Chapter 53 Parallels
"Bring me some redemption and take me home.
Take me where my heart lies. Now I know that I'm not alone."
The Western Sky
Justin Hayward
The movement of the ground stopped.
The sheering of rock stopped.
The air grew silent.
For several seconds, Yumichika was still; then a fit of coughing overtook him as he tried to breathe through the dust and sand.
Not the slightest glimmer of light pierced the darkness.
Taking a quick mental survey of his condition, he concluded that he was not injured – at least, not seriously. His hands felt as if they'd been scraped raw in his tumble to the ground. His chin felt tender, meaning it had probably struck down as he'd fallen. But other than that, he could move all his limbs, his faculties were intact, and breathing was growing easier now that the debris was settling.
"Campion?" he asked.
"I'm here," came the response, and Yumichika could hear right away that there was pain and the struggle to combat it in the captain's voice.
"Are you hurt?"
"I'm not sure yet," Campion answered.
"You sound like you're in pain," Yumichika stated. "Where are you? Keep speaking, so I can follow your voice."
"I'm over here," the captain answered. "It feels like something's on top of my legs. I—I can't really tell."
Yumichika followed the voice and in short order, his hand came into contact with Campion's hand, curled into a fist, clutching at the sand. Yumichika felt down his arm in the darkness, noting that Campion had fallen face-down and was breathing in short, sharp breathes. Coming to his lower back, his hands encountered the cold, hard surface of stone – it felt like one massive block had broken loose; but without the benefit of sight, Yumichika could not be sure.
He got to his feet and felt his way around it. It was much too large for him to have any hope of moving.
Yumichika hesitated. How was he going to say this to him?
"You're trapped under part of the ceiling, and I—I don't think I can move it," he said, not ready to sound completely hopeless, lest that make the situation even more agonizing.
Campion's manner was calm. "Are you able to see anything at all? Are there any openings to the surface?"
"No, I can't—" he cut off abruptly as the sound of another collapse rumbled close by. Then a speck of light caught his attention. It was coming from the cave where the pool was. The entrance had been completely blocked by fallen rock, but now that wall of debris had shifted, and a small sliver of the innate light from the cavern peeked in. "The light from the inner cave is coming through – just barely."
"Can you—can you get through?"
"No, the passage is completely blocked. This is only a very small opening."
"Can you clear it?"
"I don't think so," Yumichika replied. "Even if I could, I don't know if there's a way out on the other side. Is there?"
"I don't know," Campion answered. "But it would be worth a try."
"It might be, but . . . you can't really expect me to leave you here," Yumichika pointed out firmly.
"You already said you can't free me," Campion reminded him. "If you stay, we may both die here."
Yumichika came back around the rock and sat down in the sand beside him. "Then we both die here. After all, we might both end up dying anyway." And while the observation was meant to ease any guilt Campion might have been feeling about Yumichika's refusal to seek safety, it seemed to have the opposite effect.
"I was an idiot for thinking we could pull this off," Campion moaned. "I should know by now, you can't outwit an Atmen." A pause. "I've messed everything up again, and I can only blame myself ."
Knowing that there was little he could for him and thinking it might be a good idea to keep him talking as long as possible while, at the same time, distracting him from his pain, Yumichika inquired after his remarks.
"What do you mean, again?"
"Just that it was the same kind of . . . short-sightedness that got me stuck here in the first place. Me and Lamos."
Now seemed as good a time as any . . .
"How did you end up here? You don't seem at all like the kind of man to take part in the sort of things that go on in the lower east."
"It's a long story—"
"We've got nothing but time," Yumichika replied, not really sure that that was the case.
"I'd be too ashamed to tell it," Campion deferred.
But Yumichika was persistent. "No one knows more about shame than I do," he insisted. "But I'm not asking you so we can compare bad decisions. I'm asking because I truly want to know."
Campion considered. At this point, he really had nothing to lose by imparting the sordid details of how he and Lamos had come to end up in the employ of an Atmen, how the master had become the servant, and how the servant's child had become one of the most sought-after sexual trinkets in the entire lower east.
"We died at the same time – Lamos and me," Campion began without any preliminaries. "It was in a tsunami . . . brought on by an earthquake. We didn't even know it was coming until it was upon us." He made a sound of pain – whether at the memory or because of his physical predicament, Yumichika did not know. "I could have let go of him, and maybe he would have survived. Maybe he would have floated free of all the debris . . . but he was—he was already a man, and he told me he wouldn't let go of me. So, we held on and we got trapped under something . . . who knows what it was. But we died together, and we came to Soul Society together.
