FicWad

The boy stood where the mouse had been, clothed in nothing but swirling white mist. As the mouse had done moments before, he lifted his face toward the tower, his violet eyes as empty as a broken doll's. Oblivious to the rain, he took a step toward the lake, then another, and another. Instead of sinking into the lake, his bare feet rested as firmly on the water's surface as on the ground. A line of bright, silvery light appeared on the surface of the lake, stretching between the shore and the island, and upon this bridge of light the boy walked toward the tower. As he drew closer to the island, the boy's body began to glow a sickly shade of green, and the white mist coalesced around him, solidifying into a long-sleeved, high-collared shirt and trousers of pure white silk and boots of gleaming white leather. An obsidian pendant carved in the shape of a bird of prey hung from his neck, and a sword appeared at his side, slung at his hip. But the greatest change was in the boy's face. Blank violet eyes faded into ice-gray slits, and a coldly satisfied smile bloomed on the once-expressionless face.

The boy stepped off the bridge of the light. Akito had come home.

The sheet of rain parted for him, and winged shadows darker than night wheeled above him, their high, thin shrieks tearing through the thunder. He looked up at the shadows, the smile on his lips deepening. Raising a hand, he summoned the shadows to him, and with a final wail of defiance they twisted downward from the sky, enveloping him in a black gale of malevolent energy. He ran his fingers through his silvery hair and closed his eyes as he savored the power humming through him, awakening every nerve and drop of blood. Really, these demonic servants of the dark god were quite useful. In their efforts to gather enough dark energy to strengthen their master, they were strengthening him instead, and Akito could feel the impotent rage of the dark god in the faint rumbling of the earth. The dark god could rage all it wanted. The chains binding it to Akito merely tightened the more it struggled against him, and all its strength and fury and corruption would be his to command once more.

It was good to be alive.

His smile became a soft, silky laugh. Neither time nor death could subdue him; he had conquered both, and no enemy could hope to stand up to him now. The Twelfth House of Heaven was moving inexorably into position, and like the Goddess, his power waxed as the hour grew near. The earth itself trembled with anticipation, and with the coming of the girl, the last piece had fallen into place.

He ran his tongue over his lips, tasting the few raindrops that had fallen there. Ah yes, there it was. The delicate charge of alien magic, staining the rain with the faintest trace of sweetness and warmth. The magic had changed subtly since the last time he'd felt it, but that must be the girl's doing. Her life force mingled with the power of the artifact, altering it in ways not even that ridiculous peacock of a mage could have foreseen. No matter how carefully one planned it, merging a magical artifact with a human body produced results that were unpredictable at best, and he doubted that the fool mage's intentions in sending the girl into his realm included giving Akito the very weapon he needed to break through the final obstacles in his way.

"Ayame, Ayame," he murmured, his voice full of laughter. "Your faith in your prince is touching, but misguided. I must remember to thank you before I kill you for the second and last time."

The heavy double doors of the tower flew open before him as he strode into the great hall, the shadow-wraiths trailing behind him. Tongues of fire flickered to life, bleeding scarlet into the stone walls. The craven little monkey-boy, dressed as usual as a kitchen-maid, cowered behind a pillar in one corner of the hall, hoping to hide from the glacier-like gaze, but Akito was having none of it.

"Little Miss Monkey," he called, his voice like the whisper of a blade. "Come out, come out, Little Miss Monkey."

Whimpering, Ritsu crept out from behind the pillar and threw himself at Akito's feet. "I-I'm sorry, Master, f-forgive me for not m-meeting you, I was in the k-k-kitchen, I'm sorry, p-please forgive me, please--/augk/!"

With a gesture, Akito closed up Ritsu's throat, lifting him up in the process. The boy choked and turned white then blue as his feet kicked feebly in the air, while the shadow-wraiths howled eagerly, excited by the prospect of death. "Don't be tiresome, Miss Monkey," he said mildly, "or I may forget how you amuse me on occasion."

He released his hold, and Ritsu fell to the floor, clutching his throat and coughing. "We have a new guest, didn't you know?" Akito said brightly. "Oh, of course you know. You have enough Sohma blood in you to sense the presence of the Sun Stone."

