Why, Hello and welcome to my little world of weirdness!
I state for the record that, while I really, really wish I did, I don't own any of the wonderful characters that will grace this story . . . they are all CLAMP's, always have been, always will be! However I do lay claim to a few of the original characters, for example . . . I own Hei-ying, and his false form, Tomodachi Yukito, I own Mystrasa Kyree, and Carolyn and Adeline Reed, I don't own The Dragon, Saurian because he is on loan from my very good friend, the ever intangible Blue Goo.
This is a Sequel to 'In This Tainted Soul . . .', which actually started out as this stories prequel . . . what can I say? I love writing!! Anyway, while it's not strictly need reading, since the first few chapters will be focus on establishing well . . . basically everything, it would still be nice if you go read up, especially if you want to know why Hei-ying is the way he is . . .
In This Tainted Soul . . . There Lies Hope . . .
By Dr Megalomania
[Okay . . . erm . . . gotta confess, these first few chapters are sorta an extended prologue because I couldn't quite decide where to put the beginning . . . actually just like Tainted Soul, the prologue is actually a much needed reminder, and the first chapter was actually the beginning of this chapter, but both my Beta Reader and I agreed that it read better standing in it's own chapter . . . okay?]
Part Two: Remember-Me-Nots
He stared at the grounds; the Reed mansion hadn't changed a bit since he had lived there. Only a few modern gadgets had been added, aside from that, Clow's child reincarnation had left things as they were. Resting his back against the window seat's wall, Hei-ying sighed. Clow died some twenty years after he had sealed Hei-ying away, and Hei-ying . . . he closed his eye and let a tear fall from it, he had been sealed away, prevented from seeing his creator upon his death.
"Clow . . ."
Unlike his brothers, unlike the perfect creation he was created to be . . . Hei-ying had been absent from his master's side as he took his last dying breath.
Hei-ying wiped the tear away and looked at his lap, he held his book. It had contained him since his sealing, and within it's protective seal, Hei-ying kept everything. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his latest trinket, a lock of hair from Carolyn.
Tied neatly with one of his jade green ties, the silky, blooded lock curled on itself.
He smiled sadly, and opened the book. Every victim, everyone he killed he kept something from them . . . his mistress thought they were trophies, she was wrong; they were remembrances. A promise to let them live on in his memory, even when he took their last breathe from them. He opened the book, and said quietly, "Carolyn Zenith Reed . . . died by my hand, a broken neck, aged five . . . last of the Reed Bloodline . . ." the words engraved themselves on the page, he looked above that, "Mitzuki Kaho . . . died by Saurian, fire, age . . ." he broke off as he lifted her necklace out of the box, it was burnt . . .
He looked at his mistress; she too could sense the woman hesitating behind the door. "She wonders who we could be . . ." she smirked, "let us show her . . ."
Hei-ying lifted his arms, calling forth his magic. The door blew open suddenly, and the red headed woman screamed as she was thrown back. He stared at her, his jade eye dull; once again he stood on someone's doorstop, a calming influence on the mistress' victim. He wondered briefly what relation to Clow Reed this woman had to warrant her death. He glanced at his mistress as her black eyes glinted; she stared at the red headed woman as she stepped into the Reed mansion uninvited.
"Who are you?!" The red headed woman demanded, her name was Kaho. Hei-ying noticed her accent was tainted by an eastern language, probably Japanese. She stared at him quizzically, causing him to smile as he thought she recognised him, she would be the first one to recognise him aside from his mistress. After all most people mistook him for . . .
"Yue?"
His smile froze in place, once again his brother's likeness to him shining through. He glared at this woman for her mistake, all sympathy for her spilled out of his cold heart. His youngest brother was the one thing that truly caused him to hate everything.
And Yue deserved whatever the mistress chose for him.
His mistress found this exceedingly funny, and snorted in her cruel way. She continued to glare at the woman, as the red head jutted her chin, "whoever you are . . ." she challenged, "this mansion belongs to the reincarnation of Clow Reed!"
