comfort to help me clear things up and to understand easier. I didn't have his comforting knowledge, nor his soft voice to offer comfort. In this time of need, there seemed no one any longer left for me to turn to.
I was completely alone.
I gazed into the direction where his body had just recently laid before disappearing, and my heart sank that much deeper. The sorrow reflected in my eyes seemed to be pooling from the deepest recesses of my soul. That was how deep this wound had cut. A few strands of my rosewood locks fell over my shoulder and obscured my face just slightly with shadow. But my eyes seemed blank, only breeched by the reflection of deepening despair and loss, a deeper sorrow that just kept burying inself further and further within me.
I looked at Himitsu and saw her wiping the blood off onto her black tee. The light from the gazebo lamps reflecting off her deep black hair, creating slight crimson highlights. But when she turned her head to gaze back at me they disappeared. My sapphire-blue eyes met her crimson ones and for a split second held, and then I looked away with a soft sigh. Closing my eyes into the motion, my pale hands clentched into fists, though not of anger but still further self-desolation.
"What have you done?" I said, voice a mere whisper. Again I was shaking with my sadness and rage.
"Anger is a sin, Sakuuya, angels aren't suppose to know such." Her crimson eyes flickered in the dim light of the gazebo.
I glanced up at her, my vision reflecting my inner sorrow. She met my gaze and then resheathed her blade into a side-pocket on her black cargo pants.
"We were suppose to be friends, don't you remember?" I asked somberly. "How could you..How could you let the darkness inside of you win and take control. Kira, please. Why cannot you not see the error in your ways..."
"Because emotions are a tool for the weak, that's why. And you above all should have known that this time would come. I am darkness and you are light. How long did you honestly think that our friendship could have lasted? For all you know, I could have simply just been using you. You who's guided by soft, petty emotion. It makes you weak."
"Kira.." I whispered turning away from her, hiding the tears that were still rimming the edges of my eyes. I trembled slightly, though I said no more and once again gazed into my empty lap. Thinking of Mallos. Which caused my heart to tighten painful. What in Inari's name had come over Himitsu that caused her to commence such an act? The darkness, that was it. It was becoming overwhelming, and slowly I thought back to my conversation with Mallos and Yami. About Armageddon. The battle that Mallos had instilled within my mind. The battle between the equal forces of light and darkness. Between Himitsu's and my equal balances. Light and Darkness. Earth and Fire. We were complete opposites, and it was a fool's mistake for me to ever believe that our two rivaling existences could ever coexist in peace. Yet, we had done so well. Until Yami and Mallos stepped into the picture, and things around us began to spin out of control.
I could not simply blame this ill-fate on Mallos and Yami, because long before they even came into the picture. It had already been foreordained that the world was going to end. At some time. One day. It just hurt so much to think that Kira and I were to be the ones who were to end it. With Kira fighting for destruction, chaos and upheavel. And me, fighting for peace, virtue and the right. Her for death. Me for life.
I then thought back to what Max had told us only but earlier today..About how she was going to die soon. And suddenly I felt a sharp jolt. "Max.." I whispered gazing up into the top part of the gazebo. Eyes soft, but seeming blank to most if not all emotion. Yet they were searching, trying to conceal the sadness that glimmered there.
But suddenly Kira began speaking again. "You mean Yami's little kitten? Oh yes, she's just fine. Would you like to see her? Even if you don't, you've no choice. We've got something especially planned for you, little tenshi."
I just glanced aside, not really seeming to have heard what she had said. But I suddenly felt a chilled breeze rising up behind me, and then someone wrapping their arms strongly about me. Forcing me into a standing position. Though, I did struggle. It wasn't much. Though, now back on my feet I found myself face to face with Kira. Who gazed back at me with sharp, piercing crimson eyes. Sorrow masked my face, and I looked away. There was a sudden flash of crimson light and a spur of dark energy as the gazebo and park melted away before us. Something happened along the lines of the transfer. For the next moment, I had suddenly befell to a sharp darkness. My mind lost within strange revelations and recollections. Memories that I really had no recollection of ever having.
I saw two people fighting. And then their images were trapped in a glass sphere which mirrored a globe shape. It was a imitation of the world. And as the two fought, slowly the edges began to crack and break away. The pieces falling away at the edges in the form of ashes, or dust. It was some form of hallucination. It had to have been, but it felt so real. There was a blond fighting against a black-haired opponent. The blond possessed the white-feathered wings of an angel. And the other the tattered-black wings of a fallen. I heard the sound of their blades clashing, as the sphere continued to break away, falling away like grains of sand into an hourglass. And then the image melted away. Like candle wax. Everything suddenly grew obscured. Though, I heard, distantly the soft voice of a young man whispering, "Sakuuya..Sakuuya.."
