Quietus

by Seraphina Scribes

When first he laid eyes upon her, he thought her the very personification of spring. He watches, from the depths of shadow; waiting to steal her away from the land of the living. Waiting to make her Queen of the Dead. Hades/Persephone retold. SasuSaku/AU.

101. Chapter 100

Chapter 100! A crazy milestone. I never imagined the story would end up anywhere near this long, but the end is now truly in sight. There are about twelve more chapters or so remaining, but the final amount depends on whether future chapters are split.

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates, happy holidays and a Happy New Year to all my readers and followers. I wish peace, safety and good health to you all.

I hope you enjoy the triple update and find the plot progression in these next three chapters satisfying. There's a lot to take in. All three share the same starting poem.

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Chapter C

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Three who weave the threads of fate,
They who imbue life - then desecrate,
For whom time suspends in wait,
Reversed or effaced, as they dictate,
They who judge and they who decree,
The source of balance, unlockers of keys,
To destinies hinged on the edge of a blade,
Within a sacred realm, by their hands made.

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~x~

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Blood. Its coppery tang filled the air. Warmth seeped through the fabric of Karin's clothing as she knelt beside Suigetsu's prone form. The sound of the furious battle that continued to rage on beyond the enclosed cocoon of sand faded away into the distance, as her undivided attention honed in on the grievously wounded deity lying sprawled on his back before her.

Samehada was deeply embedded in Suigetsu's chest, and continued to feast on the foreign chakra that plagued his body, drawing out the aggressive Black Zetsu parasites that writhed and attempted to wriggle away to safety. But the sentient sword dragged them hungrily towards its bristling blade, devouring them whole.

Karin struggled to see clearly inside the dimness of their protective shell, and it took a minute for her vision to fully adjust. When it finally did, she noted with concern that the blood was pooling out from around his body at an alarmingly fast rate.

Her heart skipped a beat. It wasn't just a chest injury. His platinum hair was also stained crimson, indicating a heavy wound had been inflicted upon his skull when he'd landed from a great height. Blood was pouring from his mouth, from his nose. Karin's throat tightened. She had never before seen him in such a dreadful and woefully vulnerable state.

An explosion outside rocked the thick barrier of sand as a projectile blasted against the forcefield with a loud, jarring thud. Karin jumped at the sound, head jerking up in alarm as particles of sediment broke off the inside of the domed roof, falling over her hair and cloak, over Suigetsu's face and body. She waited for a tense moment, trying to discern what might be happening beyond the cocoon, but it was impossible to tell which side was gaining the upper hand.

Another rumble shook the structure, and she realised that she didn't have much time. At any moment, Gaara could become incapacitated by their enemy, and if that happened before she managed to fully heal Suigetsu- if that happened, then-

The nymph gulped down the ugly panic that clawed at the base of her throat, panic that was trying to shred its way up to the tip of her tongue and manifest itself as mindless hysteria. No. She didn't want to think about how awful the consequences would be.

Her attention returned to Poseidon. Desperation crested within her chest, disconcerting in its intensity. She was paying him back, she told herself fiercely. A life for a life. He had saved her and now it was her turn to help him. Everything she was feeling was born of guilt. Nothing more, nothing less.

Ruby eyes trailed over his blood-stained face. It made her uncomfortable to see him so broken and battered. So open, unguarded and raw. Leaning over him, she hesitated, fearful that the sinister spores might transfer over to her if she dared to touch him. Her apprehensive gaze shifted to the sword. It was no ordinary, inanimate object, she knew. It was special, a blade that possessed its own thoughts and feelings. It selected its owners, and it had chosen to allow Suigetsu to wield it.

"I need your help," she barely recognised the hoarseness of her own voice. On any other occasion, she would have felt ridiculous for addressing a weapon, but she knew for certain that Samehada was capable of comprehending her.

"I need you to keep the Zetsu from infecting me so I can heal him. Will you help me?"

The hissing blade kept guzzling away, but Karin could have sworn that the scales along its body flared in response. Placing her trust in it - for she had no other option - she took a deep breath and tentatively reached out, placing a hand gingerly upon Suigetsu's left shoulder.

"Suigetsu," she called to him, giving him a little shake. "Can you hear me? Suigetsu!"

He wheezed out a breath, lungs rattling from the blood that had filled them. The gutteral sound made Karin's stomach lurch. Her gaze darted nervously back to the sword, still feeding eagerly from Suigetsu's reserves. She could detect fluctuations in his inner chakra pathways, suggesting the venom still lingered.

"Suigetsu," she gripped his shoulder and shook him more firmly. "It's me, Karin! Wake up!"

As if roused by the call of her voice, his heavy eyelids lifted, revealing disorientated lavender irises that blinked tiredly up at her. They struggled to focus, their luminous glow significantly dulled by a combination of pain, chakra-depletion and exhaustion.

There was no hint of mischief, mocking or cockiness in those amethyst depths. Suigetsu was barely recognisable. A mere shell of his ordinary self.

Deeply unsettled, Karin rolled up her right sleeve, doing her best not to dwell on the fact that his blood was continuing to saturate into the fabric over her knees. So much of it, she was almost starting to feel light-headed on his behalf. She thought to herself that Suigetsu at his most infuriating and annoying would be better than the phantom that presently occupied his body. Anything would be a better alternative to seeing him so helpless and weak. It was unnerving. It felt wrong. Karin decided she did not like it, not one bit. She would much rather itch to punch him in the face. That was what she was used to when it came to the two of them. Fighting with him. Not for him.

As Samehada further absorbed the menacing spores, his cloudy gaze seemed to clear as conscious thought slowly began to trickle back to him. She could almost see his vision regaining clarity, and watched the surprised recognition that flickered across his face.

Blinking at her, he rasped out, "Ka…rin…?"

When he made a feeble attempt at moving, she pushed him firmly back down.

"Stay still! You're wounded. Badly!" Her tone rang sharper than she intended. "Here!" she urged, extending her forearm to him, knowing there was no time to waste. "Bite me!"

He blinked again, and something akin to bewilderment passed fleetingly across his eyes. Then, slowly, like the sun peeking tentatively out from behind a thick blanket of stormy grey clouds, a faint, wry smile tugged on his lips.

Something deep inside Karin clenched tightly at the sight.

"Heh…" he wheezed, a weak, pitiful expression of amusement. "He...h… heh..."

She stiffened. "What the hell's so funny?" she demanded, unable to fathom how he could possibly find humour in such a thoroughly dismal situation.

He released a tired chuckle, before gasping out, "Didn't… think… I'd ever hear... you… asking me... to bite you. Thought you'd… never ask-"

The irate snap that had deployed itself on the tip of Karin's tongue fizzled out to oblivion when he abruptly dissolved into a violent episode of hacking coughs. Her eyes widened in alarm.

"Shut up!" she ordered, shoving a silencing wrist against his mouth.

Samehada was starting to slow down, indicating that it had almost finished clearing all the contaminated cells it could from his bloodstream. But confusion flooded Karin when Suigetsu turned his face away, stubbornly refusing to accept her offering.

"What're you doing?!" she demanded. "You need to heal, you idiot!"

A tiny, glimmering sea-shell materialised in the air above the sea monarch's head, providing a faint source of turquoise light. Summoning it seemed to suck out all his remaining strength, for his eyes closed again, and when his response came, it was in her mind, weary and faint.

'No. I'll just… infect you.'

Frustration flared within her. "The sword's almost cleared the spores out. Just bite me, damn it!"

'You don't... get it.' He took another gurgling breath, eyelids lifting again with great effort. Dread began to creep through Karin as she stared down at him. The floating shell threw enough light around them to allow her to clearly discern the hollow dark shadows under his eyes. He had begun to break out into a cold sweat. As if he were gripped in the clutches of an unrelenting fever. What was the matter with him? She reached out with her abilities, trying to sense the source of disturbance in his chakra pathways. The Black Zetsu spores were almost completely gone. But his chakra remained turbulent. Disturbed. What else was ailing him? Something dark. Something potent. Something else was slithering through his veins, elusive and slippery like oil. Something she didn't recognise.

'That bastard... worked in a self-destruct mechanism,' Suigetsu went on. 'If you try removing all the spores… they'll start releasing poison. The venom… you'll… catch it too, if you… let me bite you.'

Poison. Karin's heart stuttered to a stop. Horror washed over her.

'Your chakra… can't heal this.' Suigetsu added, eyes meeting hers. 'It's… Achlys' poison. It needs the… the antidote.' He coughed up blood, brows contorting in pain. His form then shimmered, taking on a semi-solid state, as if maintaining a physical guise was all at once too taxing.

Antidote. The word reverberated calamitously through her head, ricocheting against the confines of her skull.

