Drip, drip, drip.
Despite being a mere distortion of the fabric of dream space and time, the sun managed to pierce though the shroud of nighttime that Clive had imparted on the world, the land shifting into a semblance of the dawn. The cobblestones underneath him felt warm from the light, and damp, slicked down in a pooling puddle of his own blood. He couldn't feel it, because his body had gone totally numb, but the colossal wound in his shoulder exposed the inside of his body, and poured blood all down his side, making the metal demon grow fainter by the minute. Boomerang's sword was still lodged in the injury, like a gigantic splinter, and the cold blue blade happily drunk in the blood spilling around it, absorbing the lost life-force.
Drip, drip, drip.
Boomerang was sitting beside Clive's strewn body, resting calmly on his knees, his hands around the hilt of the thin katana that was buried up to it's jagged pommel in his chest. The other half of the blade stuck out of Boomerang's back, where it collected a small trickle of blood along the length of metal, dripping off the very end. Kuronegaiken was pinning Boomerang's chest plate to his body, otherwise, the knight would have removed it to treat his injury. In addition, Clive's hand was still wound around Kuronegaiken's handle like a death grip, likewise to Boomerang's continuing hold of his own weapon. Both of them refused to let go, and neither allowed themselves to give up.
"Boomerang…" Clive whispered, feeling the left side of his body slowly going dead, nerve by nerve. "Boomerang… Am I… am I dead yet?" He asked, shifting a little and experiencing a wave of pain as his wound moved slightly around Boomerang's blade, letting forth a little bit more blood. Clive's blue eyes were dull behind his glasses, and all over his body, he was stained with the bloodshed of so many previous fights. He had never felt so dirty before in his life, both inside and outside. He felt the warmth of the sunshine, and it only made him feel even worse.
"Not yet…" Replied the elder metal demon, his breathing a little wheezing and labored from a punctured lung. Almost ceremoniously, he gripped his weapon and slid the metal blade out of Clive's wound, the drifter moaning quietly as it's departure cut him even more. Clive held his free hand over his shoulder for a few seconds, holding the gaping injury together and checking it ferocity. If this was reality, he would be dead. But in his dream world, merely seriously injured. The drifter, in turn, withdrew Kuronegaiken's blade from Boomerang's body, sliding out like a needle in the flesh. Blood trickled out of the hole, and the knight tiredly unbuckled his chest plate to relieve the pressure, the piece of metal clattering grimly to the floor.
His white ninja gi was filthy, stained with the long battle had had endured during life, and the more recent one in his death. Boomerang's eyes were watering for some reason, and he rubbed them with a blood-slicked hand, taking slow and steady breaths with the lung that still worked within him. Clive grabbed onto his reclaimed sword tightly with both hands, one upon the grip, and the other so foolishly wrapped around the base of the blade, harshly cutting himself open. He didn't notice, both his ruined and intact shoulders were shaking with unspoken emotion. Clive clenched his fists even tighter, and the cut severed some of his vital veins, while Boomerang watched this, his reaction unreadable.
Unexpectedly, and shakily, Clive lurched up to his knees and slid his injured hand down along the blade, until the side of it was pressing against the serrated edges of the pommel, hurting him even more. This gave him a slightly better grip. The drifter had his eyes closed, but it seemed like he had a mild case of the hiccups, gritting his teeth and forcing himself to kneel. "…I can't die…" He breathed, slowly raising his hands and the sword. "…Not until I… save them…" Clive's voice had a slight aqueous quality to it, because of all the blood down his windpipe, and it was strained with emotion and feeling, while remaining fragmented and slow. "I must… protect them… because… nobody else can…"
Less wounded than Clive was, Boomerang got to his feet and a shadow of doubt flickered across his eyes for a transient moment, using his sword slightly as a crutch. The drifter was still struggling to stand, making no leeway to succeed. It almost looked pathetic to watch from Boomerang's vantage point, but something Clive had said was affecting the elder demon, deeply inside. "The power… to protect?" He mused quietly, gently rubbing the shallow gash to the side of his face. Boomerang inhaled more precious air and sagged against his weapon a little, because it still hurt.
