The Mask of No-al
Part Two
Raven could have flown, but she climbed with the rest of them. She had peeled off her cloak in response to the summer, it had struck her suddenly that in this hemisphere it was not winter. The sun was far away, but throwing its fury towards the earth. It affected all of them, but they moved on.
Bushido was a quiet man; he said very few words and all of them were very careful. He was barely older than Arsenal, but seemed to possess a vast amount of knowledge from the tone of his voice and the sharp stare in his eyes.
Nightwing's palm gripped a rock and hoisted himself to the next foothold before turning backwards and helping Raven. He pulled her up with one hand and when he was satisfied that she was safe in her perch he turned his eyes to Bushido, who continued to move forward.
"How did this Devine Master know we were going to fight No-al?" Nightwing asked.
"He is very knowledgeable on certain subjects. One of which, is the one called No-al."
"Is he as knowledgeable about Doomgaze?" Raven asked.
Bushido turned back and offered her a hand, hefting her up to the next plateau where Arsenal and Sakura were waiting. He followed behind her and assisted her husband. Nightwing's boots clicked against the solid stone, the movement created a tiny dust storm that didn't matter to him, but in the farthest reaches of the world created a wind storm that rocked the trees.
"He knows many things, but from what I understand, you know this." Bushido replied.
The wind from under Nightwing's feet traveled around the world and back, taking their hair and throwing it sideways. Raven lifted a hand and blocked the strands that fell loose from her braid from sweeping into her eyes. "The Devine Master was one of the first four who fought in the War of Light and Dark. I understand his business with Doomgaze, was he concerned with No-al prior to their fusion?"
"I believe that is so, but perhaps you should ask him yourself."
Bushido pointed his hand upwards to the summit they had arrived at. Though Nightwing and Sakura both were of Japanese decent, it was their first travel to Japan. The influence of a proud and tradition bound culture wasn't lost on their senses and if not for their strong since of memory, would have been lost on their emotions.
Bushido directed them firmly, feeling no need to allow them all to observe their surroundings: they weren't here to feel inspired, they were here to learn.
The room Bushido lead them to was within the largest of the dens. The floors were spotless and rug covered, the weave was tight and thick and mostly weight balancing as their bare feet treaded against the threads. Raven and Arsenal took to bow behind the anxious siblings and in truth, Raven was experiencing a great deal of anxiousness; hers was a two fold anxiety: first, she was going to meet the Devine Master, one of the four greatest warriors in the history of demon epics. He was a full blooded man, just like her husband and he had stood up to the superior fight of both Doomgaze and Trigon and won… it gave her hope that her beloved could do the same.
The second anxiety was simply that they were in a circumstance where she and her husband would have to stand against Doomgaze at all.
He was exactly as Jinx had warned her he would be: smart. His words, his declaration of Trigon's return, in no uncertain terms had crushed something in Raven's power, something she relied on to be strong. Doomgaze knew something she didn't: something about the Cave of Ledona and Trigon's return…
She hoped that the Devine Master knew more.
Bushido saw that the guests were seated before stepping to a side panel and pulling the screen open. In walked a man and a woman, both of whom Nightwing and Sakura were familiar with. Their height difference was stunning: she was less than five and a half feet, he was nearing seven. Their ages were similar, though he wore his more dignified than she could: she looked old and a bit weak, he looked dignified and masterful: that was the difference between the True and the Devine Master.
"Ka-san, Otou-sama… I have brought them here as you requested."
Nightwing and Sakura couldn't bring themselves to speak, not after their visual revelation and surely not after Bushido's declaration of parentage. Raven and Arsenal did not understand their stupefaction.
"Is it really you?" Nightwing asked, standing to his feet. His sister stepped to his side and the pair stared at the Devine Master. He nodded firmly.
"Why did you never tell us?" Sakura asked.
"What need did you have to know?" asked Feng Law.
…
"It has been a very long time, hasn't it my dear students?" Chu-hui asked.
Sakura turned her head between Bushido and Chu-hui. She pointed a questioning finger at her former mentor. "I can accept that you didn't tell me when Bushido and I were training together… but I there's something I've got to know… exactly how old were you when you had him?"
Chu-hui struck Sakura in the shin with her cane. Sakura turned blue in the face, her cheeks puffing up to keep in her yelp of pain. Bushido laughed gently and patted his former sparring partner on her back. "I am not her biological son. When she married my father, she became my mother. I unintentionally played cupid when I introduced my two teachers."
