Fandom: Loveless
Title: Resolution
Pairing: SoubixRitsuka
Rating: R-NC17
Timeline: **Future AU** Although there are hints at some events through volume 4/episode 12, there is no mention of Septimal Moon or Wisdom Resurrection in this story.
Summary: Can Ritsuka forgive Soubi in time to save him?
AN: **This story deals with some dark themes, including (but not limited to) graphic violence, abuse, and murder. ** Enter at your own risk. Spell-checked only.
It only took five damn months (= FAIL). *bows head in shame* However, it is my goal to complete at least one more chapter before the end of the month, as I am focusing on fanfiction for NaNoWriMo.
Resolution
Chapter 6
"Damnation"
Seimei looked at the bloody and broken man lying on the floor with a mixed expression of sympathy and loathing. But what he really felt down to his core was anger. Betrayal, even. Not that he was above killing Ritsu himself, because he wasn't.
But that Soubi wouldn't….
No. It wasn't his Fighter's unfathomable denial that upset him the most. It was the reason behind his staunch refusal to kill Ritsu that enraged him enough to want to destroy the very world he wished to dominate.
"Pick him up, Soubi. You'll at least do that much for me, won't you?"
The tall blond man, now little more than a beautiful, soulless doll, swiftly bent down, grabbing his former master by the shirt and pulling him to his feet. Ritsu wobbled almost lifelessly in Soubi's grasp, his glasses hanging askew and his hair and face smothered in clotted blood. Still yet, his eyes- as bloodshot as they were- remained remarkably vivid.
"I've got to hand it to you, Ritsu," Seimei said, leaning against the window across the room and observing the older man's limp, battered body. "That was quite an effective little contingency plan you programmed into him. But you do realize it makes no difference, don't you?" He smiled sweetly and tilted his head to one side.
"You're still going to die."
"Perhaps," Ritsu croaked through a mouthful of blood. "But not in the way you so desperately want. Soubi will not kill me…" His grin was garbled but full of mocking. "… and that drives you insane, doesn't it?"
Seimei's ears flickered slightly, so slightly that it was impossible to tell that it had even happened. His smile remained, as warm and friendly as ever, but the fury behind his eyes was evident.
"Not at all," he assured Ritsu. "How you die is hardly the issue."
"Is that so?" The aged Sacrifice hacked up an alarming amount of blood and spit it on the floor between him and Soubi. "Then why am I still alive? You could have killed me hours ago."
"I wanted to see you suffer," Seimei said.
"Perhaps," Ritsu replied with a nod. His eyelids fluttered momentarily before flying open again, resuming their focus on Seimei. "Or perhaps you've been trying to figure out a way to undo my hold on the one part of his mind that you can't reach. Perhaps you won't be able to rest until you can make him kill me because if you can't…" He chuckled softly and favored Seimei with a teasing gaze.
"… then you'll know that he was never completely yours to begin with."
In spite of the pain that ravaged every inch of him, Ritsu was amused by the rage that emanated from twisted Sacrifice. Even though it was far too little, too late to consider it a victory of any measure, it was something. For Soubi as well as himself.
Soubi…
Ritsu's eyes moved from Seimei's to Soubi's, pleading with them for even the faintest sign of life and finding none at all. A tidal wave of guilt washed over him, momentarily drowning out the pain, but he knew he had only himself to blame. Indeed, Seimei had destroyed the Fighter, but Ritsu was the one who had presented him to the beast on a silver platter, without even a hint of regret or remorse.
He had long since waited for the day when his penance would come due, and now it seemed that time was finally at hand. It was very likely that he was dying as a result of his injuries and he hardly had enough faith in his own long-dormant power to believe his last-ditch effort to help Soubi would actually succeed.
Still, he had to try.
Please…
"You seem confident that I can't break you, old man," Seimei said, inching closer to the two of them, the knife in his hand looking vicious in his grasp.
Final.
"No, Seimei…"
Give me your power…
"… I fully believe that you would have tortured me to the point of releasing him," Ritsu continued, staring deeply into the dead eyes in front of him. "But I'm afraid that you are under the misguided impression that I intend to give you the opportunity to do so."