The swing was far slower than any of Clive's previous attempts to attack, and Boomerang was able to parry the blow with the small yet efficient metal of his hand-guard, the sword clashing against the back of his wrist. Clive was on his feet again, struggling, crimson fluid leaking from his body, but still willing to fight. "Yes…" He replied with a tremor, forcing himself over Boomerang, while slowly, the healing factor built into his body gradually began to knit the cleaved fibers of his shoulder together, veins reconnecting, muscle carefully being replaced. It felt like his shoulder was burning fiercely in a fire, though Clive had recently grown to ignore the horrible changes of his body. "Protection… it is the reason why I am still here, why I have not faded away…" He chuckled mirthlessly, with a hint of aggression. "Why I continue to… fight you…"
Growling softly, Boomerang forced the blade away a swift movement and knocked Clive back to the ground, filled with anger and impatience. "Stay where you are, Clive." The knight ordered with an authoritative tone, folding his arms. "Stay on the ground and rot here, fade away to an absolute nothingness. This is your fate, and your body is mine." Boomerang's words were cruel, even to his future self. "Just die." He said, smiling darkly. "You are not needed anymore. The superior one has come. Submit."
The weaker demon on the ground timidly touched his wounded should, noting that the wound itself had almost closed. He still felt like he was going to fade away, but he laughed out of a morbid reaction to the pain, pushing himself up with his arms. The nerves had reconnected in his weakened hand, and had a sense of touch once more, curling into fists. "You can…" Clive breathed stubbornly, "You can beat me to the floor… a thousand times… and I will keep on getting up. Nothing will stop me… I won't let it stop me… You can't stop me… I have too much to lose…"
"Is that so?" Replied the other demon drolly, leaning over Clive's body. Swiftly and purposefully, he placed one foot onto Clive's back and forced him savagely down again, receiving a verbal and pained reply from it's recipient. Around them, the morning sunshine began to darken like an infection upon the world, a disease of darkness, eating away at the scene. That part of the singular entity that comprised both Clive and Boomerang was breaking down. They didn't have much time left. Ignoring the changes occurring right in front of him, Boomerang narrowed his eyes, radiating an aura of bitterness. "Let me ask you something, Clive Winslett. Do you think you are the only one who has suffered through this? Do you think you are singular in your pain, your regret? If so, then I can't believe just how selfish I have become." Boomerang tapped himself on the chest, where the stab wound in his chest had completely closed up. "I spent two thousand years in Hell for this chance to see her, do you think I will throw it away so easily?"
Against all common sense, Clive rose again, grabbing his strewn sword and holding his left hand tightly across his middle, to keep his long, though mostly healed wound moderately closed. He groaned from the pangs of pain running through each nerve, and the touch of Kuronegaiken's gold finish was like cold fire to his suffering, though he knew that this weapon was his only way out. Clive's blue eyes focussed upon Boomerang and he raised the katana slightly with much suffering. "I have a seven-year-old daughter." He croaked while trying to keep himself steady and strong. "I never get to see her as often as I would like, and every time we meet she has always grown just a little bit more. She hates celery, but loves to read, and sometimes while I am so far away from home, I receive letters filled with pictures she has drawn for me and signed with her name. Do you think I will throw her away so easily?"
For his rebuttal, Boomerang acted and struck Clive heavily in the chest with the flat of his blade, hearing with his own ears the resounding 'snap' of ribs breaking. His teeth clenched in agony, Clive fell backwards and fire seemed to burst within his chest, grunting from the pain. Boomerang looked away, sniffing the air with disgust. "You love your daughter, do you?" He asked nastily. "Can you think back to my time where I killed hundreds of children and their parents in the ideals of my race? Do you remember how much fun I had doing it, how I was smiling under my helmet as the children died? Does your daughter know this? If she did, would she still call you 'Daddy'?"
Through the torturous pain of his broken ribs and bruised body, Clive let this insult roll off him without effect, struggling to stand again. "Those mind games will not work on me, Boomerang. Those sins belong to you, not me. I have already been reincarnated out of that mess of sin, so you cannot accuse me of hypocrisy any more than I can accuse you of my wrongdoings." He nearly fell over when he assumed his battle position, but somehow managed to stand, working on willpower alone. Then, his shoulders sagged, giving in to a doubt gnawing away inside his body. "Why must we fight like this? Nothing can be accomplished in this way!"
Boomerang looked blank. "That is just the way things are, or the way we have chosen to deal with. We have both fought all our lives for many reasons, so the only way this being we are comprised of can settle conflict is through a fight. It is sad, really, but that is just the way things are." This time, he was waiting for Clive to attack first. "En garde!" He cried, on the defensive.
