Time froze on the ethereal plane; it's slowing marked by a light of rouge and hazy pink. A tall figure, shrouded in black, parted the colors with a silken boney finger. He moved between the moments, inhaling the spaces between the falling bits of sand in his hourglass.

After the deep breath of the air, which is exhaled upon the death of a mortal, he sighed, a sound that escaped not only through his bare teeth but his eye sockets and cracked cheeks as well. This air, this particular death, had a bitter and musky sort of sent, hot as the coils of cooling rage, and he instantly recognized it as the mark of a man consumed by Gankutsuou.

Leaning upon his reaper, taller even than he, the figure pulled a clipboard from within his robes, the fabric thereafter settled around his feet in an archaic motionless perfection. At the top of a fresh page he wrote the words Edmond Dantes.

The condemned man, mentioned above, woke several moments later to a shadow over his already blurred vision. It was bobbing as its owner single-mindedly scratched out notes with an ominous black pen. The sound of its tip meeting paper was muted, however, by that of raised voices, one of which, he thought he knew.

"What are you talking about? Humans are the epitome of corruption and greed, as easy to turn against the other as dogs quarreling over meat. A little temptation, and they are no more then ravenous beats." The cavern king bellowed from somewhere above.

"The answer is no." Echoed an equally formidable voice. It resonated, as if from the roof of a cathedral, yet hissed - as if suffocated.

He strained to see the two, but a terrible light blinded him, even as his vision cleared. Startled by the ferocious glow he groaned and guarded his eyes.

"Every time one of my hosts dies we come to this: I see what these mortals do, what these humans do, and you deny me?! For encouraging my friend to do no differently than the rest of his species?"

"We had a deal. You have not learnt what it is to be human. If you find them so reprehensible, I fail to understand your obsession with this quest."

Edmond sat up, put two hands out before him to feel the floor and remember what he had been doing a moment ago. He found cold and wet beneath him, and a slippery and staining texture. Squinting at the substance on his fingers he saw red, wet, sticky, and dull.

For some reason, which eluded him, the sight of his own blood was not all that alarming. Instead Edmond examined it through the cruel light with a morbid fascination. This warmth on his hand, from this liquid that made life possible, had never shined as brightly as it did now. It sparkled as if there were galaxies giving birth to stars from within it.

"Where…where am I?" He eventually asked.

A snap answered him and the light muted behind the door of a silver lantern.

"There are many advantages to having a body." Gankutsuo grinned, his eight eyes narrowing with glee. "Particularly when you can make it immortal."

"Hm." Death wheezed, dust puffing out from his mouth, "right, and thus far you've done a fantastic job of keeping those bodies alive. This is what, the second man this century? Your capacity for maintaining this 'immortality' amazes me."

Edmond looked to his knees, they to were covered in blood, and the source, readily visible now, made him panic even less than the blood on his fingertips. He, his body anyways, lay dead beside him, and around him the walls of his garden, his sanctuary, were crumbling. Well, at least they would have been crumbling if time would tick on. Instead the broken eye above was suspended in its shattering, the earth waited patiently, and silently, to continue tearing itself apart. The waters raged, standing perfectly still.

"The point isn't to keep the host alive." Gankutsuou chided, "If their bodies weren't so fragile…"

"They wouldn't be human." Death finished with a fleshless snarl.

A ship, in the broken pink sky, hovered in it's frozen state. Edmond fixed his attention to it, understanding taking hold.

"I see," he interjected into the quarreling god's conversation, "So…I have been slain."

"Yes, officially dead as of," the death god glanced at his hourglass, "twelve minutes ago. Just have some paper work and we'll be on our way."

"Our way?" Edmond repeated, his thoughts dissecting the statement, "where? Hell?"

The hard bits of Deaths' shoulder bone shrugged from beneath the blackened garment, "don't know. I'm not the judge, just the manual labor."

"Than labor me into my own body!" Gankutsuou shouted - a bellow of a sound.

"I've told you more times than I can count, a demon can not become human, even one as staggering as Gankutsuou, until they understand what that means."

"Oh? I understand perfectly." The purple thing grinned. "This human and I had a brilliant accord."

