This is the first half of the last part of the story. Enjoy, and please let me know of any typos or inconsistencies that I'm far to exhausted to look for right now. Bla.

Chapter

The Widow Mercy

Nhisis's breath was hot like fire, and stank like sulfur as it blasted in Linus's face. Squirming under the beast's extreme weight, Linus fought vainly to wiggle free.

"What a ghrand little show you've phut on for me," Nhisis hissed. "Can't say I've been this entertained since the lhast time you were here."

Linus winced as a glob of bloody drool slapped onto his cheek. "You can't pretend you didn't know this was coming," he wheezed. "Why play around so much? You could have had your precious 'meal' and a thousand more if you'd come to Cascade!"

"No fhun in that, Linus." The monster stooped his grizzly head, nudging his knife-edged fangs inches from Linus' neck. "I'm not much for visiting, you know."

"Kamina is going to flatten you," he said fiercely. "Simon and Yoko will be sure every one of your rotten beasts burn to ashes!"

Nhisis reared up and laughed, opening his viperous mouth wide. The sound was grainy, painful to hear, but Linus could not free even his one hand to cover his ears. "Fhlatten me you say? The way your last companions did? I did not take you fhor one who forgot so easily. Do their lost souls sthill haunt you, do they fhill your nightmares?"

Linus said nothing, but the expression that twitched across his face was as good as an outright confession. Fury bursting inside him, Linus steeled his face and heaved against Nhisis' body. For a second he was able to lift himself up, only to be crushed back down to the stone, his head bouncing sharply as he fell.

"A valiant fight. But, put your head down. You're done now," Nhisis said, dipping his head again.

Just when the beast thrust his fangs forward to rip into bared skin, Linus took advantage of the shift and pressed his feet flat into the ground, shoving his hips upwards with all his strength. With a yelp, Nhisis toppled headlong toward the stone, rolling sideways just in time to save himself. Clutching Linus by his shoulders they both rolled to the side, but this time Linus managed to keep himself on top.

Swiftly he reached behind him and grasped one of the handguns he'd stuck into his waistband, shoving the nozzle hard at Nhisis' nose.

The beast glared at him, motionless and radiating hatred like a stench. "How clever hov you. Little Linus carries a weapon now?"

"Quiet," Linus commanded. "Or I'll blast your ugly face off."

Nhisis paused momentarily, but then his body began to shake with laughter, growing inside his chest until he was roaring the earsplitting sound like a siren. Linus steadied the gun, willing his hand not to shake.

"What's so funny?"

"You!" cried Nhisis breathlessly. "You act so sincere!"

"That's because I mean it! I'm going to kill you!"

Calming down, Nhisis shook his head, suddenly wearing a grave face. "No, that is impossible. You have no rheason to."

Linus bristled wrathfully, gritting his teeth and screaming in his mind to just pull the trigger. The sparkling look in Nhisis' eyes was making him dizzy, driving him crazy.

"No reason," he exclaimed. "You murdered dozens of people from my home, people with families and friends. You just tore them apart without even thinking about it, like they were yesterday's trash! My father, my friends died because of you!"

"You cannot blame me for my own nature," Nhisis said. "To be monstrous is the only existence I know."

"That's no excuse. How can you just accept being a monster?"

This time neither of them spoke for several moments. Nhisis looked upward with distant eyes, focused on something ethereal and beyond common sight. Linus clenched his jaw, his finger trembling against the trigger.

"A monster does nhot acknowledge Mercy," Nhisis murmured. "She is a widow, watching from the tower and weeping. Why do you hide behind her tattered skirts?"

"What are you talking about?" Linus demanded coldly. "What do you even know about mercy? You killed everyone who came to this mountain looking for a better life. You slaughtered so many people, and you act like it wasn't your fault?"

Nhisis smiled, his teeth sparkling. "Whell that brings us to the heart of the problem. Who does Mercy cry for? The one that loses all and suffers, or the one that takes all and suffers nothing? I would hazard a guess and say that she cries fhor us both."

Linus scowled fiercely, gripping the gun tightly. "If I kill you now, I guess that'll be one less person for her to worry about."

"Now, now, dhon't be so quick to phass blame. How do you know all that death was my fault? I could not possibly have killed everyone, in fact, I did not."

