Total Eclipse of the Heart: Part 2 – Return, Rebirth and Resurrection – Never count a man dead until you see the body.
By
Deborah (Kosagi) Brown

Skies of Arcadia and all associated characters are copyrighted to Overworks and Dreamcast. They just hang around my Gallery to cause trouble.

The hours pass to days, to weeks, to months. If nothing else, it's not as boring as it might be. Set amid my new owner's treasures, I watch a never ending parade of humans moving through his establishment.

It's odd. I would have thought these people more pathetic than anything else. Coming to this man, begging his help, with so little to offer in return. Yet he gives. Gives and gives without thought and exhausts himself in the giving. I watch him without real comprehension. It is a thankless job, or so it seems to me, yet I think – somehow – he is happy.

He talks to me often, not as a person with whom he shares his thoughts, but merely as a thing that is there to listen. As he talks, he polishes me, shining my surface to a brightness that I would were matched by my thoughts. My exterior is so very brilliant now, but no polishing in the world will ever wipe out the darkness at my heart.

I learn much of him, more than I would have wanted to know, when I'd had a body. He is of noble blood, one of those I despised once. Yet he wished to help those less well off than he. He became a healer for that reason. It explains his pleasure in his work, though not why he wants to do such a thing at all. Everything I had seen of humanity had taught me that kindness is never rewarded.

Yet he seems to consider the smallest things a reward. A child's smile, an easing of pain, a saving of lives, all give him a joy far beyond any more concrete incentive – such as gold or power – could offer. Somehow, he seems to feel these things worth far more because they are so fragile and ephermal.

I do not know if I believe him. I do not know if there is hope. Whether or not there is, though, I know one thing. His words are better company for me than my memories. Even if they didn't fascinate me they serve as distraction from my slow comprehension of all that I have endured, all that I have done. A distraction from my sins.

I listen to him. I would be forced to do so even if I did not wish to. There is something about the way he speaks, the stories he tells, that fascinate me. He is more than just a healer, his extensive education has given him an understanding of human behavior that I never gained and if that knowledge soured him for a while, he has come to a strange kind of serenity regarding what is worst in humans, a faith that – no matter how ugly and cruel some might be – it was possible to overcome and rise above the murk.

I had not thought humans capable of such. Had never seen them in this light, only at their worst. I had not thought they could care.

I had not thought they could love.

***

"I've received an invitation today." Ilchymis rubbed at the surface of the crystal, eliciting a rainbow in response. It had become habit, both sitting on his porch with the crystal in his hand in the late evening, watching the sunset, a book in his lap. A habit started during his years in a self-imposed exile, Ilchymis had learned that any human voice – even his own – was better than none. Admittedly, he could and did make friends now, could find company among his fellow Valuans, but as a healer, it was his duty to listen, to hear other people's troubles. Sometimes I wish there was someone to listen to me.

It was a silly conceit, of course, but he sometimes felt as if the crystal was listening. It was just a pretty little sphere of brightly shining crystal. Yet it seemed to respond to him on a level he couldn't quite understand. There was a mystery to it that he hoped, one day, to understand.

At first all it had ever done was glow, and that dimly. Somehow, though, his constant polishing had brightened the glow – though he still wasn't sure what to do with it. Now it was so bright that he could and did read by it, sitting with the crystal slung around his neck on a cord, its pale light gleaming on the page of his book. Not for the first time he wondered how it was the glare from its light did not dazzle his eyes. Yet it didn't.

Its responses to his conversation were what bemused him. Occasionally it would flicker as he talked, as if in reaction. Some flickers he interpreted as puzzlement. Some as amusement, particularly when he spoke of the jokes he tried to tell his patients to ease their fears. Sometimes, when he spoke of the Rains, of the destruction they'd caused, the light within the crystal would dim. He would have avoided the subject, but it seemed impossible, when there was so much damage to be repaired. So many lives broken.

"The Emperor and Empress desire your presence at the christening of their daughter, Belleza" he read aloud, smiling a bit foolishly. It was good though. The Empire needed this birth. Needed to feel that life was continuing. "We'll go. You and I. I'll have to find a suitable gift."

***

Vyse took a deep breath and winced at the way it strained his outfit. Dressed in a dark blue velvet coat, ruffles at his collar and his sleeves, he looked rather more like Gilder outfitted in blue than his usual prosaic self. Beside him, Aika, dressed in a gold silk gown not much less ruffled than his, her red hair allowed, for once, to fall around her shoulders in a more feminine style, sighed as well.

