Disclaimer:
This fic uses characters, places, themes from franchises that are the property of others. I do not own these franchises.

Special Thanks to:
Charles Xavier, author: For writing an awesome crossover with anime and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Suikosource website: For providing great information that made this fic possible.

The Anime Margin: War of the Runes
By: RB3

End of an Empire: The First and the Last

After Tenchi's victory over him during the invasion of Kaital, Yosho had been bedridden. A bright light filtered into his eyes as the fluorescent hospital light shone down upon him. As Yosho awoke, he was greeted by the roof of the sterile hospital. Yosho sat up and the covers fell down, revealing a set of bandages covering the area where Tenchi had stabbed him. He remembered what happened. Tenchi-ken had seared a hole clean through his abdomen, damaging his internals severely. However, since medical help came for him almost immediately, he survived his wounds.

A Juraian nurse rushed in upon noticing him. "Prince Yosho, you must rest. You have been severely wounded from your battle at Kaital."

"Where am I?" he asked.

"You're in the Runecaptor Hospital on the planet Harmonia in the No-Man's-Land," replied the nurse. "Please lie down and get some rest."

Yosho reclined on the bed as the nurse finished her chores and returned to perform further duties. A few minutes later, Tenchi and his friends came into the room to visit their friend Yosho. "Hey Grandpa, how are you?" asked Tenchi.

"Tenchi! I'm fine, it looks like the doctors took good care of me," replied Yosho, looking down at the bandages. "I'll be back up before you know it."

"I've made a nice lunch for you," said Sasami, opening a box filled with sushi and salad.

"Oh, thank you Sasami. This meal will help rebuild my strength," replied Yosho, who began to sample a piece of tuna sushi.

"Yosho, I wish to speak about your Secessionist forces," said Aeka. "After the fall of Kaital, their forces had surrendered to us. I was hoping that you could lend your men to us. We're planning on invading Jurai very soon and it would help us greatly."

"Of course, I will place my troops under your command," assured Yosho. "We must stop the Emperor. The Sovereign Rune has made him into a tyrant and we need to do whatever its takes to free him."

After several days had passed, Yosho had recovered enough to walk. Aeka brought him over to the offices of the leaders of the Runecaptors to discuss strategy on how to take Jurai. Now that the Empress Faction had assimilated the forces of the Secessionists, they were on a more equal footing with the Imperials. Iroh examined the holographic planetary maps of Pucella and Jurai as Aeka operated the controls to a projector. Both planets were heavily guarded, but Pucella's defences had fewer icons, suggesting a weaker defence by the Imperials.

"Although we need to liberate Pucella as well as Jurai, I wish to reserve the majority of our forces for Jurai," stated Iroh. "If we can strike at the heart, we can end this war immediately."

"Father's planetary defences are the strongest we've encountered yet. Do we have the forces to take him on head on like that?" asked Aeka.

"We're still slightly weaker, so a head-on attack is ill-advised. I propose that we instigate a rebellion on Pucella and overthrow the Imperial viceroy. This will prevent a significant portion of the Emperor's fleet from reinforcing Jurai. Other rebellions are keeping the Imperials busy in Juraihelm, so the only fleet that could reinforce the capital is from Pucella," informed Iroh.

"Okay, we have some people from Pucella in our ranks. I'll send in Shaoran's group," said Aeka.


After meeting with Aeka, Shaoran's group had formulated a plan with her and Iroh. The Hime who had joined the Runecaptors, Mai, Shizuru, and Midori, had stayed in contact with their only surviving friends from the battle with Azusa. The corrupted Hime and the Otome were viciously putting down any resistance to those who dared to resist Pucella's viceroy. Arika and Nina, the only ones left, were outnumbered against their former friends and had gone into hiding.

Mai led the group to a coffee shop under the cover of disguises. The streets were crawling with Imperial guards and police. A police car drove by, scanning the streets for criminals or rebels planning on going up against the occupation. The viceroy had placed the planet under martial law, enforcing a strict curfew. The coffee shop was a dark atmosphere with a set of sofas near the back for the customers to lounge in. The proprietor operated a machine which filled a cup of coffee for a customer.

Mai walked to the cashier. "I'd like a large mocha latte please with two spare cups for my friends."

