Author's Note: My first Karas story! Yay, I think, I don't quite think this came out as good as my first Avatar fiction, but I like it, despite it's problems, everybody has those, anyway. So enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Karas. I wish that I did though. The rights belong to Shin Yoshida and Tatsunoko Productions.
"Yurine..."
With his last dying breathe he had called out to her, she had heard him, from deep within a place of darkness, a void. His voice had been her light, guiding her back toward the world, toward the city, her city, toward him.
He lay there, his body spent and bloodied, an unnatural amount already staining the black road about him crimson. She had wanted to shed tears over his state, watching him laying there, dying, because life had been harsh to him, granting him a brother for a father, a mother whom never truly existed because she was never there. A small fleck of hope that was his brother. That was all.
The one who didn't know pain, they had called him, teased and taunted him.
Still, he had wanted to protect the city, and everyone in it, protect the people he loved but did not love him, because it was right. As she watched him laying on the ground, his body shaking even as she lifted him into her arms, cradling his broken form against hers, she knew he knew pain, pain that none other had experienced save himself, alone. Yes, he knew pain, far greater than anyone could ever imagine.
Because it was right.
He had given his everything, his very soul, to the city, to her. So now it was her turn to protect him.
She had gazed back into his eyes, her heart twisting painfully in her chest.
"Don't die, Otoha."
She need not have said the words, she could feel him struggling against death, still to protect everything he had known.
Because it was right.
A human, sacrificing everything for two worlds, when already one of them had cast nothing but misery at him. She had drawn herself to him, her heart filling with raw emotions. A human.
Her lips had drawn close to his, she could feel his breath upon her face. It was her turn to protect him.
She did the only thing she could to protect him, send him into danger. Give him what he wanted, the power to protect the things he cared for. She knew it as he looked into her eyes with the faintest of smiles on his features. She pulled away.
"Now go, Karas!"
She didn't notice much of the battle, too intent on Otoha's state to pay much mind, blood still trickled slightly out of the grievous wounds that he bore, her clothes slightly wet from the red stains, she didn't care. She had, however, watched his final duel with Eko, inflicting the last mortal blow before he vanished into nothing more than a cloud of ash black feathers.
And then the soldiers had come, holding their guns, the sharp cracks renting the air as they fired upon them, she refused too look away, refused to cower, Otoha would save her, he had once and he would again. Her answer was the glittering bullets falling from the air, each split in half in front of her stinging bright orbs. He had gone as far as to lift his sword to man, but still needn't killed him, he couldn't, he had sworn to protect all of the city.
Because it was right.
They had left then, simply vanished into thin air, along with every last Fiend, back to their own world. For now.
Yurine knew immediately were she would take his body, the bleeding had stopped altogether and the wounds already healing of their own volition. It
was a secret place, a place she would come to visit, unknown even to Otoha, the place they had first made the covenant.
The field was lush green, the grass swaying in a none-existent wind, in the middle of the glade a pool of water, fed by an unseen stream glistened and twirled as the waters caught the light, sending it back around it's surroundings with blinding brilliancy.
She laid him out gently, cradling the back of her hand, his eyes were closed. Perhaps he was asleep. Her body leaned over his, as she lifted her hand and pressed away the bangs of his hair from his eyelids as she gazed down at him.
"Rest here, Otoha, I will watch over you." Her voice was gentle as she spoke, as soft and calm as the whispering wind about them. She canted her head slightly, ripping a piece of the cloth from her shirt and wetting it in the water, slowly bathing away the blood from his face and neck.
Her body arched momentarily above the still figure, long enough for the faintest of contact between her mouth and his.
"Thank you, Otoha. For everything, for what you've done, what I couldn't do. You saved all of us." The words came up hard past the lump in her throat, a single tear trailing along her left cheek. She knew he hadn't done what he had for thanks, though.
He had done it for everyone, and everything.
Perhaps one day, in another place and another time. She would find the words to express her thanks.
Because it was right.