Kage Riku 9/?

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. 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 ain't in English>>
/threatening words/
_words with emphasis_
I AM SHOUTING
~~"I am repeating words in a flashback"~~
'thoughts'
//flashback//

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 9/?

O Fortuna
velut Luna
statu variabilis
semper crescis
aut decrescis;<1>

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

He wandered down the halls, looking... eyes darting about. The sense of uneasiness quelled and he sighed as he watched Trieze depart from the hall of cells. He paused a moment, looking over his shoulder, and with a clear blue-eyed nod, he motioned for them to step into the hall.

He flinched upon hitting the well-lit walls. Not because of their intensity, not the wattage... but the holy spells attached to them. He should have realized that long before even the slightest bit of daemon and it would cause some form of tension in his body. Right now it felt as if someone was driving a large stake through his temples with a toothpick....

Not to say this would have otherwise been a normal dungeon... Other than the overly lighted hall illuminating on white walls, the flush oriental carpets and upscale classical baroque furniture added its own touches... But then again, most of the aristocrats who used this building would have turned up their noses at the idea of a prison being located among their finery. Much to plebeian for them.

Mephistopheles seemed unaffected by the lights. Rather strange, considering he was a daemon in comparison to him who was at best transformed to two-thirds his daemon form. He perhaps thought it rather presumptuous to assume that the holy wards the lights held would effect Mephistopheles...

"Uncomfortable?" Mephistopheles asked, looking rather too comfortable in Wufei's opinion. He would have felt more comfortable; perhaps holding onto a little of his pride if the other man had at least flinched...

"Ummm... yeah. Just a bit uncomfy..." He replied in response. Okay, he was lying through his teeth. It felt like the sun was burning off his flesh. But he wanted to have some pride intact. And it irked him to possibly no end that he was completely helpless in this form. He couldn't call upon his holy majik he had with the Orders... and it was laughable to consider the alternative...

"This way?" Mephistopheles asked. Indicating a direction with a slight nod of his head.

Wufei narrowed his eyes... Something... felt wrong. Not just Trieze was Exael or that he had witnessed his wife hitting on that bastard... but... "You going to release him... Sally?"

With a growl, Sally's form appeared from Mephistopheles' body. "Damn it..." she muttered.

Wufei allowed himself a small grin in triumph. So he didn't have all his majik but it seems as if something of his heritage was shining through... he had caught a faint scent that he never had connected to Mephistopheles... but Fand... it was her majikal scent he picked up on... "Care to tell me something, Fand?" he asked. Leaning back against the wall, wallowing in delight at the first sign of a shadow caused by a wardrobe. He casually backed into it... smiling and briefly enjoying the break from the wards.

She glared and snagged his wrist; much to his discontent... he was enjoying his brief refuge. But didn't complain when she dragged him down into a heavily shadowed side hall. Twisting and turning through the mazes of halls that he never could get the hang of.

"Where are we going?" he asked quietly. He forced control of his voice... serious and commanding with raising in tone.

She stopped and looked at him, eyes desperately searching for something... she almost looked frightened... not that he really cared. "She's gone crazy, Apaosa!"

He bristled and replied with out thinking, "Wufei."

She gave him a look. "Puh-lease, Wufei. You're running around half transformed!"

He sizzled. "Only _they_ ever called me by that name."

She grinned slightly. "I see. It's _his_ pet name then, Vrita?"

"No! I only let my master...I mean I only let Sammael to call me Vrita!" He growled at her.

With a triumphant smile she waggled a finger at him and grinned. "Thought so."

He bristled and spat out, "Get on with it, Fand!"

"She's gone crazy. You don't even understand what she wants, Wufei!" Sally blurted out, eyes flashing in a way he never saw them achieve... fear.

"Huh?" he replied intelligently.

She yanked him against a wall of a dark wall and hissed into his ear-

//Vrita stretched, sighing as his spine creaked and cracked, releasing tension. A wolf whistle caught his attention and he felt the blood colour his cheeks. Eyes alert, it wasn't hard to discern the radiant blonde hair and white face with twinkling jade eyes smiling amongst the dark plum velvet curtains of his master's window seat.

The blonde smirked, and with a near graceful movement, hopped off the seat and skipped over to him. Vrita blushed under the gaze of those jade jewels. The twinkling eyes... those turquoise orbs that seemed to sanction him.

