Alright, so, it was definitely a shorter time period then before for this update. but i should be doing calc rt now. so, eh. I've ben trying to get this out so that i could really work on my school work. Ugh, and ive ben having problems with my friend back home in dear old NJ...5 hours away. So, whenever i had the time, i'd work on this. Well, here it is. hope you enjoy it. I couldnt figure out how i wanted to end the chapter, so this is my longest chapter as of yet. that, and I had the creative juices flowing majorly. Enjoy!!
Disclaimer: i dont own the gundam boys.
Chapter, the twenty ninth
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Into the land of the Dead
The next day found Alex and Duo standing around a silver basin in Heaven. The room they were in was dark, the only light coming from the basin itself. The water looked foggy and every so often it would ripple like some unseen wind would blow past. Alex still stood a couple inches more then necessary away from Duo, his powers still trying to harness hers. Darien looked at the pair just as Kaori walked into the room, Vicky trailing behind her.
He sighed, "What you need to do is, while speaking clearly, say where you would like to go, say what you are offering, and offer as much as you can. Then you are on your own in the Land of the Dead."
Alex nodded. She took the knife, a wicked looking dagger with a silver blade and a stone blood red at the pommel. Holding it in her hand, she swept her hand over the basin, the light changed to a dark green. In a clear concise voice that seemed right at home in the darkened room she said, "I, the Goddess of Death, seek the guidance of Meryl the Witch to find out the story behind my life and the life before this one." She looked at Duo. It was his turn.
"What do I say?" He asked, "I'm not the God of Death. And if I am, I'm not yet. I mean, I'm just a gundam pilot. I'm a kid from L2. That's it."
"You are the God of Death. Of that much, I'm sure. Yes, you're a pilot, but you're more then that. You want to learn the story of the Goddess of Death and you want to break the human shell holding your powers."
"Didn't we just find out last night that that was a bad thing to do?" Duo asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, but you need to break the shell before you harness your power." Darien replied, speaking as matter-of-factly as he could.
"Right…"
Alex shook her head. "Say what you need to say or we'll never get down there and get this over and done with."
Duo took a deep breath, "I, Duo Maxwell, want to- "
"Say who you really are." Alex whispered. "Start again."
Duo shot her a look, "I, Duo Maxwell, the God of Death?, want to see Meryl to-"
"Why are you questioning it?" Darien asked, "You can't question anything or it won't work and you'll get killed. Start again."
"I, Duo Maxwell, the fucking God of Death!!….Want to see-"
"Why the hell are you cursing!?" Kaori yelled at him.
"Oh for Christ's sake!! He, Duo Maxwell, the God of Death, wishes to see Meryl the Witch in order to find out the life story behind myself, The Goddess of Death, and to break the binding holding his powers behind their human shell."
"Alex, if you were going to do it for me why didn't you do it in the first place!!?"
"Because I thought that after you heard me do it you would've known how to do it!!" she huffed and said, "Now give me your hand. I need to slit your wrist."
"Excuse me!?! Slit my wrist!?! Why do you need to slit my wrist!? Can't we just prick my finger??"
"We wouldn't get enough blood out of your finger. Not unless we chopped all of your fingers off."
"So, we need to slit my wrist??"
Alex sighed, "Would you rather I hang you upside down from the ceiling and slit you from navel to collar bone? We'd certainly get enough blood that way."
"No, I'd like to live thank you very much."
Kaori walked over to them, separating them. "If you two don't stop, I'll slit both your throats."
Alex looked hopeful. "Actually that might work. But no. Duo, give me your wrist."
"If I die…"
"If you die," Alex said, " we'll have to do this again in how ever many centuries it takes for the two of us to live in the same century again. So, shut up, deal with it, and give me your fucking wrist!!"
Duo gave her his wrist. She pulled it over the basin, holding the knife over his skin, hovering. And then, with a quick motion, she sliced his wrist. The blood bubbled over, dripping into the basin. The water began to swirl and churn. The light of the basin turned to a dark red. The walls were bathed in light.
