A/N Here's the much requested fight scene! I originally intended for this to be a oneshot but figured there was more to expand on. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter and will return for the last one!


Barely a breath passed through Sariatu's paper white lips before a burst of cold wind rushed through the throne room. Less than a pulse of time had come and gone between The Moon Kings utterance of the offender's name before his emotions struggled to contain themselves. This happened often enough that none of the sisters moved or showed signs of life in the face of such chilling and earth shattering outbursts. They had long ago become numb to it… at least, when it was so sudden. When a mortal dared interfere with his perfect world, his rage could be felt for days, released in dark, ugly flares.

In the Spirit World, nothing was hidden between the little family, including subtle and sometimes unreadable emotions or desires. Such a life had been led for generations of gods and goddesses that lived before The Moon King and with the exception of the few sisterly secrets and the things Sariatu refused to share even in the security of her dreams. This law was followed more for sentiments sake than anything else, her father wanted her to believe; but the youngest Moon Daughter had always been one to peer past the veil of supposed truth. His desire for an honest dialogue stemmed, as she and her sisters had expected, purely as a way of keeping them loyal and in line. Dishonesty and rebellion were mortal feelings and passions- traits a goddess was to be far from copying.

And so, the harsh winds of the pantheon roared around his robes, inky black fog scattering wildly before dissipating. The three of them sat complacently, knowing that no combination of words or pleas could stop their father's rage when he burst.

This lasted for only a few seconds until a final gust slammed the doors shut again, returning the room to near silence and near harmony. Realizing his outburst, the all powerful god's eyes swelled back to life from beneath the tides of inhuman darkness and he took a deep breath. The lanterns flickered chaotically with his heartbeat and resting pulse. Through the side of her eye, Sariatu could see the tiniest grin on Harumi's waifish features, her soulless black eyes glimmering with a distant and seemingly forgotten sense of joy. It seemed as though she recalled

the effects of her father's anger on the world below, and her smile only magnified her stance towards her position. It was almost as if she could see the suffering and misery brought upon the mortals in any form of natural disaster and could see their lives being snuffed out in bursts akin to the many failing lanterns in the throne room.

But the emotion disappeared as quickly as it had surfaced from unfathomable depths, and the lanterns, in tune with her father's obsessive desire for harmony, relit themselves.

"I apologize, my children." He said wryly, glaring at the ground. Silence prevailed as the three of them bowed, silently acknowledging his mistake and forgiving him, as they always eventually did.

"We understand father." Harumi answered quietly, speaking for the three of them as she so often did despite the annoyance it bored to the younger sisters. "You have not expressed such anger in decades- such an outburst is warranted."

"Let us not waste time on condolences." Miyuki cut her off before more could be said. "This is an urgent matter, sister."

Sariatu nodded in agreement. "We have a name to follow. I presume you know his location?" She pressed, her tone echoing the missions importance beautifully. At this, her father seemed unimpressed; almost contemptuous.

For a brief moment, her stomach churned. It was almost as if he was taunting her to answer the question she'd just asked. It was almost as if he somehow knew. The heavens stilled for what felt like an eternity in the family's silence.

But this emotion faded into the cascading ripples of wrinkled skin, leaving only the dying coals with limpid disappointment. "The samurai came to possess the shamisen at a young age. It seems that whatever form of magic he wields disturbed the balance tonight. The magic is still weak enough, so I can pinpoint his location." The Moon King silenced them both with an ice cold glare and a voice that sliced like ribbons of glass. "I saw him in a vision hours earlier. He is in our family temple." He concluded gravely.

Miyuki released a low growl and Harumi quivered in rage. Sariatu kept her composure, but felt her heart lurch with a beat of life. The samurai was at a temple. Not just any temple. Their temple. The one so sacred only select mortals dared to beg for mercy and a sunrise the next morning whilst the rest of them left offerings of varying degrees of usefulness on designated days of celebration. The one that had been constructed by the Moon King himself to serve as a symbol of his all-powerful reign over the nights sky.

There was no level of dishonor that Hanzo could sink to that would warrant him anything less than a brutal death now.

"How do you know he has not gone?" Sariatu questioned with trembling rage.

