A/N: Hello~ This is the 25th chapter of Hämnd and I've decided that the next chapter will be the last one. (If we don't count in the epilogue I'm planning to include.) I think that you can see it already but this story has stopped going along the original storyline (because I want to create my own ending)
I want to thank you all for reading this story and giving me support. Kanon's story has been going on for over a year and it's only thanks to you that I've managed to write this much. *a very deep bow* Even when this story is over, you can always stop by and ask for a story of Kanon or someone else. I'll really gladly write them ;)
And I also have to give you a bit bad news: I won't be able to update the last chapter in the following week, since I'll be going to France and I won't have any kind of computer with me... Please be patient! The grand ending will have to wait a bit...
Please go on reading the story~! (Preferably while listening to La Ragazza col Fucile or The Beast of the Endness. The best versions are the Assorted Horizons live versions ;D)
Kanon turned around to face the replica dolls while everyone else walked into the room where Teito was trying to stop the shaking of his hands so he could give the antidote to Millea. Kanon could only stare at the dolls and wonder if she had looked like that at some point of her life. She still didn't know anything of her real family and mother. She only knew that her mother had already died before the scientists had managed to revive Kanon's body into its living state. Soon Kanon could feel Ouka's hand on her shoulder.
"Is something wrong, Kanon?" Ouka asked. "You seem quite pale."
"We need to burn all this", Kanon said with a shaky voice. "These poor children do no have souls that would move them." You too are only moving thanks to Raphael. "We need to let them go… If even one of them has managed to develop a soul… I hope they get a better life than this…"
"Yes", Ouka whispered. "They deserve better…" Suddenly she grabbed Kanon's hand and said: "Let me do it! You've been forced to do this kind of things too much! Let me take this burden!"
"Uh… Okay?" Kanon stuttered. She had no clue what to say after that kind of outburst which made her feel quite awkward. She stood still while Ouka walked to the tanks and set them all on fire. When the dying dolls started screaming, Kanon had to clutch her head and lean back. She had never in her life been able to hear a child screaming without feeling bad for them. Soon the screaming disappeared and Ouka walked back to Kanon.
"Let's go", Ouka said with a sweet smile. "I still have a lot to do… Just like you still have to clear things with your brother."
Kanon nodded and followed Ouka into the room where Teito was talking to his mother. (He had managed to give the antidote to Millea and she had woken up.) Kanon could hear from Teito's voice that he was crying. Of course, she thought. Teito just got his mother back. I would give anything to get back my mother and supposed family… Suddenly Ouka patted Kanon's head and walked to the emperor. Kanon stared at Ouka and suddenly Kanon understood that they were already missing so much time and that Landkarte could realize what was happening at any moment. Kanon ran to Millea and Teito and grabbed Teito's shoulders which scared him quite much.
"Millea-san… I know that this is the worst moment to interrupt your reunion but I really need to kidnap your son for and hour or something like that", Kanon said with an apologetic smile which made Millea's eyes widen. "I promise to try to return him unwounded! Please don't worry."
"You have Krom-sama's smile", Millea whispered and then laughed. "And your eyes are like Kreuz-sama's… For a second or two, I thought that I had seen a ghost from the past… Are you by any chance related to them in some way?"
"I don't think so", Kanon said with a small laugh. "I don't really know my family but as far as I know, I've been implanted with Empress Dahlia's DNA. But we need to get going now."
"What about my mother?" Teito asked desperately. "Are you going to leave her here?"
"No", Kanon said and dragged Teito to the emperor's side. The emperor tried to retreat but Kanon stopped him. "Please wait! I need you people to go down with the emergency elevator – yes, you heard right, I've known about it quite long – and prepare a wheelchair for Millea-san because she can't walk just yet. And if there's an annoying brunette in there, tell him to take Millea to Ayanami's office – yes, an annoying brunette, you'll know when you see him you stupid emperor!"
Kanon dragged Teito to an entrance to another maze of air conditioning tubes. ("Do we really need to go back there, Kanon-san?" Teito groaned.) She got in and pulled Teito behind her. They started almost running in the maze because Kanon knew that Landkarte (whom she suspected being Katsuragi) could start coming after them at any minute. First Kanon would go check the place where Katsuragi was according to the plan Ayanami had made.