Alex stood over the basin, her face reddened by the light. She held the knife at the junction of her elbow, point down. Duo watched, his own wrist bleeding, as she dragged the knife point down her arm following her vein, and her blood began to pour from her arm. She stopped at the wrist, making a horizontal cut over it, holding her arm over the basin as best as she could.
Duo was extremely aware of the fact that his body was beginning to go numb as Alex's face paled from an ivory color to ashen. Kaori moved to Duo's side, removing his wrist from over the basin and healing it as Alex once again dragged the knife point down her other arm, holding them both of the basin.
The water had turned black, the room a dungeon. Fumes of rotting corpses trailed the floor, making everybody feel like this was no longer heaven, but a graveyard. As they all watched, the water began to churn, and faces were seen free floating in the liquid, it had become too thick to be known as water, to dark. While his eyes were becoming wider, moans and groans of souls long lost wailed throughout the room. They moved wisps of everyone's hair, rustling their clothing.
Darien gasped as a hand shot out of the basin, bony fingers wrapped out the Goddess's wrist. The head of a zombie came creeping out next. The eyes were red, pinpricks in the dark, the hair covered with maggots. It pulled itself up, staring at the Goddess of Death before latching its sunken lips onto her wrist, right over the horizontal cut she'd made.
They all were mesmerized as the zombies body features began to shift and change, taking on a more human tone. The hair black, the face angled, the eyes a green golden color. Finally, it unlatched from Alex's wrist and stared up at her.
"You wish to reach the Land of the Dead."
Her head was hanging on the edge of the basin, her face so pale, it seemed translucent. Her hair was swimming in the thickened blood water. She moved her lips, but no sounds came out. She was weakened, so much blood given, because she didn't know how much was needed. Again, she tried to speak.
"…yes…"
"Then I will open the doorway, for I am the gatekeeper." Even as the zombie human spoke, the wall behind them began to change and morph. A stone archway came into existence. The darkness behind whispering sweet words to them, begging them to stay with them. "Be careful of the wild ones. And may you have luck on your side Goddess. You are much sought after in revenge." It turned its now bleeding eyes towards Duo, the hair becoming maggots again, the fingers into bones, "Take care young God and may you find the answers you seek among the dead." And it sunk back into the water, falling down, reverted to what it was before it fed on Alex's blood.
Alex gasped, falling to the ground. Hurriedly running her hands over her arms, not having the power to heal them even as Vicky and Kaori came over, doing it for her. She leaned on Kaori, who tried to calm her as she began to sob.
"It's alright. It's ok. Calm down. You've have to get up now and continue the journey." Kaori stood up, grabbing Alex's arms, pulling her up with her. "Time to go. You have to find out all your answers and Meryl waits for no one. See the vines are already shrinking back into the floor."
Alex watched the vines shaking. Standing up straighter, despite the overwhelming weakness she felt, she summoned her dark blue cloak, settling the hood over her head. Walking forward, she stood in the doorway. She turned to look at Duo, watching her from across the room. Holding out her hand, she left him only that invitation.
Vicky poked Duo in the side. "I didn't know the infamous gundam pilot 02 was afraid of death when he himself claimed to be the God of Death."
"Yeah, but that was before I found out that I'm actually the reincarnation of the actual God of Death," Duo said back to her without moving his eyes from Alex's form across the room. He took a step forward, around the basin. The mist swirled as he moved, darkening with each step. As he came to stand next to Alex, grasping her hand in his, He looked into her face. The shadows had become thicker, her eyes black holes with colored irises. She looked like a creature of death now, like she belonged in the land they would be entering soon.
Darien stepped forward a bit, "Good luck. May the angels guide you on your trip."
As Darien spoke, a strong wind struck up, picking the two death deities up clear into the air, carrying them into the darkened tunnel. When they were dropped, they tumbled on the floor in pitch black darkness, the only light coming from the room a mile back, even as that light lessened and finally went out. Duo stood up, reaching out into the darkness, blindly seeking the goddess.
"Alex?" he called out.
Something groaned in the darkness. He stopped. He couldn't even see his hand in front of his face. He took a step, listening for her. He felt something brush against his face, like the fingertips of a woman's hand traveling from forehead to chin down his cheek. He leaned into the caress, feeling warm breathe on the back of his neck. He felt the very feminine body against his back, the breathe against his ear.
