X: Sides
by K.Huntsman

 

A chiming sound gleamed through his soul as he looked around the room, his gaze catching on a ribbon that had once adorned Hokuto's hair, remembering

--watching the others as they socialized in the gardens. A party. He stood apart underneath the shade of a tree, knowing the rare happiness and peace that moments such as this brought, watching his younger siblings. Rare. All too rare, to feel this well and content. But this was all he could ever want... this sheer happiness--

He blinked. "Seishirou-san," he murmured, "I will find a way to return our clan to that happiness. I will. Even you...."

He pulled the soft gray shirt over his damp head. His soaked clothing lay in a pile in the corner of the room; he'd put it in the hamper before he left. He didn't know when he'd be coming back here, and he didn't want to leave a mess. He didn't even know if he would be coming back here.

"Will I see you again, Subaru-san?" his grandmother asked from the main room.

He went out there, grabbing the towel again and working on drying his hair some more as he replied, "I don't know, Obaachan. I know nothing of what the future will hold; that was never my province." He smiled at her. "Don't worry too much. I'll do my best to keep this world intact... and if I can't... well, then, it is impossible to destroy souls. I'll meet with you in another lifetime."

"Oh, Subaru-san..." she murmured, her dark eyes concerned.

He dropped to one knee and took her hand in his, gently tilting his head against it. "I'm an adult, Obaachan. I know who I am, and I know what risks I take. I've spent five years running away from the truth; it's time for me to face it. I can do it now. I am Koutei as much as I am Subaru, and... well, I have my responsibilities as much as you do." He paused. "At the end of this, even if the Earth is still intact, I may not be here. I trust your instincts to choose the next Head of the Clan, and to take care of all my affairs. Not that there are too many of them. If you need to contact me in the meantime, you can get to me through Nokoru Imonoyama at CLAMP Campus."

He stood and went back into the other room, collecting his discarded clothes and the towel he'd used and dumping them unceremoniously in the clothing hamper. He continued to speak, letting his voice carry out to the other room. "I probably won't be coming back here, except maybe to get some of the implements I've sanctified for my own use. You can stay here, if you like."

"... No," she replied. "I will return to Kyoto. Subaru-san... you know my hope goes with you...."

He grabbed a gray sweatshirt and threw it on over his thin shirt as an afterthought for the cool weather. "I know, Obaachan," he said, going back out into the other room. He bent over to softly kiss her on the cheek and hug her. "Thank you. I love you."

"I love you, too, Subaru-san," she said, and he could hear tears thickening her voice a little. "Thank you, Koutei-sama, for being my grandson."

He straightened and made a formal Court bow to her. "It was my pleasure, Lady Sumeragi," he replied, meaning it. "Thank you for allowing me to be your grandson."

She smiled a little after him as he went to the doorway and pulled on a pair of high-tops.

He smiled back, then let himself be where he needed to be.

As Kamui watched, Subaru faded into his room in Imonoyama's mansion, melting out of thin air. He seemed unsurprised to see Kamui there. But then, Kamui wasn't too surprised to see him, either. Somehow he'd known when and where the Dragon would show up again.

"Hello," Sumeragi said.

"You're back," Kamui replied.

Sumeragi nodded. "So it seems." He sat down on the edge of the bed as Kamui walked all the way into the room and took the chair from the desk, swinging it around backwards before sitting. He crossed his arms on the back of it as Subaru asked, "Do you want to talk?"

Kamui studied him for a minute, trying to pin down just what it was that seemed different about the other Dragon of Heaven. Subaru looked... younger, somehow. Less haunted, if not less troubled. He looked like someone with more of a soul, of a self, than he had before.

"... They said you had 'Awakened'," he ventured at length.

"I remember being someone else," Sumeragi agreed. "I remember being Koutei and Subaru both." He smiled a little, a small shadow darkening his eyes. "My grandmother was at my apartment; I talked to her, and it helped me deal with it." His voice dropped to a whisper. "It hurt a lot, remembering."

"Sakurazukamori hates you. Why?"

Subaru regarded him for a long minute, then answered, "For killing his lady wife."

Kamui had to ask the next question without letting himself stop to think about it. "Did you?"

"Yes." The answer was soft and quiet and hung in the air between them for a long, still moment.

"You want to change the subject," Subaru said. Kamui started; he wasn't used to someone being that good at reading him. Subaru laughed a little and smiled, his eyes calm and a little tired. Tired enough to be laying his cards on the table. "You'll remember that other life, Kamui, and when you do, it'll be like you can't understand why you didn't understand the rest of us before."

"I don't want to remember." "Not even if it takes the pain away?" Subaru stood and walked a little closer. "Wouldn't remembering Yuusha be worth easing the pain of betrayal, Kamui?" The light gleamed off of his eyes softly, showing green depths deeper than oceans now. Deep with memory. "Wouldn't it be worth it to understand why?"

"'Why'?" Kamui asked, sounding slightly distrustful of the concept. He was so full of pain concerning Fuuma, the other "Kamui," that the thought of release was foreign, beyond him. He was this way because he thought it had to be his fault, because he thought had to have done something to make it this way. Subaru knew that, knew it intimately.

