The Fall of the Sun

Amaterasu, the blindingly bright personification of light, stood eclipsed in the black shadow of Yami, the embodiment of darkness. The Lord of Darkness possessed such an oppresive shadow that it threatened to suffocate all light out of existence, but Amaterasu shone brilliantly with a holy radiance that kept it away. Yami was the ultimate threat, Amaterasu's true rival and only equal in power. Where others would have backed down from this intimidating foe, Amaterasu stood firm on her four paws, determined to slay this evil and save the land she vowed to protect. The Day of Darkness, the solar eclipse that happened once every 100 years, had allowed Yami to steal away Amaterasu's divine powers, but she remained resolute, and one by one, blow by blow, she reclaimed each of her sacred Celestial Brush techniques. Long and hard she fought Yami, and was led to think she had defeated him several times, only for him to appear in another form, each time with different—though still devastating—abilities.

Three forms of Yami she had defeated when the battle was seemingly over. Amaterasu panted, for her exhausted body could not get enough air, it seemed. It was then her exhausted mind played tricks with her. She imagined vividly that Issun, her Poncle companion who was unable to board the Ark of Yamato with her, was there, bouncing on her wolf nose as he always did. She cherished the sound of his voice—which she already missed dearly—as the illusion of him said, "Not bad, furball! Well, you know the drill. Let's have one of those famous victory howls of yours!"

Amaterasu smiled warmly at him, at the memory of her triumphant moments, when she would lift her head to the heavens and tell the gods of her victory with a heroic howl. Her smile grew to a grin as she, in the spur of the moment, prepared to do so once more. Only then did she recall that Issun wasn't on board with her. She glanced back at her snout, where Issun vanished as her brief hallucination ended. The wolf stared blankly at where she had thought Issun was, numb in a moment of shock. After the numb moment passed, sorrow filled her heart to the point of overflowing, the excess pouring into her eyes to become mournful tears. But still, her sorrow could not be contained. It continued to flow, pooling in her chest until it, too, was full. Amaterasu could not keep all this sorrow within herself. She had to let it out.

So she did, letting it pour out of her in a low, long howl. From behind, Yami, being one not to be taken down so easily, grabbed Amaterasu with his tentacle-like appendage. Said appendage coiled and undulated of its own accord as a wild wave of electricity coursed through it, electrocuting Amaterasu and knocking loose the powers she had worked to recover and keep. She was then thrown to the floor, an ordinary wolf without her heavenly powers. Now, with no divine light to stave off the darkness, it engulfed her completely, banishing her to a world of black. There, the dark consumed all her hope, and she fell into the cold, even darker depths of despair.

But when all seemed lost, a voice pierced the shroud of darkness and gloom: Issun's. At last, he had accepted his destiny as Amaterasu's Celestial Envoy, and was igniting people's faith in the gods. He was sparking their faith in her. Soon, his voice was joined by the voices of many people, people Amaterasu had met in the course of her journey. She could hear their fervent, pleading prayers, begging her to shine her divine light upon them once more, to break through the stifling darkness. She could hear them all, one voice after the other, as they merged into a quiet din of faith and praise. She could sense their presence as the individual prayers swirled slowly around her like a calm, drowsy swarm. But . . .

But they didn't resonate with her. She couldn't feel their power. The prayers, the people's faith should have strengthened her, but they didn't. The darkness kept them away, a repelling barrier that locked out all else. And, blinded by the darkness that surrounded her, Amaterasu could not see Yami transform into its final, most powerful form—a menacing, clawed mechanical hand the color of darkness itself.

Yami lurched forward with an ominous rumble of sound, and threw one of his sharp metal claws into her side. Amaterasu lay still for a moment, again seized by an instant of pain-deadening shock. Then the pain set in, a burning agony that seized and contracted her muscles. As the excruciating pain consticted the air from her lungs, a sound was forced out of her—a strangled yelp. The noise ricocheted across the Ark, the metallic walls amplifying and repeating the sound of her agony several times over. Rebound by rebound, the resonation echoed its way down to the very depths of the ark, where Waka lay after taking a powerful blow from Yami to save Amaterasu. Amaterasu's cry reached the prophet's ears, and at once pierced his heart. Compelled by his love for the Goddess, for the beautiful, kind woman he knew she was within, he felt the desperate need to help her and quiet her pained howls.

Waka rose unsteadily to his feet, and carefully tested his limbs for injuries. Surprisingly, other than the wounds sustained earlier from his own short battle with Yami, he was left mostly unscathed from the fall, with no more than a few additional scrapes and bruises. Glancing around, he spotted an abandoned hover platform that had somehow fallen to the ark's depths. He boarded it, amazed to find it still functioning, and on it glided up to the battle arena of Yami and Amaterasu. He then swiftly leapt off the hover platform and ran to Amaterasu's side.

Amaterasu strained to lift her head, appearing glad to see Waka. But when he reached down to stroke her fur, she gave a soft bark that somehow managed to hold a sharp edge of warning, like she would bite him if he didn't back away. Was she not happy to see him, for some reason angered by his presence? With a painful heave of her body, she barked again, with a louder, more forceful tone. This time, Waka sensed an undercurrent of urgency in her warning, as if she were telling him to look out. He noticed her gaze, fixed not on him, but on something behind him, so he turned around to see what Amaterasu was trying to warrn him of.