"When we got here, at first, I didn't know what to do. In the living world, I'd never known anything but being a soldier, so we decided, after several months, to head for the Seireitei, to see if I could get into the Gotei 13. Back in those days, you fought your way in. There was no Soul Reaper Academy. If you could show you had the skill, you were in." A sort of wistful pride entered his voice. "I got in easily . . . Squad 8—"
"Captain Kyoraku," Yumichika noted.
"No, no, there was no Captain Kyoraku yet," Campion corrected. "He didn't come along until well after I was gone. No, it was Captain Jayylin-rah back then. He was a good man." He paused to catch his breath. "He knew right away I was carrying an Atmen. You see, in those days, the existence of the Atmen was a given. No one questioned or doubted the truth of their existence. They weren't so rare as they are now." He grimaced, and it was many seconds before he was able to continue; but when he resumed, his voice was strong again. "Captain Jayylin-rah trained me in how to draw out and work with my Atmen. And even though Kokochou was nothing like me, we had a good relationship. I'll never understand why he chose me as his master, when he knew we had nothing in common. He was spoiled and used to getting his own way. Apparently, in our previous turns in Soul Society, I'd . . . encouraged his selfish behavior by . . . catering to his vanity. I don't know, I don't remember those previous lives. But Kokochou did. He remembered everything. He never went into the same hibernation as other Atmen who were awaiting the return of their masters. He stayed active and grew more and more self-absorbed, more possessive of me. So, of course, when I showed up with Lamos, he was fit to be tied. He hated Lamos, was jealous of him to the point where . . . I was sometimes afraid for Lamos's safety."
Yumichika could relate to that last point.
"Then one day, Lamos went out into the country just north of the Sereitei. He had some friends there, and I always let him travel alone," Campion went on. "I saw him as a man, and I treated him like one." A pause. "But this time, he didn't come back. I searched for weeks. I asked the Gotei 13 for help, but they said no, it wasn't part of their mission to hunt down every soul that had gone missing. They said I could go search for him if I wanted to, but they could offer me no help. That taught me everything I ever needed to know about the Gotei 13." He drew in a shuddering breath and prepared to go on. "I asked Kokochou to help me, and he refused at first. But when I ordered him to help me, he did so . . . and made sure I knew how angry it made him. I . . . I didn't know about the fourth wall at the time, so I didn't know . . . I didn't know that Kokochou had known all along what had happened to Lamos." He fell silent and collected his composure. "He'd been kidnapped, just like you. Kidnapped and sold into slavery. But unlike your friends, who found you quickly, it took me decades to find him. Kokochou even tried to lead me astray several times, but I followed the clues and the leads. When I finally did track him down, he was in the lower east . . . in the house of Regent Kennah. I didn't know who Kennah was or that he was an Atmen. I only knew he had my son, and that Lamos was his sex slave.
"Kokochou then warned me Kennah was an Atmen and that there was no way he would give up Lamos without getting something worthwhile in return."
"Give up my most elite bedmate? Just like that, huh? Out of the goodness of my heart? You've got some fucking nerve, coming here, thinking I'd just give away my best sack."
The man who had spoken, the man known as the Regent, was one of the most repulsive souls upon which Campion had ever laid eyes; yet he would not allow himself to be provoked by him.
"Is there nothing you'll take in exchange?" Campion asked calmly.
Kennah rose from his place among the pillows and doting houseboys. "I know what you're carrying. I can even tell who it is. Come out, Brother! I'm inviting you; don't make me drag you out."
Kokochou materialized, although it irked Campion no little bit to see his zanpakuto—his Atmen—respond to the command of someone else.
"Nelphune," Kennah beamed, and even his smile was hideous. "I see you're still as gaudy as the cheap tramps that guard the Soul King's lair."
"If by 'gaudy', you mean 'stunning', then I cannot disagree," Nelphune replied equably.
"Eh, take it however you want," Kennah said carelessly. "How could you let your master come here and beg like a dog? Did you know I was here?"
Nelphune's hesitation made Campion suspicious. "I ascertained it as we drew closer," the Black Swan stated cautiously.
"And you let him come anyway? You're a shitty zanpakuto!" Kennah burst out into derisive laughter.
"He wants his son back."
