Kage Riku 10/?

Thanks goes out to all those who keep writing to me and telling me how they love the story. Thank you all. And this is dedicated to each and everyone who wrote me. Thanks again. I wish I could list all the names, but every reply makes me happy and thanks to the support!!! But going on, I want to thank my friend for translating some things from the show for me. Thanks to my friend for translating some of series for me...

Notes:
"<<speech in this denotes it isn't in English>>"
//flashback//
*astral speaking*
<<lyrics>>

Special Note of thanks... Thanks Sapphire Rose-san!!!! ([email protected]) for beta-ing for me!!! Yatta!!! And another thanks to Cheshire-san ([email protected]) for beta-ing and proofreading!!

Kage Riku
[The Shadowed Lands]

By: Kc-chan

Chapter 10/?

Estuans interius
Ira vehementi
In amaritudine
Loquor mee menti:
Factus de materia,
Cinis elementi<1>

~~~~~'~~@@~~'~~~~

And his world just collapsed.

The world became a void in and of itself.... Nothing could exist anymore... How could it...? He could hear the shattering of everything he ever wanted... every reverie of his future completely crushed.

Fate.... She never was kind to him... Why should he expect anything more now? He felt numb as torrents of water... falling like sheets slammed against his body. Was he crying?

Breathing was too complicated now. Something prevented the air from reaching his lungs. A sob caught in his throat... Pupils nearly disappearing into a vast expanse of whiteness...

"My love..." slipped from his lips. A moment too late. For he could say nothing else in response. That's all he _knew_. That the man who showed him love from lust... the moon from the heavens... Who set his world into an expanse of darkness and yet bursting with silvery light? The person who cared when no one else wanted to try...

Now he let the words come from his lips, without hesitation. To Sammael... who never even heard him say those words without some hatred or resignation or even stuttering in his tone. He truly was a selfish brat... Why?! WHY?!?! Why was he cursed to learn everything after it had slipped through his fingers...?!

And there she stood... smiling. Gleeful laughter dancing in that poisoned tongue... Chuckling in that gods-accursed tone. Living. She remained living while the last part of his life died... He had replayed his debt threefold. He lost her on his colony. He let his home be destroyed... And she destroyed the last remains of his soul. They were, by any account, even. After all, she always did have a knack for destroying his life and world.

And then it came in one moment of clarity...

From somewhere in some unnamed and obscure depth of the furthermost channels of an abyss, came a primeval roar of unadulterated passion and intense rage. Black surged from that bronze back, sending warded spells off in explosions. Bursting into white flames to be sucked into nothing by the swelling darkness of his power.

"Ad se vocaro de inferorum exordiri armarea deindus in imperium... ego Apaosa ad se vocaro de circumdari..."<2>

Meiren's eyes narrowed and began to boil in sheer antipathy. With a slick movement, she ripped her sword from the fallen prince of Hell. Black spheres growing arctic each moment of the second hand. "I should have killed you first, Vrita... Always the fucking pain in my side! Always the unneeded soldier... And always too _weak_ to stop me!"

Wufei ignored her taunts. He would show her power and darkness that even her nightmares would seem innocent and chaste next to his strength...too much for her naivet� to comprehend. She always flirted with the dark powers... Intrigue was only going so far. She never would hold the sheer gall to embrace what he was naturally.

He winced as skin boiled along his shoulders. To raise this power would take his all... Bubbling and smoldering under the intense aura of majik. Skin splitting...giving birth to his sins...

Trieze's eyes narrowed and baring teeth, snarled at the turn of events. He knew the brat was calling powers... Power that he no longer could use. Damning Sammael, he growled and pulled forth his own flames. Extending hands cupping the red energy... circling to his master's heartbeat. Pulsing in time with the beat of the earth from which it was birthed...

"Ego sum Apaosa... deindus Sammael...conjuxgis, fratertris, et ejus duxcis..."<3>

Vrita leaned back against the bindings, arching to his spines extremes... Pulling every muscle taut. He could feel his fingers stretch. Bones lengthening themselves as agony shot up his arms to compensate for the growth. His body wanted to realize... He wanted this to end! He wanted to be safe in his master's arms... Feel that solid chest against his head. So warm... so inviting... He wanted to feel love... To show that he could love... to love....

Binds and chains ripping apart as his wings flexed against them and urging them to their snapping points. Unfolding into the ink black hues, darker than any nightmare. They were giant wings of night, towering over him. The hands forming razor talons that gleamed in hellish fires and desiring blood to baptize them once again. His dragons tail uncurling and hitting the harsh cement with a sickening thud.

He slowly stood, time seemingly stopped for him. Not daring to even breathe, as slit eyes of unimaginable rage burned in detestation. Terror rang through her very essence. Clearly tolling through soul and for the first time she feared him. She didn't fear him when he had killed her all those years ago... Frightened of him, yes. Scared senseless? Not till that moment. Her eyes flickered at him. He had not taken notice of her yet...

His lips parted in a smirk that seemed to be playful as well as deadly... "ad se vocaro Moloch!" <4>

