Chapter 17
Twenty-two years ago, I destroyed my home. A small colony planet on the outskirts of the known universe. A scant 30,000 souls were vanquished when my followers summoned a black hole to swallow the planet into the Void. Counted amongst those souls were my mother, father, and three siblings.
It was the greatest gift I could grant to my loved ones, to be cast directly into the darkness without being painfully slaughtered like the countless other souls that fell before and after them during the War.
Love not only means knowing when to let go. Love also means knowing when to plunge the dagger into their back.
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Yushiro awakens to find himself lying on Seryph's couch. He feels in his gut a slight aura of heat, obviously that woman's spell begining to take root. He glances at the clock on the wall. He's only been unconscious for 45 minutes.
Yushiro lifts himself up into a sitting position and rests his elbow on the edge of the couch. "Barely two hours left to live. What to do with that time."
Yushiro's thoughts drift to his friends. Final goodbyes. Tears and regrets. "Bullshit."
Yushiro's eyes drift to the sword that could have spared him from this fate. "Just half a second. Half a second was all I needed. Its all any of us need. Just a brief moment for things to change."
Yushiro walks over to the sword, takes it from its resting place, scribbles a note on a memo pad on Seryph's work desk, and makes his final exit.
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Lynne backflips over Kyoko's head. As Lynne twists in the air, preparing to mount her attack upon landing, Kyoko jets backward. With a slash of her brush the ground where Lynne should land rips apart, leaving a gaping maw in its place. The floor surrounding the maw begins to twist in shape and color, mutating into hues of black, purple, and red. Pseudopods spew forth from the orifice, attempting to wrap themselves around Lynne's legs.
Lynne sees the tentacles writhing towards her out of the corner of her eye as she begins her descent. With a slight twist, she angles her legs so that they begin to fall straight towards one of the appendages. The instant Lynne lands on the tentacle she begins to run forward. She handsprings off of the tip of the pod, arcing her leap to dodge the onslaught from below. With the momentum from her leap she begins to sprint towards Kyoko while she's taken aback by Lynne's acrobatic display.
Kyoko regains her senses just as Lynne begins her tirade. Lynne throws her momentum into a shoulder check which squarely hits Kyoko in the chest. Kyoko regains her composure in mid-air and begins to fly down the corridor with her back to Lynne. With another slash of her brush the dead end unfolds revealing the open sky surrounding the Fallen Tower.
Kyoko turns around to regain her orientation with her opponent. She regains it fully as Lynne's left boot connects with her face. The force of the blow sends Kyoko out into the open sky. Lynne tumbles forward after he kick, continuing her forward momentum. As she exits from her roll she makes another leap at Kyoko, catching her as Kyoko regains her stability and begins to hover in place. The force of the blow sends both women plummeting.
"Do you even realize what you have done?" Kyoko asks of her assailant with a wry smile.
Lynne laughs. "Would it be right to call this irony?"
Kyoko returns the laugh and vanishes into a swirl of cherry blossoms.
Lynne falls.
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With an hour and fifty-eight minutes left in his life Yushiro arrives at Dollar Industries Headquarters. With his blade resting at his side he calmly walks up to the reception desk.
"Deidre Dollar. Tell her Yushiro is here."
The receptionist presses the silent alarm, bringing down a penetration-proof polymer shield between her and Yushiro. Portals materialize from nowhere and let loose a stream of Dollarcorp security into the atrium. Yushiro sighs and continues to walk calmly across the marble flooring towards the stairwell. He ignores the guards' pleas to "drops his weapon" and "surrender quietly." His composure remains calm.
The first gunshots begin to fly as he reaches the Dollarcorp insignia in the middle of the lobby. Yushiro vanishes from the sight of most of the security guards, dropping to the ground to dodge the gunfire and drawing his blade in one motion. In the split second it takes the guards to adjust their aim to his new position, Yushiro leaps to his feet and begins to sprint forward. One. Two. Three cuts is all it takes to form a path through the mass of security.
Most don't realize they've been cut down until Yushiro has already made his way past them and onto the stairwell.