And he remembered--

--Pain. Pain of the heart and the soul. Unbearable. And there was no way out. He set the cigarette down and looked at the blade on the table. A razorblade. His personal challenge. How close could he come to death, to release, and still back away?

Gods.

He picked up the blade and studied it, the way the light gleamed off the silver surface. He wondered how many assassinations Seishirou-san had set up and arranged to look like suicides. How many slit wrists had Seishirou-san caused? How many overdoses of pills, how many hangings? How many bullets through the brain?

Gods. At least he wasn't stupid enough to mess with guns.

He touched the blade to the underside of his wrist and played it lightly across the skin, as a violinist might play a bow across the strings of his instrument. He closed his eyes and heard the music, the death-music in his mind. And he played to it, played for his life and prayed for his death to the same tempo....--

--He still had the scars. The scars from the three attempts he had made on his own life. He decided to show Kamui that which he had never shown to another. Perhaps, if only his little brother could understand... he wouldn't feel so alone, so foreign from the brother he had always adored.

He pulled back on his sleeves a little. The reason he always wore long-sleeved shirts. And the scars came into view. Yuusha saw them and understood immediately what they meant. Koutei wondered why, wondered if his brother had seen another ruin their life with the marks.

"Hurt without understanding," he said into the shocked silence, "has nearly killed me more than once. Remembering heals some things, Kamui." He stepped closer, and tilted Kamui's head up so that the blue-violet eyes looked into his. "I don't want these scars to have to dance across your wrists as well before you come to peace, Yuusha." He kissed the boy softly on his forehead, then left the room without looking back.

Luce closed the door behind Koutei and made his obeisance to the Emperor Dragon immediately, bowing deep in respect to the Awoken One.

Koutei's emerald-green eyes stayed on him as he straightened, a depth of wisdom and care in them that he had only ever before seen in the same Dragon's eyes, sapphire-blue in another lifetime. "I have much to thank you for, Luce," he murmured, "and much to apologize for, as well. I am in your debt - deeply in your debt for what you have done for my siblings and me."

"It is little, Koutei-sama," Luce replied humbly. "I gave my fealty to your Clan when I first arrived in the Celestial Court. That does not change through lifetimes or Awakenings. I knew that then as I know it now; nothing has changed except geography."

Koutei smiled a bit. "Nonetheless, Angel, it shall be remembered."

"Is all between you and Kanshisha-sama well...?" Luce ventured cautiously. He didn't want to open volatile wounds, but it was important that he know for his future steps to be planned correctly.

Koutei's smile faded to seriousness. "No," he replied, and Luce sensed the difference in him. Koutei spoke with formality shading his words; Subaru Sumeragi simply spoke with direct honesty. One was far more human and reachable to Luce than the other. Strange to see such a division when there was so little difference for him between being Luce and Nokoru.

"Will it heal?" he asked. And he wasn't acting; his concern about this crack between two of the seven was true. Koutei and Kanshisha had been so close, before. The results of that wound to the once-mighty Clan were painful for Luce to see.

"I killed his wife; he killed my sister," Sumeragi murmured, not looking at Nokoru. "We're even now. I can see that and accept it. I don't know if Kanshisha can. But I'll try my best to make sure he does; I owe it to him...." His voice trailed off and he stood for a moment as if lost in thought, then turned and looked at Nokoru again. "Imonoyama-san, what are you planning? I do not yet know all of the players in this game; I do not know who has Awoken and who has not. I come to you humbly, asking...." He paused, then continued quietly, "... asking if I may assist you in this warfare." And there was no doubt in Luce's mind from the distaste present on that last word, even had he not been sure of it before, that this Dragon was a pacifist at heart.

He smiled, and gestured for Sumeragi to take a seat. It was time for the Emperor Dragon to learn a more deadly game of politics than dealing with the Kingdoms of Gods.

"DAMN!!" Satsuki pounded the panel with her fist. "Damn, damn, DAMN!"

"Upset, Oneesama?" Fuuma asked, walking across the room to her. He wound his arms around her and softly rubbed his cheek against her hair, cat-like. "You're wearing yourself to a thread. You can't plan for every contingency, no matter how fast you think."

Satsuki sighed and relaxed a little. Koutei's Awakening was past; there was nothing she could do now to try to sabotage the Heavenly Dragons with it. "You're right, I guess, Bushin-chan," she replied. "It's just... frustrating. With those damn Angels protecting them, I can't even get at the Heavenly Dragons!"

Bushin laughed a little. "Don't say that, Oneesama," he reminded her. "Even the Angels aren't indestructible. Remember dear Charity?"

Satsuki did. And she wondered to this day what had happened inside the dear little Angel's mind that she could have become so unbalanced. She still suspected Bushin had something to do with that, though he had never admitted to anything.

"Luce is more likely to be a problem than your paramour was, dear brother," Satsuki replied. "Unless you would care to try to seduce him too?"

"I'll leave that to Kyuuteishoufu-chan," he replied, nuzzling Satsuki's neck. "She seems to rather like him; she always did, if I recall...."

"Our little sister," Satsuki emphasized, "is worse than useless where that Angel comes in. I'd almost suspect she was born of the Mother, not the Father, if I didn't know better!"