The mistress smiled, this she knew . . . she had planned it perfectly and knew that the woman was bluffing. The child reincarnation and his . . . gaudy was the best term that described them . . . his gaudy guardians had left a week ago, travelling back to Japan while he, his mistress and his new brother, Saurian were returning to England. His mistress lifted her hand and pointed at the woman, her hand glowed slightly as she marked the woman as a target for Saurian. The dragon, which waited outside in his full, champion form, lowered his head and pushed his long neck through the doorway. He glanced at Hei-ying who stepped out of the way; he knew what was coming, as did the mistress. She smiled indulgently as Saurian wrapped his long flexible neck around her once; he raised his head and stared at the woman.
Cruel, autumn brown lips drew back in a fierce smile, as he turned his head to hiss in his mistress' ear, "this one Clow?" He inclined his head towards Kaho again, "can I . . .? Can I play with her?"
His mistress smiled at him and scratched his chin playfully. Her black eyes locked with the pale red of Kaho, she nodded slowly. Hei-ying's only jade eye slid shut as Saurian expelled a flame so hot and quick, the woman didn't even have a chance to register that his brother meant her . . .
Hei-ying shook his head as his brother offered him some of the burnt remains of the red headed woman he had just roasted alive. He glanced at his mistress, as she looked around. She stepped into the centre of the faded gold magic circle that was carved into the dark wood floor. Lifting her hands over it, the circle glowed into life again, it shimmered gold . . . but as with everything his mistress touched, it began to smoulder deep purple . . . as it cooled, it turned black as the night.
"Home . . ." She smiled, ". . . sweet home . . ."
Mystrasa Kyree tipped her head back, and started to laugh, Clow Reed's gentle laughter filtering through, distorted and darkened.
Hei-ying sighed as he let the necklace drop back. He looked at the list again; it was long, with mostly Reeds and the occasional unfortunate who had simply gotten in the way. His eye fell on one name, the closest person he had come to the Clow Reed he once loved, "Kinomoto . . ." Hei-ying closed his eyes as he recalled the man's eyes, a deep warm amber, so kind and familiar, he had trusted Hei-ying entirely. "Kinomoto Fujitaka . . . died by Saurian, drowning . . ." he picked up the water-stained wallet and opened it; he looked at the credit cards and the small see-through pocket. There was a picture, with Fujitaka and two people he knew now were his children . . .
"Why do you ask?"
"Curious, merely curious about you."
"I have only a small family, my daughter and my son . . . they are . . ." Fujitaka looked away again, slightly ashamed, "they are younger than you by a few years . . ."
Hei-ying smiled as Clow's second reincarnation blushed slightly. Fujitaka was a professor, and Hei-ying, despite being well over six hundred years old, was attending Fujitaka's classes like a normal eighteen-year-old boy. He was hidden in his false form, his true form being far too conspicuous with his supernatural jade eye, shiny black hair, and huge dragon wings. Instead he hide behind a weak looking, pale boy with the same powerful jade eyes as his true form. He looked almost exactly like his younger brother's false form Tsukishiro Yukito, and as an act of irony he took the same name . . .
"I have a small family too . . ." Hei-ying glanced at Fujitaka to see if his words reminded the reincarnation of his past life, "two younger brothers . . ."
"Really?" Fujitaka smiled, "and your parents?"
"My father died a long time ago, I have no mother . . ." Fujitaka seemed surprised by the bluntness of the statement, but it was true . . . Hei-ying's creator was Clow Reed, he was dead, and that also meant Hei-ying had no mother.
"I'm sorry." Fujitaka slid off the wall and stood in front of him, "you must take care of your brothers alone?"
Hei-ying shook his head, "I don't know where they are . . . I'm trying to find them . . ."
Later that night Hei-ying led Fujitaka to his death . . . in the moon shrine of Tomoeda.
"You seem very deep in thought Kinomoto-sensei . . ." Tsukishiro remarked.
Fujitaka smiled at him, the boy was always so formal. Grabbing Tsukishiro's hand, Fujitaka paused. "Please call me Fujitaka . . .?"
The jade eye boy blushed under his deep brown hair, Fujitaka blinked, it was even in the same style as Yukito's, he frowned slightly, there was something odd about this . . .
