Epilogue
End of Dreams
"It's about time you showed up."
Not bothering to respond, the man walked through the forest towards his destination, the slightest of smirks raising one side of his lips. His dull black eyes wandered across the landscape before coming to rest on the man who had spoken, his hand coming up to smooth back his hair as the wind tugged at the edges of his long jacket. The woman in white trailing behind him dutifully stopped a few paces behind him as he ended his confident stroll through the twisted trees. "You still have it, yes?"
The young man who had first spoken rolled his mismatched eyes in disgust as he lowered the book he had been reading. "Geez, this has been so boooring. Couldn't you have chosen someone else to babysit this thing?" Hopping off his perch on the stone overhang, he held aloft the black satin bag, the runes scrawled across its surface glowing vivid blue to the time of a heartbeat. "I haven't lost it… yet."
"Good." Miyabi Fujisaki smiled tightly, staring at his colleague in tranquil patience. "It seems these days that failure is infectious. I am glad to see that it hasn't come to you, yet."
"Better watch yourself before me," Kiriya Yoshii responded, wearing a wry grin. "I take it that your plans with Thanatos didn't end up perfect." The emphasis he placed on the final word made his insult clear.
Miyabi's face did not change, but the dusk-skinned woman behind him took a step forward, responding to the faintest of cues. Kiriya's polychromatic eyes flicked to Kahlua, as if daring her to reach for her limiting seal. The past few days of endless boredom had left him testy, and he would appreciate the exercise, ally or no.
"Hand over the phylactery, and we can all be on our way," Miyabi promised, shaking his head. "It's time we were done with this mess. As soon as we're outside the school's barrier, I'll see about destroying this garbage before that wraith recovers-"
"Sorry, pal. Afraid I can't let you do that." The smug voice drew the attention of all three of the Fairy Tail operatives as the wind carried to them the scent of cigarette smoke.
The tall man walking towards them wore a black suit and sunglass, and his black hair was pulled back into a ponytail. His face looked roughly-hewn, with a squared chin and lips curled in a sharp angle, a cigarette pressed to one side. Despite the easy confidence in his gait, something about him radiated menace, enough so that it took those watching him approach a moment to notice the shadow trailing behind him.
As his eyes fell on the ivory mask the shadow wore, Miyabi flung an arm out in front of Kiriya. "Get the bag out of here," he ordered sharply, not sparing a glance in Kiriya's direction. "Kahlua and I will-"
"You take it," Kiriya interrupted, stepping forward and passing the sack to the Fairy Tale supervisor. As Kiriya moved beyond the other man, his right arm began to shift, extending as it took on a bone-like texture. A moment later, the limb had been replaced with an organic-looking scythe, which the young man held at the ready as he stared at the intruders with eager eyes. "I've been waiting for something like this."
"Gentlemen, gentlemen," the man in the sunglasses drawled, shaking his head in quiet disappointment. "Please, let's be civil, eh?" Sneering, he reached into the breast of his jacket, drawing forth a long, sleek envelope that bore an elaborate seal. One glance at that marking made Miyabi's eyebrow twitch, which would have served as a gasp for other people. "I believe this letter will explain my intentions… and authority… perfectly."
Miyabi stared into the opaque lenses of the man's sunglasses for a long moment before turning to extend the bag towards Kahlua. She took it and stepped further back, her stance speaking of her readiness to flee at a moment's warning. That done, Miyabi moved toward the man, reaching out to take the envelope. Breaking the wax seal with an irritated frown, he pulled free the letter and unfolded it, scanning over the words rapidly. As he reached the end, coming across an array of signatures, his eyes visibly widened. He knew many of them as some of Fairy Tale's highest-ranking commanders, and the fact that he didn't recognize some of them caused him even more concern. His gaze lingered on one name before flicking back to Kahlua. "I see," Miyabi said quietly, his composure immaculate despite the irritation seething under his skin. "So you are in charge of our operations involving Thanatos and Morpheus, then?"
"You could say that," the other man smirked. "Actually, I gave them the idea to begin with." He shrugged casually. "I probably should have been keeping a closer eye on how you were running things; you called this guy in a little sooner than I had wanted, but everything worked out in the end."
