Far Gone
See disclaimer in the Prologue
Soshite kimi to futari kiri
Samayou monogatari
Kono tabiji shuten ni
Matte'ru mono ima wasuretai
Yume wo kanaeru michinori
Sono negai koso ga tsuyoi kagayaki
Saa namida mo tsurete'kou romancing train
move, "Romancing Train" (Final Fantasy: Unlimited ending theme)
The sole remaining Deathlord of Gaudium laughed at the plight of the small group before him. "Quite the dilemma, isn't it?"
Ai and Yu drew a little closer to Lisa, who had instantly tensed into a martial-arts position; Lou's right hand twitched towards the pocket with the mirror inside almost subconsciously as she glared at Oscha; Crux hid behind the summoners; and Kumo edged closer to Kaze, clinging to the gunman's arm.
"Your little friends won't last long," Oscha told them dismissively. "Their craft can't hope to evade the satellites forever..."
Ai and Yu whipped around to stare at Silvia's attempt to evade the three twisted creations' plasma beams. As the two of them helplessly looked on, one beam caught the airship's side, making smoke trail from the exposed machinery. Another clipped one of the many propellors that kept Cid's pride and joy aloft, and the airship plummeted, black clouds of smoke and sparks in its wake.
"No!" Ai cried, stricken. "Cid... Miles... Knave... Fungo... it can't be!"
"Everyone...!" Yu shook his head. "No..." He gasped, letting his hand fly to the feather in his hair. "Oh, my God... Chobi! CHOBI!"
"How can you do this!" Lisa demanded, her clenched fists trembling. "How can you take the life of another without even the slightest shred of remorse!"
"None of that matters now," Oscha said dismissively. "For your actions against His Excellency... you shall be tried. You are his now."
Plumes of the same material that had bound Kumo shot from all over the room, and everything went black as their consciousness faded.
---
Ai whimpered, struggling to open her eyes through the terrible pain that flooded her whole body.
Slowly, the surroundings cleared. She was looking at what seemed like some huge molecular model, connected to a series of control panels that rested on a thin walkway over a seemingly bottomless void. Two vague figures in white coats hovered at the far end of the heavy metallic creation; nearer to her were Oscha and a little boy who sat in a hoverchair, a distinct look of evil satisfaction on his face. The Earl... it had to be him. He gave her a really bad feeling...
Twisting, she realized that she was caught in a web of tangible hatred, the same sticky blackish red stuff that had held Kumo in that tiny little room before. She was upside down, but nothing seemed to have happened to her otherwise... the Earl and that stupid upside-down creep hadn't even thought to take away Poshepocket, the creature of wishes that a mysterious woman had given to her shortly after she had first come to Wonderland with Lisa and her brother.
Yu was also tied in the same web, although he was right-side-up. He, too, was awake; he was looking at the two people in white coats with a tearful expression. Lisa was between them, unconscious, the strands of darkness too tight across her thighs and breasts. Turning in the other direction, Ai realized that Lou was on her other side, pinned with her arms at her sides, blinking away the same despairing exhaustion that she had felt only minutes before. Kaze, looking strangely thin without his cloak, was below the two of them, his Magun tangled worse than he was in the painful strands. Far to Yu's left, Kumo was also tied with them, a clear look of suffering on his face though his eyes were still closed. The blood that streaked across his legs had dried and crusted while they'd been unconscious... how long had they hung here...?
Ai glared back at the Earl, who still sat with a complacent expression, discussing something with Oscha. "You stupid Earl! You'd better untie us right now!"
The boy looked up at her, seeming irritated. "I didn't have to spare your miserable lives back there. You're something else, anyone ever tell you that?"
Ai pouted, letting her cheek puff out as she bit back angry words, staring again at the others who were present. The shock of seeing them clearly made her forget all about the insult. It couldn't be... but how couldn't she believe it, when it was right in front of her face...?
"It's Mommy and Daddy...!" The two adults looked briefly up at her, then went back to their work. "What's wrong with them!"
"What! Your mom and dad!" Lou yelped. She sure was wide awake now.
"It's who...?" Lisa mumbled, starting to shake off her dead slumber.
"Well, this has been a strange day," Professor Hayakawa commented to his wife. "It's certainly interesting how we've suddenly acquired these two kids out of the blue."