"What- where? What antidote?!" she got out. It was as though the ground had vanished beneath her legs, leaving her in a dizzying freefall.

He merely gave her a resigned smile. The smile of one who had accepted their fate, and knew it was already far too late to alter it.

Karin felt suffocated. She wanted to scream. No. No. This wasn't happening. It couldn't be. What were the oceans and the seas without Suigetsu? Who would take his place? Who could?

He wasn't a bad ruler. Not really. She knew, deep down - perhaps a part of her had always known - that he did indeed care for his own people. That he fought tooth and nail for them, to uphold their rights and ensure they were protected. That he had always taken great pride in his Kingdom and placed its welfare above everything else. It made the other immortals believe him to be selfish and heartless. But the reality was that Suigetsu perhaps cared more than anyone else. Cared enough to make everyone hate him - if that was what it took to secure his own borders.

And he hid it all beneath a blasé facade. A mercurial mask of mischief and emotional detachment that he portrayed to the world, ensuring everyone underestimated him, or didn't take him seriously enough. Hiding away what he truly knew, felt and thought to retain the element of unpredictability at all times.

How had she not seen it until that very moment? The fact that he was not inherently righteous - something he had never pretended to be - nor was he evil and outright malicious. Nowhere as sinister as Cronus was, not even remotely close. Instead, he cruised along both lines, blurring them as and when he saw fit to do so, as and when duty required it of him. He played both villain and saviour whenever it suited him andhisKingdom's best interests.

And at that moment, he was still trying to protect her. Because he considered her one of his own. A part of his realm, despite her shunning it - and him - for centuries.

She had been terribly mistaken. Suigetsu didn't only care about himself. That had been a lie he had sold to her, and in her bitterness, she had eaten it up, failing to truly look at him at all. Assuming him to be pompous, arrogant, insincere in all he did and superficial.

But he had seen her. All the visits she had been convinced he'd made to the Underworld with the sole purpose to antagonise her… had they been his way of checking on her? Why had he even pushed for her to get out? To take control of her own life? Why had he offered her to be rid of him forever once their bargain was done? Why had he bothered?

Pieces of a puzzle she had spent so long refusing to see were clicking into place in her racing mind, and though she still feared looking at the final picture they formed, she knew one thing with certainty. That she could not abandon him. She could not let him fade. The very idea of him wasting away and blinking out of existence forevermore frightened her more than anything.

"Tell me!" she almost shook him in desperation.

"S'not… here…" he managed to mumble.

"But if my chakra can help slow it down, then just take it!" she argued.

'It'd… kill you. The only reason… I'm not dead yet… is 'cause… I'm using my last reserves… to stay in… semi-liquid form… to slow this… shitty poison down.'

The response chilled her. When she gaped at him in dismay, he released a hoarse chuckle. 'What's with… your stupid face...? Why the fuck… d'you look so sad? Heh.' He licked at the crusting blood staining his lips. 'Don't start pretending… you give a shit about me. You've… wanted me dead for a long time. Guess you're… finally getting your wish, huh?'

"Shut up!" she ground out, mortified to feel tears stinging at her eyes. She hadn't wanted any of this to happen. She had wanted to make him suffer for everything she had held him responsible for - but not like this. Never like this.

'It'll be… alright…' he blinked tiredly, his exhausted eyes shifting up to the domed roof of their enclosure. 'Yeah…'

Another projectile struck the barrier, causing it to rumble around them. Karin swallowed, fighting back the burning in her eyes.

"You can't just- die!" She exclaimed, hands balling into fists upon her lap. There was a tightness in her chest that was making it difficult to draw a breath. Samehada had grown completely silent and still, unable to do any more.

"You can't just- what'll happen to the oceans?!"

'They'll… bring me back,' Suigetsu responded. 'Using their freaky zombie resurrection technique. They'll use me, until…' He coughed again. 'Until they get him out.'

Karin blinked at him, nonplussed.

'Oceanus…' His purple eyes met hers again. 'Fucking pain in the ass Kisame was… he'll fuck everything up. All my hard work… he'll want… Samehada back too. He never… never gave a fuck... about anything.'

Samehada's scales flared. As if it had somehow heard Suigetsu's thoughts. Karin glanced incredulously down at it. How was that possible? Just what was the nature of the bond between the blade and its chosen Master?

"He'll let this world fall to shit," Suigetsu whispered.

"What do I do?!" Karin lifted despairing hands to her head. How could she help him? He was growing weaker by the second, wasting away before her very eyes. And there was nothing she could do to assist him. She had never felt so useless. So helpless.

'Don't let him…' Suigetsu's gaze grew distant once again. 'Don't let him take the sword. He doesn't… deserve…'

His form grew solid once again as the last of his chakra began to fade.

"No!" Karin reached out, gripping onto the collar of his jacket. Not bothering to stem the thick, hot tears that pooled from her eyes, not caring if he saw them, she choked out, "No, you need to fight it! They'll use you to destroy every village, just like the one they made you flood just now. That was my new home, damn it! You can't give up!"

When he remained silent and his eyes closed wearily once again, she shook him angrily. "Wake up!" she cried. "Wake up!" Swallowing down a sob, she seethed, "I hate you! You're such a- such an idiot!"

"Yeah…" he muttered aloud, not opening his eyes. "I'm an idiot… 'cause I... can't shake… that you… left the oceans… 'cause of me." He coughed, lungs rattling, and fresh blood welled out of his mouth. Karin gawked at him in astonishment. The words were spoken with open regret. As though the fact that she had departed had never quite sat right with him. As though he had hated it, but even despite that, had never once ordered her to return.

She wiped hastily at her nose with the edge of her sleeve. For all those centuries, she had assumed he had never cared enough. But at that moment, hearing the clear remorse in his voice, Karin suddenly found herself wondering why he had never retrieved her from the Underworld. What the real reason had been. He could have dragged her back to the oceans at any moment. Instead, he had let her stay with Sasuke.

"Tell me…" he gasped for air, a dying wish upon his lips. "The real reason… you left…"

Karin's body trembled. She fought back the ugly sob that threatened to rip from her chest. Her hand brushed over his, lying limply at his side in a pool of his own blood. It was ice cold.

The goddess Achlys' poison, she realised, was doing its work. He was dying, his body starting to shut down. She could sense the venom swarming through his veins. Spreading freely.

It was no trick. No lie. He was dying. And so, at last, she spoke the truth to him. She told him every dreadful thing that had happened to her on the surface before her decision to depart it. Told him about how she had harboured a deep resentment toward him for always turning a blind eye to the way all the other ocean creatures had looked down at her, for failing to come to her aid when she had been locked up in a cell by greedy humans, fed scraps for food and treated like dirt. She confessed to him how much she had grown to loathe herself, how Sasuke had represented hope, an escape from a vicious cycle when he had first appeared to her enigmatically from the shadows, but how out of place and discontent she had been in the Underworld, how she had felt that she had belonged neither here, nor there, or anywhere.

Suigetsu listened in grave silence, fighting to keep his eyes open, his breathing growing shallower by the second. She had no way of knowing that every word she spoke struck him like raining pellets of stone.

When she had finished, his groggy eyes settled onto her face. The lingering spark in them was fading. Karin wept, barely conscious of the fact that she was now gripping his left hand tightly between hers. Offering him what pitiful comfort she could in his last moments.

"You… bitch…" he croaked, giving her one last, sardonic, exhausted smile. Karin's heart flipped painfully inside her chest, and at that moment, she thought that she would give anything - anything - to trade places with him. The guilt was shredding her apart, eating her alive. He would be enslaved by the enemy in death, denied all peace. Made to do unspeakable horrors with his abilities. It should have been her.

"Pissing me off… 'till the end," he continued in a whisper. "Now... I'm gonna... regret… not wiping... those fuckers... out…"

He was referring, she realised with a start, to everyone that had hurt and alienated and taken advantage of her, everyone who had pushed her to abandon her own home. His expression was full of sincere sadness and with anger, written with the apology he hadn't the strength left to articulate. As though he could not fathom how he had been so blind, how he had failed to see it all and intervene sooner. As though he acknowledged, as his own demise approached, every mistake he had made with her, every single way he had let her down.

"Joke's… on me…" he rasped. "I guess… I get… to be wiped out first… for being… the reason you…"

His voice trailed off. A distressed, strangled noise escaped Karin's throat as he took one last, laborious, hitched breath - before his chest grew still. His eyes glazed over, the clarity within them snuffing out.

Karin's heart barrelled erratically within her chest. Violent tremors assaulted her body. Panic, senseless and smothering, exploded within her, and she feared she would be sick.

"No," she choked out. "No! Suigetsu! Please-!"

