TITLE: PANDORA'S LEGACY

AUTHOR: Yomi

RATING: T

Disclaimer: Hunter x Hunter is copyrighted by Yoshihiro Togashi, Shounen Jump Weekly, Shueisha and Nippon Animation

SUMMARY: (Post Chimera Ant arc) Following a long standing agreement with his father, Illumi has retired and left Kukuru Mountain, sworn never to work as an assassin again. Despite Illumi's determination to lead a new life, old acquaintances, family, and the powers that be, just won't let him rest yet - not when some madman's finally fallen off the ledge and threatens to bring the world on a collision course with mutually assured destruction. Pandora's Legacy, whatever that is, may be able to save them all, and against his will, Illumi is dragged in with everyone to search for it in time before it's too late.

AUTHOR's NOTES: It's been years since my last fanfic, and for a dreadful moment, I thought I had lost interest in fandom, in creative writing. I had another idea for a Fem!Illu fic but have set it aside in favour of this one, once a collection of ideas finally bundled in the one story. Please enjoy, excuse the odd typographical error here and there, and kindly leave me some feedback.

PROLOGUE

"The end"

Sunlight filtered through the water streaked panes of his bedroom window. At its zenith during noon, the sun flooded his room with light so bright and white that the bleached and starched sheets on his bed seemed to glow.

Illumi's movements were slow and deliberate; he took care not to disturb the inch thick layer of dust which had accumulated during his absence. This was the last time he would ever visit his bedroom, and he preferred to leave it in a state as if he had never been there, to extinguish any trace of his presence.

There wasn't much in terms of possessions that he could take with him, the outfits he had never worn outside Kukuru Mountain, and the odd throwing knife and dagger that he had abandoned about he gained mastery of his pins. Rather, a horde of old, fractured and broken memories hung suspended in the air, its invisible weight both suffocating and crushing at the same time. It was why he hated this room so much. The idea that he was leaving this place was good was the only thing holding him together.

Dustmotes were sent dancing in dizzying turns and spirals in the air as Milluki ambled in and took a seat at the foot of the bed. At first, he watched Illumi pick through his drawers in silence, but the tight line of his lips and the tension as he held his back upright and hands fisted on his knees meant he could not hold his peace for long.

"There's still a year to go…" he murmured with a battered hope that had already tasted defeat.

Illumi looked up, pausing midway through examining a set of dirks that was encrusted with dried blood, and held his brother's gaze until the later sighed and discovered that the bare wooden floors were of great interest.

No, that was not fair. His brother deserved an answer. "There is still a year to go," he agreed. "But this is my choice. If you were in my position, Millu, you'd understand. I am the one who decides when it ends, not grandfather, not father, and not the – " he choked on the last words and found himself having to gulp down great big breaths to calm his racing pulse as pins and needles crawled up his face.

"I do understand," Milluki said, his voice distant and very small. All of a sudden, he was a six year old boy again, confused, scared, bitter and angry, an unstable combination of emotions at danger of exploding. "Still doesn't make it better, doesn't make it right."

"This was never 'better' or 'right' from the start." Illumi fought to keep any emotions from infecting his voice, reining in the quavering with brutal effort. "This could have ended in a lot of different ways, most of them with me dead. This is probably…the most acceptable outcome, at least for me anyway."

"No, you are right." Milluki rubbed his eyes thinking he could conceal the wetness that was threatening to spill down his cheeks. "Given the circumstances, this is for the best. Here – I put together the figures for you. You've had a dream run these past four years – the ten godfathers job three years ago was huge, and the last recon you did for Odannon in East Goruto - "

Illumi knew his brother was trying to comfort him. As productive and lucrative as his business had been for the past four years, he couldn't ignore the fact that his finances during his earlier teenage years were pathetic at best, and a liability at worst. It wasn't until he turned eighteen that he 'found his feet', so to speak, and started to generate profit.

"It's a modest sum," he cut short Milluki's optimistic commentary, causing his brother to withdraw into a sullen silence again. "If I don't live extravagantly, I will have a roof over my head, warm clothes to wear and three square meals a day until I'm a very old man."