When I came to, I was laying on a cold-stone floor. It was completely dark, and very chilly. Waking up, I gingerly lifted up my head and gazed before me. There was no one else, or anything else in the room with me. The chamber was empty except for my frail form. Which the shadows seemed to eagerly be surrounding. Waiting, like predators to strike. I shivered slightly, though felt considerably weak. My head was throbbing, and I was not for a certain where I was. I remembered Kira at the gazebo. She said that she was taking me to see Max, and that she, or they, whoever they were, had something special planned for me.
I slowly got to my hands and knees, pulling myself up, I shifted my legs to folding at my side, while one of my pale hands braced against the stone ground. The second hand, was clentched in a fist held against my chest. I felt the shadows growing around me, yet they did not come too close. As my angelic-half seemed to drive them back. But they were slowly growing more and more bolder. I drew my body closer together, gazing absently into the andumbration.
I slowly began to recall all that happened so far. The gazebo, Kira's sudden shift into the dark magicks of the world. She had changed so much, and the change meant so much more than she realized. And none of it was good. Though, I knew that she was too far dug-in, that attempting to talk to her about it would only push her further away, and drive her that much deeper into the darkness, into anger and rage. I shivered again, though not because of the airiness of the room, but rather as I thought back to what had become of my once most dearest friend. I tried to think of happy thoughts, but right now, my mind was more drawn onto trying to figure this all out. Why Kira had decided to join Yami's darkness, why she had killed Mallos, everything. Why I was here in this cold chamber, alone. Where Max was. What that strange dream-vision had meant.
Closing my eyes I listened closely to the sounds of the room. While my mind wandered between thoughts and worries, and then shifted to trying to find some clever way to escape. Basically, my two halfs were in a duel against each other. I needed to find Max. To know if she were safe and all right. But to do that, I needed to try and find some way out of here. So in the end, my first step was to try and find some way out. I glanced about the room, searching for anything that I might have been able to use in a means to help in my escape plan. But there wasn't anything. The entire area was empty except for me. The door was obviously locked. I could tell that from even where I sat in the middle of the chamber. And I wasn't good at picklocking as Kira and Max. But, I was good at wicca. Yet finding a spell that did not require any other physical articles was a completely different story. Just as I thought of a release spell, though, the door suddenly swung open and two men walked in. Each wore a strange mask of deception and an almost blank, mindless look. As if they were wind-up toys that only had a certain amount of time before they stopped.
"Milord and lady, wish to speak with you," said one of the men.
"The games start in about ten minutes. And milady wished you to be present at the time," replied the second one.
"Games?" I repeated quite skeptically.
"Yes, the games. A battlefront that is to take place to exploit the strongest units to be added to our army."
"Units?" I said voice soft, curious, but also slightly bitter. My eyes narrowed skeptically.
"We don't need to explain ourselves to you," said the first of the men. As he and his companion suddenly advanced and reached out to grab my arm. I tensed and prepared to attack, but suddenly their images blurred, and each suddenly reappeared latching themselves onto me. Their grips tight and very strong. I winced. They were far too young to be possessing such strength. Unless they were like Max, gentically enhanced individuals. Then I suppose it would make sense, in at least one way or another. But otherwise, there was no logical meaning to such.
I was suddenly and roughly tugged out of the room. Down several halls, and then out into a very noisy part of--wherever it was that I was. It looked to be some sort of castle from the view that I now precieved. We were in something much like a coliseum. There were people aligning it on all sides. Shouting and talking loudly. Acting as if it were their prime goal was to talk over the next person. I glanced to the side and down towards the battle area. There were further shoutings, and screams. Angry, happy, sadistic. I looked harshly away.
We kept on walking until I came to a the large key box. Were all the important people supposidly sat. Like back in Casear's times. This was the place were he and the commision would sit. Though, the only person who was sitting anywhere near the area was none other than Kira. She sat cross-legged on her chair, watching the batttles intently, as if observing each and every individual. Her pale fingers were laced within each other, and her crimson nails catching a glint of the dying sunlight, flickered viciously. Her long raven-black hair was occasionally blown about due to a breeze that from time and time hit the box. As we arrived, she tossed her head and brushed a few strands out of her blood-colored eyes. Her lips curled into a smirk, and suddenly she turned and looked at me. Our gazes met, but I suddenly looked away. Smiling coolly, Kira stood up, brushing her hands along her thighs and walked over to me.
