In the ink of an eye I saw you bleed, through the thunder I could hear you scream
Solid to the air I breathe, open-eyed and fast asleep
Falling softly as the rain, no footsteps ringing in your ears
Ragged down, worn to the skin, warrior raging, have no fear
Secure yourself to Heaven, hold on tight, the night has come
Fasten up your earthly burdens, you have just begun
-Indigo Girls
.
All this time I've been workin' them angels overtime
Riding and driving and flying just over the edge
Workin' them angels overtime
-Rush
.
Part 21: Angels
.
The first thing Hazuki saw when she opened her eyes was Hatsumi's face smiling down at her, and for a moment, she did not know whether this meant she were alive or dead.
Next came Kaname's voice from close by, which did not really clear things up, considering. "Welcome back."
More details came into focus, and Hazuki realized that they were still in front of the church in Miyazu. Her head was resting in Eve's lap, and the Keeper had one warm hand pressed to each side of her sister's face. Hazuki could feel a flow of Souma unlike anything she had ever shared with Chikaru, along with an strange itching sensation as her body continued stitching itself back together. "Did I die?" she asked carefully.
"Briefly," Eve said, "but only in the most crude sense of the word."
"By that she means that when Lilith dragged us over, my head was still lodged in your chest cavity," Kaname elaborated.
Choosing to ignore this, Eve went on. "Your Souma stayed with you, though, so it was easy enough to revive you."
"Not that you didn't look done for," Kaname added. "We landed on a dragon, believe it or not, so between that and you I actually managed to survive, albeit with about forty broken bones. So thanks for the airbags, I guess."
Were she able, Hazuki would have laughed at Kaname's comment. She was obviously working very hard to cover up her discomfort with sarcasm, and was pacing restlessly, those bones having apparently been healed with ease. Her armor was all but gone, leaving only the robes beneath. Apparently her sword had landed close by at least, as she was passing it from hand to hand in an agitated manner.
"Not to sound ungrateful," Hazuki whispered, "but why are we still here?"
"I had to delay my attempts to revive Ken-chan," Eve explained. "I suddenly had something more pressing to attend to." She winked down at Hazuki, and at that moment, it was very difficult for Hazuki to hold onto the rage she'd been building all day.
Deciding to save that for later, Hazuki peered into the lightening sky. "I see there's still a hole in the world," she noted.
"Working on that," Lilith said from nearby. She was sitting back on her heels, with both palms pressed against the bare earth beneath her. "It's not going well, though. I haven't got a lot left right now, even after reclaiming that demon's energy. The best I can hope for is to keep him from sticking his nose in again."
"It'll take time to heal Ken-chan properly," Eve nodded. "He's not one of mine, as it were."
"Can Lilith help him, then?" Hazuki asked weakly. "Isn't he one of her aspects?"
"Like I'd claim that little meatball as my own?" Lilith snorted. "No, no, Ken-chan's one of Aaya's."
"It's okay, Hazuki-chan," Eve assured her. "With Seiren's spells gone, Lilith can keep the Devourer safely locked away in the library where he can do no further harm until we return to deal with him."
"He's in the library?" Hazuki gasped, sitting bolt upright even as every nerve screamed at her for this sudden movement.
"Oh, hell," Kaname whispered, looking more pale than ever as the penny dropped for her as well.
"Don't worry about the library," Lilith waved. "He can't hurt any of the books without that demon's magic, and she's done for."
Hazuki exchanged panicked looks with Kaname. "It's not the books I'm worried about!" she shouted. "Chikaru and Tamao are still in there!"
"Chikaru, what have you done?" Tamao asked in a tiny voice as she looked up at the wide-open eye of the Keepers' hat. Ken-chan's words echoed in her ears as the hat stared back at her. You're mortal! That thing will eat you alive!
"I understand," Chikaru said quietly, seemingly to someone else, then smiled vaguely at Tamao and held out her hand. "Take my hand, Tamao-chan. We have work to do. I'm sorry I didn't have more time to teach you properly about your Souma, but it looks like we're going to have some on-the-job training."