"Yeah... it's been weird," she replied. Shrugging, they returned to their control panels.
"HEY!" Ai yelled. "Can't you hear me! It's ME! Your daughter, Ai!"
"Wait," Lisa called. "Something's wrong. It looks like they're being controlled through some kind of hypnotism!" She turned to the Earl and his servant. "What's going on! Why'd you bring us here!"
"You're going to be processed as ingredients to help accelerate the growth of Chaos," Oscha informed her in devilish good humor. He turned to Ai and Yu's parents, bowing. "Pattisiers... we're counting on youuu..."
The Hayakawas both bowed, then straightened up, both looking cheerful. "Yes, sir, right away!"
"We will immediately begin preparing the ingredients," Mary Hayakawa told him.
"You bet your hat we'll make the best tasting dessert ever," Joe Hayakawa added with a smile.
"How can you say something like that!" Lou shouted, her hands in fists at her sides. "These are your own children!"
"It has been a great deal of work raising Chaos thus far," Oscha said mildly. "But thanks to Makenshi-dono, the time is finally right."
Kumo let out a soft moan and shuddered, slowly opening his liquid jadeine eyes.
"Start the processor."
Joe Hayakawa walked up to the machine. "Main switch... on."
The orbs of the huge structure lit up, each glowing softly from within in different colors. Each sphere was empty... save the top one, which held a pale-skinned boy with soft aqua-blue hair and wide, worried eyes of the same color.
Ai gasped, her umber-brown eyes going huge. "It's Clear!"
The boy blinked, pressing his hands to the glass that enclosed him. "Ai...?"
"In case you haven't noticed, Clear is actually Omega's heart," the Earl commented with a callous smile, seeming amused at Ai's horror.
"Omega's heart!" Lisa repeated, staring in disbelief.
"That's right. But even the all-powerful Omega can't do anything when he's all closed in. It's because of the Flying Water," the Chaos-child continued.
"Omega and the Flying Water have functions that contradict each other," Mary Hayakawa explained mechanically. "When combined, these functions cancel each other out, rendering Omega powerless. This is firmly supported in the physics of Wonderland."
"Wonderland's physics are amazing, aren't they?" Joe said affectionately. He and his wife laughed; it had a hollow, empty sound.
"Once Omega's many pieces were reunited, we could control him and send him forth to once again plague the outside worlds with Chaos," Oscha told them. "At least... that's what we had planned. But now, only Clear is left."
"Wait... Makenshi." Kumo looked up at the Earl despairingly. "As long as we have this invention, I can merge with Clear myself."
The white swordsman's eyes went wide with horror, and he let out a short gasp. "No..."
"What do you mean, merge!" Ai demanded, half-sobbing. "What are you going to do to Clear!"
"Just watch," the Earl said contemptuously.
Watch was all that Ai and the others could do. At Oscha's command, the Hayakawa professors flipped a lever, and electricity began to crackle through the chambers of the huge machine. As it raged through Clear's body, he let out a heart-rending cry and buckled, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. "AI...!" With a soft gasp, he went limp, his body fading and melting into the form of a many-pointed crystal star, the form that Omega took when held in its sleep of death.
"CLEAR!" Ai screamed, straining against the bonds that held her.
Lou, who had gone white with shock at the mention of the creature that had destroyed her home, suddenly exploded with rage. "You people are DESPICABLE! Can't you feel any remorse for what you're doing! Do you even UNDERSTAND what you've done! I HATE you! How could you! How COULD you!"
As Kumo bowed his head in grief--another innocent lost--he felt a tug at his consciousness. Opening his eyes, he felt a flicker of hope flash through his heart. Yes. At the other end of the thin walkway over the empty space of Chaos below, his discarded Maken lay, unwatched. Unguarded.
Closing his eyes, he called for the blade in his heart; when he looked up again, he guided its flight with his desperate wish. The fine sword, which had risen into the air at his command, sailed straight for the orb that held Clear's crystal...
And just as he began to think that maybe, just maybe, there was some hope after all...
A tight lance of the same material that bound him wrapped around the blade, catching it a mere hair's breadth from its intended target.
A lance of material that grew straight out of Chaos' hoverchair.
No.
"You still had the strength to try something like this?" Chaos asked mockingly, reeling in the sword and regarding it with one upraised eyebrow. A wicked smile crept across his face. "You leave me no choice."