Before her horrified eyes, he reverted to liquid form. The freezing, stiff hand in hers dissolved into water as his body pooled out around her, mixing with his spilled blood. Samehada suddenly bristled, as if his death had roused its interest once again, and hungrily began to absorb his remnants.

"No!" Karin reached out, trying to haul the blade away by its handle. "NO!" she shrieked, yanking frantically at it, too distraught and hysterical to acknowledge that it had strangely allowed her to touch it. It was heavy. So heavy. Too heavy. She couldn't shift it.

"Stop! STOP!"

But the last of Poseidon's remains were swallowed up into the sword, leaving a horrified, numb Karin behind, staring at the blood all around her as the shell hovering above her head abruptly snuffed out, plunging her into darkness once more.

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~x~

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Blood roared through Sasuke's ears. Inside his chest, his racing heart slammed against his ribcage, flooding his veins with liquid adrenaline.

The Fates. The Moirae themselves had summoned him.

It was a most staggering realisation. Nobody who had ever set eyes upon them had lived to tell the tale. Little was known of their true natures. They were enigmas, almost mythical in the awe their mere mention inspired.

They were said to be cunning. They were said to be cruel. They were said to be ruthless, and enjoyed toying with mortal and immortal threads, alike. Of all the gods, it was The Fates who were known to be truly omniscient. For they dabbled in the affairs of all. They shaped destinies. They measured the strings of life and severed them as they saw fit. They assigned functions - and snuffed them out, only to bestow them anew in an endless cycle of rebirth.

And they had called to him, in the midst of battle. They, who never intervened, had chosen to do so, preventing Obito's vortex from whisking him away into Cronus's awaiting clutches.

Sasuke swallowed. He was no fool. He knew he likely owed them no measure of gratitude. They had surely not done it out of kindness or sympathy for him. From what limited knowledge he possessed of the three sisters who were shrouded in mystery, there was no doubt in his mind that their intercession did not bode well for him. It meant that he had drawn their attention. That there was something they wished to convey to him.

Or worse, still - something they would demand of him to fulfil or provide.

Was it a coincidence that he had been spirited away to their realm when the Rinnegan had at last initiated full blindness in his left eye? Sasuke suspected not. After all, it was a rare and prized gift. Perhaps his wielding it came with heavy consequences. Some awful price he had to pay to The Moirae themselves before he could call upon its sacred powers.

He pushed the disturbing thoughts out of his mind. It was senseless to give into apprehension. What reason had he to fear what he had never seen or known? He would meet with them as he had with any unfamiliar visitor. As a king did.

The vision in his light-depleted Sharingan remained black. He had lost all visual perception on one side of his body. It made him feel uncomfortable, vulnerable and exposed. To encounter The Fates with one eye compromised was far from ideal. Something told Sasuke that he would require all his wits and senses when standing before them.

He then thought briefly of Chiyo. She would have likely known of this impending meeting - yet been unable to tell him, to warn him. Gifted with foresight, and powerless to make use of it. Perhaps hers was a function even more cut-throat than his own.

The ghostly desert was vast, desolate and disconcerting in its silence. Sasuke was no stranger to the cold or to darkness, but the air temperature around him was beyond numbing. Chilled to the bone, he walked onwards in no particular direction, ambling aimlessly over the dunes. The soft sand shifted and sank beneath his feet, making it impossible to gain solid footing, forcing him to travel at a hampered pace.

The otherworldly voices that had beckoned him to approach had fallen suspiciously quiet in his mind, providing neither clue nor compass as to where he ought to be headed. He strained to hear anything at all, to no avail. The eerie stillness, the disturbing silence suspended thickly in the space around him, was deafening.

Frustration began to simmer in his veins. He did not know where to go, and time was of the essence. The Olympians were still trapped in Orochimaru's damned facility, the battle yet to be won. Kakashi had vanished into a Kamui portal, Roshi and Fū had been claimed by the enemy, and Lee had been grievously injured the moment that Sasuke had found himself unexpectedly flung into an inaccessible dimension. Far away from any help, and too far removed to lend his own aid.

Confusion addled his mind. Why had he been summoned in the midst of combat? Why had he been ripped away from his allies at such a critical, ill-timed moment?

His teeth chattered, the air condensing into thick mist before his very eyes. Nothing. There was nothing around him except a barren wasteland, nothing above him in a clear night sky without stars. Only the strange crescent moon, with its smaller celestial sphere.

Gaze turned upward, he misstepped and slipped down a slope. Rolling to a stop at the bottom, he scowled, shaking the sand out of the unruly strands of his windswept raven hair.

This was a waste of his time, he thought to himself. He needed to get back to the others.

"Where are you?!" he demanded, rising to his feet, brushing off the pale desert grains from his clothing. Mighty and all-powerful as The Fates were, he refused to be cowed or made to feel meek. They had so rudely imposed upon him. It was the least they could do to answer, to make their precise whereabouts known.

For a long, tense minute, the only response that reached his ears was the discomfiting, slow echo of his own voice as it travelled through the void. Then quiet whispers filled the air. Sasuke spun on his heel, eyes wide, seeking out their source. The whispers continued, too brief and jumbled for him to decode. They drifted around him like a sigh, both near and impossibly far.

He shivered, unable to feel his fingertips, his feet, his face. Everywhere he turned were endless slopes, standing like silent sentinels of sand. Gritting his teeth, he pushed onwards, not knowing how long he walked on for, until at long last, he passed a valley of dunes and found himself staring out at open wilderness.

The wind's speed began to pick up, whipping his cloak around him, tossing his hair back and forth. Sasuke squinted, struggling to make out anything beyond the swirling storms of sand that raged ahead. A glance behind him revealed the silence and stillness of the bleak landscape he had walked through.

He hesitated, poised upon the brink of uncertainty.

Why were they hiding? They had called him forth - only to fall infuriatingly silent. How was he meant to know where to find them? It then struck Sasuke that perhaps they were deliberately allowing him to struggle. Perhaps he had to figure out how to locate them, in order to prove himself worthy of their audience? Perhaps he had to brave the storm ahead.

He bit back the scoff that loaded itself on the tip of his tongue. If that were indeed the case, it certainly matched the rumours that they found entertainment in playing with their chosen prey. Luring them in, only to abandon them to oblivion.

He would warp through the blasted sandstorm if that was what it took. But no sooner had the thought passed through Sasuke's mind, he realised, with horror, that his powers were not at his disposal. As if they had blinked out of existence, or a dampener had been placed upon them. He could not sense his own chakra. Any effort to call upon the shadows he commanded was met with not even the briefest ripple of movement.

His gaze returned grimly to the sandstorms. No choice, then, but to wade into the unknown, defenseless. Armed only with his trusty blade and his courage.

Taking a deep breath, Sasuke stepped forward, nerves strung taut, wincing as the freezing sand enveloped him. The deeper he ventured, the icier the grains became, until he was certain that they were akin to frozen glass shards pelting relentlessly against his skin. His face stung and all visibility vanished into a haze of blinding, howling, displacing sediment around him. Hugging his arms against the crippling chill, he stumbled onward, pushing against the biting, lashing wind that seemed determined to halt him in his tracks.

The terrible and beautiful feminine voices then returned in his mind, somehow clearer than the deafening, roaring din of the furious gales blustering all around him. They clashed together, in distorted and melodious echoes, talking in conflict over one another even as they blended into seamless unison. He could not block them out. It was impossible not to listen, impossible to tune out their frequency. Both seductive and sinister, they captured his mind, seized his very soul, all-encompassing, all-consuming, robbing him of his ability to form any other coherent thoughts.

'Sisters. Will this one persevere?'

A fleeting symphony of breathy laughter followed, as soft and pleasant as falling snow, as jagged and unforgiving as sharp, slicing frost.

'The Crossroads unto him draw near.'

Every single musical, dissonant word sounded like poetic judgement. Like a high decree.

'An eye bereft of its sight.'
'To darkness sworn.'
'Nay. To light.'

They spun mind-addling cobwebs of rhyme and riddle. Sasuke braced himself against the onslaught of the elements around him, continuing to stagger through the harsh wilderness, even when every frozen limb in his body pleaded with him to stop.

'For what cause will he fight?'
'The Mark we offer. Chaos blight.'

'For a Crown, Sisters. Desired by kings.'
'A noose around his neck, its ring.'

What were they talking about? It was difficult to decipher anything over the whipping riot of the wind, and the mind-numbing cold that was gnashing at him as if the air itself possessed razor-sharp canines that sought to rip him apart.

'Not a Crown. It is not so.'
'Bequeathed to him the Kingdom, below.'

'For love, mayhap? A heart long lost.'
'Grievous, yes, was its cost.'

