Fairy Tales
By Dauthi
So here is my opus fic for Negima, I guess. I don't have anything to say before you read it. Just please, please leave feedback. Even if you decide it sucks in the middle of it, tell me please. This is the one fic I have really wanted to write and have worked a really long time on. Thanks.
I'd like to thank my betas Alucard and trizh tupas. You guys are awesome, going through the entire story and helping me point out messed up areas.
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"Sometimes dreams and nothing are all people have… And yet – even so! – They manage to trudge on, eventually turning into adults, and that itself is not such a bad thing! And that's how you should choose to live…" – Evangeline A.K. McDowell, Chapter 107, Volume 12
---
The blackened trees resembled grotesque corpses in the sweltering sun. Across the canyon tendrils of smoke wafted into the sky, fed by underground coal. Setsuna sat on the edge, swinging her legs and watching tiny pebbles skittle down the abyss.
Evangeline was stretched out on a towel next to her, as if she were sunbathing, although of course her skin never tanned.
"We should get out of here," she said, "Most of the people have already left."
Setsuna sighed.
"Are we really people?" she asked absentmindedly, almost as if posing that question to herself.
Evangeline paused for a moment, as if contemplating the question, before rolling over and crawling up to Setsuna. She rested one hand lightly against Setsuna's back, her fingertips spread out like she was ready to push Setsuna off the edge.
"Well," she said, "you'll just have to pretend to be one."
Setsuna turned and looked at Evangeline, but there was no malice in her eyes. Sighing, Setsuna braced her hands against the ground and scooted away from the edge.
"Alright," she said, rising to her feet, "let's go then."
They walked away from the precipice, plodding along in the sand until they found a shuttle that was still boarding the last few stragglers on the Earth.
"ID?" the flight attendant asked as they climbed up the stairs.
Setsuna turned around to look at Evangeline. She gave a tacit nod, and Setsuna shifted to obscure the view as Evangeline muttered an incantation to obfuscate the poor attendant.
"We should get some real IDs soon," Evangeline muttered as soon as they strapped themselves in.
"Mmmm," Setsuna murmured, looking out the window. When she didn't say anything else, Evangeline, in a small moment of humanity, enclosed Setsuna's hand in her own. Setsuna didn't turn around, but she flipped her hand to interlace their fingers together, then held on for dear life.
---
They slept together for the first time at the bottom of a canyon. It was unbearably hot, and they were incredibly tired, and there had been nothing to do the entire day until night fell and they could escape to a new hideaway, a new city. Setsuna would slash off her hair and look for all intents and purposes like a teenage boy, and Evangeline would sometimes hang off her arm like a ditzy blonde, or waddle in tow as a ten year old girl. Sometimes it was the other way around.
They spent their time staring at skyscrapers and wondering at the lost feeling of it all. Everything was the same in this world – yet different at the same time: the homeless still multiplied, the dead accumulated in graveyards in space, and the rich still whispered dark secrets to maintain their swimming pools of gold. But the magic. The sensation of flying, the addictive tang of blood, the white and black glow of magic. The magic was dead, and Setsuna and Evangeline huddled together in the knowledge that true safety was an illusion.
They moved often, but settled from time to time. Setsuna dulled her kendo skills down for a job at a kendo dojo. Evangeline did whatever she wanted; Setsuna never asked. Invariably Evangeline would show up at the end of Setsuna's day, pockets teeming with money, and invariably they would spend it recklessly and lavishly. Within a week they would experience severe ennui and move on.
---
Evangeline kissed Setsuna for the first time in a nightclub. The air was black and the music drowned out everything. Setsuna was sitting at the bar with an empty glass and an unfocused stare, as Evangeline with an unfocused walk and a dark, malicious stare, burst out from the throng of writhing bodies, an empty shotglass in her hand. She placed two sweaty palms around Setsuna's face, and then leaned forward and kissed Setsuna hard, fangs raking lightly across the bottom of her lip. Setsuna walked away that time – nearly ran out – almost pushing the bouncer over, and threw up into the nearest dumpster. It was cold outside, so cold it numbed Setsuna's fingers as she fled. Setsuna was filled with emotions then, so much it blinded her to everything. (She wished for those days sometimes) She had been so angry. She had wanted to leave and disappear. She had wanted to fly away. Evangeline found her instead. They went home together and watched television.
Setsuna knew she and Evangeline were alone in the world when Asuna failed to appear for their annual reunion. Setsuna tried Asuna's phone, but the long rings never ended. When two hours had passed Setsuna attempted a locator spell out of desperation. When nothing appeared Setsuna knew.