Tamao reached to grasp the hand Chikaru offered, feeling the other girl's Souma trembling beneath her skin. Also, the exchange of energy she'd felt during their brief meditation did not happen, as Chikaru seemed to be holding back from her for the moment.
"It's okay, Tamao-chan," Chikaru went on. "Hazuki and Kaname rescued the Keepers, but they need our help to get back again. This world needs to be healed so they can escape."
"Can the hat take us to them?" Tamao asked, looking for a solution that would get that thing off Chikaru's head as quickly as possible. "Then we can give it back to the Keepers."
Chikaru looked away for a moment, as if conferring with someone outside of hearing. "It won't let me," she said. "It won't leave while the library is compromised like this, and even if it would, the attempt would both fail and kill me. It's up to you, Tamao-chan: you need to seal those rips in the pages."
"Me? But... can't the hat do that?"
"No," Chikaru said with a tiny shake of the head. "That's not where its power lies. But yours is different, Tamao."
A soft, distant smile settled over Chikaru's features as she knelt beside the younger girl. "It's just as well that Heaven's a library, and that the worlds are made of pages and words, because those are your tools. Words on the page are yours to command, and they always have been. You're a storyteller, my darling: building worlds is what you do. Now, someone's hurt this story, so it can't ever be completed, and you need to help it along. Tell the story, Tamao-chan. Tell the story that will bring our loved ones home."
"YOU WILL FAIL, MORTALS," came the voice of the Devourer from outside the shield of Souma around them. "YOU HAVE NOT THE STRENGTH. I CAN SMELL THE LIFE BLEEDING OUT OF YOU!"
"Do you love Hazuki-chan?" Chikaru asked, ignoring the dragon.
"Of course I do."
"And... do you love me?"
"Both of you, with all my heart."
"Then trust me, Tamao-chan," Chikaru whispered. "Tell the story. And don't stop, whatever happens."
Tamao felt a something warm pass through their joined hands, flying directly into the source of her own Souma. When they touched, Tamao felt herself suddenly flooded inside with their joined power, and she realized that Chikaru had just sent her a part of her own source. Chikaru was all around her and all inside her, and the feeling of oneness with this dear woman was wondrous, intoxicating, and danger be damned, it was very erotic.
"Concentrate," she heard Chikaru whisper. "Tell the story, my love."
From behind Chikaru, far from their joined hands, Tamao could feel another presence of Souma, but rather than generating energy, this one was greedily drawing it in. Chikaru was protecting her from it, though, allowing its seemingly infinite knowledge to filter through while Tamao's energy remained safe from its relentless pull. With new eyes, now, Tamao looked at the book she still clutched to her chest, and found it to be something beautiful in both its deceptive simplicity and its underlying intricacy. Words and pages. This was how worlds were made, and she was getting to see it.
Then, with a pain like severed nerves, she felt the hole torn in reality, and the agony the world was experiencing, focusing down on the tiny presence of this world's own bearer of Souma. "Kaori-sama," she whispered.
"Layers of irony," Chikaru said, seemingly from a great distance.
Suddenly, Tamao became aware of another presence, touching the rip from the other side. Well, hello there. You don't feel like a dragon. Are you helping?
"I'm trying," Tamao said aloud, hoping to reach this other voice.
She could almost feel a smile from the other side. So nice to feel a familiar energy! I can't do a whole lot from here, but I'll help as much as I can.
"Thank you," Tamao whispered, then tried to let her energy flow into the gaps in the form of words: poems she had written, confessions of love she had given, hopes and fears of the future, and anything else that she could bring to mind. She poured her heart into this story, trying to soothe its pain and make it whole again, while the happy voice from beneath helped her arrange the words and thoughts to begin mending the damage.
"STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING!" the Devourer roared. "THAT WORLD IS MINE, AS ARE THE KEEPERS! STOP NOW, OR SUFFER!"