"Duo…," it called out to him. The voice sounded just like Alex's. "Duo, come to me. Come to me. I'm waiting." The hands began to pull him off into the darkness.
Suddenly, the darkness was lit up. The shadows hiding behind vine covered pillars. Unearthly screams rebounded around the darkened corridor. Alex stood in front of Duo, she had marks on his arms. In her palms were balls of light. She walked around Duo a few times, hissing at the darkness. Her hair was down, her face still pale from before. She came to stand in front of him, her eyes were dull.
"What happened to u?" He asked, touching her face.
She took a step back as if stung. "They're bodiless creatures. They seduce you to lay with them and when u do, they take your soul and you become one of them. I had one of them trying to seduce me, but when it bit me on the side of the neck…I knew it wasn't…it wasn't real."
"That thing was trying to steal my soul?"
"Yes, it's not every day that a human comes into the bridge between worlds. Come on. We need to get out of here. I don't have the strength to keep them away for long."
Alex led them at a slow pace through the corridor. Every once in a while, she'd have to stop, and the orb in her palm would flicker and sputter, and the darkness would reach out, like arms looking for a lost lover. Then the orb would glow strong again and the two of them would continue on.
Duo looked at the rock walls around them, the vines shaking every once in a while. Occasionally, they passed through a very cold spot. The shadows moaned at them, begging the two to go to them.
Moving down the long stone hallway, Alex's steps were much slower then usual. Duo walked next to her, mostly out of the fact that she had the powers and if he wasn't with her he'd be dragged into the underworld and killed brutally by some nameless, bodiless thing. He watched as the shadows hid away from the light. A few times it actually looked like the bodies had eyes. He could feel hundreds of things watching him.
Up ahead of them, the darkness seemed to swell and pulse. It seemed to move like a person walks. Alex stopped, watching this peculiar shadow move. It turned towards them, it's eyes were blood red.
"Duo, stay close to me. Ok?" Alex moved in front of him, shielding him even as the shadow walked closer and began to lose some darkness.
"What is that thing??"
"That is a shadow demon. They're normally harmless, but nobody ever knows what they'll do."
The demon was twenty feet away from them now. It moved with a slow gait, walking back and forth. It made not a move as they passed by, even going as far as to stop and let them pass, watching them, specifically Duo. Just as they passed. Alex groaned and began to sink to the floor.
The orb died out and the shadows moved quicker then the eye, setting upon the human God and the Goddess so quickly it was only a miracle that Duo was able to grab Alex so quickly. The demon shadow stood by and watched as the bodiless shadows tried to over take the two beings.
Suddenly, it sent a wave of power through the air, knocking Duo over and pushing Alex from his arms. She woke up to find shadow beings hovering over Duo who was by the looks of it, unconscious. She sat up, growling under her breath. The shadows turned to look at her, simmering in her power. Alex hissed at the shadows, turning their attention from Duo to her.
She stood up, walking over to Duo. The shadows scratched her arms, her neck, anything they could touch. She picked up the gundam pilot, throwing him over her shoulder, she turned to walk away. The shadows tried to take the pilot away from her. She held a tighter hold on them. Without even thinking about it, she held out her arm, lighting up the orb, holding the orb around her, making the shadows hiss and back up to the walls, trying to stay away from the light.
Alex walked forward another twenty feet and right around the corner, she saw the ending of the tunnel. Walking just a bit faster, practically running, without expending so much energy, she broke out of the tunnel, falling onto the ground, laying Duo next to her. She started patting his cheek. Praying that the shadows hadn't hurt him in any way. If they killed his soul, the two of them would have to wait how ever long it took for them to be alive again. She continued patting his cheek until he took in a deep breath and opened his eyes.
"Oh god!! Thank god!!" She hugged him. "I thought they might've killed you."
He chuckled, "I'm happy to know you cared."
She punched him in the shoulder, "Don't even joke around about this. Get up, Duo. We have to keep going."
He rubbed his shoulder, standing up. When he turned around, Alex was sitting on top of the horse which had outrun his gundam. He pointed to the horse, his mouth opening.