Only Fina, dressed in a similar gown to Aika's, only in silvery grey silk, seemed comfortable. Probably because she's used to that dress she used to wear, Vyse thought. It'd taken the Silvite girl some time before she had been comfortable enough to try wearing something suitable to a Blue Rogue, rather than the elegant little dress she'd once worn.

Both his ladies, though, were looking lovely, though Vyse wasn't quite comfortable with saying so. He still wasn't sure exactly how to deal with beautiful women, still much preferred the comforts of piloting his ship through the skies to cruising bars for dates the way his fellow Captain, Gilder, did. And when did Aika, tomboyish hellion Aika, turn into such a beauty?

"Well," Vyse said finally, noting the girls were looking at him and waiting, "I suppose we should go on in." He rubbed the back of his head, embarrassedly.

"Not until you tell us what you think," Aika said firmly. "How do we look?"

For the longest moment Vyse just took the image before him in. Aika, a burning flame beside the serene light of Fina's silvery beauty. They were a matched set, somehow, a pair he couldn't imagine separating. "You look beautiful. Both of you. Perfect," he said at last, somehow finding some measure of eloquence, somehow managing not to stumble over the words he meant from his heart.

"Good," Fina said, looking at Aika with a smile. "Shall we go?"

"Of course." Aika took Vyse's left arm while Fina took his right. Then they walked down the hall towards the ballroom.

Enrique's palace barely qualified as such, at least compared to the building that had once been his mother's palace. It was, however, much pleasanter to look at, for all it was built of the same black stone. The interior walls had been plastered white, with a Yafutoman look to it that was – no doubt – Moegi's influence. Kirala, Vyse's chief builder, was examining the effort with interest and Vyse suspected that some of the design elements might be showing up at Crescent Isle sometime in the near future.

As the Delphinus II's crew, led by Vyse and his two lieutenants, stepped into the grand hall, where men and women – all dressed in their finest clothing – mingled, a man dressed in a butler's outfit called out, "The crew of the Delphinus II. Captain Vyse, Aika, Fina" The names continued on for almost a full minute, giving the Valuan Emperor more than enough time to hurry up and greet his friends.

"Never mind that," Aika said, after giving Enrique another big hug. "We're here for the important thing. Where is she?"

With a chuckle, Enrique led Vyse, Aika and Fina to the back of the room, to a small chamber attached to the throne room. "I should have known," he said, smiling at Vyse over the girls' heads. "The father is of little import, in the presence of a newborn."

Moegi was rocking the baby, singing some soft Yafutoman lullaby, in a small room filled with brightly wrapped packages. Aika stared at the gifts with an acquisitive eye, only subsiding when her eyes lit on the baby. "Oooooh. She's so cute!"

As the girls hurried over to coo at the baby, Vyse and Enrique moved a bit more slowly. "It was a nice gesture," Vyse murmured, "Naming her for Belleza."

Enrique smiled sadly. "Yes, well, she did sacrifice herself for us. If she hadn't, Galcian would have escaped and the Moons know what might have happened." He reached out and stroked his baby's head gently, fingering the soft brown curls. Smiling at Moegi, he added, "But enough. There's no point in worrying over a future that didn't happen. Let us think instead of the future that is."

Vyse was about to answer when the door opened and a well-remembered figure entered the room, wearing a ivory robe, brown hair pulled back in a long pony tail, shy smile on his face. Ilchymis looked well, if tired. Still, Vyse thought the healer was happy. He was – at long last – doing what he had wanted most to do, serving the people of Valua and healing them.

A chirrup from Cupil caused Vyse to glance at Fina's pet. It was eyeing Ilchymis with an expression that Vyse recognized. The look of a Silver creature seeking a cham. Following the creature's gaze, Vyse spotted the thing slung around Ilchymis' neck, a sphere of gleaming pale crystal.

***

The new Valua is always something of a surprise, even after so many months here. I remember what this place was like before. Dark. Always and ever dark. Brightly lit on the one side by artificial lights, but still, in the end, dark and overbearing. This Valua has changed and for the better. The eternal cloud cover has lifted. Caused, perhaps, by the Rains I drew down on it?

Or could it have been the fall of the Silver Shrine? My own fall? Something I did as Zelos? The Moons might know the answer, but I do not. Nor do I care. I do not want to be here, would much prefer the quiet safety of Ilchymis' hut. Yet he has brought me here, here where she will be. Where she may recognize the Crystal he wears and fear it and me.

Choice, however, is not something vouchsafed me. I lost all hope of choices from the moment I left the Silver Shrine. From the moment I accepted Elder Prime's command that I retrieve the Crystals. From the moment I fought Galcian and, in losing, allowed myself to be captured rather than die with my secrets.

