Chapter 3

Thanatos

"I don't know who I pissed off to keep getting' these shit jobs, but if I find out who he is, I'm killin' him."

Izzie Leon took a long drag on his cigarette before blindly flicking the butt towards the dry brush several feet away. He held the breath for a long moment before letting the smoke curl out of his mouth, sneering over at the taciturn young man beside him. It was bad enough getting stuck with a rookie, but it was just his luck that the kid didn't talk much either. A little noise would have taken the edge off, since the only sounds he had heard in some time was the wind whistling past the rocky cliffs around them, and the lonesome howl of a coyote serenading the moon.

Izzie snarled as he delivered another imaginary thrashing to his unknown malefactor. He was from the city; he didn't know anything beyond the reach of the pavement. They had left those limits a long time ago, parking the car over an hour's walk behind them in the gravel off the side of the road. There had not been any real landmarks to go by, only the rough estimates of distance that their boss had given them, which was another shock to him; how were they going to find one guy in the middle of the desert, and at night to boot?

Beside him, Tyson Minota silently trudged along, eyes held before him and his face set in a mask of dumb acceptance of his duties. Though over a decade younger than his unwilling partner, Tyson was far greater in size, broad-shouldered and thick-limbed, his mane of hair lying tangled against his wide neck. Like Izzie, he wore a battered leather jacket, but unlike the older man's that jacket had never been able to claim the distinction of a classy brand; his had been a final gift from his poor parents, while Izzie had claimed his through conquest, or at least scavenging, from one of his targets, as the poorly-patched hole in the center of the back would attest.

That was another difference between the two men. Izzie had been with their organization for some time, picked up as an enforcer after he had had an unfortunate run-in with some cops, a fight that had proven his effectiveness against unsuspecting targets, but his cowardice in the face of numbers. Tyson, however, had been a less-willing conscript, his new supervisor so impressed with the boy's size and strength that he had made certain comments regarding Tyson's parents and the fragility of their health and home, words which had kept the boy sullenly obedient ever since.

One thing the two had in common was that their boss had grown quite tired of their failings. Izzie was only known for his discretion in regards to it being the better part of valor, which he lacked also. Tyson was considered loyal but stupid, a notion that wasn't quite true; he was very slow and careful in actions, words, and thoughts, which made other people quickly grow frustrated with him. The job that the two had been offered had been presented to them as an opportunity to regain the good graces of their superiors in the organization, a chance to be forgiven for their failings.

And if there was one thing that came very rarely in Fairy Tale, it was forgiveness.

It had sounded like such a simple job, too: find a certain man, and pass him a message. They had even been given directions to where he would most likely be found. Unfortunately, those directions had involved driving to the middle of nowhere and then hiking into the wilderness, and the only real landmark they had been given was their destination: a flat piece of ground dotted with piles of stacked stones.

Izzie shivered, wrapping his arms tighter around himself. He hadn't figured on a desert being this cold, and it felt like the temperature was plummeting with every step they took. He raised his head, his tongue darting out from between his lips. Tyson, glancing over at him, grimaced when he saw that his partner's tongue was forked, but Izzie paid no mind; he had noticed quickly how different the air tasted outside the city, but now it was beginning to take on a stale taste, like an abandoned building. For some reason, that unnerved him worse than the silence, which had gotten even more noticeable.

"Aw, hell, there's no way we're gonna find this place in the dark, even with a full moon. We'll just come back tomorrow, say we had a flat tire or something if we miss the guy. Can't imagine any reason someone would be out here at this time of the night anyways," Izzie complained as the pair topped a rise, looking over the surrounding area with a dismissive glance. He shook his head and turned around, assuming the younger man would fall in behind him.

"There." Izzie whirled to see Tyson pointing down, off the nearby cliff at the ground below. Rolling his eyes in exasperation, the older man stomped back to the edge, scanning the ground below. Yeah, there were some rocks, but there were rocks everywhere, and- Wait. There, that patch of black that was so much darker than everything around it, could that be…?

"Feh. Nice one, kid." Izzie shrugged his shoulders and started looking for a way for them to walk down from their vantage point. Tyson mutely followed, glancing every few steps in the direction of the shadow he had seen in the center of the rocks. Something had felt wrong, ugly, about that shadow…

A few minutes later, the pair reached the edge of the piles of stones. They still couldn't make out any details about the figure standing in the midst of them, save that he had his back turned to them, and that he to be huge, towering over all the piles around them. This fact did nothing to deter Izzie, who walked straight towards him, dispelling the fear he felt with a surge of vicious eagerness to have the job over with. Tyson, however, paused at the edge of the stones, glancing at them with concern as he realized what they might be. "Hey," he said in a hoarse whisper, "These are cairns. This is holy ground. We shouldn't-"

"Hey, buddy!" Izzie yelled out, his voice shattering the silence. "We need to have a few words with you."