"Now, now, Daishonin-neesama," he murmured, gently licking her skin, "You're being too harsh on her. She's hardly more than a baby. You can afford to be generous."

Satsuki suddenly shivered at the delicious sensations. "Are you trying to seduce me, Bushin-chan?" she laughingly demanded. "You know I'm a one-man woman!"

"More's the pity," her younger brother replied, withdrawing a little from the embrace he held her in. She looked up, at their reflections in the screen before them, and wondered. "Well, I suppose Kishi-niisan will Awaken sooner or later, even if he just thinks he's a mortal fool now," Bushin continued. "You'll have him back yet, Oneesama."

... She wondered, had Bushin always looked so dark of purpose? And had she herself always looked like such a... such a self-determined bitch? She didn't remember ever looking so cold--and so wounded--before....

General note: incest is *not* something that does it for me. But if you look up mythology, *any* mythology, you will find rampant examples of it among deities. If you can't deal with the heat, get out of the kitchen. (... /me go sleep now....)

X: Sides
Part 11
by Kristin Huntsman

They knew Koutei was back, but none of them had seen him for two days.

Kamui had confirmed his arrival, saying that he had talked briefly to Subaru when the Heavenly Dragon had materialized within his own room. But since then, it seemed the Emperor Dragon had vanished. Yuzu-chan had peeked into his room and confirmed that his bed had not even been slept in.

And neither Sakurazukamori nor any of the three Angels were telling them anything.

The only consolation that Sorata and the others had was that nothing had happened; for those two days, there hadn't been a single peep of supernatural activity around Tokyo, not even a postcard sent to them from the Earthly Dragons.

"The calm before the storm, most likely," Seiichirou opined. Of the three who remembered that previous life, he alone was still confiding in the other Dragons. He adjusted his glasses and leaned forward, head resting on his clasped hands. "I doubt that Koutei-niisama has gone very far away. Likewise, I doubt that Kanshisha-niisan has tried anything more to hurt him."

Yuzuriha looked cutely thoughtful as Inuki sat beside her. "Why is that, Aoki-san?" she asked.

Seiichirou smiled a wry smile and removed the glasses. "Koutei-niisama is the eldest of us, and hence the most powerful, at least in political circles among Gods. It is to /him/--not to our family--that factions pledge their loyalty and a share of their powers. The reason our family always led the Celestial Court rather than Daishonen-sama's is because of Oniisama's nature; he is so unlikely to call upon his power that he is--was, and will be again, I suppose--the chief peacemaker of the Eternal Realms. Everyone trusts him, and hence is willing to give him a tithe of their power."

"Meaning what in practical terms?" Sorata demanded, lying upside down on his half of a facing couch, legs dangling over the back of it as he paged through a book filled with religious drawings of dragons.

"Meaning he could destroy at least a good half of either house before we could even think of stopping him," the manga editor replied. "Perhaps more."

Sorata stopped flipping through the book at that, and just looked at the Mage Dragon's upside-down face in the abrupt silence.

"If I wished to," a soft voice interrupted the quiet.

Everyone started as the Emperor Dragon entered on shadows, his green eyes dark as pine needles, avoiding direct contact with anyone else's.

"Subaru..." Kamui murmured.

The Sumeragi took one of the vacant chairs in the circle around the low coffee table. He studied for a moment the arrangement of flowers set on it, then reached out and brushed a calla lily to a more appropriate position with a gentle gesture of his hand.

"Luce-san has given me slightly disturbing news," he commented eventually. "Five of the Earth house have access to their full memories and power, as compared to only three of us. In addition, we are hampered in ways they are not. There is - fighting among us." He said this with no inflection to his voice. "Also, there are ties we must honor that they may not hold so sacred."

"So we're starting on a weaker footing," Seiichirou stated.

Subaru nodded slowly, his eyes still studying the flowers. "We have a few extra pieces in play for our side, however, not all of whom have revealed themselves yet."

"The three Angels?" Nataku asked, speaking for the first time.

"Yes," came the soft, gentle reply. "Also others. A minor deity called 'Ookami' numbers among them." He frowned a bit. "And a few more who have yet to appear."

"Eh?" Sorata asked. "'Ookami'? Who's that?"

"Ookami will reveal himself in due time," Subaru replied. "One does not force another deity, no matter how minor he, she, or it might be, into any action."

Kanshisha watched his brother through onmyoujutsu farsight, knowing that Koutei knew he watched, and not caring. For while Koutei was Koutei, he was also Subaru Sumeragi, and vulnerable, weak, prey to every emotion that assaulted him....

Right now he must be drowning under so many.

Kanshisha definitely wanted Koutei to feel stalked, to know he was being watched, to be nervous and in constant reminder of his crimes. For when Kanshisha struck, not now, not tomorrow, but soon enough, he wanted Koutei to know exactly why he was dying, to remember why he deserved it. And Koutei would die; he would never raise his full power against any of his siblings, let alone the one he loved as Kanshisha knew he did.

Yes, Koutei would die, and then the circle would be complete. Payment of the debt would be over, and there would be no more pain, Kanshisha knowing as he did that things would return to their proper station afterwards.