I barely notice being carried through the palace. Barely notice his welcome in the grand ball room. Barely notice his being led into a smaller room. Barely notice those within the room. All I do notice is the presence of a Silver creature. Cupil. I had forgotten him.

Instinctively, I call him to me.

***

Cupil's sudden rush at Ilchymis, or rather at what the Valuan healer wore, was unexpected, but Vyse, recognizing the crystal, feared what might happen if Fina's pet did swallow the thing. He dashed forward, snatching the brightly glowing gemstone from Ilchymis' neck and clutching it in his fist while Cupil circled him, whining unhappily.

"Vyse? Whatever are you doing?"

"I'll explain later, Ilchymis. You don't want Cupil eating it, do you?" Vyse managed a grin, pushing Cupil back and away from him. "Fina, call him off, please."

"But I don't understand" the Silvite girl protested.

"It's It's a big cham. The biggest one I've ever seen," Vyse explained. He couldn't tell her what he thought it really was. Though how? How could it have gotten here? I gave him to the skies Maybe it's not his? Some other Silvite's? Some instinct, though, told him otherwise. In his hand the Crystal flickered, as if angry or frustrated.

Ilchymis frowned. "A cham? Really?" His fascination was obvious. "It was such a beautiful stone, I just couldn't resist it. I thought it had power, though I could never work out how to access it." He sighed. "I'm fond of it, but if it will help you, Fina" His expression showed how little he really wanted to make the offer.

"No!" Vyse and Enrique glanced at each other, and Vyse knew Enrique shared his fear. If it was Ramirez' crystal. If Cupil's eating it would transform Fina's pet to Ramirez, then it had to be prevented. At least until they could be sure they weren't simply unleashing horror upon the world again. "Fina This one might have a problem. We have to"

What they had to do was forgotten as an explosion rocked the building.

***

Dark eyes narrowing angrily, Ilchymis moved to a position near Moegi and the baby. No one was going to hurt them. Not while he lived. He had come to love and respect his Emperor's family, as he had never respected anyone else in this world before. He would stand by them, no matter what.

Glancing Vyse's way, he saw the Blue Rogue headed out the door, rushing into danger with Aika and Fina close behind. It was strange, but he seemed to sense distress from his crystal as Vyse clutched it in his fist. Its glow was visible between the young pirate's fingers, a flashing, angry, glow that seemed to demand something.

He glanced at Enrique, who was helping Moegi stand. "We have to get out of here."

***

Squeezed in Vyse's grip, I long to laugh in frustration. The Moons truly are mocking me. A moment of hope, to be dashed away. He knows what I am. Somehow he knows what would happen if Cupil were to swallow me. Carel was sacrificed to my second life that way, just as I sacrificed myself to Zelos. It is not fair. I could live again. Could be

Could be what? Ramirez again? And what would I do? Where could I go? After what I have done every man's hand would be turned against me. Even Ilchymis would hate me, I think, hate the cruelty that I have aided. I have heard him murmur against myself and Galcian in the darkness, after a long day healing the damage that the two of us had caused. I have no right to live again. No right at all. I was a fool to even try.

The sound of the explosion confuses me, forces me to pay attention to what's happening, instead of my own dark thoughts. I can feel Vyse's motion. He's running, heading towards the source of the noise. As he always does, facing down the enemy with insistent courage.

I can hear screaming, people running. People fighting. Death is near.

***

Vyse ran into the ballroom and stared at the thing thundering through the crowd. It looked like Alphonso's great beast, Antonio, the biggest version yet. On its back, laughing wildly, was Alphonso, one eye gone, the side of his face replaced by metal and a glowing red eye. One arm was gone as well, replaced by a mechanical arm that fired off shots of lunar energy.

Those of the court not skilled at fighting were getting out of the way. The rest, including Vyse's crew, were busily blocking the path of the men who had once formed Galcian and Ramirez's elite guard, the Shadows. His crew were holding fast, but it was a tough battle, the more so because they had to avoid being blasted by Antonio III at the same time.

Vyse glanced back into the small room, noting the other exit. "Enrique, get Moegi and the baby to safety. I'll stay here and deal with this problem."

Before Enrique could say anything, though, the other exit burst open and more Shadows poured in. Enrique grabbed Moegi, putting her and the baby in the middle of the group, even as Aika and Fina took up guard positions. Beside Moegi, Ilchymis looked coldly determined.