"Well, his taste is definitely excellent. I had my doubts... So, tell me, what are you?" The blonde chirped, collapsing onto a plush wingchair across from him.

"What?" Vrita replied, blinking rapidly. The strange boy kept sending him rather bizarre glances. Not that the boy was absolutely "normal" looking himself... but not to imply that he wasn't...

Blonde hair settling in a messy tuff, falling in large wisps into his eyes. Clear and sparkling jade eyes, shining with curiosity and an almost child-like fascination at him. Lithe torso with small winglets, much like his, poking from his back... all packaged in an image of innocence and cruelty with a clawed finger twirling a lock of golden hair between itself and another claw.

"You're exotic... never seen one like you before, which is probably why he's so damned taken with you..." the blonde responded nonchalantly...

Vrita blushed and averted his eyes back to the books his master had left with him.

The blonde smirked and carelessly picked up a book and his grin widened at the title. <<"The History of the Tuatha De Danann">> he mused. Chuckling, he continued, "Really re-educating you, I see."

Vrita looked up and blinked. "I don't mind..." He watched as the blonde perused through the other titles...

"He is a rather amusing master, laa?" The blonde smirked, looking up with a bright white smile. <2>

He blinked and calmly quirked an eyebrow at the blonde.

Jade eyes glistened and explained; now knowing they had caught the boy's attention. "He likes educated minions one might say... Which is why, in my humble opinion, his armies tend to easily defeat the Orders." Vrita noticed a small wrinkled appear in disgust at the word "Order" but the blonde waved his concern away and continued. "Ann Eazinak... Sorry... it's just that those morons who have deemed them selves close to the God and have forsaken the Goddess who they were born are set on destroying so much history... You should understand that much." <3>

Gray eyes flickers, and Vrita replied softly, "I don't remember."

The blonde blinked. "Really? Huh...." Silence pulled its lulling tone over them for a while then the blonde perked up and said, "Oh! I'm Moloch!"

Vrita blinked. _This_ was Moloch?! This elegant man who gave the aire of supreme composure. Completely calm with out one single moment of madness and carnage?!

Moloch laughed and had to end up wiping tears from the corners of his eyes. "I see my reputation and description proceed me. I assure you, I am Moloch..." He paused and gave Vrita a gentle smile. "Just not as crude or ill mannered as I used to be."

"Oh." He replied. Black and gray eyes flickered, as if trying to desperately register yet another change from the growing amount of lies he had been seemingly taught.

Jade orbs watched the new daemon trying to grasp and believe every thought.... New pieces of information sent to battle against the old ones. Thoughts flickering in those monotonic eyes...

He leaned back and studied the boy. Sammael had mentioned the boy would be here, studying diligently. He wanted to at least see this child... introduce himself. It wasn't as if the others opposed their master's choice... New blood always made the others overly protective of their master. But, looking at the boy, Moloch knew the child was special... Something about him had intrigued their master... He slightly remembered the child when he first noticed him...

He was serving as an ambassador of sorts with his master on a trip to the Fincastle Mill and the Unseelie courts. At the time, the Unseelie were at their peak and no one would ever have expected in a few weeks time that the Seelie courts would come through with the Orders to wipe them out.

But Sammael had brought him along as a sign of education and leadership. Though his title was greatly exaggerated before he met Sammael...his name was the key. He had known most of the court and their ancestral families since their creation... His being present was a way of showing Sammael's power on a level they would understand. Having one foot in the door, as Sammael referred to it...

He stayed close to his master... trying to take in all the splendor of the long halls of the castle. For lesser creatures, they had damned good taste. Tapestries depicting epic battles... stories of their histories... They were a race of history and sciences... brilliant creatures. Sometimes he wished he had the knowledge they had been given.

They were greeted magnificently and lead through the great halls. He would later, given the term with history, would call the palace high gothic. The place oozed with dark powers and presences and mazes of halls and rows of chambers.

Entering the great hall, he noticed a small child cooing to a miniature dragon spirit. The child, sensing eyes upon him, glanced up. Moloch looked at that exotic face... from looks alone you could tell the boy was part mortal. It was rare to find a half-breed like that in the court. Even creatures with only a partial less Unseelie heritage were rarely allowed in...