Yushiro continues his hurried pace, sundering his way through the waves of cannon fodder. He is reminded of the few stories Seryph told him of the War. Hours upon hours of men swarming forth from obsidian starcruisers-- a seemingly endless spawning of men and women of countless speceis willing to throw their lives away if it meant victory for their decietful cause. "You must convince yourself that their life is truly meaningless," Seryph told Yushiro some years ago. "You must tell yourself that your enemy deserves his fate. You must believe that your cause is worth any sacrifice. Its a sickening idea, but a true warrior cannot allow consequence to be the blade's master."
These men may not be the servants of the Void that Seryph fought all those years ago, but at this moment, in Yushiro's eye, they were just that. They were enemies of the Universe. They were nothing but wheat to be sheared for the harvest. This was their fate. This was his lie.
After ten flights of stairs a portal opens. This time, only one person steps forward. A faint hint of lilac permeates over the stench of death just briefly to tell Yushiro who stands before him.
"Deidre."
"Yushiro."
"Take me to the tower. Now."
"Only after you appologize."
"For killing your men? No."
Deidre laughs. "No. For not asking me nicely."
"Then I'm sorry."
Deidre motions for Yushiro to step through the portal. With an hour and twenty-seven minutes left in his life Yushiro enters the Fallen Tower.
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"Was my life wasted? Did I throw my life away in some innane attempt to follow my brother's footsteps? Was I a fool to try and change his path in life? Was anything I did right? Or am I a fool to be asking these questions when I'm about to become a stain on some damn floating island above a city I don't give a damn about? That's not how I want to die. I don't want to bite it worrying about what was. Sure, life kind of sucked at times. All I wanted was for my brother to be happy. All I wanted was for me to be happy. I just wanted life to be good. And it was. Life was good. Life is good. I did everything I could to change things for the better. That's what counts. I didn't change Devyn. I didn't make him happy. But I tried. I did something. I die doing what I wanted to do. I can accept that."
And with that Lynne was gone.
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Kyoko's heart filled with maligned glee as she watched the wench crash into the jaggged rock below. She flies back to the opening in the Tower she made in the middle of her fight with Lynne. The hole begins to mend itself as the nanites and mystical forces embedded within the stone sense Kyoko's re-entry. The emmaculate wood flooring has already mended itself from the damage encured during their brief but ever-so sweet battle. Kyoko makes her way towards Devyn's room.
Kyoko smiles warmly as she enters her beloved's room. She finds him lying on his back on his egyptian cotton sheets gazing upwards into the empty ceiling. Kyoko throws herself onto Devyn's prone body and kisses him quickly yet passionately.
"All is right in the world." Kyoko says as she lifts her weight off of Devyn, allowing he hair to drape ever so slightly onto his face. "We can finally be together. Finally."
Seemingly unaware of everything that has transpired up to this point, with the word "finally" Devyn's eyes unfocus from his unseen point of reference on the ceiling and focus in on Kyoko's eyes.
"Finally?" Devyn asks.
"She is gone. The one link keeping us away from our destiny."
Without anymore hints Devyn knows exactly what Kyoko speaks of and, without a second thought, flings her across the room against the wall.
"That so-called 'one link' was the only hope I had left in this pathetic world. Even people like us should be able to comprehend the bonds of family. Are we not still human, or have you sunk so low in these few months we have been together that you have forgotten that?"
Kyoko wipes the blood streaming down from her scalp and looks at Devyn with longing eyes. "That is the beauty of it, my dear. We are no longer human! We are better than these whelps who still cling to such illusions as family. Now that she is gone you should realize this as well. Can you truly say you feel any sorrow at her passing? Can you claim to be angry out of true emotion or merely some habit you have yet to realize no longer applies? You don't strike out at me because you loved her anymore. You strike out at me because you don't want to admit the truth."
"Truer words have never been spoken. You know the truth. You also cannot perceive the reality of the situation. I ceased to care about anyone from my previous life many years ago. I merely continued the facade that such matters were of any import to keep my own sanity. The Secret Dance eats away at my very soul with each day that passes. All that can keep me from sinking into utter maddness is the lies I tell myself. Once I realized Lynne was still alive and still cared about me she became the most important lie. And now that lie is gone."