~~~~~'~@@~'~~~~~

From the great window overlooking some of his gardens, a twinge jerked through his body. Moloch's eyes narrowed.... He loosened his grip on Trowa's hand... "It's time..." he muttered.

"Time? For what, my love?" Dumah asked quietly. He didn't feel anything...

"We're being called... See you in a minute." And quickly pressed a butterfly kiss to his angel's lips. He let the power overwhelm him... He felt the silver cuffs harden around his wrists and alight with his elemental powers... So long since he last felt this power circling through him, coursing through his veins... caressing his body with the touch of an old lover.

And what brought the smile to his lips was it was Apaosa who was calling them... Which also meant Sammael was injured. The one who dared to strike out against them would meet their end soon enough... and with the last whispers of the callings complete he let himself be pulled through the astral planes to Wufei. It was time...

~~~~~'~@@~'~~~~~

Vrita stalked towards his fallen master. Fand stepped in front of him. Black eyes narrowed, was the damnable wench seriously thinking that she could stop him.

"You swore allegiance to the crown and with that promise an allegiance to Mai Ran. Stop." Fand commanded of him.

He gave her a blithering look and chuckled. "I also gave my allegiance to Sammael, Fand." He moved like silk in water, striding closer, pretending as if he didn't see her as any sort of obstacle...

Stopping next to her, he turned his head slightly, "tenermus mortalum" he chuckled and looked forward, reaching up to brush some of the loose wet strands of hair from his face. "You, nor she can have any say on _my_ soul. I already gave it to somebody." <5>

Fand snorted and growled at him. "To what? That bastard?"

Luckily she was faced away from him, otherwise she would have see the hate flare up in his eyes. "You nor she owns me. I am not some property that you can toss around."

"We saved you. Without us you would be nothing but a smear of blood on the grassy plains of Fincastle Mill!" She retorted, fists clenched and ready to strike against him.

"I wouldn't think about it, Sally. You and I both know you aren't strong enough to stand up to me." He sighed. And he closed his eyes and called out... The woman was exhausting him with her chatter... He had a spell to complete...

"ad se vocaro Dumah." <4>

~~~~'~~@@~~'~~~~

Dumah stood there rather perplexed.... Did Moloch mean they were being summoned? By who? He paused and looked at the spot his love had till a moment ago occupied... It was strong majik and Moloch didn't seem too bothered by it. Was it possible that Sammael was calling them already?

