This is a very emotional chapter for me TwT soon you will see why. I'll just thank you right now for reading up until here and hope you don't hate me after this chapter.

As for the title, well an easy google of the name Abaddon leaves it clear to why I chose the name. Wikipedia helps too c;

Let's get into it then.


Chapter Eighteen

At Abaddon's Door


How fast can a blonde brat, a maladapted nanny, and a damn rabbit go in the middle of fucking nowhere!?

"Relax. We'll find them."

"It better be fast before I blow a fuse," I mumbled under my breath to Chronos. The more we walked into the chasm the more I hated myself for giving chase and not giving myself time to change into a more comfortable outfit. These slippers were really thin and I could feel every rock underneath my feet. "I swear if we don't find them soon I'll be going berserk on this place. Damn be the cost."

"That's true!" Leo exclaimed with a grin. "You hate dark places don't you?"

It ticked me off that he said it with such glee. He was clearly enjoying my obvious distress at the situation at hand. "Please, calm down. You worry too much," I reply with heavy sarcasm.

"Be quiet, both of you!" Elliot called out a bit annoyed at our rambling. "The sooner we find them, the better." Following the Young Master down the hole, we continued our way.

But when I gave a wrong step on a brittle rock, I slipped and fell. Or so I thought but I didn't feel the hard floor on my face from the fall. Instead I felt a pair of hands holding my waist and the smell of sandalwood and lavender.

"Try to be more careful." Putting me down on my feet on a floor clear of pebbles, Elliot didn't say much more before letting me go. Damn, when the hell—

"You all right?" Turning to face Leo and snapping out of my daydream, I assure him I'm fine before going on. Passing me, he went ahead and went to Elliot's side as did I shortly after.

Weird. This place was freezing. Holding myself, I watched at the air became denser and I noticed it got a little harder to breath with each step. Again, smart on my part for keeping these clothes on. Not.

"Claire?"

"Huh?"

"Are you sure you're fine? You stopped." Just then I realized that I had, actually, stopped walking while I was lost in my thoughts.

Shaking my head and holding my cloak closer to myself, I reply, "I'm fine. Just cold. It must be the fog."

"Speaking of which," Leo commented shortly after. "Isn't the fog getting thicker?"

"Ignore it," Elliot replied to his cautions.

But I had to admit that Leo had a point. And it wasn't just the fog, something felt heavy in the air. Regardless of those tiny things, shouldn't something have popped out by now? I mean, Sister Fiona had always warned us with stories about this place. The poisonous gas, the monsters, the people who've gone missing... Surely by now we must have encountered some—

In the blink of an eye, the scenario changed before us into a bustling town. The people coming and going, the cherry blossoms that fell in the spring breeze, the smell of foods and goods that came and went.

All this...I knew it. Remembered it, somehow. If not my mind, it must have been my body. My mind reeling with the feeling this place gave me, I raised my hand trying to catch a petal.

I knew this town...

"Sablier..."

But just when I was about to catch it, another's hand caught my own and began dragging me outside where the town began to vanish behind me.

"Don't look!" Elliot barked as he dragged me while Leo followed suit behind us. "If you move on with a strong mind, you won't be caught up in the illusion."

"Ah~"

That voice...

"What cool words those are...boy~"

Before any one of us could say or do much, I felt Elliot's hand slip from mine when we turned to cover each others' backs as decrepit creatures surged from the darkness. Lottie began explaining what these things were.

People. Those who had wondered into this place and had been affected by the nearness to the Abyss. That explained the missing people. So the rumors were true just not quite accurate.

"Leo! Claire! Stay close to me!" Elliot bellowed but when Leo didn't respond we both turned to him.

Before I could react at the threat, though, something caught my body and strung it tight bringing my arms and legs tightly together. Hearing the gun go off, I brought my head up to see Elliot barely evade the shot that Leo had fired with a scratch.

When Lottie caught Elliot with her whip by his throat, I thrashed against the strings holding me and I would have broken them with Chronos had I not felt a steel blade against my throat. Gritting my teeth, I only heard her crazed cackle while she spoke, "It's Chronos! Chronos! Duldom sure would lo~ve to have a taste of you!" Resorting to other, more pathetic attempts, I bellowed at her.