Soon enough Kanon and Teito had gotten through the huge maze and Kanon kicked open the exit they would use. The sound of the exit being kicked almost scared a soldier to death and made Konatsu – who happened to be passing by a bit further away in the same corridor – frown slightly because of the weird sound. He looked to the direction of the sound but saw only the scared soldier which made him think that he had imagined everything.
"Is this really okay, Kanon-san?" Teito asked. "What if we get spotted?"
"I was wondering the same thing", Hyuuga's playful voice whispered from behind. Kanon's shoulders jolted up and Teito was about to attack Hyuuga when Kanon prevented him from doing that.
"You were talking with Ayanami, weren't you?" Kanon asked. When Hyuuga nodded, Kanon continued: "Good. Tell him to come here as fast as he can – yes, you heard me right, we need him here as fast as possible. We might be finding out Landkarte's identity."
"I wish I could punch him", Teito whispered quietly.
"Let me do the punching", Kanon laughed. "Crap, I can't see Konatsu anywhere!"
"Were we following Kona-chan?" Hyuuga asked. "Why in the world would we follow him?"
"He will be the one to uncover Landkarte's identity, although he doesn't know it", Kanon explained. "He's clever enough to understand it himself."
"What the heck are you talking about?" Hyuuga asked as he ran after Kanon and Teito who were following Konatsu. "And isn't Teito-kun supposed to be in that examination right now? Why is he here?"
"It's an emergency", Kanon said. "And he doesn't need the examinations any longer. We only need to get rid of Landkarte."
Suddenly Teito's grip on Kanon's hand tightened and when Kanon looked at Teito, she realized that the poor boy was white like a pillow. Teito was shaking and sweating even when they stopped in order to not let Konatsu see them. Kanon put her hand on Teito's forehead to see if the boy had fever but his temperature was just fine.
"Is something wrong?" Kanon asked quietly. Teito still shook like he would be out in a blizzard without any kind of coat.
"K-Kanon-san…" Teito whispered. "I might have remembered something awful… There's… There's no way that guy would be related to my father, is there? He's just been lying like usual? Isn't that right?"
"Don't worry about that, Teito", Kanon said with a warming smile. "Just don't let them find out that you've remembered about that yet."
"Aya-tan's few corridors away from us", Hyuuga informed. "Could you then explain what all this is about?"
"When he comes here, yes", Kanon said. "We need to hear everything Konatsu says so please be quiet."
"Fine", Hyuuga mumbled.
After few minutes the trio could hear Ayanami walking to them. Kanon quickly informed them of her plan which didn't seem to make Hyuuga very happy but he agreed to it anyway. Ayanami was a bit surprised of Kanon's plan which seemed to be a bit too good to be thought up in few minutes. He frowned at few places but agreed since he wouldn't be able to think up another good plan to catch Landkarte as soon as he'd reveal himself. Ayanami didn't even ask why Kanon so strongly suspected Katsuragi since he had had his own suspicions for some time too.
"And how long do you think it will take him to reveal it?" Ayanami asked.
"I don't think it will take so long time anymore", Kanon whispered. "Konatsu will surely see through his words."
The trio followed Konatsu who was still walking around. Suddenly Konatsu called Katsuragi's name which led Kanon to hide so fast the she accidentally hit Teito quite painfully. Teito let out a small cough which made Konatsu frown and look at the source of the weird sound.
"The water's overflowing, you know?" Konatsu said to Katsuragi and stopped the water from flowing out of the machine. "It's unusual for you to be absent-minded."
"Forgive me, I was thinking about something", Katsuragi said.
"Ayanami-sama is calling", Konatsu informed Katsuragi. "Wait for him at the chief's room."
What the heck? Kanon thought when Katsuragi said that he'd go there. I've made everyone go there and now that guy's going there! I need to stop him before he goes there…
Katsuragi and Konatsu started talking about the black thing that had gone after Teito and Ouka at the ball. (Do you mean the creepy guy who almost killed Teito? Kanon thought.) Konatsu said that the "shadow" was probably Landkarte and that they were still searching for him even though they had lost his trails. (Probably because he just transported himself away, Kanon thought.) Katsuragi complained about how troublesome the ghosts were and asked about Ayanami. (He's right behind you, Kanon dryly laughed inside her head.) Konatsu told how Ayanami had talked about something and left and that no one had seen him after that. (We can see him right now, Teito thought in between his horrible waves of headache.) Suddenly their conversation turned to Zehel which made Kanon listen even more closely than she had already listened.