He tapped his master's shoulder and whispered in his ancient tongue, << A mortal child in these halls, sir?>>

Sammael turned, violet eyes locking instantly to the child's black and gray orbs. For a long moment, time became silent. Holding its breath and waiting. <<Part mortal... but Unseelie as well...>> he replied.

<<Interesting. I thought they didn't bed with mortals... Ah, well, times change...>> Moloch whispered back. He could tell his master was quite taken with the little conundrum before them.

"His father was a half breed... mortal and dragon Sidhe. He came seeking refuge and a way to carry on the rapidly declining bloodline...." A soft voice whispered.

They looked up and noticed the Unseelie queen. "Your Grace." they both said with a bow.

The last time Moloch had seen Siobhan she was barely crawling... Amazing how fast children grew up. It had been a mere thirty-five years since his last visit to the courts here in Fincastle Mill. Siobhan had come to reign when her father passed away some ten years ago. One of the only Leanan-Sidhe to reign.<4>

"So what brings the Prince of Majik and Daemons to my halls?" she asked.

Sammael eyes twinkled in delight. This woman never got on his bad side. "Seeing how the court is fairing in these strange times, my Grace."

Siobhan flushed and murmured, "Please it is I who should be calling you such, my Lord. I do not desire the honour. Nor should I expect it."

He smirked widened. "Yes, well... you also requested my presence?"

Her smiled faltered slightly but she nodded. "Please, both of you come to my private chambers to talk..." She swiftly motioned to the exotic child. "Come, Vrita."

The four briskly walked to her chambers. Moloch could see the distress in her motions. Hell, he could practically taste the fear around her. Something seemed very wrong to distress a woman like Siobhan...

Upon entering the main part of her chambers, she shut and locked the door. With the final click, her mask dropped and finally let weeks worth of worry and distress show.

"Siobhan..." Moloch whispered as she slumped into a chair. The child she called Vrita, hobbled over to her. Looking up with worried eyes.

"Shhhhh... it's okay baby..." she whispered. Hands gently stroked his silky mop of black hair.

"Your child?" Moloch asked. Watching the tender scene before him.

"Aye..." Siobhan whispered.

Sammael shifted his weight slightly. The tone and mood of the room was not pleasant, and he liked a pleasant atmosphere... "How is Elathan? Last I heard was he married and his wife then died in childbirth... Elathan's son... Bress. Am I correct?"

She paused and smiled slightly. "Aye... Elathan's son recently disappeared. We don't know where he is... but Elathan is out hunting today. Vrita wanted to go with him, but he's too young..."

"Am not!" the said boy declared.

Sammael chuckled and dropped down to a squat in front of the boy. "Really? I have hears the Unseelie's were supreme hunters... The best of all the Sidhe. They also used a personal but powerful bird to hunt with... Do you have one?"

Vrita grinned and wrenched his eyes closed in concentration. After a few minutes a bird burst from the dark flame in his hands. "See!" he declared with pride. "I can go with him!!"

She smiled and wearily stroked the boy's head. "Very nice, my child... Very nice..."

Sammael clapped. "Amazing, little one. Quite apt for majik I would say. But your mother seems tired... Do you know what's wrong with her?"

The boy's eyes flickered and he replied slowly, "A lady you could see through came... Proud lady... smelling of lots of flowers..."

Siobhan reached for Vrita's hands and tightened her grip on it. That caused his bird to roughly resettle itself upon his shoulder. "Aynia came Sammael... She came to me..."

Sammael blinked, it was always thought rather strangely upon that Siobhan and Aynia could be friends. The Unseelie queen and the Seelie queen talking? It was until Aynia married Fionn Mac Cumhal. But for Aynia to actually seek Siobhan out... in the court for that matter... Something lurked in the back of his mind and a feeling of dread crawled along his spine. "What reason did she come?"

The Leanan-Sidhe sighed, tears gathering themselves in her eyes. "She is terribly ill... my healers and mages knew of no disease in our realm that could have effected her as such... Elathan's guess was it came from the Orders... or the new ones trying to conquer our lands..."

Moloch nodded. "The Romans."

She nodded and continued, "She appeared through a very faint projection spell. Highly warded. She explained she was too weak to physically come her... or to even move her body... What made matters worse is that she seemed worried. Almost scarred for our safety!"