He felt the call rush over him. It wasn't the same feel as his master's power... a bit weaker, but nonetheless stronger than his... an ancient power that bred the demand of being yielded too... And only one person he knew had that certain feel in their power. Apaosa. He smiled and closed his eyes. The battle awaited them...

~~~~'~~@@~~'~~~~

Rain poured from the blackened heavens and the winds spun around Wufei, lapping at the power he was calling to him. With thunder creaking in the sky and its bother exploding from the ground they split open the clouds.

"ad se vocaro Mephistopheles... ad se vocaro Aka Manah..." <4>

Vrita shuddered.... He let his grin widen in a form of sensual orgasm. He was truly getting off on this surge of power flowing through him again. He rarely got the chance to use it... And it was always such a power rush to do so... Even more so cause it was aimed at those bitches and their lackey.

That would be fun.... Seeing her covered in blood once again. He tasted the fear. Seen the absolute terror behind those eyes once before, though he doubted she would admit to it. He felt it again and found that it was too intoxicating not to press to its limits...

//He slumped into the shadows lining the rough stoned walls of the castle. Cautious eyes watched Belial walk steadily past him. He was relieved that his former mentor and leader had not noticed him. He would rather let Belial escape relatively unharmed. He wished no ill towards the leader of the Order.

He released his breath and with another careful dart of the eyes, slipped out into the hall. The moon lit his way, though he truly did not need it. He could see well enough in the dark and his senses as a Host were remarkably suited to the ink shadows. But blood and moonlight complimented each other. And for that reason alone, he was grateful to the Lady of the Moon for this artful treasure tonight.

The air was crisp and cool. He could smell the pine, willow and ash mixed in with the hearths. It was a pleasant scent indeed.

He continued down the long corridors and passages, feet never making a noise. He was tempted to float, but if Mai Ran's love slave Exael was lurking around he didn't need his majik alerting the lecher to his presence.

He smiled and relaxed as he turned and peered down the dark hall leading to his lady's room. Wonderful. And her little guardian bitch was watching the doors too.

Vrita sighed, not upset, but for the amazing opportunity this could present. He carefully reached out with his mind to call out to his lover. *Sammael?* he asked through his mind.

A warm presence filled him when his master replied, *Yes?*

*Fand is guarding Mai Ran's bedchambers... do you mind-?* He asked watching with uncaring eyes of steel and charcoal upon the haughty goddess.

The familiar feel of his master's laughter washed over him, *I certainly don't mind... Vrita-kun...* Vrita winced slightly... He really, _really_ hated being called that. Yet, in the back of his mind a reminder whispered it was Sammael's way of teasing him. The light alto voice continued, slightly more worried and melancholy than before. *You will be all right? I said you could use my others, Vrita...*

He raked a hand through his raven locks. *I know... Really... But this is something I need... No, something I _want_ to do, master. I will be fine.* He paused and sent a small smile through their link. *I'll be back soon...*

Sammael's chuckle greeted his mind. *Be ready to celebrate! Love you!*

*....I...love you too...master.* and quickly shut the link. He knew Sammael could easily override his pathetic blockage, but the never did. He closed his eyes for an instant and focused on the task ahead of him. He would succeed.

He lurked in the shadows, watching Fand. She was merely standing there. He pressed against the cool wall and inched forward. Eyes intensely watching her movements for any indication of her spotting him. Nothing. It was too easy now. Nothing of his training left him unprepared for any given situation.

All she saw was the glitter of moonlight before he pressed his claws through her throat. She could still breathe... but not scream. He smiled at her and stroked her hair gently, leaving a slight trail of blood.

"That's pretty..." He whispered...

She glared at him. Her usually soft eyes were the focused attention of immeasurable rage.... Attempting to say what she could not. The unbelievable hate shining through.

He pressed his hand against her breast and continued pushing till he had impaled her chest. She slumped upon his forearm, eyes wide open and pupils that had dwindled into nothing. //

Meiren's eyes widened and uttered his name as if it were a curse. "Wufei... damn you...."

//Mai Ran tossed and turned in her bed.... Fever dreams... Tormenting her with her wishes...

Her hand struck out, steadfast and strong. "Godspeed..." She whispers softly. "You know you never belonged..."

She hit him with all the strength of a god. His body collapsed beneath the pressure, slapping the tiled floor. Cracks seep from the cold ground, bending and limping. With a single breath, he pulls himself upward towards the sky.

Tears of blood tumble down his beaten cheek. He weeps with the cries of newborn babes.

Black orbs peered at the blood flowing in rivers down his eyes, and turn the other way. "Let it be pain..." She softly prays to the great goddess.

She whizzes her foot at his chest.

The impact is immeasurable. He spews up blood and hacks up a lung. Her foot slams into his fragile face, leaving a concave imprint. Like a cat, he curls inwards meowing his last breathe.

She loosens her whitened knuckles from around his neck. Her eyebrows curve upwards and the eyes soften. Lips start uncontrollably quivering as wisdom rinses her mind. A lump swells up in her throat and with a sob tears pour.

She leaps up and sprints, trying to outrun her actions. The dead hear the echo of her footsteps down that white corridor. Thump. Thump. Thump. All that is left are the shrieks and screams of her tortured soul.

Then... A beautiful creature... Her mother... The dead Queen floats like a feather on a breeze to him. He seems so forlorn, yet angelic.

No one should die alone. A winged creature... Her mother appears by him and kneels by his side. Her pale and ghostly hand slowly opens and touches his mutilated face. His eyes meet hers.

Sighing, he releases life. Black and hateful tears mix with his blood. Her tears... the princess's tears...

A candle dies out.

The world gets a little darker.