For that, Milluki had no reply, only an unspoken knowing that his brother would be grappling with other challenges in his new life which would make problems concerning money the last thing on his brother's mind.

The whirrs of the zips as he closed his duffel bag had a dreadful note of finality that made his mouth run dry and the bottom of his stomach fall away. Milluki visibly gulped and tried to affect a reassuring smile which only made him look like a man standing before the firing squad who had still not made peace with himself and was not looking forward to meeting his maker.

Illumi steeled his resolve, hefted the bag onto his shoulder and picked up the folder containing his life's achievements and final pay cheque. "Let's do this."

Milluki arranged the meeting in the dining room where the butlers had already set out cups of tea and multi-coloured macaroons on white bone china saucers. His mother had taken a delicate bite out of out of a blazing orange one, cooed in delight, and then popped the whole thing into her mouth. Meanwhile, his grandfather busied himself with the latest news of the day, thumbing through the broadsheets and lingering for an inappropriate amount of time in the gossip pages.

"Father's not here," Illumi muttered, noting with growing trepidation that his audience had not finished gathering and he was becoming struck with stage fright. Scripted lines and dialogue he had earlier prepared were swept away with laughable ease by a wave of adrenaline, and in the blink of an eye, his mind was an utter blank and base human instincts threatened to take control over reason.

Zeno frowned as he put aside the newspaper. "Something wrong, Illumi?"

"Father's not here," Illumi said again, louder this time, more assertive rather than panicked. "I scheduled this meeting at twelve thirty. He's late."

This time, his mother stilled and looked at him with something resembling burgeoning astonishment. "There's no need to be so uptight, Illumi. Maybe he got tied up with Tsubone. We have a new batch of recruits this week. You should be involved in their training and selection as well."

Illumi swallowed and swallowed again, but the lump in his throat wouldn't go away. Until now, he had no idea how desperately he wanted this meeting over and done with, and every second Silva kept him waiting was a second of anticipation that was shearing away a year in his lifespan.

Zeno's frown deepened. "You are looking a bit pale. What's the matter?"

Damn it. This wasn't the plan. This wasn't how things were supposed to go. Everyone was supposed to be here, seated, dispassionate, business-like, and Illumi would announce his intentions plain and clear, and then it would all be over.

The moment Silva Zaoldyeck stepped into the dining room was the moment a sharp spike of white hot hate and rage overwhelmed Illumi and left him trembling. At last, he was in the closing act where the arch nemesis finally shares the stage with the hero and there is an epic struggle of life and death and only one person is allowed to be left standing.

The end, the promise of a bitter sweet release.

"You about to head off for another job?" Silva began conversationally, gesturing at his duffel bag as he made himself comfortable at the head of the table. A seat Illumi would never sit in. A seat which Illumi could never even think or dream about sitting in.

Beside him, he heard Milluki's quiet intake of breath that he was too afraid to release in case the slightest tremor would send them all crashing into the pits of chaos.

Yes, at long last, he had made it to the grand finale.

"I'm retiring."

Now there was a polaroid moment. His mother mute with shock, her visor an unresponsive matt black. His grandfather a weather-beaten granite statue, the newspaper laying crumpled and forgotten on the table. His father, the stuff that even nightmares hid from, stoic and unreadable.

It didn't take long for his mother to recover. "Nonsense," she stammered, red glow of her eye darting left and right in search for excuses. "What a ridiculous thing to say. Who on earth put that silly idea in your head?"

"It's not an idea. It's reality. Here are," he began, laying out report after report on the table from the folder Milluki had prepared, "a portfolio of my clients, contacts, assets, safe houses, alternative identities and aliases. This," the next dossier he held up was thinner than he would have liked, "are balance sheets for the past fifteen years of my service. The profits for each year are in blue at the bottom of each page. I am entitled to fifteen percent of the combined total."

Silva made no move to review the documents. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat, his eyes steady on Illumi. "Your time is not up yet. Killua hasn't turned sixteen and he hasn't officially inherited this business either."

