Chapter 16: Final Moments

A Moment with Hao:

Hao was formulating a new plan to get Ren to join his team. He was sitting down in his "thinking fort" made of branches and leaves under a tree. "Yeah, that'll work! HAHA! REN! You shall be my ally!"

"Hao-sama?" asked Opacho pulling away some leaves and branches.

"TSS!" hissed Hao clawing at the air suspended in front of him and squinting his eyes at the sudden light. "OPACHO! I thought I told you to never disturb me in my thinking fort!"

"I am sorry Hao-sama, but, the marshmallows are ready." Opacho replied.

"Oh, in that case, bring me one-no two-no, bring me four marshmallows." Hao said shooing his friend away.

"Right away, Hao-sama." Opacho said disappearing outside the fort.

"Yes…marshmallows are brain food…it'll help me think of plans to take Ren from my brother and the rest of those idiots…they are not worthy of his company…" Hao crossed his legs and rested his chin on his hand. "That's it! SPIRIT OF FIRE, COME HERE!"

The Spirit of Fire slowly crept towards him; he had been sitting with Opacho making the fire for the marshmallows. Unfortunately, the Spirit of Fire was made of fire. The fort set ablaze. Hao rushed out of it and scowled at his spirit. "YOU IDIOT! YOU RUINED MY THINKING FORT! I HAVE HALF THE MIND TO THROW WATER ON YOU OR SOMETHING!" The huge spirit scuffed his foot on the ground awkwardly, and tapped his index fingers together sadly, staring down at the ground.

"Oh, I'm sorry Spirit of Fire; I can't stay mad at you!" said Hao hugging the spirit's ankle. "Anyway, the reason I called you here; I want you to sneak up on Ren, and take him by force! Grab him and tie him up! Then bring him here and I will force him to be our comrade!" Hao laughed maniacally and threw his arms in the air dramatically.

The Spirit of Fire groaned. Sometimes, he really did think his master was completely insane. The Spirit left to do his bidding.

"Hehe, Ren shall be mine…" muttered Hao sitting by the fire with Opacho. He glanced at his burned up fort and sighed. It had taken him a full day to make that fort, and it's not like he had a lot of spare time or anything. There was an awkward pause for about 10 minutes.

"Hao-sama?" said Opacho from across the fire.

"Yes?" Hao answered looking to his friend.

"Why do you insist on Ren being your friend?"

"He is great."

"Is that all?"

"He is greater than many other shamans on this earth, and he is only thirteen years old. In some ways, he is greater than my brother." Hao finished. Just then, the Spirit of Fire returned, looking rather embarrassed.

"Well, where is Ren?" asked Hao, not seeing his new comrade anywhere upon the spirit.

"Groagrafgrooooan." Groaned the Spirit of Fire.

"WHAT?" exclaimed Hao.

"What did he say?" asked Opacho, confused.

"In translation, he said; Ren was alone outside, taking a walk or something, so he decided to strike then. He approached him silently, completely out of sight, and then attacked him. But Ren kicked him in the shin. Apparently, this IDIOT of a spirit fell onto a building and knocked it down; it caused a chain reaction of buildings falling, like dominos." Hao glared up at his spirit and frowned angrily. "Are you really that dumb?"

The spirit sat down, his back turned from Hao and they heard sobbing. Hao felt bad for his spirit and tried to cheer him up.

"Hey, it's not that bad. I'm sorry I got angry, it's just, when it comes to Ren, I loose my temper…" Hao tried to see the spirit's face, but he kept turning away. "…Who's a giant spirit? Hmm? Who's the biggest, baddest, evilest spirit on the earth? Who?" said Hao in a childish tone.

The spirit looked up at him. "Grogfm?" he groaned pointing to himself.

"That's right, you are!" said Hao hugging his giant spirit. The Spirit of Fire was instantly cheered up, and even though you couldn't tell, he smiled at his master.

A Moment with Lyserg:

Lyserg had been sulking since he had left the sight of Lettuce. All he did was mope around Patch Village, and ignore everyone. At this moment, he was sitting on a bench by the water fountain, staring at the water sadly. It was almost sunset.

Mina, Venstar and Marco had been watching him for the last few days, making sure he didn't do anything crazy.

"Something is seriously wrong with him." said Mina sadly.

"You've been saying that for two days now." Marco said angrily.

They all looked at him worriedly.

Lyserg pulled something out of his pocket. It was a clear plastic bag, filled with a white powder. Morphin looked concerned, and it looked like she pulled on his hair to try and stop him. He opened the bag.

"NO!" exclaimed Mina, Marco and Venstar in unison. They all rushed towards him and tried to pry the drugs out of his grip.

"BUT I NEED THEM!" screamed Lyserg fighting with everything he had. His eyes were wide as dinner plates, and his pupils like peas resting upon those plates.

"YOU HAVE DONE SO WELL, LYSERG! DON'T GIVE UP NOW!" yelled Venstar pulling at the bag.

The combined power of three adults was much more than a small girly thirteen year old boy could take. The drugs slipped out of his hand, but at the same time, they slipped out of Venstar's hand. The drugs toppled into the water of the fountain.

"NO!" screamed Lyserg rushing to the water, breaking free of the now weaker hold of the adults. He fell to the side of the fountain, and watched. He felt his sanity slipping out of him, just as the drugs were slipping out of the bag.

