Hi, this is a sort of prequel to another of my fics, "Paying Debts" Standard disclaimer applies, I don't own anything anyway so don't bother sueing.
Remembering Anubis
Four armored figures stood alone on a worn wooden bridge overlooking a torpid river. Each had only one thought running through his or her mind as they peered at their images reflecting up at them in the starlight.
It's finally over. He's gone. We are free.
Night sounds resounded unheard through the Netherworld's night. Each figure was too overwhelmed with the suddenly open prospects of their futures to take any heed of the all too familiar noise.
It had been a very long time since they had to think of their own futures.
The silence of the figures was suddenly pierced by a broken gasp of shock from the brown-armored warrior on the end. Without a word he took off towards something shinning in the moonlit night. The others followed after a weary glance to their fellows, almost afraid he had seen something to wake them from this beautiful dream. Almost anticipating this nightmare's end.
They found their fellow kneeling in the soupy muck of the riverbank. His noble form bowed and hesitant. The warrior of darkness and his discovery were shrouded in shadows.
"What is it Kale?" Dais asked in hushed tones, his friend's back was to them and they could see nothing of what he stared so intently at. Kayura noticed the hardened warlord begin to shake slightly and quickly went to his side, partly out of concern for him and partly out of curiosity.
Her hand flew to her mouth to stifle a gasp of grief and her expressive eyes widened. Slowly she stood up to face the other two, leaving Kale kneeling in the loam. Tears began to form in her eyes
"Anubis…" she choked just loud enough for Sekhmet and Dais to hear above the gentle lapping of the river. "He's found Anubis." Almost instinctively Dais came forward to look at his fallen, once comrade, and opened his arms to the last of the Ancients. She buried her face in his chest and began to tremble with suppressed tears. With a glance at the embracing pair, Sekhmet lowered himself into the mud beside Kale, head bowed with respect. The wet muck of the river coated his shin guards but he didn't care. He couldn't bring himself to look on the face of his former rival and once, long ago, his best friend. His eyes instead shifted to Kale's features. He was startled to see the shadowed traits of the wolfish warrior marred with the glistening trails of a pair of tears. His hand fell comfortingly on his friend's back, and Kale looked up at him, his face expressionless, but for the tracks of wetness making their way down his handsome face.
Slowly, the green-haired Sekhmet turned to face the still figure of the Warlord turned priest, and gently he lifted him from the shallow water to cradle his cooling body against his chest.
Somehow it seemed right that the last expression the dignified face would wear was one of serenity and peace. With a shock he realized what it was that had separated them from the man who had once dwelled in the empty shell lying lifeless in his arms. Anubis had always known things they didn't. Especially at the end. Anubis had known what it was to be so loyal to a cause that one would gladly die for it. He had known sacrifices had to be made for anything worth having. He had known the cost of their actions, and most important he had known the value of friendship and freedom. He had known the value of others.
"He looks…composed. He didn't regret it… Look at him. He gave his life as if it were the least he could do to defeat Talpa's evil…" Kale's face looked haunted now. Gone was the expressionless mask of before. Another tear slipped down the trail made by the scar beneath his eye. "Were we ever so sure of anything? Did we ever feel enough for something like that? Can we again?"
Anubis had always been the best of them; Kale kept seeing him in his mind. Flashes of brilliant strategies laid out on the spur of the moment to save the day. His grace, speed, skill and coordination even in the heavy armor. He was perfection itself with his weapon of choice. The strength in his features, and pride when he would face Talpa for them all after a group failure. He was a true leader. Kale was closer to Anubis than any of them were. There had been a time, near the beginning, before hatred, cruelty and ambition had woven their threads of solitude through the core of all of their beings, when they had shared a link similar to the link between the Ronins. It was almost hard to remember the time before Talpa's manipulations had corrupted the link, but it was there. A time he treasured, when they had been brothers in arms, closer than blood. The weight of immortality soon weighed upon their spirits, along with their bindings to their dark master, and they grew inexorably apart. Anubis had resisted the corruption the longest, but eventually even he fell into the mold Talpa wished for him. It was many a time in the early years that the young warrior had seemed badly dubbed. Cruelty? No. Anubis had only slowly grown into his role. The youngest had matured into the leader and hardened man Talpa wanted him to be, forced him to be. None of them had really had a choice in the matter. His armor was twisted to cruelty and so became the man.
Kale couldn't even begin to imagine the strength of will it must have taken to unknot the tangled spirit of his armor back into its true shape. It was Talpa's inherent evil, which bent the armor into the trappings of a Warlord. It was his leader, no, his friend's strength of honor that reshaped it and brought it back. Anubis had always maintained his sense of honor. The one virtue, along with loyalty, he had been able to cling too. None of them had been so lucky, or so strong. Even with the resentment the others shared after Anubis became leader, they all knew it was him that kept them together.
"Goodbye my friend, my brother…"He whispered, and almost tenderly pushed the blood red bangs from the still features of the figure in Sekhmet's arms. "I hope you have found your peace at last." His voice was harsh with grief and the unfairness of it all. "How is it that we are given a second chance, and he, to whom we owe everything, is not? We've seen many injustices in our centuries, committed many more than I want to think about, yet this is almost unbearable." His statement was met with silence. None of the others had an answer for him. He stood abruptly and turned from them peering into the heavens, suddenly unable to hold his tears back to the slow trickle.
Dais watched Kale's back begin to shake with sobs. Kayura had quieted against him, her ragged breathing the only sign of her outburst. Dais, wanted to cry too, but his guilt outweighed his grief.
"My fault." He whispered softly, and gently untangled himself from Kayura to fall to his knees beside Sekhmet. He looked at the shinning copper gold strands of Anubis's hair falling over the Snake Lord's arms. Then up at the face beside his whose eyes were studying his features intently.