"But you didn't tell me you were Feng Law's son, either."
"You did not tell me you were his student." Bushido responded.
Nightwing stared up at the Devine Master, though he was no short man. The Devine Master was known to him by another name; he had known him by a different name his whole life. Before Nightwing stood a man he hadn't thought about in years, hadn't ever expected to see again. It was as if the last few years of his life had collided with the first half: the two parts mingling after all his efforts to keep those identities separate and unadulterated.
"You have grown up very strong." Feng Law stated, his eyes moving from Nightwing to Raven. Nightwing nodded, his head tilted in Raven's direction just a bit to let Feng Law know he had seen that careful gaze. "It seems fate is not without a sense of irony…" Feng Law continued, "She is the child of Trigon, isn't she?"
"Her name is Raven Grayson and she's my wife." Nightwing replied.
"Then you grew up stronger than I had hoped. Your father would have been very proud."
Nightwing said nothing. Sakura turned the attention of Chu-hui, Arsenal and Bushido to the Devine Master. The weapon of her mother was tied to her shoulder with her hiraikotsu, just as the spear of his father was attached to Nightwing's back. "Feng Law, all along, since the time you trained Otou-sama, did you know all of this?" Sakura asked.
"I know of Doomgaze as I fought against him and Trigon both beside Jericho, Grave and Metrion." Raven swallowed hard at the last name, Sakura swallowed hard at the first. "No-al, the monster of the Earth planes became my concern after the conclusion of the Wars of Light and Dark."
Raven had thought a time or twelve to look into Sakura's mind over the last two years: something in the way she knew much more than most people should told her that the instances of her knowledge were important for Raven to understand. It had to be much more than simply being her husband's sister; the name Jericho meant something to her and Raven would find out why, in her gut she knew that it was absolutely imperative that she understood what Sakura knew.
"He was not a demon when we fought him." Sakura stated, though the tone in her voice was more a question than a declaration.
"He was not, the relationship between Doomgaze and No-al only became definitive and dangerous eight years ago. Doomgaze was gathering his strength in Ledona and No-al was a vessel seeking to be stronger… with time, No-al offered his soul to Doomgaze, as many in the high order of demon churches do… had I not taken pity on your lives and the lives of your parents…"
Nightwing stepped forward by exactly one step. "Feng Law, you were a merciful teacher to me once… but now I do not need mercy."
"You want to fight a phantasm in your past."
Nightwing and Sakura nodded. Raven and Arsenal kept a straight face, though they too were agreeing with the siblings' sentiment. Though Arsenal was intimately tied into the battle they were heading toward, Raven knew that the energy of the upcoming struggle was the same for herself, Nightwing and Sakura. They had all been running from the same fight and now there was no more time to run.
"As ones who have taught you, and taught you thoroughly with our hands, backs, and minds, I can tell you that you are not ready…" Chu-hui said definitively.
"And never will be." Feng Law added firmly.
Nightwing balked visibly before tightening his features and tightening his fists. Raven stepped to be directly beside Nightwing, her fingertips brushed tense cords of muscles in the back of his hands for the briefest of touches that sent electricity through him, to race through his blood with the urgency he felt in his soul: there were two parts to Nightwing; the part that was for the rest of the world to see, the strong and bold and courageous part and there was the part that belonged to Raven, that vulnerable, but generous fraction that held all the details of his human heart and spirit and potential. There were parts that the rest of the world could unlock and reveal, but there were parts that only she controlled, parts that only she had the authority to lock away and hold so very tightly. "Doomgaze is plotting something, Devine Master. Something that will make both worlds that you've fought through collide… I have been fighting my entire life, even though I am a result of that deadly first world, to prevent that collision. You are the only one here with the knowledge to show us how to continue to fight… even if you will not fight, we will, but you know… that if you do not show us to be stronger, we will fail and this world will end."
"Daughter of Trigon, your faith is beautiful, but faith is simply not enough. Angels, Demons and man alike have trained their lives to defeat Trigon and Doomgaze and come close, but were unsuccessful… you wish to try again with much less power on your side than we had when we knew the depth of Doomgaze's and Trigon's abilities."
"Would you have us do nothing?" Raven asked.
"If it were No-al alone, I would have the will to believe that these two were enough."