It was, of course, Yami, lusting for more precious blood. Waka drew his sword, his grip on its hilt firm and resolute as he. Yami rolled forward, coming at Waka with the same claw used to harm Amaterasu—this Waka knew, for her blood coated it with a glistening red gleam seen in flashes by the dim light of the softly glowing runes etched in the Ark of Yamato's walls. Waka caught the attack with his blade, and safely deflected the claw, throwing it back at its owner.

Yami backed away—not to retreat, but to give himself sufficient distance between him and his target to launch his next attack, a charged beam of laser light that instantly vaporized all in its way. But this dangerous attack required time to gather the energy needed to unleash such destruction. And while Yami charged his energy, his true self—a vulnerable fetus of an unknown species floating in a glass bowl—was left open to attack. Waka saw this as his chance to strike, but he knew he'd have to act quickly, for it only took seconds for Yami to charge up the required energy. Waka utilized his instantaneous transporting ability to teleport closer to Yami, a faint glint of sparkles shimmering in the air around the prophet as he moved, in the blink of an eye, to within sword's reach of Yami.

Waka's sword shattered the glass ball in which Yami perched, and pierced the strange fetus's heart, killing the Lord of Darkness instantly with the fatal blow. But at the same time, the strike released the energy, the destructive light Yami had been storing for his attack. The light, impossibly bright for something created by a creature so soulless and black-hearted, blinded Waka and burned like flames on his skin. He teleported away swiftly as possible, for surely the unleashed light of destruction would have incinerated him, reduced him to little more than ashes were he to have lingered an instant longer.

Yet Waka dismissed his new wounds and the pain that accompanied them for the white wolf lying on the floor beside him. He knelt down next to Amaterasu and ran a hand along her silky white fur. His hand halted its course when it came across the deathly wound inflicted on Amaterasu by the recently deceased Yami, warm and slick with blood. He then continued to stroke her, even though the action exacerbated the burns on his hand. And, to try and conceal his own suffering from Amaterasu, he attempted to control his expression, which threatened to twist into a pained grimace. But try as he might, Amaterasu sensed his pain straightaway.

Amaterasu then lifted her brush-like tail and moved it in a deliberate, methodical manner, sweeping it back and forth over some invisible object. And, for just an instant, Waka felt a chilled sensation wash over him, soothing and healing his recent burns, closing earlier wounds and erasing the scars, cleansing away the scrapes and bruises. Amaterasu, using her divine Rejuvination technique, had healed all his injuries in less than a second. But if she was capable of healing him so simply . . .

"Why have you not healed yourself, Amaterasu?" Waka asked her. She could have healed herself instantly with a flick of her tail, so why didn't she? Unless . . . she had decided that it was her time, had decided to give up. "Amaterasu . . . Ma chérie . . ."

Amaterasu gazed up at him, a soft smile shining in her golden eyes, along with her message to him. I'm sorry, Waka, her eyes said. I'm afraid I won't be coming home with you. It had been Amaterasu and Waka's wish to return to the Celestial Plain, their home in the sky, together. But Amaterasu knew she wouldn't survive her fatal injury, and Waka knew it, as well. He knew, but it didn't make watching her die any easier. "Amaterasu . . ." Waka said once more, choking on the tears spilling from his eyes.

Amaterasu responded by straining to lift her head. Waka saw that she couldn't, and did so for her, supporting her head with his hand in place of her vanished strength. Amaterasu closed the distance between her face and his, and licked away his tears with a very human gentleness. The caring gesture reminded Waka of the past, of the sorrow, pain, and joy.

He recalled when he was a child, the time he'd been separated from his parents. He'd spent countless days searching for them, to no avail. He'd then concluded that they were gone forever. He remembered how Amaterasu had comforted him, licking at his tears until they'd ceased, and how she'd given him the courage to start looking once again.

And when he had made that horrible, horrible mistake of leading Amaterasu's people, the Celestials to the Ark of Yamato and thus to their deaths at the claws of the demons residing within the vessel, he'd come to her pleading for forgiveness. She'd forgiven him in a heartbeat, revealing to him her earnest, trusting spirit. That spirit and her gracious forgiveness had moved him to tears, and she again wiped away his tears with her gentle tongue.

And here she was now, doing the same as she had in the past, licking his tears away. Though that should have consoled him, the knowledge of her impending death turned comfort to anguish. He couldn't lose her, but she was dying before his eyes. Waka pulled Amaterasu into his arms, cradling her as if she were a small pup. He could feel the soft thrumming of her weakening heart and her faint breath, warm on his arm as it blew in and out of her failing lungs. She was dying. She was dying, and Waka couldn't do a thing to help her. She was dying of her own will, for the land she vowed to protect, for the people who believed in her.

Amaterasu, with one last loving, smiling gaze to Waka, closed her eyes, and never opened them again.

He knew. Waka knew she had died. She had died there in his arms. And without her to stop the flow of his tears, they poured freely down his face as he lay her broken, lifeless body down. He walked away with a grave determination in his stride. Amaterasu may not be able to return home to the Celestial Plain and restore peace there now, but he was now to be the one to do so. It was left to him to bring a new era of peace to the world, so he would. As he took control of the Ark of Yamato and set its course for the Celestial Plain, he prayed to Amaterasu's departing soul promising her peace down in the land of mortals and in the heavens. He finished the prayer with one last thought:

May I see you again someday . . .

~END~

Well, this is just another oneshot I came up with, an alternate ending to the game's storyline. Now, don't ask me why I always make such morbid fanfics, even I don't know that . . . Just don't forget to review, okay?