The cashier took Mai's money and turned to the machine to fill her order. A whiff of strong, fragrant coffee filled the air. After receiving her order, Mai took a sip from her cup. As she went to fill the empty cups for her friends, she found a rolled up piece of paper in one of them. The paper had a message which read "go to apartment 201, at 11 Sakura Street." After sharing her drink with Midori and Shizuru, Mai motioned to the others, seated at different tables. "When you're done, meet us outside."

Mai led the rest of the team over to the address listed on the secret message. She knocked on the door and the occupant cautiously looked out through a peephole before opening the door. "Mai! I'm so glad to see you!" said the occupant, Arika.

"How have you been doing? Are you okay? You aren't hurt are you?" asked Mai, as she hugged Arika and then Nina.

"We're fine. We've had quite a few close calls, but we managed to get away each time. Come in," offered Arika. "These are the people who broke the spell on you, I presume?"

"Yes, they're members of the Runecaptors, the people I told you about," replied Midori. "After we were mind controlled, we were sent to a drug operation on another planet where our new friends fought us. They broke the Rune's control over us and we joined them."

The members of Shaoran's group each gave out introductions to the Otome. "Shaoran, are you the only help we're getting?"

"Pretty much," replied Shaoran. "Most of our friends have gone after Azusa himself."

"We're only here to keep the Juraians busy so they don't get in our friends' way," informed Meilin. "The Hime are their best fighters. If we break the Rune's control, the Juraians will fall."

"I see," replied Arika.

"Where are they now?" asked Ichigo.

"They just finished taking over eastern Russia, so they should be coming back to rest at the Juraian arboretum. It's just to the north of here. You can't miss it," replied Nina.

"Let's pay them a visit," suggested Ichigo.

The Runecaptors, now two members stronger with Arika and Nina, travelled northwards to where Nina had indicated. The Juraian arboretum was like all the others, a massive tree which towered over the city. The tree rivalled many skyscrapers in size and stood as a monument to Juraian power in that area. A sparkle of light, like a miniature star, rose from the arboretum and ascended all the way to the heavens. It was a ship which launched from the tree.

"Four of our friends, Natsuki, Mikoto, Yukino, and Shiho are there," informed Arika.

"Yeah, I remember the briefing for this mission," replied Uryu.

"Hide!" whispered Nina.

The Runecaptors took cover behind the walls near the windows of the hotel they were hiding in. A young girl with pink pigtails flew by. She was dressed pure white and rode atop a giant mechanical crow with a single leg. The creature's spaded tail gave it an appearance like that of a devil. Fortunately, the girl had not seen them spying on her from the hotel. When the area was clear, the Runecaptors came out from hiding and continued to watch her.

"That was Shiho Munakata, wasn't it?" asked Uryu.

"Yeah, that was Shiho," confirmed Mai. "That means the others are nearby too."

"Does she fly by here like this all the time?" asked Uryu.

"Yeah, she's always like this," replied Arika.

"I see... I think we can use this our advantage," suggested Uryu.


Shiho continued to fly around the area, scouting for any potential threats to the Juraian Empire's control. As she circled around a group of empty apartment buildings, a bolt of blue energy sailed right at her! She made Yatagarasu veer away and turned around to face her attacker, Arika. "There you are!"

Arika immediately fled deeper into the abandoned residential zone as Shiho gave chase. Yatagarasu was quite fast and kept up quite easily as Arika raced down the street with Otome-enhanced speed. Arika turned a corner and screamed past a pair of tall apartment buildings. She turned around and fired at Yatagarasu, who banked to the left, dodging it easily. It dove down after Arika in retaliation as she ran further past the apartments.

From the roof of one of the buildings, Chad watched the chase unfold. Yatagarasu followed Arika all the way until it was between the buildings. Suddenly, Rukia came out of the doorway of Chad's building and raised a column of icy air under Yatagarasu. The air was so cold that it froze the ground instantly, reaching all the way up to Yatagarasu's leg and encasing portions of its body in ice. The ice ultimately immobilized the Child, prevent it from getting away.

At that moment, Chad leapt from the roof and landed behind Shiho. With a quick motion of his hand, Chad struck her in the back of the head, knocking her unconscious. Without its mistress to control and maintain it, Yatagarasu vanished without a trace. Chad quickly picked up Shiho and landed on the ground. Shaoran quickly moved in and sucked the Sovereign Rune sliver into a capsule. Despite being freed from a Rune, Shiho remained unconscious, still unconscious from Chad's sneak attack.

