Between Hope and Death

By: ChocolateEclar

Disclaimer: Some characters belong to the magnificent authoress, Diana Wynne Jones. I just borrowed them for a while.

Claimer: I only own Wyn, Aidan, Kamania and Chris Aprilian, Lady Kachioin (and her village), Miss Coca, Mr. Calypso, Professor Weph, Life, Death, Apocalypse, Rhys, and Heulo (aka 'the Sun Spirit of All Knowledge.')

To ness: Kamania "silently yelling" in chap. 13 is somewhat of an oxymoron, isn't it? ^_^ Oh well. As for your question about does 'Kammy' care about the marriage, to be honest I'm not sure yet.

Thanks for reviewing! Reviews are one of my ultimate inspirations.

A/N: The climax is approaching…

Chapter 15: In Which a Bond is Strengthened

Rhys glared at the rays of dawn that was streaming threw his window. He had found it impossible to fall back to sleep after the nightmare and now his eyes were drooping with fatigue. He couldn't bring himself to even try to sleep for fear of what lay in his subconscious. The true form of the Goddess Apocalypse was in the oblivion waiting for him to just dose and then she would have him…

Rhys shook that thought away irately and dragged himself out of bed. He walked as silently as he could down the stairs and into the bathroom. It was spotless from a 'syndrome' Howl liked to call 'Sophie's compulsive cleanliness.'  Rhys washed his face in the sink and examined it in the mirror, as much as his height could allow him to see that is. His face was a little weary looking with deep circles beneath his eyes and a strained appearance to his mouth. His eyes were a dazzling emerald color that seemed to radiant some of his alarmed emotions and he soon turned away and walked back into the main room.

Calcifer was half asleep in the grate glancing at him with his eyes semi closed. "What are you doing up?" he muttered drowsily.

Rhys sat in the armchair in front of the fireplace and replied, "I had a nightmare."

"Want to talk about it?" asked Calcifer curiously.

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Rhys walked to school later that day feeling a lot better. Calcifer had listened to him and when he was finished, the fire demon had asked minimal questions and had said several things that had cheered the boy up a bit.

He sighed and looked critically at the itchy school uniform he had to wear. It consisted of a pair of black pants, a white button-down shirt, and over the shirt he was forced to wear an unsightly gray vest and a black tie. He smiled when he reached the school though. Here was where everyone had to wear this kind of clothing and where magic was made. He was a third year student now and quite the little artist and wizard. He had realized that his strong points were doodling in art and transforming in magic and he used those skills as often as possible.

He walked up the marble steps, following the crowd of children, and into the building. All his thoughts turned to school and as far away from Apocalypse as possible. 'Maybe this day will be okay after all,' he thought but Rhys almost immediately realized they were more than his own thoughts. Part of them was Heulo's, but a majority was his own. Rhys shifted his own thoughts and turned to the Sun Spirit himself, who was sitting in his usual spot in Rhys's 'head.'

Heulo gazed at him critically and said simply, 'Naturally we're becoming quite alike.'

Rhys nodded slowly understandably and asked, 'Why is that?'

'Rhys, when I was a star I had two choices: either eventually become a falling star and die or become a Sun Spirit and get half your 'soul' removed. In some cases a star was willing to become a fire demon by making a deal with a wizard, but that's an extremely rare case and about the only good thing about choosing to be a falling star,' explained Heulo. (A/N: I know a falling, or shooting, star is really a meteor, but go with it! ^_^ Sorry, I just had to make that point.)

'Is that what Wyn was talking about when she told me where Calcifer came from a while ago?' Rhys inquired.

'Indeed. Calcifer is one of the rare cases,' continued Heulo, 'I, on the other hand, decided to become a Sun Spirit. It was risky and it was somewhat painful, I'll admit.'

'And I was what was removed from you?'

'Exactly. You were born as what I wanted to become.'

'What do you what to become?' asked Rhys.

'Human. I wanted to become human so badly,' replied Heulo in a sort of sad pinched way.

'But why?'

'Just see for yourself. I was all alone. Thousands of miles from any other star and so bored!' answered Heulo in an almost childlike manner.

'Was it worth it?' Rhys asked softly.

'At first I wasn't so sure, but now I know it was okay as long as I get what I wanted.'

'What will happen when we're together again?'

'We'll be very different than we were originally, that's for sure. With all I've seen and all you're experienced as a human being, we'll be totally different. Neither of us will lose anything, we'll just both know the same things.'

' That's weird. Anyway, we'll talk later. I gotta get to my watercolor painting lesson!' said Rhys.

'All right, I'll be here if you need help on that 'Oceans and Continents test.' I've been to all the continents after all,' said Heulo laughingly.

'I can do it all by myself!' Rhys protested.

'I know. You've been seeping information out of my mind. You already know who Napoleon is and he isn't even in this world!' Heulo accused.

'It was an accident!'

'Its not a bad thing, Rhys. We should be sharing each other's knowledge so we become similar enough to become whole faster,' said Heulo.

'Oh okay. Can you show me one of my Dad's 'words of power' then?' Rhys asked innocently.  (A/N 2: Sorry to interrupt again, but if you've forgotten, at the end of HMC Mrs. Fairfax called Howl's 'words/thunder thing' 'words of power.' Hehe. That was just another little fact I wanted to point out.)