"I am well aware of the conditions. I am also aware that there is nothing in those conditions preventing me from leaving before either of those events occurred."

"And may I ask what…prompted this sudden decision to retire early?"

"Sudden?" Illumi's eyebrow twitched. The acrid, baiting reply gushed out before he had a chance to bite his tongue. "Surely you didn't expect me to put my life on hold while you, or Killu, took your sweet time deciding how to run your business and live your lives. This is my new account number. The bank is on standby to receive the transfer. Let's get this over and done with."

His father might have said cutting in response, but his mother quickly interceded before father and son ended up at each other's throats. "Illumi, dear, you haven't properly thought this through. If there's anything you're dissatisfied with, let's talk about it. Administration, logistics, division of assignments…" Kikyou's voice held an uncharacteristic tenor of tenderness and sweetness. In another time, in another life, Illumi may have been enchanted and swayed but such a plea now had no effect on the person he was.

He watched as her words, her hope, dimmed and died, and a part of him saw the twisted and ironic justice in that. "I have said all that needs to be said. I have a blimp to catch. I'm just here for my buy-out."

"Your mother is right," Zeno spoke up. To Illumi's surprise, his grandfather appeared genuinely concerned. "You can't make a hasty decision like this. The conditions of your contract say you cannot kill – "

They were dragging this out, each taking a turn to try to erode his resolve until he was nothing more their sniveling, obedient killing machine. Again, the situation was deviating from his plan. "Grandfather, the conditions of my contract are something that no one can know better than I do. Once I leave Kukuru Mountain, I am not allowed to kill for direct or indirect financial reward. I know. Father has made quite sure that I know."

Deep, dark lines of a frown furrowed like trenches across the weathered skin. "Then what are you going to do to support yourself out there? You'll be alone with no family to turn to."

"I didn't choose these conditions," Illumi quietly reminded him, and Zeno reacted like he had been slapped across the face. "Once I am no longer a Zaoldyeck, how I live or die will be none of your business." And before his mother could launch into a frenzied rant about respecting his elders, he offered a partial explanation. "I've got it all planned. As soon as I step outside the front door, a rumour will spread through all underworld intel networks that Illumi Zaoldyeck has been killed in action. I will disappear. I will cease to exist. You will never see me again. Hasn't this been what was always intended from the start?"

And then the temperature in the room plummeted, wringing whimpers of fear from Milluki and causing Kikyou to sit bolt upright in alarm.

"There are other ways that I can make you cease to exist," Silva stated with the velvet surety of a predator about to strike the killing blow on its unknowing prey. "That is also how we can wrap this up."

Milluki trembled as if it was his first time in the torture chambers, and he desperately tugged at Illumi's sleeve, babbling pleadings for his aniki to abandon his claim. "He can do it. He will do it. Please, aniki, just leave it."

Illumi should have been afraid, should have activated his instincts for self preservation and should have taken his younger brother's sound advice and walked away from the confrontation. Instead, he laughed, mocking, derisive and spilling with a decade's worth of contempt, a sound which sent his nervous mother leaping to her feet. "Oh, how did I know this was coming! You screwed me over when I was twelve, and now you're trying to screw me over again. Have you known a day of honour in your mean, miserable life?"

A fissure rent through the solid ironwood table, loud and violent, as if a giant invisible hand was trying to tear the wood apart with brute strength until it split asunder under the unbearable pressure in an explosion of splinters.

"Stop it!" his mother shrieked, the command sharp and shrill enough to sting his ears. "Just stop it! We are family! Illumi! Stand down this instant."

The tendrils of nen emanating from his father boiled with hostility and it scorched Illumi's skin as it brushed past his cheeks and singed Milluki's t-shirt where his bulk could not be shielded by his older brother's body. Milluki's sobbed audibly as he clamped his hands over his ears and squeezed his eyes shut.

Illumi felt an ugly smile not his own twist his lips. "Has this always been your plan? Has this always been how you'd imagined things to end? Your firstborn, a mere tool to discard at your convenience?"