That night she cried harder than the day Konoka died, (It had been a black funeral, and the sun shone and the birds chirped as Setsuna stood there silently, crying for what she thought would be the last time) and Evangeline sat beside her in silence. The next morning they caught the shuttle bus out of the city. When the announcements on the bus began mentioning a recent flare of location magic and known magic users, they got off on the next stop and walked the rest of the way.
---
Neither Setsuna nor Evangeline could cook, and while Setsuna did not mind what she ate, Evangeline always did, and so they had dinner every night at exquisite restaurants. Evangeline twirled around in her designer dress and Setsuna stumbled behind awkwardly. The only place they ever bought food that was less than ten-thousand yen from was a little steamed pork bun stand, where a tiny little girl with gruesome markings on her body hummed cheerful tunes and built robots.
The girl was so obviously marked that Setsuna and Evangeline didn't know what to say to her. That they knew her secret, that they were of the same kind too? Did it matter? Was it even possible to comfort her?
There were days sometimes when Setsuna and Evangeline pretended to be a couple, a real couple. They walked off the subway hand-in-hand, the slow lazy gait of two lovers with an entire future in front of them. Evangeline won a stuffed bear for Setsuna at the arcade, and Setsuna bought some small piece of jewelry for Evangeline, and together they shared a banana split sundae in an ice cream store. They soaked in other peoples' envy and admiration, and pretended it was their right.
At night everything was less certain. Sometimes they simply went to bed. Sometimes Setsuna leaned in, and sometimes it was Evangeline, but whatever marks they left on each other, it was real. There was no audience to pretend for but themselves.
---
"I am a vampire," Evangeline simply said one day to the girl at the stand. The girl just shrugged.
"I can make fire," she said in amusement, scratching absently at one of her markings.
Evangeline bought some pork buns and went home. Setsuna ate them thoughtlessly. The next morning they left.
---
Evangeline did not know when things went wrong. She had been alive for so long. One year she was twirling around in Paris, and the next year there were too many people with magic, too many people who knew about magic. And then there were simply people. Evangeline thought herself to be above politics, but it had progressed far beyond fake democratic conventions. It was a struggle over the essence of magic, and when Evangeline was shackled to a prison cell she suddenly realized that this was not her world anymore.
They stripped off her clothes and strapped her to a steel operating table and engraved tattoos with their lasers. She screamed long and hard, transforming into so many different forms in her throes of agony. The laser simply made its vicious path of scars down her back.
A great white angel saved her, the whistle of a sword murmuring in her ear. The gush of blood rang out like a lullaby of freedom. Of course it was simply Setsuna, but when Evangeline toddled out of the building like a little lost ten-year old, all she found was a trail of feathers and a sunshower of blood.
She didn't see Setsuna again until years later in some random bar. Setsuna looked like a dejected drunkard. Evangeline helped Setsuna stagger to her current apartment and ended up staying there. She slept on an overstuffed couch with a fuzzy plaid blanket, and it was so warm and appallingly comforting that she decided she'd never leave. Setsuna didn't object.
Setsuna realized that she had been a child still when she had her fantastic dreams of an ultimate justice in the world. She joined the resistance with Asuna at first, organized missions in tiny motel rooms. It was intoxicating, the idea of fighting for something again. She sliced through countless faces, flew in and rescued so many innocents. She was the icon of the resistance, their white-winged angel.
At first it was just diving in and saving people, writing up new identities, fabricating new homes. But it progressed to actual skirmishes. The government was ready for them; they deployed squadrons of troops at each facility, set up magic nullification barriers, hired a few turncoat mages. Setsuna could manage well enough on her own without the need for magic, and Asuna was a brutal warrior, barging in with her massive sword. (It wasn't magical, and hadn't been for a long time, but everyone needed reminders of the past sometimes) But there were always more and more of the "normal" people, and less and less of the magical ones as time went on. They were fighting a losing war.
When Setsuna had been inducted into the resistance, she had sworn an oath not to kill anyone. The resistance was not there to overthrow the government, it was simply there to reverse the current treatment of magic.
When the government set up their one-hundredth magical operations facility, the resistance planned a bomb. Setsuna finally woke up in her suffocating corner of the hideout. She looked around at the wide-eyed faces of children with more scars than she had ever sustained. They were scared and dark, made of something harder and more brittle than she had ever dreamed of. They no longer cared about the value of life – only survival.
"We are not a resistance," Setsuna thought, "We are a group of people who are desperate to live but have no other option."