They sang and sighed together, the words grazing like talons inside his skull. Caressing like a sweet, enticing promise. The voices were enough to drive anyone to madness if they dared listen for long enough. Sasuke's ears felt like they were on the verge of bleeding. His head throbbed, his mind on fire. It was as though the voices were not intended to be heard by though the very act of listening was perilous in itself, even as he was powerless to shut them out.

'Forged of Night. Shadow born.'
'Returned to Us, a Princeling sworn.'

His pulse hurtled and he knew without any measure of doubt that they were dangerous. They had disabled his abilities with the same lazy, careless ease as stealing a cherished possession from a helpless young child. As if they sought to remind him that they were everything, while he was nothing but a cog that turned within their machinations, a mere pawn on the chessboard that their supreme laws oversaw.

They were feared because they were rumoured to be sinister and malevolent if crossed, possessing neither pity nor sympathy. They carried out their duty without mercy. Clipped and wove threads without care for the suffering of their owners. Simply hearing their voices had every recoiling, primal instinct inside him screaming it, recognising it, knowing it. These were imposing, unyielding entities that were not to be trifled with.

Yet Cronus had taken leave of his senses entirely and intended to do both.

As suddenly as they had returned, the voices grew quiet once more. The wind that had been tearing savagely at Sasuke's hair and clothing finally abated. With frightening abruptness, the gusts dissipated, and the empty desert around him was still and silent once again. Sasuke blinked, stiff with cold and coiled with tension. As the lingering dust around him settled and cleared, he found himself staring out at identical dunes to the ones he had left behind.

He blinked, lips parting in incredulous, confused astonishment. He had weathered a vicious storm - only to find absolutely nothing on the other side?

Fury spewed like lava inside him. Sliding smoothly down the nearest slope, Sasuke broke out into an urgent, desperate run. He could not linger here. Not when Kabuto had cast Izanagi just before he had been taken, which meant that all the enemies they had felled, all the obstacles they had worked together to remove, had returned full force - with the Olympians at a greater disadvantage, down on five allies.

His temper flared, his patience depleted. He had no semblance of just how long he had already spent wandering the abandoned plains without direction, no guess as to how much time he'd wasted in a place where time dared not move.

At length he broke through a gap in the dunes which led out to yet further, vast wilderness. He ran into the abandoned plains, turning his head, trying to catch a glimpse of any clue, any kind of marker.

It was futile. Hopeless. He was lost. Fighting to cover ground as the sand displaced at his feet, he opened his mouth to yell at The Fates again, to angrily demand that they show themselves and stop squandering his precious time - when an unexpected and sudden tremor quivered through the ground beneath his feet.

Alarmed, Sasuke glanced down, just in time to glimpse a pale-blue light streaking through the sand, blazing through the grains like a blistering comet, creating sweeping lines that criss-crossed over one another across a large radius. Lines that overlapped and joined to form a mystical, arcane symbol.

Sasuke's mind blanked, and before he could figure out what was happening, mighty structures broke through the desert, rising up like colossal stone titans around him. The sediment at his feet was blown away by a sudden, strong gust of wind, replaced by a solid platform of smoky marble so polished, he could see his own reflection shining within it.

Ornately carved corinthian stone columns were unearthed from the ground, rotating all around him before clicking and locking into place. Blue flame blazed to life at the iron sconces affixed to the majestic pillars. Above his head rumbling walls had joined together to fuse into an immense domed ceiling. At its apex was a circular opening, in perfect alignment with the strange moons, allowing ghostly white light to flood through, throwing a celestial glow onto the glistening floor at Sasuke's feet.

As the final piece of the building shifted into place, leaving behind a resounding echo, Sasuke found himself standing in an expansive, dark temple, its left and right wings flanked by lines of identical, torch-lit columns. Far behind him was an arched opening, a doorway, through which he could glimpse the bleakness of the desert peeking through.

The outer perimeter of the temple faded away into shadows, making it impossible to glimpse its surrounding walls despite the ghostly blue illumination afforded by the firelight. A thin veil of fog began to rise at Sasuke's feet, dispersing and rolling all around him. The heavy air was unforgivingly cold as he inhaled, filling his nose with the smell of dry, ancient stone.

There was nothing notably elaborate about the temple. It was foreboding, almost intimidating in the simplicity of its design. As if The Moirae, with all their power and undeniable wisdom, cared not for expressing any manner of superficial grandeur.

Tiny, shimmering fragments of the same, brilliant mirror shards he had glimpsed just before he had been stolen away materialised from the mist, glinting silently as they floated in suspension all around him. Unnerved when he caught sight of his own, wide-eyed reflection in a piece of glass, he spun in place, his grip tight on Kusanagi's hilt as he sought out the elusive Fates.

What form would they take? How would they approach him? His only response was the galloping of his own heartbeat, shaking his body with the force of an internal earthquake. He hated that he was at a distinct disadvantage, that he did not know what to expect.

That he had no way of anticipating what hidden horrors lay ahead.

Incomprehensible whispers drifted to his ears, echoing against the temple walls. In the corner of the peripheral vision of his right eye, Sasuke glimpsed moving shadows in the mist, slinking through the pillars around him, weaving far too swiftly for him to track. There one moment. Gone when he blinked. A flicker of light then drew his attention upward, where he found three glimmering spheres of white light hovering high over his head. The fog had increased in density and risen up to fill the gap in the air, and Sasuke watched, wide-eyed, as the orbs pulsed and shattered, shedding glinting, magical dust.

From the mist, three tall, ethereal figures materialised, drawing the thick fog into their forms as if they were forged from it, clothed from it. The moonlight filtering through the opening above them enhanced the otherworldly glow that surrounded the ghostly entities, and as Sasuke gazed upon them for the very first time, his breath hitched in his throat.

He forgot to think. To breathe. He forgot, for a dreadful moment, who he was, where he was, as those terrible, all-consuming gazes fixed onto him.

The Moirae looked down upon him with eyes of blazing silver that glowed ominously in the dimness. Devoid of irises or pupils, the weight and severity of their piercing stares were terrifying. Their slender, shapely forms were draped in full-length, white peploi spun of sheer gossamer, the necklines and skirt hems adorned with glistening gold thread. Long white veils cascaded down their backs and were drawn over their heads, concealing any glimpse of their hair and half of their faces.

They were both perilously lovely - and ghastly to behold. Sasuke was disturbed to note that the right sides of their faces and bodies were flawless - beautiful, even - with youthful, rose-flushed, alabaster skin - but the left sides - over which their veils were drawn - were hideously deformed. The snow-white flesh gradually blended into a mottled grey that deepened to gangrenous black. Through the rotting flesh, he could glimpse the hollows of gaunt cheekbones and the deep grooves of skeletal eye-sockets. As if their appearances represented the very function they upholded. Life and death.

Hovering just behind their veils were spiked, ornate halo crowns that shone with ethereal, silver light, and around their long, graceful necks were necklaces of sharp, ivory bone. The sisters were connected to each other by slender silver threads that pulsed with life between hands that were both elegant and disfigured and bore long, frost-encrusted claws at their ends.

Claws that were sharp enough to pierce and puncture.

Over the right palm of the first Fate hovered a thick spool of shining thread, from which she spun endless strings. Clotho, Sasuke registered.

The middle sister measured the first's offerings, fingers caressing and dancing gracefully along the threads, the movements of her hands almost mesmerising. Lakhesis.

And the third held aloft a razor-sharp pair of golden, gleaming, divine scissors. The decider of all ends, the executioner of all that lived. Atropos, herself.

The pounding of Sasuke's heart was furious and incessant. It struck against his ribcage, swinging wildly like a hammer, the devastating magnitude of his situation colliding into him full force. They were more terrible than anything he could have ever imagined. Everything about them screamed ancient, feral grace, catastrophic power - and indisputable peril. The air around him hummed and crackled with oppressive static, as if their presence was simply too much. Too great. As if they were an unbending force of nature that the temple grounds barely managed to contain.

All around the sisters were yet more delicate silver threads. With a start, Sasuke noticed that barely perceptible strings of varying lengths were strewn everywhere inside the temple's interior, hanging from the ceiling, winding around the pillars, glistening faintly in the shadows. They interconnected and overlapped, countless webs of mortal lives spun and measured and cut in an endless, relentless cycle.

The sisters exhaled freezing plumes of mist. Fog rippled from their forms, evaporating into the air. The same strange, glimmering fragments that floated around Sasuke hovered in suspension about them, twinkling and turning in constant motion.

When at last they spoke aloud, their voices did not come from their unmoving lips but instead echoed hauntingly all around him, more captivating, compelling and horrendous than they had been inside his head.

"Son of Stars, scattered bright."
"In darkness born, starved of light."

"Summoned unto Us, O' King of Shade,"
"A pact, this night, is to be made."