And leveling the Maken, he threw it through the air like a javelin.
All Kumo could do was hang paralyzed, helpless, unable to believe.
The deadly blade hit him a little below the ribcage; force and momentum carried it through his body, stopping at the hilt. His cry of pain filled the room, echoing and reverbating throughout the huge chamber, drawn-out, agonized, despairing, a scream for the one last desperate chance that had just slipped away. A scream for death.
Shuddering, moaning, Kumo fell forward in his bonds, hanging helpless in midair, half-conscious, his blood tracing spattered patterns on the walkway below. Lisa and the children stared, horrified, numbed by what they had just seen.
Kaze, who had jolted awake at the wretched sound, twisted to see his love's transfixed body and shook his head, unwilling to believe. "Shiroi-chan..."
"Be quiet," the Earl said coldly, staring at the white swordsman with distaste.
"Mister!" Ai yelled. "DO something! Take them out with your Magun!"
Oscha turned to look over his shoulder. "Crux," he called. "I want you to feed Chaos now."
The little sprite reluctantly hovered forward, weighed down by the huge bag she carried. Stopping over the abyss, she turned to look at Kumo, tears forming in her golden eyes. His thin frail frame was bent with pain, his black-lashed eyes starting to flutter closed, his breath rasping, the borrowed cloak soaking with blood. Something twisted at her heart, and she hung her head, shaking.
"Do it," Oscha hissed, an unspoken threat in his words.
"Kukuriyu!" she cried suddenly, staring up at him with hatred in her eyes, melding with the grief for Kumo that hung over her small body like a veil. "Ku... kuiyuu!"
"Insolence," Oscha snapped, anger laced through his voice.
Struggling to stay conscious, Kumo painfully raised his head. "No... no! Leave her alone! Crux... just do as he says! Please! I..." But what he was trying to say was cut off by a sharp burst of coughing, and the blood that exploded from his chest as he tried his hardest to speak.
Another of the Chaos-threads snapped towards her, striking her with terrible force. She hit the far wall with a sickening crack, collapsing onto the thin catwalk that circled the vast room. The cloth she carried fell from her hands, and its contents--all the Soil bullets and Mist bottles that Kaze and Kumo had possessed--spilled into the void below.
"CRUX!"
Trembling, she raised her head, managing to make eye contact with Kumo and give him a tiny smile before collapsing, little sparks flying from her back.
"No... NO!"
"I thought I told you to be quiet," the Earl growled. The darkness binding Kumo tightened, drawing another strangled cry of pain from his blood-choked lungs, squeezing until he lapsed into unconsciousness, a look of utter despair on his fair face. "You can forget about calling any Summons."
"This... is bad..." Ai said softly.
"Why are you doing this!" Lou demanded, her anger flaring once again.
"What are you planning to do now?" Lisa asked defeatedly.
"With the combined power of Chaos and Omega, we will now be able to destroy and consume the new outside world," Oscha chortled.
"New world...?" Lisa repeated weakly.
"Well, you don't mean our world, do you?" Ai managed.
"You are exactly right."
Ai wailed out her rage. "Listen, Poshepocket! I don't care what it is, just give me something that can take care of these monsters!"
The little ball of cream-colored fluff at Ai's hip tried to wiggle out of the tape that held it in place, but couldn't in time to evade the strand of Chaos that expanded to cover and absorb it, plucking it from Ai's hold and letting the tight orb of bloat it produced dissipate into nothingness.
"No...!" Ai called, desolate. Her only way of helping her friends was gone.
"Stop it!" Yu shouted suddenly. "That's enough! Stop it...!"
The Earl stared at him, then smiled. "Now I see it all," he said softly, a wicked edge to his child's voice. "Oscha... you knew about this all along, didn't you?"
"Of course, Your Excellency," the necromancer replied, bowing low.
"What are you talking about!" Yu demanded.
"The two of us are going to merge together with your sister," the Earl told him lazily. "I think that's a great idea, don't you?"
"WHAT?"
"You two are the perfect ingredients to use in feeding Chaos," Oscha simpered. "Yes... good enough to force all of Wonderland to evolve, I'd say. We were just awaiting the time when you would be old enough... We lured you in with the phantom subway train, then controlled your journey through the use of different predicaments... tracking you all the while with the transmission device that was attached to the chocobo."
