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A Dark World
An SI/Mega X-over
By Tomas Megarson

Disclaimer: I disclaim everything that I don't own.
E-Mail me at: NighthawkTM@Yahoo.com
See my page at: http://nighthawk.anifics.com


Chapter 3

Flash.

Pulling himself from his bed, a young boy of three blinked his
eyes trying to clear the sleep from them. This took little time for
him, for he was a morning child. With quick steps and his pajama
bottoms around his feet, he went through the door and stood at the top
of the stairs gazing down into the dining room at the bottom. He
could hear his mother down in the kitchen that was by the stairs.

Closing his eyes the boy wished hard, the thought running
through his mind was "I wanna fly". Sometimes it worked, sometimes it
didn't. Hoping it would work today the boy jumped. Like he had so
many times before it seemed as though something wrapped its arms
around him and lifted him to the ceiling. Opening his eyes and with a
grin he reached out and pressed his small hands against the white
ceiling and ran them along the white walls as he gently floated down
to the green carpet. When his feet hit the ground on the other side
of the room, he turned and ran to the kitchen to find out what was for
breakfast.

Flash.

Running through the darken graveyard, the boy now seven and a
girl of six dashed through the shadow of the church behind them. It
was the weekend before Halloween and as always, the church had done
its haunted house. Having finished and helped clean up, the kids had
retreated to play Ghosts in the Graveyard while the parents talked
inside.

Flowing through the shadows as quick as their small legs could
carry them, the two friends ran toward the back and ducked down behind
a large gravestone big enough for them both. The two grinned at each
other, always happy to get a chance to play.

It was then, waiting in the cold silence of the night that a
chill swept them both, causing them to shiver. With the shiver the
came over both the silence was no longer welcome, the darkness was
filled with monsters in the shadows, and their imaginations took hold.
As the girl began to cry and the boy barely kept tears back, the two
stood as one and took off back to the church, back to safety.

Flash.

Lying in bed on his birthday, the boy who just turned eight
wished he'd stop shaking. He hated the shaking the most. Not being
able to eat hurt, too. Especially on his birthday. He wanted cake
and ice cream, not water and that evil syrup stuff. The boy pulled
his legs up and wrapped his arms around them, still shivering despite
wearing three sets of clothes and being buried under blankets.

His eyes drifted to the large window over his desk and watched
the snow gently falling. His eyes could only watch that bit of
freedom for a few moments before he turned around and grabbed his
stuffed dinosaur. He didn't want to be sick like this. He wanted to
see his friends.

Flash.

Still of eight, the boy stood on the grass of the lawn looking
at his oldest friend, the girl of seven. This could be, he thought,
the last time he ever saw her. And that hurt a lot. Not a day ago
he'd told his best friend to watch out for her. And that hurt a lot
two, like it was killing his heart. He understood love fairly well,
and he was sure he loved the girl. And now he was forced to leave
her.

He covered the space between them in a single step and wrapped
his arms around her in a tight hug. His head lowered into her blond
hair, taking in the feeling of it as a last memory. Finally, though,
he heard his parents call for him, and he let her go and stepped back.

"Bye Brin." His voice was choked up as he spoke those words,
the tears falling down his face.

"Bye, Tom." Brine gave him a small wave.

Flash.

Laying on his bed, the boy now thirteen and starting to look
like the man he'd become stared at the light blue ceiling of his
bedroom. His small stereo was playing a CD who's music he paid no
attention to.

"I don't need friends. To hell with them all."

The words were either stupid or brave, but he thought they
were true. He was sure he could be strong enough to go on without
friends. Those jerks sure didn't give a damn about him. And as the
tears fell down his face, his emotions were slowly sealed.

Flash.

Using a hand to help himself hop over the back of a bench, the
young man now of 18 sat down next to a young woman with long pale
blond hair and grinned at her. "Heya Dessi, it's been awhile! How
have ya been?"

The girl turned her head from her book and smiled at the man.
"Hi Tom. I'm doing good. You?"

"Well," the young man shrugged, "I guess I'm okay." The grin
slid from his face to its normal somber expression. "A bit sad,
though. After all we're all going to be splitting up soon." His hand
waved out to take in the entire park which was filled with his high
school graduating class.

"Yeah, it is a bit hard to believe."

Before the man could say anything else, he felt more then he
saw something heading toward his head. Turning slightly, his hands
came up and barely managed to slow the football before it hit him in
the face, knocking him slightly into the woman. He brought the ball
down and rubbed the spot where it hit. The giggling beside him did
little to sooth his wounded pride.

"Hey Tom, come on, we're gonna play some football!"