Sammael glanced over to Moloch who nodded back. Sammael picked up Siobhan's free hand and gave it a reassuring pat. "One of my generals has been in the Order and watching them for some time, my dear... And he gets word on all their Seelie court proceedings... He would have mentioned something if anything were to happen. I will keep a runner for communication between us and have Exael do some more research."

"Thank you..." she whispered.

He dropped her hand softly and stood up, giving one more glance to her and Vrita before teleporting Moloch and himself with the shadows...

Moloch shook his head to clear away the remainders of that memory. It still amazed him that this child had survived _that_ incident... "So you remember nothing of your childhood, Apaosa ?" he inquired.

Vrita jumped. He was lost amidst his mind and books. "Huh?"

That amused the blond daemon. Chuckling, he asked, "What do you remember before your life with the Seelie?"

The boy gave him a look and asked slightly coldly, "Why?"

"Curious... that's all." Moloch muttered and stood up. He stretched into a long stretch, popping his spine.

"Not much..." the exotic child replied softly.

Moloch's grin widened. "You know... our master could probably fill in some pieces if you so desire." He sauntered up to the door, pausing a moment to add, "Me and Dumah are friends... we are here to be there for you. Understand?" With Vrita's nod of understanding he exited the room.

"He's a real sweet guy..." Sammael smiled as he appeared next to Vrita on the couch. Leaning closer he whispered, "And he's right you know... you can ask me anything." He pressed his lips against his lover's in a chaste kiss. "I have nothing to hide..."

Vrita sat, merely inches from his master's face. So desperately trying not to drown in those perfect violets...

Sammael forgot to breathe as velvet eyes closed and the boy closed the distance between them. Vrita pressed his lips against his in a soft, tender touch. Passion bubbling over into it, startling the prince of daemons.

Their lips remained locked in a stolen moment and then slowly drifted apart. Air rushed back into Sammael's lungs. Vrita merely smiled and picked the book off the floor and continued to read.

Violet eyes and their master laughed, pulling Vrita onto his lap. "You..." he pressed a light, fluttering kiss on the boy's forehead. "You are too adorable..."

Vrita laughed and relaxed in his master's grip. Resting his head against that pale chest and intertwining his bronze fingers into his master's. Slowly playing with loose strands of red hair with the other hand. It seemed so impossible in the front of his mind... To feel so comfortable. Belong to people who not only accepted him for him...but with his flaws. They embraced what the Seelie told him were flaws and were slowly proving to him that they were gifts...

That the Seelie had hidden so much from him... He had still so little memory of his past and desperately wanted to ask Sammael about the few pieces that remained. So desperately wanted to remember... All it would take is one question to learn about it...

But that meant finally letting go of the illusion he held of Mai Ran...

Slowly, he picked up Sammael's hands and whispered, "Master..."

"Hmmm?" Sammael replied, glancing slightly at the boy.

"...Never mind..." Vrita replied casually. He turned slightly and cuddled into his master's lap, head resting on a strong shoulder.

"You sure?" he replied questioningly. Wrapping an arm around that small waist to draw the boy closer.

Vrita just snuggled closer still, practically purring as Sammael's cheek nuzzled his. "Just...just..." his voice faded to echoes beyond whispers. Black eyes crowded over with tears; the fear of isolation brewing in them. Finding his voice once again, he whispered, "Just promise... promise you won't leave me..."

Sammael glanced down and pressed butterfly kisses along the black silked mane. The child was so frightened... so unsure of himself and future. Abandoned so many times, thinking he would be left so quickly....

And yet, Sammael blamed himself... For not being right for once... Not getting his troops there in time to help stop the massacre... For not thinking to double-check Exael's reports. Though Exael was as shocked as he was... baffled on how such a plan could escape their knowledge... Surprised at the brash malice the Seelie court displayed onto their kind. For never checking to find survivors....

"I love you... Please realize that you are my everything. I love you so much...I would walk through heaven's gates and give myself up just for you. This...this is my word to you."//

A choking sob raked his body...he could feel the tears running down his cheeks, even without opening his eyes. "Kami-sama..." he gasped out.... "What have I done to him? Sammael..." Slowly, he cracked open his eyes... first to a hazy blackness, then to a foggy gray.

