Kiyoshi: Another chapter?

FCL64: Sure. You all know who we own. You also know who we own with the help of animegrlsteph. That's all I really have to say today.


Kyo easily walked Kurama through the whole story from start to finish. When he finally said the last of his tale, Kurama said, "So you developed a god complex."

"Perhaps," Kyo answered. "But that is not the point. The point is that you can either give me that pendant, or you can die."

"I'm not going to give you the pendant," Kurama replied. "I'm not going to die. I'm going to kill you."

"Are you now?"

Kurama pulled the pendant from his shirt. "You're afraid of this thing, aren't you? As you should be."

Kurama saw Kyo's purple eyes flash with fear. "You can't control it."

"Yes, I can," Kurama replied. "It is the key to your total destruction. That is all I desire. Once I have killed you, I will be content. I will be able to move on. And it hardly matters if I can control it. It may kill me, but it will kill you as well. You remember, don't you, that I swore on my life to kill you? I stand by that, making my life and possible death entirely irrelevant."

Kyo stared. Then moving with a speed his opponent could not follow, Kurama broke the chain and let a small amount of his aura disappear into the pendant. Then he watched with a cruel smile on his face as all the plants and animals near him withered and died. Kyo retreated several steps in order to avoid getting dragged down by the simple aura intake.

Then Kurama grimaced and said, "Goodbye, Kyo." There was a blast as the negative energy in the pendant charged forward. It collided with the other man, who screamed in pain. But the scream only lasted a second. His body fell to the ground and disintegrated into a pile of ash.

Kurama nodded to himself and took a deep breath. It surprised him that he felt more at peace now than he ever had in the five centuries since his best friend had died. He turned to see Kaien arguing with the other man, Xanthippus.

"What is your aim?" Kaien demanded. "It sounds as though you are the one who really wanted us dead, you bastard. While he was actually killing everyone, it sounds as though you're the one who talked him into all of it."

The blue haired man shrugged. "Perhaps I did. But I could have easily killed you all myself. I just didn't feel it was worth my trouble."

"I see the ring you are wearing, Xanthippus," Ayaka said quietly. "But it will not save you this time. The calm Kaien and I must feel to control these lockets cannot be knocked away by anything. The force of the universe is coming down on our minds, and we can remain calm in the face of that. One little stone won't be so difficult." The ring on his finger was one of the objects he had obtained with Kyo's help. One of the pieces Kyo had killed for.

Ayaka and Kaien stepped closer together. Kaien snapped the lockets together, and they each let their energy flow into it, knowing that it would be more powerful now than ever before.

But they were far calmer now than ever before; killing this man would end the battle they had been fighting for centuries. Ayaka whispered, "You are as responsible for Kuronue's death as Kyo was. For that you must die."

The whole world seemed much calmer than Kurama had imagined, hearing the stories. But suddenly the wind picked up, tearing at Xanthippus's clothing and hair. The ring on his finger began glowing, but it was he who became disoriented rather than Ayaka and Kaien. Rain began pouring down, and then a single bolt of lightning struck, stealing the life of the man before them.

Kaien and Ayaka pulled the lockets apart and turned to Kurama. Ayaka said, "We knew what Zuberi meant, the difference between us sharing the will of the universe and the universe sharing our will. Not that the two were much different, in this case. Murderers disrupt the balance."

"Ayaka and I are all about the balance," Kaien noted. "Perhaps I should stop killing. It is not my place to take lives. It is not my place to pass judgement."

Ayaka nodded. "The same goes for theft, I suppose."

Kurama looked at her for a long time then said, "One last raid, Ayaka."

"What for?" she asked.

"The tablet. I dropped it on the ground when I was trying to save him. I left it there when I ran."

She stared at him. "Why?"

"I know how to destroy this." He held up the pendant. "Or at least I have a good guess, now that I've seen how it works. I want to create a memorial for him. I think that tablet would make an appropriate grave marker."

Ayaka nodded. "Fine. Destroy it, and we'll go. I remember every detail of that castle. It won't take long, and there isn't a bounty hunter outside waiting for us."

Kurama walked a short ways away, pulled energy in and released it. The moment he released it, he threw the pendant in the air and dropped to the ground, with the intent of the energy returning to the pendant.

The aura clashed with the pendant, the pendant shuddered and fell slowly to the ground. The force of the impact cracked the jewel into hundreds of miniscule pieces which fell in a shower to the ground.

Kurama breathed in deeply and swept the broken jewelry up into his hand. Placing it in his pocket, he returned to Ayaka. Ayaka looked at Kaien and said, "Kaien, we—"

"Have to do this on your own," he finished for her. "I get it. This is the closure you've needed. You don't want me and Hiei there. It was just the three of you, and you want it to be just the three of you one last time."

She nodded. Kurama took her hand, and they set off for the palace where the golden tablet engraved with spells still resided.


...sweiveR

FireStorm1991: Yeah. Pretty much. Twisted logic is a nice way of putting it.

animegrlsteph: Ummm...duh it's a bad idea. Kyo is a...sadistic isn't the right word, since he's not really into the whole torture thing...oh forget it you know what I'm getting at. You speak my language.