"I know that," Kennah sneered. He looked at Campion, but continued to address Nelphune. "Tell him he's out of luck."
Nelphune, sounding cool and hardly distressed, turned to Campion. "Master, I'm afraid—"
"Master?! You still call him master? That's pathetic!" Kennah grumbled in disgust. But then, instantaneously, a devious glint colored his eye. "Wait . . . wait . . . maybe there is something he has that's of value." The Regent took several steps back and delved deep into his own thoughts. When he raised his eyes and addressed his guests once more, a placid shiftiness smoothed the lines of his cratered face.
He looked at Nelphune. "I have an enemy I need to put down. Will you help me?"
Nelphune looked mildly surprised. "What enemy is it that you need help?"
"Zemphyr."
For a moment, Nelphune's face was frozen in an expression of disbelief, then consternation. Beside him, Campion waited silently for the explanation.
"Zemphyr is here?" Nelphune inquired.
"He holds the position of Orator," Kennah answered. "It's a powerful position, lots of prestige." His eyes narrowed. "But I don't like sharing power or prestige."
"You and Zemphyr are of the same choir," Nelphune pointed out. "Are you unable to defeat him?"
"I'd be a jackass to try on my own," Kennah grunted. "But . . . if I had the help of another Atmen, I could probably defeat him in battle and send his wrinkly hide to limbo."
"I see," Nelphune said, sounding neither for nor against the idea. "You are asking me if I will help you."
"Asking is a nice way to put it," Kennah replied. "If you refuse, I could destroy you like squashing a bug. But then I'd have no one to help me take down Zemphyr. But . . . " he leaned forward eagerly, "If you help me, I can do you a good turn. I'll put you in Zemphyr's place. You'll become the Orator. And on top of that . . . I'll release his son."
Campion, largely ignored up to this point, asserted himself now. "Kokochou and I have to discuss your offer."
Kennah looked at him with disdain. "Your opinion doesn't even matter."
Here, however, Nelphune interceded on behalf of his master. "That's not entirely true, Kennah," he deferred. "Despite the freedom you've gained for yourself, I still prefer to seek the approval of my master."
Kennah rolled his eyes. "Do whatever you want, but just do it by noon tomorrow. That's when my offer expires."
"I felt completely helpless," Campion explained. "I knew I was dealing with beings so much more powerful than me that I was really just a witness to whatever they decided. All I had to rely on was the fact that Kokochou loved me, and the hope that he loved me enough to stay obedient in the face of what he was being offered."
Yumichika's heart was stirred by what he was hearing, for in so many ways, it paralleled his own relationship with Ruri'iro Kujaku and the Peacock's jealousy of Ikkaku, his desire for freedom, and his unpredictable nature.
"Kokochou chose to help Kennah?" Yumichika asked.
Campion swallowed. His words had the tenor of a confession. "I chose to help Kennah."
"What decision would you like me to make, my master?"
"Is Kennah that much more powerful than you that we couldn't somehow steal Lamos back and get out without Kennah noticing?"
Nelphune regarded Campion with something approaching pity. "I am no match for him. My power, added to his, may be enough to overthrow another Atmen of the Seventh Choir; but even that is not a certainty. He has the power of all the Choirs. I have only the power to create animal souls." A pause. "So again, I ask you, what decision would you like me to make?"
Campion considered. "If you help him defeat this other Atmen, you could tell Kennah you don't want to be Orator. He would still have to keep his end of the bargain. We could leave with Lamos, and he could find someone else to be Orator."
"If I help Kennah against Zemphyr, it will mean great destruction," Nelphune explained. "Are you willing to risk that in order to regain Lamos?"
Campion did not hesitate. "If there's no other way, then yes."
"You have always disapproved when I have created souls on my own," Nelphune pointed out, sounding strangely confrontational. "You are willing to overlook that now?"
"I'm willing to do anything to get Lamos back," Campion replied. He saw the way his zanpakuto was looking at him, and he wondered if he had perhaps spoken too soon, too carelessly.
"Does that include setting me free?"
Campion was somewhat perplexed. "You know you're already free. I have no way of stopping you from doing what you please. You've always been more powerful than me."
"But I meant what I said to Kennah," Nelphune persisted. "I would always rather have your approval than your disapproval."
"What are you saying, Kokochou?"