"If not you, then your beasts. You're their leader," Linus growled. Inside him his emotions were tumbling over and over like giant waves, crushing him downward as he tried to focus. Mixed in with the surges of rage was a familiar, but piercing sorrow. It threatened to stir up dreadful memories, unearthing the waterfall of grief that crushed what sanity Linus could sustain. He didn't want to go back to the dark roads of madness, now that he was outside of them. Hiding from pain was no life for him anymore.

Nhisis watched Linus's face carefully, as if trying to decode the messages it expressed. "You believe that it is possible to control even one of my brothers?" he said. "You of all pheople should know that it is impossible."

"But," Linus breathed, "I know that you killed Saburo." He stumbled over the name, then forced himself to be single-minded. "You can't deny that you murdered him. I was there, I saw you jump on him right before you attacked me."

Nhisis shook his head, scrunching up his eyes cheerfully. "As I recall, your friend was already wounded gravely when we met. There is no telling which of my brothers injured him, but perhaps that was the real cause of his death." The beast shrugged his ragged shoulders. "Dear Saburo's passing was not my doing. I did nothing more than throw him aside."

"No!" Linus cried. "I remember, you jumped from the trees, and both of you fell on the ground. Saburo . . . he was bleeding like a damn river and the . . . ground was. . ." he sucked in a quaking breath, ". . .he didn't get up. He died, and you were the one who killed him!"

A wicked smile flourished on Nhisis' bloody face. "Yet you wonder, what if he didn't die when we fell? What if he died many, many hours later? Already I have said that I did not kill him, I only knocked him down."

Linus fought not to shut his eyes, to block out Nhisis and his wide, horrendous grin. He had never thought that Saburo had lived even a moment after he fell on the ground. The impact of Nhisis falling on him must have crushed his body fatally. If he had still been alive, he would have shouted something, or tried to stand up again. Saburo would not have lain on the ground.

But, what if his back had been broken? What if his throat was so full of blood that he couldn't speak? What Linus dared not consider was that Saburo could very well have lived. But for how long? How many hours would Saburo have fought, before he finally blacked out in a puddle of his own blood?

"You remember running away," Nhisis said softly. "You remember fleeing as fast as you could."

"O-only because you had tried to rip my arm off my body!" Linus defended. His entire arm was shaking now, and he could feel a sick tension warping his stomach. "You're trying to fool me. Those other beasts would have attacked Saburo even if you didn't. He died, right away."

"But not before you abandoned him."

"No!" Linus screamed. "I didn't! If I knew I would have stayed with him no matter what! But he was dead! He WAS dead!"

"Well, you wouldn't know would you?"

Howling violently Linus straightened his arm and squeezed the trigger on his handgun. Nhisis twisted underneath him, throwing Linus off like a feather pillow. They rolled apart, the handgun firing but the bullet cracking uselessly against the ground.

Hastily Linus got to his feet, searching the small ledge for his enemy. No matter where he looked, it seemed Nhisis had disappeared. Clutching the gun tightly, Linus hunted desperately with his eyes and ears for any movement or sound.

"Nhisis!" he cried. "Come back here and face me! You truly are a coward, hiding from a child!"

Just as he spoke the last word, Linus sensed something falling toward him from behind. He whirled and raised the gun, blasting off three bullets before he even knew what he was firing at. Nhisis dropped from the sky, pelted by only one bullet as he thumped on the ground and dashed sideways. The next moment he was charging at Linus like a bull, fangs and claws leading the attack.

Linus dodged, but Nhisis scrambled up the cliff wall and launched himself again. This time there was only a hair-width of space between Lunis' chest and a pointed claw as he stumbled out of the way. Nhisis continued his attacks, each time coming closer to tearing into his target. Soon Linus was gasping in gulps of air, sweating while his heart pounded at a frantic pace.

"Still quick as always," Nhisis hissed. He slashed his claws almost playfully, teasing Linus with their menace. "But not quick enough to escape that guilt, hm? Not fast enough to outrun the ghosts!"

Breathless, Linus scrambled to the opposite side of the ledge. He only just remembered that he still held the gun in his hand, and he aimed it at Nhisis' stalking form. Even if he could find the nerve to fire again, his aim would be wrecked by his unsteady arm.

"Lost all your confidence? Don't worry, I always wanted you that way." Nhisis laughed again. "Fear is a much better flavor!"