Death ignored him, his pen flowing without ebb. Its noise tangled with Edmond's mind as he stared into the face of his body, his body without the demon: tan skin of the Mediterranean, hair of simple but regal black, a peaceful smile caressing his lips; the wounds of a killing kiss. It scared his mind like the sounds of the quill pen scarring paper.

Hell would be fitting….for all he'd done…

The pen stopped, and death floated before him.

"Everything is fate. Nothing is chance."

"I know." Edmond muttered. Love, that cold and pitiless mechanism, felt heavy inside of him, and threatened to break him once again.

"It's a shame" the hissing intruded upon his thoughts, "that you only remembered how to feel at your end... such a pity."

"'Feeling killed him!" The cavern king cackled, "It's a 'pity' he embraced it in his weakness. I could have saved him, made him perfect and without flaw!"

"Before we go," Death persisted, ignoring the exasperating entity behind him, "I am curious as to how you justify what you have done to the ones you've loved."

"Justify?!" Gankutsuo howled, answering for his symbiotic host. "JUSTIFY?! Humans CREATED him! Humans MADE him! The ones he loved are responsible for who he is now!"

"WRONG!" Death whirled about. "You, you miserable fool, you are responsible for his lost chance. Do you think the universe so totally cruel? He could not see truth from without your clutches. The innocent boy, he was a gift. The scarred and devoted pale girl, his loyal companions who loved him, they were all chances to reclaim the emptiness within and fill that treacherous loneliness! But you poisoned him into ignorance!"

"He would not have escaped The Château D`if without me! How can it be my fault he lost his chance when it was I who led him to the boy in the first place?!"

"It is not your fault." Edmond mumbled mildly, "I blackened my heart on my own, and desired my revenge long before our meeting. It was I who broke with Albert, even when he begged only to be at my side."

"No human can resist the darkness that is Gankutsuou." Death countered, "I, in my limited omniscience, have seen his work many times. I cannot know what the gods of judgment have in store for you now, but I'm sure they will consider the circumstances that led you here. I, however, will not allow you, Gankutsuou to relive this cycle again. This is the last human life you will destroy. And that, like all reincarnation of immortals, is my jurisdiction."

The demon, he who radiates menace and laps up despair, froze and turned all of his eyes onto Death. "What are you saying?"

"I will not grant you return to the human realm. You have failed and will be sent back to hell, condemned to life as the king of shadows and caverns - as you have proven yourself to be."

"You arrogant mouse." He growled, lunging forward to stand inches from death's face. "To be human is to breed pain! It is so, and that is all I have learned! I, whatever you may say, understand them better than you or any stoic god who judges souls!"

"Oh?" Death chuckled. "Is that so?"

"Yes…how else do you explain it: the ease with which I can twist them?"

Edmond finally ventured an effort in standing, his gaze always returning to the ship. So… Albert had been his karma. And, karma, in its irony, had led him to inflict the same betrayal he had suffered on his last chance of happiness.

"I wonder," he spoke the words slowly, directing them at no one in particular. "Can I still feel guilt? Do I even feel remorse?"

He placed a hand over his chest, as if the action would better help him read his own emotions.

The reaper of souls, intrigued, quietly peered into his notes. After a moment he reached once more within his shroud, and produced a glowing golden spire. He looked from it, to Edmond, and back again.

"I wonder, Death, just who is going to drag me back?" Gankutsuou boiled, "I may need you to be reincarnated into a body of my own, but there are other ways, and other humans I can possess. Do you suppose yourself strong enough to force me to do your will? What would happen, I wonder, if I decided to stop playing by your rules?"

"Light extinguishes shadows easily enough." Death sneered, tapping at his lantern, "but hold your tongue for a moment…and listen to what I have to say. You, Edmond; it seems fate has had an interest in you, and perhaps this isn't done…what would you say, if I was to offer you yet another chance?"

"What do you mean?" the demon purred, "What is it that you hold?"

Geometric designs covered the object's surface in glowing gold, deep cut reliefs of black and blue inlaid gems gleamed from within carved words from a long dead language. Its light resonated against the bare and brittle fingers of the death god's hands, creating whispers.