"Excuse me, but I'm sorry. I can't keep up with speedy Gonzalez."
The Goddess raised an eyebrow, "We won't be going very fast for one. And for two, would you like to sit behind me?"
"Can't I just have my own horse?"
"Nightingale doesn't like the fact that you keep calling him a horse."
Duo stopped, "That horse-"
Alex gave Duo a stern look. "Nightingale is a speed unicorn. Horses wouldn't be able to live with a deity. So, his brethren decided to allow the Gods and Goddesses of Heaven to use them as a mode of transportation."
"Ok, fine. So he's a speed unicorn. Can I have one?"
Alex sat for a few seconds, contemplating. "Nightingale says that you would need the unicorn which was promised to you at birth."
"Promised to me at birth??? Excuse me, but where would I find the unicorn that was promised to me at birth?"
"He says that you need to call for her. He also says that she's been yours for thousands of centuries."
"How exactly would I call this, 'speed unicorn' to me?"
Alex gave him a blank look. "Use your mind."
"And do what? Yell 'Here, Horse!! Come, Horse!! Good Horse!!"
"That might work."
He threw up his hands in the air. Stalking around the little dirt area where they were, he stared at the bleak sky. Every so often it'd look like a window opened and someone walked past. He muttered to himself, asking the air around him how the hell he called for a horse that apparently had been his for thousands of years.
He turned around, looking at Alex sitting calmly on Nightingale's back. "What exactly would I name a speed unicorn when I'm a god in like 'the ancient world'?"
"I don't know. I wasn't there when your unicorn was given to you."
He mumbled to himself. Turning around again only to find himself face to face with a gray horse.
"Unicorn."
He raised an eyebrow. That was probably Alex once again correcting him.
"I'm not your wife. Please stop referring to us as horses. We are unicorns. Come, we will ride with Nightingale towards the witch's hovel."
Duo walked right up to the gray unicorn's face, pointing a finger a her nose. He turned to Alex. "That's her speaking?"
"You can hear her?" Alex asked, surprised. "Hmm, well, she has been yours forever. Obviously even without your powers awakened you'd be able to understand her. Come on, you can ride a unicorn, can't you?"
It took him little more then a few minutes to situate himself in the saddle and after an hour his unicorn was still walking closely next to the black unicorn Alex was riding. The area around them looked like a desert but where the sun should have been was a black glowing sphere with red rays glaring down on them. The vegetation ranged from bushes that were nothing but twigs to cactuses that looked like hands and every so often he thought he saw one of them move.
"Alex…" He asked, watching the strange cacti.
"Yeah," She said, turning her head towards him.
"I think those weird cacti are moving…"
"They are. They're made from the arms of abusive men and women. Anything that gets to close to them gets attacked."
He watched as the cactus moved closer to their path. It's strange arms swung lightly in strange patterns. Off in the distance he saw something moving. It looked like a body, but it was completely disfigured. As he was watching, it turned its face towards him, glaring at him, its eyes glowing an almost violent purple.
"…Alex…"
She turned her head towards him again, catching sight of the figure off in the distance. She gasped as they both watched as the thing grew wings, great black wings reaching a good six feet out on both sides, and took a running leap. Her heart caught in her throat when she saw the black aura around it, the way the light caught on this disfigured being's skin, and while they watched, the creature shifted. Across its shoulder blades lay the remains of a completely destroyed braid.
"Run." She said, "Right now!"
Without another word, she gave the command to Nightingale to run not even waiting to see if Duo was behind her. The unicorns ran, blurring the ground beneath their hooves. It felt very much like riding in a car with the top down, and suddenly it was over.
Both unicorns stopped at the same time as Alex threw her hood off turning to look at Duo. She stared at him for a few minutes, locking her eyes to his.
"Do you remember when we were talking with Darien and JC and we said that anything that dies comes here?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Did you not see what that thing was?!"
"It was a zombie."
"It was a creature of the Land of the Dead. It was a God. It was you for Christ's sake!!!"
"Me?"
"Yes!!! That was your past self from before you were reincarnated. But it was only a God. There were no human qualities about it. You share your powers with that thing."