Sakura bit her lip. She could tell herself a million ways that she was strong, that she could not be defeated, that she was good and that good prevailed… but what she could not convince herself of was her superiority over No-al. No one could: in her tally of victory and personal defeats, there was only one name that stood in the column of those who stood the victor over her and it was No-al. It inspired no confidence to hear a man who once called her his best student tell her that there was no trace of doubt in his mind that No-al could not be defeated by her fists or her brother's will.
"Feng Law, you understand who we are… what we can do and what we cannot do… we can fight but we cannot believe that you do not think us capable of winning. The weight of the rest of the world has been on our shoulders… for a very long time. If you are the man I remember you as, you will do what you can to displace that weight forever." Nightwing said, his voice refusing to betray his strength.
"You stand before me as a man I do not know, as a man whose name is hidden, whose eyes are hidden and whose face carries no memory to me… how can I put my faith in such a man?" Feng Law said simply.
Nightwing released the clasp on his belt that secured his father's weapon to his hip. He held it forward for Feng Law and Chu-hui and Sakura to see. "I am the son of the man who wielded this weapon proudly to stand against a monster. My father held this spear with strength and asked one thing of me… asked one thing of my sister and asked one thing of you… Itsumo tatsu." Nightwing reached and pulled his mask from his eyes. His eyes were a brown they were familiar with, the deep color was swirled and impacted with a subtle gold highlight, just along the corners when the light shined just so… or if he was on the verge of tears. He spun the spear and turned the blade to the back of his head and firmly grabbed his awesome locks. With a single swipe, he severed his long locks at his neck, leaving the strands to fall to the floor like black snow. "You made a promise to Matsuhiro Ueno, Feng Law, just like I did to always stand… and you were always a man of his words… how could you still be the great and honorable Feng Law if you refuse to help Matsuhiro Kenosuke¹always stand?"
With his face bared and his previous years cut away, Kenosuke stood before Feng Law as he had done fourteen years ago, when he was just a nine year old boy: looking up to him to be stronger.
"And this Matsuhiro Sakuja asks. We are all asking… for our futures, for our memories… show us what it will take to defeat our enemy." Sakuja added, spinning her mother's weapon to tap blades with the spear in her brother's grip.
"Your parents couldn't learn these skills in twenty years; you have no chance in two months." Feng Law replied.
"The skills you taught our parents did not work… you must teach us something stronger, teach us what you know, Feng Law." Kenosuke dropped to a kneel before the Devine Master. Sakuja dropped beside him and behind her, Arsenal and Raven bowed. Chu-hui watched the display with interest, seeing the way her best student, the boy who had trained so valiantly to learn to relax in his desire to be a better fighter was stripping all her lessons away, but was not weaker for it, no he was so much stronger… but still not strong enough.
"And teach us," Raven added. "The four of us, we are going to fight… for them, they'll need your strength, Devine Master and I will need your knowledge."
"And True Master, your skills could add to my talent, to leave no aspect of Doomgaze in this world." Roy Harper revealed his eyes to the room, leaving no one with hidden identities or intentions.
Feng Law stared down at faces set proudly and powerfully, in the exact formation he had stood once: one of Holy, two of full blooded human sire and one half-demon girl. "Four is a fated number: a cursed number, a number that breeds both triumph and despair. There were four demon kings and now there are two… and there were once four warriors for light… and now we have a second set. Many have lost their lives in the battle you anxiously await… but even more will die if your anxiety isn't coupled with ability."
…
Chu-hui slid the door to Raven's room shut behind her. She brought her towels and a change of clothes better suited for the summer weather than her cloak and dress: even though the material she adorned was white, it was simply too much clothing weighing down her slender body.
The Temple of the Devine Master was a small island that belonged to the country of Japan, but truly belonged to Feng Law. It was barely four times larger than Titans Isle, but it was large enough to keep them all isolated. Roy was often in the company of Bushido and Chu-hui; and Sakuja and Kenosuke's time was dedicated entirely to the lessons of Feng Law.
Raven hadn't seen her husband in a month. Not a single glance: Feng Law had allowed neither of his students a moment of rest, nor Raven and Roy a moment of peace to know that their loved ones were not over worked, over troubled or within an inch of their lives due to their training. Once Raven had heard the voice of her husband scream in pain. The tremble and duration had chilled her blood and she had wanted desperately to find him, to heal him, to hold him.
But she had made a promise… and she would not go back on it.