"You'll have to do a lot better than that, scales," Chikaru said on the edge of Tamao's hearing. "I don't respond well to empty threats."
A hoarse noise echoed around them, and Tamao realized with dread that the dragon was laughing. "VERY WELL. THEN YOU WILL STOP AT ONCE, OR I WILL BEGIN BURNING DOWN SHELVES ONE BY ONE. I DO NOT NEED MY EYES FOR THAT. HOW MANY WORLDS WILL PERISH IN FLAMES, MORTALS?"
"There, that's more what I was expecting," Chikaru smiled. "But I'm afraid that won't work either. You're making a big mistake threatening a mortal like that. I'm not a Keeper; do you think I care about the worlds you burn?"
Tamao was stunned and more than a little frightened at Chikaru's proclamation. Would she really let entire worlds die just to save Hazuki, Kaname and the Keepers?
"GIVE ME THE BOOK, OR INFINITE LIVES WILL BURN!"
"Again, I'll never understand villains. Do you expect me to believe they won't burn anyway if I give you what you want?"
"THEIR DEATHS WILL BE ON YOUR HANDS!"
"I can live with it," Chikaru said, her lip curling back in her best Carmen sneer. "But I will not let you hurt the women I love!"
"Something's happening up there," Lilith said suddenly, looking up toward the blackness. "Someone's trying to seal the book."
"Who is it?" Hazuki asked, looking from one Keeper to the other.
Lilith gave a distant smile. "Oh, she's good, this one. Too many humans with Souma, if you ask me, but I'm not complaining this time. Hang on, it's... Tamao-chan? Oh, I get it! It's your Tamao! She says hello, by the way."
Overhead, the edges of the black rift were starting to draw closer together while Hazuki watched with wonder. She was really doing it: Tamao was actually healing the world. "How is she able to..?"
"Looks like she's one of mine," Lilith grinned cheekily. "Don't worry, I'll help her. She may be a natural, but she doesn't really know what the hell she's doing."
"What about the Devourer?" Kaname asked.
"Huh," Lilith frowned. "Looks like your other friend's holding him off..."
With another roar, the Devourer returned to slamming his massive talons against the shell protecting Tamao and Chikaru. With each successive strike, Tamao could feel the hat take more of Chikaru's energy to fuel the defense, causing her remaining source to flicker and dim. "THEN I WILL DRAIN YOUR MORTAL SHELL DRY AND TAKE WHAT IS MINE!"
"Damn, I was hoping I could keep him talking," Chikaru said at the edge of Tamao's hearing. "He was bluffing, by the way: he can't hurt the books in his current state: not without magic or Souma."
"You knew that?"
"Focus, Tamao-chan. I don't mean to sound overly dramatic, but I'm not sure how much more of this I can take."
"Please, Chikaru, take some of the energy back! This is killing you!"
"Tell the story, Tamao-chan!" Chikaru repeated, forcefully. "And don't stop, no matter what!"
"She's doing it," Lilith grinned. "She's scared out of her mind, but she's... she's done it!"
The sky was whole once more, and Hazuki felt as though the entire world around them was letting out a sigh of relief. "Nicely done, Tamao-chan," she said in an awed whisper.
Lilith stood and clapped her hands briskly. "How's the birdie, Eve?" she asked.
Eve shook her head. "Still very weak, onee-chan."
"Fine, you keep on that. I'll take things from here." She then turned to Hazuki and gave her a grim little smile. "Well, Hazuki-chan, you're finally going to get your wish."
"I don't understand," said Hazuki, shaking her head with confusion.
"It's like this: now that the world's back in one piece, Eve and I have an alternate way to slip out. I need you to kill me."
"What?" Hazuki shouted, not sure which horrified her more: the idea of doing it, or the fact that Lilith had couched this as her "wish." Did Lilith really think so poorly of her?
"Here, I'll make it easy for you," Lilith went on, unfastening her tie and unbuttoning the front of her Miator uniform, revealing her expansive cleavage. "Stab here, right between the squishy things."
