If you could have everything in the universe handed to you on a silver platter...
Why would you reject it for my love?
What color can I give you, when I lack the light to give it to you?
OoOoOoOoO
Zastin was first, drawing his blade and aiming to strike true at Rito's heart. Behind him Momo called upon her connections to plants, as walls of vines exploding through the street out of the crater and growing tall and strong to grasp and crush everything around them like a tidal wave of flora. Brokenly, Nana called forth something from her de-dial, and Rito's heart broke as he watched as the gleaming red scales and bright eyes of the Drasuke Redwing, was now dulled and blackened, as spiraling veins of darkness seemed to course up his body, leaving cracks oozing darkness between broken scales. And yet Rito Yuuki stood his ground, his sword impaled in the ground and accepting his fate, while the three forms of death came to crash upon him simultaneously. Slowing his breathing while waiting, he realizes that nothing can be said or done to stop his former friends from hurting him, and he sighs as he centers himself and prepares for what comes next.
In the blink of an eye Zastin goes to strike first, aiming for his heart, and that is when Rito makes his move. Dragging his sword up from its place, he passively deflects each cloven sweep of his former mentors strikes, showing that this facsimile was not the man who trained him. Momo's wave of botanical force came crashing upon the two at last, and out of the corner of his eye he realized that nothing could stop it from descending upon them. Feeling something wrap around his waist unexpectedly, he opens his eyes in surprise as he is yanked forcibly back, just as the apex of the wave curls down to crash upon his former friend and teacher. Looking down to see golden strands surrounding his body, he feels himself be deposited on the other side of the street, where he is instantly found himself surrounded by Golden Darkness and Black, with Kyoko and Run at his side and checking him over to see if he was okay, Doctor Mikado kneeling down next to him.
"We got a call from Mikan, Rito are you okay?" Mikado asks, checking him for any scrapes or cuts, "Are those the princess' of Deviluke?" Mikado is looking to where a frustrated Momo is standing next to Nana, as the younger sister gestures for her obedient pet to attack his saviors. "They look like they've all been... infected by something," Mikado notes, looking at the pale bodies, their wounds oozing darkness, just before Zastin cuts himself free of the bed of vines, and stands up and looking like everything is wrong with his body features angled the wrong way as he straightens himself out.
"They were the twin princesses of Deviluke, and that was just their bodyguard, Zastin," Rito states, watching Zastin piece himself back together and trying not to throw up, "I don't know what's done this to them, but they aren't themselves, so don't hurt them anymore than necessary." Yami in her Darkness form has already wrangled the Drasuke to the ground as Nana calls forth her Giga-Boar now, while Black has engaged Zastin in a duel of bullets and swords. He turns to look at Run and Kyouko, who are standing by while Momo approaches them as the only one not distracted by someone else.
"Rito, why couldn't you accept her love,why couldn't you have just remained ignorant and stopped fighting everything," the imitation of Momo states, "She gave up everything to you, and it was like you spit in her face for her sacrificing everything for you." She sneers at him, drawing forth some seeds from her De-Dial and scattering them on the floor. "For a man whose rejected my sister's Harem Plan, and my revisions to it, you seem to surround yourself with a lot of pretty girls still," She smiles as plants sprout around her, ready to obey her command and attack, "Let's see how safe you are, once we strangle all the life out of those you love, and leave you alone with your darkness..." Rito's eyes widen as she sadistically smiles, waving her hand forward and causing the strangling vines to snake to the unarmed Run, towards himself, and Mikado. A sudden wall of flame appears before them all, the vines withering and burning to ash as they grow to strike at Rito and the others.
"You won't attack Rito or my friends, not while Magical Kyouko Flame has anything to say about it!" Kyouko states with a smile, somehow in her magical girl outfit despite having just been in plainclothes less than a minute ago, "Thanks for giving me something to burn, by the way!" As Momo growls in frustration and backs off, she calls more plants to the battlefield, as Kyouko advances.
"Kyouko!" Run cries out, as she tries to go forward, she is stopped by Mikado grasping her arm, "Sensei, let me go, Kyouko doesn't know who she's facing, I do!" She breaks the older woman's grip before grabbing something from her purse and hitting a few buttons. Descending form the sky in the distance, a massive flying saucer appears from out of nowhere, before dropping something from its interior and disappearing back where it came from. "I knew there was a good reason to keep this!" Run states in joy, as the items drops into her hands and she activates it, "Metallic Blue is on her way, Magical Kyouko!" Run activates the forgotten flamethrower in her hand, kept in storage after buying it from Galactic Delivery Services and never actually using it in one of her ploys to get Rito back. Charging in to help Kyouko fend off the creeping vines, the touch-me-not's, and the other plants in Momo's arsenal.
"Mikado Sensei, I need to know, do you think I caused this," Rito asks, grabbing his sword and using it like a cane to help him to his feet, much to the concern of the doctor, "Do you think I did the right thing rejecting the people who loved me, who cared about me and only had my best interest at heart..." He turns to the Doctor, who merely hugs him in response, nearly unbalancing him, and gives him a kiss on the cheek.
"Whatever you did Rito, it didn't cause this, you couldn't have predicted whatever it was that happened to these people," Ryoko states, smiling down at him as she lets him go, "You followed your heart, you did what you thought was best for you, and what you thought was best was trying to find out what really happened to you." She turns to look at the carnage going around them, watching as Yami fought with everything she had against Nana, how Kyouko and Run had Momo cornered, and how Black had Zastin blocking shot after shot from his gun. "You may have broken hearts, you may have hurt people, but you brought together people who were so different that society had given up on them," Mikado turns to Rito with a smile, "You inspire people Rito, to fight for their love, for their own path to follow, you didn't ask to become King of the Universe, but you seem to be on the path to showing you have the qualities to become one." She watches as Rito looks down at his feet, a half-hidden smile on his face as he looks up to observe everyone fighting for him, even though he had resigned himself to his fate. They hadn't given up on him, so why shouldn't he listen to them. Standing up and holding his sword out, he feels his connection to the core awaken, as his ring begins to burn bright orange, blinding everyone who still battled.