Moss covered walls and near darkness, save the glint of light from beneath the door. Something he assumed, after his eyes began to adjust, not far from the holding cell Asmodeus was being held in.

"Apaosa?" a short whispered came from his left. A tenor voice with an undertone of sex.

It hurt to move... Pain rushing down, prickling his spine, forbidding him to move or have complete control of his limbs. "Asmodeus?" he hacked out. Gods... he felt so weak... "You... you alright?"

Heero smiled and brushed a loose wisp of hair out of Wufei's eyes, "Me? I'm fine.... Nasty black eye, which Exael will be repaid for later." He winced as Wufei gritted his teeth, attempting to hold down a cry of pain.

The Chinese boy looked, quite frankly, like hell. His skin, which was usually gleaming bronze, had become pale and dull. And upon closer inspection, Asmodeus noticed that all parts of Apaosa's daemon transformation had been completely removed. "You've been warded..."

Asmodeus vigilantly attempted to remove one of the slips of paper the wards had been worked into. All he received for his efforts was a good jolt of holy majik that sent him slamming against the opposite wall.

With a slight grunt, the boy pulled himself off the ground, "That didn't go like it should have...sorry Wufei... They are warded with holy majik and definitely won't wield to me..."

Wufei hacked and his body shook with every cough. "Morph... human guise... confuse... shit..." he muttered and shook uncontrollably.

Asmodeus just gingerly held the trembling boy for hours on end... thoughts pounding through his skull, ripping all coherent feelings to shreds in its wake.

//"In pain, traitor?"

"I am not a traitor!!" was his defense. //

Heero winced. He felt a twinge of guilt for his words only a mere week or ago.

//"How can you not even consider yourself a traitor!?! You left us! You destroyed the Master completely!! You took his love and tossed it around like it was nothing!! You are mentally destroying him! You are a gods damn traitor, Apaosa! A TRAITOR!!"//

Gods... looking down at the bronze warded creature in his lap, black silk escaping its binds and draping in pools across his thighs... Harsh and body rasping breaths pulling themselves into the boy, forcing him to remain alive... Lips crying out one word... "Sammael..."

//"I am not a traitor!"//

"No..." Heero reflected, curling his fingers around that beaten skin, protecting the boy as much as he could. No, this boy was merely confused... Then again, he always had been confused. Two cultures taught to him... Clashing ideals... Murder and lust the only real companions in his life....

//"You are so! You came here to kill us! Don't deny it!"//

Wufei couldn't deny it... He did come to kill them... And now? Asmodeus didn't think the boy would. He was in pain, suffering for his precious "good" and what did all that purity and kindness return to this broken child? Nothing.... Only a pain that caused the boy even more grief...

//"I won't! I came to destroy this evil!!"//

And destroy it they would... It just was becoming apparent to the bronze beauty on his lap of good and evil. That angels weren't always good... that daemons were not always evil... "You know, Apaosa... we always seem to be blamed when all we want is to protect the old ways... Protect those who kept to the Old Ways... Maintain peace... And you know what? They think they are the "Holy Ones" that they have their god's grace. What gives them the right to kill us?! What gives them the right to decide that they were right?"

//"If I am evil, dear Apaosa, then so are you. . .."//

"That we are claimed to be malicious, impure... sin itself... When all we ever wanted was to protect... They slay themselves by the thousands... then proceed to blame us... Slay us... Killing us because we are gone with the antiquity... I hate them... I hate them for thinking we are nothing... Murdering us because we no longer fit their world... Sending us to whispers of dreams... Forgotten in their technological chaotic shit...."

//"I . . .I am not! I am finding my redemption! I will cleanse the evil from me!!"//

He wiped the stream of tears from his cheek and half-heartedly smiled at Wufei. "Are we really no longer needed? Are we to just abandon this plane... turn our backs on them like the ancient gods have... like the old ones have? Forget our hardships? Are we really that immoral and sinful creatures that we no longer deserve to exist?"

//"Finding your redemption? With what those harpies?"
"HARPIES?! They will know more of life and love than you ever have!!"//

"Maybe you were right all along... maybe we are wrong for wanting to just be...."