"You don't seem to be enjoying yourself, Sakuuya.." said Kira in a strange, almost seductive voice.
I said nothing and continued to avoid looking at her. Obviously not impressed with even a little part of this whole set-up.
Kira smirked and then flicked her wrist, dimissing the two men who still held onto me tightly as if afraid to let me anywhere near her.
"You may go, I'll take care of things from here," said Kira in an idle voice. The two men bowed and backed away. Dimissing themselves from the box. However, though, just as the first two men left. Two others appeared from the shadows, grabbed my arms and then shoving me across the way, where I hit my back against a post. Gasping softly and collapsing. They then forced me back into standing position, binding me with rope and chain. Binding my arms to my sides. They stepped aside; Kira stepped up. And still I kept looking away.
"You did want to see your friend did you not?" asked Kira coolly. Her voice nothing like her own.
Again I said nothing, still avoiding to look at her.
Kira sighed. "Are you still upset because of what I had Kira do to Mallos?"
My eyes widened suddenly and I looked up, meeting Kira's crimson gaze. But in her eyes I did not see her, but rather I was Yami's playfulness flickering there. "Did you honestly think that I could only possess the bodies of captives that I held within my dome?"
"You can only possess her, because she has submitted to the darkness," I said softly, though levelly.
"She's become the first half of the Armageddon, Sakuuya," replied Yami coolly.
"Aa, and I still have yet to become the second," I answered quietly. I had again turned my gaze from him, pretending to be either lost in thought or watching the games going on below us.
Yami watched me closely.
"People are dying, Sakuuya," he explained arrogantly. "Slowly the darkness is rising up. The Four Horsemen have already entered this world, and already brother has been turned unto brother. Rivaling blood being spilt, and where is your precious Inari in all this? Has she abandoned her place already?"
I turned apathic on him.
But suddenly Yami approached me and grabbed my face in his cold hands. Though I looked only into Kira's crimson eyes. Eyes that searched my face for emotion, for meaning. Though there was none. He backed away once more and then followed my gaze onto the coliseum.
"Should I reveal Max to you now, my dear?" He asked casually. Though there was an evil glint in his eye. "I turned Kira onto Mallos, because I knew that next to Rae he was the closest thing to your heart. One of your last barriers. In order for the world to end, I needed to revive the ancient magick within you. The magick that is that which belongs to an angel. In order for the world to end, I needed to bring about that power. Though, it seems that my attempts were slightly--misguided. For though your heart is weakened, twice over, you still refuse to releash that power. I need that power, Sakuuya. Show it to me."
"You can just keep wishing," I shot. "Because I'll be damned if I were to ever help you."
"But Sakuuya..people are dying. This world is an evil place. People are killing people. People are dying. Can you not hear them. Their screams as they realize that the ones they thought they could trust were simply wolves in sheep's clothing. Do you not wish to help them? Are you going to betray your position just like your beloved Inari?"
"She has betrayed no one. It is only you who've done any betraying.."
"Ah, me and Kira, remember..She killed Mallos."
"Only because you made her do it. You were too coward yourself, so you had someone else do you dirty work. That's pretty low, if you ask me."
"I'm known to do low.." said Yami with a sadistic smile. "Like I could do right now," he stepped nearer to me. "But you're hope-barrier protects me from getting too close. But that doesn't mean that I cannot attack from afar. How many times, Sakuuya must you be betrayed..how many times must your heart break before you will just give in? Give in to the inevitable?"
"Millenias, if need be," I said levelly. Though it was obvious that my levelness was directed outwards as sarcasm.
"You won't live long enough," said Yami.
"Then I guess, you'll just not win this battle, hm?"
Although suddenly I saw a familiar form appear on the battlefield. Her chin-lengthed layered black hair and violet eyes sparkled in the fading sunlight.
"Max!" I gasped. The dark-haired demon smiled coldly at my sudden surprised and shocked revelation. He idly shifted his hands about as if rolling something about in them. But I was still too shocked to be focused on anything save Max. She seemed almost as apathic as I had been just recently, yet she moved with a purpose and with her unnatural speed and cunning. My eyes went wide as I observed her battling. Yami turned his cold eyes back onto me, and I could sense a sinister desire rising up within him, which caused a shiver to run down my spine. Though I did not express that shake outwardly. It was kept, locked within.
