He didn't have to walk for very long before Clive found her, standing all alone on the arid canyon plains.
Clive paused several feet away from her, close enough to be able to talk without having to raise his voice, but having enough distance to make himself comfortable enough to speak with her in the first place. She was standing on a fairly large flat rock, big enough to be some sort of pedestal, with her back to him, her arms seeming to be loosely folded in front of her. Her could see her vibrantly coloured purplish-pink hair in the dim light of the extremely early morning, the sight familiar and very nostalgic to one half of his mind. "Luceid," He said, his tone calming and sincere, "I knew if I searched, I would find you here. Please turn around. I want to see your face."
"… Your search has been quick and easy compared to my own." She replied, her voice the same soft sweet one that Clive recognised having haunted his mind for the past few days, and as a common and precious part of Boomerang's fond memories. "I have searched for you for over two hundred spans of a human's life. Now is the night where I will finally meet you again. I am so nervous." She admitted, slowly turning around. The part of Clive's mind that used to belong to Boomerang seemed to smile. There she was. Luceid, the Guardian of desire. Exactly as he remembered her to be. To him, she was beyond description, but amazingly beautiful nevertheless.
Instinctively, reminding himself that he was in the immediate presence of a Guardian Lord herself, he knelt, dropping to one knee and bowing his head. "Not as nervous as I have been, Luceid. I swear that my stomach is filled with hyperactive butterflies at the moment." Luceid smiled and stepped off the rock, her movements so graceful and full of balance that she almost appeared to be moving outside of the framework of gravity and physics, like an elegant cat. Clive didn't move, even as she slowly walked towards him, and then knelt down herself to take a very close look at his face. Her bright red eyes were inquisitive and a little perplexed. Clive felt her gentle hands touch him, and he tensed as if he was awaiting some kind of violent action, so nervous that he was.
"I have never seen the great Boomerang Flash bow down to anybody before, except for the eternal Mother of all demonkind." She said, intrigued. "And now he will bow down to me, simple Luceid, the Guardian of all desire on Filgaia? Boomerang should know that he would need not to bow to me, because he is my dear one, my darling, my love. Rise Boomerang, your submissiveness is wasted here." And taking a hold of both of his shoulders, Luceid pulled him to his feet, far stronger than she outwardly appeared to be. Tilting his chin up so he could look directly at her, she smiled. "Now tell me what you have come here to say." She intoned. "Tell me what you have found immersed in the body of a human. Have you found what you have been looking for?"
"Your words in my mind have guided me to recognise what I truly hold dear in this reality, and now I have a reason to continue existing on Filgaia, one which I lacked in my previous life. Living as a human makes me feel… happy. I have found the 'hope' that I have been searching for. The human Clive Winslett that I fought within his own mind answered my two thousand year old riddle with ease." He said carefully, speaking with deliberation. "I have come to say… that I love you, Luceid, with all of Boomerang's heart. I could not voice it properly when I existed as him, for wont of foolish pride, but as a human living in humility, I can honestly say that I love you, then and now." She touched his cheek with her warm hands, and Clive closed his eyes. "However, I am married now," He continued, "I have a wife and a child. I love them dearly as well. So please understand… that despite my feelings… I cannot come with you, Luceid." As soon as he said this, Clive gently grasped her wrist and pulled her hand away.
Luceid stared at the rocky ground. "Yes, Catherine and Kaitlyn. I have seen them before. I can feel your desire to return to them, and I can feel their desire to stay with you. I sense every single desire of the world, and yet, it is always my own desires that must come last. That is what makes… the role of a Guardian Lord… so difficult at times…" She smiled sadly. "How envious I am of Catherine. She is so lucky to have somebody like you, Boomerang."
"If you can feel all desire on this planet, Luceid, then you must also sense how divided I am on this painful decision," Clive pointed out, "And how it wounds me deep inside to leave you alone like this after such a long time of waiting and searching. It is truly unfair. So, I have an idea." He let go of her hand and turned around, looking up at the starry sky. The stars were fading, though, and soon they would be gone, paving the way for a bright blue sky. The Hiades constellation was dimming as well. "Luceid, do you remember back during the war against the three human warriors?" He asked, "How we used to train for each and every upcoming battle? I miss those times when both pain and pleasure were one." He didn't have to look at her or wait for a reply to know that Luceid could remember. It had been their best spent time together.
"Well," Clive continued, lacing his fingers together and then turning his hands around and pushing outwardly, applying pressure to the base joints of his fingers, "This is my idea. We shall both duel each other, using the same forms and techniques utilized two thousand years ago in our training rituals. If I win, I shall return to Catherine and Kaitlyn and spend the rest of my human life-span with them. If I lose, I shall leave with you and remain by your side forevermore. What say you, Luceid? Are you up for a little wager? Of course," He added, "You will have to give me back Kuronegaiken, if it is in your power to do so. I need your blade in order to fight, my Gungnir ARM has both forsaken me and departed to rest in the cold unfeeling earth."