"Zehel…" Katsuragi mumbled. "Wasn't he the one who dropped the chandelier?" He started counting the ghosts who were at the fortress and in the end he mumbled aloud: "I wonder where Ea is…"
"Um… Colonel?" Konatsu asked with a shaky voice. "How in the world do you know that the chandelier was dropped by Zehel even though you weren't at the ball?"
Damn it!
Before anyone else could react, Kanon had already run to Konatsu and to everyone's surprise, stolen his sword to point it at Katsuragi's neck. Katsuragi smiled and swung his sword which made both Kanon and Konatsu fly backwards. Hyuuga managed to catch Konatsu and Kanon just landed on top of the heap. Ayanami had also stepped into the corridor and was facing Katsuragi. His eyes were full of pure hate and when Kanon finally managed to stand up she could feel the murderous aura of the chief of staff.
"It seems that Kanon and Konatsu managed to show us the evidence of you being Landkarte", Ayanami said. "Since you also seem to have stopped acting, it would be best to surrender. We still have a lot of questioning to do and we need to find Ea and open Pandora's Box."
"I'm sorry, but I can't have you resurrecting Verloren yet", Katsuragi said with a smile. Ayanami was taken aback from the sudden statement and Katsuragi used the opening to attack.
The following moments were pure chaos.
Hyuuga had gone next to Ayanami while he had been talking to Katsuragi and when Katsuragi tried to attack Hyuuga pushed Katsuragi backwards and placed something on his chest. While Hyuuga was busy with Katsuragi, Kanon tried to pull Ayanami back. Before they had gotten far, there suddenly was a huge explosion which threw both Ayanami and Kanon several meters away. Kanon barely managed to fall on her feet but Ayanami wasn't as lucky. He hit his head on the wall and fell unconscious.
When the smoke cleared, Kanon, Teito and Konatsu managed to see how Katsuragi tried to stand up and how Hyuuga had been thrown into the window which resulted in several cuts all over his body. Kanon ran to Katsuragi and saw how Hyuuga's katana had pierced his throat and how different flowers had started blooming all over his body. With only one glance Kanon could see that Katsuragi had already lost a lot of blood and with the flowers preventing the functions of the regeneration ability, he would die in less than ten minutes. Suddenly something grabbed Kanon's arm.
"Remove that sword", Katsuragi coughed out. Kanon frowned because she couldn't see any swords. Then she suddenly saw her own short sword sticking out of Katsuragi's chest. She carefully took it out and Katsuragi smiled bitterly.
"It seems that my wish wouldn't come true after all", he quietly breathed out.
"The world can never be perfect, Landkarte", Kanon said with a sad tone. "There will always be something staining it. We just need to accept and forgive it…"
"You might be right", Katsuragi chuckled darkly. The he turned at Kanon and smiled – a happy smile. "You know, this life wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Please tell those people that… I actually was happy to be a part of that group…"
Kanon's eyes widened as Katsuragi's eyes slowly closed and his body fell onto the ground. She saw clearly how his body started disappearing and soon there were no traces of Katsuragi ever existing. Kanon blinked away the tears that had suddenly formed into her eyes and then stood up. She walked to Konatsu who was trying to wake Hyuuga up without any results.
"Can you take him to the infirmary?" Kanon asked. "I think that he has lost his consciousness because of the blood loss."
Konatsu's eyes suddenly lit up even though they were full of tears. He shakily nodded and smiled at Kanon. He stood up and started half carrying and half dragging Hyuuga away. Kanon smiled and walked to Ayanami who was still unconsciously lying on the ground. Teito was sitting right next to Ayanami and looking at him with confusion clear on his face.
"What do we do now?" Teito asked.
"We'll go to Ayanami's office", Kanon said and grabbed Teito's hand. She also too Ayanami's hand and cast a spell that moved them straight into Ayanami's office.
Opinions? Thoughts? Suggestions? Anything on your mind after reading this chapter? Please feel free to review even the smallest ideas on your mind! (but it seems that allows only one review/person/chapter)
Thank you~