She bade them their blessings and flew off to drop the first bomb. It crashed through the opaque glass ceiling and she saw a sea of bewildered faces before she sped through the floating glass shards. The bomb erupted and singed her feathers. She did not return.
She saw Asuna once a year, mostly to reminisce about the past, rather than dwell on the future. Setsuna knew that she would return to the resistance if Asuna asked, but the girl never did. Perhaps Setsuna should have offered, but she had promised to live, and personal promises were more important than someone else's stubborn pride. Pride should not have had a place in this new world anyway.
---
Occasionally Setsuna and Evangeline would stop by the museum and look at pictures of Earth. Hundreds of thousands of pictures, arranged against the wall in a kaleidoscopic grid. Tokyo, Chicago, Moscow. Endless skyscrapers and a quaint cottage juxtaposed side by side. Green grass and blue-gray rain. A world they had left behind.
The girl they bought pork buns from was sometimes there, staring at the laminated pictures with a desperate ferocity. There were often people like her there, sitting and crying and trailing fingers over the grainy contours of the images, but the girl looked like a teenager, looked far too young to have known the Earth as it once was.
"Chao," Evangeline said the next time they met. Setsuna started.
"Hey Evangeline," Chao said warmly, "Setsuna."
Setsuna nodded hesitantly. They walked past each other. Setsuna turned and blinked at Evangeline, but Evangeline simply kept on walking, and Setsuna didn't ask. There was an unspoken rule between them; Setsuna didn't ask if Evangeline disappeared in the middle of the night and showed up the next day reeking of sweat and magic, and Evangeline didn't relentlessly aggravate Setsuna to her breaking point.
Evangeline realized that they rarely spoke to each other. There were so many silent rules they tiptoed around, as if any minor confrontation would disrupt the quivering peace and send it crashing into irreparable destruction. She doubted Setsuna would ever break, but she had never been sure of herself since her power had been stripped away from her so easily.
---
"I'm going to go back in time," Chao said, hard determination flashing through her eyes, "and fix this."
Evangeline, huddled next to her in the secluded corner of the playground, stared at her in fascination.
"You remind me of someone," she breathed disbelievingly.
Chao raised an eyebrow.
"It was someone in the past," Evangeline said wryly. She wanted to say Negi, or Nagi, but it had long ceased to matter.
Chao liked to think that Evangeline was thinking of her father, or grandfather, or even possibly her great-great-grandfather. She wanted to ask Evangeline so many things, this strange mystical creature from a time she couldn't even dream about: what was it like, to be able to practice magic in the open, to be able to be magical, to have things like trust, friends? What was it like to have a family? But she wasn't about to broach the subject, not when they had more important things at hand.
"I'm building an artifact, the Cassiopeia," Chao whispered.
Evangeline's eyes flashed.
"No," she protested imperiously, "it is impossible to construct artifacts."
"It is entirely possible," Chao said, a small smirk on her face. "Times have changed, Evangeline," she reminded the vampire.
"You still can't just take a bunch of parts, put it together, and transform it into an artifact," Evangeline challenged, "It's been thousands of years since I was born, and no one has ever been able to simply build one."
"Well, I can," was all Chao said.
"Do you believe me or not?"
She stood up, imposing even in her short frame, crackles of magic dancing down her tattoos and a deep sense of the world's justice in her eyes.
Evangeline scoffed.
"You really are just like him," she said bitterly.
---
They trekked up the cement stairs, footsteps echoing dangerously with the rhythm of Evangeline's thoughts, wondering if this was the right thing to do. Setsuna was sprawled on the couch, an arm thrown over her eyes, when the faded green door creaked open with a shudder and the two girls walked in.
"Nice to meet you again," Chao nodded as Setsuna sat up, blinking at Chao cautiously. Setsuna didn't smile.
Evangeline and Chao headed to the bare dining table, where they sat in unused plastic chairs and pored over paper. Setsuna sat on the sofa watching them for a few minutes. Evangeline looked determined in a way she hadn't since their days at Mahora, before the secret exploded, before everything, before four bullets in Setsuna's shoulder from flying away in an almost-failed attempt to save a little girl. She had a feeling Evangeline knew sometimes, always lingering and blowing hot breath onto those four raised scars while spooning Setsuna from behind, but she didn't like to think about it very much.
"I'm going for a run," she announced quietly, changing into her running shorts and shoes and opening the door. Evangeline didn't respond, she never did, and Setsuna stepped outside and let the door click gently behind her.
The clouds were gray overhead, and Setsuna thought it was likely to rain, but she sprinted on ahead anyway. She threaded through streets that were foreign to her, another world, street names blurring together into a memory that would be lost as soon as she and Evangline moved on.