"So good so far," remarked Mai. "The others will come here looking for her soon. We'd better be ready."

The Hime and their Runecaptor allies hid in the area while they awaited the arrival of the remaining Hime. The remaining Hime appeared in the area, just minutes afterwards, hoping to learn what had happened to their friend. They came across the apartment buildings where the Runecaptors and Shiho had battled. There were scorch marks on the ground, which were the result of energy blasts hitting the ground. The three turned to each other, nodded, and fanned out to search for any clues as to what might have happened in the area.

Natsuki, the blue-haired one, noticed a gorgeous girl in a purple kimono walk into a house. It was Shizuru Fujino, her lesbian lover. She raced in to follow Shizuru and capture her, but when she entered the home, she found nothing inside. She then heard running water coming upstairs and ran up to catch her. When she tracked the sound to a bedroom, she kicked the door open and burst in with guns drawn. She found Shizuru, standing in the middle of the room.

Shizuru, turned around and smiled seductively. She immediately disrobed, her kimono dropping to the floor and leaving her completely naked. Natsuki was stunned. "Welcome darling, I've been waiting for so long... No one will bother us. We have all day and all night."

Shizuru slowly walked up to the stunned Natsuki and put her arms around her in an embrace. She pulled Natsuki into a deep kiss as she slowly guided her towards the nearby bed and lowered her onto it. Shizuru climbed on and leaned forward into a deep kiss. Natsuki was in heaven, as she took in the desire of her lover. Whatever happened next was a blur and she lost all track of time as she stayed in Shizuru's loving embrace.

Shaoran, Meilin, and Shizuru entered the room, seeing Natsuki asleep on the bed with a grin on her face. A nimbus of iridescent light, the shape of a woman's body, was on top of her, as though it was sleeping against her chest. "What is she seeing?" asked Shizuru.

"The Illusion Card shows her what she desires the most," replied Shaoran.

"No kidding," replied Shizuru, upon noticed the familiar, feminine shape of the Illusion Card on top of Natsuki. She then smirked. "After this is over, I'm going to make sure she gets the real thing."

Meilin brought a capsule to Natsuki's forehead and removed the sliver of the Sovereign Rune. "All done!" she chirped cheerfully.

Elsewhere, Yukino walked past a primary school. The school was a typical brick building enclosed by a fenced perimeter and a front gate which led directly to the school's main doors. It was quiet and abandoned from the martial law imposed on the area by the Juraians, who had forced everyone to leave the area. Even using the spores of her plant-like Child, Diana, to scan the area, she could not find anything that would suggest Shiho's fate.

Just then, she noticed Uryu in one of her mirrors, preparing to shoot her in the back! She immediately dodged the arrow and turned around. She sicced Diana upon him, who lashed out with a vine-like feeling and snatched Uryu off of the roof of the school. "Trying to shoot me in the back? You're such a dirty coward! Diana knows how to deal with you!"

As she prepared to deliver the death blow to Uryu, Diana suddenly became encased in ice, unable to act any further. The icy vine holding Uryu shattered and he landed safely on the ground. He prepped a second arrow and fired it at Yukino, who dodged quickly. Rukia hurled ice, which Yukino suddenly saw coming out of the corner of her eye. She ducked forward, narrowly evading that attack at the last second. As she turned to face Rukia, something struck her from the right with great speed, sending her onto the pavement. She only caught one glimpse of her attacker, Ichigo, before his final blow knocked her out.

"That's two," remarked Uryu.

The last Hime, Mikoto, charged at Orihime and brought her massive sword down, only to connect with a triangular barrier. The barrier was too powerful for her break through, no matter how much strength her small frame could muster. She smashed her sword on the ground, opening a black vortex beneath her foe. Orihime quickly leapt away to avoid it sucking her in. At that moment, Chad unleashed a powerful ki blast, which Mikoto spotted just at the edge of her peripheral vision.

She turned and raised her weapon to parry the attack. It struck with such tremendous force that she had to dig into the ground hard to avoid being swept away. Chad jumped over a bush and closed, coming in with a power-packed punch. Mikoto blocked once again, and held firm against the onslaught of punches Chad unleashed on her. She saw an opening and swung hard for the head, but Chad ducked. Mikoto threw a chop, but Chad rolled away safely. Chad immediately shot in for a tackle which carried Mikoto all the way to the side of a brick house.