A flash of memory suddenly lit Lisa's mind. "A man I'd never met before asked me to make it for him... but who added all this unnecessary junk? It's been heavily customized..." Cid had said that after examining the watch that had always hung from the collar Chobi had worn when they'd found him. It couldn't be... Chobi? Yu's beloved pet had just been a plant, set by the enemy...?
"We watched over you carefully, like a farmer does to his cattle... raising you all this time to be the perfect ingredients."
Yu gritted his teeth. "But why'd you do that to us! I think you're lying!"
"Yu's right," Ai cried. "Look at us! We're just regular kids!"
"No you're not," Oscha corrected triumphantly.
"No, don't!" Lisa cried suddenly.
"You two were found in Wonderland," Oscha told them. "You are entirely different beings."
"What are you saying!" Yu said softly. "Do you mean that we're not even human...?"
"What about Mommy and Daddy? Does that mean that we're not their real kids either?" Ai asked, her voice quavering. "Is that why... they're...?"
"NO!" Lisa shouted. "You mustn't think that! Please--listen to me...!"
But the twins were already lost, trapped in their own world of misery.
---
"STOP! Please, you must stop this madness!"
Oscha and the Earl had just finished loading Ai and Yu into two of the chambers of the Omega device; the Earl was now in the central one.
"Begin the conversion process," Oscha ordered.
Lou glared down at the Deathlord, straining. Her right hand was almost inside her pocket after several minutes' worth of wiggling. Trying her hardest to reach, she felt her middle finger brush against the cold metal of the folded mirror and gritted her teeth. Almost there... just a little further... but would she reach her vessel of transformation in time...?
As the Hayakawas advanced towards the control panel, Lisa turned her attention towards them. "Professor Hayakawa! Try to think back! Don't you remember twelve years ago... when you lost your children...? Can't you hear me...?"
"Do it," Oscha ordered.
Joe pushed the lever forward, and the electricity began to flow.
Ai and Yu both screamed in pain as the crystal that had once been Clear vibrated. The Earl also let out a cry, but unlike the others, he didn't seem to feel the electric current. "It feels... so good... it feels great!"
"LISTEN TO ME!" Lisa shouted. "My name is Lisa Pacifist! I am an agent who was dispatched to search for you! That is why I have been traveling with Ai and Yu--your children, Ai and Yu, who have believed all this time that the two of you were performing research on the physics of Wonderland, but... they've risked their little lives to search for you, and you're going to kill them!"
Letting out a cry of anguish, Joe yanked the lever back as Mary hit the switch that would shut off the machine. Both of them slumped against the sides of the panel, trembling.
"What was I thinking?" Joe murmured to himself. "Ai and Yu are our own children!"
"They may not be our flesh and blood, but that doesn't matter," Mary whispered.
"Daddy," Ai said softly, struggling to raise her head.
"Mama..." Yu called.
Something small and green forced its way out of each professor's ear and dropped to the ground, wiggling until they burst.
"What is this!" Oscha cried. "Herba's manipulative seeds have failed!"
"That's what I call true love," Lou shouted, drawing everyone's eyes to her.
The little girl was gone. In her place, a gray, gold-eyed wolf was tied in the web of Chaos-thread that strained to hold her powerful form. With one silver howl, she caused the glass of the machine's orbs to shatter, resulting in an explosion that made the entire thing collapse.
When the dust cleared, Ai and Yu could be seen lying next to each other amidst the rubble. Slowly, carefully, they sat up, and seeing their parents standing nearby, they ran to embrace them.
"We're back now," Mary told her children.
"We're sorry," Joe said, ruffling Ai's hair. "We love you!"
Weak with relief, the twins looked at each other and started to laugh.
Meanwhile, Lou was busy cutting the others from Chaos' trap.
"Thank you so much," Lisa said softly as Lou helped her to the ground.
"You can always depend on me, Lisa-san," the wolf-girl replied, busy pulling Kaze from the vicious tangle. "...Kaze-sama, are you alright now?"
"I'm so glad you're still alive," Lisa cried, squeezing Kaze's shoulder.
The gunner, ignoring both of them, looked back up at the only one still tied in the web, his eyes darkening. "Shiroi-chan..."