Raven rested in the rotenburo, the steam of the water was relaxing her as much as the temperature. Her long tresses were pinned to the top of her head to keep the weight of wet hair from weighing her head down. As it was, long strands escaped and sunk into the water just a bit before it floated along the surface tension. Raven raised a hand and let the warm water run down her slender limb before washing it with a sponge. She turned her body when she heard the sound of Chu-hui entering the bathhouse attached to her room.
Chu-hui was the only person she saw on a regular basis: Roy was captivated with his lessons and for her husband…
She had made a promise… and she would not go back on it.
Chu-hui had apologized when Raven had discovered that there was no time in the disciplining of Kenosuke and Sakuja for Feng Law to give her any of his time. The few monks in his temple, Bushido and the True Master herself did not possess the knowledge to enhance her abilities in the degree the Devine Master could, but in that Raven had taken no offense. She had known somehow that what she had to know would not be revealed to her through history: past watch was the most misleading of her education. What she would need to do, she would feel it in her bones.
Raven rested her folded arms over the stone bath wall. Chu-hui moved, but stopped in front of her when she saw Raven watching her intently. "What is it dear girl?"
"I'm not wrong to be worried am I… the training… is he okay?" Raven asked.
Raven had a hard time sleeping, mostly because her husband wasn't in bed with her and again still because she knew where he was. She could hear the echoes of his pained cries as he pushed himself harder than he had ever done before – making himself the absolute in his talents to make sure that when the training ended, he'd pass his test and take the life of a double-bladed demon.
No-al and Doomgaze as one man… Raven still shuddered to think of it even after knowing the truth for nearly two months. Maybe all along, when she went to the Justice League headquarters to find Batman, maybe all along she was looking for Richard… no, not Richard… Kenosuke Matsuhiro: that was who he was first…
But is that truly who he is? Richard Grayson, Robin and Nightwing were what he had built of himself, who he saw himself as… Richard Grayson was the name he married me as… he didn't identify with that deeper part until he had to… just like me…
"Though my husband's methods are intense, I can assure you that Kenosuke will not be broken."
"I'm not worried about Kenosuke… I'm worried about Richard…"
…
"You betray the art with such unsophisticated strokes." Another blow crashed into his body and Matsuhiro Kenosuke dropped to the ground, holding his wounded middle. He coughed deeply, feeling his body tremble to his guy. His weapon lay to his side and his sister was on the ground unconscious. Sakuja's body was strong; that she was so thoroughly beaten was a testament to the severity of the situation they were in.
For almost two months, Kenosuke had to forget about the outside world and everything he was outside of the skin on his hands and the pain in his back. He couldn't remember that he could be scared; he couldn't remember that he could be weak; he couldn't remember that there was something stronger than him… but he also couldn't forget her.
Kenosuke pulled himself to his feet and gripped his weapon tightly. His lip was busted wide open, there was blood on his cheek from the wound in his head and somewhere on the floor, mingling with sweat, tears and his sister's body was a piece of his wisdom tooth. His entire being should have been floating around him in that dim little room where his body was punished, that was what Feng Law had said. Every tiny part of him should have been in that room, stayed in that room, trapped to be molded into an entity that could truly fight.
But he couldn't do that… he couldn't control every part of himself with such completeness… and that was simply because he didn't own all of himself.
"What do you fight for Kenosuke? For the future? For your parents? For a memory?" Feng Law asked.
"For her." He replied, steadying his weight on his feet. "I can only fight because she can fight… she doesn't believe that she can fight without me."
"Can she?" Feng Law asked.
"No more than I can fight without her. If you're the man I think you are, you understand what love means… She cannot defeat Doomgaze without me and I cannot defeat No-al without her… we share the same nightmare and the same dream. We've experienced the nightmare now we must fight through dark memories to get to the dream."
Sakuja pulled herself from her stun, squeezing her eyes shut and shaking her head as she stumbled to her feet. She gripped her weapon, doing her best to ignore the deep gash in her cheek: it burned, but she had wounds before and she had always fought through them… there was a mark on her back that she had to fight through.
"Your ideology is beautiful, but not enough." Feng Law said to Kenosuke. He twisted his stance into the offensive and the Matsuhiro siblings readied their parents' weapons.
"Again!"
…
Tut.
We all run…
Tut.
We all run because we can…
Tut.
Or because we have to… because we have no other choice…
Tut.
That's what we convinced ourselves when we were kids… when we were sixteen or twelve or even as young as nine years old… we all thought we had to run… in truth, we rarely ran.
The arrow clipped through the air and struck the brass target before exploding into a million points of light.