Refusing to be intimidated and lacking the patience to dwell upon and decipher their riddles, Sasuke demanded, "Why have you summoned me?"

Atropos's lips curved into a sharp smile.

"See how this one does not fear."
"Though no dominion has he, here."

Their voices contained a measure of amusement, as if they found his frustration wildly entertaining. Sasuke glared up at them. The intensity of their magnetic gazes singed through his skull and yet he firmly stood his ground, determined to show them that he was not afraid, to let the fury he felt toward them, toward the injustices they had served to him, burn clearly in his eyes.

These were the cruel beings that repeatedly measured, wove and cut the threads of Sakura's mortal life. These were the heartless entities that had assigned Itachi his taxing function, who had marked Sasuke's family and the Uchiha clan for death the moment they had chosen to bestow Madara's role upon him. Surely they had known that their actions would harvest a monster. They were all-seeing. All-knowing. In many ways, Sasuke held them to ultimate account for everything that had gone wrong in his past, for the war itself.

He could not shake the menacing, foreboding feeling that being called upon by The Fates would bring yet more pain to his plate. As if he had not yet enough eaten his fill of torment. He hoped it was only because of the Rinnegan's impending manifestation that they had chosen to summon him. Perhaps they sought to ensure he was ready to wield its holy power. And yet that was speculation on his part. The unnerving reality was that he had no idea why he, amongst all the other immortals, was the one who had been selected to stand inside their temple.

Their intense, otherworldly gazes blistered into him, blazing like celestial stars.

"Brave is he who does not bow."
"Let thy true worth be measured, now."

Sasuke opened his mouth to again ask them what they wanted from him, but The Moirae parted from one another and began circling him from above. Like vicious, ravenous vultures, poised to swoop down upon and mangle their prey.

"Lend thine ear and listen well."
"For much there is for Us to tell."

Their forms pulsated, tangible one moment, transparent the next as they rippled to mist. Sasuke stiffened, his grip on Kusanagi's hilt now painful. He could not track them all around him, not with the vision extinguished in his left eye, and so remained frozen in place, not daring to move a muscle as he impatiently awaited their explanation.

"Chaos incarnate seeks to sever…"
"That which is Ours to deliver."

"If this realm falls within his hands…"
"A deadly scourge shall befall all lands."

"The beast with Tails of Ten shall awaken."
"With its return, this world forsaken."

The words reverberated thunderously in his ears. Sasuke stared up at the sisters, guarded and incredulous. They were choosing to tell him of the future? Confirming what would come to pass? Disclosing knowledge of a timeline that had yet to transpire - but inevitably would? Were they permitted to do such a thing?

It was apparently well within their jurisdiction to do so. Staggered, his mind spiralled from the implications of the knowledge they had shared. If the Ten Tails would indeed be revived, then that meant Cronus would be successful in retrieving the remaining tailed beasts from Gaara, Killer B, and-

Naruto.

Something wrenched violently inside Sasuke's gut. If the Demon Fox was extracted from Naruto, then surely he would not long survive such a severing. For an extraction took a great toll on its host. It stripped down an immortal's divinity, made them vulnerable to death, their strength and reflexes severely compromised and incapacitated. And Sasuke knew that Madara would not hesitate to rip his arch-nemesis's son to shreds.

A hive of questions swarmed inside his mind, but before he could voice any of them, The Fates were speaking on.

"The Hallow'd Eye, upon thee blessed."
"A gift. A curse. As is thy test."

Sasuke's thoughts cycled, frantically trying to decode their cryptic couplets as he attempted to track their movements with his limited vision.

"Why tell me this? What do you want?"

The Fates reunited, hovering before him once more.

"Chosen Princeling, to bear Our Mark."
"Tasked by Fate, to smite the dark."

Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed. What 'mark' were they talking about? He remained silent as their words continued to glide to his ears, musical and jagged.

"Shadow born, is shadow made."
"Receiver of Adamantine's blade."

The Adamantine. The death deity blinked, stunned. He recalled coming across its fabled mention in ancient scriptures in the distant past. It was said to be an unbreakable sword, even harder and more resilient than diamond itself, and was capable of absorbing a deity's powers as well as inducing eternal petrification. Any target it pierced lost their abilities and became entombed within stone, cursed to be neither living nor dead, making it the only weapon known in existence - with the exception of the fearsome Ten Tails - that allowed its wielder to directly steal the power of another living immortal.

It was a sealing blade, similar in nature to the sword of Totsuka which banished its targets within the confines of an eternal illusion. But unlike Totsuka, its entrapment could not be reversed, not even by its master's hand.

The mythical Adamantine had never been discovered. Many deities had arduously sought it throughout the ages, attempting to hunt it down to establish ultimate dominion over all other immortals. Now Sasuke understood why their searches had been fruitless. The sacred sword had been hidden away in the possession of The Moirae all along.

His eyes fell briefly away from the sisters as a sudden thought struck him. If the Adamantine was almost identical to Totsuka in its mechanism, and The Fates were the ones who had it - how, then, had his brother first acquired his own sacred, legendary sealing blade? Surely, had Cronus known he'd possessed it, he would have taken it from Thanatos long before the war. He certainly would never have gifted such a prized weapon into Itachi's keeping. Nor would he have willingly suffered his heir-apparent to carry a lethal blade capable of being turned against him and his allies.

Which meant that he couldn't have known of the sword's true nature until it was too late. Which once more begged the question - how in the world had it fallen into Itachi's hands to begin with?

The question burned through Sasuke's mind, giving way to nagging whispers that steadily grew in their volume. Why had he never wondered about that, before? Why had he automatically and naively just assumed that the sword had been his brother's all along? But it could not possibly have been. There were only two known, coveted sealing blades recounted in any of the ancient tomes he had ever read. The Adamantine. And Totsuka, which had been used to seal away the Titans.

Unpleasant paranoia began to creep over him, crawling over his skin like scurrying cockroaches. Had his brother ever had dealings with The Fates beyond the obvious ties of his function? The more he dwelled upon the question, the more it gained momentum in his mind.

The sisters continued, drawing Sasuke abruptly from his troubled thoughts, forcing him to store them away for later.

"The Titan Cronus cannot be slain..."
"Until his powers unto another ordained."
"No other can contain them, to none other they sing…"
"Save like for like - a shadow-Crown'd King."

Sasuke shook his head, grappling to make sense of what they were asking of him, baffled as to why they had chosen to disclose things to him specifically, why they would need him at all when they were all-seeing and possessed the highest of divine powers. He could scarcely believe what he was hearing.

"You would give me the Adamantine?"

Glowing silver eyes stabbed through him, scorching, searing, colder than frost. With no further preamble, they chorused:

"Chosen thou art, Adamantine-sworn,"
"To become the vessel of Chaos, reborn.
"Powers yielded to Underworld Crown'd…"
"As shadow is lost, so is shadow found."

Understanding slowly dawned over Sasuke, and when it hit, it tore through him like a rip-tide, turning the blood in his veins to ice.

They weren't simply giving him the means with which to destroy Madara once and for all. They were asking him to permanently absorb the Titan's powers using the Adamantine, which would transfer all of Cronus's stolen abilities into his keeping, thus making him the new vessel, containing all of chaos and time within himself.

Stricken speechless, Sasuke struggled to restore order to his own rushing, bewildered thoughts. He could not fathom what was being asked of him. Their words implied that only the King of the Underworld, crowned by the same shadow-world that Madara had created, could absorb the Titan's abilities. But how could he possibly take on so many roles simultaneously? The overwhelming burden would surely be too much for one immortal to shoulder. Cronus was a Titan, with powers far more ancient and deadly than any of Sasuke's own. And Sasuke already commanded Sleep, Death, the shadows and all the other responsibilities that had transferred over to him from his deceased kin. He was King of the Underworld. He could not sustain all functions at once indefinitely without them coming into conflict, without it impacting upon his duties.

And even if he could- No. He did not want such destructive power.

He demanded, "How can I sustain such power alone?"

"For a time, thus it shall be,"
"That Chaos shall manifest in thee."

"In err we bestowed it, unmarked and free."
"Upon the earth unleashed its calamity."

"His powers absorbed, shall be thine to keep."
"Until the sickness into thy blood creeps."

A sense of trepidation began to crawl slowly over Sasuke. To what ailment were they referring?

"In every vessel cometh the hour,"
"The dark taint of Chaos incarnate's power."
"Marked by The Fates, unto Our keep,"
"Thou shalt return to eternal sleep."

He stared blankly at them, mentally sprinting to catch up to their meaning. Then it crashed into him. Like a tsunami sweeping the ground out from beneath his feet, sending him careening into turbulent waves of turmoil.