Lou leapt back into the air, her glide sustained by her Flying Water cape, and carefully chewed and clawed apart the thread that still bound Kumo's broken body. Once he was free, she gently lowered him to the walkway, trying not to disturb his wounds or the Maken still thrust through his upper abdomen. "I think he's still breathing," she said softly as Kaze brushed past her.
The gunner knelt at Kumo's side, giving his hair a soft stroke and touching one finger to his pale cheek. He was silent, but all the grief in the world had centered in his cerulean eyes.
Beside the reunited Hayakawas, a red-black tentacle of Chaos-thread rose from the rubble, speeding furiously towards them. Ai and Yu noticed it just as it was about to whip into their faces, crying out as one--
But before it could reach them, a swell rose at its center, causing the ugly tentacle to burst. As the Hayakawas stared, not sure what to expect, a small ball of creamy fur fell to the ground before them.
"Poshepocket!" Ai cried, running to pick the little wish-granter up.
She didn't see the second Chaos-spear rise from the rubble as she bent down, but Lou did.
"Look out!" As Ai turned, shocked, she saw the flash of green cloth and gray fur as Lou leapt in front of her, then the splash of dark red as the deadly strike drove through the wolf's chest instead of hers.
Lou gasped weakly, melted back into human form, and collapsed into the wreckage as everyone ran to her side.
Carefully, Lisa pulled the mortally wounded girl into her arms, bending over her as she moaned softly, opening her blurring golden eyes.
Looking up at her friends, Lou smiled. "Hey, Ai... hey, Yu... I'm... so glad... you found them... your parents..." Her speech was soft and stilted, easily broken by the rasp of her breathing while a dark flower of blood spread over her chest.
"Lou..." Ai murmured, not even trying to hold back the tears that were starting to spill down her face. Both she and Yu were crying; Lisa seemed stricken, and the professors were respectfully silent.
"Kaze-sama..." Lisa spared a look over her shoulder; Kaze was standing behind them all, looking down at Lou with soft sadness in his eyes. "Kaze-sama, please... your eyes... am I... in... your eyes...? You'll always... be in mine... forever... and... e..ever..." Her voice trailed off, and her eyes fluttered shut as she slumped back in Lisa's loose embrace, a gentle expression on her face.
"Lou!" Yu reached forward, then checked himself, shaking his head. "You can't...!"
But there was no response. It was too late... she was already gone..
Though tears came to their eyes, fate would not allow them the time to grieve for their dear friend.
"You guys are really being bad!"
The voice belonged to the Earl, but there was no mistaking the creature that reared from the wreckage of the Omega device as human. It was immense, about the size of the dragons Kumo summoned with his Mist, with a vaguely pear-shaped body, a misshapen face, and twisted wings formed of many crisscrossed red-black threadlike tentacles. "It looks like I'm going to have to eat you myself!"
A black-violet swirl enveloped the immediate area, and Lisa instantly felt the void of Chaos' being beginning to drain at her life force. Her limbs felt like they'd become lead weights; it was a struggle just to keep her head up. Still, she remained in her kneeling position, clutching Lou's still-warm body to her chest. She could never give in... she was the kigen, the savior of souls...
Beside her, Ai and Yu had also gone to their knees, fighting with all their childish vigor against Chaos' draining force. Their parents clung to each other to stay upright, the effort showing on their faces. And Kaze... amazingly, he stood straight and tall, glaring up at the incarnation of evil with almost palpable hatred. Though sweat stood out on his arms and face, he adamantly refused to allow his soul to be consumed.
"Kaze..." Yu turned towards the gunner, desperate. "Kill him!"
"Do it for Lou," Ai cried, her voice rising in a shout.
And the Magun began to glow.
Lisa nodded to herself through the agony and despair. "That is Ai and Yu's power," she murmured to herself. "The Magun is theirs to control..."
Within mere moments, the summoning gun had formed, and Kaze leveled it at Chaos, his eyes narrowing with the force of his hate.
"Hah!" Chaos crowed, staring derisively down at the tiny group of resisters. "What do you think you're gonna do without bullets?"
Surprisingly, Kaze replied. "I didn't have any the first time, either. But... I reached Chaos nevertheless. And... then..."
---
"Kukuriyu..."