She bolted straight up in bed, heaving and panting. Cold sweat permeated every pore and sucked everything towards her shivering form. The room was suddenly too still for her.

She bolted towards her window and flung open the heavy curtains and drapes. Unlatching the shudders and gasping to open them to let light in. Safe light... Holy light...

"You were always very pretty when you were scared." A soft tenor voice purred from across her room.

Trembling she turned and peered into the ink leaking into the safe light echoing around the room. "Show yourself." She demanded. Her voice shivered and couldn't calm itself.

"Show myself?" He made a small tsking sound and seeped from the shadows into plain light. "You don't even know the sound of my voice..." He almost sounded upset... He sighed and smiled again. "It figures he was right... I was going to betray him... The thought had easily crossed my mind. Come here and protect you. Love you..."

"I would never like some dog like you!" she spat back at him. Her hand desperately searched behind her for any implement to hurl at him.

It grasped a candlestick of lead. She smiled slightly and tossed it at him. She staggered flat against the fall as a large, swooping blackness crossed before him and the heavy object just bounced off of it.

"How the Hell?!?!" she shrieked, eyes growing to saucer size now.

A rustle and then Vrita moved forward into the light. Giant wings rose from the shadows... attached to his back. She gasped with the first full sight of him.

Horns creeping from his temples, elfin ears and talons only added to the fast growing realization he was no longer the weakling she had assumed him to once be. "Goddess... What are you?!?" she whispered, caught between sheer terror and intrigue.

A simple grin danced on his lips. "This is I."

"Impossible!" she scoffed back. "You obviously sold your soul. Pathetic."

The air tightened slightly around him at that remark she tossed at him. He hated when she talked down to him. Hated it to the point of truly loathing her.

With a few quick strides he traversed the ill-lit room. Faster motions provided a swift and unseen attack. He smiled and then proceeded to slowly lift his head to look at the pretty lithe neck he had his fingers around.

The chill of the night air crept around them. Swirling and tripping in some unknown trancelike rhythm, the chilled breezes trapped their breath and froze it for a single second. The clear moonlight danced in his gray and black orbs. Silently soaking in the moment.

She could see the blood on the hand he was not using to hold her aloft in the air. Fand's blood... Gods... was she next? Mai Ran began to struggle and twist, attempting in any form to rid herself of this creature. "Let go of me you... monster!" she cried out.

It took every ounce of his self-control not to gut her then and there. "No..." he silently reprimanded himself, "She needs to feel the pain he uses on others... Feel what hate feels like..." He never wavered in his grip.

He pushed her against the cold stonewall and hissed. Venom of his words seeping into every part of her, "Afraid of me? I didn't sell my soul... I willingly surrendered it for the chance of true love."

"I never took you for a romanticist, Vrita."

"You never paid attention to learn anything about me... My heritage, which you were all part of locking from me, was the key to my own freedom."

"But not your redemption, Vrita. Only I will ever be a goddess."

"I don't care, Mai Ran-"

"You will address me properly, Vrita!" she hissed.

He tightened his grip around her neck ever so slightly, "Not now and never again. We are easily equals now. I will not let you look down on me!"

Her eyes flared up at his words. "You dare?!"

And with a smug twist of his lips, he bared his fangs and chuckled. Watching in glee as his power spiraled up his arm and swarmed into her body. He could feel the decay he was causing. He extended the torture for some odd long minutes. Coursing disease after disease through her blood stream. Watching with the utmost content as she screamed till her throat could handle no more...//

"Vrita!" she screamed.

"ad se vocaro Asmodeus!" his voice rose in strength. Reverberating around them in some ancient tone. <4>

She barely had time to avoid the onslaught of power. She sprinted and finally dove into Exael's arms a good hundred feet away. Broad glistening wings fell in front of her.

She sighed in slight relief and pressed against his broad chest. "What is he doing?!" she hissed, anger steaming in her voice. Meiren could hear the clashing and thundering booms resounding as the air pushed dimensions open to deal with the immense over flowing amounts of energy.

"Calling them to him" Exael mutters. His eyes stared unseeingly into his white wings.

"Calling the others?" she repeated rather dumbly.

"In ancient times, daemon and angel lords of any unquestionable amounts of power would bind an assortment of other creatures to them. It prevented them from being easily slaughtered." The ginger haired man replied.

Neamhan scoffed at that statement. "So you're telling me Vrita combined Sammael's other general's signatures to his?" Skepticism obviously apparent in her timbre.

"They are all bound by essence, soul, and blood to Sammael. Wufei, or rather Apaosa, is the Prince of Majik's chief general. Vrita, now that he's fully aware of himself, has the power to call them. He is impart, taking on the role as their circle's leader till their master is revived. Their presence should revive Sammael." He paused.

He was irritated and more than rightly frustrated. Could his Queen not understand this... Was not Meiren actually Neamhan... or had Meiren never truly been the goddess? Either way...

"You would have been smarter to let me kill Asmodeus and Apaosa when we had the chance." He finished.

She snorted. "That, would have been anticlimax. I have more flare than that."

"You wish to see him suffer." Exael murmured. Rolling his eyes, he spoke louder, "Bad form or not, it would have severely weakened Duo."

"Emotion would undo the great damned Prince?" the black eyed girl sneered.

"I told you," Trieze shot back, "their essences are in him. Their souls merged with his! Their _blood_ is combined with his!" Clear ice eyes freezing in the stillness between them.

Long moments drew on and she finally replied curtly, "Remember to whom you are addressing, Exael."

The gingered haired man repressed the intense urge to lob off her head. As crude as it seemed, it suited his mood now.