"Oh?" Miyabi looked at Thanatos, noted that the wraith's shadows were weakly translucent. "You intended for him to lose?"
The other man glanced back to the wraith before nodding. "Something like that. He and I have worked out a new… compromise." He ashed his cigarette in Kahlua's direction. "One that involves the bag she is holding."
Miyabi hesitated at this, glancing between the man and the letter he held several times. Despite his misgivings, he had been overruled, he well knew. "Very well, then. Kahlua."
The white-clad vampire stepped forward, bowing her head as she extended the satin pouch towards the newcomer. He took it with a smile and a nod, glancing at the runes glowing on its surface before reaching for its drawstring. "Time to say hello," he murmured, widening the bag's mouth enough to pull free the hourglass it held. He shifted it slightly, watching the black grains of sand inside slide at his command.
It was almost immediately thereafter that a thin, piercing whistle began to erupt from the artifact, and an ebon stream burst free from the small crack at the hourglass's side. It shot across the forest floor, collecting in two swelling pools a few feet away. In a matter of seconds, the sand began to take on a vague humanoid form, and still an impossibly-great amount of sand poured from the hourglass. It was only as the final features became clear that the stream died out, merging with the grey-skinned man born from the black grains.
"Fairy Tale," Mori Retsu snarled viciously, drawing back his arm as he prepared to summon his ebon scythe. "You traitorous bastards. We had a deal, and-" His eyes passed over Miyabi and Kiriya, hesitating at the suit-clad stranger stooping to place the emptied hourglass on the ground, before widening sharply as they came to a final rest upon the deep shadow lurking beyond. "…no," Mori uttered in a raw whisper, fear washing away the rage on his face.
"A deal?" The newcomer laughed deeply, flicking his cigarette into the underbrush. "Morpheus, the soul of Death, the heart of his emotions," he motioned with his now-empty hand towards the waiting wraith, "meet Thanatos, your long-lost brother: the body of Death." Smiling as Mori gaped in horror, he paused before continuing. "You're right; we did have a deal. However, after I learned that Death's memories were shattered between you, well…" The cold menace in his gaze still could not draw Mori's attention away from the monstrous form. "You ceased to be of any us to me." With a mockingly-apologetic shrug, he stepped to the side, leaving the hourglass between the wraith and its wayward soul. "I'll let you two catch up on old times."
As the man walked towards the other members of Fairy Tale, the youngest of the group stepped closer to him, a curious light in his polychromatic eyes. "You're a pretty interesting guy," Kiriya Yoshii noted with an intrigued grin, letting his arm shift back into its more human form. "What's your name?"
"My friends call me Sam," he responded, golden eyes staring over the edge of his sunglasses with dark humor, "but you can call me Sammael."
A short distance away, the wraith drifted inevitably closer to Mori Retsu, nearing the phylactery Sam had discarded. As he drew near, Mori's face twitched, his overwhelmed mind screaming at him to flee. It was far, far too late for that, he knew, especially as Thanatos lowered a skeletal hand to the ground to claim the hourglass he was bound to. As the wraith straightened, desperation freed his voice, and he shouted at his 'brother.' "Don't do this," he begged hoarsely. "Thousands of years, Thanatos. We have existed for millennia as two separate beings. I am me, and you are you! Don't tell me…" he trailed off, gut-wrenching terror clawing at him. "Have you gained nothing? Are you just an empty shell, even after all this time?" He shrieked the words, still paralyzed as the wraith stared into the hollowed hourglass. "You'll destroy us both!"
Thanatos turned its black stare from the artifact towards Mori Retsu. "Come." He extended the hourglass towards the grey-skinned man, mentally willing him to return to his prison.
"No! No!" Mori cried, turning to flee. His black wings burst free from his back and flapped frantically, but it was too late. Even as they pumped, the ebon feathers dissolved into sand, his whole body losing form and being drawn back into the phylactery. He looked to the sky as he tried to escape his destiny, pleading with the merciless heavens for freedom. "I…!"
