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Chapter Eleven: Lifeless

Kio stood in the middle of the small shop, letting the last few fleeing customer's swirl past him. The small building was unharmed. Nothing looked amiss except for the two lifeless bodies on the ground in front of Ritsuka.

Kio felt sick. The Ritsuka he knew would never harm anyone. That was why he had finally relinquished Soubi...

"Ritsuka-sama." Soubi's voice cut through the sudden stillness of the building.

Ritsuka turned towards the older man, apparently startled at his presence. Kio didn't like the look in his violet eyes.

"Where were you, Soubi-kun?" Ritsuka asked. His voice sounded unusually high and shaky to Kio's ears. "I needed you and you weren't here to protect me."

"I'm sorry, Ritsuka-sama. I came as quickly as I could..." Soubi cut off as Ritsuka slapped him. Kio winced at the sound of flesh hitting flesh.

"I'm bleeding because of you!" Ritsuka raised his hand to his Soubi again, but paused. He lowered his hand and cocked his head to the side, as if he were studying a specimen. Perhaps he was. "Did you know they killed my brother?" Ritsuka asked. His voice sounded more normal, less strained. It was still too intense for Kio's liking.

Soubi didn't answer right away. He was slapped again. Involuntarily, Kio felt himself take a step forward- to come to his friend's defense. He forced himself to wait. Soubi had to decide for himself... "Answer me, Soubi!" Ritsuka snarled.

"Yes, Master, I knew." Soubi's voice was too calm, too defeated.

The change in Ritsuka was instant. His eyes widened and he stepped back from Soubi. "You knew and you didn't tell me?" Any vestige of calmness that Ritsuka's voice had held was gone. It was shrill, high. Hysterical. Kio wondered about his sanity. "Traitor! Liar!" Ritsuka held his hands out in front of him, a large ball of light forming between them.

Kio's eyes widened. He didn't know what that ball was but it might actually kill Soubi. His resolve to let Soubi make his own decisions vanished at the ball of light left Ritsuka's hand and flew towards Soubi. Kio rushed forward and pushed Soubi out of the way just at the ball crashed into him.

Kio felt himself fall to the ground. His entire body felt as though it was on fire from the inside out. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think. He distantly heard insane shrieking but couldn't bring himself to understand the words or care. The pain increased, as though his limbs were being ripped from him. The burning sensation increased, outside his body now.

As suddenly as it had begun, the pain stopped and Kio drifted into cool darkness.

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Soubi had forgotten about Kio until he pushed him aside. Soubi fell to his knees with a grunt. He watched, blue eyes wide as Ritsuka-sama's energy ball crashed into his friend.

Ritsuka-sama's eyes widened. He turned towards Soubi, voice high and shrill. "What's he doing here? I thought I told you to never speak to him again?"

"Master I..."

"You're sleeping with him aren't you? Cheater! Traitor! Liar! He'll pay for this, then you will, Soubi. You're both going to suffer!"

Ritsuka turned towards Kio's writhing body and shot fire out at him. He was laughing, as though he enjoyed the suffering.

"Ritsuka..." Soubi pushed himself to his feet, throwing himself at Ritsuka. He knocked the slim form to the ground. Soubi landed on top. Instantly, Soubi removed himself from his Master. He was startled to see blatant insanity in his Ritsuka's eyes.

This wasn't Ritsuka. It couldn't be. Whatever this was...this wasn't his Ritsuka. This wasn't even the original Ritsuka.

"You defy me?" Ritsuka asked, his violet eyes wide and shocked but not sane. "I'll punish you, Soubi. You'll regret...Seimei gave you to me, didn't he? That means you have to listen to me!" Ritsuka called another ball of energy to his hands.

His decision made, Soubi stepped into Ritsuka, grabbed his left hand and kissed him. Ritsuka tried to pull away, but Soubi was still the stronger of the two. As he held Ritsuka in place, Soubi called upon the spells were as natural to him as breathing and entered Ritsuka's mind.

The swirling blackness was different this time. This was no spell battle. It was the landscape of Ritsuka's mind.

Soubi had been here before, on Seimei's orders, to block off his memories. The events that had set this disaster into motion. He had driven Ritsuka insane. Soubi only hoped he could restore Ritsuka to level of sanity.

Soubi looked around the vaguely familiar darkness. There was nothing for Soubi to rest his eyes on. He was standing on nothing.

Soubi closed his eyes and envision Ritsuka as he had first been introduced to the boy. A child, not even eight years old. The original personality. He summoned it.

Soubi opened his eyes into blackness.

The original personality was gone. There was nothing left. The child that Ritsuka had been had ceased to exist. Not surprising. It was a stage of life called adolescence that had destroyed the eight-year old boy.

Calmly, Soubi closed his eyes and tried again, this time, calling to the Ritsuka he had fallen in love with.

This time, when he opened his eyes, his Ritsuka was standing before him, his violet eyes wide and tear-filled.

"Soubi," he said, voice soft. "I'm sorry...I never meant...I...that's not...I can't stop it..."

Soubi's eyes widened. Ritsuka knew what was happening, what he was doing. He was crying openly now. Helpless sobs.

"Ritsuka," Soubi kept his voice soft. He stepped towards the boy and took him in his arms. "Its my fault Ritsuka. I'm sorry." He buried his cheek in the short black hair on top of Ritsuka's head. "I'm going to fix it, Ritsuka. I'm sorry."

Ritsuka pulled away and Soubi let him. "What will happen to me?" he asked.

"I don't know," Soubi answered truthfully. If this Ritsuka disappeared it would hurt Soubi, kill him inside. He would continue to serve the new one, but only out of duty to the one before him. But there was no way to force this shell of a personality into resuming control of the body. If Ritsuka had been capable of it, he would have done it already.

And there was no telling what destroying the now-dominant personality would do to Ritsuka.

Ritsuka nodded, his violet eyes watery. "Do it, then, Soubi," he said, voice soft.

Soubi nodded. He felt Ritsuka take his hand. Soubi squeezed it and closed his eyes. He called to the dominant personality and prayed he could remain in control of the situation.

Soubi felt Ritsuka's hand on his tighten and knew it had worked before he opened his eyes. Before him was another Ritsuka, glaring at him from a gilded cage. It was an angry and not-quite sane glare but harmless. He did not try to break the bars, though Soubi knew that here, in Ritsuka's own mind, the creature before him could. Fortunately, neither Ritsuka seemed to know that.

"Flames consume the flesh, earth crush bones, water purify the remains and wind scatter the dust. Ultimate destruction." Soubi's voice was toneless as he cast the spell. Darkness swirled and gathered, obscuring the caged boy from Soubi's view. Ritsuka's hand in his vanished. When Soubi turned to look, he was gone.

Soubi felt empty, hollow, drained. His work was done. Both personalities had been destroyed. There was nothing left but to see what remained.

Soubi let the spell holding him in Ritsuka's mind vanished. The shop swirled back into view.

Soubi gently placed the unconscious Ritsuka on the floor and stood up to survey the bodies of his friends. In the distance, he could hear sirens.

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A/N: Next chapter's the last. Don't worry, I do promise a happy ending.