//"Gomen, Heero. . . but you should realize that they don't love you. . . only use your body. . . they made you for that. . . Duo made me for sex. He can't love. . ."//

"Maybe you were right... that we could not love...." He coughed as tears cascaded down his cheeks... Memories came at the strangest times... Floating into one's mind at the oddest moments... Surging forth-strange emotions from times many would rather forget...

"But I can still love... still feel... I beat you they don't know that... that we can die and mourn and then live and lust... Just like them, only we continue that cycle longer than they could ever understand... You were with our master for so long... I can hear you call to him... His name on your lips even now... He will come for us... and then... then..."

//"I never knew what he saw in some Knight from the failing order of Virtue and Justice. . . you were weak, mean spirited, even a brat to put up with. . . we. . .we hated you. Hated you for letting the Master fall for you. Letting the Master hold you. You were weak, unkind. . . you never fit in. . ."//

Words! They always came back to him... Haunting him for his mistakes... Slapping him harshly for meaningless fucking terms... He pressed a chaste kiss on his companion's forehead. "Forgive me, Wufei... Forgive me... Because once they get our master... you know they are waiting for him, ne? They are probably sending him a sphere and he will surrender himself to those bitches... Giving up everything for us... For you... and we will sit here and let them... Because what can we do against them? They can ward you... Strip me of my powers and leave us to rot... We have lead the one person who gives a shit for humanity to his death..."

//"I am sorry. . . I don't understand why you all hated me. . . but I am sure you understood I hated you as well."//

He stroked the black hair and just mourned for the day of reckoning... "Hate me... I deserve no less... I only wish, which is vain of me to say, I only wish I was dying in their arms... " And he looked to the ceiling, remembering from countless nights spent on blood spewn battlefields the black ink sky marred with millions of sparkles... The stars and moon had always been there... "I am selfish to wish for them... Aka Manah... Mephistopheles... "

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

Quatre sobbed uncontrollably into Trowa's chest. He couldn't help it... To get so far... only to give up. But what could they do? What could they have replied in this situation? Let their comrades... Mentors... Friends rot to death?

Dumah stroked that blonde hair, eyes dull and flat. It felt so wrong to just give up... to let them win... Hand over fate to them so effortlessly... To let humanity plunge so unknowingly into a hopeless spiral of death... Some protector he was... Some messenger of the gods...

But what could one say when they alone were all that cared anymore... That continued to fight though no one knew... To fight only to be forsaken by the same ones they wanted to protect... Maybe they had grown too ancient to understand humans...

Soft sobs... Gentle tears trailing down his chest from pained turquoise eyes... So afraid... So miserable. It was like standing and waiting to be killed. Willingly handing themselves over. But what could they do?

Nothing...

"Shhhhh.... It will be fine." Dumah whispered into his love's elfin ear. "We are not dead yet..."

Moloch peered up, through the cloudiness swirling in his eyes... "To die... That would be a comfort. We don't die... we will be sealed and forgotten! Have you ever been sealed, Dumah? Have you?"

He mutely shook his head.

That soft voice chocked, "I had... once... so long ago... Before my rule to the Canaanites... I was sealed away... So lonely... so cold... " he shivered and pushed closer to his lover's warmth.

Eyes glazed over, as they would in an ancient one remembering days so long forgotten, "So clear and frozen. Nothing. An endless abyss of nothing. You walk endlessly hoping to see anything. And it is completely white... nothing... no anything!! If it was dark at least there would remain the hope of light... But what is there to come from complete light? Nothing... I remember ranting and screaming... till I could remember nothing... Stranded and forgotten... Nameless for so long... "

Quatre trembled and continued, "to be trapped in that hell again? I would rather die... I would rather die than be stuck for all eternity in hopelessness... in pure white nothingness... without hope, staying till I was finally faded from all legends and snuffed out with out anyone remembering... "

Trowa placed a small kiss upon the boy's head, "I would never let that happen again... I promise you. I will kill us and let us rot in the darkest corners of Hell before I would let that nothingness... that pit of hopelessness consume you. I promise you that I will never leave your side.... Never."

Silence wrapped its blanket around them... hanging the small moment into a place of their own. Trowa whispered, "What should we do with our last night on Earth, my love?"

Quatre sighed and pressed his lips for a butterfly kiss against Trowa's. Pulling back he whispered, their eyes caught in each other, "Nothing more than holding me... Letting me remember your touch, my love... my everything..."

"That's all you want?"

