Second update in as many days. I'm so generous.

Keitaro gets emotional in this one. Please don't be beating me down for it.

I own nothing.

Chapter 7

"W-wha…s-s-so c-c-c-cold…"

Yoko's pained mind struggled to fight off the freezing feeling. All he could feel was his frozen cheek pressed against something he had jumped against. It was just so cold he couldn't remember what it was. Twitching slightly, he attempted to gather his thoughts.

"R-right. I n-need to get m-m-moving. Ok, l-little finger…y-y-you f-first."

Putting all available willpower into his thought, he begged his little finger to move. Nothing happened. Breathing out, Yoko began to panic.

"D-don't worry…s-sights set t-to high. Open my e-eyes…"

Again summoning all his will, he forced his eyes apart. But then something twigged. His eyes hadn't opened. It was like the world had just focused in from black. Groaning internally, Yoko looked around. And around some more. And some more.

"W-what the f-f-f…"

His vision rotated a full 360 degrees until he was looking back at the same boring wall. Shivering again, Yoko noticed something. Just a few feet to his left was a roof corner. Would have been normal hadn't the roof been over fifteen feet over their heads. Frowning as much as the cold allowed, Yoko tried looking down. A small success as his vision turned floor wards. And then his eyes opened slightly in shock. Beneath him sat the group. All of them in the process of being divided. Keitaro stood looking away from the group, not paying any attention to them. And by his side…was him. And none of them were moving. Each was frozen in place like a wax replica of the entire scene. But then movement caught his eye. Yoko gasped.

Keitaro's wax form glowed slightly before relaxing. A deep breath left his body, like he had been holding it for hours. Looking over his shoulder, he tried to move. When he failed to do so, Keitaro looked down. A tear pooled in the side of his eye as he saw Yoko clutching his side like a life line.

"I'm so sorry…"

Yoko saw this all happening and wondered just what was going on.

'Sorry? For what?'

Keitaro gripped Yoko's wrists gently and pulled them from around his waist. Pulling them apart, he laid his body gently on the ground, tears flowing freely from his eyes.

Yoko would have been feeling sorry for Keitaro hadn't the weirdest sensation come over him. He saw Keitaro move his body, but he felt it, like he was lying down there. Which he wasn't. Yoko's stretched mind struggled to take it in.

'Oh, this is too weird…but his hands are soo warm! Oh the heat…must get more…must get closer to Keitaro…'

Slowly his mind began to fade. But the heat Keitaro touched him with began to grow. Grinning as much as his drunken state would allow, he let his mind succumb to darkness as the life giving heat began to spread through out his body.

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Keitaro stood motionless. After regaining the use of his body, he had found his closest friend in years latched onto him, eyes clenched tight as if holding Keitaro would scare everything away. Pulling him off had been the hardest thing Keitaro had done in centuries. It was like Keitaro was rejecting Yoko's cry for help. Or, at least, that's how it felt. More tears slid silently down his cheeks as the frozen echoing screams bounced around the room. Taking a few steps away from the group, Keitaro's shoulders shook silently.

'I hate this…I HATE THIS!!!! WHY CAN'T I JUST FINALLY BE FINISHED?'

Looking furiously around, Keitaro saw a large piece of metal sticking out of the ground. He pounded over to it, tears streaming out after him. Gripping the huge spike, he ripped it out of the ground and held it over his head with ease. More tears fell to the ground as he lifted the one ton object higher.

"WHY CAN'T I JUST DIE?!?!"

Pulling the shard down, the immense splinter buried itself inside Keitaro's torso, the sharp point exploding from his back in a spray of blood.

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Yoko slowly came too. He raised a hand to his head and massaged his eyes. Pausing, he lifted his hand away and looked at it.

"Damn that was a weird dream."

Looking around, Yoko felt too tired to anything. All he saw was his team mates crouched over frozen in place. Raising an eyebrow, Yoko forced himself up on an elbow.

They really were frozen in place.

Reaching out, he touched the nearest person. Their body was icy cold. Getting worried, Yoko looked around for other clues. Quiet sobs reached his ears from behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Keitaro standing there, alone and downcast. His shoulders twitched as he cried gently. To Yoko, Keitaro had never looked more pitiful. He was about to go to see him when Keitaro looked up furiously. Tears streaked down his face as he whipped his head back and forwards, looking for something. His eyes settled on something and he stormed over to it. Yoko saw him aiming for a large piece of sharp metal protruding from the ground. He was about to call out when Yoko's eyes almost popped out of his head. Keitaro had grabbed the thing and ripped it from the ground, holding the massive chunk of metal and concrete above his head. The whole thing was about the side of a bus and yet he held it with ease. Yoko was silenced as shock over came his senses. What the hell was this strength? Keitaro then cried out, his pain filled voice chilling Yoko to the bone.