His lunge was strong in the beginning, but something vital inside him snapped under the pressure and Clive slumped against Boomerang in mid-attack, his body astoundingly close to giving out. His perseverance was insanely suicidal, trying to fight when he was only a hair's breadth away from total expiration. Clive raised his sword arm weakly, and Boomerang only had to carefully grab his wrist to prevent the attack, while Clive lost all feeling and Kuronegaiken slipped from his grasp. His demeanor changed nearly instantly as the Quarter Knight felt Clive's despair as almost his own, and dropped his own weapon to prevent the drifter from keeling over. Even so, Clive murmured something faintly and tried to strike his older self with his bare hands, though he did not do much more than weakly graze Boomerang's chin. Hesitantly, Boomerang pushed Clive away, the green-haired man falling to the ground on his back, breathing unevenly.
Clive could no longer stand, and Boomerang had won. Somehow, the world around them appeared to realize this and change back to it's former self, no longer under the influence of Clive's mind. The drifter tried to get up, to try one more time, but his limbs had numbed from his weakness, and though the spirit was willing, his metallic flesh was still too weak. Emotionally introverting, Clive went silent, regretting on the inside his inferiority. Somebody nearby moved around him, and then sat down, in thought. A span of time passed for the both of them, unbreakable, but Boomerang did not finish Clive off. He just… sat there, thinking. Lucied had been the only one close enough to Boomerang to know exactly how expressive the demon was with his facial language, and why he wore a helmet most of them time. Right now, his red eyes were hard in contemplation.
"Kaitlyn." He said.
xxx
Structures degraded as everything grew closer to the original darkness of that world, breaking down, disintegrating into a black inky mess, where it stretched out and covered the land and sky with rolling shadow, curling around the only two people left in the dimension. Clive was lying on his back, totally weakened, but still conscious of his changing surroundings. Kuronegaiken was placed bloodied by his side, and he lay there like a warrior being prepared for an honorable burial. Boomerang was sitting silently beside him, leaning against the blunt flat section of his sword, the end of the blade buried in the ground between his crossed legs. The knight was tired in his own fashion, feeding off Clive's exhaustion and feeling mentally drained. The match has not come to a suitable conclusion, and neither of them knew what to do.
Clive looked up into the now pitch-black sky, his heart sinking in misery. He remembered Diablo, it's seemingly boundless power, fuelled by Ravendor's malice. Jet and the others were probably fighting it back in reality, where Catherine and Kaitlyn were caught in the crossfire. The drifter closed his tired eyes, sighing and feeling his throat tighten. They weren't going to win, all of them put together couldn't hop to defeat a weapon feared for over a thousand years. Even if he managed to come back and rejoin them in their battle, it would be without his short-term memory and he would be as useless as any one of them. He would be human again, but only long enough for him to die. A catch-22, he thought glumly, he would die either way. That would be pointless. No, the Maxwell Gang needed somebody who could fight, somebody who had had experience with golems before, who understood the technology of thousands of years ago…
And the answer was sitting right next to him.
"Boomerang, you have to go." Clive said as he turned his head to face the other demon, letting go of Kuronegaiken for a moment to adjust his surprisingly intact glasses. The Quarter Knight looked down at his future self and raised one eyebrow in question, but remained silent, waiting to see if Clive would continue. He did, trying to keep his quavering words strong in his emotionally weakened voice. "In reality, Diablo has reawakened, and Ravendor aspires to kill me. He may kill my friends and my family too. I can't… I cannot let that happen, but I know I am not strong enough to defeat him." Looking back up into the dark sky, Clive could have sworn that he saw a star or two flicker for a few moments before fading out. "Boomerang, you are a Quarter Knight, a demon elite, one of the most powerful of your-, our race. Tell me, if you wished to, could you destroy Diablo?"
The elder demon kept himself stoically calm as he thought for a very long time, leaning back on his hands. The Dark Guardian Blade gleamed brightly in his lap, the beautifully-made Ka Dingel depiction showing up clearly in the inner pulse of blue light. The sword seemed to eat away the darkness, and convert it into it's own form of energy. "…Alhazad doted on it's power, but gave it to the inexperienced Zed to command. If the one who pilots it now does have half a brain, then it would be much more powerful than humankind has found it before. However," At this point Boomerang smiled arrogantly, "I am Boomerang Flash, the Executioner. A golem is no match for my superior power. It would not stand a chance."