"I... I can't do that!" Hazuki sputtered.
"Oh yeah, no sword," Lilith nodded. "Fine. Snap my neck, then. Just get on with it already!"
"That's not what I meant!" Hazuki insisted. "It's got nothing to do with the sword, I just... how do you expect me to just kill you, after...?"
"I'll just go poof and re-form in the library!" Lilith growled, waving both hands in the air. "Come on!"
"Oh, for Heaven's sake," Kaname muttered, nudging Hazuki to one side and burying her sword in Lilith's chest.
There was a long silence, broken only by the sickening sliding sound of Kaname withdrawing her katana.
"Mother-f***er, that hurt!" Lilith grimaced before falling to the ground, her blood pooling beneath her. Moments later, she began to glow with Souma, and was gone.
Kaname looked at Hazuki. "What? One of us needs to the dirty work around here!"
The pain of her quick death already fading, Lilith found herself standing once more in the Great Library, smiling as she felt her old familiar clothes against her skin. Those school uniforms were far too binding for her tastes.
Two other women were with her, and she smiled as she recognized the familiar pretty face of Tamao, even knowing that this was not the one she'd gone to school with. The other girl she did not immediately recognize, but it was all too plain to see that she was in pain beneath the weight of the hat.
"You did well, both of you," Lilith said in a reassuring voice. "Give me the hat, now. I'll handle the rest."
"Behind you," the strange girl whispered, pointing over Lilith's shoulder.
"I know," she said with a nod and a smile.
Behind her, the Devourer slammed into the barrier of Souma being held up by the hat, and the girl wearing it collapsed into Tamao's arms. Lilith snatched the hat from her head and placed it on her own in one quick motion, then turned to face the dragon to whom she was to have been sacrificed.
"Hey there, big fella! Thought you were dead," she grinned impishly as the Devourer shrank back from her. Now that she and the hat were joined again, she felt stronger than ever: more than powerful enough to deal with this pest.
"I HAVE NO QUARREL WITH YOU, KEEPER," the dragon growled.
"That's pretty ballsy coming from someone who was going to try to eat me less than an hour ago," Lilith snorted.
With a savage roar, the Devourer swiped at her with a claw larger than she was, but inches from her face it collided with an impermeable wall of Souma and snapped back. With a sigh, Lilith undid the top button of her shirt, reached in between her breasts, and pulled out her much-loved riding crop, smacking it into the palm of her opposite hand a few times as she faced down the suddenly worried-looking Devourer.
She had to admit that Eve had been right: going to school had indeed been a lot of fun. This, however, was going to be even better.
"You made a big mistake coming to this library," she smiled sweetly. "Now that you're in my lair, it really changes the power dynamic between us, doesn't it? Now sit, dragon!" She brought the crop down on the Devourer's nose, channeling her Souma through it as it struck.
The beast writhed as green lightning arced up and down its body, and even as it struggled, it began to grow smaller and smaller, the power condensing around it.
"Oh, what's this?" Lilith said in a mocking voice. "Tempus is fugiting? Where does all the time go?"
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME?" the beast wailed as it continued to shrink under the crushing shell of Lilith's energy.
"Giving you a second childhood," Lilith grinned.
In moments, the Devourer collapsed further inward on itself, growing smaller and younger until it was barely the size of a newt. Then the Souma around it formed into a shell, and with a last flash of energy, all that was left of the beast was a tiny mottled egg, less than half the size of a chicken's.
Lilith picked up the egg, shook it gently, then stuffed it into her shirt. "And that's that!" she smiled, spreading her arms wide as she returned to the two girls behind her. "Lilith-chan is back, and better than ever! No, please, hold your applause."
There was no applause, however: only a soft sobbing. Lilith looked down to see that Tamao was cradling the other girl in her lap -- the one with red bows like Eve's in her hair -- and bright tears were spilling onto her ashen face. To her disquiet, Lilith noticed that the other girl was not breathing.