Like lighting Nhisis raced toward Linus, claws whistling through the air as they cut down. Linus tried to duck away, but he hesitated just a moment too long and the talon scraped viciously across the back of his skull.

Blind to the pain for only a heartbeat, he toppled onto one knee as his balance was thrown forward. Just as Linus found his feet again, Nhisis barreled into him, fangs punching through skin as the beast bit deep into his shoulder.

Linus shrieked, his muscles tearing and his bones bending. Nhisis' weight drove him backwards to the solid cliff wall, and pressed his back against the jagged stone.

Dizzy with pain and terror, Linus could barely stand on his feet. He realized suddenly that he had dropped the handgun, and all he could do was slap uselessly at the beast's burly head, struggling to be free of the burning in his skin. No matter how he moved the fangs gripped him like a vice, and intense ripples of agony rolled all through his body, pinpointing on his mutilated shoulder.

Nhisis pressed forward harder, sank his teeth in deeper. Linus saw black spots fill his eyes, and he could not squeeze a wisp of breath into his lungs. His head felt like a swollen ball, ready to explode. Something behind him was jabbing into his spine, sharply prodding him like a spear tip.

All at once Linus realized what the pain behind him was caused by. The second gun that he had stowed against his back was still there, digging into his flesh as if it were trying to remind him that he had it. Gasping, he weaved his hand around behind him, groping for the gun handle. For several excruciating moments he could not reach it, and when he finally clasped his fingers around the weapon he struggled to pull it free. Nhisis was pressing Linus so hard against the rock wall; there was no space to wrench out the gun.

Linus was ready to give up. The gun would not come free, and what good would it do against a beast of this size, of this resolve and cruelty.

I deserve this, though. Linus thought. I should have died along with everyone else. At least I would have been among friends, instead of here, alone.

"Just. . .make it quick," he whispered, and relaxed his body against the stone.

"What the HELL is going on here!"

Someone shouted so loud that Linus was jerked from his misery, his eyes jumping open. The voice was thrown around the rocks, bouncing back and forth, but the speaker was still yelling at the top of his lungs. The loudest voice Linus had ever heard bellowed his name, sounding like a giant, drawing his wavering gaze up to the head of the cliff.

Deep shadows obscured the figure's face, but Linus knew its shape so well that he recognized it instantly. The authoritative voice hollered on, while the blazing sun flashed on glossy sapphire hair. Altogether it was a vision of confidence, a signal for determination. Linus was overwhelmed to see him, and joy skipped through his veins.

"Saburo," he called, swallowing the pain constricting his throat. "Saburo, it's you!"

Kamina was having too much fun.

Disgusting beasts lunged at his gunmen, but with satisfying whacks and sweeps he sent them spiraling into the air, or buried them under an avalanche of boulders and rocks. Somewhere in the heart of the battle he'd forgotten how to form coherent words, and substituted them with eccentric hooting that trumpeted from Gurren like a war song. Long ago Simon had separated Lagann to pursue his own conflicts along the cliff, but also to escape Kamina's borderline madman behavior.

Eventually all the beasts on the surrounding rocks had been flung far away or blasted into cinders. With a riotous laugh Kamina marched up the mountain side, searching for more targets. At times it seemed that the flow of enemies would never end, but then moments later all the monsters would disappear, only to retaliate with greater numbers.

As he scaled the cliff, Kamina smashed off boulders and collected them in the mechanical arms of his gunmen. This time when the monsters returned, Kamina was waiting for them on a high ledge, the pile of boulders stacked carefully in front of him.

Within minutes the tide of beasts surged back over the rocks. Seeing their mutated heads, Kamina whistled a cheerful tune and clutched the nearest chunk of rock. He watched their confused charge happily, wondering at the stupidity and crudeness of beasts.

"Dumbass fuzz brains," he chuckled darkly. The boulder bounced in his gunmen's hand as he tossed it up and down, searching out the prefect beastly head to fling it toward. One monster in particular was snapping and biting at his fellows, and the wild spin of its eyes made it look absolutely terrifying. Kamina usually chose the more frightening enemies to attack, because he thought they deserved it the most. Maybe too he wanted to prove that even the steepest challenges didn't frighten him, though sometimes he questioned who he was trying to prove it to.