"Of course." Clive said almost robotically. "You are who you are, and so am I. I wonder which one of us will survive?" He laughed out loud, but it was not out of amusement, just from realization of the irony involved. "A demon elite, with powers unmatched, with the ability to deliver all from the evil that bears down upon us, or a wretch of a soul, tainted, filled with self-loathing and hate? I wonder…" He whispered at the end, beginning to feel his bitter desire to fade away manifest itself in his dream world. Long tendrils of shadow coiled around his arms and legs and held tight, as his subconscious began to reject him and his memory. Clive smiled. "You can take my body, it is rightfully yours, after all. I do not care anymore, but will you find Luceid again, Boomerang? If you get out of here, just please, please do me a favor. Save my loved ones, destroy Ravendor and Diablo, and tell Catherine and Kaitlyn that I am sorry."
The knight stood up and looked down upon Clive and his suffering, at the darkness that was threatening to consume the drifter's soul. Was this what he really had become? It felt odd as he tried to figure out what Clive was thinking, the motive for his self-destruction. Did he really want to die? Boomerang knew, as himself, he would have fought it out to the very end. But this weak, humannish demon had given up, accepted death, with only the self-spoken words of a plan to console him. Humans were such stupid creatures to hope like this, and no matter what, Clive continued to live as one of them, because of what he believed in, of the only things he had left. Others. He had to protect the others, believe in others, believe in Boomerang. He was going to give his life to replace the one that Boomerang has lost, and in return, Boomerang would save everyone else. Did Clive really want this?
Boomerang replied casually and indifferently, though he didn't feel it at all on the inside. His sword hand was clenched around the weapon that his knuckles were turning white from the pressure, and he fought not to grit his teeth from empathy. "I will find Luceid. I do as I please…" Boomerang said, the statement familiar in his mouth, because he had said it before thousands of times. Now it seemed to be mocking him. "But," He added, "If I can, if I can force myself to remember your request once you are gone, then I will carry it out. I give you my word on this, I swear." Clive nodded weakly from his shadowy confines, smiling and feeling the weight of worry fall from his chest. He didn't have to be afraid anymore, and in his heart, he knew that Boomerang would keep his word.
Kuronegaiken's blue light suddenly went out, the blade turning to a dull stone grey. It was almost as if it had uttered a tiny sob of grief in realizing what would transpire, and the life-force of the sword, a mixture of the Lust Jaw and Clive's own spirit had fled. Boomerang's Dark Guardian Blade reacted in a flare of increased power, and both demons understood at the same time that this event was like a giant spiritual Life Drain arcana on their souls, weakening one to strengthen the other. Upon pondering the word 'spirit', Boomerang paused, looking over Clive's frail body.
He noticed Clive's tail and knelt, his brow furrowing in perplexity. It looked a lot like Luceid's tail, though it was a little larger in size. It was limp with the rest of Clive's body, but when the drifter noticed that Boomerang was staring at it, he couldn't help but wag the appendage slightly, out of a purely instinctual reaction. "We are under the protection of the wolf spirit guide." Said Boomerang finally, standing back up. "It shows up here on your body, the mark of the wolf, the Guardian of desire. The desire to protect, even if it means the sacrifice of your own existence." He shook his head, thinking back to the riddle that had plagued him on the day he had died. "Humans turn hope into power, and they use that power to protect. Protection means sacrifice, and sacrifice means death." He lost the calm tone of his voice suddenly, clenching his fists. "Why do you want to die, Clive Winslett?! Why do you wish to protect?!"
A dark blight was spreading slowly from Clive's blackened chains into his body, creeping like ink staining across a pristine surface. Affected areas turned dark and lost their solidity, fading into shadow. The drifter was dying, right in front of Boomerang's own eyes. "Because…" Clive said faintly, as if he was speaking from a million miles away, "Because the ones I protect… I love them…"
The elder demon bowed his head, hating the way he was acting so weak. "The wolf spirit guide…" He muttered, ruby red eyes distant and troubled. "Symbol of the martyr, the sacrifice. We have played this part well, though it meant the ends of our lives." Yes, they were both martyrs, himself upon Ka Dingel so that they humans could defeat Zeikfried, and Clive, so Boomerang could save the others. "You protect others… because you love them? So the power you forge from hope, as protection, can shield others from harm? This is your desire now. You have made your choice, and I have found the answer to my two thousand year old riddle." He had felt the desire to protect before, when he watched Luceid body die at the foot of Ka Dingel, right before he had died. He understood it's purpose, it's meaning, and it all made sense.