"Only . . ." Tsukishiro started, then looked up suddenly, he glanced at a nearby pond. "Come with me?"
Fujitaka allowed himself to be pulled over to the water's edge, as they knelt, Tsukishiro clasped Fujitaka's hands and smiled, "only if you call me Yukito."
"Eh-?" Fujitaka looked at him, "Tsukishiro Yukito? . . . But your name on the register . . ."
"Hai!" Tsukishiro blushed slightly, "It's my middle name, I don't allow many to use my first name, 'Yukito'" He chuckled at some old memory, "It was a gift to me . . ."
Fujitaka was shocked, and tried hard not to show Tsukishiro this, "My son has a . . . friend called the exact same thing . . ."
The smile on Yukito's face grew slightly, "Does he really? Good . . ." He leaned over the water, and whispered to his reflection. "That makes my job so much easier."
Fujitaka leant over the water, and gasped. The reflection wasn't his own; it wasn't even a night in the reflection, with a bright blue sky above him, a strange man looked back at Fujitaka. He laughed as Fujitaka sat up suddenly.
"What is that?"
Yukito looked at him, "His name was Clow Reed . . . I loved him so very much . . ."
"You loved him?" Fujitaka glanced at the water, "Who are you?"
"Look into the water . . . and you will find out . . ."
Fujitaka leaned towards the water, there was something moving under the surface. "What is that?" When Yukito didn't answer, he looked up. The wide-eyed, brown haired boy had been replaced by a Dragon-winged humanoid, with jet-black hair.
Fujitaka gasped as some of his previous life's memory pushed it's way forward with alarm and panic. "Hei-ying!"
"Hello Clow . . ." Hei-ying's single jade eye was bright with happiness as he started to reach forward, to press his cold, pale hand against Fujitaka's cheek. "I love you . . ."
Fujitaka didn't have enough time to draw a second breath as something scaly wrapped around his neck, and dragged him into the pond. Hei-ying stood and stepped over the water, he watched as the sun guardian of his new Mistress held Fujitaka down. Fujitaka's eyes were wide as he struggled hard to get loose, bubbles of air and streams of blood starting to leak out of his mouth as the Dragon tightened his grip on his chest. Hei-ying closed his deep jade eye as he saw Fujitaka finally give up. The Dragon raised itself out of the water, "Such a feeble man . . ." It growled, "Humans are disgustingly pitiful . . ."
Hei-ying nodded as he walked back to the water bank, the Dragon held Fujitaka under the water until it had fully left the water and stood beside Hei-ying. Fujitaka's lifeless body floated on the surface of the pond, "Mistress . . .?" The Dragon called out, "He's dead."
The Mistress reappeared, nearby and stepped towards her new moon guardian, "Well done . . . Now, there is only one more to go . . . and then my foolish past life's decision will be revoked . . ." She stood near the pond, expecting something to happen. The Dragon and Hei-ying exchanged a look, before she turned, "Nothing is happening! Why hasn't this reincarnation's power come to me?" She spat at the floating body; "Of course! Clow Reed must have made sure that his powers travelled to the nearest relative! How *kind* of him!"
"He mentioned he had a son . . . Perhaps his power has gone to him . . ." Hei-ying suggested softly; he couldn't take his eyes off the body of Fujitaka. He suddenly felt an emotion he had never felt before, he didn't like the fact he had just led Fujitaka to his death. He didn't like the idea that he had just taken the life of one of Clow's reincarnations. Fujitaka had been a kind man, Hei-ying had felt this, and was completely honest with his attempts to help Fujitaka. The way Fujitaka looked at Hei-ying when he completed a difficult task was the same way Clow used to look at him. Hei-ying felt the emotion roll slightly in his heart, as he reached into the water and fished out the dead man's wallet.
"We must seek out the other and this one's son." His new Mistress walked over to him, "What are you doing?"
Hei-ying turned the soaked wallet in his hands, "I don't think I killed the right one . . ."