"Lottie! Let them go!"

"Ah! You remember me now~" she cooed with a malicious grin on her face. "Then you'll know just how merciless—" she tightened the whip on Elliot for emphasize. "I can really be!"

No! But even moving was useless because the moment I tried, I heard Zwei behind me. "Move and Lottie will behead the brat~" No...No! I can't move. I can't even use Chronos! Something...something was suppressing his powers!

Out of nowhere, I heard Zwei give a sharp breath a second before the strings around me loosened completely. But before I had time to reach the others, a hand grabbed me and snatched my hand away.

"Stop right there!" I heard Lottie yell.

"I can't!" It was him—the Baskerville boy. "There's no more time left!" And just as I yelled after the two that I was leaving, the boy hauled me through some opening and everything went black quicker than I could tell.

My breathing quickly became shallow but then just as fast came to me. I hadn't even noticed that I had closed my eyes until I opened them at hearing the wind blowing.

Once opened, I stared in awe at the scenery before me. It was like nothing I had seen before. I was almost certain it was another illusion. It had to be. No real place could ever be this beautiful. A green prairie came to be out till it disappeared behind the horizon. Birds and butterflies came and went with the warm breeze. My body wasn't cold anymore, and instead the warmth of the air gave me a sense of nostalgia.

"Where...am I?" I whispered my voice showing the amazement that I felt.

"It's the Gray Garden." Spinning on my heels, I saw the boy cladded with his red cloak. The lilt of his voice gave this place a whole new level of melancholy to me. For some reason, when I heard his voice immense happiness as well as sadness overwhelmed me. "This is a manufactured space, one created by the first White Sage. It is where the Ceremony of Beginnings is performed. It is where darkness and light fuse as one being. It is what occurred to the First and all the sages after her. And so it shall happen to you. This is where I'll finally liberate you of your shackles."

"W-What are you ranting on about!?" I yelled stepping back and glaring at him. "Are you going to try and kill me again? Like you did all those past times? Like you tried back at Sablier!?" Before I knew what I was saying, I spouted out what I really wanted to say. "If that's what you want, fine—kill me! But first tell me the truth. Who are you? H-How do you and I know each other?!"

He remained silent for what seemed to be forever. But soon enough he heaved a sigh before his hand started reaching out towards his face. That's when his fingers grasped the mask around him while the other hand pulled down his hood. In the matter of seconds I gaped in shock at what I saw.

Dark hair...and a face I had seen one too many times each time I looked in the mirror. If anything separated us, it must be the scar that traveled, slanted across his face and his eerie, piercing scarlet eyes. But leaving that aside, it was like I was back in those memories with that same boy. "You know who I am, Clarice."

"Cloude." Before I knew it, the name had spilled out from my lips along with something warm that I felt go down my left cheek. It couldn't be... I didn't want him to be a Baskerville. I didn't want him to be my enemy! But no matter how much I drowned myself in denial, all of it rang true to my heart.

"Yes, ixote dei luna—"

Sister of the Moon. From what little I knew and remembered, that was what those words meant in our native tongue. The language of our people.

"I'm your ixoto dei les esterelles." Brother of the Stars. "But sadly, the reunion must be saved for another moment. The time's drawing nearer even as we speak. The darkness shall leave you and then I will vanquish it. I'll end this despicable cycle."

"Y-You didn't answer my question. Are you going to try and kill me like at Sablier?" I didn't know why but my voice had become a little more calm even though I was dying from anxiety in the inside.

He shook his head slowly before coming to meet my eyes. It never ceased to amaze me when I gazed at him how similar the two of us were. Twins, after all.

"It is she I am after. The one mother said lurked within you. At last, I will fulfill the promise I made to her. I will end the White Sage's curse and it's origin. Siva!"

I didn't have time to move or even blink. Before I knew what had happened, Cloude had gone through me with Christ. It hurt me so much that it drove me to my knees. The blood quickly poured from the wound and it made me unconsciously reach up to it. But the more I tried putting pressure to it the more I came to realize that I wasn't injured. The blood that was pouring wasn't mine because my blood wasn't...black.