"WHY CAN'T I JUST DIE?!?!"

And before Yoko could say anything, Keitaro plunged the whole dam thing into his chest. Blood sprayed all over the place, a few droplets even hitting Yoko. But he didn't notice. All he could do was gape at Keitaro. The powerful young man just stood there with about five feet of rod sticking from his spine. But he did not collapse. Instead he pulled the whole thing out and plunged it back in again. And again and again.

Yoko couldn't comprehend what was happening. Here was a man holding something almost one hundred times his own weight over his head with ease. And now he was spearing himself in the chest repeatedly and not dying. Yoko watched on in amazement. He saw the massive gash in Keitaro's back heal up over and over again, no matter how many times he attacked himself. Finally regaining the use of his tongue, Yoko almost called out but was silenced again as Keitaro finally got bored with stabbing himself. Glaring daggers at the object that was unable to kill him, Keitaro flung the giant chunk of metal and rock across the room. Not touching the floor once, it hit the wall and exploded through it. Onwards it flew, smashing through buildings and trees like they were wet paper. Finally loosing its momentum, it came to a rest in a devastated street at least a kilometer from its initial launch zone. Yoko numbly turned his head back to Keitaro. The irate young male was practically staring flames after the projectile. He then turned his gaze to the ground. Little grunts of frustration began to creep from his throat. And then with a cry, he punched himself across the face.

The echoing crack reverberated around the room as the magnitude of the hit collided with Yoko as a shockwave. Almost blown onto his back, Yoko watched on in astonishment as Keitaro began his frenzied rampage. Keitaro stomped around the perimeter of the shed, his feet sinking into the ground, disintegrating the solid cement in explosions of dust and stone fragments. Punches flew everywhere, absolutely obliterating anything they touched. Fists exploded through solid metal sheets, stone pillars had half their side blown apart into dust. Anything within range was hit with the furious balls of anger. Keitaro's body was no excuse. With every incredible hit dealt to his chest or head, Keitaro would be thrown backwards a few feet to land in a crater created by his own body. And every time, he would get back up to continue the assault upon himself and the walls.

Yoko watched as Keitaro continued the torture upon his body. But what really got Yoko was that the whole time, Keitaro was crying. Deep wracking emotional sobs pierced Yoko's heart as he watched the unstable man unleash Armageddon upon himself. After what seemed hours, the hits and cracks began to slow. Eventually they came to a complete stop. Breathing heavily, Keitaro just stood there for a few seconds before collapsing to his knees, crying his heart out.

As fearful of Keitaro as he was, Yoko still felt the need to go over to him. Getting to his feet, he unstably made his way over to the ball of misery. Just out of reach, he took a shaky breath.

"Keitaro?"

Instantly the noises stopped. The boy tensed up for a bit. Then a bloodshot eye appeared over Keitaro's shoulder, looking back at the scared person behind him. Upon seeing who it was, the eye widened in utter astonishment. Keitaro quickly spun round to face Yoko, surprise all over his face. He did nothing but gape up at Yoko, his brain seemingly shut down.

Yoko stood there for a few seconds until he felt really uncomfortable. Steeling himself, he moved forward. Kneeling down in front of his old friend, he gently gripped his shoulders and shook him.

"Oi, Keitaro. Wake up man. It's ok now. I don't know why you did all that stuff but it's ok."

Keitaro looked up numbly at him. "You saw all that?"

Yoko nodded hesitantly. "Yea, right from when you picked up that whopping chunk of ground and tried to kill yourself."

Keitaro hung his head. "Yea. Tried."

The oddity of those two words caused Yoko to frown. "Are you ok? You sound like you want to die."

Keitaro looked up at him, pain apparent in his eyes. "I do. But I can't. You know that."

Yoko thought back for a few seconds. "Uh, no I don't. What do you mean you can't die? Well, I know you can't now. I saw you take hits that would have wiped out an entire army only to get up without a scratch. What are you?"

Keitaro then realised that after he had rewound time the first time, he never told Yoko that he was immortal a second time.

Keitaro then shrugged. "Oh. Oh yea I remember now. I'm immortal."

Yoko would have taken a step back hadn't he been so determined to find out what was going on.

"If I hadn't just seen what I saw, I'd say you were nuts. So, why are you immortal?"