~~~~'~~@@~~'~~~~~

The world slowed to a stop... not instantaneously. But slowly, causing life to pause as if Nature were merely catching her breathes. Meiren and Trieze were even paused in its maelstrom. Fand trembling on the wet stone...

It was Nature... living and suffocating all at once.

And Heaven and its sister, Hell, parted and greeted each other, bathing Wufei in a tower of power. Taking not only him but his master as well... And one by one, the others appeared around them. Each presence brining forth another stream from Hell and Heaven.

Sammael drifted, existing but feeling dead. Warmth steadily pulled him close as if trying to embrace him. But he knew that he was fooling himself to think it Vrita. To die... was all he needed now. Hoping was too much to ask of him anymore. It only caused him suffering and unspeakable grief. He wanted Vrita to think of this as he proof that he loved him... Loved him more than his own life was worth... That he proved to Vrita that he would... Gods! He wanted to curl up in die...

"Master...please..." Moloch whispered. The blonde daemon mustered forth every bit of elemental power he could and even then pushed it past his physical limits. He didn't care. He refused to let his master die. "Allah... lend me your strength..." Quatre whispered.

Eyes closed and in a steady voice he called out, "Salamander. . ." He called out to the fires of Hell and the celestial warmth of the Heavens...

It washed across him with an uncanny thrill. Infiltrating through his pores. Leaking through his lungs with every breath. Coming to its peak in an overhaul of majik plummeting through his veins.

Slowly, green eyes opened and Dumah called out, "Sylphid!" A white light consumed him. He let go of himself and reached out and held Moloch close to him. Their powers swirling, looking light a beacon of candy caned striped power.

Quatre let go of his masks of sinister evil and doleful innocence. Trowa dropped his masks of impassive blankness and smiled. Strong arms pulling Moloch close, wanting to support their powers and help their master... He smiled as he watched his blonde lover's eyes fill with an ancient gleam of knowledge and war. Eyes, like his, that had seen worlds rise from the ashes only to fall into the clutches of chaos...

Brown mess of hair and cobalt eyes called out to his master. He had been through too much to let the man who was the only person he could call his first family... "Undine!" Heero shouted. Snatching a hold of his voice and misery. He lost his father to some madness and his mother, Lilith to that madman... He was not going to let Sammael... The man he saw as his father drift through his fingers. He called out to the powers at war in him and focused them to form the washing over column of blue energy.

"Dryad!" Noin's voice rose up from behind Asmodeus. Like liquid satin, amber light trickled up from the ground and eddied up into the sky. Like a protective coating covering them. She nuzzled and gave a slight purr into his hair. She wasn't close to their master Sammael. She merely served him. But she knew the importance he held to Asmodeus and their beloved Mephistopheles...

Blonde hair swarmed into millions of strands flaring up in his strength. Sammael was the savior of his race, saving them when all seemed lost... Keeping them safe and strong in heart... "Gnome..." he whispered and poured open the powers that had not touched the earth in millennia.

They all held their breath, daring not to look on. Vrita reached forward and wrapped his arms around his love. Pressing his face into the smell of lilacs and spring. Everything that was completely Duo and Sammael... and whispered the final lines of the spell. "Yundao. ad se vocaro de daemoni elementium ut colligarnt ejus. vivmus et sic volunt ejus! liberart!" Deliver him back to me... <6>

<< Quando sono solo
sogno all'orizzonte
e mancan le parole,
si lo so che non c'e` luce
in una stanza quando manca il sole,
se non ci sei tu con me,
Su le finestre <7>

He felt the air rush through him and in mere moments he was opening his eyes to nothing... For a few long seconds he thought time had ended...

An abyss of nothing... No light... Little hope... And then he felt it. A light pulling in not his heart but his soul, where he was connected so deeply with his love.

"Master?" He called out, wishing in vain for an echo or a response of any kind. When none came, he called again only louder.

Nothing.

Then a phasing light, as if running through some old screen 16mm projector a small violet eyed child ran in the distance. Wufei hovered in the still darkness of his master's mind, watching the child. Slowly running growing older as it ran towards him.

