Hi!! Blase here and I know it's been AGES since i last uploaded PLUS it totally screams filler chapter. I'm so sorry but I've been so busy lately. I'm sorry but I'm afraid I might have to take down More Than Meets The Eye because it is a devastation to my heart! haha... i know, i know, a travestry! Anyway, this might take a while so I'm sorry but Not So Honest Mistakes is sorta my therapy. So, yeah...I hope you'll stay with me through it all. If you're interested (really only..) then you can visit this blog site where's i'm writing a fantasy thing...it's not GA but it's sorta nice..i hope...haha...so i'll see you on the flip side!

- XD Blase

P.S. All per norm, some extra, MUAY IMPORTANTE bit is included down there...you HAVE TO READ IT!!

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

-Kahlil Gibran

Chapter 13: The Cost of Pride

The times had moved.

Sakura Mikan knew that much. In the corruptions that shook the world to its core, the very destruction of human nature, one emerged from it to create a havoc that would destroy the world. The movement of the sand in the hourglass had spun around and around in a carousel that didn't seem to end was fast-paced and nothing seemed to be repeated twice as the sands moved in a circular system.

Her love for her friends had shaken her to a vulnerable position. A position that directly threatened her own life; the life she couldn't afford to lose because if she did lose it, she wouldn't have the chance to save any of the millions that might suffer, those she sought to protect at the very frontlines of the torturous hellfire she was bent on destroying.

Pride made her set herself apart, from the accusations and assumptions made to break her, made to show her that she needed them. But she knew, they knew, that they didn't do much, that she didn't really need them…that she had more of a chance of surviving when they were not around her. Too bad they didn't know she wasn't planning on surviving beyond killing the madman.

In times of battles, in the era when King Arthur was supposedly real, Janus hid in the cover of night, the disastrous occurrences going near unnoticed by those it did not concern. To the 21st century, nothing that threatened with something unlike a gun was considered almost non-existent and extinct. To those who'd experienced them and survived, it was like a curse reawakened. The thoughts that showed that the younger generation had truly lost all sight of the true power of the shadow cast them into an abyss of despair where the demons and fears of man existed wholly and truly.

Day and day passed as rigorous training not unlike the ones of the Spartans were hoisted upon her, Raion and me. The fact that she and Raion hadn't noticed I had the abilities, characteristics and history of an Immortal hadn't really surprised me. Living amongst human Alices for so long had made me sane and safe I often thought.

August

September

October

Three months after the revelations of her true intentions, winter had slowly slipped into the Academy, everything changing to white at a snail's pace. The peace had become a fake thing, a mask everyone hid behind to conceal the fear that they had locked inside. Sakura Mikan had become nearly a ghost, disappearing and reappearing in and out of the Academy. Tossed into a salad of chaos, the students lived in terror, Alices their only defense and possibly not enough.

I crossed blades with Natsume in early November. The ice had thickened the lake water and we battled there with rapiers sharp as any broadsword. The clash of metal brought the memory of metallic smells to my mind. I breathed heavily as he came at me again. He slashed the air as I evaded the attack to my gut. I levered my self onto his shoulders, did an aerial twist and in one move, I had him in a headlock, a dagger ready to pierce his throat.

"Okay, okay, I give," he said, putting his hands up in a gesture of surrender. I chuckled and looked at him, measuring him up to Mikan. I sighed audibly and sheathed the dagger. "So, Tsukaima, what's this I hear about a spy being sent into the base?"

I felt the fear in my throat constrict as I struggled to gain ground. I drew the years of experience in lying to me, bringing on a small smile, my eyes hopefully showing nothing. "Yes, Mikan mentioned a new recruit that apparently had an ability, but not an Alice. More of a…talent. Shape shifting so the spy can move in after the boy has been disposed of. We need to figure out what he's planning."

--,--,--,

Dalta limped into the sunlight of the day. It had been ages since she'd last seen sunlight. The pain bit into her side, searing her nerves with lightning. A twisted ankle, three broken ribs and sword wounds…that was her sentence. Dalta trudged on, the pain becoming more excruciating with every moment she didn't feel the peace of sleep.

Tsukaima had requested she use the spells she'd learned from young to help. Not only was she elated, she was overjoyed. The knowledge that she was weak, the weakest of them all, her spells only able to heal, hide and scry, had cast her into a depth of sadness. The mission had been simple. Get into the headquarters of the spawn of the Devil and get the information on where the ritual was taking place.

Well…she'd found out all right. Kura, a senior spy had told her that Janus was supposedly looking for a way to resurrect the dead Creator, Escariot and that to that, he needed another Immortal. Since Hirazuki was dead and so was Persona, the last choice he had was Mikan, the obvious choice because he also planned to make her pay for the blow she dealt to his ego.