Ritsu said nothing, but the expression on his face spoke volumes. The Sun Stone. The greatest weapon of the race of the Sun God. Somehow, somewhere, a miracle had occurred and this birthright of kings had fallen into the hands of the boy who had been crown prince of Kaibara. Salvation was at hand, glory be to Akkan.

Akito wrapped his arms around his stomach as his body shook with laughter. Oh yes, he could almost read the thoughts that were scurrying through the monkey boy's head, and that fool mage's as well, if his dismally unsubtle attempts at plotting and manipulation were any indication. The people of the Sun God, and the Sohmas in particular, had always been an overly simplistic lot. Might makes right. Superiority of arms is the key. He who has the gold--or the Stone, in this case--makes the rules. It was their faith in such hackneyed philosophies that made them so easy to deceive and ultimately destroy. Two hundred years had not changed anything.

Is this what you yearned for as well, my beloved Yuki? he asked, curling his thoughts around the soul he had trapped within this body. The power of your ancestors, wrapped in an attractive, if somewhat scrawny, package. Did you try and take it from her? Or could it be that you realized that the Sun Stone had always been here, right beneath your feet, and it /didn't choose you?/

He was met by a blast of white. Yuki had gone into hiding again. Akito smiled fondly and shook his head. He could smash through Yuki's mental defenses easily enough if he truly wanted to, although the barriers of white fog and snow storms were proving to be surprisingly resistant to his probing. However, Akito could afford to let him remain in his own self-made prison for the time being. He would never be too far away from him, anyway.

He noticed movement at the edge of his vision as the monkey boy tried to edge away from him. Akito speared him with a look, and Ritsu instantly froze. "I haven't dismissed you yet," he said in a deadly voice.

Ritsu shook his head jerkily, his frightened eyes never leaving Akito's face. "We have been quite negligent toward our guest, Miss Monkey," Akito went on. "The poor girl is alone in the forest, and rather ill, too. Yuki met her, but dear Yuki doesn't want to tell me anything. Don't you think it was rude of him not to invite her here to the tower, Little Miss Monkey?"

Ritsu nodded.

"I thought so, too," Akito agreed. "But since she can't cross the lake, I suppose dear Yuki has a point. Still, it pains me to act so unwelcoming toward a guest. What do you think we should do?"

Ritsu knew better than to reply.

Akito's smile widened. "Well, if she can't come here, we must send an envoy. The other will do nicely. Bring him here."

In answer to his summons, the double doors of the tower flew open again. Ritsu cowered on the floor as two colossal tower-guardians strode in, dragging the unconscious form of a red-haired boy between them. They tossed the boy unceremoniously onto the floor before melting back into the walls. Red-gold mist still swirled around the slim, naked body, condensing into a coarse black shirt and a pair of ragged brown breeches.

Akito stood before the prone figure, waiting. He'd discovered a new amusement in these nightly duels with the child of sorrow. The Ashari boy was strong and fast and agile, and his fiery spirit would not allow him to accept defeat easily--a potent mixture Akito delighted in toying with and goading to breaking point. But more than the entertainment the boy's furious struggles and continuous rebellion provided, Akito took pleasure most of all in putting his own body through its paces. The Ashari boy moved like a great predator in a fight, but Yuki's body moved like a force of nature, as coldly relentless and unpredictable as a blizzard, and during their duels Akito liked nothing more than to drop his control, let his body's reflexes take over and simply observe the results. Tonight, however, marked the beginning of a new kind of duel between the Ashari boy and his beloved little brother, one that promised to be far more diverting than beating the boy to a bloody pulp with his bare hands.

Groaning, the Ashari boy pushed himself up and sat cradling his head in his hands. His torso jerked forward as he gagged against the nausea that accompanied the transformation. Akito gazed at him measuringly. The boy's aura had darkened from a clear gold to shades of red-orange and crimson as awareness settled upon him, and Akito could clearly see the ominous strain of black that marked him as a child of sorrow, as well as the jagged green arcs of the spell he'd put on him. The boy was twice-cursed. It should have been all too easy to shatter his defenses and release the floodgates of hatred, despair and self-loathing that would make him the perfect sacrifice for the spell of eternal binding, if it weren't for the inexplicable cloud of pale yellow tinged with pink that mingled with the boy's red-orange and black aura. It was this cloud that continued to resist Akito's efforts to draw the darkness around the boy. The few times he'd attempted to test the boy's readiness, the cloud deepened to a metallic copper hue, forming a surprisingly strong barrier against the spell. It amazed Akito that someone would actually think to cast a protection spell upon the boy--a flimsy and amorphous affair but effective nonetheless--and it infuriated him to be continually thwarted by it, but although protection spells of this nature were slightly more complicated to deal with, they were almost always the most satisfying to break. And now, thanks to that fool mage's clumsy attempts at a rescue mission, Akito had just been handed the key to stripping the boy of his last protective barrier completely.

