Yuri looked around blindly. He started to walk forward, his footsteps swallowed by the darkness. A cold wind blew through his hair and he shivered.

"Oh, look at the Harmonixer. He's all alone," a voice taunted. Yuri didn't turn around, didn't want to give the voice the satisfaction of knowing that it had startled him.

"He's all alone. Eaten by the darkness," a mournful voice called. Yuri ignored the voice and continued to walk forward. He didn't know what he was searching for, only that to stop was to die.

"Every thing is born alone and will die alone. It is pointless to rage against the dying of the light."

"Whether you scream your name into the world or shrink into the shadows, you will fade into the darkness."

"Sanity is a thin line, Harmonixer, the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and all is gone. Why not give up the struggle now?"

The voices dissolved into a cacophonous babble, the words slurring together to form meaningless sounds. Yuri clapped his hands over his ears, trying uselessly to drown out the noise.

"Shut up!" a shrill voice screamed, cutting through the voices like a scalpel. It took Yuri a minute to realise that the voice was his own. He dragged his hands down by his sides, hands clamped into fists as he stared wide-eyed into the darkness.

"Bravo," a familiar voice commented from behind him, clapping his hands in mock admiration. Yuri turned around slowly.

"Hello," he replied coldly. "Who the hell are you, really?" The man looked shocked, or at least as shocked as you can be while wearing a fox mask.

"Don't recognise your own father? Ungrateful wretch. I can't believe that I wasted my time on you. I should have drowned you at birth," the man replied nonchalently. Yuri turned his back on the man and started to walk away.

"If you're my father, why didn't I like you going away every year?" he tossed over his shoulder.

"Because it meant that your mother would be left alone," was the immediate reply. Yuri stopped and whirled around.

"How do you know that?" he whispered. The man shrugged.

"I remember the conversation. You were about ten," he replied. "You lied to me then. You didn't want me to leave you. Scared of your shadow, weren't you?" He paused for a minute and examined Yuri with his eyes. "You still are."

"I am not!" was Yuri's quick reply.

"Oh?" the man asked. "I know what you are afraid of, Yuri. I know that you cling to sanity with desperate fingertips, ripping the nails from your fingers. One day, you will fall into the precipice." He waved a languid hand.

"Let me show you what awaits you," he said silkily. Yuri backed away slowly. The man gestured sharply downwards and the ground fell from Yuri's feet. Yuri fell toward the ground.

His impact with the ground was as bone-shattering as he expected. Wincing, he raised his head, ignoring the searing agony rising from his rib cage. A gravestone wavered in his vision. He focused his eyes momentarily on the stone. The world faded into black, but not before he read the inscription.

'Yuri Hyuga - foolish child

1890 - 1905'

Yuri's eyelids fluttered open for a moment, before he closed them against the glare of the sun. He groaned and tried to fall back asleep.

"Not bloody likely," Death Emperor commented. "If it's all the same, I'd rather take over your body after puberty. Too messy otherwise. So open your damn eyes!" Yuri involuntarily opened his eyes a crack.

"Happy now?" he rasped. A small part of his brain was horrified by how weak he sounded, however Yuri's brain is a democracy and the larger part of his brain just wanted to be left alone so it could curl up and die.

"Only if you're not," Death Emperor replied absently. "So far, the larger injuries have been healed. Unfortunately, the malnutrition hasn't."

"That's nice," Yuri said vaguely as his eyelids slid shut again. Death Emperor hissed in frustration and contemplated murdering Yuri. He eventually decided against it, as he was not a big fan of suicide.

"Open your eyes and keep them open," Death Emperor snarled. Yuri opened his eyes and looked around blearily.

"Why?" he asked plaintively. Death Emperor wished that he had a pair of eyeballs, so he could roll them.

"Because if you don't eat something, you'll die," he answered. Yuri considered that statement for a moment.

"Why do you care?" was his eventual reply. Death Emperor really wanted those eyeballs now.

"We've had this discussion before. There should be some food left in your backpack," Yuri frowned for a minute, confused. "The backpack is lying right next to your leg. Reach down and pull it up to you." Yuri reached down and weakly pulled the pack toward him. He undid the clasp with shaking hands and stared blankly into the bag.

"Take the cloak out of the bag. The food should be underneath," Death Emperor commanded. Yuri pulled the cloak out and was greeted with the sight of two bread rolls, a carrot and a cooked sausage. He picked up the carrot and began to eat it mechanically. The rolls and the sausage were consumed in a similar manner.

"Now, stand up," Death Emperor suggested. Yuri pushed himself onto one elbow and considered the best way to do this. He came up with nothing useful, except sit up first, then think some more. He managed the sitting up part. He caught his breath, then attempted the more vigorous task of standing. Once on his feet, he swayed dizzily, then locked his knees.

"What now?" he asked dully.

"Start walking north. There's a village nearby," Death Emperor replied. Too exhausted to argue, Yuri staggered off in the general direction of north. The village wasn't all that far away, which was a good thing really. Yuri couldn't walk in a straight line if his life depended on it.

Eventually, Yuri's knees gave way and he slammed into the ground. He blinked in confusion, wondering how he had got there. Death Emperor sighed in exasperation.

"You fell. Get up," he said shortly. Yuri shook his head.