Seimei stopped suddenly and frowned, dropping his cool reserve as he sensed the shift in the atmosphere-
… one last time.
- and that was when he finally realized what the Sacrifice- the only Sacrifice in the world more powerful and capable than him- was about to do. He sprinted across the room as Ritsu used the last of his physical strength to raise his arms and grip the sides of Soubi's head, knife raised and ready to strike, trying to reach him before he could-
Darkness.
There was something there, in the darkness, pulling him towards a truth that he did not want to know.
"So this is why I couldn't call you, Loveless…. His power is truly amazing."
Ritsuka gawked as a corner of the darkness that surrounded him faded into light. And from that light emerged a man… a man whose face looked eerily familiar and whose name he felt he should know. He was tall with blond hair and striking blue eyes, which were only enhanced by the glasses that he wore. He was, in a word, stunning. Perhaps not as stunning as…
A cloud of impending doom blanketed him as his thoughts turned to the one who had always been a source of comfort and protection for him. But why did the mental image of Soubi now fill him with such dread?
Something was wrong.
Something was very, very wrong.
"Are you… a ghost?" Ritsuka asked, his eyes wide and blinking with fear.
The man chuckled softly as he approached the nervous teen. "No," he reassured him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "I'm not dead." he looked around the ominous darkness with a gaze that was part justification and part sadness. "Although I do fear I will never be able to leave this place."
"Wh-Who are you?"
"I'm someone who needs your help," Ritsu Minami said. "For Soubi's sake… as well as yours."
Seimei pulled himself up to his knees and winced as a bolt of pain raced through his back, courtesy of the wall that he had struck as a result of being knocked back by the force of Ritsu's spell. He supposed he should be grateful that he hadn't hit the window instead; the velocity with which his body was flung was such that he would have easily burst through it.
He glanced across the room at Ritsu's body, which lay in a crumpled heap next to Soubi's feet. Even from that distance, Seimei could tell that he was still barely clinging to life… although it was fairly safe to assume that the man would never wake up again. What Ritsu had done would have killed a normal Sacrifice had they even possessed the type of power to do such a phenomenal thing; there was no way his brain could have sustained the damage caused by his rash act of attempted heroics. And even if he did, by some miracle, regain consciousness, he would be little more than a living shell. Not unlike-
"Soubi."
The slave turned around to regard his master with a blank stare. Seimei stood up and slowly walked over to him, appraising him as he did.
Everything still seemed to be in working order, save for a thin trickle of blood under his right nostril. Obviously Seimei's concern was not personal; he would have been no more concerned had any inanimate possession created solely for his personal use sustained any potential damage after something like that had happened.
After establishing that Soubi was still perfectly functional, he looked down at Ritsu for a long time, his face marred with disgust and revulsion. He would be lying if he said he didn't feel some measure of admiration for what had just occurred. But all admiration aside, he now found himself in the beginnings of a situation he had hoped to avoid, at least until he had come somewhat close to achieving his goal.
But now…
"You exhausted all of your power to save him," he observed. "How touching… and troublesome."
Seimei turned to Soubi again. "We don't have much time..."
"I know who you are. You're Soubi's…"
Ritsuka shrugged off Ritsu's hand and took a step back as he called to mind his lover's tales of horror and pain at the hands of the man in front of him. Soubi hadn't outrightly referred to his time with Ritsu as such. Instead he had recalled his time with the older man with a strange, eerie acceptance that Ritsuka could not begin to understand… although he also knew that his own silent acknowledgement of his mother's abusive behavior was no different.
"What is this place? What's going on? Where's Soubi?"
Ritsu waited patiently for the teen to exhaust his questioning before answering him. "What is this place? Oblivion, perhaps. Although for you, it's nothing more than a dream. As for the rest…" He paused for a moment and stared at his watch, although the move was purely symbolic. When his eyes met Ritsuka's again, his face was filled with regret. "You'll find out soon enough. But for now, I need you to listen to me. Very carefully."