"I will fight alongside Kennah to overthrow Zemphyr," the Black Swan began. "But after that, I do not want to leave here. I want to stay on and become Orator. I want the freedom to live as I please, as my own master—"
"You don't need my permission to do that—"
"And I want you to stay with me," Kokochou said, overpowering Campion's interruption. "I do not want to be the servant, but I do not want to be separated from you."
Campion was dumbfounded. "How could I stay here? What would I—"
"You would be the head of my house guard . . . just as Kennah had his own houseguard. Surely, after deposing Zemphyr, I would not be able to trust any of his remaining guards, should there be any remaining. I will need someone I can trust and depend on. Lamos could stay with you. You will be together again."
"I . . . I don't want to agree to that," Campion protested. "I can't give my approval."
An unmistakable hurt appeared in Nelphune's expression. "You would allow the destruction of thousands of souls in order to free Lamos, but you would not agree to serve me in an honorable capacity in order to repay me for gaining his freedom?"
Hearing the situation thus described, Campion wondered if he were being unreasonable; but he knew that Kokochou was a master of manipulation. Yet, this time, he knew the hurt was real. "I don't . . . I . . . " he stammered, unsure of how to respond.
"Does it mean nothing that I desire you to be always with me? Have you forgotten that I chose you? From all the souls I could have picked, I chose you. I am willing to do as Kennah asks in order to free Lamos, and all I ask in return is for you to stay with me—"
"We can still be together without you becoming Orator," Campion protested. "Why would you want to stay here anyway? This is a horrible place."
"Because I want to be free!"
Campion was faced with a difficult situation, but the decision could only go one way.
"If I say I will not stay here as your captain of the guard, will you still help free Lamos?" he asked.
Nelphune scowled. "I will not allow you to turn this on me, master. I am not the one being selfish. The question is, if I help you free Lamos, will you still do nothing in return for me?"
Campion knew exactly what Kokochou was doing. He was weighing the importance his master placed on him versus the importance he placed on Lamos. And the captain was smart enough to know that his zanpakuto was cheering for him to walk away without his son, to be unwilling to free his zanpakuto – thereby effectively choosing Kokochou over Lamos.
At last, he resigned himself to the fact that his Atmen had steered him into a corner, and the only way out was to concede.
"Very well. I'll stay on. I'll be your guard captain."
"There hasn't been day that I haven't regretted that decision," Campion said, his voice now thinning and raspy.
Yumichika was surprised at this statement. "But it must have worked. Lamos isn't part of Kennah's household anymore—"
"Kennah and Nelphune went to war against Zemphyr . . . " Campion paused, seemingly to gather his courage. "It's the only time I've ever seen Atmen at war with each other . . . and I never want to see it again."
In the darkness, Yumichika could hear something he'd never heard before in Campion's voice: it might have been tears or horror or profound regret. His words wavered and pitched as he spoke. "They created souls . . . millions of them, more than any human soul could count. Souls of . . . the earth and the wind and . . . zanpakuto souls, animal—" His voice caught. "And they destroyed everything. They just—laid waste to everything. Zemphyr was defeated, and then all the souls they'd created—they—they had nowhere to go, so . . . they . . . Kennah eliminated them. I don't know how he did it or where he sent them, but . . . he did it somehow . . . "
"You don't have to go into that," Yumichika excused him gently.
"Souls that he had created . . . and that Nelphune and Zemphyr had created . . . all those souls, and I don't know what happened to them. I only remember the air was filled with screams for decades. Wherever he sent them, they didn't want to go . . ."
"Campion, stop," Yumichika insisted. "What's done is done. You can't blame yourself for something like that—"
"It was my choice," Campion protested. "If I had told Kokochou no right at the beginning—"
"But you did it to save Lamos—"
"And you see how well that turned out," came the bitter reply.
Yumichika had nothing to say to that, for what comfort could he offer? Clearly, something had gone terribly wrong in the relationship between father and son in the ensuing years.
"That was my second mistake . . . " Campion murmured.
"What was?"
"After it was all over, Nelphune became Orator and he built his position into something even greater than it had been under Zemphyr. He was loyal to Kennah, and Kennah was glad to have him, especially when other Atmen came to the area," Campion went on. "He was good to his word and released Lamos to Nelphune. Lamos stayed with me in the officers' quarters, but it was . . . it became clear after a few weeks that . . . he wasn't the same Lamos. He'd been a bedmate—the top bedmate—for decades by then, and . . . you—you've seen how the bedmates are treated."
"Yes, I have," Yumichika replied gravely.