"Please, aniki…"

He shook off pudgy fingers attempting to restrain him. "You owe me, Silva, and you damn well know it. So pay me my dues, which I'm sure is spare change to you, and by letting me walk out of here alive today, you will have done something right by me for the first time in fifteen years."

The pupils in his father's eyes had narrowed until they resembled hard, dark chips of flint. The older man's entire body was taut, ready to attack at the first signs of opportunity.

"Ho? What's this?"

Illumi blinked. He then warily eyed his great-great grandfather's shrunken and wizened form almost lost in the doorway, and his mind twisted itself into Gordian knots over the late and unexpected entrance of this player. Maha's neutrality saw him never involved in family affairs, and Illumi had not thought to include him in the final narrative.

The unknowns and uncertainties, coupled with the certain death his father was silently promising, were giving Illumi's stomach the cramps. To everyone else, Maha's presence appeared to be a cautious, if not odd, possibility of relief.

"I am retiring."

"Are you now?" Maha padded up to Illumi with feet clad in limited edition sneakers, and once he got close enough, he peered up into Illumi's determined expression and hummed in interest. "Well, I suppose you are a big boy and you should do what you want. Have you decided what you are going to do?"

"I have it all planned," was all Illumi was willing to divulge. He had no wish to let his father know what he would do with his life once he descended Kukuru Mountain, or just how long his plans had been in the making.

Maha's expression drooped with a touch of disappointment, and he sighed. "Well then good luck to you, young man. I wish you all the best. Have you packed all your belongings?"

"Everything except for my redundancy package – fifteen percent of every dime of profit that I have generated in the past fifteen years. Silva and I had an agreement. Now he's stalling."

"We certainly can't have that. I will make sure we honour the bargain and complete the transaction. How much are you owed?"

Milluki immediately scrambled to retrieve the relevant pieces of paper which had scattered all around the floor and did the sums and calculations. In less than a minute, Illumi watched his bank account bloat and realized that he had taken yet another step towards the tantalizing finishing line.

"Now that's done and I've said my goodbyes, I think I will go and enjoy an afternoon nap." Maha stretched, displaying his utter obliviousness to the conflict between Illumi and his father during the whole time, and gave Illumi a gap-toothed smile. "Take care."

All Illumi could manage was a weak nod.

"In that case," Zeno said, studying the mess made of the dining hall, "I will go and order the servants to clean up. I won't be seeing you out, Illumi. I acknowledge your service to this family, and whatever you choose to do out there, I wish you well."

"No! Grandfather Zeno, how could you be encouraging Illumi to leave!" Kikyou called after Zeno's retreating but unresponsive figure. In the end, she threw her hands up in the air and glared daggers at the remaining occupants in the room. "Fine," she seethed. "Everyone can be selfish and do what they bloody well want without thinking about the consequences. Leave if you must, Illumi, but you listen to me good – if you step outside this mountain today, you are no longer a Zaoldyeck. You are no longer my son. And don't you dare come crawling back begging us to take you in!"

That reaction was to be expected. Illumi let the threats slide past and said nothing, which caused Kikyou to flee the room, sobbing and crying for his grandfather to Do Something.

And Silva turned his back to Illumi. It wasn't new. It wasn't a surprise. Illumi saw it coming from a hundred miles away. The silver-haired man did spare one final, disdainful glance at his eldest child, and said, "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Hope?" Illumi's eyebrows drew together in puzzlement which was not feigned. "You can't possibly believe I have survived all these years by indulging in things such as hope."

Silva looked like he was going to reply with a heated remark, the prelude to a brawl. But the head of the Zaoldyeck household swallowed his anger and he left without another word.

Illumi turned to the last person by his side, and for the first time that day, offered a faint smile. "Walk me to the Gates."

Most of the servants they passed along the track towards the Gates of Trial had no idea of the monumental decision Illumi had made that morning and the stand-off in the dining hall which had come within bare millimeters of violence and bloodshed. Under the heat of the noonday sun, Milluki's breaths were irregular and labored as he fought to keep up with his brother's casual stroll, and Illumi paused just long enough to wave farewell to a naturally suspicious Tsubone as they took a detour to swing by the butler's quarters.