"This is a piece of fate. I receive one every year, from the all-mightiest, to use on whomever I see fit. I can use it to mend your body and send you back."

"I think," Edmond immediately answered, "that boy who was lost not a fortnight ago, Franz, may have been a better recipient for your generosity."

Death's hood tilted, the white of his face gleamed beneath it. "He was ready, and his sacrifice will surely earn him peace. Why waste such a gift on those who have paradise already? Your circumstances, and this demon, equally contributed to who you became as much you yourself did. You may not be granted reincarnation, should you turn me down, and so Edmond Dantes, this may be your last chance for redemption."

"And me?" the demon urged. "What of me?"

"You would both awaken, in an unbroken body."

"No." Edmond shook his head firmly. "It's pointless."

"Even in your vengeance you brought around some good, destroying criminals and paving the way for a new civilization to flourish." Death breathed in, a long low hiss, "I believe you will do much more."

"The good I've done cannot outweigh the harm."

"Then why, I wonder, did one such as Albert love you?"

The question silenced him, but it did not quiet Gankutsuou, "And my powers? Our immortality?"

"Restored, but under one condition. Edmond will have the control. He will retain his human heart, and accept only help from you at his discretion. I will grant to him my light, and if he chooses he could cast you out, or live forever as an immortal and your partner. If he chooses to die later, I will we will see if you have reformed and earned humanity of your own."

"I said no." Edmond repeated, sternness in his voice. "You expect me to reform Gankutsuou as well as myself? To what end?"

"To do good with this priceless opportunity. Immortality: merely by harboring Gankutsuou within you, even if you never access his other talents, could make you the eternal keeper of the universe. If you heal your own gentle heart, perhaps you will see why I think it worthy."

"My friend!" The demon grabbed the arms of the other man, "this is our chance. These fools think that a little love from a teenager will sooth your rage, that a few good deeds will change the truth about humanity. If we prove them wrong again, and we become all powerful together, I could change the physical world, and make it truly great!"

Edmond cocked a pessimistic eyebrow, pushing the demons hands off of his form. He stepped back into the bloody pool by his damaged corpse; the star-studded liquid coated his boots. "Your immortality, as I recall, came with a price. Crystallization of my body, loss of appetite and sleep, and hardening my heart to all emotion."

The demon growled in frustration. "That is the deal I chose to make with you! I am the king of shadows, the cavern dweller, what did you expect?! Did you believe I have no other abilities, that there was no other way? Within our last deal I intended to have your body for myself, but this time we will work as one. I'll make you as vampire once more, yes, but this time you will hold your heart, not I. Ageless and beautiful, you'll be preserved forever! And those pills, we can keep those pills for you! You will never need to feed on actual flesh!"

"I am not going to help you," He promised with violent determination.

"If you don't," Gankutsuou whispered, loudly enough for Death to hear, "we will see which god is the stronger. Your friend Albert is ripe with misery. …Perhaps he would make a good host."

"Death won't let you."

"And do you really want to test weather or not he can stop me?"

"Why?" Edmond recoiled, "Why me? If you could take another body, why do you want me?"

"Take the deal, or I will take Albert." He snapped, tremendous in his threat.

Defeated, with a look that would have crushed steal, he gave in "Fine."

Death nodded, taking a step towards the human body. The glowing purple spirit began a happy dance in the blood. A grin parted his fanged teeth and his feet continued to trace rejoicing circles in the glittering red.

"Yes, this will do very well. You're will, and you're heart, are so deliciously strong! A body's only worth is the power of the soul, and I know this death god is wrong. You and I will once again hear the crescendo of our nightmare opera."

Sand fell once more as Death continued his work with other nearby souls. Mortals, unaware of the hiccupping time, strode forward in their lives.

Above the French countryside rain bombarded the ship that shot forth from wreckage. Water drenched the fires at the number thirty château and mingled with smoke.

Sirens blared and public servants manned their stations to battle the flames and the destruction they birthed. But, in the commotion, no one noticed a broken man, with symbols glowing on his forehead, crawl from beneath rubble into the downpour of the heartless rain of Paris.