Four years and many deaths later, Hei-ying still stared at the picture, wishing he hadn't killed Clow's second reincarnation. It was the first time he had felt any . . . remorse? Guilt? Something about killing, since then every death he caused made him feel . . . something he couldn't ignore. It began to disturb him that every time he prepared someone for Saurian, or to kill by his own hand, he had began to see Yue . . . he blinked, and put the picture away hastily, and reassured himself of his feeling, he was ready to kill Yue, and Keroberos . . .// for this *hell* they have left me to!// he scowled out the window, but a few seconds later his brow eased, //There was no doubt, there was no doubt at all!// he growled, as a mockingly small voice whispered, //there is and you know it.//
This was how it had been, for the last sixty or so years . . . Hei-ying had started to drift from insane to sane, but was pulled back again by his obsessive hatred of his other brothers. He closed his eye and pressed his forehead against the cool glass, thinking about his 'condition'.
Hei-ying, when truly angered, was insane . . . he could make sense of everything this way, sense of why Clow rejected him, //because Yue corrupted him!// why Clow had sealed him away, //Yue. . . Yue . . .// why he had to kill Yue now, //Yue!//. However, his reinstatement to existence by his new mistress had brought discord to his version of stability. Truth be told, he had found sanity . . . or at least had a taste of it when Clow was sealing him, he knew why Clow was sealing him . . . //I tried to kill them . . .// knew why Clow had chosen Yue over him . . . //I'm an unstable creation, corrupted and doomed to die or kill those who try to assist me . . .//
That understanding remained with him as he slept in his card form, subconsciously being digested by his broken mind and soul. He was aware that the process was almost complete, that had he continued to exist like this for a little while longer, he might actually stay on the sane side, but instead . . . he looked up as his new mistress entered the room. She had awoken him, leaving him halfway between sanity and the black hatred that boiled away in his mind; she knew this and let it fester. She had awoken him a few months after she had created Saurian, and had found his book.
This was sixty-four years ago . . . six decades of this schizophrenic hell for Hei-ying.
She smirked at him and walked over to her, what was formally Clow's, favourite desk. She let his hatred for Keroberos and Yue fester, to grow stronger and stronger . . . comparing his fighting abilities to the guardian beast . . . and his prowess in bed to Yue. He glared at her, she knew he hated her as well, the part of him that could understand what she was doing, aiming for, all of it was wrong . . . that part hated her with a passion stronger than what he felt for Yue.
But the part that loved her . . . she smiled mockingly and motioned him close, he let his book slide from his lap, and attended her promptly . . . that part was as black and twisted, desperate for the love that Clow had once bestowed on him, willing to do anything, kill anyone for just her undivided attention . . .
Hei-ying closed his jade eye against her steeling black gaze as he rammed into her over and over, loving her and hating her for wanting him like this. As she groaned and completed her way, he withdrew, any pleasure he might have derived disappearing rapidly. He pulled his robe's leggings up quickly and bowed to her.
He returned to his room in silence, stepping past Saurian's room. The dragon liked to keep things from his victims too, and the room reeked of decaying flesh, dried blood, and bones that had been picked clean of what little muscle that clung to it. The dragon snored loudly, occasionally burning the ceiling with stray plumes of fire. Hei-ying's eye fell on a head that lay on it's side staring at him. Even a week after her death, Saurian kept Kaho's head, her skin blackened and blistered, just a few clumps of hair clung stubbornly to her otherwise bald head. Her eye sockets empty and staring, Saurian had enjoyed her.
"She has good taste in wine . . ." he enthused to Hei-ying as he offered a chunk of the woman's abdomen to him. The dragon had laughed at him as Hei-ying glared at him, //disgusting bastard.//.
Hei-ying shook his head and stepped lightly into the room, he lifted his foot and drove it through her skull. He turned away from the ruined skull, feeling like he had done her a service. The woman had been subject to Saurian's favourite method of cooking, his fire was far in the excess of a hundred and seventy degrees, and thus to the human body (being made up of seventy five percent of water) his fire was enough to boil the average human in their own water and fat deposits. Saurian's taste for human flesh often made their job easier, made police enquiries less frequent as the people they took were more likely to be reported missing, or in the case of the magic people, never reported at all . . . every one . . . except for Fujitaka. Hei-ying looked at his book again and continued to his own tidy, clean and orderly room.