Luceid walked around him, now standing in front of him, her eyes calculating. "You will bet your soul on your swordplay, Boomerang?" She smiled. "That is a little bit of the Boomerang I used to know. Are you sure you are up to it?" She asked as she spread her arms, holding her hands out as if she was about to catch something falling out of the heavens. There was a small flash of light, and a pointy object speared the ground in silent fury, landing between her spread arms. Kuronegaiken had been summoned once more. The golden pommel glittered in the dim darkness as Luceid wound her hands around the leather grip and pulled it effortlessly out of the ground, the sword just as easy to wield for herself as much as it was for Boomerang. Running her finger over the sharpness of the blade, to test it's cutting power, she then passed it to the metal demon standing in front of her. "It has been two thousand years, you know."
"Two thousand years. It seems like such a long, but also, such a short time." Clive told her, accepting the blade and weighing it inquisitively in his hands. He turned on his heel and slashed experimentally at the air, pleased by the results. It seemed to work just as nicely as it did during his time in the cavernous ruins. "I fought the three human warriors again in this lifetime, and this time, I managed to win. I buried that niggling part of my past. I do not wish to bury you with that past, Luceid, but I do wish to be free from you, so I can live my human life to it's fullest content. So, if I must, I will fight you."
"Very well. I will agree to fight you, with all the power I can spare."
Clive caught a blur of movement and change in his peripheral vision, and when he turned back to look at the desire Guardian, Luceid had changed her shape, from a comely and seductive human woman to a huge grey she-wolf, the exact same beast Clive had slain a few days before. It was now alive again, and bristled with aggression, bright red eyes nearly glowing with power. Luceid stood with her four paws squared, tense enough to begin a battle. She also seemed ready to fight him, and if possible, defeat him. Clive welcomed this. If she had the strength within her to win, then he didn't deserve to go back to the others. Clive would accept his defeat with grace, and his victory with pride.
He got into a battle stance fit to duel a four-legged animal, leaning down a little so that the tip of his sword was pointing towards Luceid's face. His hands were an inch or so away from his navel, wrapped tightly around the grip of his blade. Clive's eyes were set hard, trying to watch Luceid for any upcoming movement. I have to win, for Catherine's sake… He told himself in his mind, and drew an inner peace from within himself by picturing what everything would be like once things got back to normal. Clive tried to keep his breathing to a minimum, knowing that deep breaths would cause his hands to shake, making his grip on the weapon tremble just a little. He couldn't allow for a break in his defense, no, not this time.
As soon as Luceid began to charge, Clive also began his head-on sprint towards the snarling she-wolf, his sword arm out in front of his body in such a way that the blue blade of Kuronegaiken was across his chest in both a defensive position and a preparation for a powerful swing. The muscles in his legs protested to the new wave of strain being placed upon them, still a little stiff and sore. Clive closed his eyes and tried to force all the unwanted thoughts out of his mind, attempting to focus on the duel and nothing else. His visual perception of the world seemed to narrow a little at this, giving him a direction, a target, and a goal. He knew that it was utterly pointless to struggle against the will of a Guardian Lord, but hell, he was willing to try.
Luceid's paws thudded against the rocky sandy ground in a dark-grey blur, the wolf's gleaming white teeth and sharp incisors illuminated by the pure silver moonlight. Letting out a deep growling bark, Luceid sprung at Clive with fangs and claws bared, holding nothing back for this duel for Clive's freedom. She had waited for so long to have her beloved Boomerang back, and she would fight for him, if that was what she had to do. Her powers and abilities were limited from having to duel in such a weak form compared to her other, more dangerous forms, but this was the shape that had been chosen, and it would be the shape she would either win or lose in. Yes, in this shape, there was a possibility that she could lose.
Clive swung hard in the strike he was preparing as soon as he felt Luceid's paws touch his stomach and her large powerful jaws lunge for his face. Before the blade of the sword could touch her, however, he shifted his grip a little and turned Kuronegaiken just enough so that the flat part of the blade struck her in the side and knocked her bluntly away. Luceid yelped in surprise as one of her ribs cracked from the pressure and she landed on her back in the dirt and dust, skidding a little from the brute force of the attack. He had moved so fast, she didn't have any time to retaliate.