Moloch smiled and let every mask fall letting his true self show, "It's all I need."

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

They remained in one another's arms, feeling the loss of the third. Nothing seemed more hopeless than this moment...

"Mephistopheles?" she whispered into the night. She watched her master watching the skies.

"Yes, my dear?" he replied, voice sullen as the tone that surrounded them.

"It's over...isn't it?" Noin asked, wrapping herself in every bit of his warmth, desiring more. More than he could give... after all they were missing Asmodeus...

Silence answered her and they slipped back to mourn in silence...

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

Meiren smiled, standing on the front steps of the Romefeller Foundation. The large clock slipping into the wee hours of the morning. "Tomorrow begins a new era of reign. My reign. Pity you never saw things my way, daemon."

Sammael snarled and walked towards her. Giving his beautiful machine one last long look, taking in the black metal and walked up the stairs, leaving all rational thought behind.

His feet pounding on step after step. Echoing with each beat in his mind... Painfully recalling everything he ever wanted being tossed into his face as a proverbial mental slap....

// He chuckled, "Of course I am! I would never have you think other wise. . . Wu-kun." And he smirked and moved his face right up next to Wufei's causing the smaller boy to eep with surprise. "And besides I get such an. . . eyeful this way. Yummy. I maybe full before breakfast begins. . ." And with that emphasis let his eyes taste Wufei.

"Maxwell! Out! Now!" Wufei hissed, fully aware of the growing blush along his cheeks. And yanking the blankets stalked towards his bathroom. Thank Quatre's houses to have every modern convince.

"Well, it isn't my fault you sleep naked!" Duo chirped and skipped circles around a blushing, glowering, and blanket clutching Wufei. "You sleep naked, you deal with the consequences!" and lunged at the boy.//

Oh how he wanted back everything... To try it once more... He let down every single person who ever fought with him... Died for him... He was giving up without a fight... walking to his fate without anything but the guilt of defeat... Praying to whoever cared about him... to save his friends... his generals... He could live in nothingness... survive any torture and endure anything to make sure they were safe... To let _him_ survive...

//" Order of Virtues, yes?" the braided boy asked running long fingers calmly through black silk loving the glare the boy gave him for doing so. He tried again, "Jussi de Virtus, corrigero?" this time there was an understanding. <6>

"Corrigeres, diaboli." The raven-haired warrior spat at him. <7>//

Couldn't he see that those black eyes were his undoing. But what can one do when fate offers you everything you ever wanted? When you are handed every dream and nightmare... Every hate and lie combined with every love and truth you've ever desired?

//"You... you are not getting away Vrita. You are _mine_!"//

Did those words damn him? Or was he clearly damned from the moment he first saw the child before him... playing with the dragon spirit in that Unseelie Court? The only thing he truly loved and it happened in an instant... Wanting something he shouldn't have needed... Should never have taken...

// "Vrita. . . if someone killed Mai Ran would you hunt them down and kill them?"

He paused. . . No one but this daemon had ever asked him that. He didn't know how to answer. Everything else could come too his defense to swiftly. . . but nothing rendered itself a volunteer to that question. He had to dig in his heart and mind for perhaps since the first time he had met her for an answer. . . "No. She probably did something mean and got herself killed for a reason. . . She's deceitful and backstabbing. . . I wouldn't do that. . ."

Black eyes looked up to catch violet orbs and those lips said very steadily, as if the boy was sure of something for the first time that night. . . "But I would if someone hurt you."//

He winced... it was his fault entirely... He looked up and glared with not even a fraction of any vigor at Meiren. "I came didn't I?"

"Yes... Yes you did." She smiled like only a possessed psycho would.

"Where are they?" he hit out every word.

Dorothy and Fand stepped to the side to reveal his two lost ones... hanging and warded to the point that breathing hurt them... "Release them." He demanded.

"You are in no power here, daemon prince." Meiren spat back.

//"You are _mine_ Vrita... you are _mine_..."// He blinked back tears.

"He was always mine... you should have never taken him from me, Sammael. Never fallen in love with that trollop... He became your weakness. And when you gain a weakness... Then you have already lost before you begin."

"Shut up, Meiren." Duo hissed, eyes not having left his love.

"You made that promise, not I." She replied with a haughty smirk.