With a sound like an in-drawn breath, the last grains of Mori Retsu were sucked back into the hourglass, and Thanatos rested one bony finger over the crack to seal him inside. Entirely ignoring his four spectators, the wraith stared at the hourglass for a long moment. His other hand descended to cradle the upper lid of the hourglass, and, pale fingers tightening, gave it a brutal twist. With an inappropriately loud 'pop!', Thanatos pulled the top base free of the glass, dropping it to the ground and peering down at the black sand faintly stirring inside. "Finally," the wraith intoned, his voice empty of relief or any other emotion, "I shall be complete." And with that, he reached up to pull away his ivory mask before raising the hourglass above the empty hole it revealed. With painful slowness, he titled the hourglass back until finally the sand began to stream free of its home and down into his robes, pouring like a goblet into his gaping emptiness.
The sand, reticent at first, soon began to cascade down into the wraith's core, the sound beginning to rise to the cacophony of a waterfall. Around the shuddering shadow, the four members of Fairy Tale watched in awe, shocked by the eruption of monstrous power coming from the ritual. As the final grains were pulled free, Thanatos quaked, dropping the phylactery from fingers that withdrew into his billowing sleeves. Abruptly the wraith doubled over, his hood falling forward as he clutched his core as if in fatal agony. The shaking continued to wrack his form as Thanatos seemed to sink in on himself, until suddenly- it stopped, and all was silent.
The perfect stillness gripped the forest, not even the birds in the distance daring to make a sound. Even Miyabi stared in open surprise at the happenings, uncertain what they had just unleashed. Or, perhaps, whatever the wraith was doing had been a failure, and he had been destroyed instead of merging. Beside Miyabi, Kiriya started to step forward, but Sam reached out to clutch his shoulder. "I wouldn't," he mumbled softly, an odd solemnity on his face.
Slowly, the robed figure straightened, the voluminous sleeves rising to the hood's edges. Pale, tapered fingers emerged from the black cloth, gripping the cowl and pulling back. As the hood tumbled free, it revealed the face beneath: decidedly familiar, yet inarguably different; too refined, too sculpted, almost inhumanly perfect. It wore a tranquil smile, as if its owner was aware of a joke no one else could get, while the jet-black eyes were wide with inscrutable satisfaction.
Kiriya Yoshii was the first to find his voice, blinking rapidly as he stared at the reminiscent features. "…Aono?" he managed, drawing a pleased chuckle from Sam.
"Gentlemen, lady," Sammael began, bowing deeply as he offered a gesture of introduction. "Allow me to present Lord Death, the first and greatest lich." He smiled grimly as he watched the figure standing a short distance away. "Show your respect." The words were a command, allowing no objection.
Beside Miyabi, Kahlua immediately complied, gripping the sides of her dress and lowering herself in a curtsy. Kiriya frowned, but followed suit as well, able to detect the gap in power between himself and the reborn lich. The final member of Fairy Tale remained obstinately straight for a moment more, looking from Sam to Death with concealed defiance. In response, Death only turned slightly towards him, those endless eyes languidly moving to his face. Unconsciously grunting, Miyabi lurched forward in a bow, his eyes widening as he realized what he was doing moments after he had done it, yet still unable to straighten.
The cloaked figure allowed them to genuflect for a minute before his smile widened. "It seems I have been gone a while," the smooth voice commented, his face turning to the side as he stared through the forest. There, in that direction, was the school. The Hell-King was there, and his guardians, and soon enough… Tsukune Aono. That was where he would go.
"Death," uttered Sam, rising from his bow. "I assume you carry with you the memories of both Thanatos and Morpheus?"
"As well as the memories you seek," Death confirmed, eyeing the traitorous guardian with mild interest. "I recall what you desire, and I am willing to offer it to you… on one condition, of course."
"That I help you complete the ritual that you failed, so long ago?" Sam grinned in feral humor. "I've already started it. They will arrive within a few days."
"Then we have little time to spare." Death turned away from the members of Fairy Tale, turning to walk towards the school. His smile grew as he thought of what was yet to come. The world had grown lazy, self-assured, in his absence, and all would suffer for their blithe imprudence.