Wufei's face lit up with a thrilled smile and extended his arms openly to his master.

The violet-eyed wisp ran straight through him and he felt a chill slip through him, slowly chilling his blood. His breath hung heavy in the air. White and frothy with intricate ice patterns twinkling in them.

"Duo! Please answer me!" Yet no answer came. Droplets began strolling down his tan cheeks. "Please..." So much desperation in his voice, catching and breaking its tone due to his emotions pouring into it. "I can't live... live with out you..."

Somewhere he floated encased in a blackened glass globe. Spinning in it like a infant in a womb. He could hear a voice, though smothered in tone. Was it calling for him?

Did it even matter?

"Master...please..."

It sounded very upset... distraught. Maybe he should go cheer whoever it is up... His hair tickled his buttocks and then moved away in its invisible breeze... But he was arm here... Maybe they would go away...

"I need you...I need you more than I can believe..."

He snorted in his bubbled. Whoever it was could go away... They seemed persistent... He was tired of loving and caring... Tired of being alone...

"You said you loved me!"

So tortured now... it reminded him of his light... His moon. Vrita. Gods... His beautiful beloved Vrita... Where was he now? Probably in _her_ hands...

<< mostra a tutti il mio cuore
che hai acceso,
chiudi dentro me
la lace che
hai incontrato per strada,>>

Vrita came to a halt and looked and the floating crystal. Blackened smoky glass... He pressed against it to peer in. His love... He tried hitting the sphere... Kicking it... anything he could to open it...

Still it remained. Did he do this to his master? Cast his love's heart into nothing... An impenetrable glass...with a frustrated screech he slammed his fists against it... Pounding at it, begging it to let him in...

Oh! How he ached to hold his love... Be one in those arms... Hot passionate nights of olden days... Passionate kisses, cool and lingering touches... Getting lost and drifting in violet pools...

//He pressed his body to his master's, one leg flung carelessly over his side, hips against hips, and his arm resting upon that smooth chest. The other arm had its fingers curled into that gorgeous mane of red and auburn silk.

"Morning beloved..." A soft alto voice whispered into his ear. Sammael's tongue slowly following the curve of his ear, sucking and nibbling.

"Ma...Master!" Vrita gasped, hands and fingers clinging to those strong shoulders. To believe this was the first time they made love... It seemed too amazing to think he had ever been without the Prince of Daemons...

The daemon's hands mulled along, softly caressing the lithe body beneath his... "My beautiful... my beloved..." lips whispered claiming Vrita's.

Drowning the boy with intense sensations. The violet orbed boy's tongue dipping into those pouty lips. Nibbling to gain access into that warm cave. Their mouths searing in rapture, delving and heightening...

"Take me... please..." the golden skinned boy pleaded, rubbing his hips against Sammael's. Pushing them slightly up with his already forming arousal...

"Too soon... too quick... Give yourself time to recover from last night, my moon..." the Prince murmured into that delicious elfin ear. Those lips suckling his neck... nibbling and nipping... Pressing against the taut skin.

"And to you, my sun... As long as I am with you... I know not the words but I do know that I need you... in me... love me... please?" Desperate and thirsting eyes yearning for any form of contact. Converging in him the very soul of ardor lust. He pressed closer and closer to that fair skin.

Skin that was velvety and lustrous in the fiery morning skies. Fingers slipped down the black haired boy's sides. Delicately touching every inch of that gleaming skin. Butterfly kisses along that collarbone... Moans only enticing him and hardening his sex further...//

<< Con te partrio'
Paesi che non ho mai
veduto e vissuto con te,
adesso si li vivro'>>

// Eyes of a child barely into adulthood were clouded over in pain and fear. Rain and thunder clashed in the sky, falling harshly and fast. Drowning the earth in a cascade of salty sky water. The pounding of feet in tune with the pounding of a frightened heart...

Thumbing... thumbing... thumbing...

Pounding against the earth and chest together as one.

Thumbing... thumbing... thumbing...

A small child no more than eight could be seen running in the hazy moonlight through the woods. Lightning climbed from the ground to touch the heavens. Crashing and slashing its arms into the sky. Piercing and forcing more rain to pelt the earth.

He could feel the heat and bile creeping up his throat. "I shouldn't have done this! I shouldn't have done this!" He felt his mind throbbing. Dizziness and cloudiness of his thoughts swirled black eye's visionary perception.

Vrita kept stumbling, tripping, sliding, falling, but he scuttled up. Nothing would dare to keep him from not running. Sprinting with his life's thread trailing behind him. Panting. Lungs were screaming. Taunting that they would explode.