'Not a chance, squirt,' Heulo replied amusedly.

'Awww…'

'You'd better get to class or you'll be late…' pointed out Heulo.

Rhys scowled and ran to his classroom all the while feeling as if he himself in Heulo's position would have done the same things as him. They really were losing their separate identities.

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A young looking woman with rich silvery gray hair stood within a hall of mirrors. She was indeed the picturesque form of Apocalypse with her unlimited beauty and grace. The mirrors were all reflecting the ancient true form of the Goddess, the one that haunted Rhys's dreams, but as she approached one of the mirrors the image faded and two figures appeared instead. They looked a great deal alike with dark hair and emerald eyes. It was a strange view of Rhys and Heulo side-by-side in a dark abyss.

"Without even one member of the Trilogy of the Last Hope my victory is sealed," she said out loud, "The simplest way of doing this would to separate these two parts…"

The Deity turned around causing the mirror to fade and change to an image of a pitch-black area with nothing in it except one pinprick of light. The light throbbed with a power identical to the thread binding Rhys and Heulo together. Apocalypse looked back at the image with distaste. "Of course it would be Life who offered that particular star a deal…" she accused. And with that she left the mirrored hall and all the reflections of the creature faded away with her.

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A few weeks afterwords, Heulo, or more precisely Heulo-Rhys for they were becoming so similar there nearly was no distinction between the two, stood with Rhys in the boy's 'head.' Rhys-Heulo was gazing at the snow-white floor absently when Heulo-Rhys accused, 'You're doing it again.'

'What?!' asked Rhys-Heulo.

'You're ignoring the problem with your plan.'

'And that would be…'

'The fact that if we get unwanted attention from Apocalypse without being properly whole we're dead meat!' said Heulo-Rhys.

'Urgh! Stop doing that!'

'What?!'

'That! You're always right!' Rhys-Heulo blamed.

'I'm glad you can tell considering I am you, squirt!'

'Don't call me that! You're right and that means if I'm a squirt, you are too!' retorted Rhys-Heulo.

'You forget I may be you, but you're not totally me yet.'

'That made absolutely no sense!' pointed out the younger of the two parts laughingly.

'I know!'

Both the part that was more Rhys and the part that was more Heulo laughed at that. There had been a time in which there was always a way of telling the difference between them, but now the only difference was Rhys was trying to come up with lame-brain plans to stop Apocalypse sooner and Heulo was calling them all either dumb and/or they could get them both killed. In astral form the two were the same height now and the only differentiation in appearance was Heulo had sort of a golden light behind his green eyes that seemed to be a reminder that he was still a Sun Spirit.

Both of them could 'feel' Apocalypse drawing closely and the fact was not only weighting them down, but also unknowingly weighing Wyn and Morgan down. Heulo-Rhys could tell Morgan was definitely the other member of the Trilogy of the Last Hope and he told this to Rhys-Heulo.

'Mor does fit the whole Pegasus Emperor role…' observed Rhys-Heulo.

'Indeed he does…He's hotheaded and can be a master at persuasion, just like the legend says…'

'Yep,' replied Rhys-Heulo plainly.

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As the time went by though, one day both of them noticed Kamania immediately. 'What's that woman doing back?!'

Rhys-Heulo only shrugged in reply. 'We might as well get rid of her,' he added.

Heulo-Rhys nodded and a spell showed itself in front of them in Rhys's 'head' in gold writing. 'Looks simple enough. I definitely like it!' Rhys-Heulo said as he examined the spell.

'Good 'cause I've been saving this charm for when the witch came back.' Rhys-Heulo and Heulo-Rhys recited the enchantment internally and let it loose when it was done.

Kamania who had been sneaking around Rhys's schoolyard looking for the possible Dragon Enchanter yelped at the sight of a supposed ten-foot phoenix only she could see bearing down on her. She ran as if the Maiden herself were after her and even jumped over the fence surrounding the area.

The 'phoenix' disappeared and the two parts burst out laughing in the 'head.' Even Rhys's body was shaking with suppressed amusement as he sat on one of the swings in the playground.

'Poor Kammy's afraid of a little red birdie,' mushed Heulo-Rhys.

Rhys-Heulo only chuckled some more in response. In the 'real' world the school bell rang signaling it was time to go back inside. Rhys's got up and walked among the other children while he said, 'Looks like I've gotta get to thinking about school, Heulo.'

'Fine,' replied Heulo-Rhys. And with that the two parts went about doing what they usually did.

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A/N: I've decided to give you a little info on what the next chapter's about:

In the next chapter of 'Between Hope and Death' bonds are severed between Heulo-Rhys and Rhys-Heulo at the hands of Apocalypse. Heulo-Rhys is 'thrown' into the 'nothingness' and Rhys-Heulo goes through a painful withdrawal at home. It seems they were almost whole again and the separation is ten times more terrible than it would have been originally… Find out what happens in the next chapter: In Which a Bond is Severed.

A/N 2: Doesn't that make you want me to write the next chapter? To be honest I haven't even started it yet, but I will soon…

A/N 3: Don't forget to review!!! Bye.

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='-'= *smile*(bunny)

A/N 4: Grrrrrrr! Darn thing won't upload properly! Several of the 'Heulo's' in this chapter are italicized but they didn't come up.! Oh well. -_-