Kio pried open his eyes and realized right away that he was not in the warm, snug comfort of his own bed- in fact, he wasn't in any bed at all, but rather a chair.
Why was he sleeping in a chair?
He sat up with a start and righted his glasses, ignoring the groan of his muscles, racking his brain to remember-
"Ritsuka!"
In the dim morning light of the room, he saw the teen asleep on the bed, as he had been when Kio let himself into the apartment. After waiting hours for Soubi to return, he had finally decided to forego his manners and wake Ritsuka, only to find that he could not be wakened. Chalking it up to sheer exhaustion- the kid was in his last and surely most frustrating year of high school, after all- Kio had taken a seat beside the bed and promptly dozed off himself.
And now, as far as he could tell, Soubi still had not returned. Had they had a fight? It was the best explanation he could think of for his absence as well as the deep frown on the sleeping boy's face.
Wait. No, that wasn't it. If Soubi and Ritsuka had argued, Soubi would have surely gone to Kio's apartment. And, upon finding him gone, he surely would have called.
So where the hell was he?
Uneasiness tugged at Kio's heart. It wasn't like Soubi to miss class and it certainly wasn't like him to disappear. His best friend might have been a lot of things- a weirdo and a pervert to name a few- but he didn't vanish without a trace.
Not unless something was wrong.
Very, very wrong.
Kio debated going back to his place on the off chance that he would find him there, waiting for him. But after a moment of self-deliberation, he decided to wait for Ritsuka to wake up. Somehow, that just felt like the right thing to do.
And so he sat back in the chair and continued his vigil over the sleeping teen while the sun made its quick ascent toward the horizon…
"Loveless…"
"Don't call me that!" Ritsuka fumed.
Ritsu sighed in acquiescence. "Alright. Ritsuka," he amended reluctantly. "There are things that you do not understand about Soubi. Things that have affected the man that he has become."
"I understand plenty." Ritsuka narrowed his eyes and glared at Ritsu. "I understand what you and… what you and Seimei did to him."
"So you say… although what Beloved did to him was far worse." Ritsu folded his hands behind his back and turned away from the teen, ruminating over his choice of words. "Soubi was… is still… special. Unique. No other creature in this world will ever be able to compare to him. Training him the way that I did… it was out of necessity to harness his power."
Ritsuka's face contorted in stunned disbelief. "That's just… bullshit! What does raping him have to do with training him?"
Ritsu closed his eyes and sighed again. "As I said, there are things that you do not understand." He opened them and favored Ritsuka with a lovely, albeit it cold, gaze. "Do you love Soubi?"
"What?" The young Sacrifice blinked, caught off guard by the question. "Of course I do."
"No matter what he is made to do? Even if it's something… horribly unforgivable?"
Ritsuka's eyebrows drew together. He didn't like this line of questioning, not at all. Not when his heart was already filled with such unknown fear. "… Well… yeah, I would… but… we all make our own choices," he insisted. "I guess it… would just depend on… what he did."
With a look of grave regret, Ritsu slowly shook his head. "Then you truly understand nothing." He stepped directly in front of the teen and peered down into his eyes. "A man can do anything in the absence of will. Any horrible, unthinkable thing, done without batting an eye. If you take away one's freedom of choice, then what choice can he possibly make? And when one has enough power to destroy the world and everything in it, then he must never have the opportunity to choose to do so. Unfortunately…" His eyes moved back and forth across Ritsuka's head as if noticing for the first time that he no longer had his ears.
"Unfortunately," he continued. "I did not realize that Seimei did not share this ideal until it was too late. And by then, Beloved had become unstoppable. We found that as long as we were able to placate the monster's ego, we could keep him from using Soubi to do more than sanctioned battling." Ritsu laughed bitterly. "We foolishly believed that we had tamed them both…"
Ritsuka paled as the weight of Ritsu's words sunk in. "But… what does any of that have to do with me?"
"Everything. You… Loveless… Ritsuka… call yourself what you will. You are the only one who can save him." Ritsu smiled softly and patted him gently on the head. "And now, I'm afraid that our time is up."