Air! Air!! He had every thought, dream, hope, and wish flare through his mind. Coughing and pants left a resounding trail. Not a prey or a predator. A victim. Caught in the middle of a three-way conversion on the path of the mighty.

"Almost there. Please...be all right...almost there..." one flicker of hope in the abyss of reality and truth kept him going. Praying to the gods of old and new, past and future that it would be fine...

He shouldn't have gone...but... no...it was his life now but others would and had paid for it in their life-forces...The black haired child held back a sob and tried to swallow the tears. Pain radiating through his system. Hands wildly pushing the brush out of the way. Thorns and needles pressing into soft flesh. Trails of fresh blood marked his haphazard path through the darkened woods.

He felt the bile gather in his throat..."No!! I must hold on!! They need me!! Diana... Please let them be alright!!" Hoping he wasn't too late...

Who would have thought that the remote Fincastle Mill would be one of the first for the gatherings of the army of the Orders...A village of the Sidhe tribes! The blasphemy! Where were the ancients?! The ones who swore to protect them?! Where times so bad that the Sidhe were turning against one another?

A branch snagged his ankle and with in seconds he was sliding on the rain moistened turf. The branches and brush crushed and pushed into his stomach. The bile releasing onto the forest floor. In his hair... clothes... nose...blood and stomach acid...the smell made him release it again and coughed, choking in the stench...He groggily wiped his mouth with a tattered sleeve.

He forced his body to stand...ankle nearly snapping from its swollenness...the golden child cried out in searing agony as the pain numbed the foot and needles climbed up through his body. Limping, he pressed forward...wanting and hoping he could pick up speed... Thorns and branches sliced through golden skin...arms and legs... cheeks...Scared... he was so scared.

"Mother..." He coughed, chocking on tears. Dirt caked in black hair and eyes swollen from tears....Mouth dry and the stench of puke on his damp, clammy skin...

The wolves watched from above...snarling...waiting. The prey was almost too easy...stumbling in the dark with no light to guide him.

Thumbing... thumbing... thumbing...

Heart trashing against his rib cage. Almost loud enough for them to pick it up. Golden and silver slit eyes...sharp incisors... Matted down wet fur, gleaming in the moonlight. Rain looking like millions of diamonds woven into their fur. Fear pushing his smell to their wanton senses.

Stumbling... thumbing... thumbing... thumbing... //

With a cry of anguish, arms rushed through the glass. Thousands of sharps splashing along the nonexistent floor of Duo's mind.

Firm arms pulling a hysterical boy close...

<<Con te partiro'
su navi per mari
che, io lo so,
no, no, non esistono piu'
con te io li vivro'>>

"Shhhhh.... I'm here..." Sammael whispered to the beautiful boy cradled in his arms. His white flesh almost transparent next to the golden hue of Wufei's. He pressed his face against the cool strands of black.

"I'm so weak!" Vrita cried out. Sobs shaking his body. Weak and broken... Memories rushing free. He came to save his master. He came to save and prove his love... And here he was sniveling like some infant in Duo's arms. "I came to save you... And you always end up catching me! I am so damnably useless!"

"Never, my love. I never would think that..." Pink lips pressed to that warm forehead. A chaste kiss of comfort.

Lithe limbs flung themselves around his neck. "Why?! Why did you do that to me?!?! I nearly died when I thought you had died! I nearly died..." Vrita wept passionately into broad shoulders. Auburn hair brushing against his forehead as he cried.

Sammael pulled the daemon back and pressed a fervent kiss on those lips. Sucking on them like they were some exotically rare fruit of sin. Some intoxicating pleasure that rivaled nothing short of the gods.

Wufei parted his lips and let Duo's tongue gain entrance to his mouth. Clothes were willed away as he pressed his palms against white flesh. "Shhhhh.... Shhhhh... little one..." Duo hushed the sobbing boy.

He ran his hands against that head of black. Fingers seeking to smooth the self-loathing emanating from his lover...

<< Quando sei lontana
sogno all'orizzonte
e mancan le parole,
e io si lo so
che sie con me,
tu mia luna tu sei qui con me,
mio sole tu sei qui con me.>>

"I never told you... I never told you that I-"

Sammael pressed a finger to the boy's lips. Leaning close, touching their noses and warm breath washing over him. "No words..."

But Wufei pressed on. He took his master's hands and held them between his. Nuzzling them and whispering so desperately, "No... they must be heard."