The fun had only just begun.
Author's Note: On building a name, part 2:
As you may recall, I spent the last author's note of Out of Nightmares discussing how I came up with the name for my sole OC, Mori Retsu. Oh, how much has changed since then! In this tale, I have quite a few more characters of my own creation, yet none of them required a naming process quite as complex. Still, I thought it wise to discuss how I had dubbed my various entries into the Rosario + Vampire world, and so what follows is a very brief listing of the origins of their names.
Thanatos: The most straightforward of the names in this tale, Thanatos is a direct reference to the Greek god of death (Not to be confused with Hades, god of the Underworld). He is directly tied with Morpheus in that cosmology, so it felt especially relevant. His appearance, intentionally reminiscent of the Grim Reaper, is also intended to be another connection. I suppose I must save discussion of their true name for later, since I didn't quite state it openly in this tale…
The ill-fated minions of Fairy Tale: Entering my story (and exiting) in Chapter 3, Isaac Leon and Tyson Minota tragically did not get to enjoy much attention overall. However, I offer them one final spotlight in revealing the purpose behind their names. Izzie Leon is a rather simplistic pun referring to his monster species: L. Izzie, or lizardman. Tyson is also pretty transparent, as I was struggling to think of monsters that would fit well in the chapter's setting of the American West. Thus, a combination of 'Bison' and 'Minotaur.' I actually really enjoyed his character design and background; such a shame I won't get to use him any more. ^_^;
Roy and Wendy Cooper: As Grandliucharde was the first to guess, this name is a combination of 'kappa,' in reference to the type of monster they are, and 'Koopa,' the famous antagonists of a certain Italian plumber. Their first names continue this trend, tipping a hat to two of the Koopa Kids from SMB3. The intentional similarities end there, however.
Fairy Tale's phylactery-nabbing shade: Sadako Yurei's name was pretty easy. The last part of her name is a general name for Japanese spirits, which felt perfectly applicable. The first name, however, is a shout-out to The Ring, or at least the original film and the novel it was based off of; it seemed fitting, as she isn't a particularly nice ghost. Once again, similarities end there, especially since I'm too much a coward to actually watch that movie. I'll probably be using her again later, considering Fairy Tale's continued involvement with my plot.
The Guardians: Woof, the easiest and the hardest. Their names are, of course, an example of theme naming: each of them come from the names of angels, either fallen or not. However, my (admittedly-cursory) research went a tad further than that, as I sought to choose a name fitting for each character. So, here are the basic 'translations' for each of my black-suited protectors: Michael – 'Who is like God?'; Gabriel - 'Man of God;' Sammael – 'The Severity (or Venom) of God;' Uriel - 'the Light (or Flame) of God;' Raphael – 'God's Healing;' Zachariel – A form of Zerachiel, 'God's Command;' Azrael – 'Help of God.' I openly admit that my source is Wikipedia; accept my sullen embarrassment and hasty changing of the topic as apology. Oh, I could also use this section to talk about the names of their swords… but I won't. Not yet.
I am almost certainly forgetting someone, but this shall suffice for now, I suppose… until the next epilogue, at least.
Oh, and I also need to correct one important omission in my previous author's note. In my attempt to thank all of my reviewers, I forgot to mention one in particular: ClanCrusher, of the forum 'Prepare to be Reviewed.' He was kind enough to do an in-depth review of Out of Nightmares, and has offered to do the same for this tale. Actually, I would personally suggest that forum as a good source for interesting discussion of several Rosario + Vampire fanfics on this site, and the 'Open Mike' forum is a good place to post any of your own fanfic critiques. You can find 'Prepare to be Reviewed' by clicking on the Discussion Forums link in the upper right of the R+V category; it's towards the bottom of the list. Oh, and ClanCrusher, should you read this… No bribes intended, merely gratitude. ^_^
And that is, I suppose, that. Now to cloister myself for a week or two, if I manage to value wisdom over impulse, and to begin plotting out the details of the tale yet to come. Wish me luck, all, and I shall hope to see you there.
I go now to sleep… but only for a little while.
~Wynn Pendragon