"No. Can't," he moaned.

"Yes, you can. Do it!" Death Emperor replied. Yuri pushed himself onto his hands and knees and crawled hesitantly forward across the broken ground. His arms shook with fatigue, and he considered giving up. As if reading his mind, Death Emperor snarled,"Don't you dare give up!"

Yuri's elbows collapsed under him and his nose slammed into the ground. Blood trickled down his face and into his mouth, the coppery taste nausating him. Unable to push himself up onto his hands, Yuri dragged his body across the ground. At this point, he had stopping thinking about what he was doing and was relying on instinct.

Black fog crept across his vision, obscuring his path. Yuri closed his eyes and rolled onto his side. From far away, he heard the noise of children playing. His last coherent thought was 'Guess I've found the village after all.'

*

"Is he alright?" a childish voice asked softly.

"I think so," another replied, lisping slightly.

"I think he's dead," a soft drawl. Collective gasps.

"I don't think he's dead," the first voice said doubtfully. Yuri opened his eyes slightly. Three children stared down at him. One of the children turned to another and retorted, "I told you he wasn't dead!", establishing that he was the first child.

"Hey," Yuri croaked. The children turned back to him, eyes wide. "You reckon you could get your parents?" They nodded solemnly. Yuri waited for them to leave. Realising that they had no intention of leaving just yet, he asked "Could you get them now?" They nodded again and ran off. Yuri sighed and vowed never to have children. He closed his eyes wearily, curled into a fetal ball and waited for the inevitable questioning from the adults in the village.

A hand shook his shoulder vigorously. Yuri moaned and tried to pull away. When that didn't work, he opened his eyes and looked at his attacker. Faded blue eyes stared back from a mop of dirty blonde hair, Yuri's first thought was that the teenager shaking him was a washed out watercolour painting. He grinned at the mental image.

"Sir? Are you all right?" the boy asked. "The Unholy trio just said that you looked dead. While you don't seem dead, you don't look all that well." Yuri blinked.

"No," he replied succintly. The boy frowned as he mentally replayed the conversation. A light of understanding dawned in his eyes.

"I think that I should get you up to the village. You almost made it there by yourself, if you're interested. Name's Alec." Yuri looked at Alec for a minute.

"Yuri," he replied finally.

"Do you think you can get up?" Alec asked doubtfully. Yuri bared his teeth. Alec repressed a shudder at the blood sheeting the enamel.

"Try and stop me," Yuri answered. He uncurled himself out of the ball and rolled onto his stomach. Here, he paused to catch his breath. Alec extended a hand to help, but Yuri snarled at it and pushed himself gracelessly to his feet. He wavered on his feet, then caught his balance. Unfortunately, this balance wasn't found for long. Yuri lifted one foot off the ground and the other leg buckled. Alec rushed forward and caught Yuri around the arm, holding him upright. Yuri considered snapping at him, but decided that his energy would be better spent holding himself upright.

By the time the two arrived at the village, Yuri wasn't making much of an effort in remaining upright. Alec was panting from the effort of dragging Yuri behind him.

"Ten more feet," he sobbed under his breath. Yuri raised his head blearily, decided that interpreting that statement was too much effort and let his head fall. Alec staggered the last ten feet, clambered up the two steps that led to his porch and stopped. Yuri fell from his spasming hand and landed limply on the wood, arm thrown over his face. Alec knelt down beside him and frowned. The bones of Yuri's wrist stood out sharply from the flesh. Alec ran his hand along Yuri's arm, eyebrows rising. He looked around quickly. No one was watching. Alec closed his eyes and gestured sharply with his left hand. A shimmering blue light illuminated his hand and he touched Yuri gently, whispering the healing spell. Yuri's eyes shot open and he stared blindly at Alec. He shuddered and his eyes closed.

Alec reached into his pocket and pulled out a mana root. He chewed it slowly, pensive expression on his face. Father Mikhail had recently delivered a sermon on witchcraft, all the while staring at Alec. Alec had always thought that his healing gifts were a gift from God, yet Father Mikhail had made him wary of using them. He had no wish to be denounced as a witch. He was secretly grateful that no one knew of the other gifts that he had. It seemed that God had given him a double-edged sword, the ability to save or destroy.

"I hope you're worth it," he said softly to the unconscious Yuri. Not expecting a reply, Alec grabbed Yuri's shoulder and dragged him into his house.

Authors Note: I know, I know. It's lame as hell and not a bit funny. Bite me. For anyone who didn't know, yes I did get into the Aerospace Avionics Engineering degree - very exciting. I've been busy recently, what with enrolling in uni, enrolling my friends into uni, enrolling their friends into uni and generally feeling like I'm surgically grafted to the keyboard. Why my uni thought doing enrollments online was a good idea, I'll never know. That and 38 hour weeks at work. Those suck like nothing else.

Extra brownie points for anyone who can identify where I pulled Alec from! No, he's not a real person. He'll be important for a while. Or I'll kill him off (a la Marianne - not funny!)

Nights Mistress

ps. Buy Kingdom Hearts. Watch The Two Towers. Repeatedly. (I'm on three times at the moment). Buy the LotR soundtracks and anything by Queensryche. (Shameless plug over now!)