Hei-ying picked up the small picture and peered at it despite the poor candlelight, Fujitaka stood behind a little girl, and a tall dark haired boy smiled with them. Fujitaka, and his children. They smiled to the camera, taken by someone with great care and love; the girl was the Card Mistress . . . his eye narrowed as they fell on the small winged toy in her hands.
It was Keroberos' false form.
Fujitaka, reincarnation of Clow Reed, and his daughter, card mistress of the Clow cards, Hei-ying rolled onto his stomach and stared at the tall boy. He looked more like Clow than his father; his features were just a little darker than Clow's, but the eyes . . .
You are Clow . . . Hei-ying murmured as he touched the water wrinkled picture, you should be Clow reborn . . . he turned the small picture over, Fujitaka's handwriting was still clear, even though the ink had run a little.
Kinomoto Fujitaka, Kinomoto Touya, Kinomoto Sakura and Kinomoto Kero ~ Sakura-chan's favourite teddy bear!
Hei-ying smiled; so when this photo had been taken, Fujitaka had been unaware of the true nature of Keroberos. "Probably unaware of the true nature of his soul . . ." he murmured, as he ran his fingers over the two men again, "Touya . . ." he whispered, trying the name out for practice. Mystrasa had ordered him to worm his way into the son's life as he had Fujitaka, pose as an ever eager lover and drive him away from Yue's false form, //divide and conquer . . . their unity is our enemy, but their love their weakness . . . turn them upon one another . . .//
After a little while, he put the picture back into the wallet gently, careful not to damage it. He closed his book, and slipped it into his small drawer of things. He sat on the bed and pulled out one treasured item he never kept in his book. It had been coiled in his pockets when he was sealed, and now he was free he kept it close. It was a plait from Yue's hair, Hei-ying used to have one, exactly the same; it fell over his shoulder, tightly banded with his favourite jade green ribbons. Yue's was the same, but unlike his brother Yue had had perfectly white hair, his ties were always purple.
Hei-ying had taken it from Yue, and given Yue's his on the day of his sealing. They had exchanged the hair with a pact between them. Hei-ying clutched the plait as he lay back and tilted his head to stare out the window. The moonlight silent as it filled his room. "I wonder . . . do you remember me, Yue?"
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And Now It's Time For Leave It To Doctor Megalomania!!!
Clow: Told you so . . .
DrM: Ahem, I issue the following apology . . . in case anyone was unprepared for the last chapter . . . I'm really sorry, I didn't think it would be that . . . bloody, if anyone really feels I didn't put enough warning up, erm . . . it's kinda tough, I'm not taking it down and rewriting it because Carolyn is a character, a figment of my imagination but her death will have an effect on some of this story. I do remind people that this story is R-rated, and is also in the Angst/Horror genre.
Yue: You got some good reviews too . . . and Bluegoo thinks it's okay!
DrM: [nods] Yeah but still . . . I do warn people now, there will be a bit more death in this fic, I can't tell you who, but if it makes people happy . . . no matter what Eriol will make it through.
Eriol: YAY!!
Everyone else: Hey . . . what about the rest of us?!
DrM: If I tell you that now, the suspense and the tension and frankly any impact it would have on anyone would be ruined! [Turns to readers] and to Dark Ice Angel [Go read DI.Angel's fics!!] ahem, Saurian, wussy guppy that he is, has issued this statement: I'll take you on. . . you great big pansy. But not now because . . . I'm . . . having my hair done . . . don't print all the pauses in that, make it sound like I'm talking flowingly . . . DrM, you can stop taking the dictation now . . . I said stop! Sto----
Clow: [shakes head] so. . . where's Sakura?
Sakura: here I am!
Clow: I mean the fic.
DrM: Oh, next chapter, which I'll probably put up with this one, if not, expect it soon! . . . seriously, this is probably going to be as long as Tainted Soul. If this is a real problem, then read the five minute after the fic's done . . . anyway, I'm done rambling and babbling now. . . please R&R!!