Who, exactly, was it that he kept his chin up for? It used to be that he didn't know, nobody important enough came to mind.

His dad maybe, before he had breached the surface world. Now he thought it was Simon, mostly. The twerp spent so much time worrying that he couldn't feel passion for anything unless he got a solid kick in the backside. Yet who could blame him, with times the way they were. Kamina shook his head, his grin sliding off into a lopsided glower.

Someday he was going to a place where nobody had doubts, and all anybody thought about was what to do for fun and who they could bring along with them. Kamina would be there, even if he had to build the whole damn place with his own hands. That would be worth fighting an army of beasts every day for the rest of his life. It would be worth keeping his confidence when the weight of a thousand hopeful people threatened to crush him down.

But for now, there was a mountain to conquer, and a particular beast that needed a rock smashed into its head. Kamina hefted the boulder up, his grin reappearing as he took aim. The mechanical arm arched back, and then began to launch.

Suddenly Yoko's face appeared, huge and flustered, on the screen. She yelled Kamina's name like a banshee, startling him so that he nearly dropped the boulder on his own foot.

"What's the big idea?" he screeched back.

"Kamina! Something just knocked Linus off his gunmen. I think he's MIA."

"MI- wha? You mean you're flying his gunmen yourself?"

Yoko's face burned red, her equally fiery hair snapping around her face. "Of course you idiot! We have to find him."

"Sure do, or else you'll probably crash that thing like he did." He chuckled lightheartedly.

"How can you laugh!" Yoko cried. "Linus could be hurt!"

Kamina stood his gunmen up and set its foot on the side of his boulder collection. All the screaming has cost him his advantage; the beasts had seen his hiding place and were scrambling up the cliff face to reach him. With a flourished kick he shoved two dozen boulders down the cliff, where they tumbled into the racing beasts below, squashing most of the force.

"Alright," Kamina murmured. "Let's split up and look for the little idiot. He can't be all that hard to find."

In fact, Linus turned out to be extremely difficult to find. According to Yoko's frantic instructions, Linus had fallen somewhere near the summit. But the higher up the mountain Kamina climbed, the shallower the ridges became, until his giant gunmen was slipping off every ledge he set its foot on. He tried simply jumping and grabbing the side of the mountain, but he only crashed back down again.

Simon was faring much better, since his gunmen was smaller, and it had the advantage of flight. But he was as anxious as Yoko, and both of them were seriously annoying Kamina with their endless fussing.

"Would you two shut up?" he finally snapped. "For crying out loud, it's not like the kid can't take care of himself for three minutes. Lighten up already!"

"How can you say that?" Simon whined. "This place is crawling with beats, and that freak Nhisis is out there too. Linus could be dead by now!"

Frustration boiled under Kamina skin. Couldn't anybody see the way he did? Why was everyone trudging through gloom like they were slogging in a swamp, heads down and eyes and ears shut? Where was their faith? Why did they let their confidence be crushed so effortlessly? Didn't they know, some battles were meant to be fought alone.

By the stars, Kamina didn't think he could stand to hear someone tell him to settle down, or hurry up, quiet down, or give up again. Not without blowing his top off, at least.

Overcome with aggravation, Kamina punched the screen that displayed his friend's faces. Unable to decipher the way to turn off the com-links permanently, and realizing that he wasn't going any higher in his clumsy gunmen, Kamina threw open the hatch and leapt outside.

Though it was not completely silent outside the gunmen (the rumble of roaring beats and rapid gunfire bounced across the rocks) at least the chain of desperate screaming was broken. Swooping his tattered, yet still glorious, cape around his shoulders, Kamina procured his katana from the cock pit and strolled calmly away. When he reached the base of the first bluff, he jumped up and immediately began scaling the rock. He rather enjoyed climbing, and the chance to work his arms and legs. Eventually he lost track of how far he'd gone, and looked back only to realize that Gurren was little more than a thumbnail sized spot far below.

So close to the summit the view was breathtaking, a sight that truly made Kamina appreciate entering the surface world. He took a moment to contemplate trees, and grass, things he'd not had the time to fully notice until now. Most of all he was wrapped in an almost supernatural calm. Picking up the tune he had whistled earlier, he sauntered through the gorgeous brush, unsure of any exact path, oblivious to any sort of objective.