"Argggh!" gasped Mikoto as she hit the wall and dropped her sword.

As Chad released Mikoto and backed off, the others approached the area, seeing Mikoto vulnerable on one knee. Shaoran held out a capsule, which dragged the Sovereign sliver from her head and trapped it within its confines. Mikoto fell forward. The sudden loss of the sliver's power drained the last her stamina. "Mikoto, are you alright?"

"Mai!" gasped the breathless girl. She was clearly elated to see her, but noticeably too fatigued to pounce on her.

"Having the sliver removed took a lot out of her," admitted Shaoran. "She'll fine after some rest."

"At least that's over with," said Rukia.

"Yeah, all we have to do is to free the rest of the Otome from slivers," remarked Ichigo. "We got rid of the strongest ones today so it should be smooth sailing from here."


The battle at Jurai had started with a bang. The ships of the former Secessionist Faction pelted the Imperial fleet, riddling them with beams of energy. From the surface, launch pads raised missiles upward to the sky. The missiles took off with a hiss and a trail of white smoke in their wake. They ascended the heavens to outer space, striking one of Yosho's ships. It exploded in a flaming plume visible for miles around. They were visible even on the surface of Jurai.

On the surface, a portal of shimmering light opening in the wilderness away from an array of Jurai's surface to space defences. Emerging from this opening between worlds was Sakura's team, intent on eliminating the defences of Jurai. "More missile launchers for us to destroy. We are getting good at this!" remarked Rock Lee.

"Heh heh, those Juraians won't know what hit'em," chuckled Naruto.

"Fan out, Sakura, Madison, you go to the left. My team will go right. Marcus, you're going straight ahead," said Shikamaru.

The teams split up and soon came face to face with the enemy. Agumon Digivolved all the way to Rise Greymon, while the Digimon of his companions assumed their Ultimate forms. He marched straight on ahead, drawing fire from several Juraian soldiers. Their meagre weapons had no effect on the giant dinosaur. Rise Greymon merely bombarded them with orange energy bolts fired from his revolver arm. Each hit exploded with tremendous force, flinging the soldiers around like rag dolls.

"The way is clear. Your move, Thomas," said Marcus.

Thomas ran ahead to a radar station situated amidst the missile silos along the surface. He hurled lightning at several soldiers coming his way, shocking them into unconsciousness. He soon reached the control room, where he electrically incapacitated all of the people operating the launchers. He immediately sat at the nearest console and typed away in an attempt to alter the firing program. His efforts proved successful, giving him video feed of the battle in space.

The Imperials were fighting a gruelling battle with his side. One of their ships went down from Empress Factions fire, just as they shot down one his team's ships. After typing some more, a targeting reticule appeared on one of the Imperial ships. After some more typing, missiles shot out of the launchers going straight for the Imperial ship. The missiles hit the ship so suddenly that the captain had no time to react before his ship was blown to pieces.

"What the hell?" asked one of the others captains.

Another missile struck an Imperial ship, blowing a second ship into smithereens. "That missile came from the planet!" reported another officer.

A third missile came at the fleet, homing into the nearest ship and wasting it. "Someone has hacked into our defences! Stop them!" cried a second ship captain.

"The Empress Faction has captured one of our firing stations. Shit! The enemy's breaking through our lines!" cried a third captain.


In space, the Emperor's ships exploded one after the other in bursts of brilliant flame. As the enemies dwindled in number, the Empress Faction soon had the planet of Jurai surrounded. Drop ships rained down on Jurai's surface, bringing the Runecaptor's ground forces to bear. As a shuttle landed on a vast plain, countless soldiers swarmed out, like ants leaving their colony in search of food. From the opposite end, Azusa's forces charged down the plains.

When they met, bolts of energy sailed forth between the two. Screeches filled the air, moments before deafening explosions rocked the battlefield. An Empress Faction soldier ducked under a rocky outcropping moments before decapitating energy beams sailed by overhead. He peeked out and let loose several shots of his own. Several shots came racing back from the enemy line. Before the soldier could duck, one seared through his head. He stumbled backwards before falling onto the ground.

At the Imperial Palace within the great tree Tenju, an informant addressed Azusa. "Your majesty, the Hime have gone out to meet the enemy. If..."

Before the man could finish, some screaming came from behind the front door of the throne room. Seconds later, the doors burst open from a massive explosion. From the ruins walked in Tory, followed by Ryoko, Tenchi, and Aeka. "They're already in my palace?" asked Azusa, jumping from his seat.