She hated the inconstancy of this life, but she had grown used to it; it was hard to summon up a feeling as intense as hate anymore. Towards most things in life she felt only a mild apathy. This pitiful nomadic life, this aimless running, her pitted and scarred body in front of the mirror: this was her life now and she lived it with a simultaneously elegant and graceless acceptance.
She often wondered why she and Evangeline traveled together, pretended together, slept together, even. She didn't know if she felt anything for Evangeline when she couldn't feel anything for life. She liked to think that they were more than two familiar fractured bodies trying to keep from breaking further, but she didn't know. She didn't know many things, and she was all too aware of the irony.
A drop splashed across her nose and then in her hair, and soon the rain began to fall in big fat drops. Setsuna soaked it in like a sponge, reveling in the bone-chilling cold. A car screeched and honked angrily at her as she floated across the street and across the bridge. There was a dark gray river underneath, moving sluggishly with no beginning and no end. It was like her life; she had long ceased to wonder what tomorrow would bring, and ever since Asuna had died she had stopped thinking about the past.
As Setsuna trudged up the stairs and pushed open the door, she was hit in the face by a giant white towel.
"Chao made us some Bao Zi," Evangeline said, a cheerful edge to her voice.
Setsuna whipped the towel away from her face and scowled at Evangeline's smirk. She stalked towards the bedroom door, wringing her hair out as she did so. Stripping down quickly to her bra and panties, she stooped over the mahogany dresser and rummaged for a t-shirt and a pair of shorts.
An arm wrapping around her shoulders and a hand snaking across her bare belly froze Setsuna in her motion. Moments later she felt feathery strands tickle her back and float past her shoulders and a cold cheek against her left shoulder blade.
They stood like that for a few moments, before Setsuna finally couldn't stand it anymore, and began, "What-" Her voice cracked in the middle, and she tried again, shakily: "What are you doing?"
Evangeline quickly retracted her arms and said in a neutral tone, "Nothing. Hurry up and change."
Setsuna pulled on her shorts and fumbled with her T-shirt before finally getting it looped over her head. She followed Evangeline out the door, an awkward almost-tension in the air.
If Chao noticed anything strange, she was too polite to say it, and they ate in silence without much fanfare. Setsuna stared out the window, watching the drizzle of rain escalate into a heavy downpour.
"I should go," Chao said into the silence, after she had put her chopsticks down.
"It's raining too much," Setsuna said.
"Oh, that's alright," Chao responded cheerfully, "I've dealt with the rain before."
Chao didn't say that she didn't have anywhere to stay anyway, so it didn't matter where or when she left. She slept in her Bao Zi stand most of the time, but she had slept on doorsteps and in trees before.
Evangeline, who had also been staring out the window, suddenly narrowed her eyes.
"No," she declared, "You can have the couch."
Chao blinked in confusion at this sudden ferocity.
"Er, alright," she said cautiously. "Well then, I guess I'll just go and clean these dishes."
She rose and quickly swept all the plates and chopsticks from the table, leaving Setsuna and Evangeline to stare at each other as she walked off to the kitchen.
Setsuna cocked her head to the side quizzically, but when Evangeline didn't respond Setsuna simply rose and went to their room. She grabbed a towel, the same fluffy white one Evangeline had thrown at her, and headed for the bathroom to shower.
Evangeline walked to the kitchen, where Chao was scrubbing at the plates, humming a cheerful tune. It reeked of frying oil and spices, a homey feeling that contrasted with the clean and sterile kitchen Evangeline normally used.
"Chao," Evangeline said, "I've thought about your idea, and I'll help you."
Chao turned and grinned, but Evangeline had already walked away.
The rain kept up its steady patter all night, and as soon as Setsuna tucked herself into the bed Evangeline shut the door behind her and stalked over to Setsuna. She pulled off the covers and straddled Setsuna, pinning her arms down gently.
"What are you doing?" Setsuna asked in surprise, for the second time that day. "Chao's just outside."
"Shut up," Evangeline whispered savagely, swooping down and biting Setsuna on the right shoulder. "Shut up, shut up, shut up."
---
Evangeline had changed, Setsuna decided. Something had definitely changed her. The vicious vampire had become more affectionate and more secluded; more cheerful and more dejected. She had become a strange paradox that Setsuna could not quite wrap her mind around. They made love as soon as night fell, but it was dark and silent, and more often than not Setsuna woke up in a choking embrace, Evangeline's sharp nails carving into Setsuna's skin relentlessly.