"So, it was me from when I died previously and if I hadn't died I'd still be that thing?"
"Yes, you would."
"So, that means that your past reincarnation is here as well?"
"I guess. Did anybody say whether my past self died?" Alex spurred her unicorn into motion.
"I don't think they did." Duo paused, staring up at the strange sun. The rays looked like they were turning blue at the base. The land looked to be getting darker. He looked down at the unicorn he was riding. He wondered what he'd named her almost two thousand maybe more years ago.
"What would you name me?" Her voice came into his mind the way mist crawls over the ground.
"Misty," He said out loud.
"And that is the name you gave me so many centuries ago."
He smiled, patting the horse's hair.
The two deities traveled in silence. Occasionally there was a rambling body in the distance, stumbling like it was blind or drunk. In the darkness around them, more figures seemed to appear out of the horizon. They seemed to be drawn to the darkness, and so, the two unicorns seemed to pick up speed. The figures seemed to be drawn to the deities.
As the disfigured beings passed, their faces became horrifyingly malicious. The blackened eyes narrowed as claw like arms grabbed at the deities ankles as they rode through the masses.
In the distance they saw a white house with blackened shutters. Pushing forward towards the building, they plunged through the gate just as the masses began to pile up, Misty kicking out with her back hoof to dislodge a being latched onto the saddle to pull itself up.
Duo looked at the creatures on the other side of the fence. The seemed to be climbing on top of each other, but were unable to get over despite the fact that they were over the top of the fence.
When he turned back, Alex had already dismounted and was standing near the door looking back at him. She motioned him to hurry up and he quickly dismounted, walking to stand next to her. They both stared at the door, white on top, with a dusting of black leading to a straight black bottom. Lined around the door as an eerie door jam were skulls of different species. Some looked more canine then others. Some looked human. Others looked like demon skulls with horns protruding from their foreheads.
As Alex raised her hand to knock on the door, it suddenly opened under her fist. There stood a white haired woman. Her eyes were nearly completely white. She was short and looked to be wearing an animal print shirt and a pair of leather thong shoes. She was staring up at the two of them.
"It's about time," she said. "I was wondering if those things had gotten you. Come on. No time like the present."
She motioned them in. When they stepped over the threshold, the air around them immediately felt at least fifty degrees colder. Around them hung more skulls of al different sizes. The hung the way grapes would. There were jars of strange things; eyeballs, intestines, a heart. There was a head floating in a jar on the other side of the room. It looked like there was a fountain in the middle of the room much similar to the fountain which had allowed them to come through the land of the dead to see this witch.
"Sit on those." Meryl pointed to the stools around the fountain.
She walked over to a cupboard. Opening the doors they were able to see probably over a hundred small vials. The vials ranged from black with white tops, to red vials, to clear with red liquids. Duo shuddered to think what those liquids were. There was a clear bottle with a pink liquid in it and he wondered what could possibly be the pink potion.
"It's a potion for death."
He jumped, Alex raised an eyebrow. Meryl turned around looking him straight in the face, her eyes were completely white now with an opaque lining where the iris should be. "A Love Potion…that will lead whoever drinks it to death. Honestly, I don't remember why exactly I made it. But that's the general idea for it."
Alex shifted on the stool. " The black one?"
"Ah," Meryl laughed, "It's funny you should ask Anarhria."
"Alex," the Goddess replied.
"Of course, Alex. And My dear Lord of Death, what is your name in this century?"
"Duo Maxwell."
"Ah, yes. As I was saying, the black potion will also lead whoever should drink it to death. But literally so. It's much too dangerous to hand out to anybody. I don't know why I made that one either."
She turned around, dumping an odd assortment of books, wrapped papyrus notes, bottles, and odd jars on the table. Distributing them according to what they were she organized them. Standing around the other side of the fountain, she looked squarely at the two deities before her.
"Now, the two of you gave me much blood in exchange for what you seek. What say you to our beginning to delve into the past. Shall we? Which would you like to do first?"