Her father's eyes shut for a moment, a pulse of energy surging through the throne room as the lanterns again danced with the winds. "I sense the disturbance now. The longer he remains, the more irreparable his damage shall become."

"Then his blood will run the ground red." Harumi's tone shook with rage, head crumbling to her knees in disbelief as if the energy was being sucked from her veins. "We will not fail you, father."

"I know." The Moon King settled his stance in the center of the trio, hands folded neatly behind his back. A small, knowing grin twinged at the corner of his lips, watching his eldest squirm with desperation to end the threat to their happiness. "You are dismissed."

With necessary order, they rose in uniform, each sliding their masks over their features to hide the vicious glares beneath porcelain white skin and ruby lipped smiles, black, soulless eyes peering from behind what they chose to hide from the mortals who feared the unknown that accompanied unblinking pools of black and a frozen, falsely benign smile. They had been crafted to hold no difference, as to show equal importance and balance of power within the Moon Sisters. Floating only inches above the ground, they glided swiftly down the hall towards the garden.

Only when their father was well out of physical earshot did the girls resume their conversation. "Are there any objections to me snuffing his life out myself?" Miyuki's bone thin fingers curled around her holster, sword gripped in thin, white knuckled fury.

Harumi scowled through the mask. "You're surely not that stupid."

"You dare call me stupid?" Miyuki responded through gritted teeth. "You were the one to release that damned prince two decades ago because you were-" A cold, metallic claw roped around her throat, and through the smiling mask Sariatu could only stare at the broken frown and the gasp of air that were easily seen behind the still, unmoving smiles painted on the masks.

She bit her lip behind the mask, unable to move in the face of her eldest sister's rage that could easily be dealt towards her with one wrong slip of the tongue. Miyuki almost never learned her lesson with each attempt to bring her egotistic matriarchal sister back down from the heavens to earth, so to speak. This had been the next escapade of what seemed like a thousand where the middle sister provoked the eldest and tensions boiled over into an action-packed battle that would usually end with no injuries, as their immortality refused to grant such things.

The chain attached to the claw shivered with Harumi's anger. Through the choking gasps of her sister she seemed to realize there was no point to such a petty argument and the claw released, recoiling itself back into the neatly strung bundle around her belt where the end clicked into the handle of a scythe. Miyuki stared blankly into the stones of the garden as she fell to her knees, hand drifting to her neck.

"Sariatu." Harumi snapped her head towards her youngest sibling who immediately straightened herself. "You will be the first to go. We will follow your efforts to catch the mortal off guard… once he is down, I expect you to make the final blow."

A moment of strangled silence passed between the three goddesses as Miyuki recovered, righting her stance before joining her sisters inches above the ground. Sariatu wished for a moment that they had not worn their masks- even she was powerless to read her sister's intentions beyond what her cold, black eyes and rigid, stoney frown could portray. It was easy enough to see her expression behind the mask, but what lay beyond the second mask was forever a mystery to her.

But the one, simple word that would have granted her the answer she so craved died in her throat. Then a wave of realization passed over her as soft and slowly as the foamed-soaked tide. The question quickly returned in a different form.

Why was she asking this? Why was she questioning any of her older sister's decisions? She had only led three missions in the past, all of them succeeding to various degrees. She rarely dealt the final blow to the mortal- such a thing Harumi prided herself in doing so well - or was given more power than her age permitted. She had even been wanting to lead their next mission for months, now.

Now.

She nodded, bowing lightly in her elder sister's direction. "I will not disappoint you, my sisters."

"Your place on this mission is no more important or serious than the rest of us." Harumi answered. "Remember sister, we are equals in this universe. And down on earth is and never will be an exception. You are still young, and this mortal wields a weapon stronger than any one of us alone. Father sent all of us on this mission because he knew it would take our combined powers to stop such a powerful force. I don't expect either of you get carried away or assume your strengths do not have limits in the world of humans."

Sariatu cast a nod in their direction. "I understand what is required of me, and I'm well aware of the dangers." With this she stared towards the moon, her father's gaze upon them forever and always, whether they liked it or not. "I will not let myself fail."

A moment of silence passed over the three of them before Harumi broke it. "We have a mission to complete." She answered coldly, chiding her youngest sibling for wasting precious time.