He ignored the very small nagging voice within him that asked if he could truly live with killing his brother.

Subaru sighed to himself, feeling Seishirou's sharp gaze on him. He let it pass without incident; there was no purpose to fighting what would be. He and Kanshisha would have their reckoning soon enough, and for now he had other siblings to concentrate on.

Forty-eight hours sequestered with the three Angels had done him a world of good.

Several worlds, perhaps.

The ties of loyalty that the Three owed to him and that he owed to them in return were still strong, unaltered by time or mortality, they had discovered in those days together. The hours had been used in careful assessment of all involved parties, guesses guided by personality as to who from the Celestial Courts were likely to appear yet, and studious mapping of the patterns of luck and randomness. They had found that those had changed in many ways since Elohim had created and gifted the patterns to this world; they were much harder to judge now.

So now, with better knowledge of what was transpiring, it was time for Koutei to resume his place among his siblings. Among the Gods.

--memory...

Her memory, where had it gone, where had it been all these years?

Arashi stopped where she was in the Shibuya district and looked at the window to her right, not seeing through the pane of fragile glass but gazing only at her reflection.

--this was not how she looked.

Where were her scales, her scarves?

Why these clothes, unnecessary burdens on her movement, her power?

Her hair, when had it darkened? Her face - how had it changed to gaze back at her with a stranger's reflection?

Who was she now?

Blinking, her head tilted to one side with slow curiousity, she reached out to touch the glass. It wavered beneath her fingertips, shimmering until her reflection was a true one.

--Maihime.

She was Maihime, the Dancer.

Kakyou shivered in his sleep as the slow, subtle rings that were a Dragon's Awakening, the ripples and waves that spread out from a pebble falling into a still pond far below, rolled his universe with the same sensation a mediocre earthquake would give in the true world.

The rocking slowly went away, the shifting of the horizontal levels of the DreamScape, and he opened his eyes for a heartbeat to see who had Awoken. Then, identifying his sister, he went back to sleep and weaving the Dreams that would be his weapon against the battle itself.

... He could do nothing for Maihime's heartbreak.

That was a matter between her and Souryo alone, and though he knew the truth of it, it was not his place to interfere.

"Six," Nokoru counted, looking up from the paperwork that was neccessary to run CLAMP Campus. His eyes briefly met with Suoh's, then Akira's. "Only Kishi is left."

"His lack of memory may be our ace," Suoh replied, gold eyes thoughtful. The warfare around them was never very far from any of the Angels' thoughts these days, and the transition to strategy was far too easy to make for Nokoru's peace of mind. "Daishonen dotes upon Kishi... even more now than she did before. She won't do anything to hurt him."

"She hadn't lost Kishi before," Akira agreed from his desk. His fingers had stilled on the abacus as the ripple of energy that was an Awakening had vibrated through the three of them. "He means more to her... especially since she killed him with her own hands."

Nokoru tapped his pencil on a notepad before him. There were diagrams in it, sketches of relationships that fit into lovely geometric patterns. He sighed. "We need Charity," he said. "We were always working at our best when she was here. Why the hell can't we find her in this incarnation?!"

Faith and Hope were silent as Luce looked back down at the notepad. With all the information they remembered, and with what they had learned from the Awoken Heavenly Dragons, Luce's graphs were nearly complete. Subaru Sumeragi's sister had been the girl slain by him in a previous lifetime. Ironically, in this one she had been slain by the one who had been her husband in that other life. The gender-shifting Jiisha had been reincarnated as a neuter creature just as shy and delicate as his-her original. The twins who had served Ohimesama, Hiru and Yoru, had come back as sisters who each aided a different one of Ohimesama's suitors. And the genetic relationship of Ohimesama to Bushin in this lifetime reflected her choice in the past one. Her choice of Yuusha over Bushin. Kamui over Fuuma.

"Why these changes, and not others?" Nokoru murmured, tapping the pencil on the desk. "I can understand some of them... but why Jiisha?" He stared morosely at the graph.

--Jiisha smiled at him, her short silky hair decorated only with the light of the moon that shone on it. Kyuuryuu smiled and reached to touch it reverently. His lover was beautiful, no matter what form Jiisha chose, and Kyuuryuu appreciated it. After all, who was he, a mere river-god, to rate the attentions of one of the Celestial Court?! Especially Jiisha, the Healer, the one made of moonlight and a breath....

Her hand slipped along the side of his face and she smiled, her body cool against his in the gardens. He loved her. Oh, did he love her. If only he had the right to presume....

"Ask me," she whispered. "Ask me, Kyuuryuu."

"I haven't the right," he breathed back, feeling everything as she shifted to lie on top of him.

"I give it to you."

He shook his head. "Only Koutei-sama could grant me the right to ask you to wed with me, Jiisha-sama. And I am only a river-god, I could never hope to be more to you than this."

She laughed then, her lips brushing past his. "Don't be too sure, Kyuuryuu. After all, Koutei-niisama did give Kanshisha-niisama permission to wed Shay-Lien, and she is a human."

"If I asked," Kyuuryuu asked, fighting against the hope that suddenly flooded through him, "would you say 'yes'?"

