Creation began on 12-09-15
Creation ended on 12-10-15
Ceres: Celestial Legend
A Gracious Christmas Gift
A/N: My first Ceres story. I hope it impresses.
As he sat on his wooden throne and observing the world through the jade sphere that floated in front of him, Brother Correction watched as a family of five, comprised of a husband, his two wives and children, celebrating their first Christmas, putting a smile on the eternal man's face. This had been a family whose new patriarch's family was under the influence of a curse that repeated itself every few generations, and was crippled only by marrying women of another family. He had paid this family a visit and told them that he explored the past and the origins of the curse…and undid it, setting them free from a darkness that would return several generations into the future. And on a personal level of his own soul, he never doubted that any one could love two people equally, as he has seen many men and women that had relationships with two of the opposite sex.
This eases my visit to Krampus concerning the boy that lost his Christmas spirit because of a feud, he thought, recalling his victory over Krampus when he requested that the boy's fate be his to decide and salvage his soul and the lives of his family. Christmas is about family and friends, not torture and punishment. There's redemption during the holidays.
As the jade sphere disappeared, a new, scarlet sphere appeared, revealing a new situation that needed his attention. Within the sphere, he was given a rapid view of the past of a young girl born under a cruel fate. She was possessed by a celestial being from centuries past, and hunted by select relatives of her family to possess her, including her twin brother, who was possessed by the celestial being's mortal spouse, who became corrupted by a sampling of her power to save him. Over a year…and so much loss and pain, and the young girl was now a mother about to celebrate Christmas with her husband and child, but Brother Correction felt that this Christmas was rather lacking because much of the girl's family and friends were gone because of a cruel past and no easy solutions to remedy the hurt.
Saint Nicholas, he thought, grabbing the sphere, I shall grant a most gracious gift to those of this realm that lost much and received so little in return because of a family curse.
In the instant he rose up from his throne, he disappeared when a gentle breeze swept up.
-x-
Snuggled in front of a small fire, Aya and Toya, after putting their baby to bed, just reflected upon the previous year. Aya then fell to sleep a few minutes later, dreaming a cloudy dream. In front of her appeared a man of dark origins, dressed in a red and green yukata, and a face that, while looking cold and detached, seemed rather welcoming for some reason.
"Hello, Aya," he greeted her.
"Who are you?" She asked him.
"My name is Brother Correction. I'm many things to many people. A ghost, a friend, a saint, a demon, an angel, a Good Samaritan and so on. I'm here to offer you a Christmas gift that not many are willing to give or are able to give."
"What sort of gift?"
"Your family and friends made whole once more."
"What do you mean?"
"All the pain you and everyone went through, all the devastation, the deaths, all undone. Your brother, your father, Chidori…alive and well. I can make the darkest parts of everything that happened to each and every one of you seem like a dream you were unable to awaken from. Even give Toya a normal lifespan. So long as it's what you truly want."
"But why? I mean, why would you want to do that?"
"Because I hate it very much when good people are the ones that suffer. And it's Christmas, a time of family and friends, a period of forgiveness and redemption. I'm like Robin Hood, only I give back to the people."
The clouds dissipated and revealed the two over the cluster of islands that were Japan.
Aya thought about the offer of his gift. To see her brother again, to see Chidori and know that Toya will live a lot longer than any of them anticipated, it was tempting. And…she could introduce her child to Aki and her father.
"Really?" She asked.
"So long as it's what you truly want," he answered.
-x-
"Aya! Wake up!" She heard her brother say to her, waking her up. "It's Christmas!"
The teenage mother awoke and recalled a good dream she had. In it, there was this man that offered her the gift of her friends and family restored to life, making all the awful events of the past after her sixteenth birthday seem like a bad dream.
Heading downstairs, she was greeted with a sight that she wouldn't ever forget: Toya and their baby, Aki and their parents, Yuuhi and Chidori and all their other friends.
"Merry Christmas!" They greeted her, and Aya couldn't help but shed a few tears; this was like a dream come true for her.
-x-
"Christmas is a time for family and friends," said Brother Correction, returned to his wooden throne, looking at the Mikage family and friends through the sphere, and seeing his other efforts to change the cruelties of fate.
In front of him was a woman that had a similarity to Aya, but with a different outlook on life, dressed in a strange outfit that didn't conform with any attires of any cultures the world had. It looked as though it was organic, a part of her body, and it showed some level of indecency. Fortunately, he wasn't as offended by this, as the woman wasn't a hostility that needed to be dealt with.
"You were able to do what others couldn't or wouldn't," she said to him, seeing her mortal family's most recent matriarch embrace her twin and Chidori through the sphere in front of them. "You undid the traumas of so many deaths. Yet, you ask for nothing in return for your services. Why?"
"Because it's Christmas, Ceres," he told her. "It's not about what you get, but what you get for others. It's a time of selflessness, not selfishness, to know the power of miracles and redemption. Among the gifts anyone can ever receive during this gracious time of the year…is the gift of hope."
"Hope?"
"It's a power unlike any ever experienced by those that believe in it. It exists in many forms, throughout time and space, in different languages and places. You can find hope in even the most unlikely of places, including the darkness…so long as you don't lose the light within your heart."
"I think… I never knew of such a thing before I was reborn through Aya. Or what it means to those that know of it."
"Generations of death and rebirth can damage one's faith," he explained, now seeing Toya kiss Aya as he presented her with the gift of a new choker. "But even if the faith is damaged, it's not destroyed. It still resides within your heart… All we need…is the help of others to restore it."
"How are you so…capable of believing in such things when there are bound to be those of whom will overlook them with disbelief?" She asked, seeing Yuuhi and Chidori kiss under the mistletoe.
"Because I've been blessed with the truth that hope, love, light and redemption are stronger than the chains of hatred, despair, loss and death. And…it's a victory in every sense when you give to good people, and not to boast about it, but to share it with those around you. Because then…that's when you're really a believer of hope."
"Well spoken, Brother Correction," Ceres expressed, and the two saw more of the people that had been hurt by the repercussions of being related to celestial beings join the Christmas party at the Mikage house. "Well spoken."
And then, as if by a miracle itself, a small shower of snow fell on the two.
"Ceres," he spoke up, "would you and your husband care to celebrate Christmas with me?"
"We'd love to," she accepted his offer.
The End
A/N: I just got the entire anime series yesterday for the sake of having it for my collection, and I felt this was another series that Brother Correction could resolve for the good people. It makes me feel better about the franchise. Please, tell me what you think about it.