"No Dais, this in not your fault. His path was laid out far before you entered the picture."
Kayura looked confused, "How could it be your fault? If anyone is at fault, tis I." Her voice wavered on the last and for a moment she thought she would break down again, but then Dais began to speak.
"If it were not for me, Anubis would never have become a warlord. I found him. I brought him to Talpa before he could discover his power on his own. I led him to this junction, as we all led so many lesser men."
Kayura's hand fell on his shoulder and she knelt beside him to look into his guilt filled eyes. "It is Talpa's fault Dais, not yours. You all had a hand in your fate's here, but in the end it was Talpa's evil that corrupted you."
Sekhmet stared intently at Kayura; "You do not know our stories. We all came to Talpa, seeking wealth," He glanced at Dais, "Seeking revenge," He turned his gaze to Kale who still had his back to them but seemed to be listening. "I came for acceptance. Anubis came for the challenge, a chance to prove himself. We all came of our own free will, but Anubis had less choice in it than the rest of us. If we had been a bit slower or the Ancient a bit faster, he wouldn't have fallen to his ambition. It was fate, not you Dais. You mustn't blame yourself."
Dais didn't reply but he couldn't help but remember. Anubis had been the leader of a good-sized army, which protected a large territory. Dais had been scouting the area when he had caught site of the warrior. He was young and powerful, his aura completely unmasked and almost blinding. They had been searching for another of the armors ever since he had joined. It was a race with the Ancient to see who could get to him first. Blind luck allowed Dais to find him before the priest. A few well spun illusions and skillfully chosen words and Anubis was on his way to the Dynasty. Talpa had rewarded him well for finding the warrior of spring. He was especially pleased to note that said warrior had Ancient blood in his veins. The Ancient had made an attempt persuade Anubis as soon as he had found out. In truth he had been only hours behind the Spider Warrior, but he was too late. Still he had almost accomplished his task; Anubis had wavered until Netherspirits had intervened. The Oni Masho didn't ever recover his memories of that encounter. Dais was responsible for that too.
"I'm so sorry Anubis." The words stuck in his throat. He didn't know how to say goodbye. He wished things had remained as they had been in those first few years. Looking up at the others, he realized they had a chance to get to know each other again, to regain what was lost, but it would never be the same without the auburn haired man there to push them, challenge them, and bolster them. Nothing would ever be the same.
Slowly he took Anubis from Sekhmet and stood with him. He looked young again in death. Much as he had then. The lines of a life too long had marred even his immortally youthful features as it had all of them. His blue-green eyes, sad and tormented the last time he had seen them, were closed in the appearance of a deep blissful sleep. The lines of cruelty and suffering were gone from his visage. He had been so young and eager then, with more power than the rest of them, and greater skill, he hardly needed his intelligence to place him in Talpa's favor. He could remember the day Anubis was given Sekhmet's place at the Emperor's right hand. How Sekhmet had raged about the "brash, and inexperienced youth." It was then the ties that bound them started to unravel. Deep down they all knew he was deserving of the position, but it was Talpa's way to set them at odds with each other. Now they would never know the complete circle of the seasons, of brotherhood, again. Spring was gone, leaving Summer, Fall, and Winter, to cycle through without him, incomplete, unwhole. It wasn't right.
Kale turned back to face the maroon clad warrior and they all watched as Dais strode over to a blooming cherry tree just up the bank, which had miraculously survived the fight. "You were the warrior of spring, my friend, and I know you always loved the cherry trees. Rest well, I can think of no better monument to you then this living marker. You will be sorely missed." His voice carried to the others as he composed the limbs of the fallen warrior beneath the tree. Never again would the teal eyes flash with laughter, or the thrill of battle, Dais just hoped he had found the peace he sought in the place his eyes looked on now and forever. He stood and backed away a few steps, to stand in silence. Resting here Anubis's body would soon return to the world that he had died to protect. Upon turning his head he saw both Kale and Sekhmet nod in acceptance of this choice of a burial place. Anubis would have approved as well. No dark and lifeless grave could do justice to his soul.
Without further word the three warlords headed back towards the castle. Already the link they had once shared was returning it would never be complete with out Anubis, but no words were needed between them. None of them looked back. Kayura stood upon the bridge for a long time after Dais and the others had disappeared from view. The armor of Loyalty sat oddly on her shoulders. It knew she wasn't its master, it merely tolerated her. It was the loss of the armor that had killed him. Its spirit so tightly intertwined with his own that the un-entanglement had severed the bond between body and soul.
The warlords regretted the loss of their leader, but Kayura felt the burden most. He was the closest thing to kin she had, though they barely knew each other, and he had died to free her. She knew nothing about being the Ancient, and he couldn't teach her. She would have to learn and adapt herself. Not an easy thing for an immortal to do. They were all too stuck in their ways. Of them all, only Anubis had been able to adapt to the times, but they would learn. For his sake, they would acclimate themselves to this time and place and aid the Ronins in the protection of the human race. "We will not make you regret your choice, noble friend. They are right, things will never be the same without you, but perhaps, because of you, we can make the future even better. Thank you, for what you did, I will see that your memory never dies."
Had she stayed she would have seen the ghostly figure of a white haired man in a straw-hat bend over a body clad similarly to his own. She would have seen the reposed figure suddenly flare with an Inner Light and disappear with a gesture from the transparent monk. She might even have heard him speak.
"Do not grieve my children, spring fades into summer into fall, into winter, but Spring is the season of rebirth, and some cycles are not easily broken. Though things look bleak, the spring always comes again. When the seasons join the elements will the lost be found once more, and stronger links then before made to bind the nine." A strange tinkling sound would have then filled her ears made by rings dangling from a golden staff held comfortably in the apparition's vague hands before he too vanished.
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