Ever the demon of the underworld, he was all shadows and darkness, nothing else. He sold his soul to the devil the day he discovered the Immortal calling. She knew this so well when he found out her secret. The iron gates of the Academy lay in front of her but a feeling tinkled the power she'd learned from youth. Someone had followed her.

She used the reserves of energy she'd stored safely, tucked away in the recesses of her cold body to throw herself against the gates. "Open the gates!" she screamed, feeling the presence coming nearer and nearer. The seals placed by Tsukaima and Sakura held fast, denying her power entrance into the school. "For the love of God, open the gates!"

Slowly…slowly the solid shadow was coming upon her…and Dalta felt herself stiffen as the hand of darkness touched her shoulder. The oxygen in her throat constricted and became a malleable, solid force, choking her. The sparks of invisible magic was in her sight and she knew she was dying. And the scream of a familiar voice stopped the suffocating ball of air that clogged her throat.

"Dalta!" she heard. The world spun out of her control…and the ground was all she saw. The shadow's presence shrank from the plane of her mind and vanished just as the black haze enveloped her.

--,--,--,

Tubes and needles were stuck in all available areas of skin. I watched the unsteady rise of her chest as her lungs were pumped to keep air moving in. My brown hair was swathed in front of my face as Raion sat in the white couch, face in his hands. He'd been like that since he'd found her, dying on the Academy's doorstep and the guilt was killing him.

"I should never have let her go," he kept murmuring to himself. I watched his pain and something occurred to me. Through all the suffering and sacrifices, they'd found something rare and beautiful. The pain of the look on Natsume's eyes was forever burned into my mind's eye and I couldn't get it out of my head.

I felt Dalta's hand twitch in my own. I leaped to my feet and I saw Dalta's golden eyes staring back at me. her gasps for air began as she ripped off the mask. "Sakura," she panted. "You have to know…I'm dying…" Coughing fits began. Raion leaped off the couch and gripped her hand.

"Don't talk, Dallie," he whispered. "Stay with me. Shh…"

She turned to me. "No…I'm dying. Bastard put a curse on me. Listen to me…"

"Stop talking," Raion interrupted. Dalta glared at him feebly, the strength deserting her body quickly.

"Raion…I need you to listen to me…there's nothing you can do," she said softly and she turned to me, her eyes hopeful and worried. "Sakura, you have to know. Janus isn't looking to destroy you. If he had…he would have done it a long time ago. It's not that you're terribly strong…rather he had no use of you till now."

"Why?"

Another coughing fit began and she began again in hoarse voice. "Escariot…he's looking to raise Escariot and his undead army. He's been waiting to do this for centuries but he'd never found a way. But he did when he found the scrolls. The legend says that an Immortal must die for the ritual to be complete. He's lost all his Immortals so far and those he can't lose are far too talented. He wants you to pay for your betrayal."

My face flushed of all color and I remembered all those legends, stories really, that told of a descendant of Judas, murderer of Christ. This second Judas was hell-bent on destruction. I remember someone once telling me (I don't recall who though) had once told me that there were just some people who wanted to watch the world burn, the fact that they may burn to not a sacrifice they were unwilling to make.

I closed my eyes as Dalta's breathing took a rapid trip downhill. "Sakura." Cough. "You must..." Cough. "…destroy that stupid charlatan before he kills anymore. Please." She turned to Raion and touched his face, her eyes seemingly endless with wisdom. "I love you…I'll always love you no matter what." And her eyes died with her, the light in her gone, snuffed out by the darkness that threatened to kill us all.

"No," Raion whispered. Then he screamed it.

I felt the corners of the world pin me. I was swollen with sadness as I watched her slender figure be lowered into her grave. I felt the pain in my heart and my soul at what I'd done. Maybe if I'd been the one to go, she'd never be attending her own funeral. The tears, hard as I tried, didn't come.

I didn't cry.

This was what I paid.

The cost of pride and power was the pain and loss.

I held my head high and prayed for hope where there was none.

I never wept.

Didn't weep. Couldn't weep. Wouldn't weep.

Keanu Whidbey wondered for the millionth time that year why he'd left beautiful England for this nut-job school. The fact wasn't that he saw the strange things that were rumored to happen here. That was just it. He would kill to see something happen! The odd comings and goings of that pretty, brown-haired student wasn't enough to keep his bored-o-meter going down.

And the one night he was off, something rumored to be a witch collapsing in front of the gates happens! He mourned for his luck.

A silhouette of a man came walking down and Keanu wondered how long it would take for him to walk past the huge Academy gates but to his utter disbelief, the man walked up to him. When a weathered but handsome face smiled tiredly at him, all he could do was open his mouth and close it.

"Hello, I'm here to see Sakura Mikan."

Sakura Mikan.

Deirdre, his superior, had told him to let anyone in who used that name but didn't say why. He was, however to ask him for his business there.

"I'm here to tell her some important things. You see, I'm her father. Iroyashi's the name, Iroyashi Kieran."