Shaking his head in amusement, the young man waved. "Sure
Todd, be right there." Turning to the woman, he grinned. "Guess I
gotta go. Do me a favor, come grab me when they got lunch cooked up.
I wanna talk some more."

"Of course," the woman said with a laugh.

Flash.

"Well, I guess this is it."

The young man stood up from his sitting place on his new bed
in the dorm he was moving into. His new roommate hadn't showed up
yet, so he'd gotten his choice of everything. Looking at his father
he smiled. "Thanks for the help, Pop."

"Don't call me that."

With a laugh, the man grabbed his father into a hug. "Sure
old man, you take care and have a safe drive back home."

"Are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah, dad, I'll be fine." Breaking the hug he walked his
father out the door before heading back into his dorm room. "And now
I'm home." With a long sigh, he shook his head and went back to
putting everything away.

Flash.

Walking down the dark pathway, the young man shoved his hands
into the pockets of his denim jacket. Glancing up at the clock on the
tower of the Main Library down the Oval, he sighed. After 1 AM on a
Wednesday, or Thursday as it was now, and he still couldn't sleep. He
was too pumped up with nerves from midterms. At least he didn't have
any tomorrow. Or today, rather. Still, the fact that this was
screwing up his internal clock bit hard.

Well, at least for a walk, it was a good night for it. A warm
front had come through, so the November wind wasn't too cold, and the
sky was cloudless and filled with stars. As he gazed at the night sky
he let his feet carry him down the long, familiar path toward home.
As he watched the sky a smile came to his face as he saw a shooting
star.

On a whim, he spoke, "I wish that my life had some excitement
to it. That I could have an adventure, a chance to make a real
difference in my life."

The words barely left his mouth when the pain hit him, and he
felt the world fall our from under him.

Flash.

*

Opening his eyes and standing up with a pain filled groan, Tomas was
prepared to do some serious damage to the boomer that had already
turned its back to him. Now that he knew who he was and had a firm
grasp on where he was, he was eager to see what he could do. Given
he'd already defeated a number of boomers on his arrival, one more
wouldn't be a problem. Then he could have some real fun. Looking
down so he could get good footing, something caught his eye. He
quickly turned to see what it was.

He stared down at the body before him. The chest was caved in, the
face was a mess, and there was a pool of blood forming underneath it.
Despite all that though, he knew exactly who it was. And he was in
shock.

"I'm dead?" Tomas was staring at what was left of his face. And, as
any normal person would be, he was in shock. "I can't be dead."
Denial was a common human response when things went wrong. And boy,
had things gone wrong.

"But...I'm like...a frigging SI. I can't be dead. SI characters
don't get killed. Not like this. Not so soon, anyway. Hell, I never
even stumbled across Beryl or the Dragon Line, or anything cool."

"I'm dead. I'm fucking dead. I can't be fucking dead. I'm a
goddamned SI. An SI can NOT die like this. It goes against all the
rules." Thinking for a few moments to various TV shows he'd seen, he
grinned. "Near death experience, then. I can live with that.
Someone will come along and fix me soon enough. I just gotta wait."

Had the other players in the little drama that was unfolding known
about those rules, then perhaps Tomas wouldn't have been placed in
this situation. This was not the case. Of course, the boomer that
killed Tomas probably wouldn't have played by the rules anyway and
nothing would have changed. As it was, he blinked as the boomer
seemed to walk right through him, and then step on his body's neck,
causing the head to pop off in a bloody mess.

"Well shit." And then his brain shut down.

It wasn't like he hadn't thought about dying before. There had been
one time when he was younger when he'd almost been killed four times
in a single day. As he got older he realized how big an impact death
was, and what being alive really meant. These thoughts caused him to
think and to wonder under what circumstances would he be willing to
die. Having a robot turned monster cave his chest in was not one of
the situations he came up with. And boy, did it ever suck.

The arrival of a pair of armored chicks didn't cause Tomas to even
stir. Truth of the matter he didn't even see them. He was still too
busy trying to wrap his mind over the fact that he was staring at his
headless body on the ground. It was then when something pink and
female flew through his insubstantial chest with no harm or gore
effects but slammed into and through the tree that his real body was
crumpled under.

The tree, predictably, fell forward, crushing what was left of
Tomas' corpse under it. Unable to view the grizzly scene of his own
demise any longer, Tomas snapped out of the dumbed state he was in.
With a bemuse expression he walked through the branches of the tree
that had fallen and back into the yard. He watched with amusement as
a pair of Knight Sabers battled the boomer. As the pair destroyed it,
he dropped down to sit on the ground. "Well, this has been fun. I
want to go home now."