Everyone stopped struggling, stopped moving, as they all drew their attention to the source of the mysterious orange light that had suddenly bathed the area so. Sword drawn and pointed outwards, the scimitar was now replaced with its true form, the Ninth Blade whole once more, with the burning source of light coming from the ring on Rito's hand, his own yellow eyes filled with determination so unlike him for those that knew him as merely a klutz and a goof. Zastin had stopped fighting Black, having been clipped by a bullet and falling to his knee, when Rito struck with a sudden swiftness that defied logic, and even physics. In the blink of an eye, whether it was the ring charging his own bodies unnatural abilities or true speed, Rito had held Zastin by the throat. The knight valiantly struggled for a few moments, before his face contorted into a scream of pain, as Rito's eyes flashed from golden light to pink majesty, the blackness that seemed to infect Zastin being drawn to Rito's ring as he held on tight. Soon even the flowers grown through Zastin's armor were brittle and turning to dust, as if dried in the sun, and Zastin's healthy pallor returned as Rito let the knight's body fall limply to the ground. Ring burning bright, and eyes glowing unnaturally, he turns his gaze upon Nana, trapped beneath Darkness' hair, alongside her two familiars, the Giga-Boar, and the still snapping Drasuke that struggled against their bonds.
In seconds he was between all three of the infected members, and in a swift, circling stroke, he cut into all three with little effort, and the others could only watch in disbelief at what happened next. As if being drained like slaughtered animals, the dark ichor flowed freely from the wounds Rito caused with his blade, red gem gleaming with hunger as the darkness seemed to be drawn back into the sword and ring both, as if they were bottomless vessels. The Giga-Boar, eyes angry and red, seemed to soften and heal by being bathed in the orange glow of Rito's ring, while the Drasuke stopped floundering beneath the weight of the golden locks, slipping into a daze as its wound healed and the darkness was excised from its body. Nana, too, seemed to stop struggling, as the darkness was drawn from her body like thousands of quills being pulled from her skin, until they began to bleed red, and even then that was quickly healed by the blazing orange light. Finally Rito turned to Momo, whose face held true fear while observing the kind and careful Rito, show true indifference and mercilessness in his attacks, not seeming to even recognize he was healing his friends, no joy on his face. Before Momo could even flee in terror, Rito had ran her through with his sword. She stared down at the black blade embedded in the darkness that comprised most of her body, until Rito put his ring to the wound. Filled with searing heat and pain, as he pressed the orange stone into her stomach, he withdrew the black blade slowly, stone faced, drawing it out along with every bit of darkness that flowed like blood through her veins, making her sickly pink hair, truly vibrant once more.
Removing the blade and letting Momo fall into the expectant arms of Run and Kyouko, who had stopped themselves and got behind her as Rito attacked the youngest Deviluke Princess. The glowing had dimmed in his ring now, as the darkness fed his sword, and the corruption that had been so evident on the faces and bodies of Momo, Nana, and Zastin, were all present on Rito now. Stepping away from the group of people that now surrounded him, expecting the worst, his pink eyes turned yellow again, and he blinked as emotion returned to his face. "Don't worry," Rito states, replacing his blade into its scabbard, "I am merely making right what is wrong, so do not stop me now." He looks up at the darkening sky, as the pale outline of the moon has become visible and growing stronger. "Face me, ' G͔͕̣̀ó̵̵͖̹͚̥͓ḓ̥̻̦͞'of this new reality, stop holding yourself back," he calls out, towards the moon, "Why should you hide yourself any longer, I know you're still fighting it, you don't have to hide yourself any longer." Getting no response, he sighs, and stares up at the moon hanging in the sky. "I still love you Lala, this ring proves it," he states holding the glowing ring up, "If I have to drag you down from the heavens to bring you back to me... t҉h̶͈̼̣e̦̫n̞͇͡ ̙̝̯̼̟͞ș̹̹̖̜̲o͉̦̣̜̼ͅ ̨̻͓ḇ̳̪͖̣̩͕e ̣͡i͏̫̥̗̜̼̱̩t̴ͅ." Eyes glowing bright pink for a moment, he turns his eyes skyward and lifts his left hand up towards the sky, as the ring begins to glow orange in contrast to his eyes. Suddenly flipping colors between pink and orange, his ring now glowing blazing orange, his eyes a vibrant, sparkling pink like fireworks burning in his eyes. Raising his hand to the sky he and the others watched with bated breath as a small, red cord grew from his ring, stretching out into sky above and reaching for the moon. It grew, faster, faster, longer, until it disappeared into the horizon, finally growing taunt as Rito strained to control it. The colors of his eyes and rings then merged, until they too traveled along the cord, stretching out into space to connect the two who wore the rings and bring them back together. Rito waited, as he felt the cord that represented the tether that was their love, stay warm and thrum with life even in the depth of the cold, unforgiving darkness.
OoOoOoOoO
She watched as the red cord spiraled out of her own ring, stretching down to the impossibly bright jewel that hung in the sky, and she felt it reach out and connect with one on earth who stole her dark power. Not one to fall for the bait, the promises of love and forgiveness, of hope that the tether whispered into her mind, she fought back against the assault of emotion that charged the cord and anchored her to such a small, pitiful world. She saw the stars, felt the thrum of life from distant hearts and distant loves, she wished to feel them, to drink in their love, as she felt their blood dripping down her hands, as she conquered their planets for herself and her alone. She would not be brought down to such a small and pitiful place, when the wonderful, cold, dead moon that she inhabited, a place of balance between the ? ﾝﾔﾦ? ﾝﾔﾥ? and the D̘̳͓̭̞a̷̤r̲͕̗̪̩͚k͢, was her footstool. Control of a few, measly galaxies had made her born into the role of a princess, but conquering a newborn galaxy as its newborn god, that was her right as Queen. That's who she was now, no longer Lala Satalin Deviluke, the disillusioned, tired princess, no...
She was Q͙̹̪͖̩͞ͅu̟͢e̞̳̥̳̲̱ẹ̰̖͝n̛̞ o̺̗̜̠̹̗̠f͕̲͙̙͚͕ͅ ̧̦͔̹̤t̩͠ḫ̤̟̖͙̀e̲̭̞̠̬ͅ ̥̤͘N̲̘̤ì͚g͍͍͎̘̰̻h͝t̶, always and ever.