"Ah, but that's not all.." said Yami coldly, as I quickly turned my head to face him. Sapphire eyes cold and bitter. And yet, all he simply did was raise his hand and I saw that in it he held Max's seizure pills. Again my eyes flickered in shocked surprise, narrowing dangerously.
"You bastard," I snapped coldly.
Yami just shrugged. "What can I say? It's in my blood. The blood of a cold-blooded killer. The same blood, and the same killer who's entity runs through your own friend's veins." He turned to gaze to the battlefield. "The world is going to end Sakuuya, whether or not you give consent. There is nothing that you can do. Humanity's at the end of its last rope length."
I lowered my head obviously a sign of slight submittance. A few strands of my hair fell over my shoulder, slowly obscuring my unnaturally bright sapphire-blue eyes. Yami turned back to me, no doubt curious at my sudden quietness. He saw my head lowered, my gaze focused on the ground, and smirked.
"You see? It isn't going to take you too long now to break. Words are powerful, at times even more than physical attempts. A few words spoken, and you lose your nerve. Well then, it looks like I am going to win after all."
I snapped my gaze back up, a strange gleam reflected in my eyes, one that made Yami recoil slightly. "Neither light nor darkness will win this battle, Yami. For you know as well as I, as well as Mallos did that together the two will destroy one another. Along with them the world. The world is nothing more simply than a ball of color balanced delicately on an axel that is made up of good and evil. Like the saying goes, remove one and earth will collapse, remove them both. And nothing shall ever last. That's all life is, that's all the earth ever will be. Nothing but a scale, which holds in its claws an orb of light and it's couterpart, an orb of darkness. A balance, a scale, that only exists so long as an equal balance exists between said two elements. Between said good and said evil."
"Mm, how awe-inspiring. Little Sakuuya is speaking in riddles," said Yami with another of his cool smirks. "But either of which, none of that matters now. For we already have our component, our champion. So then, where is the light's? The one who will rise to challenge her?"
"We are not dolls and tools for you to use, Yami. We are human beings. We have a life, and it's one that we ourselves direct. Not some ancient prophecy. Some legendary battle. We control our own lives. While you simply manipulate and use others'. Everyone has their own path to travel their own destiny to chose." My eyes once more flickered with that strange gleam. To which Yami just smiled harshly against.
"You won't win this, Sakuuya, you can already feel Inari's powers coursing through your body. You can already sense the lightness inside of you growing. Your angelic-self surfacing, you can't deny what is meant to be, Sakuuya. For it will always come to pass. Just like right now, just like what will happen in less then three days time. We await for you, and when the time comes you will find us, and you will seek Kira out. Such is your destiny. Such is inevitable. When the time is right, come, come and find us, where the Savior lyes." He then turned and walked away. Leaving me alone to simply wall in my thoughts. In my own self-deception.
A while passed as I simply remained bound to that post, with only the fights to occupy myself with. Albeit, my thoughts were anywhere but cast onto said fights. I thought back to what Yami had been saying earlier, about me becoming the challenger for the light. Their own champion, as he made reference to Kira as. I thought about Max and what would happen now that she did not have her pills. She went missing a while back, but I did not think that Yami would have captured her for this reason. I then shifted my thoughts back to Kira and the sudden cloak of darkness that had cast its unholy grasp onto her. And how if things happened as Mallos had predicted they would, then Kira and I would meet in battle, a battle to end all things. To end all battles, and with it take the entire world down with us.
I glanced up towards the sky trying to think of anything but the whole Armageddon ordeal. I tried to think of Rae and the other guys, and a faint and hurtful ache struck my heart. The guys..they were still untouched much by this evil deed at hand. But still, they were as close to us as anyone or anything else. Atop that, the world around me seemed to be ending as the day befell to a sudden quick night. I glanced back down at the battlefield. Max was still there, still fighting. However, into the third round, I suddenly saw her stumble. She defeated her opponent, but soon after she nearly collapse. Their was a fearful expression cast onto her face. An expression that seemed to read 'dear god, not now.' She turned and ran from the scene. Quickly exiting the coliseum.
"Max," I breathed softly. Where was she going? She couldn't go too far with all the guards and people around the area. And with Yami wandering about..I would have thought that she would know to tread more cautiously. I followed her for as long as my gaze would allow, until she had vanished from my sights. I struggled at my bindings, but they were nowhere near coming undone. My arms fell still in the ropes as I glanced towards the twilight sky with a sullen expression. What was I going to do? How could I help Max from here when I was bound as I were by these chains and ropes. A shift in my position and I heard the metal ching of the chains, but my heart was already sinking.