Kumo let out a soft moan, opening his eyes and trying to focus his vision. Crux was standing before him, sparks flying from her back, holding something out to him, something strange in her eyes.
"Ku..." She held it forward insistently, begging.
Kumo blinked. Crux was holding a Mist bottle in both hands, making an offering of it to him.
Weakly, he tried to push himself upright. "How did you...?" A spasm of pain tore his body, and he tried his hardest not to cry out.
"Kuu," she said softly, her golden eyes filling with concern.
"I don't matter now," Kumo replied, his voice quiet with the knowledge. "But you..." Gritting his teeth, he shoved himself into a sitting position, feeling the world tilt as he did.
"Kukuriyu..." She placed the bottle in his outstretched hand. He didn't need to ask to know that it was the last... their last chance against Chaos. Turning it over and over, he suddenly realized that the cap had been lost. That almost made him smile. Fate had saved him the trouble of taking one off anyway.
He would need an empty bottle for this.
"Ku... kuu..." Looking down, he realized that the flashes of sparks leaping from Crux's body had grown worse. The impact against the wall had apparently damaged the mechanism that kept her alive... she was breathing roughly, looking up at him and begging for... something.
Gently, he pulled off the helm that bound her light violet hair, letting it straggle into her face, bent down, and kissed her forehead. "Kansha suru." A single tear traced down his right cheek as she pressed her little face to his; she cried out once, then it was over.
Still crying silently, Kumo gently closed her eyes and laid her down, giving her one last loving look. "You were one of my very best friends," he whispered brokenly. "You, Kaze, and Niisama... what will become of us all...?"
He turned, gripped the hilt of his Maken, and gritted his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut. Fighting back the screams of pain that threatened to overwhelm him, he slowly and carefully pulled his sword from his body, slashing it to clean off his blood.
As soon as he was free of the Maken, he opened his eyes once again, breathing hard, letting sweat drip from his face. The sense of sweet release that sang through his blood, along with the dizziness and the almost silly vague stinging of the wound, made him smile bitterly.
Carefully, he stood, ignoring the rush of fresh blood the movement brought. Either way, he would soon die. It didn't matter what he did, so long as he didn't die right this minute. He closed his eyes, sought inside him for the thread of power that would prepare him, and felt the sweet rush through his shoulderblades. Looking over his shoulder, he smiled sadly at the violet-pink shine of the glowing, translucent wings that had appeared there. A shame that he could only reveal them at this moment... he would have loved to see Kaze's reaction to his innermost self while the two of them were alone together.
No matter now.
He walked a few paces, and leaped into the air one last time.
---
"Don't fail us," Lisa murmured, staring at Kaze as he faced down the behemoth that was Chaos.
"You're finished," the monster gloated, preparing to deal the blow that would kill them all...
"Black Wind... Kaze!"
Kaze whirled, his eyes going huge in disbelief. Lisa, the twins, the Hayakawas, and Chaos itself all followed his line of sight and echoed his stunned gasp.
Kumo hovered there in midair, glorious and beautiful and sad, his expression controlled and decided. Kaze's bloodied cloak floated about his thin form, along with the pale ribbon that was still attached to his choker collar, bleeding profusely, his sword in one hand and a Mist bottle in the other, a beautiful and strange pair of wings like violet-pink peacock feathers in a butterfly pattern newly formed at his back.
Grim purpose and love in his eyes, he held the empty bottle before him. His voice echoed in the dead silence, though he spoke not louder than a whisper. "This is the Mist of my very soul."
With a practiced flick of his wrist, he tossed the bottle into the air, transforming the Maken into broadsword shape by twisting it in the air. "I must play it!"
He rose to the arc of the bottle's path, his wings' glow brilliant and blinding, martyr's ecstasy on his face, his form suddenly hazing and slipping into Mist itself, gathering at the focal point of the glass as a starburst of sword slashes configured his final dance.
Though lost, his voice rang through the chamber: "Symphony of the White Cloud!"
The bottle of Mist erupted into blue-white soul flame that streaked straight for Chaos, striking its chest and sending a ripple of white fire through the corrupt form. "How stupid...!" the monster cried as its body began to jerk uncontrollably, twisting, seizing, changing. "To come just to be eaten...!"
With a roar that was half scream, Chaos shuddered into a red-and-black version of Kumo's dragon summon, traces of white still on its face.