Sariatu had disappeared into the night's sky before either of her sisters could continue their petty criticisms. She was an all powerful goddess. The guiding light of the moon as her witness, she would not be weak in such a critical moment… not now. She was no mere mortal. She was a Moon Daughter.

And no samurai could ever change her blackened heart. Even one as charming as Hanzo.


The Temple of Bones was silent as Sariatu slowed her descent towards the earth, the massive full moon blotting away the light of the millions of stars in the sky. The world beneath them was deep in the throes of autumn, a breathtaking sight on any mere day as the crystalline beams shimmered in the shadows of a burning burgundy forest. Stray leaves of various colors twirled in her soft connection with the ground, black mist pouring from her fingertips as her rage simmered in the cool November night.

The temple itself was far too quiet as to not arouse suspicion. It was a modest structure of wood and clay tile, the stone grey walls decorated with shrines dedicated to her ancestors who had long ago given up their immortality in favor of a new lifetime among the stars. Stoney eyes of statues gazed into the leaf littered clearing as she marched forth, sword clutched in one hand and scythe in the other. Long, paper-like locks of hair billowed in the shadow of her willowy figure, her footfalls not breaking the peaceful atmosphere as to not only keep herself discrete from the samurai but also to pay respect to her family's temple. Her father would surely disown her if any of the damage caused was of her own fault.

Entering the open archway which led into the temple's largest open space, the massive red doors to the enclosed garden swung open with a gentle breeze. Peering with squinted eyes, the trunks and branches of dormant cherry trees sprawled across the blue grass, sheltering it and the cobblestones which ran in a perfectly accurate line to the opposite side of the temple.

"I know you're here." She whispered, her voice echoing softly on the walls. The bunches of bloomed potted chrysanthemums shivered in the icy wind of her breath.

"I may be a decent samurai," A familiar voice came from behind her. "But hiding has always been one of my weaker talents."

Sariatu blanched, lips pressing into a thin line. Her feet circled on the paved stepping stones, throwing her weight into her scythe wielding arm. But the instant her eyes saw the man, she was struck still, pulse halting and breath choking in her throat. As another pause of silence went by she thanked the high heavens for the mask she wore which hid her weakness. There was no denying what she felt now.

No, She blinked, dampness swelling in her eyelids. I won't follow Harumi.

With that, the metallic claw sliced through the air, spiny phalanges reaching for the samurai's face. Her eyes darkened to black, empty sockets- blind to his humanity. The claw only dug into the grey stone wall of the interior, a cloud bursting forth from the wall and dusting the vibrantly colored flowers in laces of grey dust and sprinkles of pebbles. The goddess growled and spun back around, the claw catching her momentum and swinging with her movement. The clang of metal on metal echoed in the massive hall as the extension of Sariatu's hand closed in a fist around his immaculately sharpened blade. Black mist began to pool around her like the expanding cloud of ink from a threatened squid.

The tiniest of confident grins surfaced on Hanzo's face as he took his sword and threw his weight into the sterling silver blade, the connected chain catching the girl off guard as she was suddenly thrown from the ground and up into the air; the wave of links cresting and flicking her as easily as an ant. Her hand tore from the scythe and she was left to smash into the wall, convulsing from the sudden impact and lack of breath.

The chain rattled as it scarred the landscape of the garden, the paving stones cracking from the sudden impact. A link snapped somewhere, the tension too much, and the scythe impaled itself in the damp dirt, blade down. The claw itself shivered from its severed limb, froze, and fell to tiny insignificant pieces at the samurai's feet.

She watched as the samurai took the shamisen from where it rested snugly across his back, his other hand revealing a pick. Instantly adrenaline coursed through her veins and she rocketed forward, intent on stopping him by any means necessary. She was only centimeters from decapitating the instrument as its neck with her own sword before he struck a note.

Instantly, a powerful wave of energy pulsed from him and she was pushed back with a force that could rock the heavens, her boots dug into the soil having learned from her last failure. The sound of the weapon assaulted her ears and she let out an agonizing scream that could have awoken the deadest of souls. Fortunately for her, Hanzo was not immune to the banshee scream and was left to clutch his ears, and squeeze his eyes shut, immobilized where he stood. The shamisen fell to the ground, undamaged.

