Title: Saishū Yume
Author: Remus J. Lupin-Black
Rating: R
Genre: Action/Adventure/Alternate Universe/Romance
Pairing(s): Remus/Sirius, Severus/Harry, Hermione/Ron, Albus/Minerva
Summary: It starts, as a simple kidnapping. It will become an adventure unlike any other as a group of mismatched heroes find themselves drawn into a war for not only their lives, but also their very souls.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author's Note: Thanks to my beta once again for finding my stupid little mistakes and making me look like I know how to type. Reviews are appreciated as usual.
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Chapter Thirty-Five
Angel of Death
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Severus stood leaning against the wall inside the prince's room, arms crossed over his chest as he looked between the room's other occupants. Weasley was standing by the door, back straight. The knight was scowling deeply and he had a habit of muttering darkly under his breath at intervals. Meanwhile, Harry was sitting uneasily in a chair across the room, looking worriedly at Remus and then catching Severus' eye, seeking help. Remus sat on the edge of the bed, hands clasped together in his lap. His head was bowed and he seemed lost in prayer.

"Harry," the summoner tensed, looking away from Severus.

"Yeah?" he asked softly.

"I want you to find Sirius," there was silence and the three others in the room looked at each other for a long moment.

"He told you not to follow him," Severus said calmly.

Harry looked over at Severus and frowned.

"I am not following him," Remus said easily, looking up from his clasped hands. "I'm having Harry follow him."

Harry grinned at the prince's logic and leapt from the chair.

"I'm on it!" he said cheerfully. "I'll knock some sense into him too for being such a jerk to you before."

Severus arched an eyebrow as the summoner left the room, pounding down the stairs and out into the street. He listening carefully for a long moment and then looked over at the prince to find him gazing intently at him, gold eyes narrowed.

"What?" he demanded.

Remus shook his head.

"I feel as if something terrible is going to happen."

-

Sirius followed her back out onto the street, filled with the soulless Inferi. He found himself looking at them as they walked down the street, searching for some sign of life, some flicker of a soul at work behind their cold gray eyes. Nothing. With a shudder, he finally looked away and found himself standing before a fluttering gray cloth hanging from an archway. He couldn't be sure how they had gotten here. The woman stood beside it, looking blankly at him. He avoided her eyes and looked at the curtain.

"Hey, Sirius," nearly sighing with frustration, the thief turned around. Narcissa was walking slowly down the path toward them, her sword held casually in her hands.

"What do you want?" he asked, managing a friendly smile.

"That's a hell of a way to say hello," Narcissa said with a scowl as she sheathed her weapon, looking sharply at the woman standing a few paces away. "I went out into the field hoping to find something worth killing."

"No challenge?" Sirius asked.

"Not even close," she replied. "Harry could take these things out."

"Can I ask you something?" Sirius asked suddenly, looking conflicted as he spoke, his voice edged with worry. Narcissa gazed at him for a moment and she scowled.

"No," she answered with a shrug.

"Do you…do you have parents?"

Narcissa scoffed.

"That's a stupid question," she said scornfully. "I don't remember any doting parents. My first memory is of the face of the man that I married."

Sirius nodded, glancing at the archway. Narcissa followed his gaze and frowned.

"You?" she asked.

"I don't have parents," he said quietly.

The woman standing nearby stirred suddenly and she strode through the archway and disappeared. Sirius followed her, ignoring Narcissa's questions, his mind on only one thing as he passed through the archway and onto a shaded path that curved out of sight a few paces away.

"Where are you taking me?" he asked.

"I told you," the woman replied coolly. "You are going to see Voldemort."

Sirius looked around uneasily, as if expecting this mysterious figure to leap out from behind a tree. When this did not happen, he looked back at the woman and scowled.

"Where do I go?"

"At the end of this path," she lifted one long fingered hand and motions down the path, "there is a staircase. Follow it up to where the souls sleep. He is waiting for you."

Sirius nodded and he turned away from her and started down the path.

"Thanks," he mumbled.

"Will you not say farewell to your friends?" the thief stopped, his shoulders tense, eyes downcast.

"I was born here, right?" he asked quietly, more to himself than her as she nodded. "That makes me their enemy. I am…their enemy."

"You learn quickly," she said.

Sirius turned back to her, gray eyes narrowed angrily.

"I'm not joining you," he snarled. "If we…we're related so I'm going to take care of this alone. This is a family issue."

Spinning back around, he started down the path. The woman shook her head and moved back toward the archway to return to the village.

-

Harry stopped when he saw Narcissa standing at the end of a short path, scowling at the same woman that had asked to speak to Sirius. If anyone knew where Sirius was, it would be that woman. He ran toward her, stopping as Narcissa looked sharply at him.