A sudden loss in the weight drew my attention back towards the bindings. The rope and chains at my sides suddenly fell loose. Surprised, I turned my head quickly to my side, though I did not see anyone. As my sapphire gaze searched the the area, I kept finding that the scan was coming up empty handed. So then--who or what had realeased me? I shook my head, never mind that didn't matter right now. My goal now was to find Max and pray that I would not arrive too late. Another brief scan of the area and then I looked down at my feet and found the vile that Kira had held in her hand, Max's pill phial. With a quick swipe of my hand, I picked the bottle up and then glanced into the distance horizon, seeing the sun still sinking beneath a black horizon, casting a sickly red glow across the horizon. Time as running out. Quickly I rushed from the box and into the direction that I had seen Max vanish through, a voice in the backs of my mind chuckling and mocking me saying "hurry, Sakuuya. Hurry, hurry, hurry angel.." And I ran, to where I did not know, all I did was follow on instinct and my heart. Praying still that neither would be misleading.
I kept running for some time, at least ten to fifteen minutes. Rushing from the colliseum and through the outskirts of the area till I can to an open field, in which a single sakura tree blossomed. A wave of uneasment and unpleasantness swarm through me, and I felt my heart's pace quicken. Dear Inari, I thought, please tell me that I am not too late..I glanced at the sakura tree to find a form huddled beneath it. She was curled up in the fetal position, her hands wrapped about her shoulders and she was shaking. A seizure. "Max!" I cried and rushed through the field till I was at the side of my friend. She kept shaking and without hesitation I reached into the pocket of my bleached jeans to pull out her pill vial. I popped the cap and tipped two pills into my hand. "Here," I said, reaching out and taking her hand in mine, I went to drop the pills into it, but Max suddenly shook her head. She was still trembling, but was in control somewhat of the seizure. She opened her eyes and looked at me, placing a shaky hand atop my own.
"No, Sakuuya.." said Max voice softened. "It's too late for that, this is what Mallos has shown me..My time..has come. But please, you must promise me, promise me that you will save Kira. That you will stop her from what she is about to do..and if not, then I hope that you will pray for her soul's salvation. Be strong, and--godspeed to you.." That hand then went limp and Max stopped trembling, her eyes slipped shut as she drew her final breath. When her hand fell from mine, my hand fell pathetically to my side, the pills dropping onto the ground beside me, and the pill vial also slipped to the ground spilling forth its contents. As for a moment I was cast into utter disbelief, but fought down the urge to try and shake her with the hopes that she were simply asleep. Which I knew she were, Max was indeed sleeping, but it were an eternal sleep. The truth revealed that my friend was dead, and my heart ached. I may not have known her for too long, or even known her long enough to know what she was all about. But we had been through so much already, and in such a short time, but in all that I had felt so close to her. Like I had known her all my life, so then why? Why now did this have to happen? She did not deserve to die. No one really ever did, except for those of the darkness. Albeit, even so, if they were to die then the world would not have survived and existed for as long as it had. There had to always be that balance or else the world was to end for a certain. Fate was cruel like that.
Turning my gaze away from Max's body, I cast my sapphired gaze into the distance. There was a great deal of sorrow masking my face, and pain as well. Tears fell silently from my evening gaze, as I slowly closed my eyes feeling a gentle breeze sweeping the area. No words were uttered save an extremely soft "goodbye," and the wind played through my rosewood locks as if to be a foolish attempt to ease my sorrow. Opening my eyes, they caught a glimpse of the fallen sun and sparkled as I sensed in the distance a dark presence only all too familar. It was Kira, and she too had watched as Max left this world, a single tear of blood slipped from her eyes as she looked on from the distance. Where she stood somberly, her hands at her sides, with me opposite to her on my knees before Max's body, my hands folded in my lap and my head bowed, my eyes closed as if I were praying with my eyes still letting tears fall down my cheeks. A blast of wind past between out two forms, light and darkness reflecting themselves and then everything after that just seemed to go so silent and still. A sorrow shared between the two. I came too from my bowed position, lifting my gaze and then looked into the distance, as Kira and I both gazed into the horizon, our spirits meeting one another's gaze, and still the wind swirled around our forms once more to fall still.
Life, it is a vicious circle. You are born, you live, and then everything must eventually die.
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