Her finger touched his lips. "Maybe," she replied, light and grace in his grasp. "You'll find out when you ask."--

He opened his eyes and shaded them against the mid-afternoon sun. He didn't know where Jiisha was on this planet, but he did know who might know how to find her and Ohimesama. He had to find them both before it started again. He needed to protect the princess... and find out if Jiisha had ever given him an answer.

Brushing his long ponytail back, Shougo Asagi started his trek towards CLAMP Campus and the three Angels who worked there.

X: Sides
Part 12
by Kristin Huntsman

He found the offices of the Chairman easily, and entered.

"Luce-sama," he greeted, kneeling immediately. That angel was his superior by rank and age, and Shougo was not one to trifle with a lack of respect. He was too aware of his own insignificance.

"Kyuuryuu," the Angel said, sounding slightly startled to see him there. "I hadn't expected that you would come here so soon."

"After the news broadcasts showing the footage of Koutei-sama, did you think that I could stay away?" Shougo asked, eyes still studying the carpet. He hadn't been given permission yet to look upon one of the highest of Yahweh-sama's angels.

"Oh, stand up already," Luce chided. "You're wearing a hole in the carpet. If we'd had time to think about it, we would have figured out you'd be heading here. Yes, they're here, to answer your question, and yes, both Ohimesama and Jiisha are with them."

Shougo smiled faintly. "Am I that transparent?" he asked.

Luce shrugged. "I would caution you against approaching Jiisha just yet, Kyuuryuu - that Dragon hasn't Awoken yet, and there are a few things about your beloved's current incarnation that you ought to know...."

The hinges to the door froze at a temperature of absolute zero, then shattered as Maihime took it beyond that. The door fell into the sterile room and landed with a loud noise.

Satsuki looked up from polishing out a scratch on the surface of her pet, and smiled. It was not a nice smile. "What do you want, little sister?" She had felt Arashi's Awakening to her true self. She let the chamois fall from her hand and stepped away from her machine.

Maihime was like a storm as she entered the room.

"I want his blood," she hissed. "I want Souryo *dead*!"

"And you shall have it, my dear," Daishonen cooed to her, moving closer to run fingers through her sister's dark hair. "Just wait. We have to act in concert to destroy them, you know that...."

She smiled as just the edge of Arashi's anger slowly melted away. "Give me a few more days," she persuaded, "and then we'll move. I want to be very sure that I won't risk any of you again."

Arashi slowly nodded, a child only minorly willing to comply with limits. But she would, Satsuki knew. Maihime was not the sort of sister to disobey the head of the family.

"Neesan," Karen called from the hall, examining the hole that was no longer a doorframe, as the door held in it had fallen into the room, "should we fix the door or just leave it like this?"

Suoh brushed his cheek against her hair, adoring his wife and soulmate of so many lifetimes. Deep into her sleep, Nagisa sighed and nestled trustingly back against him. "Gwynhffar," he whispered to her, "Aidos." That latter was her true name, one she was unaware of. The former was a name she had worn when she had been incarnated into the body of a young woman who was destined to become a great queen.

No matter what way the legends would have it, Suoh thought wryly to himself, his love - Launcelot's love - for Gwynhffar had not caused the downfall of Camelot. Arthwyr's marriage had been a marriage in name only, a politically useful front. He had been far too aware of Launcelot's feelings for his queen both before and after the union to consummate it. And contrary also to the legends, Camelot had not gone out in trechary - there had been no "Mordred," though indeed there had been a Morgaine, elder sister to Arthwyr. Camelot's king and his knights had lived out their days to the end, and when Arthwyr died, his throne was held for him, against his fated return, by Yvaude. Gwynhffar's daughter. Launcelot's daughter. But Arthwyr's heir.

Nokoru had always understood his feelings too well, Suoh thought. As Arthwyr he had stood aside from the one he had married in favor of the feelings between his best knight and his beautiful wife.

::Luce,:: he thought, reaching out a faint tendril of thought to brush against the mind of the superior angel.

::Yes, Faith?:: The responding thought was quiet, surrounded by a soft sense of sleep.

::I never thanked you for those years in Camelot.::

This time the answer was tinged with a sense of amusement. ::Yes you did, my knight.::

::No I didn't.:: He was sure he would remember something like that.

::Every time I saw the two of you together, that was my thanks. Go to sleep, Suoh. We have a long day tomorrow.:: The contact faded kindly, with a caress of affection from the one mind to the other.

He closed his eyes and shook his head softly, unable to comprehend, now as always, the mind of the perfect angel. "I suppose the reason he is called 'the once and future King' is because he is perfect," he murmured, inhaling the sweet scent of Nagisa's violet hair. "The only perfect thing Yahweh-sama ever chose to create. It's annoying sometimes...." He yawned, and then was asleep in minutes, breathing deeply in dreams of his wife.

Yumemi gazed across the DreamScape, the sphere in his hand containing the latest dream he had woven.

If he wanted, he could be quite terrible. Or he could be quite kind. Either role suited him equally well, and often he did not care which robe he wore. Among his siblings his powers were the broadest, capturing all things within his realm. Gods dreamt, angels dreamt - even trees and leaves and blades of grass dreamt. Yet he was quite often underestimated, given the subtlety of his gifts. This too worked to his advantage.