"Then let me become that lie. Let us relish in our deception until this world crumbles beneath our false love. Let us be like two damned lovers kissing as Rome burns. Be with me."
Devyn turns his back to Kyoko and begins to walk out of the room. "Never."
Her heart shattered, Kyoko attempts to shed tears of remorse. No tears flow from her eyes.
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Devyn once more finds himself perched upon the apex of the Tower. For a few scant moments he contemplates joining his sister in the release of death. Fear doesn't overcome him at the idea of his soul merging with the oblivion of the Void. Only a rational dislike of losing his identity to an incomprehensible reality keeps him from finding peace from this almost-equally hollow existence.
"Nice view." A voice says from behind Devyn.
"Depends on the perspective," Devyn replies as he spins around to meet his foe, "but from your perspective, Yushiro, I would imagine it would seem lovely."
"And to you?"
"I only see regret and loss."
"You never were one to regret things."
"I do not see my own regret."
"And I don't see mine."
Devyn smiles and begins sway. Yushiro returns the smile and draws his blade.
Yushiro strikes down with his sword, veering for Devyn's skull. With a sway to the left Devyn sidesteps the blow and delivers a fist to Yushiro's kidneys. Yushiro spins his blade around and parries Devyn's Void-tempered blow. With a flick of his wrist Yushiro twists his blade from its flat side to its bladed side and cuts upwards, slicing Devyn's fist open and sending Devyn reeling back.
Devyn shakes his hand, allowing the blood to drench the ancient stone adorning their battlefield. With the same motion Devyn pushes his hand towards Yushiro, sending a gust of putrid air towards his nemesis. Yushiro raises his blade to cover his face and body out of instinct, blocking some of the incoming cutting wind but leaving his arms and cheeks open for the air to render several small but deep cuts into his flesh.
As the wind dies down Yushiro rushes towards Devyn and stabs towards Devyn's heart. Devyn arches his spine backwards to dodge the strike and begins to pivot around to land an uppercut against Yushiro's exposed jaw. As he begins his strike Yushiro changes his motion in mid-stride and makes a sideways stab at Devyn's head. Devyn continues his spin for a few extra steps to allow most of his face to avoid Yushiro's blade. The blade cuts deeply into Devyn's scalp but avoids puncturing his skull.
Devyn slows down from his latest maneuver and leaps into the air, landing a solid kick into the small of Yushiro's back. Yushiro wrentches in pain from the Void's touch and Devyn begins a barrage of strikes. Yushiro stands helpless to the onslaught, but he remains on his feet. He may not be able to mount an attack, but Yushiro refuses to bow.
The merciless assault continues, but Yushiro focuses his will and lifts his sword above Devyn's flurry of blows and strikes down. The blade cuts deeply into Devyn's right shoulder, but Devyn's blows do not cease. Yushiro continues to force his blade further into Devyn's body, cutting through to Devyn's chest. Devyn shows no end to his attack, the rate of his blows speeding up the further the blade sinks into his flesh.
A few scant inches away from severing Devyns' arm, the blade stops. With the last few vestiges of his strength, Yushiro looks up at Devyn. Knowing his foe is fallen, Devyn relinquishes.
"Do me one last favor?" Yushiro says, spitting out more blood than words. "Tell Seryph that the woman... and the girl... say no."
"I will." Devyn says as he lands one last punch to Yushiro's chest, his arm stabbing through and impaling him.
With fourty-five minutes left in his life, Yushiro dies the way he wished.
He dies on his own terms.
Epilogue
Two figures walk along the beach of an endless ocean. Their eyes meet from a distance and the two figures run towards one another. The man takes the woman into his arms and holds her for an eternal moment, locked in a love that death could never conquer. As the moment subsides, neither knowing whether a second or an eon has passed, the lovers step away from one another and gaze into the never-setting sunset.
"After all these years, this is where we finally get our moment alone together." Lynne says as she lets some amber-hued sand sink between her toes.
"Can you think of any better way to spend your time?" Yushiro replies as he smiles in a way he could never smile in life.
"Can you?"
"Never."
With those words Yushiro takes Lynne back into his arms and kisses her for the first and last time.