Through the tangled disorder of his thoughts, it exploded. Perfect clarity. His pounding heart was all at once a mighty drum, a physical force within his chest that was on the verge of bursting. Gazing up at them in unmasked horror, he finally understood the true reason he had been summoned.

To wield the Adamantine. To use it to defeat Cronus once and for all, and transfer the fearsome Titan's potent powers across to himself. Power that had surely played a hand in driving Cronus from ambitious to unhinged. And then, in becoming the new vessel of chaos, he would carry the crushing burden of the Titan's unstable abilities for a time - until they inevitably began to corrupt him in turn.

Was that their destructive nature, he wondered, regardless of whichever deity inherited them? How long did the process take? Did the extent and rate of deterioration depend on other factors including temperament, strength of will and circumstance?

His mind reeled from the implications. The Fates had just admitted to making a grave mistake in allowing Cronus to roam the earth freely, in assigning him a function that had festered within him and eventually consumed him, turning one predisposed to anger, to blood-lust and madness. By orchestrating his demise and replacing him with a compatible replacement - his own blood-descendant - they sought to rectify their previous errors by ensuring that the very powers that had corrupted the Titan could never be unleashed upon the world again.

Once Sasuke became overwhelmed and reached what the sisters were implying was a point of no return, then he would be returned to their realm, sealed away in slumber in order to prevent history from repeating itself and to prevent him from turning into what Cronus had. Thus allowing time and all the chaotic matter that was required for life to endure to continue on - at the expense of Sasuke's own existence.

His lungs were suddenly incapable of drawing a breath. With great difficulty, he got out, "You- would ask me to give up my life?"

The words were incredulous. Full of disbelief.

The Moirae merely continued to watch him in silence, and Sasuke did not know which prospect was more horrific; the thought of Cronus's powers slowly poisoning him if he accepted - powers that had driven the Titan to murder his wife and sons centuries before he had done away with his own clan… or knowing that it meant he would essentially become a ticking time-bomb, doomed to slumber within their realm forevermore as soon as the volatile abilities grew beyond what Sasuke could withstand.

An emotion washed over him, both foreign and terrifying. Born of the warring instinct to survive, to break through the chains the sisters were spinning around him. Primal fear whispered through his veins as he clearly saw the corner they were backing him into. What they were asking of him was a thing impossible. He would be signing his own death. He would be trapped. He would not live. He would exist only as a sleeping vessel, in service to The Fates.

Why would they ask such a thing of him? Had he not given enough of himself in obediently collecting and judging the mortal souls that Atropos sent into his keep? Why had they not given Madara the 'mark' they spoke of and cleaned up their own mess long before?

White-hot, molten rage erupted within him.

"If the Adamantine can trap Madara in stone, why not keep his spirit sealed within it? Why must I take his power? Why did you not return him here yourselves?!"

Their combined voices were both a whisper in the wind and a deafening din coming at him from all directions.

"Over immortals we hold no sway,"
"To seal here their divine lives away."
"The Mark upon a servant must be willingly bestowed,"
"To return to Our realm that which to Us is owed."

Sasuke's lips parted in dismay. Of course Cronus wouldn't have ever willingly accepted any mark that would have enslaved him to The Moirae. He had always cursed them, even long before he had waged his war. That was why they had failed in taking care of his threat back then - and sought to rectify their mistakes by ensuring that the next vessel was marked and under their power to summon to their realm before he inherited Madara's powers.

It was everything unfair, unjust- but the sisters were speaking on.

"The Hallow'd Eye that perceives all gates..."
"Doth open the door to the realm of Fates."
"The sacred sword, within this domain…"
"Must strike for Chaos to be slain."

"No power beyond here does the blade possess."
"If wielded not by Our Mark blessed…"
"The curse of Chaos will reign untold."
"Its blight, eternal, shall take hold."

"Adamant-pierced heart, its life-force taken."
"Petrified in stone, ne'er to awaken."
"Divine power absorbed into the blade."
"Its wielder therein, Heir is made."

The words merged with the roaring of blood in Sasuke's ears. It had to be a nightmare. One from which he so desperately wished to be awakened. To learn that Madara had to be lured into the very same realm in which Sasuke stood, in order to be pierced by a sword that only he, as the Underworld's ruler and last of the Titan's bloodline, was capable of wielding. A sword that could only be carried by one who bore the Mark of The Moirae. If another attempted to fulfil the task, Cronus would not be contained and if he somehow managed to destroy the Adamantine, he would become unstoppable.

Sasuke swallowed back the bitter taste of copper in his mouth, only to realise with a start that he was biting his tongue so hard, he had drawn blood. The world was spinning off its axis all around him and he could not seem to stop it. By their own admission, The Fates had not the power to trap Cronus away themselves. He understood now why he had been called. They needed a 'servant', another deity to intervene on their behalf and deliver the finishing blow using the sacred sword. By their account, it was the only way.

"Within this realm, time shall suspend."
"But for a moment, to deliver his end."

"There must be another way," Sasuke got out, feeling winded, as though there was not enough air around him from which to draw breath.

"Nay. The Titan cannot remain."
"Lest we and all the world be slain."

"Are you not all-powerful?" He retorted angrily. "Are you not the ones who uphold every law and decree? You gave him his function. Why can you not take it back?"

"We are bound to the will of the universe."
"What we gift, at birth, we cannot reverse."
"Immortal souls are not Ours to sever,"
"Unto Our threads, they are not tethered..."
"Only when their purpose, they refuse to fulfil,"
"Do their lives become Our right to still.

"Madara intends to enslave the world and unravel time itself," the death deity countered. "Is that not defiance of his own function? Of the laws you uphold?"

"Of Our laws, yes, a most heinous crime,"
"But only within Our realm can he reverse time."
"Were he to enter and to succeed..."
"The world to eternal chaos will bleed."

Realisation dawned. Madara planned to unravel time after he had entered their realm and slain the goddesses first - so that they could not use their own powers to extinguish him.

"But he seeks to destroy you," Sasuke shook his head. "Why not intervene before he does any of this?"

"We were forbidden by the will of Our Mother,"
"To extinguish the life of an immortal other..."
"Unless role renounced, they cast aside,"
"And break the laws by which they abide."

"Yet upon Chaos Cronus thrives,"
"Immune to death once his soul is tied..."
"To the Ten-Tailed beast, for once it awakens..."
"All prisons that contain him would be forsaken."

"Too powerful the beast is to slay..."
"Against Our Mother's powers, we hold no sway,"
"No other hope, but the Adamant blade,"
"To sever the bond twixt them made."

Sasuke stared at them, grimly recalling that Kaguya had been sealed away when she had transformed into the Ten-Tailed beast. Once the nine others were collected, allowing the demonic monster to return to its full form, the creature would essentially be a revived, enslaved Gaia in monster form, holding all the potent chakra she'd had at her disposal before her sealing. And if Madara intended to bind the creature to him using the Rinne-sharingan, a creature that possessed phenomenal powers surpassing that of The Moirae themselves... The Fates would indeed be powerless to stop him. They could not defy their own Mother. The beast would serve as a buffer that would shield Madara from any attempts the sisters made to disable him, meaning the tie between the Titan and the monster would have to be severed first.

His racing mind connected all the dots. Madara had found a clever loophole. A way to render himself immune to being wiped out by the goddesses for going against his function. It was an ingenious plan. After all, he'd had centuries' worth of time to prepare it.

The Fates did not want Gaia to be restored, Sasuke realised with a start. Or perhaps, they simply did not want Madara to use their 'Mother' as a puppet, and believed it to be for the best that she remained sealed away. After all, her ambition and greed had been just as horrific as the Titan's.

Regardless of their justifications, Sasuke remained furious. They were asking him to sort out their mess at the expense of his own life. No small asking price.

His temper splintered as he coldly snapped, "You expect me to sacrifice myself for the mistakes you made? His powers were assigned to him by you," he jabbed a finger at them in accusation. "Why should I suffer for it?""

He did not care whether he appeared impertinent, defiant or disrespectful before them. What they were requesting of him - expecting of him - was insanity.

"Before Cronus came others, Chaos theirs to spell,"
"As the dark prince Indra - to madness he fell."
"But no other vessel has sought to revive,"
"The Ten-Tailed beast to devour all life."
"The cycle must break, it cannot endure,"
"We will stand back and permit it no more."

Sasuke blinked in surprise. So there had been other vessels of Chaos? Were the function's powers so unstable that they had been continuously passed down throughout the ages to new gods cursed to carry the role? It was a horrifically disturbing concept. What chance did he stand, then, if both Indra and a Titan, older than he was, had become so corrupt?

"Thou art his only surviving kin, to take Chaos's blight within." The sisters added, unrepentant and wholly unsympathetic to his plight. As if Sasuke were indeed little more than a dispensable pawn on a chess-board of their making.