Evangeline had begun to sneak around too. It wasn't her usual disappearances, where she left and returned as she felt fit, a bored smile on the tip of her fangs. These were planned, and Setsuna was indifferent, but she wasn't blind: Evangeline actually looked guilty when she left and sometimes came back with her eyebrows knitted in pain and concentration. It would have equally offended and interested Setsuna, had she cared more.
It was strange though, because it did bother her. The fact that Evangeline tiptoed around the house like an intruder antagonized Setsuna, and she didn't know why. She reconciled herself to a stoic silence and spontaneous back massages for the exhaustion evident in Evangeline's body, but one night she simply blurted it out:
"Tell me."
"What?" Evangeline craned her head and stared at Setsuna in utter confusion. Setsuna blushed a little as she felt her throat choke up.
"Tell… never mind," she muttered, looking away. She applied more pressure to Evangeline's exposed shoulders in an attempt to drop the thought, but Evangeline shifted away and turned to face Setsuna.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"It's nothing," Setsuna replied firmly.
"No," Evangeline said, getting on all fours and crawling over Setsuna, "I want to know."
Setsuna blanched as Evangeline edged closer and closer. She resisted the urge to scuttle away and mustered the most neutral tone she could, asking, "What have you been doing lately?"
A glimmer of darkness flashed through Evangeline's face. She was about to retort angrily, but she changed her mind quickly and instead smirked.
"I've been hanging out with Chao."
"Oh."
Evangeline leered at Setsuna.
"You jealous?"
"Somewhat," Setsuna admitted.
Evangeline sat back on her heels, mildly surprised. An awkward silence stretched out, engorged and distended. Setsuna ended up being the first to move, sliding over and settling her head on Evangeline's lap. Evangeline undid the ponytail in Setsuna's hair and let it cascade across her lap. She stroked it a few times, then trailed her finger down Setsuna's arm and finally let it rest on the curve of Setsuna's hips. She felt Setsuna's breath hitch a few times, as if Setsuna was about to speak, but Evangeline didn't hear anything, and she was rather grateful for that.
"I'm training Chao," Evangeline finally said.
"What?"
Setsuna shot up in astonishment.
"Is there something wrong with that?" Evangeline asked defensively.
"No," Setsuna replied, "It's just… not like you."
"And what would you know about me," Evangeline thought, but she refrained from saying that out loud, and settled for an icy glare instead. That seemingly settled the matter, and she retreated into the bedroom. Setsuna eventually joined her, sliding in without saying a word. Evangeline fell asleep facing the wall, but she woke up with her face buried in Setsuna's hair and her body pressed close to Setsuna's back. She considered moving away, but something, a feeling in her decided against it, and she lay still, listening to Setsuna breathe.
As the rays of the sun became brighter Setsuna's breathing patterns changed, until Evangeline noticed that Setsuna had woken up. Setsuna didn't move though, and so they both lay on the bed, watching the neon digits of the clock pass time.
"I'm sorry," Setsuna whispered.
Evangeline thought about saying something before finally settling for brushing Setsuna's hair away to expose her neck, and leaning down to plant a feathery kiss. The tips of her fangs grazed Setsuna's neck gently.
With that she rose, and after changing, walked out the door.
There was some time before she had to go meet up with Chao, so she amused herself by walking around and observing the early-morning bustle of people going about their daily lives. There was the crowd rushing towards the bus, the vendors screaming out their cheap prices, the businessmen flagging down taxis. Evangeline watched them all as a distant observer, utterly uninvolved in their affairs. Some men gave her curious glances, this woman who was strutting about the city without a care in the world, but they reasoned that a woman that glorious was also that rich, and probably didn't need anything to do.
She wondered what, if anything was different in this world from Earth. It was a great irony to Evangeline that they were still in the same state they were over a hundred years ago, albeit on a different world. The people had elected for everything to stay the same. All they had wanted after the Earth had been ruined was a civilization that was the way it was. Magic and the public knowledge of it had not changed anything. Everyone was still the way they once were.
An old lady was selling scallion pancakes for breakfast, and Evangeline wandered by, savoring the smell and recoiling at the sight of grease and soot.
"You could have had flying cars by now," she thought, "You could have had spaceships, traveling to colonize new planets. Instead, you chose to have the same life you did, the same world, but with a red sky."
She didn't really understand the foolish nostalgia humans had, and she supposed she never would. She could feel it sometimes though; the heavy trauma inflicted upon the race. She felt it when she saw Chao's ruined future, when she saw Setsuna stare into the sky, when she looked up to the sky herself, even. It wasn't right, this world. People didn't belong here. The trees were artificial and the sun was a cold pinprick waiting for life to die.