"This ends here, father," said Aeka. "The power of the Runes is not for us to use. Let us reclaim the Rune and we will leave peacefully."

"Never!" said Azusa. "With the Rune, I will create an invincible Jurai under my rule. With the Sovereign Rune, even Tsunami and the Chousin are powerless before me. What hope do you have? Kneel before me, and I might spare your lives."

"No father, we will put an end to this, no matter what it takes," assured Aeka.

"Very well, feel the power of the Sovereign Rune!"

Azusa made a fist, revealing the crown-like Sovereign Rune on the back of it. The Rune glowed with a golden glow as a similarly coloured ghost superimposed over his body. The ghost was a dragon-like creature with a trio of heads all bearing emblems of the Sovereign Rune. The dragon-like creature let out a massive roar which resounded for miles around. One of the heads turned to the group and spewed a raging torrent of flame.

Aeka immediately raised a log barrier to weather this attack. "This is the Sovereign Rune's ultimate power, Draconian Supremacy. It turns its user into a three-headed dragon," said Tory. "The Sovereign Rune can also shut down the power of other Runes. We have to rely on our own abilities to beat him."

Tory teleported away from Aeka to the side of the golden dragon. He immediately brought out the Earthy Card, conjuring a massive earthquake beneath Azusa. As the other heads came together to concentrate fire, the shaking ground broke their formation. The first head veered away sharply, its flame jerked to the right and seared down a pillar. Unable to keep his balance, Azusa ceased breathing fire in an attempt to regain his balance. He immediately backed away to reach more stable ground to resume his attack.

He immediately swung his tail, catching Tory and hurling him into a side wall. On impact, he had cracked the wall and laid slumped against it. Despite such a powerful blow, he eventually started to recover and get up. In the meantime, Azusa turned his attention to Aeka, spewing flame. She promptly raised a log barrier to weather this searing onslaught. The flame was intense and came on as a vicious, seemingly endless torrent.

While he was distracted with Aeka, Tenchi charged in the from the flank. One of the heads noticed him and exhaled a blast of lightning. Tenchi stopped his charge and used the Light Hawk sword to block the electrocuting blast. Like the flame, the sheer amount of power in the blast was immense. Tenchi strained himself to maintain his guard in the face of this onslaught. Ryoko used their attacks as distractions to teleport near the fire-breathing head and drive her energy blade into its back.

The dragon screeched in agony. Ryoko dug the weapon deeper inside and making a sweeping arc, she had severed the head. Burning blood started to erupt from the opening, which she immediately escaped by teleporting away. "That was close!" she remarked, wincing in pain from having her hands singed.

Suddenly, the lightning head roared. The burning blood from the severed head reshaped itself into a head. They immediately took on a solid, flesh and blood form, restoring the head to its original condition. "Oh great..." remarked Gohan.

"We have to get rid of the lightning-breathing head. It's the one that revives the others," informed Tory.

"Easier said than done," remarked Ed. One of the heads turned his way, preparing to breathe upon him. He immediately formed a wall of marble before him as a defence. "Gohan, I'll cover you. Get ready!"

"Right!"

Ed immediately touched the floor, applying the crimson alchemical glow upon it. The ground started to shift and form around Azusa's legs, holding them in place. The emperor suddenly found his advance strangely halted and tried to move his legs, but found them being impeded. As he looked down to find out what was causing it, this momentary lapse of attention was all the opening Gohan needed. He immediately flew behind the dragon and send a ki blast right into the lightning head's back. It seared the head clean off. Azusa roared in pain.

"Wonderful!" cheered Aeka.

Suddenly, the fire head turned to Gohan and breathed flame upon him. It caught him off guard and engulfed body painfully. Gohan screamed in agony as he fell out of the air, still ablaze with the enemy's flame. Tory teleported next to him to check on his condition. He immediately applied the Aesculapian Card, which bore the symbol of a single snake entwined around a staff. Gohan glowed with a wholesome, rejuvenating white light as his burns started to heal.

"I'll get Gohan to safety," assured Tory. "I'll be back shortly."

Tory and Gohan immediately vanished in the blink of an eye. "Even with Gohan down and Tory away, we can still win this one. We've got one of the heads down. Only two to go," encouraged Al.

