A//N: Climax of the story. I'm sure it'll leave you hating me for a week until I post the next chapter...unless of course you don't care what happens...

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Rain. It fell against the building and the land outside. It sunk into the ground, making it wet, eroding at stone and other material. It seemed to go on forever. As far as any eye could see there were rain clouds. They never seemed to go away.

The young blond man opened the window in the room and stuck his head out it. Droplets hit against his nose, and his face contorted slightly in displeasure. He wrinkled his nose and shook the drops away as he reached into the pocket within the khaki slacks he wore. He pulled his head back inside the building.

From within the pocket he pulled out a small satchel. He placed it in the palm of his hand, staring at it for a minute or so. The look on his face was questioning, as if he debated with himself as to whether or not he should use what was inside the satchel.

At last he made his decision. The blond pulled it open and poured it's contents into his other palm. It was a lavender colored dust. It sparkled and glittered. He smiled at it.

The man leaned forward ever so slightly before he blew the dust from his palm out the window. Instead of becoming drenched the dust flew as if a constant dry wind carried it. For ten minutes a small lavender cloud was still visible in the distance until it finally dispersed and disappeared.

"Ahhh." The blond's voice was satisfied and contented as he pulled the window closed. Long fingers pressed against the glass as he still continued to watch.

Rain.

I stayed in that room for a very long time. Days I think. I could not bring myself to move from that room. All I could think was that I had killed him. My mind and body rejected the idea fully. I went through several stages. I shook, I denied, I tried to wake myself up, I did many many things within that room where Ashura lay dead and I stood partially insane.

At last I came to acceptance. It wasn't a pleasant acceptance. It wasn't a acceptance where I would just walk away and go on without another thought, but I would be able to live with it. I had to.

Before I left the room I spun around and tore the dagger from Ashura's body. It didn't seem right to just leave the blade there. I knew that it had to be rusted by now. After all, it'd been sitting in a body for days, and bodies have water in them which makes rust... It didn't. I watched as all the fluid that was on the dagger just dripped off. It left no rust behind. In fact it didn't leave anything behind.

Was it a magical or mystical blade? Did it have a name? It didn't look like it...

Purely as a device of getting my mind off Ashura and to satisfy my own curiosity I slipped out of the room and began to scour over the dragger itself and it's sheath. At last I found a name engraved on the very top of the blade. "Iiraina." The name slipped off my tongue as naturally as my own name.

Was it really magical? It didn't seem like something that would be charmed with magic or possess a soul within it. I could sense no magic from it, yet nothing seemed to tarnish it. The closer I looked the more I saw...or rather didn't see. No dirt, no fingerprints or smudges. Lack of rust was easy to explain, it wasn't made of iron, but a lack of fingerprints and smudges? There was nothing that did that except acid, and the dagger was obviously not made of acid.

I slipped the knife back into it's holder, placing it at my side once more. Perhaps later I would try to find it within the records. Maybe it was there, maybe it wasn't. I couldn't know until I looked.

Anything. I would do anything to get my mind off this.

A light smile traced my lips. "Chii. Come with me please." The smiled faded almost as quickly as it came, but I was trying, I was trying so that Chii didn't cry. She did not cry when she learned Ashura was dead...no, she had cried when she had realized how much it had broken me. Other than waiting here for Yuui, Chii was all I had left, I could not let her cry. I could not.

Chii smiled brightly and nodded vigorously. "Of course Fai! Where are we going?"

"Out into the kingdom."

"To destroy how perfect it is?" I nodded. "Then Fai will need his coats!" I watched from my spot on the bed as Chii looked around my closet for my layered coats. I wore the tailed coat and pants already. I remembered that both Yuui and I had worn these on the day he had left...I used to wear it a lot, but now I only wore it when we went out, otherwise it was just a hassle to get on. I much preferred my various sets of robes...

"Here!" I thanked Chii as I pulled on the blue undercoat and then the white overcoat. It felt so heavy, but I knew that I would get used to it quickly so I did not mention it.

"Let's go." I turned to her as I put Iiraina into my pocket. I didn't go anywhere without the blade anymore, I had somehow grown attached to it...

"Right!" Chii latched herself onto my arm and began to pull as if I did not want to go. "How does Fai feel today?"

"Fai feels like Fai."

"Fai knows what I mean..."

"A little better than yesterday. It gets better every day Chii."

"So Fai will be okay?"

"One day Fai will be okay." She grinned at this knowledge and pulled more on my arm leading me down the stairs and into the main hall. We carefully walked across the main entryway and I opened the doors. All the kingdom of Celes sat in front of us. It's perfection staring up at us just begging to be ruined completely for a day or so. It would be the highlight of my week, if not my month. Or it would have been.

I felt something. "Chii."

"Yes Fai?"

"Go on ahead. Go have fun in the snow. Don't wait up for me, I'll catch up."

Chii frowned. "Is something wrong Fai?"

I paused. After this pause I decided to tell her the truth. "I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. Go on. Have fun."

She seemed hesitant at first, her feet dragging along the snow covered ground as she walked until I yelled. "That is not having fun in the snow!" Chii went faster then, skipping and smiling as she went out into the valley.

I closed the doors. Not only did I close the doors, I locked them. I had not locked these doors since before Yuui had left, there was no one to break in, there was no need to lock them. I locked them now, but not to keep Chii or anyone else out. I locked them to keep someone in.

"Who's there?! Show yourself!" I pulled Iiraina from it's sheath and gripped it tightly to my side. I knew that if my condition of being a healer kicked in, it would do me no good to have Iiraina, but a little protection against a possible threat was better than none at all.

