The Book of Revelations

Lady Moon-Chan

AN: Welcome to my first Chrono Crusade fanfiction. Summary: When his plans start to fall apart, Aion falls back on the powers of the Apostle of Hope to open the Gates of Heaven for him, even as the boy drowns in madness. PG-13 to be safe. Warnings: blood, darkfic, character death, slight romance at the very end, mostly AU but based more on the manga than the anime. Come on in, you know you want to...Disclaimer: Chrono Crusade and all associated characters are the property of Mr. Daisuke Moriyama. I make no profits from the writing of this fanfiction.

The Book of Revelations

It's said there is a seven layer seal on Heaven's gates. Joshua sees now that it is true. He has always been curious about it. And now he finally gets to see it.

But it's not like he expected at all. It hurts far more. He is pushing all the power he can muster out of his body to unlock the gates. Joshua thinks he sees why there are SEVEN Apostles now, as opposed to any other number. There is supposed to be one Apostle to open each gate, because the power needed to open them all is far to great for one lone Apostle to expend without sacrificing his very life.

Surely Aion must know that. Aion knew everything. So why, why? A fresh scream bursts forth from his throat as he approaches the fifth seal. Somewhere, deep underneath all the pain, where he can still think rationally, he can hear Aion laughing, celebrating the completion of his goal.

The fifth seal flew open, and Joshua saw something he could only equate what he saw with a description someone had given to him before he'd met Aion of the Astral Lines. There were many souls beyond that seal, filling the void between the fifth and the sixth utterly, so that Joshua could pass no further. And every single one of them cried to God, begging and pleading Him to avenge their spilt blood and reward their faith and martyrdom.

"And when He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of the Lord and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth(1)?" Joshua whispered.

Then suddenly, he was being pulled in. The souls of the Astral Lines, or whatever these creatures were, were devouring him. His powers had been utterly exhausted trying to force open the seven seals alone. Joshua went limp, and gave in. By now, the horns Aion had given him were aching and throbbing like they were going to fall off. Besides the pain, he felt empty, drained. He had no power left to give. He was done.

He looked up at the blank, white nothingness that made up the sky in this place between heaven and earth. It was blank, nondescript. The same way he felt now, knowing that this was the end. Joshua kind of liked it.

Suddenly, that sky parted in a burst of golden light, and there was a silhouette inside that light descending towards him. A long haired silhouette in a dress, with angel wings and wearing a long dress. As the silhouette grew closer, Joshua could hear the figure singing. It was a girl, with the most angelic voice he had ever heard.

"Star of Bethlehem, star on high. Miracle of the midnight sky. Let your luminous light from heaven, better our hearts and make us fly. Star of happiness, star of wonder. You see everything from afar. You who've lived through endless ages, view with love the age of man. Oh light, oh holy light. O light divine."

At once he felt better, stronger. Except for "his" horns. They were still throbbing fit to fall off. 'Makes sense.' He thought dimly. 'The power of god wouldn't heal the horns of a devil.' He reached out his arms to the descending angel, noticing only dimly that the suffering souls who had been consuming him were now gone, soothed into dormancy by the angel song.

At last she caught him, and he clung on tightly. She was more beautiful than he'd imagined any angel could be. Her long, pale hair cloaked them both in its silky-soft waves, and the odd magenta eyes that gazed so gently and compassionately into his own inspired utmost trust in him. Outside of that, her pale skin and delicate build gave the impression that she was fragile, breakable.

But that couldn't be. She had to be many, many times stronger than him, even with the horns, because she had come from the other side of the fourth seal. She had to be so powerful that she could open all seven layers by herself, and close them behind her to conceal the fact that they had been opened.

She smiled sweetly, placing her hands on his horns. He felt them separating from his head and tried to resist, tried to scream. But he couldn't. Not with that angelic face smiling down at him so sweetly. The horns came off in her hands, and it felt strange. He felt weak, and woozy. Then came the rush of clearheadedness, the realization that he was awake, truly awake, for the first time since Aion had given him the horns.

He gasped in wonder at the angel before him, and she smiled sweetly. They landed gently on the ground, and she placed her pale, slender hand against his cheek. "You're free now, Joshua." She murmured in a sweet voice. Then she rose, and he followed as swiftly as he could. "Wait-" but she was gone. If she had ever really existed at all. She might have just been a hallucination caused by his own powers overloading on his brain.

But she had to exist, didn't she? A mere illusion couldn't have pulled his horns from his head. He gazed at the spot where she had last been, and a name escaped his lips, surprising even him. "Azmaria. Apostle of Charity."

"Apostle of Charity?" Aion's voice came startlingly close behind him, and Joshua whirled to face him before backing away, unwilling to expose his back to the devil.

Aion's eyebrows rose as he took in Joshua's now hornless head. "Oh my. What happened to your horns?" He took a step forward, and Joshua took one back.

"Stay away." He sounded threatening enough, but he was still painfully aware that he didn't have the power to force Aion to back away. And so was Aion.

Aion smirked slightly, stepping closer.

Suddenly, the sweet singing of the Apostle of Charity rang in Joshua's ears again. The healing effect of her song was lost on the devil, the Sinner Aion, and he clutched at his ears, trying to block it out. Azmaria's singing grew louder and stronger, and Aion's pain increased.

Even as Joshua felt his powers replenishing, he could see Aion weakening, the holy power and light of an Apostle draining him almost to the point of death. As she drew abreast of Joshua, she stopped her song and looked up at him again, the night breeze caressing her hair and gown like a possessive lover. "Finish it, Joshua. He's weak now."

"Can't you do it?" He asked.

She shook her head. "It has to be you. Otherwise you'll never be properly free."

"But how?" But even as he asked the question, a voice whispered in Joshua's mind, only slightly deeper than his, and so familiar, like that of a friend he'd had when he was very young, then forgotten. 'The blood of an Apostle...blood blessed by God. Contact with it will utterly destroy the sinner, the demon.'

Joshua picked up one of the fallen horns that had once resided on his head, cutting his palm on one of the sharper edges, then approached the still weak and shaken Aion. He cut the devil with the horn, then allowed his blood to drip into the wound.

The effect was instantaneous. Aion howled, tearing at his hair as the blessed blood mixed with his own, causing him pain beyond anything he had probably ever experienced. Joshua was able to watch calmly as the demon he had seen as a father figure up until a few minutes ago self-destruct from the inside, almost burning until there was nothing left.

Joshua turned away from the spot where Aion had been kneeling and came face to face with Azmaria.

She smiled, opening her arms. "Congratulations. You're finally free."

Joshua went to her arms willingly, holding onto her tightly as the emotional storm started within him. "It doesn't feel like it."

"But you are. And he can never hurt anyone again." She murmured quietly.

"How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Joshua up into the starry night sky, which showed no signs of the disturbance which had recently occurred: the Gates which Joshua had nearly died trying to open. It was as if nothing had happened at all, and it gave him the peculiar feeling of being utterly off-balance.

Freedom, being the removal of all forced or unwanted boundaries, is essentially the same as loosing one's mind.

AN: Well, there's the end of that. I know it's strange, and I know it was extremely AU. No flames please, this is, as I said earlier, my first Chrono Crusade fanfiction. (1) This is an actual quote from the Biblical Book of Revelations, chapter 6, verses 9 and 10. Oh, and, I used 'devil' in reference to Aion despite the manga influence because it seems to fit in a little better with the rest of the religious symbolism and themes of the show, more so than 'demon'. Ja ne! Review please!