Similarly, he could not let Clive die now, because they had both gone though so much together, as the same entity, as one. Yes, this gave him an idea…
The Dark Guardian Blade came down upon Clive's restraints and cut through them like a hot knife into butter, the shadows retreating back into the floor. Boomerang grabbed Clive by the wrist and hauled the drifter to his feet, just barely taking a hold of Kuronegaiken as he was lifted upwards. Unable to stand by himself, the knight dropped his weapon and held Clive by the shoulders, like an adult trying to talk sense into a smaller child. "Martyrdom is all well and good," He announced while his crimson eyes flashed with inner energy, acquired only moments ago, "But I have learnt that needless death creates nothing except a vicious cycle. I will be reborn, and Winslett, you are coming with me."
Kuronegaiken's blade glinted slightly in blue, as it's owner forced himself to reply through his weakness and haze of death. One half of their mind was submitting to the flow of life and death, his own, while another had begun to fight it, Boomerang's own. "…I cannot…" He breathed wearily, only standing up because he was being held. "…If both of us… try and go back at the same time, we will both die…" He tried to pull himself back, so the dregs of non-reality could take him away again. "…It's better you live than me…" He finished up with a sigh.
And it was time for Boomerang to finally tell the truth, what he had been hiding from the very start. "Yes, that is true," He agreed at first, "We will both die. But, in that twin phase of death, somebody else will be reborn. This person will be both of us, and neither of us, all at the same time. He will have both our memories, both our personalities, everything. But he will not be you or me. It's difficult to explain, except that when he is born, we will cease to exist in the shapes that we are. It will be our next reincarnation, though it will be a little different, this time." He let go of Clive, and the younger demon stood all by himself, some strength returning to his body. He appeared to be processing the information.
"Two separate entities becoming a single consummate whole? We will be the same person… without this conflict?" Clive asked, and Boomerang nodded as an answer. "But… if I become somebody else, I will no longer be me. How will I know who I am, if I am made up of the parts of somebody else? What if I forget who I am? Forgetting oneself is just as bad as death, no, even worse." He considered it from Boomerang's position. "Wait, if you can go back by yourself, why are you willing to kill yourself for me? That really does not sound like you at all."
The Quarter Knight made an unusual noise that was a cross between a very short chuckle and a 'hmph'. He wasn't good with emotional topics like this, but thirty years of humanhood had at least coaxed him into trying his best. "You have a daughter called Kaitlyn." He said without much of a point, until he continued. "It might be a little hard for you to accept, but in a way, she is my daughter as well. And now she is in danger, along with everybody else. I do as I please, and I want to save her. It is my fault that I developed your personality, Clive, I might as well reap what I sow, if you get my meaning. In this way, we can reach a compromise, and my atonement will be complete." At last Boomerang did chuckle, and it wasn't nastily either, it was almost kind of friendly.
Atonement through the suffering of one's own sin…I understand now…
That was exactly what Boomerang had done. He had destroyed families, killed so many, and broken loved ones apart with his participation in the great demon war. And then, when was reborn, he became Clive and grew to love others, becoming close enough to care. Afterwards, only a week ago, his family had been ripped away from him by the lycan's curse and Ravendor's ambition, and he had finally understood the hell he had once placed others in during the past. From that, he had learned to grieve and regret his actions, subconsciously associating them with his own past deeds. Boomerang had suffered through his own torture, as a human, as Clive Winslett. The knight had atoned, and now his soul was free.
"You want to see Luceid again." Clive said while feeling Kuronegaiken come back to life with a warm glow, living off a newfound sense of hope. "You have been waiting so long, and I am sure that she has also been waiting for you. If this works, I will help you find her again, I promise." Steadying himself, Clive knew that these few precious seconds were to be the last ones of his life. He had given up death in one way, and embraced it in another. Somehow, he could do this with a smile. Whoever was born from this fusion of conflicted halves, they would at least have the benefit of knowing that both he and Boomerang were at peace. Clive extended his hand, unashamedly aware that he was wagging his tail happily as he did so. Without hesitation, Boomerang shook it.
Goodbye Catherine and Kaitlyn. Goodbye Virginia, Jet and Gallows. This is the end of this life, but I will be back to see you again in a new form. Look for me in the soul of another, and know that I love you all. Goodbye!
I will not dwell in the past anymore. I will not let my promises be broken. I will sort out this mess and find you again, Luceid. I promise you this. Your Boomerang will come back, even if it is as somebody else. No longer will I live under the shadow of Ka Dingel! Goodbye!
Two auras melded into one within the darkness, the dream ended, and he woke up.