OoOoOoOoO
Growling in distaste at feeling his attempt to reach out to her rejected, Rito regarded everyone gathered around him for the first time since he had gained his newfound power. He eyes Nana and Momo, both being helped by Doctor Mikado to ensure they were fully healed, while Zastin looked up defiantly at Rito, leaning on Black as he does so. "Not so fast to trust the person that saved you all?" Rito asks, smirking at Zastin before turning back to the moon in the sky, "It makes no difference, Zastin, if you hate me or not, I saved your life, I saved the princess' for taking me home... why do you still look like you wish to kill me?" Zastin hops off of Black's shoulder, wobbling slowly over to Rito and refusing help from those that tried to aide him. Limping over to Rito, he forces the younger man to stare at him by blocking his view of the moon, Rito's eyes flashing dangerously as he looks up at the bigger man.
"No, Rito Yuuki, former husband-to-be, I do not wish to spill your blood, nor you mine," Zastin states, as he puts a hand to the boy's shoulders, "I have seen many men, many friends, who have had the same look in your eyes that I now see." Rito feels the man in front of him barring him no ill will, and with this knowledge, Rito's curiosity wins out, his face softening. "Do not assume you wield the power of a god, not without the experience, nor without the wisdom to wield such power properly," Zastin states, "My own ancestor held the title of King, once he had the ties to royalty that allowed him such a privilege, whereas I do not, so he thought himself a god among his people." Zastin steps back,and looks around to those assembled, motioning outwards towards them, forcing Rito to look upon them. "He sought to usurp those with the right qualities to rule, qualities he lacked the experience to form, and he was exiled for his attempts to find and use gods power for his own selfish reasons," Zastin states, "Look around you, Rito, these are the people you may someday rule, will you be their King, a wise ruler, or a despot who believes he has the power to rule, one who may genuinely back up such claim, yet lack those loyal ones he could trust... those he could love..." He approaches Rito once more, now putting both hands on his shoulders, maneuvering around the thread that still was outstretched from the ring. "Lala, if she is truly alive as you think, she is not lost to you Rito, not if you still hold the place in her heart that she does in yours," he states, as he points to the girls around them both, "You severed ties with each of these girls, not only in the real world, but here, now; that should show her how true your love is for her, when her one wish is only to make you happy, and to stay alive for her..."
Rito feels the anger in him dissipate, staring at the fearful, confused, concerned faces of those he had hurt, and who had hurt him, around him. He now even saw Yui, Haruna, Mikan, and Celine, not having noticed their approach at all, standing with the Princess' and the others, seeing with everyone around him made him stop and think. He takes a deep breath, looking all around them and feeling the love, the concern that emanated from all of them, despite having cut ties with them. The darkness clouding the corners of his mind, dissipated, and the anger he had been feeling from Lala, replaced with despair, hopelessness, fear, all focused from their bond down onto him, towards him, concerning him. Rito relaxed, and felt the darkness in his sword become manageable, flowing into every crack and crevice of him, along with the power, the light from the bond he shared with Lala. Opening his eyes, he could feel the truth in his bones, and he knew now what he had to do. Turning back to the others he smiles reassuringly at them all in turn. "You're right, I can't force myself to be someone I'm not, I've always been horrible at that," he states, while looking up at the thin cord stretching up into the sky, "But I know I can't let her stay in the dark alone, even if I'm not worthy of her, I can't stand by and do nothing!"
"I believe I can help you with that!" a new voice says echoing all around him, surprising everyone as Rito's shadow begins to contort, gaining physical mass. Defining himself even further, the contrast is immediate as Adam regains his shape and form. "I left just enough of myself behind to help you, Rito, and I hold to my promises," he states, walking up to Rito and kneeling before him, "I am and have always been a part of you, this power is our power, and I cannot follow you where you need to go now." Looking up to Rito with a smile, he places both of his hands around Rito's own, before closing his eyes and concentrating. "I may have been born of the Ninth Blade, but it was your own power and experience that made me real, and now I give that back to you," he states, as his eyes begin to glow as orange as the ring, and his body of shadow turns into one of pure, golden light. As Rito watches in awe with new light reflecting in his eyes, he feels it cover him, warm him with hope, courage, and renewed energy, curing the ache in his bones that he hadn't even realized he had gained holding the darkness in. By the time the light died down, when everyone could view Rito once more, Adam was nowhere in sight, and Rito was transformed once again.
Standing in clothes that looked like King Gid's own robes tailored to fit him, Rito still had more surprises in store for him. His hair instead of the bright orange it always had been, full of energy and life, was now glowing golden, defying gravity and adding an air of difference around Rito. Looking at himself Rito was surprised that despite looking different, he still felt the same, and it was something that comforted him. Where his mind had felt whole upon regaining all of his memories, this new feeling was like he had been living with hundred pound weights dragging him down, and now he could fly. In fact... Feeling gravity just let go of him, Rito feels the tug of the ring on his hand pulling him up, following the thread to its source, his other half. Rito let go of his worry, his fear, and replaced it with determination, hope. He knew exactly what he needed to do, and he let himself be taken up into the sky, plunging ahead into the darkness with his own light.
OoOoOoOoO
She feels him coming, she also sees the impossible shining star rising from the planets exosphere, and crossing the vast void like a streak towards her. The impossible to cut thread is humming with her heart now, trying to breach the wall of darkness she had put up around it, closing it off to those feelings she no longer felt worthy of. 'No, I am not unworthy of those feelings,' the Queen of Night thinks, 'He is unworthy of me, for having led the girl I was along, never truly loving her, forcing who I once was to go to extremes just to save his life...' She extends her reach with her new power, strands of darkness arise, shadows cast by the dark side abide by her command, and she sends them to smother the growing streak of light coming for her. Aiming them sharp and true like spears, she takes hold of them from her spot on the moon, and closes her hands in gesture over the spark of light in the void.