"Where's Sirius?" he asked.

"He has gone to see Voldemort," the woman answered simply.

"Why?" the summoner looked to Narcissa. "He would have told us."

The bounty hunter shrugged.

"Well he didn't," she said with a growl. Harry turned on the woman, looking so irritated that Narcissa nearly laughed.

"Where is he?" he demanded.

"'I am their enemy.' That is what he said before he passed through the Veil," she answered.

The laugh that had been threatening to escape caught and died in her throat at the woman's answer. Her voice was so emotionless that it made the weight of the words seem heavier. Their enemy he said. She looked over at Harry and saw that the sensitive summoner was looking near tears.

"You're lying," he whispered fiercely, glaring at the woman. "That's a terrible lie."

"I do not lie," the woman said. "I do not have the emotions to make lying possible."

Harry bit his lip and looked at Narcissa.

"We have to tell the others," the bounty hunter could only manage to nod as the summoner took off down the street toward the inn. She followed him, her pace its usual slow gait and felt the woman's eyes on her back the entire way.

-

He moved sedately up the stairs, deeper into the dark of a dreary looking building of alien design. Black as onyx, but made of a duller material, it seemed to suck him in as he walked up the curved stairs. He stumbled once and pushed himself back onto his feet, a sudden well of determination streaking through him the higher up he went. Finally, he reached the top of the steps and passed through a doorway into a small circular room. Another narrow staircase disappeared upward on the opposite side of the room.

"So you have finally returned," the air shifted and suddenly a cloaked figure stood in front of him in the small room. The hood was thrown back and red eyes gazed intently at him, black hair cut short. It was the man that he had seen when they had first come to Terra.

"You're Voldemort," Sirius said.

The red eyes narrowed in amusement.

"Nineteen years ago, I gave life to a newly created Inferi. He became my most prized possession. Ten years ago I lost that Inferi. He was sent to Gaia to disrupt the cycle of souls there," Voldemort explained, watching Sirius intently. "You are that Inferi. Welcome home."

"Shut up!" Sirius shouted, his composure and anything he had wanted to say, lost. "I didn't come here to answer to you! I want answers. Tell me why I grew up on Gaia and why you want to destroy it!"

"I have no intention of destroying Gaia," Voldemort disappeared, reappearing with a soft displacement of air, behind Sirius and placing a thin boned hand onto the thief's shoulder.

Sirius jerked away from him as if he had been burned, turning around violently, his dark hair whipping wildly behind him as he turned. Most of the strands wound up falling across his chest.

"Then what do you want with it?" he demanded, looking alarmed.

"I want to make Gaia into Terra," Voldemort answered.

"What?"

"You growing up on Gaia was not in my plans, but he was behind that," Voldemort said smoothly.

"He? He who?"

Voldemort smirked.

"You know him quite well," he answered. "He had caused you more than enough trouble I'm sure since you got yourself involved in this."

He walked across the room and started up the stairs, not looking back at Sirius.

"Come," he said. "It is not yet time for Terra's restoration. I may need your help."

"Wait!" Sirius started after him. "You mean Regulus, don't you?"

"Correct," Voldemort said. "Twenty-four years ago Regulus was created. I sent him to Gaia to disrupt the cycle of souls, but your brother was flawed."

Sirius swallowed.

"My brother?" he asked, his voice loosing it anger and falling into quiet shock.

"Yes, your brother," Voldemort replied, walking up the dark stairs, Sirius at his heels, looking intently at him cloaked back. "The genes that were used to create you were the same as those used to create Regulus. He was flawed from birth and tries to assert his individuality. It seems that you have inherited this same flaw."

"No. I'm not like him at all!" Sirius stopped walking, looking erratic as his voice reached an almost hysterical tone.

"He said the same thing," they were in a new room now, a library of some sort. Sirius looked around, taking in the massive volumes tucked away on shelves and then he turned narrowed, gray eyes to Voldemort.

"Why was he sent to Gaia?" he demanded.

"To cause war and chaos," Voldemort answered simply.

"What?"

"Disrupting the flow of souls is easier to achieve through war," was the reply. "Regulus did more for me than I could have hoped."

"And me?" Sirius asked coldly. "What about me?"

"When you were given the gift of life, Regulus could not bear it the thought. You were far more powerful then him. In his anger, he left you upon Gaia, the world that he would destroy."

"So I was just another pawn?" Sirius asked. "Just a pawn to starting a war?"

"Correct," Voldemort said. "Of course, I was surprised when I learned that Regulus had abandoned you on Gaia, but it is, I believe, in his nature. To him, bringing war onto the very world he had left you upon would prove his victory over you."

Sirius shook his head, trying to comprehend this new information. His heart was threatening to beat out of his rib cage and his breath was coming in fast, short gasps. He put a hand over his chest absently.

