Chapter 10

Yuri

One by one he watched them leave, floating up on the winds of time. He hoped they would each go to the best place, the happiest place they could find. He knew that Kurando and Anastasia would be together, and good for them! For all the teasing he'd given the pair, he really hoped they'd find happiness. Lucia and Joachim floated away with Blanc right behind them. He hoped his stupid dog would be happy too. The old man, his doll still dressed like Alice, floated up, his whiskered face grinning and that left only Karin.

He didn't know how to say goodbye to her and he didn't want to. While the words ran through his mind a searing pain shot through his chest and he groaned, one hand clasping the place where the Holy Mistletoe had pierced his skin and it began to glow a milky white. Karin turned to him, worry on her face.

"Looks like times' up," he said, looking down as the glow slowly faded and the pain receeded. "It's the Mistletoe's curse; I knew I was living on borrowed time…"

Karin reached out and touched his arm, her fingers delicate in spite of her martial training and they quivered just a little.

"Are you… are you afraid?" she asked softly and Yuri shook his head. "Will you lose your memories too?"

He tried to avoid that question and Karin's intense eyes.

"Never," he said and tried to make her believe it.

"Yuri," she began and her hand gripped his wrist.

He turned back, seeing the agony in her eyes. "Don't look at me like that. I- I'll see you soon."

"Promise me. I don't want to lose you forever!"

Her heart melting, her eyes twinkling on the verge of tears, Karin reached out to him, her arms open to embrace him with suddenly the winds lifted her up and she pulled free. She floated slowly upward and Yuri watched her rise and he felt almost relived she was leaving and then he leapt upward, grabbing her hand, pulling her back down for just a moment.

"Karin," he said and tears filled his eyes, rolling down his cheeks to drip onto his jacket. "Thank you," he said and then she pulled free, floating higher and higher, her soft eyes almost gone from his view.

"I'll see you all again someday," he shouted into the empty warp and then sighed. "Now it's my turn."

The winds of time whipped and howled around him, sounding like the lost souls he'd heard in all those desolate and desperate placed he'd fought in; Zhaoyang Village, Dalian, Wuhan, Nemeton. So much of his life had been fighting and so little had been with friends. He knew he'd miss the friends he'd made, especially Karin. And he wondered and hoped, just a little, that he'd meet them again someday. He listened to the ghostly voices around him, Alice's sweet voice echoing in his heart as the grinding rocks and columns of stone rose on the ground quakes. Sound screeched past him and he felt himself lifted up and he closed his eyes in acceptance.

The winds blew hard over the sea and the surf crashed beneath him like thunder. The sky was mostly cloudy and they scudded on their bellies, shredded by the wind. The long grasses waived at him and he stood silent, watching the play of wind as it swirled around, twisting, turning and circling back on itself through the grass.

A distance away across the bluff was another cliff, this one surmounted by an old building, large, and broken. He turned and watched as a lone seagull winged inland, silent on its quest for food, and he watched, fascinated as the bird blended into the swaying grass in the distance. Just below a farmhouse was nestled in the lea of a small hillock, grey-white wisps of smoke rising from the flue and a pair of cows stood chewing their cuds, tails to the wind. He smiled, the familiarity tickling a memory, which then fled on the wind.

Curious he turned to walk down the hill heading toward the large shadowy grey structure looming over the next cliff. He felt a sudden chill, a frisson traveling up his spine as he looked at the grey and brown hulk and wondered why he suddenly felt afraid. Or was that fear. He frowned, trying to catch the thought that went with the feeling but it too fled on the wind. This place seemed so familiar to him; had he been here before?

A few more paces and he paused again, looking out over the landscape, his eyes drinking the images of the overcast landscape and the howling of the wind. When did he get here, he thought. And where is 'here'. He searched his memory, scouring it for a moment before giving it up; thinking was too much work, so he continued on down the lee of the cliff, when movement below caught his eyes. He blinked. Someone was walking up the dirt track leading to the cliff and he waited as the little man climbed up to meet him.

He was an odd old man, dressed in brown robes, knobby knees showing beneath the hem. He smiled, the image of the old man amusing him.

Finally, the ancient arrived, panting slightly from the climb. "Yuri, is that you?" the small figure said with a voice that cracked and wheezed. "I can't believe I finally found you after searching for so long."

The young man looked in surprise at the old man who stopped a few feet from him, puffing and wheezing from shortness of breath. He was very small, barely reaching to his own waist and was all brown skin and bones, with two long wisps of white hair at the back of his head that twisted in the wind. Yuri tilted his head, puzzled.

"Yuri?" he asked slowly, trying the name out on his tongue. "Who are you?"

The old man suddenly looked stricken, large eyes bulging then filling with tears that rushed down his cheeks. He ran toward Yuri and butted his head against his thigh, holding him with bony fingers, still sobbing softly.

After a minute Yuri pushed him back gently, and looked down, even more puzzled than before. Who was this old man? How did he know me? Who... who is Yuri?

Wiping tears with a brown sleeve, the old man looked up into the young man's red eyes and snorted.

"Stupid kid," he muttered. "Can't even remember your father's face!" he said.

Yuri stood up, confusion plainly stamped on his face.

"F-father?" This old man was his father, he thought. That should mean something; but looking down at the strange creature, he felt trust. The old man came up to him again and put his arm around his waist, pulling him forward.

"Let's go," he said. "It's cold here," and they began to walk back down the path toward the building in the distance and Yuri looked down at the old man, his father. He wasn't feeling cold. He was feeling warm, content and happy.

A/N: That's it. Thanks for letting me get my angst out. Hope you all enjoyed reading these little vignettes. And sorry to depress any of you with my choice of "ending". We all know, or at least those who have played, that there's another – more warm and sappy – ending. Think I'll have to go write some warm, sappy, Yuri/Alice now to make up for this.