And the match was instantly over, Clive final sword swing ending short, the very tip of the blade only a centimeter or so away from Luceid's throat. The Guardian had shifted back to her human form as soon as she had recognised her own defeat, lying on the ground in a half sitting-up position, her purplish pink hair strewn all over her face, obscuring one of her crimson red eyes. The other was watching him intently, while she took deep heaving breaths, trying to gather her lost wind back into her body. Clive couldn't deny the fact that Luceid looked absolutely stunning in this way, beautiful beyond words, simply dazzling. It was all Clive could do to prevent himself from doing something incredibly obscene to her, there and then. He managed to maintain his calm, though, and solved his problem by closing his eyes and trying to think of something else. It was quite difficult for him, especially the part of him that had originated from Boomerang's psyche.
"Well, that was rather simple. You are losing your touch, my dear." He said a little cheekily, though he did not feel in the mood for jokes at all. That had been far too simple. "Luceid, what do you call a desire that is turned against itself? A desire to be freed from a similar desire?" Clive asked of her, his sword arm straight and unwavering, as steady as a rock. He found it suitably ironic that Luceid could be so easily cowed by something that was no more than an extension of herself, or maybe, that something wielded by the soul of another was the only thing that she was considerably vulnerable against. Clive knew that although Kuronegaiken was a part of Luceid and a part of the desire medium; the Lust Jaw, it was also a central and most vital part of his being, and in effect, he was also a part of the desire Guardian herself. Clive tightened his hand around the sword's leather grip, awaiting an answer.
Feeling small stones and sand biting into the soft skin of her elbows and lower arms, Luceid's gaze ran up the long and cold blade of the sword, slowly and deliberately until she stopped at Clive face, his brownish-red eyes hard and commanding. Because of the coldness of the canyon in the incredibly early morning, his breath was visible in the open air, manifesting itself as a small cloud of steam hanging around his face whenever he exhaled a breath. Luceid knew that Boomerang had managed to change himself into a human, and in this new form and life, he had changed so much, and yet so little. It made her heart race like a steam train to see him look at her again with those same, determination-filled eyes. "Boomerang…" She whispered softly, "A desire turned against another desire is no longer a viable desire. It is different, inverted against an equally strong need. Choice, the answer is choice, the choice to decide whether the desire is worth the sacrifice."
"Indeed," Clive replied, lowering his weapon and planting it in the ground nearby, "And seeing that I have beaten desire using desire, I am free to make my own choice." He extended his hand out to her, leaning down a little in an offer to help her to her feet. She graciously took it and stood up with his aid, all her bruises having disappeared when she had switched her form back into her human one. Her balance on two legs was a little off and she swayed into Clive's embrace, wrapping her arms about his middle and resting her cheek against his chest. The movement was natural for Clive and he instinctively put his arms around her too. "Listen," He added, holding her closely, "I do love you. I have never stopped loving you, and I will never stop loving you. You are Boomerang's most beloved, Luceid."
This made Luceid smile and she hugged him a litter tighter when she heard this, closing her ruby red eyes. Then, Clive unexpectedly pulled away. "But…" He continued in a soft quiet tone, reaching up to gently grasp Luceid's upper arms and looking down at her. "I am not just Boomerang Flash anymore. My name is Clive Winslett. I do not want to return to that demon life, and though I do love you, Luceid, I love my wife Catherine as well, as equally as I love you. I also wish to remain with my daughter, I want to see her live and grow up happily. My life as Clive Winslett is far too important to me for me to give up for anything else. I choose them, not you." He said.
"I know." Luceid replied, her voice no more than a whisper. "I know that is how you feel, I just did not want to accept it." Clive's chest had felt furry when she had been leaning against it, and she could see that the lycan curse had affected him bodily, as well as mentally. She could also see his bushy tail, hiding a little behind one of his legs. The Guardian bit her lip. "I'm sorry, Boomerang. I cursed you. I had no choice but to curse you, it was the only way I could force your memories back into your mind. I wanted you back so badly, and I knew that only a demon could destroy another demon. I thought I was doing the right thing, but, you suffered terribly because of it. I am so sorry…"
"You have no need to apologise, Luceid." Clive assured her soothingly. "Without your aid, none of us would have survived. Ravendor would have destroyed every human alive, and I would have been powerless to stop him. You showed me what was hidden in my heart of hearts, and you helped me to understand exactly what was most important to me. I am in your debt, and if a little fur is all I have to pay for this, then I will gladly pay it. It is a worthy sacrifice. You saved me. You saved us all. Thank you so very much."
As Clive knelt once more, Luceid gently placed her small, but warm hands on either sides of Clive's head, trailing them down a little so that her fingertips rested over both his temples, his body cold and very icy. She could feel that he had an exceedingly quiet pulse, even though he was a dangerous and unnatural demon, he was still a living thing. Luceid carefully ran her fingers through his grass-green hair, remembering a time when Boomerang's hair had been as black as pitch and his skin the shade of dark brown sugar. He had certainly changed so much since he had been the hunter of demon, Guardians and humans alike, she thought. If Luceid had seen him only casually, she would have never thought him to be Boomerang at all. It had been the taste of his blood that had shown her the truth. "Please Clive," This was the very first time she had called him his new name to his face, her voice thick with suppressed tears, "I told you before. You do not have to kneel before me. Sometimes… Gods hate it when mortals act subservient to them, especially the ones that the gods do love."