"I can keep father busy," offered Aeka. "Look for an opening and destroy the other heads."

The heads immediately reared back and exhaled blasts of ice and flame. The flames rushed at Aeka, who raised a log barrier to shield the brothers Elric. The ice went straight for Tenchi and Ryoko, with Tenchi forming a Light Hawk barrier to protect himself and the space pirate. The elemental blasts were so intense that they threatened to blow them away, despite being blocked. From behind cover, Ryoko hurled bolts of energy, which the golden dragon largely ignored, despite taking full contact hits to the head.

Ed and Al plunged their hands into the floor, alchemically reshaping the ground under Azusa. The random movement threw his footing from under him, forcing him to stop breathing ice and fire. Tenchi rushed in during Azusa's brief moment of disorientation. Suddenly, Azusa recovered and slammed his fire head into the Juraian prince. Tenchi went flying back, but righted himself and landed on his feet. The third head, the ice head, immediately turned to Al and breathed upon him.

The alchemist became trapped in a cage of ice. He couldn't break out no matter how much effort he put into breaking the prison. With his arms immobilized, he couldn't perform alchemy to transmute the ice into something less confining. "Al!" cried Ed. "Cover me. I'm going to free him!"

The fire head turned to Al and exhaled flame just as Ed approached. Aeka extended her barrier over to protect him, but since they were further away, it was difficult for her to reinforce it. Ed quickly transmuted the ice into tissue paper and ripped Al out of the prison. They immediately fled behind Aeka, who retracted the extended barrier to reinforce her own. "Are you okay?" asked Aeka.

"Yes," replied Al. "That didn't go over so well. Azusa's catching on to our tactics. We have to do better to distract him."

"Al and I aren't good at doing any damage to him. The best we can hope for is to distract or pin him down," remarked Ed. "I know, get him to go after Tenchi. I have an idea."

The heads immediately reared back and breathed torrents of elemental power upon the team. Again, Aeka, Ed, and Al raised barriers to weather this onslaught. During Azusa's attack, Tenchi moved to the flanks and attempted to charge into close quarters. Azusa's fire head noticed him coming and lunged at Tenchi. However, the Juraian prince was ready for this counter attack and stopped his advance to block. Ed saw the moment he was waiting for and alchemically transmuted the ground.

A marble hand reached out from the floor and snatched the dragon's neck. Despite efforts to escape, the hand was too strong to shatter and its grip was too firm to wriggle out of. The ice head lunged at Ryoko, who was trying to come in from a different flank. Instead, she teleported away, right behind the trapped fire head. The ice head, too far away to help, could do nothing as Ryoko plunged her blade into the fire head's neck. The head went clean off, leaving only the ice head remaining.

Ryoko teleported back to regroup with the others. Like before, she was wincing in pain from having her hands burnt from the fire head's burning blood. "Are you okay?" asked Ed.

"I'll be fine. I heal fast," replied Ryoko.

At that moment, Tory returned to the throne room to help his companions. "Tory, you're back!" remarked Aeka.

"Yep," he replied. "Gohan will be okay. I left him in an infirmary in one of our camps. He'll be better after some rest."

"Father only has one head left. Even though weakened, he'll be more desperate than ever. He'll pull out all the stops to win," said Aeka.

Tory hurled bolts of flame at the last surviving head, the ice head. The flames seared at the dragon, but only served as a minor nuisance rather than a serious threat. The head reared back and sprayed ice upon the group, turning its head in an attempt to cover the entire room. The team immediately raised barriers to block the freezing cold, rather than become frozen like Al was before. When the dragon ran out of breath, Ryoko and Tenchi closed in.

Ryoko teleported behind the last head, but before she could do anything, Azusa turned around. Due to the confines of the room, he had smashed down the walls of the palace in his effort to face Ryoko. He snapped his teeth at Ryoko, who teleported away to escape being bitten. As Ryoko rejoined the others, she noticed debris falling from the roof. Azusa immediately slammed against the walls, this time deliberately trying to damage them.

"What's he doing?" she asked.

"He's trying to bring down the palace on top of us. We have to get out!" cried Aeka.

"I'll teleport us out. Get close to me!" cried Tory.

The group immediately vanished from the room just before Tenju's roof collapsed upon them. As they appeared outside, a massive cloud of dust appeared at the great Royal Tree. Azusa bolted out of the palace, landing on the ground with an earth-shaking thud. Azusa hurled sphere of ice towards the heavens. Aeka summoned Ryu-oh's viewing monitor and saw the ice hit and destroy several of her faction's ships. They immediately lost orbit and descended onto Jurai like meteors.