The dark responds in kind, the shape of massive hands, pure emptiness, outlined against the blue jewel in the sky. They close in around the light that is streaking straight towards their Queen, and they surround it completely, blocking it out completely from her sight. She smiles, happy that such a small nuisance could be removed so swiftly, though as she turned away to turn her gaze upon the dimming stars, she felt the cord wrapped around her fingers yank her hand away from her once more. Turning to see that the thin red cord, her tether to this wretched planet, still intact, she looks to see where her handiwork should have snuffed out the light. The orb of darkness still hangs like an eclipse against the blue jewel, though it seems to have reached its zenith, as bright light explodes outwards from the edges of darkness, burning her perfect creation away. It seems she would not be rid of this pest so easily, so she instead chose to watch it approach, slowing in its descent as it reached the outer edge of the moon's field of gravity. She watched as it began to take form out of the light revealing a man, no, a boy, who looked too much like someone her old self had know. "Did father send you too, child?" she asks, not even bothering to scrutinize him, thinking him little more than another lackey, "Father had sent Nana and Momo to find me with Zastin at their heel, does that man find me so little a threat to ignore me as King of the Universe, not when I aim to replace him as its Queen?" The Queen of Night growls, turning away from him to focus on another way to cut this impossible bond that kept her tied to this planet. She had a King to kill, a throne to take, and a universe to plunge into darkness.
"I'm sorry you think that, Lala, but I wasn't sent here by your father, but your sisters, your friends are all worried about you," the annoying voice that causes her heart to beat faster states, "I'm worried about you." The Queen of Night turns to stare down at the man who dare says that name in her presence, only to find that he is the source of the same brilliant, annoying light that had caused her head to ache and heart to flutter. His mere presence filled her with such contradicting feelings of relief, of disgust, of hatred, anger, happiness, fear, and the list goes on. Stamping those into the dust of the moon, she hardens the wall around her heart even more. Now she was intent on eliminating this pest who spoke to her so casually, like he was worthy of standing before her, of basking in her shadow.
"No one may call me by that name, I am not that insolent little girl, I'm not a lovesick fool who chose to throw her life away pining for a boy who never loved her, who died for her!" the anger smoldering in her eyes were enough to take even the kind and patient Rito aback, the hatred coming off in waves from her venomous comments, "She died paving the way for me to take control of this new life; when she could not stand the pressure of creating a new universe and take it as its god, I came into being to do it for her." She raises her hand towards him, raising spires of darkness in his direction that stop just short of impaling him, as if unable to follow through. "When she wished to find, to pine, for a boy she saved, I was there to hide that boy away, influence events to keep her from ever finding him," she states, closing the grip of her hand, forcing the spires of shadow to surround this boy of light, "I failed in keeping him hidden, so I killed her jealous sister and raised her again to be a part of my family of shadows, I then used her to hunt after him, and she brought my other sister into my inner circle, and finally together they brought our father's boot licker, Zastin to my heel..." She surrounds him with darkness, unable to touch him, she creates a shell of darkness that encapsulate him, wishing with all her might to smother his light and relieve her of this growing ache that deems to split her heart, her thoughts, in two.
The Queen of Night watches to see if any of his pesky light can escape her grasp, and she is satisfied that she lets the shadows fall to see her enemy snuffed out before her. She finds him standing there still, the light dimmer, surely but still present as the intermittent light glowing on the stupid ring of his, the same kind of ring that dimly glows that same pink and orange as his. The cord seems so short between them now, and now that she sees it more clearly in the refracted planet light, she could see that he too was bound to the same cord as she. Her eyes widening in wonder, as she realizes that he is the tether, he is the problem, her lips widen as she smiles a dangerous, maniacal grin towards Rito. "You, you're my problem, not that planet, not her!" she states, a crazed look in her eyes as she looks up at him now, meeting his eyes with her own, "She whispers in my ears, she tells me to stop, to listen to my heart, but the darkness, ooohhh, the darkness is so much more; I want to let the galaxy, the universe feel this same darkness, this comforting embrace that I do, and YOU. ARE. THE. ONE. STOPPING. ME?" She screams and wildly rushes forward, gliding on her own shadow with killer intent towards the boy standing before her. In her haste, he sidesteps her rage fueled attack, laughing impishly as he floats in the low gravity, out of her reach and onto the thin barrier that defines the darkness and the light.
"I'm sorry you see it that way, my 'Queen'," he says mockingly, straying further into the light as he watches her stand at the edge, unwilling to go any further into the light than the darkness she had brought with her, "It won't hurt you, you know, the light is a part of you too, just as the darkness is a part of me... you'll be fine Lala." As if reading her mind, she balks at him, crying out in rage as she defiantly steps into the light, revealing more than the blurry, pink glimpses he had seen of her. To say she was gorgeous was erroneous, she was more beautiful than words could express, even with darkness cloaking her body and hiding her true beauty behind a mask of rage and indifference. She wore a dress that looked as thin as gauze yet showed nothing behind its smoky black interior. Much like Lala had assumed Rito was dressed as her father was, he could say the same of the clothing Lala wore, reminiscent of the Charmian dress that he had seen Queen Sephie wore on her visit to Earth. Though it's train was colored black, it trailed ethereally behind her like it was made of living darkness, much like the majority of Lala's dress, it looked organic, unreal, impossible even, yet clearly there. That feeling was multiplied when he saw the dim orb emerging from the middle of her chest, Rito identifying it as the former Taoist Pearl of Wisdom. "I never got to see you in your wedding dress," Rito states, looking over the dress with interest, as Lala regains her footing in the light and turns herself towards him, her dress floating behind her in the low gravity, "If you looked half as beautiful as that on our wedding day, then you'd outshine even your mother in the galaxies eyes..." She growls and takes a stance, aiming her tail at him and firing a beam of shadow towards him as he lazily floats above the moon, skipping across its surface backwards, away from Lala to draw her out.
"You seek to make a fool of me, then, little pest?" she states, as she watches Rito effortlessly block her attack by pulling out his sword and deflecting the shot, "Try fighting me in hand to hand, then, if you feel so confident in your ability." The Queen smiles, knowing no man worth his pride or honor would refuse, yet once again she would be surprised by his answer.