"No, you don't understand," Campion said, and now it was clear he was on the verge of something awful. "He—he wanted to go back to it."
"What?"
"The bedmates might have to engage in a lot of sex, but they also have the best accommodations, the finest foods . . . they're pampered and spoiled . . . they don't bathe or dress themselves, their every whim is catered to." The words poured out like water through a growing fissure in a dam. "In—in the officers' quarters, things were more stark and we didn't have the same kind of . . . services that the bedmates have. I refused to turn my men into . . . into that." A pause. "Lamos hated it. He hated not being special anymore. He hated not being the center of attention. He wanted the spas and salons and fancy clothes and powerful men vying to have sex with him. He wanted to go back to being a bedmate.
"I tried to talk him out of it, but he only grew angrier and angrier. He preferred to be around the Hyacinth House than with the other guards. He—he demanded that I let him return to being a bedmate, and the more I resisted, the more he hated me," Campion said. "Finally, he said he would go back to Kennah, and if he did that, I knew I'd never get him back. Kennah would never agree to release him again, and . . . he wouldn't want to come back to me anyway. I told Nelphune what was going on, and he said I should let Lamos be a bedmate in the Hyacinth House. That way, he'd still be nearby, and I could keep him safe. Like an idiot, I agreed." He stopped to take a long rest, and when he resumed, there was a faint watery sound in his voice.
Yumichika feared his lungs were filling with fluid. There might not be much time left.
"I should have taken him away right then and there," Campion spluttered, coughing and then falling silent again for several seconds. "Even if he'd hated me forever, I should have dragged him away. But I didn't. I didn't, and Kokochou—Nelphune—betrayed me." At this point, the fissure widened into a full-blown crevice, through which centuries of agony and guilt came gushing wildly. "He took my own son as his bedmate! He—he'd never stopped being jealous, and this was his way of getting back at me! He knew all along—I learned about the fourth wall, and then I knew that he'd been able to see all along where Lamos was and . . . he could have helped get him back before he'd ever gotten to Kennah's! He let him end up here just so he could take advantage of the situation! Once he had Lamos, he gave him everything he wanted, and Lamos—Lamos ended up loving him! Loving him and despising me!"
"Campion, take it easy," Yumichika said, trying to comfort and quiet him, but knowing, on the other hand, that it made little difference at this point, and perhaps this was something Campion needed to get out.
But already Campion's burst of energy had run its course. Between short gasps, he spoke in hushed tones. "But I couldn't—blame—either of them. The mis-takes were—all mine. I'd never been f-fair to Kokochou, and I—I didn't have the courage—to do what—a father should do. I was afraid—of losing Lamos . . . and I lost him anyway."
"You did what you thought was right at the time," Yumichika offered. He slipped his hand under Campion's and clasped his fingers. "And you're a good man, Campion. Everyone knows that."
Campion seemed not to hear him, for he continued speaking as if Yumichika had not said a word. "That's why I felt I had to help you . . . I didn't want you—to make the s-same mistakes with your Atmen that I made with mine. I—I still love Kokochou, although I don't know why." A pause. "But it looks like—it doesn't matter now. I th-think Kennah's won . . . "
Yumichika was determined that Campion's last thoughts not be a concession to defeat.
"If there's one thing I've learned from having a zanpakuto like Ruri'iro Kujaku, it's never to count him out," he said. "And I refuse to believe for one second that Kennah could ever defeat him."
No sooner had he finished speaking than he heard a shifting of stone and sand. A moment later, a filamentary ray of light streamed in from a tiny opening in the debris blocking the cave entrance.
"Do you really expect me to be able to fit through there? I'm not a pole, ya know."
Yumichika held his breath, not daring to believe the voice could belong to the only being he'd ever known to possess such a distinctive growl.
But the next voice . . .
"Yes, I see you didn't pine away into nothing during my absence. Give me a minute or two. I'm out of practice . . . and still very weak, I'll have you know. Why, I might faint if you don't stop badgering me."
Yumichika released his breath in a cry of relief and joy too great to be contained.
"Ruri'iro Kujaku!"
Dear Reader, no worries. The next chapter will explain what happened outside the cave during the time Campion told his story. It's just that I had a lot of pm's from readers wanting to know how the situation with Campion, Nelphune and Lamos came about - given its bizarre nature. So, this chapter was pretty much devoted to tying up that loose end. I hope you enjoyed it anyway. I adore Campion, so it was a pleasure to write. Peace, TK