"You can't do that."

"Well no fucking duh. Being dead does kind of screw that up, doesn't
it?" Tomas' tone had quickly turned sarcastic.

"You shouldn't swear like that!"

"Look, lady, I'm fucking dead. Not hurt, not maimed, but god damned
dead. This has NOT been a good day. Just fuck it all."

The annoyed female voice replied, "Don't swear like that, its not
polite."

"I'm fucking dead lady. Like it matters if I'm polite or not. Who
the hell's gonna give a damn?"

Tomas' body bent forward as something hard slammed across the back of
his head. "I said don't swear!"

"The fuck! You hit me!" Another hard crack slammed into the side of
Tomas' head, his body sprawling out of the sitting position so his
face was in the dirt. "Goddamn it, stop that you bitch!" A third
blow actually managed to bring Tomas back into his sitting position.
Growling, Tomas did his best to shove the pain aside and pushed
himself to his feet. "Damn it all, you little whore!" Tomas managed
to get himself turned around in time to receive a blow into his
stomach, causing him to buckle over. As he coughed, choked, and tried
to puke his guts out from the blow, something occurred to Tomas. He
was dead, and he was feeling pain. "The fuck?" The next blow slammed
him into the ground and a follow up shook him up a bit more just for
good measure.

Lying sprawled out on the ground, Tomas slowly brought his mind into
focus, this time somehow managing to keep his mouth closed while doing
so. Unfortunately, this did nothing to help him figure out what was
going on. And so, still not sure what to do (besides not swear) Tomas
again pushed himself to his feet. "Okay, okay, you win."

As Tomas did his best to gather himself, he took in the woman before
him. Or rather, the girl as he got a better look. She had long blue
hair and was dressed in a bright pink kimono. The wooden paddle she
held seemed somewhat out of place, but he did he best to ignore the
thing. As he took the girl's features in more, he blinked and pointed
at her. "Hey, I know you. Botan-chan, right?"

"Yes, I am." Botan gave a wide smile. "I'm here to take you
to your next life. I'm surprised you know my name, most people don't.
And can I have your name? Your death was unscheduled."

"Yeah, well, I read manga, ya know? The name's Thomas
Bradford Megarson. So, I'm going to hell, right?" Despite the
statement, Tomas didn't sound to scared or worried. It sounded as
though he was simply trying to make the best of the situation.

"Manga? I've never come across my name in any I've seen."
Botan said as she flipped through a black book, a frown on her face
now.

Walking around behind her, Tomas looked over the girl's
shoulder. "Umm...did I screw up my life so bad even you can't stand
looking at it?" Now, Tomas was starting to get a bit worried. It had
to be something bad to upset Death, after all.

"No, no, it's just..." Botan trailed off as she continued to
scan through the pages of her book. "Argh, you're not in here.
That's not possible!" Botan spun around and looked into Tomas' face.
"Did you give me your real name?"

"I gave you the name my parents gave me when I was born. You
want my US social security number?"

Botan shook her head. "No, that wouldn't help me at all."
Giving a frustrating sigh, Botan closed the book. "We'll just have to
go up there and straighten it all out. Come on." Sitting down on her
paddle Botan rose into the sky and began to float off. She was almost
four stories in the air when she looked back to see Tomas still
standing where he had been. "What are you waiting for? Come on!"

Tomas returned to her a flat look, though he didn't know if
she could see it at that distance. "I can't fly."

"You're a spirit now. Of course you can fly. Get up here!"

"Look, I've been trying since you started to float off. I
can't fly. I can jump, but not fly." So saying, Tomas jumped
straight up and promptly dropped straight back to the ground. "See."

With a sigh, Botan floated back down and stared at Tomas hard.

"What?"

With a sigh, Botan held out a hand. "Here, hold my hand and
I'll drag you there. And when you get some time, find another spirit
to teach you how to fly, okay?"

With a shrug and a nod, Tomas agreed as he took Botan's hand.
"Sure thing, will do." In truth, he hadn't tried to fly at all. He'd
ended up right where he wanted to be, and as Botan dragged him to the
gates of the after life, he was rather content.

*

Gazing up at the giant gates before him, Tomas was forced to
simply shrug. "Not bad. Bit gaudy for my tastes, but not bad."

The gates being commented on towered above and beyond anything
Tomas had see on hinges before. They had ornate carvings on them and
what seemed to be either scriptures in some language he couldn't
understand or were merely a bunch of pretty scribblings. If he had
cared enough about it, he would have asked. The gates seemed to be
made of a mix of gold and platinum, and shone bright as they stood
upon the cloudbank.