At the base of the next cliff, Kamina heard a noisy scraping sound somewhere to his left. Moments later there came a series of fearful growls and grunts, and then an agonized scream shrieked through the quiet forest.

With a distasteful frown, Kamina followed the noises. He rounded a particularly pointed outcropping, and came into view of a ledge some twenty feet away. The battle sounds continued, but apparently the fighters were huddled against the far wall, out of view. What he could see was a splatter of blood splashed on the rocks, still wet and bright in the sunlight.

Kamina made several disapproving tsking sounds, and turned to scale the cliff to his right. At the top he walked along a precarious sliver of ground, until he could look down on the ledge he had seen from below. He leaned over and followed the blood trail to the spot against the wall. Some sort of ragged, bloody, garbage spawned creature hunched close to the wall, grumbling like a territorial dog over its only bone.

Kamina unsheathed his katana and tilted his head to hear the beast better. If he wasn't mistaken, it sounded like it was talking.

Frowning, Kamina pointed the sword down toward the beast and bellowed, "What the hell is going on here?"

Suddenly a pale face twisted away from the beast and looked up at him. Linus blinked the trail of blood from his eyes, a wild grin splitting his face.

"Saburo! Saburo it's you!"

Ignoring him, Kamina redoubled the volume of his voice. "I said what the hell are you doing? Don't you know this is my mountain now!"

The beast moved then, shuffled back a few steps, dragging Linus with it. It jerked bloody fangs from its prisoner's shoulder and lifted its gruesome face. Kamina met the monster's stare with an icy grin.

"Your mountain?" sneered the beast. "Is that what you said?"

"Huh, you must be the talking freak. You the leader around here?"

"Nhisis," the monster introduced himself stonily. "I'm afraid you do nhot resemble Saburo quiet as much as poor sun-stroked Linus believes. Who are you?"

"Heh." Kamina opened his mouth to lunch into one of his famous introductions, but his speech was cut off by an explosion of gun fire. Three shots came off one after the other, and Nhisis lurched forward as each blast drove into his back.

Hissing venomously, he rounded on Linus and smacked him roughly to the side. Linus fell, twisting to protect his wounded shoulder, but still clutching tightly the handgun. He stumbled to his feet again as Nhisis moved toward him, and struck out with his foot at the beast's head.

"Weren't you listening? This isn't your mountain anymore," he grunted.

Nhisis laughed throatily. "Then, phlease tell me, whose is it? Nhot yours, you stupid little fool! You'll bleed to death on this ledge before you can conquer Paradise. You'll die just like all of your beloved, crushed and mangled friends."

Kamina watched serenely from his perch atop the cliff. Even from the distance he could clearly see a new determination emerging on Linus' ashen face. With a glance over his shoulder, he said, "No, it's not his mountain."

"Not mine alone," Linus added. He grimaced, but a laugh still rippled from his mouth. "You nearly had me there. Can't believe I was about to give up. But now that Saburo's here, you don't stand a chance anymore."

For the first time since entering the conversation Kamina noticed that a strange name was being tossed around. He searched the rocks expectantly, but only counted himself, Linus and the smelly old creature on the ledge.

"Who's Saburo?" he asked bluntly.

Linus looked at him, his smile flickering. Across the ledge Nhisis began to cackle loudly.

"This isn't the time to joke around," Linus said.

"I'm not joking," said Kamina. "Who's Saburo?"

"Well…" for a brief moment Linus seemed to focus, the force himself toward clarity. But by the next blink the look had disappeared. "You're Saburo, of course."

Once again, a brutally honest comment hurried to Kamina's lips. Yet the look of confusion on the blood smeared face of the fragile boy below him froze the words in his mouth. For once he'd seen the confidence he'd been asking for. There was a staunchly devoted soul, a spirit of faith, albeit a spirit twisted by delusion and pain, but abiding all the same.

He sucked in a proud breath, let it go, and then jumped down to the ledge. His bright red cape snapped as the wind tossed it furiously around his shoulders, and when he stood to face Nhisis his smile had nearly tripled in size.

The beast glared back at him, viciously laughing to himself. "What a mistake. What a whreck you are, boy."

"He's no wreck, and it's no mistake you stupid beast," Kamina countered darkly. "I'm Sabruo. Just who the hell did you think I was?"