Smiling, Clive obeyed her request, standing up to his full height. "I will return to you, Luceid. I promise. I am a demon now, and the span of a demon's life is not determined by the passage of time. I can live forever, if I wish. I will stay alive for you, and when Catherine and Kaitlyn pass away into peaceful death, when my human life-span is over, it will be I who will come looking for you. Then I shall fulfill my role as the partner of the Guardian of desire. Until then, this is goodbye." Clive reached out and liberated Kuronegaiken from the ground, slotting it back into it's place on his belt and then bowing in a manner that was both respectful and almost regal. Rubbing his wounded shoulder a little, Clive looked up into the sky again and took note of the location of the Hiades constellation, shining brightly and more beautifully than he had ever witnessed before. It was a perfect time now, the hour before the dawn, the time of peaceful reconciliation. For Clive, it finally felt like something important was coming to an end. Lowering his gaze, he began to walk away, back towards the campsite.
"Wait!"
He paused in mid-step, freezing when he heard Luceid call out for him. Turning around hesitantly, he watched Luceid run up to him in a hurry, halting just a foot or so away from him. Glancing up, the desire Guardian smiled faintly, holding out her hands a little as if there was something invisible residing in them. "One last thing." She said delicately. "A gift for your daughter, and a few words for you, my love." Luceid's fingers seemed to curl around the unseen object and then something in the fabric of reality changed so quickly that it was almost impossible to trace. Then the metal demon saw that Luceid was holding his old Gungnir ARM in her hands, the weapon salvaged from the collapsed cavern by unknown methods. It looked like just like it had been before it fell down the widening chasm caused by Diablo, battered and worn. It was fixable, it could be mended with time, and Clive felt somehow relieved to see it again.
Clive carefully took the weapon from her hands and unraveled the leather strap attached to it's side, slinging it over his unhurt shoulder. Once it was repaired, he would put it away for Kaitlyn until she was ready to handle it properly. A part of him hoped that that day would never come. Luceid raised her hand and gently drew her index finger down his cheek and neck, until she at last reached the hollow of his throat. Clive had a scar near his Adam's apple, where he had almost been choked to death by a piece of deadly black metal. Luceid dropped her gaze and sighed. "And these words that I am about to tell you, Clive Flash, or maybe Boomerang Winslett, are something that I want you to never forget. Your wife Catherine, and your daughter Kaitlyn, your friends and loved ones, if you truly care for them, then promise me that you will cling to them with all your strength. Do not let them go. Do not lose them like you lost me."
You let me win, didn't you? You knew I would be happiest most, back with my friends and family…
The swordsman nodded. "I will protect them with all my power. Goodbye, Luceid. I love you." And he leant down, lacing his fingers with hers and kissed her tenderly, sliding one arm behind her back for her support. It took Luceid a few seconds to realise what was happening to her and her legs practically turned to water, leaning back against Clive's arm. It had been two thousand years since Boomerang had kissed her so, and tears began to bead in her deep crimson eyes, the Guardian finding herself crying so desperately for the first time in her immortal life. When Clive at last pulled away, he smiled and patted her gently on the shoulder, before realizing a startling fact. His hands felt warm. His body felt warm. The coldness of his being had thawed away in the last hour of the night. Such a life had been returned to his body. How…?
"Filgaia has accepted you as one of her own, Clive." Luceid told him. "You are one of her dear adopted children, just like the one you have recently lain to rest. God is a lot more tolerant, and a lot more loving than a mortal can ever believe. In the end, as long as you can find the cause of your guilt and regret it, then all of you are bound towards Heaven. Such as this, there is no Hell that can be spoken of outside of your own mind. The Executioner has hung up his genocidal blade." Clive nodded again, contentment and relief building up inside his heart. Luceid clasped both her hands out front of her body and bowed, a tear running down her cheek. "Farewell."
Long good-byes were always the hardest to cope with, so Clive just turned, walking away again. He did not look back. He was heading towards the future now, to a place where the people he loved the most were waiting for him to return, while making total peace with his past. This had been what he had always wanted, nothing else. He didn't mind the mutation, he didn't mind the pain. It was worth it to know that things could finally be at rest. Luceid watched him leave with joyful tears in her eyes, it made her happy to know that her Boomerang had found what he had been seeking for all his existence; an answer to his loneliness. The Guardian knew that she would continue to miss him, but as long as he was happy, she didn't care.
The sun rose, the night giving birth to a new and glorious morning.
It'd be another lifetime before Luceid would ever see him again.