A quick flash of his past flew by him in less than a moment, back in his young childhood years in London. After Hao had killed his parents, he had been forced to live on the streets until he was 12. When he was about 10, he had been begging on a corner near the docks. It was a very dark and foggy day; the smell of rain filled the air. A tall man with a long black coat walked by him. Lyserg scurried after him. "Please sir, may I have some money?" He had asked in his squeaky childlike voice. "Of course not, you'll just by drugs with it." The man had said in a deep Cockney accent. "Drugs? Please sir, May I ask what those are?" Lyserg asked quietly. "Don't play dumb with me kid," The man said as he spat at Lyserg, "I'm out of here." The man slipped his hand into his pocket and slyly skidding in a puddle; splashing Lyserg. But as he did so, a small transparent plastic bag fell out of the man's pocket and landed in front of Lyserg. Lyserg stared at the bag curiously. He wiped away the mud from his face with his sleeve and picked up the bag. He opened it slowly and sniffed the white powdery contents. Cautiously, Lyserg licked his finger and slipped it into the bag. He raised his finger to eye level and stared at the mysterious substance; then slipped his finger into his mouth. Suddenly, he came back to present time and remembered what was going on.

"NO!" he grabbed the soaked bag, but it was too late, there was nothing left. He slurped at the bag, but nothing. He dunked his face into the water and tried to slurp up the taste of the drugs, but there was nothing left of it. Lyserg stumbled off of the fountain, and fell to the ground. He skunked into the feeble position, and started to cry.

Marco was first at his side, followed by Mina and then Vestar. They slowly pulled him up and rested his back to the fountain. His cheeks were soaked with not the water from the fountain, but tears.

"It's alright Lyserg, you don't need drugs." Mina said in a comforting tone.

"But I do!" squealed Lyserg wiping his face with his sleeve.

"No, you don't. We can help you overcome this pain; all three of us have experienced what it's like to have someone not love you back." Venstar said smiling.

"You have?" sniffed Lyserg wiping the last of his tears from his face.

"Yes, sure it hurts for a while…actually, it can hurt for a long time…but eventually you will move on. I'm sure it is very hard for someone as young as you to have to face this pain. I was already 19 when I experienced it. I was much more mature, but Lyserg, we will help you through this." Marco said reassuringly.

"You promise?" asked Lyserg sadly.

"Yes, we promise." They all answered together.

"Thank you. You are all too kind." Lyserg said forcing a smile.

"Now come on, I'm sure Jeanne-sama is wondering where we are." Venstar said standing up.

Mina and Marco helped Lyserg to his feet, and agreed.

They all walked into the bright light, and disappeared. What they didn't notice was the whole time; there was a young boy shaman, no older than 9 or 10, watching the entire incident from another bench. He had been feeding the birds. He sat there, stunned, his jaw practically on the ground. He dropped his bag of bird seed, and ran off crying.

A Moment with Deep Blue:

"What am I going to do with all these smoothies and this game of twister?" asked Deep Blue setting the smoothies on a small pillar. He glanced around to make sure if no one was there. "Aww, I can't believe they actually left me here all alone…I was going to throw a party for them…I guess I can throw one for myself." Deep Blue decided to go out and buy a gallon of ice cream. He removed the barrier, and teleported away into a local convenient store. He found his favorite, vanilla ice cream, and took it to the cashier.

The man behind the counter just stared at Deep Blue, his eyes wide. Deep Blue had completely forgotten that it wasn't normal for a human to see someone with such big ears and such odd clothing buying ice cream.

"Umm…I'd like to buy this…" said Deep Blue calmly.

The man rang up the ice cream, not removing his astonished gaze from the tall man with the long hair.

"$2.99" he said simply. "Do you have, umm…money?"

"Mon-ey…umm…" Deep Blue grabbed the ice cream and teleported away.

The guy at the cashier rubbed his eyes and blinked twice.

"Maybe I do need those glasses…"

Deep Blue appeared in his dimension and started to eat the ice cream. Soon after, he played twister alone, and drank every single one of his delicious smoothies.

A Moment with Ryou and Keiichiro:

"How are we going to cope with the loss of our pawn?" asked Ryou. He and Keiichiro were in the back room. That was always were they…conversed.

"I don't know, maybe we should get another one." Keiichiro replied, he was careful to keep his voice down, for the Mews might here them.

"Like who?"

"I don't know, maybe Mint?" Keiichiro asked. There was a small pause.

They both burst out laughing, forgetting about keeping their voices quiet.

"HAHA! GOOD ONE!" laughed Ryou.

"HAHA! Oh, I'm just joking. What about Zakuro?"

"Hello? I heard hysterical laughing, is everything alright?" Lettuce entered the room.

"Umm, yeah, everything is fine pawn-I mean Lettuce…" said Ryou.

"Oh, okay then." Lettuce exited the room, closing the door behind her.

"Phew, the pawn almost caught us."

You see, Ryou and Keiichiro always used Lettuce as a pawn in their sick and twisted game of gay chess. They each made the other one jealous using Lettuce in one way or another, but now that she was married, they didn't think it was right.

"Well, it can't be Zakuro, shed figure it out." Keiichiro sitting down in a chair.

"And of course not Mint." Ryou said going to the coffee machine.

"Of course. But Pudding is too young, and I think we both have an idea of what it would be like if Ichigo was the pawn…" They took a moment to imagine the hysterical fits she would have over there metaphorical game of chess.

"Then who?" asked Ryou handing a cup of coffee to Keiichiro.

"I don't know, perhaps, we do not need a pawn…" Keiichiro realized. "Ryou! I have an idea!" He paused as Ryou looked at him curiously; Keiichiro went on, "What if we don't have a pawn? We could actually express our love to each other without making each other jealous all the time."

"By god, Akasaka-san, you are a romantic genius!" Ryou expressed his joy by locking Keiichiro in a huge hug.

At that moment, they fell in love with each other all over again.