Black eyes slowly gazed up and locked to violet depths. "My world died when I thought you had left this plane. I thought I had let the only thing I ever cared about die without saying all that was needed to be said..."

<< Con te partiro'
Paesi che non ho mai
veduto e vissuto con te,
adesso si li vivro.>>

Violet pools looked at the boy strangely. Word meaning slipping past him... What had he done to hurt his love now... Gods above... What could he not do to hurt his love?

Golden flesh held fair hands close. Pressing rose petal kisses on each finger. "Never you. You are perfect Sammael... Too perfect. I do not deserve you..."

"It is I who forced this upon you, little one..." came the reply.

Fingers touched those lips. One hand slithered behind the man's braid and entwined fingers into a thick rush of cool red flames. "You opened my eyes... You gave me so much... Perfect... I deserved none of your patience nor your love."

"My moon... I would-"

Wufei yanked those moving lips forward and frantically fastened his to them. Devouring that mouth in conscious desire... Feeding upon them like they were his only subsidence in months...

<< Con te partiro,
su navi per mari
che, io lo so,
no, no, non esistono piu',
con te io li rivivro.>>

Pulling back and letting air rush into his lungs he whispered the words he longed to say. No bindings... No chains... No feelings that he was suppose to. Just speaking from the very depth of his heart.

"I love you."

Sammael blinked... the words... Those words that he longed to hear... Thirsted with an unquenchable wanton craving... Said for the first time without any trace of guilt or a sense of force. Pure and simple...

And infatuation and obsession gave rise in him to adulation and veneration. Sammael leaned forward and tumbled them onto the floors. Hips grinded against the smaller boys.

Moans and gasps echoed through the bleakness of Sammael's mind. Bringing each other to higher and higher levels of passion and ecstasy. Making love for the first time... Showing what they could no longer place words to...

Sweat and cum dripping from them. Passion climbing to elevated heights. Never falling only reaching new peaks. With one last scream of pleasure Sammael released into Apaosa... Panting and gasping for air... the lust subsiding for now...

"I love you... gods... I love you..." Wufei whispered into his beloved's shoulder.

<< Con te partiro'
Io con te. >>

"I love you too." He pressed one last claiming kiss to Wufei's lips. Ducking his head whispered, "I think we should go back and show that bitch what it means to go against the King of Hell, ne love?"

The lithe body pulled away slightly with a daemonic grin Sammael had never witnessed. "I think... I think we should show her exactly what she deserves. She will feel anguish like never before..."

<1> burning inwardly
With mighty anger,
In my bitterness
I speak to my own mind.
Made of matter,
My element is ash...
From Estuans interius (Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi from Carmina Burana, Orff)
<2> "ad se vocaro de inferorum exordiri armarea deindus in imperium... ego Aoaosa ad se vocaro de circumdari..."
"I call upon Hell to open her arms to her second in command... I Apaosa call upon our circle..."
<3> "ego sum Apaosa... deindus Sammael...conjuxgis, fratertris*, et ejus duxcis..."
"I am Apaosa... second to Sammael... consort, lover, and his general..." *a note on the term lover... Latin contains a special form to homosexual lovers that are male.
<4> I call...Moloch. (the same for the others...)
<5> "tenermus mortalum" "We hold your soul..." the term used in soul refers to the human containment of the word. Not the immortal soul.
<6> "ad se vocaro de daemoni elementium ut colligarnt ejus. vivmus et sic volunt ejus! liberart!"
"I now call upon the daemon elements that bind our life to his. We live and so shalt he! Deliever him..." Also Gnome, Dryad, Undine, Salamander, Sylphid, and Yundao refer to the daemon elementals also charged in the cuffs on Quatre/Moloch's wrists.
<7> Con te Partiro, Donna Summers. Translated lyrics:
Con te partiro translated

When I'm alone
I dream on the horizon
and words fail;
yes, I know there is no light
in a room where the sun is absent,
if you are not with me.

At the windows
show everyone my heart
which you set alight;
enclose within me
the light you
encountered on the street.

I'll go with you,
to countries I never
saw and shared with you
now, yes, I shall experience them.

I'll go with you
on ships across seas
which, I know
no, no ,exist no longer;
with you I shall experience them.

When you are far away
I dream on the horizon
and words fail,
and, yes, I know
that you are with me;
you, my moon, are here with me,
my sun, you are here with me.

I'll go with you
to countries I never
saw and shared with you,
now, yes, I shall experience them.

I'll go with you
on ships across seas
which, I know,
no, no, exist no longer;
with you I shall experience them again.

I'll go with you,
I with you.

To be continued.
Kc-chan