"Change of plan. We all get out of here. Back into the ballroom and head for another exit," Vyse ordered, taking point as the group headed through the doorway. "CREW!" he yelled. "Get everyone to safety! Never mind that big lump!" He wished – not for the first time – that Lawrence hadn't left the crew six months earlier. The mercenary pilot was an exquisite swordsman and while the rest of the crew were good fighters, Lawrence had been among the best.

Never mind that. We have to get out of here. He could feel the gem in his fist pulsing, as if its former Self was aware of the battle and excited by it. This wasn't the time to find out, though. Not when he couldn't be sure Ramirez would be an ally. Not when it was almost certain, considering his past, that Ramirez would not be. He and the small group around him were slowly working their way to a doorway, to escape.

Then the door opened and a well remembered and much hated figure stepped through.

Galcian.

***

The battle that rages around me would be less irritating if I was doing more than just hearing it. Clenched in Vyse's hand, I long for a mouth, if only to bite him. I want out of this shell. I want to do something. More of the torture that seems to be my fate. There is nothing I hate worse than being ineffectual. Nothing I loathe more than helplessness, especially when that helplessness is my own.

"GALCIAN!?"

Vyse's voice, choked with anger and fear causes my own frustration to wash away. He is here? To find me? To use me again? Or is that just ego talking? He has no reason to know what happened to me. More, he could have gained me more simply by taking me from Ilchymis.

The sounds of screams follow Vyse's gasp. If it is not Galcian calling down power, then it is a damned good imitation. I know the spell he casts and know too that it is near impossible to stand up to. He nearly killed me with it, the first time I met him. I hear screams as he calls down power. Hear his voice whispering the words, "Total Annihilation."

I hear Cupil screech. The sound of something striking the ground. "Begone you insect!" The voice is Galcian's for certain and I feel myself dropping. Oh good. More falling. This is shorter, though. A couple of feet at most. Vyse is lying, stunned, on the ground. He isn't dead. From between his fingers I can see his eyes, his struggle to find his feet again. I can see Galcian too, see him kneel beside a figure dressed in silver silk. Fina! He picks her up, glances disdainfully at his enemies. "Destroy them," he orders, then turns and heads out the door with my sister.

If I had a voice I would scream.

***

Vyse groaned, struggling to regain his feet and failing. Around him, his crew were falling, too busy trying to deal with the Shadows and with Antonio to be able to help him. Aika was out cold, Enrique bent over an unconscious wife and screaming baby, Ilchymis unmoving nearby. He and Moegi must have blocked the spell, kept it from harming Belleza. He only prayed they didn't pay for their courage with their lives. To one side he saw Cupil lying, stunned, on the ground.

Somehow he managed to rise. He was so tired. He should have been better prepared. He could cast Sacrulen. Might even manage to finish the spell before the Shadows finished him. He had to.

In his hand, the gemstone he was certain to be Ramirez' Silver Moon Crystal glowed ferociously, as if something inside it were trying to get out. He had to ignore that, though, in favor of getting himself upright again. Then the others, as fast as he could.

The spell went off barely in time, as one of the Shadows buried a blade in his belly. From near unconsciousness to full strength and back down again. He lay still, pretending death, fighting agony, trying to decide what to do. He was the only one able to act, the only one left able to move, though the pain made him wish he couldn't.

No. Not the only one. Not if I dare trust him. He glanced sideways, noted that his attacker had turned to deal with one of his crew, and threw the crystal he carried towards Cupil. "Cupil. Wake up. Din din time."

The Silver creature wriggled, moving slowly, seeming to become aware of the massive power that lay within its reach. Then his eyes snapped open and a psuedopod reached out, grabbing the crystal and pulling it into his mouth.

***

This is not the first time I have been reborn, but it is the first time that I am aware of the process. The first time I feel exactly what is happening. My Crystal finds its way into the center of the Silver creature and its power combines with Cupil's lifeforce, intertwining.

It is a pain like nothing else and I fight it even as I welcome it. Agony fills me as flesh is reshaped and reformed. How many lives have I been given this way? My Crystal, a tiny shard off of Elder Prime's, just as Fina's was from the one female Elder. The only children the Silvites could ever have, formed from their life force and the substance of Cupil's kind. The only way to save a race gone sterile.

My previous rebirths had always followed closely on my previous deaths. Memory had been lost, wiped away by the trauma of dying and being reborn. Never before had I been contained for so long within my Crystal, able to view my other lives and know and see and – dear sweet Moons – remember.

Remember and understand. Remember and hate.

***

Vyse groaned as Cupil's body reshaped itself. A familiar form was rising out of the twisting shape of Fina's pet. A shape of a man. Pale haired, emerald eyed. A face Vyse knew only too well, with an expression that boded ill for anyone fool enough to stand in its owner's path.