"Bro…aniki…" Milluki called out as he began to fall back.

Illumi stopped and considered Milluki for a long time. There was so much to be said, and so little time. "I'm sorry for everything, Millu, so incredibly sorry that I screwed you up too."

Milluki scowled hard, which proved difficult as he fought for breath, but he squeezed his eyes shut to block out the pain. "It was never your damn fault. I couldn't cope, and they didn't care."

Illumi shook his head. "I was so absorbed with my own problems that I failed to look out for yours. I was the aniki. I should have been there for you – "

"Bullshit. No one was there for you and I could do shit fuck all. And now you're leaving without even spitting in dad's eye to settle the score!"

Illumi laughed and started walking again, much slower this time. "And who was holding me back before telling me to drop it?"

Milluki's jaw nearly unhinged with outrage. He opened and closed it a few times before he could articulate the words. "He was going to kill you. I saved your scrawny ass back there, you blockhead!"

"Sure you did, sure you did," Illumi teased, letting the last of his laughter die off in a chuckle. "You know, I think great-great grandpa knew all along, and maybe even grandfather suspects something."

"I'm more surprised they didn't catch on sooner. A blind drunk in a blackout on planet without a fucking sun could have seen it coming from a mile away. They were complete idiots if they thought they could make you sign that contract and ask you remain loyal at the same time. Fuck 'em all."

"Careful. You are still here and living by their good graces. Millu – "

They had reached the imposing Gates of Trial and stood in its ominous shadow, and despite the pain and ache in Milluki's knees, Illumi knew his brother would endure a million more times the suffering to undo this reality and his imminent departure. He could just imagine Milluki's mind spinning up excuses to hold off the ending. Illumi wouldn't put it past his brilliant genius hacker of a brother to infiltrate the airline ticketing system and change the time and date of his ticket.

"Stop crying, Millu. With your skills, you can find me if you tried hard enough."

"Aniki – "

Without warning, Illumi hugged him tight. "You were my best friend, Millu. You are my best friend. Better than anything I deserved. Never doubt it."

"Never."

"You are the aniki now. Take care of yourself."

"Damnit, I don't care what you say, you'll always be the aniki."

"Live well, Millu, live long and well"

"You too, aniki. You too."

I-I-I-I

Milluki spent the next hour after Illumi left sitting in the shade of a tree just a little wayward of the beaten track, staring off into space, determined not to return to the house and caverns underneath the extinct volcano until he had exhausted all his tears.

The gardener must have seen him and called Tsubone, as the pig-tailed servant approached Milluki with an expression of concern on her face.

"Master Milluki, is everything all right?"

Aniki's gone. Aniki's never coming back. What's done is done. Milluki stood up to his full height and stretched. "Tsubone, there's been a change in management," he informed the butler in a brusque tone. "I'm the eldest Zaoldyeck child now, and starting today, I will be reviewing all call logs and assisting father with the finances."

Later, Milluki would laugh at the way the whites of Tsubone's eyes widened beyond the rim of her monocle. "Master Milluki, what about Master Illumi?"

"Aniki is officially dead, you got that? I'm in charge now. Have the kitchens prepare me lunch."

Let her make old dad explain what's happening, Milluki viciously thought to himself. He was about to order a ten litre tub of chocolate ice cream to accompany lunch, but no longer shied away from the fact he been unable to see or touch his own toes for the past fifteen years. "Tell the kitchen staff that I am going on a diet. Put together low calorie meals for me from now on. I can't be aniki if I am rolling around Kukuru Mountain like this."

I-I-I-I

Illumi knew the streets of Sumenca like the lines and scars on the back of his hand. Tracing through roads he had walked over hundreds of times, he finally stopped at a modest double-storey brick home and let himself through the gates.

As soon as he opened the front door, a spray of confetti showered him from head to toe and it was accompanied by a boisterous heart-warming cheer from the half dozen occupants within.

A strong pair of arms wrapped themselves around him, and he was only too glad to return the warm embrace.

"Welcome home!"