"I don't care what you think Lala, I just want you back, want you in my arms again, even for a short time," he states, skidding to a stop as he lands and faces her, his golden hair floating in the low gravity, his yellow eyes pleading with her to listen as he stares deep into her mind and his words try to reach her heart, "Lala, you're confused, your tearing yourself apart trying to be the painter and the subject, you've confused yourself and let the confusion, the darkness take control of you." He walks towards her, causing her to stay still in surprise as he casually approaches one who wished to kill him, before stopping at only a few feet away. "I think that anger I'm feeling in our bond," he states, holding up his own ring and forcing her to do the same as the cord twists and tumbles, shortening the distance between them, bringing them both closer, "Your angry at yourself, you couldn't protect me, but that's okay, I didn't ask you to hate yourself, to feel like you needed to distance yourself from me..." He draws closer, bring his free and towards her left cheek, and causing her to shudder involuntarily, drawing back in fear as he caressed her cheek with his cool, burning hands. "I don't want you to stop feeling love for me because you want me to live, and I can't stop feeling love for you, just because you decided to make my life like I had never met you," he states, his face growing closer to her own, "You think by giving me all I ever could have wanted, a girl who loved me, whom I loved in return without question, and expecting me to not look for you when my heart knew what my head said was right, was actually wrong..."
He pulled away from her, drifting back as he gives her space, to think, to breath, to realize she hates it. The clarity he brought, the peace to her heart now gone, her eyes narrow at the man who bewitched her with his presence, and she hissed at him being so close to her, that she let her guard down. "You're no playboy Rito, you couldn't even confess to the girl you really loved, why should this be any different," she states haughtily, raising her head and looking away, "You say you loved who I was, when I was Lala, but you never showed it, never said it, and now that I am a Queen, the Queen of Night, why should I return those feelings here, now?" She states it as a rhetorical question, yet she wonders in her heart if she really isn't asking that question. A Queen was not lowering herself to be with a commoner, a man not even fit to be her servant, one who was known to have girls hanging off of him, and a be a lecher, a pervert on top of it all... 'NO!" her heart cried out, breaking the crumbling wall, the facade around her heart, which causes the Queen to stumble in her stride, clutching her chest as if her heart was torn from her chest, 'Rito didn't mean it, he isn't a pervert on purpose... it was another thing we did to him, we made him like that; gave him Cataleptic Indecency Syndrome.' She growls as she picks herself back up, focusing on the boy of light ahead of her.
"You're right, Lala, you can't really know my feelings, and I can;t really know yours, not on the surface, but I get the feeling, I know the gist..." he states, holding up the ring and taking a quick pluck at the string, a wave of feelings fed to her through her own ring, "But I can't lie to you, to myself anymore, just because I'm too nice, just because I'm afraid...afraid of hurting people, of letting them down, of making people hate me!" His voice steadily rising, his words cracking from the sorrow, the guilt, anguish crashing upon the wall the Queen had erected around her heart, eroding it away little by little. "I'm sorry Lala, sorry I didn't tell you the truth once I had thought I knew my feelings, sorry for dragging you along as I tried to understand just how I felt about Sairenji, about how I hid myself away from you because I didn't want to be king, I just wanted to BE Rito, the boy from Earth, who wanted to have a normal life, a normal family!" he draws a half step closer to her, falling to his hands and knees as he grips lunar rocks in his hands, crushing them in his anguish, "I didn't ask to be King, you didn't want to even BE Queen, yet you choose to stick with me, YOU got ME to realize that all these other girls didn't compare to you...you always wanted me to be yours, and yours alone..." His voice quiets down as he looks dejectedly at the ground, tears of light falling to the ground and bathing it with pools of gold, before he looks up at her. "You know, you're just like Momo, in a way," he states shakily, rising up and walking towards her, "You fall in love, find out those feelings aren't returned, so you lie to yourself, fall deeper into the lie, force yourself into coming up with a harebrained scheme to create a Harem, make 'everyone' happy, but sacrifice your own happiness, hide your true feelings, in the process..." He grabs her by the hand, and pulls her close, much to her shock. "But I know better now, I know how you feel, and I finally see you there," he says softly, staring into her eyes, into her heart, "Come back to me, Lala."
She blinks, and reason overcomes her, as she wants to pull away and yet she wants to throw it all away, let him kiss her, take him as hers, and hers alone, dammit all to heck. And so she decides to close her eyes, letting go of the background noise, the static, the anger, the guilty pleasure, the feelings that confuse her, and the Charmian hormones conflicting with her Devilukean nature, that tell her this is so right, and so, so wrong. She hears him speak, but it all seems to be fuzz in her ears, as she finds herself captivated by his eyes, the eyes of Her Rito, behind the face of golden man.
Rito knows she had stopped listening, stop fighting him the moment she had fell into his arms and sighed in relief. It had in fact, surprised him so much he honestly didn't know if it had worked or not, yet the peace, the love he felt through the connection between them was comforting and familiar as the smell of ginger and pears. Smiling, he watches her close her eyes and sit their in his grasp, and he finally gets to do something he has wanted to do of his own volition, and not some crazy alien parasite, or flu, or body switching, or anything else...
"You were wrong to think you're the Queen of Night, Lala," he says, leaning in to kiss her, barely brushing her lips as he speaks, "I was always the one in the dark, and you were always my guiding light..." Falling into the kiss, and finding himself no short of breath, he feels the walls she had built up inside her crumble, and the fear, the guilt, and uncertainty he had built up dissipate as well. Neither noticed as both rings glowed brilliant bright, as orange and pink engulfed both of them, dispelling the darkness in Lala,and revealing who she really was beneath the shadowy facade. "The bond between us," he breathes into her, "It's not colored pink." He gazes over her renewed form, the shadows and darkness that had plagued her in the form of fear and doubt now gone. Black replaced by a lovely, pure white of similar smoky qualities, her trailing shadows now a glittery trail of stardust and light that made Rito think she looked more like a comet in the night sky.
"It's not orange," she whispers back, leaning in for another kiss. Rito gladly giving in, taking another breath in the vacuum of space, the stars and the planets surrounding them both. He pulls away, entwining his hands with hers and staring down at the two rings, closer together than they had ever been before.