He'd be even more impressive if he weren't naked, Vyse found himself thinking and fought back hysterical laughter. If nothing else, the sudden appearance of one of their leaders seemed to take the Shadows aback, giving Vyse time to work another Sacrulen on himself and prepare a Riselem for Aika. Enrique was doing the same for Moegi and it seemed the Yafutoman girl was beginning to recover.

"Master? You have returned?"

Ramirez was silent, emerald eyes on staring down at the floor, ignoring the Shadow. Further back, Antonio III and Alphonso were still wreaking havoc on those Blue Rogues and guests fool enough to get within their reach. The man hadn't noticed what was happening at the other end of the throne room.

"Master?"

A pale hand stretched out and a sword formed within its grip, extruded from the palm. The other hand rose, covered its owner's face momentarily and the world wavered.

"Where there is light there is darkness"

Ramirez' soft voice echoed through the room, somehow freezing the action in its tracks. Power flowed, a power Vyse knew only too well. Wrong. I was wrong. What a mistake. My last one. The world will not thank me for my stupidity.

"sword of the dark moon."

Darkness gathered around the room, as a stark naked Ramirez cast Silver Eclipse and blew the Shadows away.

***

My new body is trembling with effort. Too much, too quickly – I am thoroughly drained. The rebirth ought not be followed so soon with a spell of such power. The worst of it is, I cannot consider my job done. That monstrous thing, Alphonso's toy, is headed my way now and I have to face it.

Howls of laughter assault my ears. Alphonso, pushed entirely past the edge of sanity now by all his failures. Like me, a victim of his own ego. Unlike me, however, unable to comprehend it. Unable to accept it.

"Ramirez! You took all from me. I will take all from you in turn!" Alphonso's screams are hysterical. "Look at you, naked and alone. No one to aid you. No one to succor you. Not one here who would stand to your side and call you ally! I will slay you and crush your remnants beneath my Antonio's feet!"

I look up at him and say nothing. There is nothing to say. I do not plead for life. Do not debase myself before my enemy. Even naked and bereft of all but my pride.

Voices speak behind me, their words muddled and confused. I know the power rising there, though, have been at the center of the maelstrom before. So, I will be attacked by them, as well as by Antonio. Let it be, then. I have earned their hatred and if I must fall, I think I prefer to fall to their hands than to that weakling.

I turn, watch the three drawing their power together and wait for them to kill me.

***

The blast of power struck past Ramirez and Vyse caught a glimpse of green eyes as Pirate's Wrath carried him along, their expression shocked. Beside him, Enrique's Judgment and Aika's Omega Cyclone struck the newest Antonio head on.

It was just barely enough. Vyse landed and drew a breath, watching Alphonso try to run, try to escape. Vyse's crew were opposed to that escape, though, and they blocked him. "Tie him up," Vyse ordered. "We'll need to question him on where Galcian may have taken Fina."

Turning to Enrique, he glanced over at Moegi and saw her cradling her sobbing daughter in her arms. "Thank the Moons," he said softly. "I'm glad they're all right."

"Moegi and Ilchymis blocked the spell," Enrique said. His eyes were pained. "Ilchymis I don't think he's going make it. Not even Riselem is reaching him."

Ramirez interrupted. "No." There was a world of pain in that voice.

Vyse, turning, saw the Silvite's green eyes on him. "He's alive. He cannot be dead." He moved, stumbled and nearly fell but for Vyse's arm beneath his elbow. Aika on the other side. "Take me to him." The voice was commanding, the voice of the warrior. The voice of their enemy. Yet, somehow, the two Blue Rogues found themselves obeying.

Ramirez looked at Ilchymis, slumped against the wall and Vyse saw determination in the Silvite's eyes. His hands stretched out, sword slicing the air in front of him in an elaborate sigil. "No darkness is eternal," he whispered, "Silver Resurrection." Pale fire flowed, swirling around the sword and curling around Ilchymis' still form.

The slender body quivered, dark eyes opened and Ilchymis stared around, expression confused. "What what happened?"

Before Vyse could say anything, Ramirez collapsed.

To Be Continued

Author's notes:

Zelda: Hmmm. Creepy. Not quite the way I would have expected the story described. grin But I'll take what I can get.

Nathan: Yep, reviews do help convince one to write. I'm glad you're hanging in with Silver Skies. It's looking intriguing. Oh, and don't worry – I have no plans on making Vyse gay. In fact you may be able to tell where the shonen ai element is headed by now.