I was working on another fic when this idea popped into my head like the mystical plot bunny that it is. I've never had a plot bunny for these two before, so I figured "Why not? I need the practice". Anyway, there aren't anywhere near enough fics about either of them (let alone both!)

Mystique

It has been far too long since he stood here. He has almost missed it, but that would imply that he actually liked it here, and he's never been one for ruins – or mountains, for that matter.

He seats himself cross-legged in the middle of the floor and waits, calm, centred, unafraid. The master of this place will already know he is here. After all, he misses nothing with those strange blue eyes of his. Sitting here to wait is nothing more than a formality.

Footsteps would be too much to hope for. The black boots appear in his field of vision as silently as the stars come out at night.

"The heavens foretold that you would be here."

Ryuutarou lowers his head, unwilling to look into the blazing eyes of the Master of Jupiter. "I came as fate guided me."

The boots turn and stride away, moving up the steps to the high throne. When he hears the faint rustle of cloth, Ryuutarou risks a glance upwards between the strands of his hair and finally sees the Guardian of Mist Mountain.

Dynamis hasn't changed a bit.

Then again, that is what Ryuutarou expected. The fates had not declared that the wielder of Jade Jupiter should be different to what Ryuutarou remembered from his lessons here, many years ago. The white, high-collared robe. The black boots and trousers, bound with white cloth. The pale, almost lilac hair. The hair is a little longer, perhaps, but getting a hairdresser up here must be a pain. Dynamis looks elegant and relaxed, but Ryuutarou can feel him sizing up his old student, perhaps wondering why the heavens had willed him back to the arms of Mist Mountain.

They do not speak. What is the need? They both know that the other knows exactly what they are about to say, and can mentally construct the complete conversation in less than half the time it would take to speak aloud. It is fated that it should happen this way.

At least, until the mental voice of Dynamis says "So why are you here?" and Ryuutarou realises that actually, he doesn't have the slightest idea.

His fate drew him here, but that was all he knew. He had followed, as he always did, not realising until now just how blind that faith in a few dying flowers had been. He reaches automatically for the lidded bowl of water in his pack, feeling Dynamis' eyes on him all the while.

Dance for me, petals in the water. Tell me why I am here. Tell me why my fate has sent me to this place.

The petals spread out, and Ryuutarou bends close, watching the reflection of the night sky settle into mirror-smoothness. At the right moment, his fan ripples the air, causing tiny waves in the dish that send the flowers bobbing in irregular patterns. He is about to speak when Dynamis sighs.

"Why do you persist with this foolishness?" he asks, breaking the silence at long last, and Ryuutarou isn't sure if it is anger or disappointment in his voice. Either one is bad, and he shrugs uncomfortably. He knows what Dynamis means.

"It keeps me off the streets," he mutters, knowing that in this open, echoing hall he will be heard no matter how quietly he speaks. Sometimes he feels that even his thoughts can be heard by the tall, pale-haired, white-robed man seated on the throne. "Fortune-telling gets their attention where nothing else will."

Dynamis nudges the bowl with the floating petals with the toe of one boot. "Party tricks," he scoffs as the water laps against the side. "Good for confusing weak-minded opponents, but with no real power. There is no fate in flower petals."

A rush of anger clouds his thoughts. "Says the man who looks for the future in burning spheres of gas a thousand million miles away from Earth," Ryuutarou sneers. "You do know that the light from your beloved heavens is just a billion-year-old picture of what the universe used to be? Not some mystical prophecy."

Dynamis' eyes blaze. "That is enough," he snaps, standing and tipping the bowl over in one fluid movement. "You know not of what you speak."

Now Ryuutarou laughs, and the sound is bitter in his mouth as he too stands, realising that he's almost of a height with his old master. "Don't I? Then why are you so angry?" He smiles as cruelly as he can manage. "Touch a nerve, did I?"

The water drips down the steps of the throne, turning the dusty stone to blackness. A half-crushed petal teeters on the lip of one step, not quite falling, not quite steady. Dynamis is silent.

The world aches.

"You've met him," Dynamis says suddenly, quietly. "You've met Gingka."

Ryuutarou blinks and looks away. "Yes," he says finally. "Yes, I've met him."

To his surprise, Dynamis is smiling when he looks back again. "That would explain a lot," the pale-haired man says softly. "Gingka tends to have that effect on people."

Oh.

So maybe Dynamis does understand the mystery that is Gingka Hagane. Ryuutarou closes his eyes, seeking the memory of that vision that changed, so long ago and so far away. "I bound him with ropes of fire and imprisoned him in ice and still he slipped through my fingers," he admits. Dynamis nods, as if he had been expecting this tale. Silly, Ryuutarou scolds himself. Of course he knows. "I thought that we were fated to meet, that I was fated to defeat him, but he refused to be held to that. He... he changed his fate. I don't understand how."

"He walks under the hand of fate, but fate itself does not touch him," Dynamis says, and his voice is distant and full of mystery. "No matter what he does, these events will find him, and there is nothing he can do to prevent them. But as for his actions? They are undecided. Even the heavens do not know which way he will turn next."