Tut.
We all think far too much…
Roy pulled his bolt back and aimed and let go, striking the target dead center again, just like last time, just like every time.
We need to feel… that's when things make sense. When she feels strong, when he feels safe… and when she feels me…
Raven, Richard, Sakura, himself, that was the order Roy thought in, for a man with an assumed ego the size of planets, he constantly and consistently put himself last in his line of thoughts. In truth, he preferred to never think of himself at all.
Tut.
Raven never thought she could do all the things she hoped for. A bolt clashed and erupted against metal, just as he allowed. His mind was closed off to the mechanics of his talent, he let his body guide itself as his thoughts were occupied with something much more complicated than the interplay of his muscles. Richard never thought that he was protected, so he hid behind every mask he could find; good or bad…he wore names like most people wore cloths… when they didn't fit, he dropped them to the floor and burned them… except this last one, the first one, refused to burn away to memory…
Tut.
She's a part of this memory… my Sakura… my Sakura Chloe Wayne, my Sakuja Matsuhiro. A rose by any other name? This is the part she hid from me, the part that made her shake in the night and unable to speak. No-al was the monster that wounded her body in a way that would not heal. He's the part of her that she's forced to remember when she sees herself or when I see her… she has a scar on her back, just like I have along my shoulders… but she never saw the parallel.
Tut.
Roy waited for the moving target and locked on it when the shimmering disk escaped into the night. He raised his bow, hi eagle's sight trained on the small brass disk, able to keep it in view even against the total darkness of the atmosphere around him. The arrow charged red under his instruction before he let go and let the arrow find its target. The shimmering disk exploded with the arrow on impact, it hurled flecks of golden energy into the night sky.
We all think too much and mostly in the negative… when we feel, we're stronger… when Richard feels Raven's heart, he's safe… when Raven feels Richard's hands, she's brave… when I feel Sakura's passion, I feel unbreakable and when Sakura feels my---
"Roy."
The agile archer dropped his bow and turned his head, his target free to exist as whole for one more day. Her hair was pulled up, one ponytail held her thick, dark tress, leaving the mass to wave together in the summer wind. Her brown eyes blinked slowly before she turned to the side and looked out over the horizon to where the water was a deep black something that could have been menacing, but instead was as calm as her heartbeat.
Roy Harper watched her stand and look and wait. He didn't think to step forward, but felt it in his bones to move forward and wrap his arms around her. She fit perfectly there, she always had. Her profile was lit in the candle light from the temple against his green eyes she was beautiful. "I've never been afraid to stand by you, Sakuja." He said simply. His hands turned her around so his cheek was pressing her smooth forehead. His fingers ghosted against her back, finding that darkened path of skin beneath her uniform. He felt her shudder and heard her fight back insecurity and sobs.
One day…Roy thoughtone day you'll be able to feel my love for you and trust me with all the truths that break your heart and then you'll feel what its like to be in one piece…
…
Candle lights were fading just a bit, it was nearing midnight and it was getting a little cold. Raven could hear footsteps approaching her and because in the two months she had taken to listening to everything around her, when it was a knew set of steps, she knew it could only be one of two people: because her heart knew everything Richard Grayson did, she knew the one approaching her was Sakuja Matsuhiro.
Raven leaned against the railing and let the wind lead Sakuja to her. The slighter taller and leaner woman fighter took a similar pose and leaned against the railing as well. Both long haired women, the younger twenty three and the older barely twenty five, let their incomparable beauty be witnessed by the night.
"You're training is complete then?" Raven finally said.
"As it can be… there are a million different things we're never going to learn."
"Some things you have to feel to understand." Raven replied.
Sakura said nothing. Raven turned her dark eyes to the profile of her sister-in-law and took notice to an imperfection she had never seen before. Sakuja's eyes widened when Raven's fingers ghosted against a scar on her cheek.
"Oh that? It will heal." Sakuja said simply.
Raven frowned and did what she had never done before. She used her energy and healed the scar on Sakuja's face. Sakuja felt what Raven had done and cursed herself for being careless. If she forgot herself in such away in her upcoming battle, it was likely to get two people killed… if she wasn't careful in this dance step, two people would be.
"Why did that work?" Raven asked.