He glared daggers as he stepped over the instrument, leaving it where it lay, realizing such a weapon would be near useless in this fight… was perhaps was it to even the playing field? Either way, he was a fool to doing so. With gritted teeth he removed the sword from it's scabbard and lunged for the goddess, his shadow illuminated in the moon's silver light from the open doors. She quickly blocked it with her own blade, inches from his face, she could see every shard of amber within his eyes. They held not so much rage as they did irritation, as though he had dealt with her kind before.

"What do you want," He pushed his strength into holding the stalemate. Sariatu grinned wickedly.

"Your head in my father's hands."

"That's a bit much, don't you think?" He raised an eyebrow quizzically.

She released a snarl, not moved by mere humor. "You have offended my father." She stared with unblinking eyes. "Now you must die."

With the sentence read, the young goddess released the tension between them and rolled under the warrior's legs, pulsing energy lifting her from the ground. Hanzo was no so easily fumbled by such a tactic and glanced to the moon dial, cracked in the center. A column offered a decent perch.

He bounded across the temple floor for the columns capital. With expert precision, he arced his sword in the air and leapt across the gap. Sariatu, amazed at his stupidity and ingenuity, barely had to time to move from where she floated before the muscular man tackled her to the ground. The blade swung down only to be blocked once more. At a serious disadvantage, she wiggled beneath his weight.

"You're new to this aren't you?" The samurai grinned slyly.

Her still, open ruby lips being the only response he received, the ebony haired bounty hunter bucked her knees as she flipped the warrior over her and onto his back. She sprung to her feet and held her sword to his jugular, smiling even behind the mask. She had him poised and ready for the afterlife. Harumi and Miyuki would surely be impressed.

"Any last requests?" She hissed with a menacing grin.

A cunning smile curved up his stubbled cheeks and he delivered a swipe of his leg to her own, knocking her over with a choked scream. She only just managed to pull herself back to her feet before blocking his swing once more. The of connecting blades echoed in the hall as the two swung at each other and were blocked again and again. Finally, faltering on one of her attempts to make a permanent scar on that unfortunately smug face, Hanzo delivered a blow that knocked her into the ground as she spun, face planting into the cracked paving stone.

She heard the sound of cracking ceramic. She felt the razor-like shard shift and slice through the bridge of her nose, but no blood fell from her translucent skin. With a chilled bead of sweat she realized the samurai was about to deliver the final swing. Thinking fast, the goddess rolled to the side as the sword only grazed the ground. Throwing her own sword up to swing again, she only met his eyes once more.

Then there was a gust of wind that swirled through the quiet temple. She felt the twine around her head wince and slip from its once tightened and precarious position. Before she could release her sword and right her failure, the twine sagged to her neck, and the glossy ceramic broke free from its ties. One piece first over her left eyes, then the next. The pieces descended and shattered loudly on the floor, porcelain white shards scattering across the stone floor. She blinked, as if she'd been lost in a dark cave for weeks and someone had finally shone a torch on her.

Her mouth opened, looking at the handsome warrior again. His expression mirrored her own, albeit much more shock whilst she was lost in the universe of his widening eyes. Hanzo stared, a look of stark recognition compounding into a beautifully confused face. He squinted into her eyes, as if realizing something was there. Both of them were powerless in the face of a quickly growing emotion that neither Sariatu nor Hanzo had ever truly felt upon the heavens or the earth.

His mind raced. Something was definitely familiar about her, from her pulled back tresses of dripping ink to her pale, papery skin that shone like the gloss of her mask. He had seen those eyes before- in solid obsidian and split almond. The only differences he could find were tied to an orange yukata and the twigs of pine and maple lodged in her hair. There was the scent of a fire, the song of crickets, those same small hands hidden not beneath gloves, but modestly long sleeves. The same girl he'd watched from his nightly dreams for months, who always tried to hide herself only to finally falter and disappear into nothingness this very night.

It was his humanity she saw as he lowered his sword. She was powerless to finish the job, weak at her knees as her sword clattered to the ground. He smiled that same, cheesy grin from beneath his wiry beard, eyes shining in her shadow. It was more powerful than anything she had ever seen or dreamt of, his compassion wasn't an illusion of her mind.

He then uttered four simple words. "You are my quest."

Those words changed everything. And that really was the least of it.

At least, that was what she wanted to tell herself.