"Obito," Sasuke argued. "Obito remains. If this is the only way to kill Madara, then free him of his influence and have him become the vessel."

The Fates exchanged knowing glances, before their dreadful, piercing gazes returned to Sasuke.

"A rotting corpse, he is bound to die."
"Chaos' scourge he would not survive."

"You cannot ask this of me," Sasuke's hands balled into tight fists. It wasn't as if he stood nothing to lose. He would lose everything. "What of my own function? What of the Underworld? Who would rule my Kingdom in my stead? There is no-one else!"

A brief, tense silence hung in the air. Nothing could have possibly prepared him for their response.

"Our eyes see the Crossroads, both above and beneath."
"To thy Queen and Firstborn, thy Kingdom, bequeathed."
"A mercy we grant thee, a time of reprieve…"
"Until the sickness within thy blood is conceived."

Sasuke froze, caught by surprise, not sure whether he had heard correctly. Inside his chest, he was certain that his stampeding heart had stuttered to a stop.

A queen and… a firstborn…?

Dazzling, verdant irises flashed across his vision. Sakura. His stunned thoughts scattered like seeds dispersing in the wind, carried in different directions. The Fates had seen that he and Sakura would have a child?

"She will walk between two lands..."
"Spring and Death yield to her hands."
"Thy Firstborn when of age hath grown,"
"Shall inherit thy Kingdom and its throne."

The staggering revelation flung Sasuke into a gaping chasm of turmoil, sending him plunging into bottomless freefall. Yet beneath the shock and anarchy of his rampaging thoughts glimmered a delicate and unexpected thread of hope. Did their words mean that if he consented to becoming the new vessel, Sakura would survive? That they would be together long enough to conceive a child, one that would be tied to him by blood and would inevitably come to inherit his role and his kingdom? Were they telling him that if he agreed to take up the blade, Sakura was guaranteed to live, to regain immortality and would rule over his realm, by his side for a time, until the awful day came that he would succumb to the taint of chaos and be spirited away from her, forevermore?

An onslaught of questions assaulted his mind. How far ahead in time was this glimpsed future? Would the child in question be old enough to ascend by the time Sasuke was summoned back to the realm of The Moirae? Or would he be ripped away shortly after its birth, leaving Sakura to rule alone?

Conflicting thoughts and feelings warred against one another. Bittersweet elation - that there was a chance of some future for them, however brief, if he chose to fight. A child that they would share together and call their own. Budding relief - that the woman he loved, the woman so ingrained into every fibre of his being, might yet be saved. And resonating horror. Horror that she would be enslaved to the throne once he departed, a prisoner to the realm - as he had been when he had first awoken alone after the war. Any happiness Sasuke might have otherwise felt over the lifeline given to Sakura was crushed by the realisation that she would not live on freely at all if he was summoned back to The Moirae before their offspring was old enough to ascend. Without him, Sakura would then be forced to spend more than six months a year in the Underworld.

Without him, she would not know freedom.

"If thou doth seek to salvage her life,"
"Required of thee shall be sacrifice."

"Refuse the blade and the world will fall."
"Beyond salvation to the Moon's enthral."

They were referring to the Eternal Illusion Madara intended to cast once he awakened the Ten Tails. Sasuke's teeth clenched. The immense pressure of knowing his decision would directly impact the fate of the world hung over his neck like a slicing guillotine.

"How high a price will this king pay…?" The goddesses mused in unison. "To save his love from eternal decay?"

No. The word ricocheted inside Sasuke's head. The stifling horror of the impossible choice that lay before him was suffocating. To rid the world of Cronus's blight and forfeit his own life, thus transferring custody of his kingdom to Sakura and the child that The Moirae had seen in their future - or to refuse, keep his own miserable existence until Cronus became powerful enough to obliterate everyone and everything. Including Sakura.

Frustration flared. His hands were tied. It was no real choice, no option at all. But he couldn't. He couldn't damn Sakura to an eternity of rule in the Underworld without him. How could he subject her to the same shackles to which he himself had been so cruelly chained? How could he force sole rule upon her until their child was of age, as it had been forced upon him? How could he deprive her of her surface life, of her right to freedom and sunlight? He had already stolen six months every year. He could not damn her any more than he already had. He could not.

As he gazed up at The Fates, he knew the rumours, in part, had been true. They were cold. Unfeeling. Cruel.

"And if I refuse?" he tested.

"Her life will perish, away to dust."
"No soul spared in his blood-lust."
"Two paths only The Crossroads have seen,"
"Lost to thee shall be the child and Queen."

Shaking his head, he challenged, "How can the Goddess of Spring remain beneath the surface?"

"Immortal reborn, she would not fade."
"A Queen of Spring and of the Shades."
"Life she would flourish, in but a day,"
"Then to her kingdom shall away."

Sasuke glared up at them. "You would have me take away what freedoms she has left? What life would she live, bound to the dead in my absence?"

The sisters pointed their claw-tipped fingers at him.

"Anchored already she is to thy land."
"A fate sealed by thy own hand."

The words stung with the harsh blow of truth, a cutting reminder of the transgressions he had committed against Sakura. She would become Queen of the Dead and the Underworld, favoured to succeed him by virtue of the Forbidden Fruit that had already marked her as part of his realm - potent seeds that bound those who shared them with ties stronger than blood.

Desperation tore at Sasuke's chest, its sharp talons puncturing through his yearning heart. How many times had the fantasy crossed his mind - Sakura as his Queen? How many times had he dared to envisage her by his side, crowned with diamonds and emeralds that matched her bewitching eyes, consenting to rule with him for the six months she was compelled to remain in his realm? Knowing he had no right to ask for her hand, yet unable to keep himself from entertaining it every single time he watched her interact with his realm. Unable to stem the desire to offer her a throne of her own, her right to possess as surely as she possessed him in mind, body, heart and soul.

And yet he had wished for them to rule as one together. Not to bestow the throne upon her - only to then leave it to her to shoulder without him.

It was devastating to learn that The Fates had glimpsed a possible future for them in whatever paths The Crossroads revealed to their ever-watching eyes - only to realise that their future, too, would be a ticking time-bomb. That their days together would be numbered. It was agony to carry that knowledge. Something fractured within Sasuke at the thought of abandoning Sakura to such loneliness. How could he consent? And yet, how could he refuse? The Fates saw everything. Which meant everything they had revealed to him was guaranteed to unfold. They had warned him what would happen if the Adamantine was not used by the one they had marked for the task. Once the Ten Tails was awakened and Madara used it to begin siphoning the powers of other deities, Sasuke knew he would be too powerful to seal away inside any realm. So long as the Ten-Tails remained bound to Madara's will, he would be unstoppable.

His mind clutched at straws, scrambling desperately for an alternative.

"Show me how to stop the Ten-Tails from awakening-" he began, but The Fates interjected, their voices sharp and severe in tone.

"Hast thou not listened to a word we have said?"
"There is no way to stop it, to avert this dread."
"It is a path ordained that is set in stone."
"It cannot be denied, nor undone."

"Cronus will not cease hunting the remaining three."
"New plots would unfold that thou canst not foresee."
"A limit there is, to Our divine decree,"
"Of the knowledge of futures that we impart to thee."

"We reveal only what is guaranteed,"
"And to the two outcomes thy choices lead."

All remaining arguments fizzled from Sasuke's tongue. It seemed even The Moirae had constraints on how much they were able to share. The Adamantine, then, was truly the only solution, the only way to sever the link between Madara and the beast, and allow the Ten-Tails to be sealed away again in turn.

The injustice of it - the cruelty of the decision he was being forced to make, made him want to draw his blade in fury. It was senseless, but he wanted to punish The Moirae. They who had bestowed the function of chaos upon a newly-birthed god - only to realise their mistake far too late when they came to see that he would seek to eradicate them. But Sasuke understood what he had not before - that the threads the goddesses wove, measured and clipped were reserved for mortals alone. Although they indeed managed the distribution of divine functions, the rules around severing immortal lifes were far stricter. They could see into the future, glimpse what an immortal would become, perhaps even rearrange and manipulate strings to ensure that a god met whatever destiny The Crossroads revealed - but it was clear that even their influence had its limits. They could not simply cut a deity's life short without potentially serious complications arising.

The rumours about the sisters, then, had been grossly exaggerated, perhaps to generate a greater aura of fear about them. They appeared to be forbidden from intervening directly in the affairs of immortals - but that did not mean they could not recruit others to act on their behalf, chosen ones armed with the knowledge that their visions provided. As they were doing at that exact moment. He suspected that having confirmed what Madara's true intentions were for them - that he intended to enter their world, slay them and unravel time itself - they had at last decided it was time to take action, to bestow their most powerful weapon onto the wielder of the Rinnegan, who would absorb the Titan's gifts and become the new vessel for his power. A vessel they would then lock away inside their realm.