Oh yes, he was going to enjoy this.

The boy raised his head, his wine-colored eyes widening when he realized that he was not in his cell. His gaze fell upon Akito, and the rage instantly ignited. "You!" he hissed. He leaped to his feet and swung a fist at him. "You damned--ugh!"

Akito sidestepped his attack and kicked him in the gut, sending him crashing against a pillar. He closed his fist, and an invisible hand seized the boy, trapping his arms at his sides and lifting him in the air. He twisted and fought but the force was too strong, and he hung in mid-air glaring furiously while Akito circled him. "Stupid but spirited, as always. Yes, you will do very nicely."

"What the fuck are you blathering about?" Kyo snarled as he continued to thrash about. "Fight me fairly, you gutless bastard! Quit hiding behind your damned sorcery and fight like a man!"

Akito clucked his tongue. "Such language. I do hope you learn to curb your tongue in the presence of a lady, or you'll be defeated before you've even begun."

"What lady?" Kyo's gaze darted toward the shadowy patch where Ritsu was still crouched, watching in morbid fascination. "You mean that cringing worm over there--" his lips twisted in a sneer "--or /you/, girly boy?"

"Resorting to insults already? You disappoint me, child of sorrow. But no matter." Akito drew the struggling boy toward him until they were nearly face to face. "I have a job for you. It's time for you to start earning your keep around here."

Kyo bared his teeth. "What the blazes gave you the idea that I'd do anything for you?"

Akito narrowed his eyes. Green lightning forked out of the ground and surrounded the insolent brat, and Kyo choked on a scream of pain as convulsions wracked his body. When the lightning dissipated, the boy hung limply in the air, his body drenched in sweat. "Oh, did I forget to tell you?" Akito said lightly. "In this state you are completely mortal, child of sorrow. Now, unless you want to spend another night in the dungeon, I suggest you take this new chance at freedom I am so kindly offering you. The gods know you won't be winning it by defeating me in combat any time soon."

The boy raised hate-filled eyes to him. "There's a girl lost in the forest beyond the lake, a trespasser into my realm, just like you," Akito continued. "Your business is with her." The air between them shimmered, and a dagger with a hilt shaped like a hawk's head appeared, hovering in mid-air. The light glinting on the wickedly curved blade drew Kyo's gaze, making its purpose starkly clear. "Take your time," Akito added carelessly. "The knife will know when the job is done."

"You want me to kill her?" Kyo croaked in disbelief.

Ice-gray eyes glinted mockingly. "It shouldn't be too difficult for you, child of sorrow. After all, it won't be the first time you've murdered a helpless, innocent being."

The barb hit home, and the boy's face turned white. "Go to hell, you sick bastard!" he spat, renewing his struggles with greater violence. His enraged protest ended in a hoarse cry as the lightning arced over him again, his body jerking spasmodically until he fell to the ground, unconscious. Akito came to stand over him. It was amusing, really, how so much fire and bravado could conceal such a damaged soul. The foolish boy obviously thought to fight him to the bitter end, and he wondered how long that blistering defiance would last when the boy realized what fate Akito had in store for him.

His lips began to move, and his soft voice reverberated within the foundations of the tower itself.

"The blood of both will be the destroyer."

Just like the first one. How she had fought him too, even as the last drop of her blood spilled out onto the ground, but in the end all her efforts were useless.

"The blood of both will be the savior."

The will of the Goddess will not be swayed.

"The Temple of Heaven will be rebuilt."

He leveled a look at Ritsu, who was wrapped around a pillar looking like a particularly realistic effigy of horror carved out of marble. "Give him what he needs and bring him to the edge of the forest. Somewhere near the clearing on the far side of the lake, I believe."

With that, he turned and swept away, living darkness trailing in his wake.