"It's definitely not red," he states, smiling, looking down at their entwined hands. The red thread seemed to waver as it encircled their conjoined hands, slowly bleeding color, yet growing brighter.
"Its gold," they murmur together in happiness, going into an even deeper kiss than their first, or the last, as neither knows where one begins and the ends. Golden light danced around them, the color of the brilliant sun, swooping, spinning around them like a cocoon of warmth, growing, shrinking, twirling in an indescribable fashion, an unbreakable bond. They were one, yet they were also Lala, they were also Rito. And they, for once, were both happy to be very much alive. Yet pulling away from Lala's embrace, Rito knew the sad truth all too well.
"It's time my love, this world, our second chance is being wasted even now," Rito states, as he looks around them, watching the stars slowly burn themselves out in an unstable matrix.
"I know," she breathes, resting her head in the crook of her neck, "I couldn't do it alone... the power was overwhelming, and I felt myself split between becoming your wife and becoming something...more." She entwines her fingers with him once more, smiling as she stares into his lovely, yellow eyes, staring over his gorgeous orange hair, and drinking in every detail she could, while this perfect reality lasted for the both of them. "I'm ready," she states, putting a hand to her chest, where the once corrupt orb sits embedded in place of her heart, "Help me do this...please." He nods, placing his own hand over hers, and gently he helps her remove the Pearl of Wisdom from her chest, though they are both surprised to find that the pearl is fragmentary, only half of it is there, what was once whole. "I don't understand, this was whole, the Pearl was whole," she states, meeting his confused eyes with her fearful ones, "I don't understand, the Pearl should be whole!" In a blinding flash of light, the universe goes still around them, ringing in their ears as a flash of stark white replaces the black void, as air replaces vacuum, and as gravity takes hold of their bodies.
Looking around them, they both notice the new world around them is seamless, flawless, endless white, a barren plain with nothing around them, not even the shades of their friends, or family. "How-" Rito asks, looking around, with an equally confused Lala.
"How indeed, Rito-kun, Lala-chi," a mysterious new voice states, as they both turn to find the source standing before them, hiding a smile behind her green locks of hair, "A child of true Taoists, in love with a daughter of the devils and the angels, such a thing is unheard of to my people, nor is it know to those who do not know their true histories..." The woman, who is garbed in a white yukata that is laced with fancy golden trim, hides her amusement behind a white fan of plain decoration while observing both Lala and Rito. "To be fair, it is not that it is necessarily unheard of, but then again, my love life never was successful after all," she states coyly, removing her fan to reveal a kind face with pleasing, mirthful eyes that speak their age, and the air she exudes around her states her position, "I am the keeper of the Pearls, both of Wisdom and Power, and it was with haste that you brought these two together, unknowingly though it may be, that has caused the situation you now find yourselves in." She smiles at Lala, moving towards her and cupping her cheek in her hand. "My, how pretty you are, and how much hope you fill me with, knowing that despite my people's mistake, you could stand before me this day, Princess of Deviluke," she turns to Rito now, and stands him straight, gazing him over with a playful look to her eyes, "And my, what a handsome boy you've found, someone like you could drive the ladies mad if I'm reading you right, and I am..." She smirks, bopping him in the nose before giggling and floating away from the two, lighter than air.
"My name is Echidna Paras, and I was much like you once, in love, with a duty to attend to," she states, looking over the both of them, "Now it is with heavy heart that I watch the Pearls I and my people crafted be mishandled, misused across entire galaxies, or forgotten entirely by those who lack knowledge." She twirls around, her dressing catching air where there should be none, twisting around like a jellyfish in water, before she stops and smiles sadly at them both. "Unfortunately, while the Pearl of Wisdom is known to offer people the ability to learn what could be, in contact with the Pearl of Power the effect of both allows one to recreate the world in their very image by using the unimaginable power of Tao at their disposal to shape everything to their whim..." Echidna grabs the remaining pearl from Lala's hand, and smiles sadly at it, turning her attention to her two guests. "Fortunately Lala only held the one Pearl in her possession, so while she could shape reality to her whim, she had not the power to make its alterations permanent, not consciously at least," she expands, as she places the Pearl back into Lala's grasp, before facing Rito and putting a hand to his chest, "You, on the other hand, were in possession of the other half, meaning you had the power, but not the means to consciously use it, control it, or share it fully, without being remade too..." She smiles as she applies more force to Rito's chest, as a bubbling darkness seems to seep through his veins and surface beneath her touch. "Thankfully that means only together, and if you two truly wish it, have the power to shape the future, or return it to how it was," she states, as she pulls the broken half of the Taoist Pearl of Power from Rito, pressing it into his grasp, "Now, the two of you can set right what you made wrong, and you both can end my loneliness and misery..."
At that Lala blinks curiously at the frowning woman, her mood having gone from happy to sad so incredibly fast. "How could we end your loneliness?" she asks, moving closer to the woman, grabbing onto her arm as she becomes concerned by her words, "How are you miserable?" Rito is surprised his fiancee is so close to the mysterious stranger, but her open personality makes her more sociable than he. He smiles as the woman gives another bubbly laugh at Lala's questions, and her concern.
"Very well little ones, I guess if you are to truly understand my pain, this is the place that would be the quickest to show you," she states, sliding Lala off of her arm, and lifting herself up into the air, "Stand together, and pay attention, what you see cannot be altered, and who you see cannot see you, for these are merely... my memories..." Glowing a brilliant white, Lala and Rito both shield their eyes as everything goes blank.
OoOoOoOoO
Waking to woods full of trees, some familiar, some alien to Rito, he looks around for Lala, and finds her sitting draped over a long, unconscious. Quickly going over to her, he puts a hand to her arm and shakes her, trying to wake her up. Yawning, she blinks her eyes open, and stares up at Rito, smiling. "Rito!"she throws herself into him, causing him to drop to the ground, her arms surrounding him as she snuggles deep into his shoulders, "I thought we were dreaming, and..." Rito stops her, pulling her off of him, and looking around, when he notices the sun in the sky.
"Lala, I think we're still wherever we are, this place is just somewhere else..." he states, pointing up to the star that looked like it was twice or thrice the size of the sun from Earth, though this one was red, "I think we're reliving her memories, like she said, this must be her home planet..."