Keitaro shook his head. "I duno. It's just that from birth I could never get hurt by anything. When I hit twenty years old, I stopped ageing. That was about five million years ago. Can you comprehend that? Five million years. The things I have seen and done should never be remembered. But I have lived on and can remember everything. And all those things I have seen just keep filling my head even more. I have a perpetual headache that will not go away. I lose friends all the time. Their lives go too fast for me to even comprehend it. Now can you see why I want to die?"

Yoko's head swelled from everything Keitaro said. Five million years old??? What could that do to a person? Keitaro's depressed rambling continued as Yoko thought. It seemed that such a long time simply sent you into a permanent state of depression. Grabbing Keitaro's shoulders, Yoko gave him a shake. Keitaro stopped his dark talking to look up at Yoko. And Yoko had to look away. His eyes showed such pain that just looking at them made Yoko's soul cry out. He couldn't even comprehend what it must be like living with that.

Summoning up some courage, Yoko looked Keitaro in the eyes again. "So. If you have lived for that long, does that mean you have descendants speckled all across time?"

Keitaro shook his head. "Once I realised I was going to be alive forever, I made the promise to myself to never pass on my curse. I couldn't live with myself if I knew someone else was suffering like me. I can't even live with myself now."

Yoko sat back. Thoughts danced through his mind as he tried to sort out all this information he had just learnt. Keitaro was immortal. He also had inhuman strength, stamina and speed. He was the very epitome of what humans could become. And every day he broke that barrier, showing just how much more a human could do if they had the opportunity. It was all real ground breaking material.

"So, if you are so powerful and all, why don't you show yourself to the human race and try to gather them for a better cause? Surely with a stable direction we could do much good."

Keitaro snorted. "The human race? Bah, it's pathetic. I have tried what you said many times. And every single damn time there will be a group of them that try to capture me and use me like a weapon to gain leverage in politics or something petty like that. So then I have to go into hiding until they all die. It sucks."

Yoko nodded slowly. He could understand that. Deciding to change topic, he looked around.

"So, where are we now? It's like everything is frozen in time."

Keitaro nodded offhandedly. "Yea, something like that."

Yoko paused for a second. That wasn't the answer he'd been expecting.

Keitaro continued. "'Bout a day or two ago I unlocked the 8th sense. Looks like it's time travel."

Yoko stared at him. "Two days ago? But you said you had no idea then!"

Keitaro looked at him. "I didn't then. I've already backtracked to try and save us once. So think it more as two days from my perspective. And all it did was buy us more time. Looks like you can't change the course of things, just alter how they happen."

Yoko struggled to comprehend everything. Keitaro had unlocked the 8th sense!? Thinking about it, that meant that this depressed man was the most powerful thing ever to walk the earth.

Yoko pulled his legs under him. "So, if you can't change what happens, what are you doing now?"

Keitaro shrugged. "I dunno. I was gona go right back to when I was actually twenty. Back then there was none of this fighting, no spirates, no curfews, just average people living life the way they like. The oceans were clean, things actually lived in them. That and the best friends I had ever had lived back then."

Yoko pouted. "I thought I was your best friend."

Keitaro nodded. "Yea, you are. But then over all the years I have lived, I have had a few good friends. You're the best in a long while though. You're the first I have told of my ability to manipulate Ki in…ohhh…two hundred thousand years or so."

Yoko looked at the ground. He felt better knowing Keitaro trusted him. Looking up, he smiled the best smile he could muster.

"So, if your going aaaaaaall the way back to the start of your life, do you think I could join you? I don't fancy living out the rest of my life as a degenerate spirate."

Keitaro smiled weakly. "Yea, I guess I could bring you along for the ride. Though, I don't know how because I don't even know how I saved you from the time stop in the first place."

Yoko thought for a second. "I dunno. It may sound a little seedy but if I'm touching you in some way, say holding your shoulder, I think that protects me from the effects of everything. It would explain why I am here now."

Keitaro nodded. "Ok then. Might as well grab my shoulder now."

Yoko nodded and reached out. Just before touching him, Yoko paused. "Say, can you go forward in time?"

Keitaro nodded.

Yoko smiled. "Sweet! Can we please go forward to see what happens to earth? Like right up until the end?"

Keitaro shrugged. "Why not. It's not like we're wasting time."

Yoko laughed and clapped a hand to his friends shoulder.

Keitaro allowed a smile to creep into his lips. Concentrating, he built up a ball of telekinetic energy. Pushing it out, it met resistance.

"Gearing engaged."