It wasn't the fault of magic, really. The discovery of magic had broken out the war, true, but the humans had it coming. The seas were rising and the earth was warming, and what were a few magical fireballs compared to the jagged staccato of gunfire?
Evangeline shook her head. Here she was, turning soft and dwelling on the past. There was only tomorrow to look forward to after all. Who knew what eternity might bring?
---
Chao was whistling on top of an empty barrel of oil when Evangeline arrived. An idle flame was burning in her hand, and even as occasional winces of pain flashed through her face she maintained her happy demeanor.
"What are you doing?" Evangeline hissed, "I thought we'd agreed that you wouldn't perform more magic than is necessary for the training."
Chao shrugged. The flame didn't disappear from her hand.
"I figure it's better to get used to the pain, so that I won't have any problems in the event that I actually have to perform magic."
"Dumb brat," Evangeline muttered under her breath.
"Okay," she sighed, shifting into a fighting stance, "Show me what I taught you yesterday."
Chao promptly launched into a lightning-fast whirlwind of fire Evangeline barely avoided.
"Good," she screamed out, unsure if her voice could be heard through the blurry heat.
The sudden change into a roulette of fireballs assured her that Chao had heard her, and they changed to normal sparring. It continued that way for a while, Chao a brilliant blaze and Evangeline a cloak of darkness, until a distant machine sound reached their ears. Abruptly they both stopped fighting, and ran to hide behind a discarded spaceship.
It was a junkyard collector tank. It didn't come very often, but it was obvious that Chao and Evangeline had to hide when it did show up. Their magical signatures could be picked up far and wide, and anything that could sense motion would realize they were quite alive. It was only in the junkyard that all magic was muddled up and they were safe.
"This is what the world is coming to," Evangeline thought bitterly to herself. A doll flopped in front of the two as the cold Mars wind blew. She thought about picking it up and animating it, like she used to. She didn't.
---
"Chao?" Evangeline asked while they waited for the tank to pass.
"Yeah?"
"Haven't you ever thought about what will happen to you if you succeed?"
"Of course. If everything goes well, maybe I won't even be born. But, even if I cease to exist because I change the future, I have to do it."
Evangeline turned to face Chao, surprise in her eyes.
"Why?"
Chao laughed.
"Why? Evangeline, I thought you were smarter than that. Why do you think? This world is rotten, Evangeline. We have a government that either hunts us down or keeps us captive, and the rest of civilization is dying. They try to make this world like Earth, but everyone knows that it isn't, and that it can't be. Even the younger people, people like me, who have no concept of Earth except for pictures in museums realize this. The trees die too quickly and there aren't enough natural resources, and at night strange creatures with too many limbs and eyes crawl about. This world isn't meant for humans. Least of all it's meant for… things, like you and me."
"But we've given up," Chao continued, "Everyone has given up. When I finally escaped from the cell I was held in I looked for a resistance to join, but there wasn't one – not really one anyway. It was on its last legs. People have lost the will to fight, Evangeline. It's not the fault of magic, it's not the fault of anyone, but people have lost it. They have no dreams, they don't have anything! All we're doing is surviving. We grow up and turn into adults and live and die, without anything to look forward to. Just… just existence."
She took a ragged breath.
"We have to change it. We have to change it. I don't know what will happen, if revealing magic so early will even do anything, but anything is better than this."
Chao paused.
"I don't know why I'm telling you all of this," she said to Evangeline, smiling crookedly, "Can you even understand?"
Evangeline stared at the hazy sun.
"No," she said, "But I can feel it."
---
Chao improved dangerously quickly. Evangeline eventually concluded that she had nothing to teach the girl anymore besides semantics. It was almost like instructing Negi, she thought with a nostalgic smile, except that she never got to drink Chao's blood. It had been decades since she'd tasted anyone since Setsuna, anyway. She touched her lips briefly, staring out at the wide expanse of trash littering the landscape.
"Stop daydreaming, Evangeline!" a bubbly voice called out from behind her.
Evangeline whipped around, glaring at the Chinese girl.
"I wasn't daydreaming Chao," she growled.
"Sure looked like it," Chao laughed, "Anyway, here, I think I'm done with the prototype of the Cassiopeia."
She held up an unassuming pocket watch. Evangeline leapt off of the dilapidated truck she had been sitting on, landing closer to Chao so that she could get a better look.
It was a tiny thing. The hands moved as if it were actually a clock, and she could barely sense the magic emanating from it.
"Okay," Chao exclaimed when Evangeline was satisfied, "let's test it out!"