Planet of birth, thank you, but not my home, never my home...
Rito and Lala both look around to see where the voice is coming from, but neither see the woman standing around them.
Sorry dears, since these are my memories of the past, 'I' can't really be there without changing the script. You two are stuck with me as your narrator now. You'll see younger me running by, right, now...
True to her word, there was in fact a new person arriving in the clearing, a young woman by the looks of it, wearing a red hood and robe, and running through the clearing while laughing. As if time has slowed down the girl they see has the same bright, vibrant, green hair, a smile on her face, and a patchwork dress that looked like it was sewn with care but made of rags dyed beautiful colors. "Try and catch me suckers!" she shouts, as time resumes, and the younger woman is followed by a group of small, blue humanoid anteaters with things that resemble blocky pick-axes, at least to Rito. They follow the young woman, shouting in an alien language, but the longer legged girl is obviously outpacing them, as they stop following her. Lala and Rito run to catch up to her, as her pursuers drop off little by little, and the woman stops in the middle of a clearing to catch her breath against a tree. "That should be far enough," she says to herself, looking around to see if she was alone, and not seeing Lala or Rito, she puts her hands against a tree and concentrates. Before Rito or Lala can blink, a hole opens in the trunk, and clear sky is shown on the other side, a grassy field through it as well. They follow her through it, as she steps out into the field on the other side.
When Lala and Rito make it to the other side of the portal, they see the young woman disappearing into the remains of a rotted out looking cottage. Following her towards the cottage, Rito peeks through broken window panes to see an empty, dirty looking room inside it. "How do we get in?" Rito asks, meeting up with Lala at the front door, "It's not like we can just walk right throu-" Putting his hand on the doorway, Rito falls through the door, as if he wasn't even there.
You're not really three, Rito, Lala, you're little more than ghosts inside my memories, you can walk through anything, go anywhere around me, but things tend to distort when I'm not around.
As if to make it obvious, the world around them suddenly blurred, making both Rito and Lala nauseous, before the world went back to normal with a roar. Then Echidna was in the room with them, looking up and all around, until they both realized that the roar they had heard, was coming from outside, above the house. Walking out of the hose, following Echidna, they see what appears to be a formless mass breaking through clouds, heading straight for them. "Is that?" Lala cryptically states, staring up and trying to see the falling item as it grows larger and more visible, "It is; a class one shuttle from deviluke's ancient military!" As they watch, it soars overhead, going over the crumbling cottage, and burying itself somewhere in the field of grass beyond. Lala and Rito both invested in this ancient mystery now, they follow the girl as she goes headfirst into danger, following her towards the smoking wreckage of the ship half-buried in the field.
"What is she doing?" Rito asks, watching as the girl looks around the wreckage for signs of life, until reaching the front and they see her eyes widening, she dives forward into the dirt, "Is she trying to kill herself?" Rito and Lala both follow, slipping into the ship from behind, just as they see her break the ships seat-belts, and drag a person from their seat back out of the crashed space ship. They see her dragging the man, face down and hair a bloody mess from a head wound, out of the field and watch with bated breath as she drags him into the musty, old cottage. They watch as she puts him on a moldy looking mattress of straw, grabbing some spare blankets to cover him and prop his head up, Rito stares at the man, while Lala goes to watch the younger Echidna, as she grabs a bucket to fill it with water. Rito stares long and hard at the man, his face matted with blood and dirt, turning his hair brown, yet his face seems oddly- Just then the world turns topsy-turvy, causing Rito to fall to his knees, weak from the sudden shift in perspective, until he finds Lala talking over him, cradling him in her lap now that the world was whole again.
"What happened Rito, did the world get all pixelly and wrong again?" Lala asks, and he weakly nods, "Its alright, the man made it, Echidna is just fixing him up right now." She looks up with a smile from Rito, only to freeze as she lands her eyes on Echidna and the mysterious crash victim. "R-Rito, y-you need to see this," she states, helping Rito sit up, as she keeps staring at the man. Rito joins her in staring at the bizarre scene, now that the man was stripped of his dirty clothes, and washed with the water retrieved from a nearby stream. His dirty, brown and bloodied hair had been washed clear, literally, as silver locks now graced his head, passing his ears. Obviously the surprise was more that they recognized the man, or rather, one of his descendants. The man looked like Zastin, only younger and much weaker. They watch as the man groans, awakening form the cool water on his face, or have just recovered naturally, they see what the man is to say and do while in Echidna's presence.
"Wha-" he states, before Echidna hushes him, giving him some water from her clean bucket, dripping some into his mouth with a clean, wet rag.
"You've been in an accident, spaceman, you need your rest," she states, as she pushes him down as he tries to get up, "You aren't well, I found you bleeding from the head in your craft, so I took you into my home and got you cleaned up." The man gratefully takes the water, sputtering a bit, but calming down enough to trust the woman, it seems. "So space man, when you're feeling better, I can get you up and about, and see if that ship of yours is worth fixing, yeah?" she states, smiling down as he slips back into unconsciousness, "The name is Echidna, by the way..." Suddenly the world goes white, and Lala and Rito stand as the scene around them seems to shift.
The man, as I would come to learn, was known as Creed Diskenth, an exiled royal from the same planet of Deviluke that now rules the cosmos. He wished to find his people's 'ancient gods', to ask, or rather beg, for their help. But as I would learn, his wish, his need to find these mysterious ghosts was becoming all consuming to him. Creed had been a noble man, but time had worn away his kindness, and left a void he wished to fill with something meaningful in his life. I had thought I could fill that niche for him, instead he used my knowledge of the planet and its people to help him fix his ship, convincing me he would take me with him. I mistook his meaning, of course, being a young and foolish girl who dreamed of leaving the crumbling ruins of my refuge for the adventures I could find in the stars. Where I thought his meaning was more... personal, I found his offer had been to take me to the nearest inhabited planet with a society that welcomed strangers openly. Thinking he was elevating me from the hovel that had been my home, he instead sought to strand me in a strange place, leaving me behind and expecting me to find food and shelter on my own...