Yoko raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

Keitaro just smiled and rose his right arm. Yoko gasped as suddenly everything began travelling forward at an accelerated rate. He turned and watched the small group behind him seemingly explode into hundreds of wisps before shooting out through the roof.

"So…that's what it looks like."

Keitaro nodded. "Yea. Horrible."

Yoko shifted his body around. Keeping his hand on Keitaro's shoulder, he watched the world around them rotate. The sun and moon traded places four or five times every second. Yoko watched on in fascination as the warehouse around them crumbled quickly. Vines and other plant life quickly shot over the fallen ruins. Now with nothing to obscure their vision, the two of them watched with varied interest as trees grew and died, all within minutes. As time continued, Yoko noticed something.

"Hey, there seems to be a hell of a lot more spirates now."

Keitaro nodded, eyes flickering. "Yea. We're about one thousand years into the future. Seems like there's no humans left."

Yoko tipped his head to one side. "One thousand years? How'd ya know that?"

Keitaro shrugged. "Dunno. I can just tell."

Leaving the question as another one of Keitaro's mysteries, Yoko turned back to face the world. He watched everything change. He saw the town around them crumble, years of degeneration falling the buildings. Plants and animals over took the area. During the extremely brief nights, Yoko saw huge hulking animals lumbering around. Most were as tall as the building used to be, some even taller. Through his thoughts, Yoko heard Keitaro speak.

"Those are probably from the forbidden zone. Now that there are no humans left it looks like they got out. Their evolved forms look quite menacing."

Yoko nodded as he watched everything grow and change. Looking up, he saw that the sun seemed a lot bigger. It was also a deeper red than he remembered.

"How far into the future are we?"

"About ten thousand years."

"Ah."

Yoko now knew what was happening. Watching the sun, he saw it slowly grow in size until it completely filled the horizon. The earth around them was now thoroughly parched of water and plant life. Monstrous creatures roamed the earth, feeling only on the flesh of their companions. Arid desert covered the world, covering all traces that anything had ever lived there. The massive animals all died out, leaving only small mammal like creatures and insects to scavenge over the flat ground. The sun steadily grew until in a massive heave, it exploded. Yoko watched on in amazement as its solar flare rocketed across the globe, the shockwave ripping massive chunks of the earth away from under them. Earthquakes rocked the planet as massive fissures cracked open the crust, allowing white hot magma to bubble up to the surface. Just when it all looked like it was claming down, the remaining cloud of the sun began sinking back into itself. It picked up speed, the earth moving in with it. Yoko stared after it as all the rest of the fifteen known planets that circled the now dead sun were pulled inwards. Reaching the centre of the sun, they all circled a deep black point once or twice before being sucked into the depths of the black hole that now remained of the sun.

Lowering his arm, time slowed down until it stopped. And all alone in the middle of nothingness sat Keitaro and Yoko, safe inside their bubble of time. Finally dragging his eyes from the overwhelming sight before him, Yoko looked up at Keitaro in amazement.

"Wow. That was incredible. …Words just don't describe it."

Keitaro nodded. "Yep. Seems that even if the human race had survived the spirate overthrow, we'd all be dead in…one hundred thousand, two hundred and seven years."

Yoko stared at Keitaro. "How can you tell so accurately?"

Keitaro shrugged again. "Dunno. I just can."

Yoko nodded and looked back out into space. All the trillions of stars sparkled happily, completely unaware of this one sun and its planets death. Sighing, Yoko sat back. Keitaro noticed.

"Well, I guess you should go to sleep. It's gona take a hell of a long time to get back to where I wanna go."

Yoko nodded. "Right-o. Keep me feeling fresh."

Settling down, Yoko made sure he had a leg draped over some part of Keitaro. Lying down, he yawned deeply before closing his eyes. Keitaro smiled and thought quietly to himself for a bit.

'Well, looks like it will be ok. At least, as ok as it can get. The planets dead, there is no remaining trace that humans ever existed. But I am alive with Yoko. That alone is reason enough to keep going I guess. Might as well get on with it."

Taking one last drawn out look around him, Keitaro sighed. Pushing his telekinetic abilities into the resistance, Keitaro slowly raised his left arm. Smiling as everything undid, Keitaro allowed himself a satisfied smile.

'Here I come girls. I hope you don't mind too badly if I bring a friend."

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A/N - And finish for another chapter. I hope I kept Keitaro as realistic as possible…even though he has super strength and stuff.

P.S. - Yes I know that the sun isn't meant to explode for another 4 billion years or something -a - rather. Just saying so so I don't get messages telling me the correct timeline of the suns life or something.

Well, hope you liked it. See ya in the next chappie.