She pressed a button, and just like that, she was gone. Evangeline gawked, nonplussed by her sudden disappearance.
"I'm right here, Evangeline!"
Evangeline whipped around, surprised to find Chao standing on the truck she had been sitting on moments before.
"What the," she muttered to herself, arms placed in a defensive stance reflexively.
Chao waved, then grinned. She pressed the button again and fizzled out once more. A moment later she was standing next to Evangeline, who spun around, fists clenched and fangs snarling.
"Relax, Evangeline," Chao giggled, "I'm not going to fight you."
Evangeline lowered her fists slowly, breathing heavily. When she finally seemed to have calmed down, Chao skipped up to her.
"Wasn't that cool?"
Evangeline shook her head in amusement.
"You're still such a child, Chao."
Chao shrugged.
"You thought it was cool."
"Yeah, yeah I did," Evangeline admitted.
Chao flopped down happily, and Evangeline followed suit. They sat in the junkyard, reveling in the success of Chao's invention.
"So what's next?" Evangeline asked.
"Well, I have to build on it so that I can travel back a long time into the past. I also have to find a way to get onto Earth, because it only travels in time, not space," Chao replied.
"But you just moved in space using that watch," Evangeline pointed out.
"Because I traveled into the future," Chao said patiently, "I would have been there anyway; I couldn't be anywhere else. If I travel into the past there is no precedent, so I just appear at the exact position I was in the future."
Evangeline blinked.
"You've really thought this out, haven't you?" she asked.
"I only get one chance to accomplish everything," Chao said, her giddy demeanor instantly replaced by seriousness.
"…Hey," Evangeline said softly.
She placed a hesitant hand on Chao's head, and ruffled her hair lightly.
"At least have some fun while you're there, okay?"
Chao upturned her head quickly, her eyes shining with tears. Evangeline retracted her hand hastily and looked off to the side, scoffing, "Of course, you should keep your mission in mind the entire time."
Chao giggled at that, then leaned forward and enveloped Evangeline in a hug. Evangeline stiffened, but made no movement to shake Chao off.
"Evangeline?" Chao asked.
"Yeah?" Evangeline responded gruffly.
"I'm really glad I met you."
Evangeline didn't know how to respond to that, so she didn't. Neither of them moved, caught up in their own thoughts, until night descended and the winds ripped across the Martian sand.
---
Evangeline unlocked the door and stepped in stealthily. Setsuna had already fallen asleep, curled up on the couch in a fetal position. An unbidden smile rose to Evangeline's lips, and she placed a blanket tenderly on Setsuna before retreating to the bedroom.
It was lonely, Evangeline realized, lying on the mattress. It felt lonely, without Setsuna next to her, constant through all these years. She had thought she was alone the entire time, because that was the way she had always been; ever since she had been strapped to a stake and swathed in tendrils of fire she had known that she would always be alone, but here she was, proven wrong.
The door creaked open, and though Evangeline's eyes were closed she felt Setsuna's body thud quietly next to hers, and a feathery touch of her shoulders.
This would all be gone tomorrow, Evangeline thought to herself before sleep overtook her, and something unknown clenched around her dead heart like an iron vise.
---
Setsuna woke up to find Evangeline already dressed, sitting on the ground and regarding Setsuna with an unreadable stare.
"Let's go for a walk," Evangeline commanded as soon as Setsuna's vision had cleared.
Setsuna yawned and shrugged. She pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, then followed Evangeline out the door.
They walked in silence, ignoring the frantic bustle of the early morning. It would have almost been like a day in their pretend love, except for the somber atmosphere that heralded the death of the pretending. Setsuna walked with her hands stuck in her pockets, until Evangeline struck out and grabbed one of them, digging her nails in tightly. Setsuna clenched her teeth at the stinging pain but said nothing, allowing Evangeline to take her course.
They finally arrived at a small park, where Evangeline abruptly let go of Setsuna's hand to spin around and face Setsuna. She took a deep breath.
"I'm leaving," she announced in a rush of air.
Setsuna stood there in astonished silence. She didn't have a reaction. She couldn't. It was just unthinkable.
"Chao's found a way back to the past," she continued when Setsuna continued to gape at her, "I'm going to help her get there. We're going back to Mahora. We're going to change the future."
She stood there, waiting for a reaction, any sort of reaction from Setsuna. Setsuna simply stood still, her jaw working but unable to make any sound. She tried again and again until she finally choked out, "Why?"
Evangeline was taken aback.
"Why?"
"Why didn't you tell me?" Setsuna remedied, still in shock.
Her voice cracked as she said it, and her shoulders began to droop. Evangeline wanted to rush forward, but a stone resolution kept her back.