"I can't take you with me, Echidna, not with the path I need to follow," Creed states,a she finishes the last touches on his space ship, closing it and sealing it properly with a welding tool, "I must find the ancient ones that once promised my people our powers: our strength, the power to project energy from our tails; they can help me become the hero the universe needs!" He ignores the disappointment in her eyes, as he prepares his ship to take off. "I'm sorry, but a better life on some planet with inhabitants that aren't trying to kill you anytime soon, with people who could actually help you get a job, find food and a place to stay," he states, as he puts his things into his ship, "I was a king once Echidna, not just a prince, a king, and I was so close to bringing my people together before I was betrayed..." Echidna moves a stray hair form her eyes, watching the man clench his hands at the memories. "Those nobles, traitors I had thought were my friends, plotted my removal from the throne, and still likely plot the demise of my younger cousin, the new king," He goes up the ramp that the spaceport they had landed in had given him, and he stared down at Echidna at its base, "I cannot let them stay alive, lest they plot to overthrow him and truly end my uncle's line for good..." He looks down at her, the girl before him tearing up as he prepares to leave, and he coldly turns his back towards her. "I'm sorry Paras, but I just- I can't right now, maybe if things were different..." he looks up at the sky, the setting sun, as a tearful Echidna looks up, "Right now, I don't have time for love, not when my world, my family needs me." She doesn't even move from her spot as he leaves, the roar of engines and turbines muted beyond the tears and the screams she cries out, watching him leave this new world, and her, behind in the cold air of the spaceport.
Lala and Rito watch as Echidna Paras stares up at her lost opportunities, as his ship disappears like a star against the twilight sky. Lala has drawn closer to the girl, trying to put her own hands on the Echidna,who had fallen to the ground crying as she gripped the newly bought dress she was wearing. Though Lala had been unable to give her physical comfort, she was close enough to her her next few words, feeling them strike her heart. "I could've been your family," she mutely cries, as someone comes over to usher her and her cargo out of the hanger Creed had been given upon landing. Dragging behind a small container of luggage and an extra chest that both Rito and Lala had noticed Echidna keep in her cottage, she is led to a vehicle of some kind that takes her to a processing facility. Assigned quarters, an identity card allowing purchase of food, and a job, Lala and Rito watch the girl go from lively, to sullen and reserved as she places her things in an all to big, all too empty living space.
Ignoring her clothes, they watched the girl place her older looking bag on her bed, and Rito notices just how old it looks from the wear and tear, noticing the cracks it has in its wood frame. Lala calls Rito over just as Echidna prepares to open it. Leaning over a shoulder each, they watch with anticipation as Echidna opens the mysterious container, revealing two separate compartments lined with red velvet and pillows, and holding two very small, precious objects inside of them. Rito notices the oily Black Pearl, while Lala is transfixed by the gleaming White Pearl. Looking over both of them before closing up them back into the montainer, Rito and Lala oth turn to each other in surprise that she had so casually hide two of the most powerful objects in the universe in a suitcase, before turning to Echidna herself. Gone where the tears and sadness, having cried herself out on the long journey from the spaceport, now replaced with anger and determination. "I left my life behind, I left my duty behind on that planet, hoping I could join you in your travels," she states tonelessly, "I would have told you the reason why I wished to leave, that I had my own plans to find a place to hide these precious treasures... I could have even let you know why I wanted to join you, but you left me here..." She falls back onto her bed, not even caring anymore, "Very well, its your loss Creed, but I have a new journey to undertake now, I must hide the Pearls, before they get stolen from me, or worse." Rito and Lala watch the girl close her eyes, before she opens them with renewed determination. Before anything could go further, Rito and Lala once again found their surroundings changing, and deposited back into the white void.
I had never shown him my power in that time, but later learning that his 'gods' were my ancestors, I truly felt pity for him. He sought help from a group of people that were long gone from the universe, people that had left behind my ancestors to live their lives, while the rest returned to a far away promise of an ancient home in a long forgotten galaxy. Seeing him wish to leave me like that, when I had exactly what he wanted, what the whole universe wanted, I realized that I had to hide the Pearls away. I found an ancient temple of my people on an uninhabited, barren world, which my ancestors had abandoned during the first Great Galactic War. I found a way to transform myself into an incorporeal guardian using its advanced technology, but not before plunging the ancient structure into the planet's massive underground caverns. My people had planned to transform the planet for their needs, and finding a massive device capable of altering the planet's structure at will, I chose to activate it in an attempt to erase the traces of my people, of the Pearls from the universe. It worked until miners became interested in the heavy deposits, and with them they brought attention to this planet. Eventually Tigris Industries became interested in hunting down any traces of the Taoist civilization, searching for the Pearls, and if it were not for your Mother and her friend, the Pearls would be in the wrong hands.
Appearing before them once more, the now adult looking Echidna Paras stands with a contemplative look on her face. "So, you know my history now, of what the Pearl's are capable of," she says, "So what will you do with this knowledge?" Rito and Lala met each others eyes. Lala held out her half of the white pearl, while Rito produced his. Placing them together, they close their eyes and concentrate.
"It's time we face the truth," Rito says softly to Lala, neither opening their eyes, "We wouldn't change anything for ourselves." Lala feels the power of the Pearl come together, as the two halves become one whole.
"So we're decided then?" Lala declares, opening her eyes to face Rito, "I can't do it alone, though..." Rito opens his eyes, smiling.
"Never again," he states, as they grasp the newly remade pearl in their conjoined hold, "Together we face the future, always." Echidna watches with a smile as the world begins to swirl with a newborn energy, emanating from the Pearl, consuming Rito and Lala, and then filling the void with impossible colors.
"It seems I chose right," she says, as a wave of energy heads for her, "Safe travels Lala-chi, Rito-kun, may your endings be-" As the wave of gray light consumes her, it expands. The void is no more.
Reality is remade.
A/N: Honestly went way out of left field this chapter...
I do not own To-Love Ru.
So take the first color from each of the previous chapters, add their names and you get this little tidbit:
V. Momo
I. Nana
B. Yui
G. Run
Y. Golden Darkness
O. Mikan
R. Haruna
VIBGYOR/ROYGBIV