They had it all planned out. Had played checkmate to his King. Rage, indignation and hatred burned in Sasuke's chest, roaring like an inferno. They were not willing to even give him a chance. They assumed he would end up just like Cronus - and what calarmed him was that he did not understand enough about the true nature of the Titan's abilities to doubt that their concerns were valid. Perhaps being the wielder of all of the world's chaos would inevitably corrupt even the most righteous of hosts, just as the sisters had implied. And he was a higher risk than most - already shadow born and shadow made. Darkness flowed through his veins - and he had known hatred. Knew he had the capacity to be ruthless. Cold. Selfish and vengeful.

The Fates knew it, too. They were taking the course of action they deemed best to protect not only their own existence and the borders of their sacred realm - but to ensure the world endured, also.

Sasuke's head lowered in defeat, finally acknowledging and accepting, with great bitterness, the wisdom behind the cruelty of their schemes. They were not offering the Adamantine blade to him because they wished to be wicked and condemn him to death. They were giving it to him because there was no other alternative, nobody else shadow born who had the Rinnegan and could carry the burden, avert an impending disaster and save all life on earth.

He thought of his brother and cousin, who he knew must have faced similar, impossible choices, who had laid down their lives for the greater good. Noble, honourable and just, they surely hadn't spared a second thought over doing whatever needed to be done in order to salvage peace and halt Cronus's diabolical plans. But their actions, although valiant, had only stalled the war-mongering Titan.

He was trapped. If he did nothing, he would condemn the world and everyone in it. If he acted, he would lose his life, his future - but the world would endure. Could he be brave, as his brother and cousin had been? Could he selflessly sacrifice himself, as they had, when all other options had been exhausted, when there was nobody else to take up the mantle?

Sasuke understood that Cronus needed to be stopped. He understood that Madara's unstable powers could only be transferred to him. Both things, he could endure. If The Moirae had to cast him into an eternal sleep in order to uphold that cursed function safely inside of their realm, then... he could bear it. He could offer himself in sacrifice - if it absolutely guaranteed that his kingdom, Sakura, the surface gods and humanity would all survive.

But the price. Sakura… and their firstborn. New life that he would never be able to fully cherish. To be robbed of hearing his palace's halls echoing once again with the sweet, innocent laughter of a child. He had no way of knowing how much time he would have to hold his son or daughter - before he was torn away from them.

Swamped with sorrow, Sasuke was horrified to feel his eyes burning. Anger rippled through him as he blinked back the stinging, prickling sensation, wrestling to maintain his composure. The Fates had not just stripped him of his powers, it seemed. Before them, he felt exposed, as if incapable of hiding any manner of truth - even masking his own emotions.

Sakura. His heart ached at the thought of a horrible day arriving where he would never see her again, never be able to speak to her or touch her again. To leave her to the darkness, with only their child for comfort. To leave her to raise the infant alone. His despairing heart mourned for her, overcome with grief. If he refused, she would die. If he accepted, she would be returned to immortality - and damned.

Sasuke had always feared she would be taken from him, that he would lose her to her curse. He had never factored for the possibility that the opposite might occur. That he would be snatched away from her side.

How could he make the choice without speaking to her first? How could he be expected to agree or disagree when she had absolutely no say in the matter? That was perhaps what Sasuke struggled to accept the most - the guilt of knowing he was being forced to take the only choice truly available to them both, without having the luxury of telling Sakura or preparing her for it, first. He had sworn to himself that he would never again make a decision that concerned her wellbeing without consulting her. Yet there he was. Being compelled to do precisely that. And he despised himself for it.

But it was either that, or no future for any of them. The end of the world and free-will as everyone knew it. He knew which option Sakura would choose. She would gladly yield her own existence to save the ones she loved and the greater good.

"Can she know?" His heavy heart was already certain of what the sisters' answers would be.

"Nay. Knowledge of the future we have spoken…"
"Is shared only with Our servants, Chosen."
"Sworn to silence in oath, unbroken."

Sasuke closed his eyes briefly, steeling himself as pain washed over him, listening in silence to the words that continued to drift to his ears. He understood. Futures were to remain concealed for a reason. To protect the timelines. They could not risk Cronus discovering their plans, the trap they were setting for him. The less people who knew, the better, but what that meant for Sakura…

"When the hour nears for thee to depart,"
"Speak truth, then, to thy sweetheart."
"Keep the blade hidden, removed from sight,"
"Until the time to strike is nigh and right."

He drew in a quiet breath, fighting to restore iron discipline to the tumultuous war raging within his body. He could not tell anyone else about his task until the final fight was finished? Then how was he expected to explain his absence and where he had been taken to the others? He pushed the worry away. He would have to figure that out later. Maybe he would leave it to Chiyo to handle. His mind was preoccupied enough by awful thoughts of the devastation, horror and betrayal he would see on Sakura's face when she inevitably came to learn the truth. That he was both saving her life and condemning her to his throne - by damning himself. Bitter self-loathing scalded Sasuke, burning like the flames of Tartarus. It was his fault. All of it. These were all consequences of his own thoughtless actions. Had he not fed her the seeds to begin with, then The Fates would have had no other to take his place. Perhaps then, things might have turned out differently. But like a fool, he had given them to her, and now The Moirae needed him to-

His thoughts ground to an abrupt halt. He blinked. They needed him. The Fates needed him to accept. It seemed beyond the scope of their abilities to force him to take their Mark without his consent. Which meant that perhaps he had some degree of influence, however slight. Some element of bargaining power. Perhaps, if he played his cards right, he could find another way around the dire wretchedness of the situation for Sakura - even if there was no conceivable way out for him, as the last of the Uchiha line.

"Why…?" his voice shook with icy rage, as he lifted his head, meeting those terrible, consuming gazes once again. "Why did you not act in the war? There were hundreds of us. You could have selected any of his descendants for this task! Why have you waited all this time until only one of us is left?"

"The Rinnegan did not then manifest…"
"To Mark a champion to fulfil this quest."

"Without the Eye, all hope devoured."
"No means to divert the Titan's power."

"For his gifts to be taken, he must be unsealed,"
"His powers must return, before they can yield."

"No choice had we, but to delay,"
"The fall of all lands unto decay."

"You could have spared at least one more of us!" he yelled at them in frustration. "Any of us, to leave another behind! My mother. My father! My cousin. My brother!"

He knew his words were irrational. He knew now that The Fates did not, could not directly intervene, and yet he could not shake the feeling that surely they could have done something to save at least one other Uchiha. He still could not accept why every single one of them had been annihilated.

The floating Moirae stared at him in grave silence. Then Lakhesis seemed to speak louder than the others, her voice echoing over her sisters', lovely and dreadful at once. Still her lips did not move as her voice reverberated around the temple.

"The Princeling dares to slight Our honour."

"Upon him, then, is the hour," Atropos hissed, her voice more seductive and distorted than that of Lakhesis, and somehow more terrifying.

"Look upon the mirror's glass," Clotho's voice was airy, like leaves rustling in the wind. A winter wind with a biting chill.

"See what was in the past." The sisters chorused together.

Sasuke frowned in confusion - when all the gently tinkling, glimmering glass fragments floating around him began to spin, circling him with enough generated wind force to toss his hair and cloak back and forth. The shards drew together, whizzing faster and faster until they melted into each other like molten iron, coalescing to form multiple mirrors that rotated around him, which in turn fused into one larger, jagged one that came to hover directly before him. Thick, freezing fog billowed around it, and it glowed with mysterious white light, its brilliantly clear surface rippling as though it were made not of glass but of pristine water.

He stared at his reflection, wide-eyed and pale beneath the moonlight that pooled all around him.

"Enter the mirror," the Fates commanded. "Walk where no others may tread. Enter the mirror. Behold what remained to thee, unsaid."

Sasuke hesitated despite himself, glancing up at the intimidating entities coldly, even as apprehension gnawed at him, setting his pulse hurtling even more erratically. Something about their words sent an inexplicable sense of uneasiness slithering down his spine, hanging over him like a dark omen. What further secrets were they implying he did not know?

They continued to watch him intently, no expression on their beautiful, disfigured faces.

It wasn't a trap. It could not be. They needed him to smite Cronus. He had to trust that they were showing him something of great importance, using some manner of time-distortion within the glass to do so.

Steeling himself, Sasuke took a deep breath and stepped forward. Tendrils of fog reached eagerly out to him, enveloping him in their thick cloak as the mirror pulled him into a freezing void of white smoke.

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~x~

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Author's Note

I hope we're all still coherent enough to read the next part? Good. Because more revelations are coming. Mwaha!