The two death gods looked at each other. Duo had no idea what exactly he was supposed to do. Alex had barely any idea either. They both shrugged and looked at Meryl
"Then we'll awaken Duo's powers first." She picked up a jar with what looked like a red mass inside of it. Placing the jar in front of Duo, she said, "Do you see this? It's a heart. Your heart from your body almost a thousand years ago. In order for your soul to reinstate itself, you must ingest it."
The room was silent for a few minutes. Alex's eyebrows had risen up to her hair line, her dark hair a mess around her face. Duo's jaw had dropped and he was looking at the witch very strangely. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally achieved the gift of speech again.
"I have to eat it!?!" His mouth was working like the catch to hold his jaws together had malfunctioned.
"Of course. You don't think that your soul will just come of it's own accord, do you? It's not that easy and you shouldn't think it that so."
They all three stared at each other around the fountain. Duo sat glaring at the heart in a jar. Alex was fidgeting like crazy, bouncing her foot over her knee.
"Come on. Come on. We don't have all eternity. Eat the thing so we can call your soul back."
"I have a soul thank you very much."
"A human soul. You want your god one so you can awake your powers."
"Apparently mine are awakening. I was shimmering a couple of days ago."
"That happens. It's called a power wave. Deities normally give it off."
There was an awkward silence. Meryl's face was fixed on Duo's. Her white eyes blended in neatly with her pale skin.
"Do you want me to change it into something more pleasing for you?"
He looked up, "You can do that?"
"Of course! I'm a witch. What kind of a witch would I be if I couldn't change a heart into something pleasing to eat?" With a wave of her hand, the heart in a jar was replaced by a burger and fries.
Alex raised both her eyebrows at the sight of the burger. It had a red tint to it. The fries were pink and looked just a tad soggy.
The gundam pilot turned human god salivated at the meal in front of him. Reaching for the burger, he took a big bite and promptly spit it back out.
"What?" Meryl asked, "I told you I'd change your heart into something pleasing. I never said it'd be pleasant to eat. Come on. Eat up. We haven't got all day."
Slowly and painfully so, Duo finished off the burger. Bite by bite, he grimaced through it before moving onto the French fries. When the plate was finished, he pushed it back and finally said, "That was by far the worst burger I have ever had."
Alex leaned forward suddenly, grabbing Duo's face and holding it tight. "Your eyes are glowing."
"They are?" He asked.
Meryl leaned back, calm as can be as a sudden faint darkness clouded the room. Like a mist, it seeped from underneath the door. The Goddess of Death stood up in front of Duo who'd suddenly gone deathly pale. The bones on the back of his hands stood out. He placed a hand on his chest, pain flaring everywhere as the darkness melted and centered on him. Alex leapt backwards as the door flew open and the horrid creature from before stood before them. It's face was mangled, the wings broken into pieces. There were no eyes though. The violet eyes from before were gone. Alex's gasp of horror went unheard as the thing literally walked through her straight to Duo and into his body.
In the chair, he convulsed, his back arching like a dome. With his eyes screwed shut in pain, he let out an unearthly scream. Alex covered her ears from the inhuman pitch while the witch nearly watched while everything happened. After what seemed like an eternity, he collapsed on the chair, breathing harshly.
The goddess stepped towards him softly. "Duo…?"
He turned pained eyes towards her, his face literally lighting up as his eyes rested in hers. "Anarhria!! My love!! You've come back to me! You've found me!!" His voice seemed deeper. His body radiated power. His eyes were glowing, like before. Standing up, he moved towards her shocked form. Taking her face in his hands, his lips collided with hers. Like lovers reunited she melted against him wrapping her arms around him until her mind came back to her and she stepped away shocked.
Shaking her head from side to side, she repeated a mantra of "No," over and over again. She stood confused. "Your not Duo." Her eyes watched his when his smile dropped and he suddenly looked like a defeated soul.
"You might have found me, but your love for me hasn't carried over."
"I never said I didn't love you…..I said 'your not Duo.'"
He shook his head. Everything about him seemed to radiate darkness despite the fact his eyes were like brightly colored jewels of amethyst, his hair seemed to be brighter now, his skin looked waxen, and his face looked gaunt. He looked like he'd aged twenty years.