Sakuja shrugged simply and tried to mask ever trace of emotion she was feeling. She knew that Raven had to know something, Raven was perceptive, but Sakuja had to be careful, there was something Raven just couldn't afford to know. She had been hiding Jericho's careful work for more than two years and would rather suffer death than have Raven come to understand all the things she couldn't know. It was more than for the consequence of life, it was for the consequence of her body; if Raven were to find out about the truth of her children, there was no promise that Sakuja would have returned to her the ability to make a child in the future. There was more for Sakuja to lose than any of them and in the pit of her stomach, the part of her that used to be burning warm with her Holy power, was a cold, cold feeling that may never be replaced, but the only time it made her sick was when Raven came close to something, anything that could jeopardize the happy ending Sakura Chloe Wayne had sacrificed for.
"What happened to your Holy?" Raven asked.
Sakuja had the lie the best way she could, she could hear in Raven's throat that she was not leaving without an answer. So she gave her one. "I lost it."
"How?"
"… don't know…"
"Liar."
One word conversations with Raven were difficult, because she could say so much in a single question or accusation and it was hard to defend against such things.
"The truth is it doesn't matter… Sakura Chloe Wayne wielded Holy. Matsuhiro Sakuja knew nothing of that strength."
Raven shook her head. "You didn't have it back then… when you fought…"
"Drop it."
For a few seconds, Raven obeyed the command. "I want to know. Your powers were a part of you… the part that made you proud and brash and endlessly confident. It was what really made you my countering force."
Sakuja could almost feel Raven's internal dialog, debating whether or not to steal from her mind exactly what she wanted to know. Sakuja had to tell her… had to tell her something. "I lost my powers because I… I had to make a difficult decision."
"What decision?"
Sakuja leaned against the rail and turned her head away from Raven. Beneath her, the water was too dark and there was too little light to produce an accurate reflection of her sorrow twisted face. She had grown up far too fast, before she had even known it was had become responsible for many futures and many pasts and was constantly a link between two worlds that she barely fit into. She had missed years, important years in many lives and had to play a part she was only barely competent at. It was difficult, but everything about her was difficult, it was what made Sakuja Matsuhiro Sakura Chloe Wayne: no superhero identity, no super powers… just her mind, her fists and her heart.
"To be a woman or be a coward. Trust me when I tell you I made the right decision."
Sakuja Matsuhiro turned her back to Raven Grayson, the girl who had always been Raven, who had played that part and knew that role. She was the superhero between them with no mask, no second identity to hide behind; she was a link between two worlds that made perfect sense for her to be a part of.
They had to defend each other: Raven had to defend Sakuja from a demon force she couldn't counter…
"Why do I not believe you?"
The wind made whispers both sinister and soft.
Sakuja didn't stop walking away. "Because it was really no decision at all…"
And Sakuja had to defend Raven from a truth that could destroy them both.
…
Raven went to bed early and alone and woke up with Matsuhiro Kenosuke memorizing her face.
"You kept your promise." Kenosuke said simply.
Raven nodded. "I trusted you to come back in one piece. You've never lied to me."
Kenosuke turned his dark brown eyes from her and kept them turned away even as she sat up and touched her hand to his face. "Richard Grayson never lied to you, Raven. You knew everything he was… when I was that man, you never had to worry for me… but this man… Kenosuke, he is different… I don't know what kind of man he is or what he'll be after he will be after fighting No-al… This man, Kenosuke, has the capacity to kill."
"You've had many more names that I've had in my life… Kenosuke Matsuhiro, Richard Grayson, Robin, Ward, Leader, Red X, Apprentice, Darkwing, Nightwing… and me: Lethe tu Raven, Raven Roth and Raven Grayson… do you hear how only two truly overlap? Richard and Raven Grayson… Those aren't roles that we play: that's who we are when we're done with all of this."
"What if there's no through with this? Tomorrow---"
Raven put her hand over his lips and quieted the words of Kenosuke. "We always say tomorrow… tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow and never yesterday… and somehow we always forget today."
"How did you become so strong?" He asked when her fingers peeled away from his lips.
"Because you have something stronger than power, stronger than any measure of strength."
"Your heart." Kenosuke whispered, his lips ghosting over hers.
"My hope." Raven corrected.
"And what makes me strong enough to hold something so powerful?" Kenosuke asked, pressing his forehead into hers.
"Because you want to… you want to keep that part of me tight in your hands, just as much as I want you to. We're never stronger for each other than when we're strong for ourselves. You taught me that."
"When?"
"When you told me you loved me."
"I do love you."
"I know."