Morpheus, they called him sometimes. The shaper of form. Also, "Weaver of Night" and "Cat-King." Flattering titles used by supplicants who wished his favor, sensed the power he held over their lives. There were few enough of those these days, who remembered him and paid tribute in courtly language. Their absence suited him as well as their presence ever had. Indeed, given the current troubles between his clan and Mahoutsukai's, it was preferable.

The sphere hummed so slightly at him, a dream not yet born. But soon, very soon, he would let it shatter and become. It was a dream of sadness. Of things lost. Of things that might yet come. And it was destined for one particular Dragon.

Subaru looked wistfully up at the high moon.

Hard to connect the two lives and think that Hokuto-chan had destroyed that world.

Hard, too, to separate himself from the others the way he had to. But eternity was far too long for him to spend showering the others with his miseries. So it was best to keep himself apart, to be a star that gave only light and never showed its darkness. Best to be a world apart from them, especially Seishirou-san... Kanshisha.

Hokuto-chan sensed that you were the one who could end my lonliness... she was right, but wrong too. It was never meant to be. I've never been anything to you the way you are something to me. And I never will be. I know that, Kanshisha, Seishirou-san. So... it is best to return to being what I was. Hiding my heart, perhaps in time it will fade away, this pain. His thoughts were quiet, reflecting that peace in despair he had found inside of himself now. His long life had been filled with longing, then bitterness... his new self-awareness forced them to combine into a stillness that had eluded him for so near all of eternity.

He smiled faintly, catching the scent of night-blooming jasmine in the air. "How long have we been here?" he asked aloud, tasting the feel of the night. The words were good in the otherwise-still air, so he spoke again. "Twenty thousand years, perhaps? Darting in and out of consciousness, meeting sometimes, sometimes not... and now the place where we stopped in immortal time has been reached."

"We must take a step beyond it, Oniisama," Mahoutsukai's quiet voice said from behind him, near the doors to the mansion.

"You should be sleeping," Subaru chastised lightly, not turning around. It was right, somehow, for the other to be there, listening, in this time and this place.

He felt the shrug, felt the Mage Dragon move closer until they were side by side at the steps down to the grounds. "I don't really need sleep." Seiichirou removed his glasses. "A talent I developed in college."

Subaru smiled a little. "I should have gone to college," he commented. "What will you do after the end of this, Mahoutsukai? Assuming we are still standing, that is."

The Mage hesitated, looking down at the glasses he toyed with in his hands. "I... if I had your permission, Koutei-niisama, I would like to stay here. My wife - she's mortal, but I love her. I didn't think it was possible, before, to love a true mortal. And I have a little daughter, Yuka-chan...."

Koutei nodded. "If it is within my power, I grant it."

"Thank you, my lord." There was deep gratitude in the younger Dragon's voice. "If I may ask, what of you?"

Subaru focused on the moon again, on the bright stars ringing it. "There are too many factors in play for me to know what I want besides peace. Decisions become difficult in times like these."

"You will make the right decision, my lord," the other said, and there was an absolute trust in his voice that Subaru could only hope he was capable of fulfilling. "I have faith in you."

"Thank you, Aoki-san," Subaru whispered, humbled.

Nataku curled up into the large, comfortable chair, paging through another of the books in Imonoyama-san's library. There were so many of them, some written even in other languages. Nataku hadn't known there were languages besides Japanese, so it couldn't read them, and they had few pictures, most of them. Not this one, though. This book had lots of pictures that Nataku supposed were "cute."

It traced one of them with a finger, a picture of what Sorata-san had told it was an "bear" wearing a red shirt. Nataku didn't know quite what a "bear" was, but it looked rather interesting. "Uini-za-pu," it murmured the title to itself. It frowned; the title had sounded different when Sorata had said it in that other language, "Ingurishu."

"Do you mean, 'Winnie the Pooh'?" a soft voice asked.

Nataku looked up towards the source of the voice, and saw a young man leaning against the doorway. He had an angular face that Nataku did not find unpleasant, and a long fall of hair pulled into a ponytail draped over one shoulder.

"That sounds like what Arisugawa-san told me," Nataku acknowledged of the title. "Who are you?"

The man smiled. "My name is Asagi Shougo. I'm a Water Master." His brown eyes looked gentle. "You're Nataku, aren't you?"

Nataku nodded. "How do you know that?"

Asagi-san pushed away from the doorframe and walked closer to Nataku. "Imonoyama-san told me where to find you. Besides... you look just as you did before." Fingers touched Nataku's cheek. "I knew you when you were someone else."

Nataku felt strange. "You did?" it asked.

Shougo knelt before Nataku, looking up at it. "Your name was Jiisha, and you were a member of a powerful family, one of the Dragons. I was called Kyuuryuu then, and was a lowly water-deity. But you didn't care about that; you and I were lovers then and there, Nataku-san, and you said that you loved me." His voice was very soft now, and made Nataku feel more and more strange.

"I don't remember that."

Shougo smiled. "You don't have to. Just know that I love you still, Jiisha of the Heavenly Dragons. I will give my life again for yours, if the need comes."