The flower petal cannot cling to the edge any more, and drifts silently onto the lower step. Ryuutarou wonders if it knew it was fated to do so, and whether it clung helplessly to the ledge in the hope that its fate could be changed. But nothing could change fate, he had been taught. Nothing could change the will of the heavens, Dynamis had told him.

He had clung to that idea ever since, just like the flower petal had clung to the stone. Was the water of time going to wash him free of his precarious perch as well?

"King Hades had a prophecy." Dynamis speaks again, looking up at the sky. "But it was broken. I thought that was because the will of the heavens was stronger than the greed and arrogance of a human who dared to proclaim that he would one day rule again when that was not what was written above."

He falls silent for so long that Ryuutarou wonders if he has forgotten what he was going to say. Then, finally, Dynamis whispers, "I was wrong."

The light from a million burnt-out balls of hydrogen flickers through the atmosphere. Ryuutarou stays as still as he can, because this is strange, this was not in the fate he saw for tonight, and he is now in the dark about what is going to happen next.

It is a surprisingly pleasant feeling.

"It was broken because Gingka refused to walk any path but the one that he wanted to tread. The heavens – fate, destiny, whatever you want to call it – threw everything at him. Storms prevented us from getting to the island. The helicopter was too heavy by three people's weight. The Summer Blader refused to join Zeus' Barrier – and then he was lost. Zeus's Barrier was broken when it was finally fully set up. Nemesis had everything – the Black Sun was descending. If that wasn't a sign that the heavens were..." He stops suddenly, as if aware of what he is saying.

"That either the heavens were not in control, or that they wished Nemesis to be victorious," Ryuutarou finishes, knowing suddenly what his old master was going to say. "But it was not victorious."

"No," whispers Dynamis. "I don't understand. The heavens told everything, and I thought I knew what they desired... what they ordered. Was... was I wrong all along, perhaps?"

Ryuutarou looks up at whatever it is that Dynamis is still staring at in the sky, and realises that Cygnus burns bright above them, a powerful guardian for all bladers who walked under the constellations. He realises something.

"Maybe we're not meant to know," he says, and doesn't realise that he's spoken aloud until Dynamis' astonished stare becomes an almost physical heat on his skin. Ryuutarou meets his eyes. "We both thought we understood our futures. Gingka made us realise we didn't. So maybe we're not meant to know any more."

"So we've been proved unworthy?" Dynamis splutters. "We're being punished?"

Ryuutarou shrugs. "We did both defect to the other side for a while. Gingka rescued both of us."

"That wasn't my fault," Dynamis growls. "They forced the necklace onto me and my will couldn't overcome it."

"And neither could the will of the heavens," Ryuutarou can't help but needle, grinning all the while. "Maybe the stars wanted you to be humiliated."

"And maybe they want you dead," Dynamis snaps, but there isn't very much venom in his voice, so Ryuutarou figures it's safe to assume he is joking.

They stand there in silence for a long time, watching the stars wheel overhead and trying to work out where Jupiter might be. Ryuutarou has just decided that the huge gas giant must be below the horizon when Dynamis sighs.

"It's just so untidy."

"What?" It's not the first unexpected thing that Dynamis has come out with that evening, but Ryuutarou genuinely cannot think of what Dynamis might be talking about.

"Free will," the pale-haired man says. "If we're all fated or destined for something, then that keeps everything in its proper place, and the world works according to a proper system. As soon as people can choose freely, it messes the whole thing up."

Ryuutarou frowns. "But choosing what to do... it's different. It's nice."

"Too different."

"Not really. It just means that you have to take responsibility for your own failings instead of saying that it was fated so to be." Ryuutarou's frown deepens. "Or something like that."

Dynamis returns to staring at the sky. "I think that we can just agree that Gingka makes life far too complicated."
"Good complicated, though. Fun complicated."

"No. Bad complicated."

Ryuutarou realises where this discussion might end up going, and shuts up. He glances down. The pool of water is around his feet now, the flower petal lapping against his shoe. He picks it up, and shakes the excess water off before holding it out on the palm of his hand. It was just so easy to get caught up in the river of fate. Even when someone pulled you out, there was always the wind to blow you away to who-knew-where, and you could never be certain that it was your decision, could you?

Could you?

"There's supposed to be a meteor shower tonight," Dynamis offers. It is a peace-pledge, Ryuutarou knows this, and for a second he considers refusing. He hates this place anyway, and he wants to get back to his nice, warm camp at the foot of the mountain. It's not as if he can't watch the meteors from there, after all. Dynamis actually looks slightly surprised, as if he can't believe the words that have come out of his mouth, so he probably doesn't truly want Ryuutarou there. It will be freezing up here when the night rolls in, secluded as they are above the clouds. All the signs are suggesting that Ryuutarou should follow fate back down the mountain and away from this hot, dry country that is so different to his native Japan.

But whilst fate may have a final purpose for him, Ryuutarou has no intention of following its every whim for the rest of his life. He knows how to be free now. He is no longer bound. He can follow his own will.

"Sure," he says, shrugging away the heavy mantle of fate for one night, at least. Then he grins. "Bet you weren't expecting me to say that."

Dynamis throws back his head and actually laughs.