Looking at Tomas, Botan frowned. "Do you always act like
this?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Taking his gaze from the gates, Tomas
got his first look of heaven/hell/or wherever this place was, as they
slowly swung open. "I figured out awhile back that if I looked at my
life and the world seriously, I'd probably break down. I did that
once, and it was not fun, so I'm trying to avoid it."

"Oh."

"Well, that or my old man just raised me funny."

Botan gave Tomas a cross look, before walking through the
gates. With a shrug, Tomas followed her, taking in the scene. He was
forced to blink hard as the massive gates led into what seemed to be a
room in any business he'd seen.

There were scatterings of desks with strange looking creatures
of various colors sitting at them, going through stacks of paper work.
Still other creatures were carrying binders and folders and stacks of
more papers through the room, some going through doors, others
dropping things off at desks, and there was the one with nothing but a
coffee mug just shuffling around.

As Botan led Tomas through the halls of heaven, he commented,
"This is not what I was expecting."

"What were you expecting?"

Looking around, Tomas shrugged. "I don't know, angels, maybe
a few gods and goddesses wandering around. Things that at least
looked kinda human." Thinking it over for a second, he sighed. "I
guess I'm just bias or something. No big deal."

"I see." Opening another door, Botan stepped aside and waved
Tomas to go through. "We're here. Be on your best behavior in front
of Koenma."

"Yup, got it." Walking through the door, Tomas let his gaze
drift around the large office. There were a couple of desks toward
the front with two more of those demon looking things working away at
them. Toward the rear of the room by a large window was a huge wooden
desk with a large black leather chair behind it facing away. Figuring
that was were to go, Tomas walking between the two desks in front and
came to a halt in front of the third. He stood there quietly until
the chair turned around. Seated in the chair was what seemed to be a
three-year-old boy dressed in blue and sucking on a pacifier. Looking
at the scene, Tomas could only shake his head. "This is too weird."

"What was that?" The boy's voice was the high pitch sound of
a kid about his age, and it grated on Tomas' ears. The kid managed to
speak without removing the pacifier, which Tomas thought must have
taken a long time to master.

Still, Tomas never was one to follow in another's footsteps,
and so he didn't go the insulting rout with his response. "Nothing
sir, I just was expecting you to be more impressive."

"Hmph. If you want impressive you should see my father. I'm
still a growing boy, you know." Looking past Tomas, Koenma continued,
"Botan, this is the one with no marker in your book?"

"That's right. I was hoping you could figure out what to do
with him."

"Yes, well, I contacted records. They should be up here with
his full file anytime." Leaning back in the chair, Koenma continued,
"So, how is the mortal realm been lately?"

"It sucked." Tomas cut in before Botan could respond, not
wanting to be forgotten. "But then, my judgment could be clouded
given a robot just slaughtered me a half hour ago."

"Yes," Koenma said nodding slowly, "that could cause
problems." Looking up as green man-like creature with a horn walked
through, "Ah, good, you have the file. Give it here, give it here."

"Here you go, Koenma-sama. Its everything we have on this
mortal." The creature handed over the file and immediately began
heading for the door. It had almost made it when Koenma's cry of halt
reached it's ears. Turning back, it swallowed.

"This is all we have!?"

"Yes, Koenma-sama, its everything we have on this human."

"But...but..." Koenma was slightly trembling, and Tomas,
standing off to the side didn't take this as a good sign. "Its not
even a full page! And it's double spaced!" With almost a growl of
rage, Koenma threw the single piece of paper to the ground. "Just get
out!" The creature hurriedly did so.

Tomas and Botan stood quietly next to each other as Koenma
spent long minuets sitting in his chair muttering under his breath.
Tomas wanted to get a chance to look at the one page that told the
story of his life, but he didn't want to risk doing anything that
could make Koenma angrier. With the way this was going, though, he
was sure he was going to hell now.

Eventually the muttering stopped and Koenma turned his
attention to Tomas. "Did you know you weren't even born?"

"What?" Tomas looked stupefied now. "I was too born. I've
seen my birth certificate."

"Not according to this," Koenma waved at the paper, "and this
is completely accurate."

Even as Botan picked up the paper to read it, Tomas stared
hard at the small god. "Then how did I end up living huh? Explain to
me that, if your dumb paper is so accurate!" With everything that had
happen and was still happening, Tomas was getting a very bad feeling,
and it only served to make him angry.

"According to this," Botan's soft voice replied, "you were
created, well forged my be a better term, by a rift in reality."

Blinking at the answer, Tomas' anger drifted away. "Huh?"