Nataku didn't know what to say, but reached out a hand and touched one of Asagi-san's high cheekbones. The Water Master captured that hand with his own and kissed it, a gentle caress of soft lips, a rising memory almost like light moving upwards through water.

"Remember me, Jiisha-sama," Shougo whispered, eyes filled with hope.

X: Sides
Part 13
by Kristin Huntsman

He parted the Chaos around him with a soft gesture, and stepped through the hole he had created.

Memory.

Time.

The bodies littered the halls of the Sun Palace. Servants, many of them, but not all. He recognized Shukujou's form, fallen to the ground, bright eyes blank. There was not a mark on her; she had died of a battle between minds. Near her was Ookami, the tall beast-god's form seeping blood still from stab wounds. He clutched a sword in his hand, fallen in defense of his lady.

The stench of blood was vile, so he moved on. There was too much to feel for him to even feel tears yet.

In the Great Hall, he found others.

Jiisha, in her female form, had been slain by a dagger drawn across her throat. She was lying in a pool of her own blood, pure robes stained with that living fire. Her harp had been knocked to the floor, and he could almost hear the jangling it had sounded as it fell. The memory in this place was too fresh.

Near Jiisha were three other bodies. The twins, Yoake and Yuugata.... Yuugata. She had been the one who had killed Jiisha. The walls told him that, the ceiling whispered it, the tiles beneath his feet cried it. This place, this hall where they had lived for so long, held its own memory and its fondness for them. Yuugata, it whispered, had killed Jiisha in a fit of anger, jealous rage. Her twin, horrified, could only stand and watch as Kyuuryuu had in turn struck down Yuugata, then herself had acted and slain Kyuuryuu to avenge her twin. Alone, and with the bodies of her loved ones around her, Yoake had then turned the blade in her hand towards herself.

It was a nightmare from which he could not wake.

He fled the hall before it drew him in too.

He bypassed their private quarters, smelling more blood and pain, and ran towards the gardens. There... surely no one would have set foot there.

He was wrong.

The lesser gardens held only more death. Maihime and Souryo, he sensed in one....

And his brother waited in another, in the Great Garden.

Kanshisha waited for him beneath the tree whose blossoms bore his wife's dying breath.

I cannot go a step further, Koutei knew. He simply could not enter the Great Garden and take the act that would end the Dragon Clans.

His mind reached out among the threads woven of time and fate and found a nexus, a place of being, a neutral, created ground where all that was could be resolved.

Yuusha, he reached out with a breath of mind to his other surviving brother, who fought still, tiring now, wounded in wing and arm, against Bushin, lend me your aid. We must leave this place if any of us are to live....

There were no words of answer, but Yuusha did the only thing to be done: he opened himself completely to his elder brother and emperor.

Thank you, Koutei whispered as he reached out with his powers, wove the spiderweb lines of reality into a link between his brother and himself. He wove them also into the cherry tree, in a space /aside/ from Kanshisha's attentions. Then, with a plane anchored in three points, he reached with all his might to that nexus, spent his power to nothing, weakened as he was, to reach that far place.

And it caught.

Let us leave this place, he wished, making his wish real with the last of his dying will, let us go there. And let us come to our conclusion there....

As one plane led to another, tilting, pouring all that was contained within the constraints of Koutei's wish, the Emperor's wish, into the other world, Koutei expired...

... and woke into another life, a child again in that infant reality.

Koutei knew that it was a dream, a spell woven by Yumemi to pull forth his own memories of that most terrible day. The Weaver was therefore close, and waiting.

"I would speak with thee, Yumemi," he murmured into the soft darkness that surrounded him, the infinity of his own soul.

The curtain of night lifted to reveal that Dragon there. Yumemi had changed his form within the Dream to that of the winged creature he had been before. That draconic body was lithe, slender, long... graceful, as Koutei remembered him. Within the soft night, the red-violet was elegant.

"Dressing up, King of Cats?" Koutei asked, softly amused but also wary. Yumemi had never been the one among his siblings to be interested in preening.

The shoulders of the Dragon-Dreamer rippled in a shrug. "I had wish of catching your attention, Koutei-sama."

"Oh?" All alert was the Emperor. "What messages do you carry?"

The Dragon shook his head. "None, my lord. I merely wish to speak to you."

"To say...?"

Yumemi bowed his head, seeming almost ashamed before Koutei's eyes. "To say that this is fight is not of my wish, and while I cannot side with you, neither will I side against you," whispered the Lord of Dreamings.

Luce looked up as a touch of power brushed against his senses.

"Well. It's been a while." He set his pen down and reached into a drawer in his desk, pulling out a favorite pair of shades and donning them. He did not need the stress of his family at three a.m. ....

Three of his four siblings appeared in the room, their power singing to him, through him, a pure note of inaudible harmony.

Michael, the Champion. Gabriel, the Golden. Raphael, the Peacekeeper.

"What, I don't rate Uriel-nii's attention?" Luce asked, noting the absence of the eldest of his siblings.

Michael glowered at him, as always, too serious. Dark stormclouds rolled in his eyes. "This is not a social visit, Lucifer," he warned.