"I'm still Duo," he explained, "the only difference is now I inhabit his body as well. Despite the fact that I am him, he is the human aspect, I am the god. I cannot change that."
She was quiet for a bit. Looking at him. Her eyes watched him as he walked over to a mirror and turned back to her, extending his hand. All he said was please as he stood silently waiting for her.
She walked on unsteady feet to him, holding his hand as he wrapped himself around her. His hands were on her stomach as he guided her to the mirror.
"You and I were married. So many years ago. You were beautiful. I was the most lucky god in all of old Roma to have received into my life such a glorious wife and companion." He paused, turning to look at Meryl who had been sitting quietly watching what was happening.
She waved her hands, "Go on. Go on. Who better to tell her about her life then her own husband."
Alex's face paled. "Husband?! I wasn't even asked…..Are you really my husband?"
He smiled, "Yes, we are. We've always been married, you and I. But if it makes you feel better, I'll ask again. We'll renew our vows so that you can have a clear conscience."
She sighed. "thank you…"
"I love you, Anarhria. I have for thousands of centuries even as my soul scoured the land here in oblivion. I'll wait for ever for you if that is what you want."
She leaned her head back, catching sight of a smiling Duo that just…wasn't Duo. She looked into the mirror. Her eyes were glowing a bit. Her face was waxen like his, her chin more prominent then usual. Her hair was brighter, and seemed almost…silken now.
The god of death placed his chin on her shoulder, looking into her eyes through the mirror. "When you and I married, we were the strongest pair alive. You had the power of the moon and darkness at your fingertips. I had death and corruption all around me. You shared in my death, helping me when I needed the help. The years seemed to fly by. Your power grew and equalized with mine. We were unstoppable."
He sighed, "But then, there were hunters. A thousand years ago, they cornered us. They wounded me. I don't even know how. There are literally no ways to kill a God. You were able to get us out of there, but the wound was fatal. Within the week, I was dead. I remember your face after all these years. You held my hand, tightly, maybe too tightly, but I didn't care. Your face was the last thing I saw before my soul slipped into oblivion. That's where my memory ends. I know nothing more except pain."
Alex turned to him. "Why did the hunters attack us? And what kind of hunters were they?"
"They were vampire hunters. Haha, I'll never forgot the way their faces looked when we sent off an entire family's souls. They thought I had sucked the souls from their bodies. I merely guided it on its way to the underworld. They attacked us though for our unearthly pallor, our beauty, our grace. All were the characteristics of a blood sucker. The fact that they thought I was a vampire made me laugh in their faces. They weren't too pleased about that."
"Why didn't they attack me?"
He sighed. "They didn't attack you because you physically looked like you had become un-horrified. Do you not see how you glow right now? Your eyes, your hair, your skin, all of it glows with the supernatural power of the gods flowing in your veins. When I died, all of that died with me. You became dulled slightly. Your powers waned and you seemed almost human to them. That's why you didn't get attacked by them."
She stood quiet for a few minutes. He continued to hold her, resting his chin on her shoulder. After a bit, she turned to him.
"What would happen if we didn't get married?"
Shrugging, he said, "Nothing. But we'd still need to work on stabilizing our powers. They're quite destructive if not taken care of."
"So…I have a choice?" She asked hopefully.
"Indeed. You always have a choice. I love you. I would never force you to do something you didn't want to."
For the first time since she'd been back around Duo, Alex smiled a true smile. Her face lit up, her eyes sparked, and her face seemed to flush. He grasped her hand, holding it in his. He could feel the heat radiating off her.
It was at that moment that Meryl decided to butt in. "I believe the two of you should be on your way. The death of the sun is upon us."
The two gods nodded their heads before moving to stand by the door. They stood side by side, looking out into the darkness. They turned back when Meryl placed a pale withered hand on both their shoulders
"Good luck controlling your powers. I hope to hear from the both of you again. Have a safe trip home to the God's Ledge."
-end 4 now-
didja like? It's really long. a lot is happening. I've ben writing this for 4 years now. and i FINALLY know how i want to finish it. So happy bout that. Leave questions, comments, problems in the form of a review. Reviews are nice. I like them. Nice people leave reviews. until the next update, Hasta Luego.