Whatever he had done had wounded something in me that hurt me all the same but left no mark. I suddenly recalled something that Chronos had told me about Christ. It was an exorcising blade. It could be used for physical offense but also to purify evil from a human soul. Then what Cloude had done—

My thoughts were broken when I felt another wave of pain before the last of the blood came down to puddle around me. Suddenly it came to move around and began to form a few feet before us. It looked like a body made of dark, red glass. Soon the red glossiness it had began to be absorbed and only left behind the real thing that he had meant to exorcise.

A girl that was a mirror-image of me, with long black hair and pale white skin, turned to look at us with piercing coal eyes and covering her body was a simple white chiton.

"So nice to finally be free." Her voice sent chills down my spine. It truly wasn't any pleasant sight to see my blood become the same girl that had tried snatching me inside my mirror that one night.

Cloude quickly grabbed my forearm pulling me up to stand by his side while still wielding Christ on his right hand.

"Not for much longer." Cloude's sudden declaration made my blood run cold. He intended to fight against Siva, and not only that. His aim was to kill her. But...I knew how strong Siva was. She was able to control my body and use not only it but Chronos' powers as well. If she was dangerous when she was contained within me, I can't imagine what she can do outside of me. Yet he continued to brandished the sword towards the girl that simply had a sneer on her white, almost a blue of hue, lips. "Tonight you fall."

"You really expect to defeat me?" Siva inquired with her fingers upon her lips, nibbling at them playfully while keeping that same sneer on her face. She gave a slight shrug of her shoulders before continuing. "But, I suppose I'll play along. At least until you stop entertaining me."

"Watch out!" Had it not been for Cloude taking me out of the way, whatever Siva had launched our way would have pierced us. Turning briefly back, I saw the countless of small, palm-sized knives that were lodged on rocks and thrown aside. "Can you fight?" he whispered to me while swiping away another hoard of throwing knives.

Could I? After that exorcism he performed, my body felt really weak and used up. But, maybe...

"Chronos?"

"Don't overdo it. You'll be able to summon one at a time. Be careful out there." With his say so, Hades appear in my hands without my beck.

"Leave her to me. Just focus on protecting yourself." Those were the words he left me with before he launched at Siva and began fighting her.

Thankfully, or not, I didn't really have time to put attention to their fight before more of those monsters from before in the chasm began surging from the ground. Wherever they stepped, the flowers and grass withered in a blink of an eye. Taking my chance, I began mauling them down one after the other.

"Claire!" Cloude's yell took my attention and allowed me just enough time to avoid the lance that Siva had thrown.

"It's no fun with just one of you," she cajoled while grinning. She twirled her hands about, manifesting a lance on her hand again. Just then an earthquake hit the place out of nowhere incapacitating us from attacking.

Because of the intensity of the earthquake I fell to my knees. Quickly, Cloude came to my side while we watched Siva cautiously as she glanced around, curious. Following her line of vision, I noticed that the prairie where we had been was starting to disintegrate.

"W-What's happening?!" I called out above the rumbling of the place. Cloude kept his free arm around me with his cloak over me, trying to protect me. "How's an earthquake hitting this place?"

"It's an enormous amount of power being released. It's causing fractures in my spaces. The way the energy is hitting, this space won't last much longer."

"What about—"

"We'll be sucked back into Sablier's chasm." His voice had become louder because of the cacophony of the ruptures just kept increasing. "Hold on!" Doing as I was told, I held onto him as he wrapped himself around me.

Just then I heard a high pitched cracking sound before I felt a familiar sensation. My breath was being sucked out of my lungs but because my face was being covered by Cloude's cloak, it seemed that I could gather some air from around. Soon enough I felt air hit us again and then we hit the ground hard. I groaned under the pressure of the atmosphere and sat up when Cloude urged me to get up.

Before us, we saw Sablier like we had left it but we weren't where he had taken me from. Elliot nor Leo nor Lottie were there. We must have landed somewhere else.