"This is why the blood of thousands was spilled?" he asked finally, his voice filled with anger.

Voldemort laughed.

"Yes. The souls of Gaia are drained and replaced by the souls of Terra. To speed the cycle of souls would be to speed up the work as a whole, thus war," he answered. "In time, Gaia's souls will be gone and Gaia will become Terra."

"And what of Gaia's souls?" Sirius asked breathlessly.

"I have utilized them for my power," Voldemort replied. "To keep myself alive and to empower you and Regulus."

"How?" Sirius demanded. "How are you doing this?"

"You have seen it with your own eyes," Voldemort answered, looking perplexedly at the thief. "The Whomping Willow acts as the soul divider. It comprises the souls of Gaia so that I might use them to give you and your brother life and to keep myself alive so that I might watch this place."

Sirius nodded.

"But we killed the creature controlling it," he said dully.

Voldemort shook his head.

"What you killed was a physical manifestation of the Whomping Willow. Even now the Willow blocks the flower of Gaia's souls and allows those of Terra to flow freely."

"What about the people here?" Sirius asked. "What happens to them?"

"They will be given souls when my work is done. It will be a reward for aiding me," he turned his back to Sirius and strode purposefully across the room to a small door. Reaching out, he touching the black surface. The door swung open at his touch and he turned and looked back at the thief standing in the middle of the empty room.

"Come," Voldemort said, his voice barely above a whisper, " see the true form of this planet."

The room beyond was smaller than the last, but the ceiling above was the rounded surface of a planet, pulsing with orange light. Sirius gazed unblinkingly at it, feeling suddenly calmed.

"What is this?" he asked, softly.

"This is where I measure the radiance of Gaia and Terra," Voldemort replied.

"And this light?"

"The center of the planet. It is the end and the beginning of the cycle of souls. The light is Gaia's now, but when the blue changes to red all will belong to Terra and its restoration will be complete. I bound the light in the Whomping Willow so that I could prevent the cycle of judgement of souls on Gaia from inside the very planet. That is the Whomping Willow's true purpose. It's true form is a place of memories from the souls of the planet itself. All you saw was the material form."

Sirius sighed, looking fatigued, wounded.

"So…Regulus is just…" he swallowed. "Regulus is an angel of death. To send souls to the Whomping Willow."

Voldemort's mouth twisted up into a cruel smile.

"An accurate metaphor," he said coldly. "Yes. He is my angel of death. At least until you came of age."

Sirius looked confused.

"What?"

"Regulus' soul is not eternal," Voldemort explained. "I had planned to make you. Your soul is much more powerful. That is one of the reasons that you have become an Animagus."

"You mean you won't need Regulus once I'm stronger than him?"

"Precisely, though you are all ready far more powerful than him. His soul is incapable of handling the power that you will gain. It seems that because he is unable to feel weaker emotions, his soul does not have the strength. His attempts to gain more power will destroy him and you will take his place," Voldemort said, looking amused at the thought. "Now, are you finally aware of your reason for existing."

"Yes," Sirius said slowly, walking toward the door into the empty room beyond. "All of the laughter and tears, everything that I've ever shared with the people I grew up with–"

"It is meaningless," Voldemort said appearing before Sirius, blocking him from descending the stairs by placing a cold hand onto his shoulder. "You are destined to live amongst the stars for all eternity. You have the power, given and gained by these experiences, the position, and the motive to do it."

Sirius jerked out of his grasp, shaking his head.

"I don't want that kind of power," he said gently. "I just wanted a home. A family. Not this."

"We are your family and this," Voldemort gestured to the dark walls around them, "is your home."

"No!" Sirius shouted. "My place is with the Marauders on Gaia. With Severus and Harry. With Ginevra and Hagrid. With Narcissa and Weasley. With…with Remus. They're my family. My home. I won't let you destroy that."

Voldemort's red eyes narrowed dangerously.

"And how do you plan to do this?" he asked.

"I'll destroy Terra and Regulus," the thief replied, his voice gained in volume. "I won't be Gaia's angel of death. I'll be yours."

"Pity," Voldemort said reaching out again and grasping Sirius' shoulder tightly, even as the thief struggled. "I had hoped that it would not come to this."

There was a flash of black light from beneath his fingers. A burst of pain and Sirius cried out, falling to the ground as the world slid into darkness. Voldemort sighed, shaking his head as he gazed down at the unconscious body at his feet. His weapon, the green blades pulsing with the black strands of magic that Voldemort had used, was hot to the touch, lying a few inches away from his curled fingers.

"If it is these memories that make you so defiant than I shall have to purge you of them."

-
Author's Note: Um… hides

Next chapter: The others go after Sirius…