He kissed her mouth gently. "No matter who I am… I love you." Kenosuke found the tie of Raven's bed robe and pulled it from her body, exposing her skin to the air. He kissed her bare shoulder, kissed her neck, kissed her mouth again. "I love you."
"I love you and I know who you are." Raven whispered when her husband dropped his head into her bare shoulder.
Kenosuke laid Raven down and loved her for the first and last time.
…
He had never worn a uniform that meant so much. His slender frame was fitted with a garb in dark and strong colors. His clothes were normally simply and solid, single layers and thin to move with his acrobatics or particularly flashy martial arts. His dark blue yukata was pinned down by a long grey chest guard that kept his robes tight to absorb excessive blows that would damage his person. Across his right shoulder was a thick black guard to prevent damage to the arm that wielded his weapon. His short hair was tamed by a guard that wrapped around his forehead and fell back over his shoulders. Kenosuke held his father's spear at his left side and kept his balance shifted to the left, he'd have to walk that way to make sure that the battle skill he was taught would be at his command at any needing moment.
Sakuja stood beside him in a uniform very much like the one she had worn as a twelve year old girl. Her body was locked in black leather, stained with a purple berry along the breast plate and shoulder, elbow and knees guards that made metal slip off rather than cut through. Her lower weight was balanced by a heavy cape that wrapped around her hips and fell back to the lowest range of her calves. She pulled her hair up simply in a single ponytail to keep her hair out of her eyes and nothing more, her time for style and childish things was over. Her mother's swallow was strapped to her back, where her hiraikotsu used to rest.
Arsenal sat cross legged while the siblings straightened their bodies to move in their new skin. The blood they shared from their mother, the thing that made them alike, was strong. He could see the way they moved the same; maybe that's where they got their righteousness from… maybe that's were they got their fears from.
Raven took three deep breaths before opening her eyes. Chu-hui, Feng Law and Bushido had done all they could do in their part of this retched thing… it was left to Raven, Arsenal, Kenosuke and Sakuja to do the rest. She felt guilty, as if long ago she had the opportunity to end all of this and hadn't taken that chance, but she knew that wasn't the case. Azars and scribes and apprentices had seen so many things in her life, in the life of Lethe, but none of them had spoken a word of this. None of those visions saw her living this long: none of the Azars saw her live.
Kenosuke tightened his belt and pinned it firmly at his hip. He turned his eyes to his sister, than his wife then to his mentors. To those two, he had nothing left to say. To his sister, to Raven and to Arsenal, he had only one word.
"Ikuzo." (Let's go.)
…
It had taken Raven only one night with clear stars to know where the Cave of Ledona would unearth again. The travel wasn't far. It was a cave that was littered with Bromide with white streaks of sandstone breaking up the coral and brown cave walls. It was obvious that something had been acting in this place, steady acting and polluting the colors into something that could have been beautiful if they didn't understand the source of it.
Raven felt sick to her stomach. She lurched forward and barely kept from vomiting. Kenosuke turned in alarm to her as she sunk to the ground. "Raven, what is it?"
"I don't know… this place… I wasn't ready for such power. It's different then before, the energy that's feeding here is darker…"
"Darker?"
"More powerful. This has become a demon realm. Stay close to me, you aren't safe here... none of you are any more of the holy than of the profane… your life energy attracts it…" She directed to her team. "I should be able to keep most of the energy away with my demonic presence."
Arsenal frowned. Kenosuke gently caught Raven's chin.
"What?" She asked.
"You don't feel it?" Sakuja asked.
In their collective gaze on Raven's face was the mark of Scath. Her breathing became short as a sweat came to her face. That sick feeling in her stomach rolled again, she couldn't stop her retching.
"What is happening?" Kenosuke asked.
"He's opened it somehow… we're too late… my energy reacts to Trigon… somehow, he must be here! Ahhh!"
Kenosuke's eyes widened in shock as Raven dropped her face between her hands. But he had seen it, for eyes were shuddering between her fingers. He was knocked back when Raven's energy flexed powerfully, her body sinking into her soul self. The giant black bird flapped its mighty wings before screeching and racing deeper into the cave.
"RAVEN!"
"Follow her!"
The three remaining fighters took into a run and traveled deeper and deeper into the cave of Ledona where all their identities would meet their demise.
End of Part Two
A/N
¹Back in 'Raven Haired Sakura' I asked if anyone caught Robin's birth name. His birth name is Kenosuke Matsuhiro.