Koenma was the one who answered. "Rifts happen when two
universe collide with each other. They're fairly rare, and only last
very brief moments. One of these rifts created you."

Finally, Tomas' legs couldn't handle the shock anymore and
collapsed under him. He would have hit the ground hard had he not
stopped halfway there and simply floated, his mind completely blank.

Looking at her boss, Botan inquired, "What do we do now?"

Sighing, Koenma slouched in his chair. "We leave him until
Father gets back from vacation. He'll know what to do. Botan, take
him to a guestroom. He can do temp work here until Father returns."

"Alright Koenma. This way, Tomas." Turning, Botan head for
the door. She had almost made it when Koenma's voice calling her name
caused her to turn around. Seeing Tomas still floating in one place
like a statue, she sighed, walked over to him and grabbed his ear.
"Why do you have to make more work for me?" she asked as she dragged
him out of the office.

*

It was a short time later that Tomas' brain shook itself from
its stupefied state and began regular function again. The first thing
it noticed was pain. "Ow, ow, ow! Leggo of my ear!" Planting his
feet on the ground again, Tomas pulled back and yanked his ear out of
Botan's grip. A hand immediately came up to cover it. "Man, I didn't
think I could feel pain once I died!"

Rolling her eyes, Botan turned to gaze at Tomas. "You can't.
Not pain caused by mortals, anyway."

"Yeah, okay, got it. Bit late, but I got it." Looking around
at the plain white hallway with various doorways in it, Tomas
continued, "Where are we, anyway? And, uh, what's going on?"

"If you had been paying attention you'd know."

"Sorry," Tomas said as Botan turned her back on him and
continued. "I had problems coming to grips with the fact I'm never
gonna see my family again, even when they die."

"I understand. Anyway, we're heading for the guest quarters.
Koenma decided that he should let his Father deal with you since
there's not enough information to send you to either Hell or Heaven.
When he returns, your after life will be decided. Until then, you'll
do temp work around here."

"Ugg," Tomas groaned, "I hate temp work." Sighing, "Oh well,
I've done it before. It won't kill me."

"Of course it won't, you're already dead."

"Oops, forgot that." Tomas drifted into silence and took in
the almost total lack of scenery. Botan, staying in front and quiet
as well, never caught the questioning looks he made into the rooms
with the doors open.

Some of the rooms had various suits of armor, others strangely
shaped objects glowing with some kind of power Tomas didn't recognize.
Looking into another room, he stopped, his body turning so he could
face it fully.

In the back of the room was a stone the size of a basketball
with a simple design that appeared to be a robed figure swinging a
scythe glowing on its face. Tomas stared at the object, completely
ignoring the fact that Botan had turned a corner and walked out of
site. As he slowly stepped through the doorway and into the room, he
whispered to himself, "I recognize that. Soul Eater."

A grin came to Tomas' face as he walked over to the Seal Stone
holding the True Rune of Life and Death, the rune that governs who
lives and who dies. "This is so damn cool." The whisper grew in
sound and a touch of a laugh entered his throat, and it wasn't a nice
one. "I wonder..."

After a brief thought, Tomas decided that since he was already
dead touching the seal stone couldn't cause him any problems.
Reaching out, Tomas placed his hand on the face of the Rune. When the
bright white light covered him, his eyes were wide in shock, and his
head exploded with pain.

*

Opening his eyes and thankful the blinding light was gone,
Tomas' right hand switched from shielding his eyes to holding his
throbbing head. He needed an Aspirin or ten. His right arm was
growing tired, however, and he wondered how long he'd been holding it
up. Reaching up with his left hand he switched which was holding his
pain filled head and dropped his right hand.

The right hand came back up quickly, however, as he saw the
tattoo emblazed on it. It was a mix of reds, golds, and purples, and
it looked exactly like Soul Eater should. Raising his head to stare
at the seal stone, he stumbled backward and fell on his rear. He was
no longer in the room, or in whatever the place was that Koenma worked
at. Twenty-five yards in front of him was the shrine he had had
rebuilt.

Pushing himself to his feet, Tomas' head whipped around,
taking in the grounds. The marks of the boomer fight were gone, none
of the trees were broken and on the ground, and there was no
construction equipment to be seen. "The hell..."

"DADDY!"

Tomas spun back around to face the shrine, making it just in
time to have a young blond hair girl fling herself into a flying leap
and hitting him in the chest, knocking him back to the ground.

"Daddy!" The girl was practically crying as she buried her
head into him, "You're home early!"



Author's Notes: Welp, there goes chapter 3 of this thing. Been a
long time coming, but it took effort to get around to writing
anything. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it. Cya chapter 4.