"Oh, damn," she whispered.
"Is it just me," Hazuki asked, "or has Lilith really changed since last I saw her?"
"It's not just you," Eve smiled wistfully, then peered down at the fat little parakeet in her hand. "All better, Ken-chan?"
"Always, in the embrace of a goddess," the bird said, standing to give a small bow.
"Flatterer," Hazuki snorted at him. "Can you take us back now?"
"Let me go first," Eve cautioned her. "Lilith probably has the dragon eating out of her hand by now, but I should go ahead of you just to be sure. I'll send Ken-chan back for you in a moment."
"As you wish, Lady Eve!" Ken-chan squawked. "Revived and renewed by the touch of your lovely fingers, I am at your service."
"Now, please," Eve laughed. Then, parakeet still in hand, she vanished from sight.
Once the two Spican girls were alone, Kaname took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "You saved my life."
"You saved mine, too. Several times, I think."
"Yeah, but..." Kaname looked down at her shoes, then out across the ruined neighborhood. "At the end there, you died... trying to save me."
"I would have done it for any of us," Hazuki said softly.
"Fine, I get it, you're a hero, but..." Kaname broke off, and swiped angrily at her eyes, trying to make sure Hazuki couldn't see. "You did it for me."
"Yeah, and you followed me into that fight," Hazuki said with a small sideways grin, "so I think we can call it even."
Kaname let out a sigh of pure exasperation. "God damn it, Hazuki, would you just let me thank you?"
Hazuki stifled a laugh. "You're welcome. And thank you: I couldn't have done it alone."
There was a long silence, broken only by the wind through the deserted streets.
"So, ah, Hazuki?"
"Hmm?"
"Did we actually just save all of creation?"
Hazuki considered this for a moment, then nodded at her rival-turned-companion. "You know what? I think we did."
Another long pause followed, as the two unlikely samurai looked anywhere but at one another.
"Kick ass," Kaname said softly.
"I wonder if I'll ever find my sword?" Hazuki wondered aloud.
Kaname snorted. "If you don't, I'll get you another one when we get home."
"So long as it's registered," Hazuki nodded.
"Um, yeah, about that..."
There was a soft pop, and then Ken-chan was hovering between them. "Quickly, my lovelies," he said in a somewhat nervous voice. "There's... something you need to see."
When Hazuki appeared with Kaname in the library, the first thing she saw was Lilith, back in her familiar Keeper clothes and wearing the hat, holding up both hands in restraint. "Both of you, just stay calm. This isn't going to be what it looks like, and one hysterical human is as much as I can handle right now."
"What are you talking about?" Hazuki asked, but the sound of Tamao crying was all the answer she needed, and she pushed past the elder Keeper to find a sight that all but made her heart stop.
Tamao was sitting on the floor, holding Chikaru's head in her lap as she wept, absently stroking the older girl's hair. Eve knelt beside them, one of Chikaru's limp hands held between both of hers. Hazuki knelt and took the other hand, finding it cold to the touch, and as she tried to send her Souma into Chikaru's shell, she found it empty, with no response to her energy.
"What happened?" she whispered. This couldn't be real. They had won, hadn't they?
"She saved us, Hazuki," Tamao sobbed. "She put on the hat and protected me long enough to heal the book. But now... she's gone..."
"No, she's not," Lilith sighed. "That's what I've been trying to tell you. She's not gone: she's just dead."
"What difference does it make?" Tamao shouted through her tears.
"It makes plenty of difference," Lilith said patiently. "She's not gone. She's with you."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Tamao said wretchedly. "Maybe... maybe she's a... a real angel now, and she'll always be with us that way, but..."
"Tamao," Lilith interrupted, smiling in spite of her obviously fraying patience, "that's not what I meant. She's. With. You. As in, inside you. You know, her Souma?"
"It's true," Eve nodded. "I can heal her body, but she needs her energy back. It would seem she was able to leave some of it with you." The young Keeper looked from Tamao to Hazuki and smiled. "She's truly grown into her power if she could do that."