The massive figure didn't answer, standing just as still as he had since they had first seen him, a monolithic pillar in the midst of the graves. He was robed entirely in black, with no visible skin, and the garment that cloaked him was bulky enough to hide any details about his proportions. After a moment, Izzie mustered the courage to take another step towards him, sneering in anger. "I'm talkin' to you, pal. 's not like there's anyone else around for me to be chattin' with. Our boss wants us to tell you somethin', and if I were you, I would listen up." Again the figure offered no response, and Izzie cursed under his breath. "We came all the way out here to talk to you, and you're not the least bit interested? Do you know who we are? We're Fairy Tale, pal, and that means you better not piss us off. Or else."

Izzie let those words hang for a long moment, but still the giant chose not to answer him. Izzie's anger finally began to get the better of his cowardice as his control over his form wavered, scales sprouting across his face and arms as his nails and teeth lengthened. He marched within reach of the figure, his arm held out, claws reaching up to what he figured to be a shoulder. "That does it, buddy. If you ain't gonna pay attention, I'll make sure you-"

"Isaac Leon."

Izzie's eyes widened as he felt the cold pierce him. Somehow, the figure had instantly turned to face him, but he wasn't looking at the face, his eyes drawn downward. There, in the man's hand, was a sword with an ivory hilt and pearlescent blade, decorated only with a death's head on the cross guard. And, the other end of the sword-

There was no blood, no pain. His eyes rose to meet the face of the man who had stabbed him, and his eyes widened in terror as he saw the bone-white mask the man wore, a skull that covered the entire face. And inside the cavernous eyes, there was nothing, nothing at all.

There was a feeling like paper tearing inside the minds of everyone that had ever known Izzie Leon, and then that too was forgotten.

Tyson Minota blinked, cowering as the massive figure turned to face him. He couldn't deduce why he had been chosen to come to deliver Fairy Tale's message to this monster, and certainly not why he had been sent alone. He was used to working with a partner, at the least, since Fairy Tale didn't trust his loyalty. Now that he had found his target, he realized that there was no one around to help him if things went poorly, as they were the only two people for miles.

Swallowing down his fear, Tyson stepped forward. "I've been sent to deliver a message," he said simply. He waited a long moment for the figure to respond, and when the silence had stretched far enough he pressed on. "Our boss wants to make you an offer." Again, silence.

"We – Fairy Tale – are willing to get you your phylactery if you'll kill someone for us." Tyson stared at the skull-mask, hoping for some sign of interest. "His name is Tsukune Aono. Kill him, and all of the people he loves, and we'll deliver to you the artifact you've been searching for. He's in Japan; you can get info at any of our bases there on his exact whereabouts."

After a long moment of silence, Tyson nodded in confirmation. "That's the message. Bye." He turned to walk away, eager to return to the car that would carry him far away from this place.

"Tyson Minota."

Tyson turned around, staring up at massive figure that had somehow instantly reached him. His eyes widened as he stared up, past that skull face, at the bone remnants of wings that stretched out from the man's back. Those hadn't been there before, Tyson worried as he felt the cold stab into his gut. Not understanding, he looked down at the blade of the sword that the man held, and realized that he had been stabbed. But where was the blood? It was as if-

Again, the momentary feeling of loss as everyone that had ever met Tyson Minota, even his parents, forgot him completely. A great distance away, a Fairy Tale supervisor woke up in a sweat, remembering that he had been assigned to contact someone and had yet to send any of his minions to do it.

Thanatos stood in silence for a long moment, seemingly alone in the ancient graveyard. So, Japan. That was where he would finally be reunited with his phylactery, and its contents. After centuries of searching for it, he was finally closing in. And all it would take would be to kill someone for that troublesome organization. That would be no problem.

But first, he would wait for a couple of days, until his next victims were ready. Already he could see the emptiness taking hold over them, the two spectral men wandering away from the field of cairns, unable to understand and already beginning to fade. Soon, they would become nothing, like all of the others.

And then Thanatos would feed.

Author's Note: I had really wanted to release this chapter on Halloween, but it worked better as a third chapter than as a prologue, in my opinion. Finally the mysterious villain alluded to in the previous tale makes his appearance, but what is his true nature, and what is his connection to Mori Retsu? That, you will have to wait to find out.

…Assuming I get off my derriere (figuratively) and hit the keyboard. Work has had me so bogged down that I'm barely getting anything done, and my surplus of chapters is all but depleted. I've got a lot of my later stuff coming together quite well, but my scribble-coated notebook of plotwork doesn't measure up next to a finished product. Oh well, I get tomorrow off; here's hoping that I can focus.

I have made a little progress with the Love Hina side project I have going, but since it's a tad citric (ahem, cough cough) I'm not too sure what the fate of that one will be. Especially considering that since the beginning of my self-imposed exile from FFN quite a few rules have changed, and I'd rather not get banned or warned or whatever judicial anvil it is that is tossed at those who peek over the edge of the site's age ratings. Perhaps the powers that be have relaxed a bit on that matter; I recall at one point they were more than a bit tyrannical. In any case, I'm open to suggestions, should anyone prove curious about that work.

As for this one, another chapter in a week, as we return to Tsukune and Co. I shall hope to see you then!

~Wynn P.