"Who are you?!" I yelled down into the depths of Castle Ruval when no answer came to the first yells. No answer came to the second yell either. All I could do was wait.

Slowly it came. At first I could not tell what gender it was even, then as it got closer and closer to the bottom of the stairs I could tell. It was a boy. Fourteen or fifteen at the most. He had a magic that seemed awfully familiar, but I could not keep my mind concentrated on it enough to tell where I had felt this magic from before. He wore black, lots of black, but his clothes were unsuitable for this climate, no sleeves, and no shoes. Even I made Chii wear shoes when she left the castle. He was thin, tall, but not done growing. He had short brown hair that stuck up in spiky tufts. His eyes were what drew me in most though. One was an amber brown. The other was a sapphire blue. Although they were two different colors, they both stared at me with a cold emptiness. I could already tell that this was a clone.

When he finally got to the bottom of the stairs I spoke again at last. "Who are you? Where is your master?" Clones like he shouldn't be out and about alone...

Still he said nothing. He only stared at me with his emotionless eyes. Perhaps...yes silly me, he obviously could not speak my language, after all he had to have come from another world. I raised two fingers into the air and illuminated symbols came off of them, going around and around until the spell completed. "There." I put my hand down to my side again. "Now we should be able to understand each other."

"Yes." His tone was just as emotionless as eyes. His head tilted to one side slightly.

"Where is your master?"

"Watching. I have orders. You are in the way."

I frowned. "Excuse me? In the way? In the way of wh--" I made a sound of something between squeaking and choking as I felt something collide with my stomach and knock me back against the door. Okay, definitely a good thing I sent Chii out... I felt his hand to my neck and he banged the back of my head against the stone of the door, as if trying to knock me out. If that was the case it didn't work.

"I wonder..."

"You wonder what?"

My eyes snapped open very wide as I felt his fingers to the place where my eye socket began, "I wonder if I should take it...even if it is different magic than the other's. You look alike, but you are not alike...pity." It took a moment, but it sunk in. His blue eye was not natural, the magic that felt so familiar was Yuui's magic. He had gouged out Yuui's eye and then...ate it! He ate it and got my brother's magic!

"You monster..." I growled out as loudly as I could with his hand against my windpipe. I thrust my hand forward, he leaped away from me avoiding Iiraina's blow. "Give it back!" This was the person who had caused him all that pain back then! Who knew how many other people he'd caused pain since then!

"You really are in the way. He didn't give this kind of fight."

"Yeah?" I held the dagger out in front of me. "Well you said it yourself; we're look alike, but we're not alike."

"Then I must eliminate you." I knew this meant that I'd be keeping both my eyes, eliminate meant kill, kill meant my magic would die, thus no point in gouging out my eye first…

From seemingly out of nowhere he pulled a sword and dashed at me with it. I dodged, he tried again…on and on this went. I seemed to be just fast enough to avoid his blows. Every once in a while I would try to slash at him with Iiraina, but all those attempts failed. Let's face it, he had a sword and I had a mere dagger…

"Give it up. You can't dodge forever."

"You can't fight forever." Well this could very well be an incorrect statement…while he was right, I was tiring, he was not.

We continued, blows back and forth even though it was clearly one-sided. I knew the only reason I had even lasted this long was because of the rage and adrenaline that had filled me from learning what had caused Yuui so much pain. I was still after that, I wanted to get Yuui's eye back, I wanted to be of use for once! This was not the only thing that kept me going now though, Chii…I had to end this before Chii got worried and came back. This madman might go after her as well.

I slashed more, trying to get some leverage over him, I succeeded little. The most I got out of my efforts was a cut on his arm…

At last it seemed he had me, I was trapped in a corner like a mouse. He brought the sword high above my head. I closed my eyes. I did not fear death…I had wanted it so many times before…but the blow did not come. "What?"

I opened my eyes, his voice was of course far from surprised for he could not contain emotion, but still, what had happened? I had blocked the blow with Iiraina, but that was not possible. I had not lifted my hand.

My body seemed to move on it's own now, slashing at him to get him away from me. It seemed to me like all I was doing was staring in awe, but I was not just doing that. I was doing more…but I had no such skill!

Why hadn't my healer's body…as soon as the word healer entered my mind my body stopped. I hated this man, I hated him with all my heart even though I did not even know his name, but I hated him, more than anything else. Yet I was a healer, come too close to hurting a person and I have to stop to think.

This stop was only a mere second long, but it was long enough. I felt it. The blade pass through my stomach all the way to the other side. I choked, it hurt to breathe. I almost let go of my own blade, but I managed to hold on… A very small noise escaped my lips as he pulled the sword back out…

"You're a healer…" I only nodded to the question very faintly as I fell to the ground in a heap. "We can't risk you healing yourself." He raised his two fingers and I felt magic coming from them. Yuui's magic. Sealing…he was sealing my magic away… "It's temporary, not that you'll live to have magic again."

He was right. I feel that the spell was weak. Just long enough for me to die… "What are you after?" I breathed out trying to concentrate on anything but the pain.

"The feathers. I must get them back no matter what." The feathers? It didn't make sense to me. I reached out my free hand as if to grab his ankle as he walked away, but he was out arms reach. I failed. I failed at everything. I failed at my fate, I failed at healing Ashura, I failed at waiting for Yuui to come back. I didn't deserve to live…

I just kept on thinking this as pain overcame me and my entire world went black.