"But... I've been touching her all this time!" Tamao insisted. "Why won't she go back to herself?"
"Can you help?" Hazuki asked Eve.
"Probably," Eve said knowingly, "but I think that you should try first." She closed her eyes and gave her one-time sister a wistful smile. "Complete your circle, Hazuki-chan."
"I can't give it back," Tamao said in a small, frightened voice. "Why can't I give it back to her?"
Suddenly, Hazuki understood. "Because you're afraid," she said quietly. "Just like I was."
"I don't understand."
"Give me your hand, Tamao-chan," Hazuki smiled, remembering that fateful night when the meditation had gone haywire. Maybe there were more lessons still to be learned from that.
As they clasped hands, Hazuki intentionally held back her Souma, and to her relief, she felt no exchange between them. It was as she thought after all. "You haven't had time to learn to share your energy," she explained. "I was like that too, for the longest time. Any exchange between me and Chikaru only happened because she trusted herself enough to begin it. I could never make the first step until she showed me how."
"Can you show me?" Tamao whispered.
"Not like she could, but I can tell you." Here, Hazuki turned to Tamao and looked deeply into her eyes. "You have to let go... and trust me with what's inside you."
Tamao nodded slowly, squeezing Hazuki's hand. She then closed her eyes and tried to steady her breathing.
Far more quickly than Hazuki would have imagined, a spark of energy passed to her, then a trickle, and finally a torrent, even as Tamao's tears began anew. Hazuki was flooded with warmth, but there was still something Tamao was keeping from her: some guilt that she could not release.
Tell me what it is, Tamao-chan, she whispered across the distance between them.
Haltingly, the answer came. I love you, Hazuki-chan... and... I love her, too. She'd been holding back, Hazuki realized, afraid to tell her the depths of her feelings for both of them, lest it drive Hazuki away. As much as they'd skirted around the issue, this was the first time Tamao could bring herself to tell the whole truth in such simple words.
Hazuki smiled. I know, Tamao-chan. I've always known.
With an audible sigh of both relief and release, the floodgates opened, and Hazuki found herself filled with not only warmth, but a magnificent, strange fire: the sum of all their energy, three spirits merged in wonder and joy. Their Souma pulsed brilliantly, filling the library with light, and for that infinite moment, they held one another in the most intimate of embraces. Then with seeming reluctance, three separate suns returned to their shells, and Hazuki opened her eyes...
...to see a pair of soft brown eyes looking back at her. "Hi there," Chikaru smiled.
Tamao and Hazuki held her then, feeling the returned warmth of her skin and the touch of her Souma as they tried to repeat with arms and bodies the closeness they had just experienced with their souls. "Welcome back," Hazuki whispered, crushing herself against both of these beloved women.
On the edge of perception, she heard Lilith let out a contented sigh. "Okay, I can't be the only one who's completely turned on right now, can I?"
"No comment," Kaname muttered.
At long last, they broke, and Chikaru took a look around. "We did it, then?" she asked, smiling brilliantly when she saw Eve. "Onee-sama," she whispered.
Eve nodded to her, mirroring the smile. "It's so good to see you again, little sister."
"So it's over, then?" Kaname asked, speaking in a brisk voice to hide her obvious discomfort. "I mean, apart from the fixing our world so we can go home part? What happened to the Devourer?"
"Yeah, what did happen to him?" Hazuki nodded, looking up at Lilith.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot," Lilith smiled, reaching into her shirt and pulling out a small egg. "One of my better solutions, if I do say so myself."
"What are you going to do with him now?" Chikaru asked.
Lilith peered at the egg for a few seconds, then smiled wickedly. "I'm going to introduce him to the concept of irony," she giggled. Then, before anyone could ask her what she meant, she popped the egg into her mouth and noisily swallowed it.
Nobody dared break the silence that followed.
Nobody, that is, except Kaname. "Well, that's gonna burn on the way out."
Next: Duality