Just then, a bolt of energy descended from the heavens. It struck Azusa square in the back, causing him to screech in pain. The beam came from the Tsunami, Sasami's ship, in orbit around Jurai. Azusa immediately turned upwards and spit several boulders of ice up to the heavens. In space, the ice streaked by until one caught Tsunami's Light Hawk Wings. The ship shuddered with the immense impact. Another tore through the Light Hawk Wings and dented the ship's hull. A third came forward and tore off one of its thrusters.

Tsunami started to lose orbit and fall to the surface. "Sasami!" cried Aeka, as she watched the Tsunami descend in Ryu-oh's viewing screen.

In the distance, the ship exploded in a plume of flame. "Aeka, we can't worry about Sasami now. We have to finish this. Azusa will only get worse if he continues on like this," said Tory.

"Okay, take us there," said Aeka.

Tory immediately teleported over to where Azusa was rampaging across Jurai. The moment they appeared, Tory hurled a bolt of lightning upon the last remaining head. The dragon, now weakened by Tsunami's assault, recoiled forward in pain. "I've got him on the ropes. Finish him!" cried Tory.

Aeka immediately surrounded the last remaining head in a field of logs. They arced electrical bolts which stunned it, preventing Azusa from launching any counter attacks momentarily. Tenchi ran up and hopped onto Azusa's back. With one mighty, sweeping swing, he had severed the dragon's final head from its body. Bolts of lightning arced from it randomly, causing Tenchi to flinch in pain as they touched him. The spectral dragon writhed in agony, throwing Tenchi off. Ryoko teleported over and retrieved Tenchi for Tory to apply healing magic upon him.

The dragon collapsed and vanished, leaving the unconscious body of Azusa on the ground. Tory approached him and immediately held out a capsule. The Rune peeled off and became trapped within the capsule. The battle was over. "That's the last one."


Just after the defeat of Azusa, Tory and the other Cardcaptors approached the vault, bearing all of the Runes. "Sasami's fine," said Aeka over a cell phone. "Tsunami had created a force field around herself. Just before the ship went down, Sasami hid inside so she would be safe. My father is still bedridden, but his recovery is coming smoothly so he should be up in no time."

"That's good," remarked Tory. "Gohan will be released from the hospital tomorrow. Because I got to him so soon, he didn't have to stay there long. How are efforts going on at your end?"

"The queens and I will have our hands full disbanding the bureaucracies my father had put into place to maintain power," replied Aeka. "It will be a tough, but it must be done to restore the faith of our subjects."

As they spoke Tory put the Runes into their slots on the altar. "Good, I'm about to place the Sovereign Rune in the altar. I'll talk more later," he said, terminating the line.

As he placed the last Rune upon the altar, the Rune of Beginnings addressed them. "With the Runes returned to their rightful place, disaster has been averted. However, we Runes no longer have a place in this world. Our people are long gone and those that are here have no relation to us. Therefore, I shall guide the Runes to our people in the afterlife."

The Runes started to vanish from the altar. The Cardcaptors received a vision of the Runes, floating in a location far from Harmonia in the void of outer space. One by one, the Runes exploded, like a dying star giving its last rays of light before burning out. When all of the Runes were destroyed, only the Rune of Beginnings remained. "I am the Alpha and the Omega; the first and the last. Farewell, Cardcaptors, for we will not see each other again." With that, the Rune of Beginnings teleported to the void of space. Like the others, it exploded into nothingness, joining the other Runes in the afterlife.

END OF CHAPTER

SECRETS OF THE RUNES: Sovereign Rune
Domain: Authority, Rulership
Duality: Supremacy vs Tyranny
Appearance: A golden crown
Powers: negates Runic powers, compel obedience, user can take on the shape of a golden hydra

Description:
This powerful Rune represents the power of rulership and governance. While necessary to have leaders in every society, the mantle of leadership can lead a person towards dictatorship and authoritarianism. This Rune is fearsome because it is capable of negating the power of other Runes. Its ultimate power is to transform its bearer into a golden dragon or hydra. In fact, this Rune was once the keepsake of the rulers of the Scarlet Moon Empire in the planet of Harmonia before it collapsed.