//"I love you... Please realize that you are my everything. I love you so much...I would walk through heaven's gates and give myself up just for you. This...this is my word to you."//

He powered down, pulling every bit of his power away from his body, returning to his human host body. Weak and useless... Pain spot through him, worse than any bullet. Wards slowly and torturously beginning placed upon him... He hissed and tears began to roll freely down his cheeks...

"For you... I will struggle for you..." he whispered to his Heaven... to his love...

Agony after torturous twinge of hurt coursed through his weakening body. So defenseless... so useless... Useless against those wards... It was like willingly walking to his suicide... And he could not turn back... Not when he was doing this for Asmodeus... And for his "weakness"... His beloved...

"I will be your every breath... I will love you more than anything you will ever know..." He continued, his voice ragged and raw... Fighting against the wards to continue to speak...

Wufei cracked open an eye slowly... it hurt... he heard voiced... Meiren? ... Duo?!?! And eyes flew open. The scene of any nightmare before him. His master... His master had surrendered himself... "Sammael... gods no...."

Violet eyes bore into his and the last of his master's strength fading so quickly.... "I love you... Please realize that you are my everything. I love you so much...I would walk through heaven's gates and give myself up just for you. This...this is my word to you... Do you remember my promise... I told you... I promised..."

"Sammael..." Wufei chocked out... sobs racking his body. He couldn't loose him now... He lost too much... Too much. Never again. He began struggling against his bonds, not caring about the blood and the pain... He was not going to watch his world die again... not before him.... He needed Duo's love... He wanted Sammael more than anything... He could not exist without Duo... Duo was the breath he needed to breathe...

Vibrant violet eyes... once so bright... faded... past blue and fading faster. He just lay there on the cold cement. Rain burst from the Heavens, soaking the world in its tears. Laying there, not moving, except to gasp in a ragged breath of air... or to cough out mouthfuls of blood...

"Say goodbye, daemon." Meiren hissed and pulled her Holy sword from her powers. Gathering the brightest and Holiest of all powers... Hers to give out and she would deliver her blow. Rid the world of the one thing that could stop her. And with this pathetic brat daemon prince gone... The world would be hers... She would decide justice. She would make those humans suffer and show them what absolute power and corruption really was like. And with no more thoughts, she plunged her sword deep into Duo.

Duo screamed till he felt his vocal cords shred... he just hurt... Pain.... Agony... searing hellish pain... White flames eating through his flesh... Engulfing his essence. Ripping everything away... His only regret is not being able to be good enough to save his love... Then again what else did the "God of Death" deserve? Certainly not Heaven's pity...

Wufei screamed, eyes widening to the point his black orbs became pinpoints... "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Gods!! How could they tear Sammael away from him?!?! How could that bitch win against Duo?!?! Asmodeus sobbed at the loss... barely hanging on to his own life. Wufei was the only one with strength left... He had to save his beloved!! He made too many mistakes in life as it was... He was not going to let fate hurt him again!

The prince of daemons caught his love's eyes for the last time... Ignoring his pain he just whispered, "I...you....love......." And eyes blanked out... Fading from blue towards gray... the death of the ancient ones... The rain poured down faster, beating like drums upon the cold cement. Weeping at the death of humanities savior....

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

Owari.
~kc-chan

Just kidding!!!! To be continued.... ^__^ bet you thought that was it... ::dodges sharp pointy objects of death:: just one hell of a cliff hanger.... ^__^

<1> O luck,
like the moon
changeable in state,
you are always waxing
or waning; From O Fortuna (Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi from Carmina Burana, Orff)
<2> laa...Arabic for no.
<3> Ann Eazinak is Arabic for Excuse me.
<4> Meg Moulach is the real ruler of Fincastle Mill. A brownie of sorts. I changed it... so the name I am using is false and as is the type of ruler at Fincastle Mill.
The Leanan-Sidhe is a temptress. A blood-sucking vampire and is the muse of poets. Those inspired by her live brilliant, but short-lived lives. I made up her name. Siobhan (sha-VOHN) means ancient name.
<5> Elathan - The beautiful Miltonic prince of darkness with golden hair. Bress - Meaning 'Beautiful'. He is the son of Elathan. He married Bridgit of the De Dannan.
<6> "Order (military) of Virtue, am I correct?"
<7> "You are correct, devil."