"Shiroi-chan..." Kaze whispered, the horror of realization on his face.
"Kumo...?" Lisa stared up at the creature, desperately searching, trying to see what the makenshi had done to alter the state of things.
The Chaos-dragon was trembling uncontrollably. Unbelievably, Kumo's voice echoed from it as Chaos' should have. "Ka..ze...!" The gunner flinched, still standing with the Magun out, frozen where he stood.
"You... think you can defeat me...?" Chaos raged.
"Quickly... while I'm sealing Chaos...!"
"I'll kill you all!" the monster ranted.
"NOW!" Kumo nearly sobbed. For the briefest moment, a projection of his form flickered before the twisted creature that was equally him and Chaos.
Kaze stared up at him, a tormented expression on his face. How did Kumo expect him to...!
And then he remembered.
It was the only way... that they had been able to defeat Chaos, that dark night twelve years ago. Except that then, their roles had been reversed... Kaze the sacrifice, and Kumo the one with the terrible duty of ending his love's life to save everything.
Kaze... The soft voice spoke only in his mind, calling his attention back to the body of the girl in Lisa's arms. Use me.
Another flicker of memory flashed unbidden through Kaze's mind, and he squeezed his eyes shut, unable to hold back tears. "Aura... my sister..."
In Lisa's arms, Lou began to glow.
While Lisa, the twins, and their parents stared in disbelief, her form faded, then flickered, becoming a rainbow helix of light and color. Kaze held out his left hand, and the helix spun into a glowing Soil bullet, the color of the crystallized life inside shifting to every hue of the spectrum.
"I don't care how much blood is shed... as long as it is used to destroy Chaos!"
His voice rising to a shout, he clenched his fist over Lou's willing sacrifice. "Now!
"The light that fills up your eyes--Tears of the Rainbow!"
He slid his sole Soil bullet into the first chamber of the summoning gun, sensing the second spirit rise before him, as he'd had a feeling it would.
Kiri stood before him in a flash of red, his crimson hair stirring about his form, the long flame-colored feathers streaming behind him, resolution in his eyes. "Because I love him," he whispered, and closed his eyes, his soul flaring out in one last burst of glory.
Kaze held the second bullet, this one blazing carmine, before him. "The cry of an ill-fated love--Heart's Blood!" Kiri's life joined Lou's in the barrel of the Magun.
"And finally..." But while he should have named the final Soil in the summon combination, Kaze instead pressed his hand to his own chest. "The Soil charge triad to use against you... has been decided!"
And a brilliant white glow traced a double spiral around his form.
"Soil charge...?" Ai whispered.
"Kaze..." Yu said softly, eyes huge in realization.
Kaze did not turn, but spoke softly. "Lisa."
Lisa gasped, letting the tears spill down her face. It was the very first time he'd called her by name.
"Do it... fire me."
And the light blazed, too brightly for them to stand. "The helix of my life... Endless White!"
Lisa pressed her hands to her chest, tapping the endless well of Kigen within her as she leapt to her feet automatically. Transform my life into spiritual energy...
Feeling the pressure at her wrist, she opened her eyes and whipped the Magun up before her, leveling the heavy gun at Chaos' twisted stolen body. "Onegai... don't destroy life!"
And in an explosion of brilliance, the Magun went off, wrapping Lisa, the twins, and the professors in the smoke of the gunshot.
The three Soil spiralled into the form of the white gun dragon, which stared down the corrupted sword dragon, growling out a challenge. Chaos' control over Kumo's body was now complete; it returned the growl with a snarl of hate, and the two dragons erupted through Gaudium's roof, twisting around each other into the sky, finally colliding in an explosion of energy that shattered the flying castle of evil memories into thousands of pieces.
And in the midst of it all, the two of them took form once again.
Through the overpowering need to let go and sleep forever, he offered a tiny smile, his hazing jadeine eyes staring up at his love. "Kuroki... Kaze..."
There were tears gathering in the cerulean eyes they met as their lips touched briefly, tears that threatened to fall as they pulled away. "Shiroi... Kumo..."
And they fell, and all was softness and sweetness and safety and their sad love for each other.
From the wreckage of the castle, a broken shriek heralded their descent:
"UNLIMITED...!"
(TBC)