A/N - For extra credit in my literature class, we had to write a sestina (which was trickier than I thought it would be!), and I decided to see if I could write one about what would happen if Judal and Hakuryuu got their way in the end. I ended up getting 100 on my fan fiction :)

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"Here lies everything, the world I wanted at my feet

My victory's complete, so hail to the king..."

-Everything You Ever, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

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Straight-backed and proud sits the emperor,

Lean and smirking is the magician,

And all around them are streaks of blood

On the walls, pillars, and prized golden throne,

Won by a lifetime of tears, battle, and fire.

Now, they are alone in the dead of night.

It doesn't matter to him, this bleak and frozen night.

I have lived my whole life in darkness, thinks the emperor,

The boy I once was did not survive the fire.

"Can't you relax even now?" asks the magician.

"Can I never please my king? You have your throne -

Do you suddenly object to paying for it in blood?"

He considers it, considers all the ones who shed their blood.

His father and brothers, that first fateful night,

Then every thief who had tried to claim the great empire's throne,

And each traitor who defied him, the true and rightful emperor.

The golden-haired warrior, the red-eyed beauty, the child magician,

The six wielders of magic, wind, water, blades, space, and fire.

Once he had loved them, each one of them, but he had burned them away in his own fire.

"Is that really your concern? Was not their blood

Worthless to you? A fair price to pay, I say," remarks the magician.

He remembers his mission, that he had faithfully sworn himself to that night.

To slay the monsters that had stolen so much from him, crowned a false emperor,

Forced him into servile, bristling bows before them, while they sat on his throne.

He can have no regrets; he has fought through thirteen years of strife to sit this throne.

"The ties of friendship and of family cannot survive in hatred's fire.

I promised myself to vengeance, and I will thrive on that," declares the emperor.

"I knew from childhood that there would one day be blood

On my hands. And now we have won, shall I thank you, on this victorious night?"

A grin spreads across the pale face of the magician.

"I thought you would never ask," teases the magician.

"I feared now that I've helped my king win his throne,

He'll leave his poor loyal partner alone in the cold night."

Both feel their hearts beat faster, their veins running with fire.

The magician moves onto the throne stained with blood,

Onto the lap of the silently grateful, finally smiling emperor.

He locks eyes with his magician, icy blue into crimson fire,

As he kisses eager lips, pressed to the back of the throne, both heedless of the blood

On their hands from this night, caring only for each other, this magician and emperor.