She didn't know why, now that she bothered to think about it. Setsuna could have helped. A little nagging voice in the back of her head told her that she didn't want Setsuna to know for the chance that if it all failed, Setsuna might still live. Something in her wanted to protect Setsuna, laughable idea though it was.
"It… it wasn't for you to know," Evangeline said, eyes boring straight ahead. It was not the right thing to say, but she didn't take it back. It was too late to take things back now.
"Who are you to tell me what I should and shouldn't know?" Setsuna responded, a quiet anger simmering below the surface.
Evangeline thought about goading Setsuna, but the times for that had long passed, and she found herself scrambling for responses she didn't have.
"I don't know," she admitted, her own anger arising at her inability to give a satisfactory reply.
"Well, why can't I come with you?" Setsuna burst out. She whipped her right hand out to her side in a helpless gesture, as if asking Evangeline why she would leave all of this, this world, these memories, Setsuna.
"Because," Evangeline began, then froze, her bitter retort dying out. "Because," she tried again, to no avail.
It was with a shock that it came to her. She didn't know what to say, or how to say it. Emotion, she would call it. Something she had almost forgotten. Emotion, love, and a dirty ugly pride.
"I probably won't be coming back," Evangeline muttered instead, her eyes averted. She didn't know how else to say it, and more than that, she didn't want to say it. It would mean the acknowledgement that something had made her soft, that human emotion had been able to push out thousands of years of dark magic. "And wouldn't that be the ultimate irony," Evangeline thought to herself, "Going back to save magic for some stupid human."
Dreams, Chao had told her. People needed dreams. She looked at Setsuna, dyed black hair and black contacts, and a façade that was so human. A sword and a life that was buried under their bed. Theirs. She felt herself deflate.
Setsuna was walking towards her. Evangeline blanched as Setsuna laid a hand on her shoulder.
Setsuna stared into Evangeline's lowered eyes, took a deep breath, and let her anger dissipate in one short exhale.
"Well, that's alright," she said, simply.
Setsuna understood, as she always had, now that Evangline thought about it. She stumbled forward awkwardly, as if she was about to kiss the stoic samurai before her for the first time. Maybe it was, the first legitimate time.
Evangeline thought about everything they had done together, and the way it would all be wiped out in an instant. This unique pain in her would never exist in their new world. Setsuna would live out her life serving the Shinmeiryuu, and Evangeline would break free of Mahora and never return. But Evangeline wanted to think – she hoped – that even if everything succeeded, even if justice came to the world and everything they knew now dissolved, that they would still somehow come together, that some divine truth would pull them towards each other. It was such a joke, that she could believe, even after centuries. Her hand rose and touched Setsuna's cheek briefly.
"Goodbye," she said harshly, then turned and walked away.
Setsuna watched Evangeline's retreating form in silence. Evangeline wasn't leaving, Setsuna knew, because in the end this would never be here for her to leave. Still, Setsuna stood there for a long, long time, watching her future fade away forever.
---
Epilogue
Chao suddenly returned one day, and Evangeline didn't. The sun was scorching overhead and Setsuna had been drawing trees. It was a hobby she had taken up recently, the simple strokes of pencil against paper creating a soothing rhythm. She stood up languidly from her spot beneath the tree to greet Chao.
"Hello," Setsuna said.
Chao froze, unsure how to react to the tranquility and peace in Setsuna's expression.
"I… she…" she began, stopping several times.
"Hi," she finally finished, bowing her head.
"How was it?" Setsuna asked.
"I… failed," Chao said quietly, her voice dropping to a whisper. She began trembling, and covered her face in her hands.
"Evangeline… she, I don't know, I was there and I couldn't find her, and-"
Setsuna put a hand on the shaking girl's shoulder, stopping her in her frantic babble.
"It's okay, Chao."
She hesitated for a moment, then shook her head and pulled the younger girl into a hug. Chao hiccupped once in surprise, then wrapped her arms around Setsuna's torso and clung to her tightly.
"Did you have a good time at Mahora?" Setsuna asked the girl.
Chao glanced up in surprise, then smiled a little bit.
"Yeah," she said softly, "Yeah, I did."
"You guys were astonishingly cute," she added as an afterthought. Setsuna shrugged in amusement.
After a slight pause Chao said thoughtfully, "Earth is a beautiful world."
Setsuna smiled serenely.
"It is."
---
Some time after, Setsuna climbed up to the roof of their (her) apartment. The sky was red, a smudged charcoal red in the way it wasn't supposed to be. She took a deep breath, spread her wings, and flew.