"Aw~" We turned to see Siva slowly floating down, elegantly as if her dress skirts had puffed with air. In seconds she was down on her feet some feet before us. Tossing her hair over her shoulder, she came to sneer at us with a glare. "You're far too weak, Florence boy. Had you been stronger you would've been able to maintain the Grey Garden when that shock came. Alas, it is and now back to our game~"

"Like hell!" I bellowed and stood up to take a stance. At the corner of my eye I saw Cloude doing the same thing. And when I said the same, I meant it. His stance was the same as he held Christ with his right hand while I held one of my kukri blades prominently with my left. Mirror images. "H-Have we ever—"

"Long ago we were trained together for sometime. I noticed it just now too. We both have similar styles of fighting," he explained still having his eyes locked at Siva.

So it wasn't me. "Don't worry. I'm not going to get in your way."

I heard him scoff as if amused and this made me pout, slightly insulted. "I know you won't. Just follow my lead!" With that last breath, he launched forth making Siva feint back before attacking. Taking my chance, I went over and searched for an unprotected spot. Within seconds, I found one and attacked but she deflected my blade with a wave of her lance.

"Too predictable!" she yelled and caught me with it, throwing me aside towards a huge boulder. Regaining my footing quickly, I barely avoided the amount of knives that she had thrown towards me. But with her attention on me I noticed that Cloude had gained an opening and with it gotten an attack in. Leaping out of her way, I joined Cloude's side while Siva stood back with an aloof expression as she placed her hand on her left shoulder. Bringing her hand out she seemed to be immersed at how her white palm contrasted with the dark blood. "Would you look at that. I can bleed."

"You have a corporeal body now, Siva," Cloude called brandishing his sword. "And with it you can die. You might be stronger than any one of us. But together, you'll be finished."

"Is that true now?" she questioned with the same aloofness. "In that case, I suppose I have to rid myself of one of you." Rain started pouring down on us, my cloak weighing me down in protest of being soaked. To hell with getting pneumonia. With a whisk of my wrist, I ripped the cloak right off of me leaving much more space to battle. As if barely noticing the droplets falling on us all, she glanced skyward as the water touched her skin. Out of nowhere, a wicked smirk came to her lips that frightened me. After a few seconds, she turned towards us. "Oh dear Cloude~" she cooed at him while taking her lance again in hand. "Guess what time it is?" Without meaning to I turned towards him and saw him glaring and snarling at Siva. Time? "In exactly five minutes, it will be the 29th at exactly 12:28 p.m."

29th? 12:28? What the hell did that have to do with—

"Let's see how it turns out this time, shall we!" she bellowed and hurled her lance at us. We had no problem to avoid them but I noticed when it landed that it would do the same as Legion and multiply before hitting its target. Spinning on my heels, I let go of Hades and summon Achlys and attempted to snap the weapon out her hand. "That again!" Siva rejoiced maniacally and, as if she already knew, feinted left where I had aim and avoided Achlys before coming my way. Fortunately Cloude had caught up in time and blocked her off me. Deciding this wasn't the best way to approach her, I switched back.

Now we stood each at one side of Siva. Recklessly doing so, she turned to Cloude for a millisecond. Enough for me to take the advantage and strike. But she vanished before my very own eyes and all I saw was Cloude's eyes widened in complete dread and utterly appalled. Stopping on my tracks, I heard her small giggling behind and immediately spun around ready to take whatever was coming my way.

After that...everything that happened came like a blur.

The smell of dirt and of the fog was completely overwhelmed by the smell of blood mixed with his own. Blood was dripping everywhere and it was choking me. The small gulp of air I took just broke me as it all completely entered my system.

All I could do was scream.

"CLOUDE!"

He half stood and half knelt a few feet before me as spears protruded from his chest. The blood dripped from the tips and were literally inches from me. In a flash all that had occurred in those seconds replayed in my mind over and over.

Cloude had ran at me and pushed me behind him with vigorous force. So much so that he had thrown me off balance and had made me sit back on all fours staring up at the hellish scene.

But—why? Why did he smile as he shoved me away!?

"Florence!" I couldn't even turn to look at Siva for I was still frozen in place. "Dammit! Let me out of here!" I heard her scream and as if commanding them to, the spears faded from his body.

Yelping from the sudden shock, I scrambled to my feet to catch him, only to fall back down on my knees. He coughed and coughed and only blood poured out of his mouth and gaping wound on his chest.

"C-Cloude!" I cried out as I cradled him in my arms. He was shaking and he was losing warmth. No... "No, Cloude, please! Don't die! Don't die on me, please!"