"I hate that name, did I ever mention that?" Luce asked, twirling a pencil between his fingers. It annoyed Michael and he knew it. So did his nickname. "I like 'Luce' just fine."

"Michael-nii's just been a terrible bear the last few weeks, don't mind him, Luce-nii," Gabriel said, smiling happily. "It's been so long since I've seen you! I /like/ the sunglasses!" She danced around the desk and enthusiastically hugged Luce. "When are you coming back home?" she inquired, her innocent golden eyes looking deep into Luce's as she pulled the glasses down enough so that they could look at each other over their rims. "The cherubim said to say that they miss you and your games. It was always fun when you were around."

"I am home." Luce watched the hurt on Gabriel's face with some misgivings; it always hurt his sister when someone cracked her reality even a little. But he couldn't return to Heaven, nor did he want to, and she would have to face that. Though she would forget, as always.

Raphael coughed. "Luce-niisan, we're supposed to see why you haven't come back yet... after all, it /has/ been a significant amount of time since the Heavenly Court fell, and you were only supposed to serve for as long as it stood... They are getting a trifle concerned that you may not be taking Their word again."

"The Heavenly Court did not fall; my service remains with them, as was written into my contract. You may tell Them that I intend to hold my contract to the letter - just as I did last time." Luce met Raphael's eyes evenly. "I am staying until my service is complete. If that is never, so be it. I like the Dragons, and I like their Court. I am perfectly willing to abide with them for quite some time to come."

Michael's dark eyes narrowed. "You don't know what you're doing, little brother," he warned. "The Three are not going to be happy with this."

Luce's eyes matched Michael's. "As much as I hate to blaspheme against Those who created me, /tough/. They made me this way; I like being this way; They know that. I am staying. I haven't finished the job, I like the job, and what's more, I like being mortal."

An inconvenient knock came on the door.

"Come in!" Luce snapped.

Akira entered. "Kaichou..." he started, then broke off. "Michael-dono, Gabriel-dono, Raphael-dono!" he whispered in a surprised rush, falling in an instant to a one knee in submission to the other Archangels.

"Hope-chan!" Raphael didn't have to see Gabriel's face to know that familiar expression of delight that shone through it. The Virtues had always been her favorites (though, he admitted, so had every other angel in Heaven, including himself). "You're here! Where are Faith-chan and Charity-chan?! It's been forever since I've seen them too!"

Michael ignored Gabriel's enthusiasm; Raphael and Luce shook their heads in fond disbelief. "You can see Faith just fine, Gabri-chan," Luce said. "He's probably in the building somewhere. Charity is another matter...." His tone sounded strained, and that worried Raphael.

Niisan? he sent the faintest questioning thought.

Luce responded with a subtle shake of his head and the image of Charity being missing from their group.

Raphael paled.

Michael turned dark and even more furious, being of power enough to have willfully "overheard" the private communication. "/Missing/?!" he roared. "You /lost/ Charity?!"

"... what?" Gabriel whispered, her voice very small.

"How in Hell's name do you /lose/ another Angel?!" Michael shouted.

"I /didn't/ lose her, I just can't /find/ her!" Luce yelled back, standing up from behind his desk. He pulled off his dark glasses in a gesture of frustration familiar to Raphael. "Why the hell is everything always /my/ fault, Michael-nii?! I am not Them, I cannot be Them, I cannot control all the factors present!!"

"missing?" Gabriel asked.

"You were in CHARGE here!" Michael yelled back, his eyes hard, wings angled in a way that spelled imminent attack. "This was YOUR mission, and you SCREWED UP! AGAIN!!"

"Do you have any IDEA of what I am dealing with here?!" Luce demanded. "I have fourteen Dragons trying to kill one another, not to mention everyone else who got dragged along to this world as their emotional baggage! I cannot risk this reality's destruction - it's too raw and volatile still to be upset in this way! I have too many balls in the air, and I don't see YOU offering to help any, only coming in and criticizing my way of dealing with things! When you offer me some valuable advice--"

"/MISSING/?!" Gabriel shrieked. The glass in the windowpanes behind Luce splintered and shattered at her pitch.

The arguing stopped.

It was not a good idea to upset Gabriel like this.

"What do you mean, 'missing'?" she asked, voice soft and very dangerous to everyone around her.

"I can't find Charity," Luce said cautiously, his voice even. "Every time I try to look, I fail."

Gabriel frowned, upset.

Angels did /not/ just go missing!

If Hope-chan and Faith-chan were here, Charity-chan was, too.

It was that simple.

Gabriel made it be that simple.

And that made it very clear to her.

"Oh," Gabriel said, happy again, smiling now that she had solved that puzzle for herself, "Yes she is, Luce-nii."

Luce blinked. "You found her?"

Gabriel nodded and spun Charity's image into the air before her, pleased that she could figure out something that her brothers hadn't.

"Charity-chan is cute..." she decided, looking at the form which the essence inhabited.

"... I don't believe it," Luce said from behind Gabriel, staring at the image.

"Looks like we were looking in the wrong place, Kaichou," Hope said, voice stunned. Gabriel giggled, amused.

"Daisuke-kun?" Luce whispered.