He scoffed, something I wasn't expecting him to do in his state. Coming a bit back to see his face, I noticed that he still wore that smile on his face and something else. His eyes—it was as if the swirling scarlet was being suctioned out of his eyes. All that it was leaving behind was a new color, one I knew too well. A dark, shinning sapphire. "G-Glad it was me and not you," he huffed.

When I shook my head in protest to his sick timing of sarcasm I saw the tears fall from my chin to him. Tears I hadn't even felt prickling down.

With what little strength he had left, he trailed his hand over to my own that rested on his shoulder holding him close to me. Answering him, I came and grabbed his hand barely having enough capabilities at the moment to discern what he held against my palm as he entwined our fingers.

"I-I won't last long, you know it. I just want to give you this." He took as deep a breath as he could before speaking again, "So long as you have the makings then through this simple act of taking it's Master you shall now be. And you will find me, friend—nothing will contain you then. No more borders around, below or above. So long as you champion the ones you love."

Whispering his name while listening, I couldn't help but feel that I had heard these words somewhere before. But at him coughing it didn't give me time to think straight. "P-Please hold on! O-Oz and the others will find us and they'll help you! Y-You just need to hang on!" My words kept getting choked out of me from the heavy crying I was letting out. "This can't be happening. It's not supposed to!"

I didn't know how but that smile never left his lips. "No, it wasn't. But I couldn't be happier that it did." His words shocked me as he unraveled his hand from mine and placed it against my cheek. The tender touch only made me weep harder and grip him closer to me. "I've changed them and there's nothing I regret about it. N-No—" he coughed more violently. "I guess...I'll regret not...having spent more time with you, sikio ixote. But what I had will do. I'm happy...that I got...to be your...—"

He took one last breath as if intending to finish his thought but with that last one, his raspy breathing stopped. His head became heavy and the hand that was so tenderly on my cheek fell abruptly to his side.

He's dead...

All was silent for what seemed an eternity until I heard faint footsteps approach us and stopping not far from where we were.

"Seriously, what a pest he was. He didn't learn anything from all those times and instead threw away his life. What a waste, frankly. Well, since you give me no more entertainment, I suppose I'll send you to hell too."

Siva's words, no matter how close she seemed to be, sounded so far that I couldn't understand them. My tears still flowed down despite the shock taking control of me.

It was just impossible for to me fathom that...Cloude was dead. My little brother, my everything that I had. Even when I knew him only from scattered memories and far-off dreams, he was my family. And...I lost him. All because of my own weakness.

I held him close for one last time before lightly brushing my lips against his forehead. Mindlessly working, my body slowly laid him down and grabbed my cloak that was at arm's reach and covered him. Slowly raising to stand, my cold, senseless fingers caught the grasp of something. Bringing it up close to me, I saw the sapphire broche. The one that was identical to mine in my own hands. What little I had left of him was now resting in the palm of my hand, so fragile. My hands moved up to my bow and lethargically placed it beside my own.

"Do you still plan to pose a fight?" Her words didn't reach me but, instead, footsteps that I could faintly hear in the distant did. Gazing over my shoulder I saw the faint but familiar silhouettes of someone approaching from the fog. By the second, they kept becoming clearer and at recognizing them Cloude's words came to me.

So long as you champion the ones you love.

Enraged, Siva bellowed, "Then—"

Suddenly, a cold sensation came over my chest and quickly spread all over my body. The pain intensified by the second but I was too emotionally drained to even react to the physical pain. It was weird how I could hear everything so clearly now: my heartbeat, my breathing, and the shouts and cries that came from everywhere but nowhere. Before I realized it my vision quickly blurred and everything went black. Everything started slowing down in me and before I knew it I couldn't hear anything.

No. I heard something still. It was faint but I could hear my heart beating. But it was starting to fade away too. Slowly the echoing it gave in my empty mind started to become slower and slower.

Then...it stopped.

I heard nothing.


So...yeah -w- This broke me to write a second time TwT

But it is, what it is.

Ref.:

- sikio ixote: big sister

Hope you liked it and please don't kill me! x3 Stayed tuned for the continuation of this tragedy!