"Wait-!"
"Good luck, Loveless," Ritsu said, lowering his hand and taking a step back. "As much as I've always doubted your ability, I do believe that you can do this."
Ritsuka reached out for Ritsu… and grabbed nothing. It was as if the man really was a ghost after all…
… but when he looked down at his outstretched hand, he realized that he was the one who was fading… falling… being pulled away…
"Stop!" he yelled… although it was as if he hadn't spoken at all.
"And don't worry," Ritsu said with reassurance. "You definitely won't be alone."
And then he was gone and Ritsuka found himself plummeting through the darkness… falling… hurdling towards that unwanted truth…
Seimei.
Seimei was alive.
Seimei was always alive and…
Soubi.
Soubi had…
… killed.
Soubi had killed Breathless.
And also…
Ritsuka lashed out in the darkness, opening his mouth…
… and screaming, howling as his mind was gripped in sickening imagery of events that far surpassed his worst possible nightmares.
Seimei.
Soubi.
Breathless.
… his mother.
He clapped his hands to the sides of his head as his mind bent, on the verge of collapse, his throat and lungs crumbling under the strain of his cries, only vaguely aware of the panicked sound of his name and the stinging tingle of a slap against his cheek.
Everything was a lie.
Everything he had ever known.
Everything he had ever loved.
When his voice had finally ruptured, his mind resumed screaming for him, calling out, crying out, reaching out to the one whose betrayal was most paramount… yet still, somehow, the one he wanted most.
SOUBI!!!!
Seimei's hand had barely grasped the knob of the front door when he realized that his Fighter was no longer beside him.
He turned around and looked at Soubi as he stood in the middle of the room, staring off into the distance, his attention drawn to some unseen distraction. His face was still little more than a blank canvas, but behind his dead yet radiant eyes, Seimei saw the faintest sign of recognition.
"I take it that my brother has finally received your little parting gift," he said, narrowing his eyelids and glaring at him with intense scrutiny. "I'm still not sure what you had hoped to accomplish by doing that, besides hurt him. And by the way, don't think that your little random act of rebellion is going to go unpunished, Soubi. When this is over…" He let his voice trail away, which spoke more than any threat that he could verbalize.
Things were unraveling entirely too quickly for his liking. Soubi's disobedience, while infuriating, was easy enough to deal with. But Ritsu's impromptu call to arms was something for which he had not been prepared- at least, not so soon.
In the end, Seimei had decided to leave Ritsu behind because they couldn't very well traipse through broad daylight with a half-dead man. Although Soubi could have easily used a spell to shield them, the last thing Seimei wanted was to draw attention to themselves. And, although he could have simply killed Ritsu, he had to admit the truth for what it was: the old Sacrifice had been right. Seimei did want Soubi to kill him, if only because Ritsu was convinced that he wouldn't. And if there was any remote possibility of his waking up once they found him, regardless of the state of his mind, then he had every intention of seeing that plan to fruition.
He would prevail.
"Soubi. Let's go."
The Fighter obediently ambled towards him and followed him out of the house. And because his master was too concerned with his own agenda to pay him any mind, he was completely unaware of the faint hint of movement behind Soubi's eyes, ignited into being by Ritsuka's heartwrenching cry and borne of the love and affection that he had cast aside.
Indeed, the old Soubi Agatsuma had passed away.
But behind those eyes, although now little more than a spark of what was to come, a new Soubi Agatsuma was emerging… although his path, much like the battle in which he was about to engage, had yet to be determined.
"Should we go up?" Yoji asked, staring up at the door to Soubi's apartment.
Natsuo frowned and bit his lip. "I don't know," he replied. "We should probably wait. Do you sense anything?"
"... Sadness. Unbelievable sadness. I don't like knowing what that feels like." Yoji glanced at his Fighter and lover with worry. "This is really bad, Natsuo."
Natsuo grabbed Yoji's hand and held it tightly. "Yeah. But it's nothing we can't handle."
"Ohhhhh! Look who lost their ears, Koya. How cute!"
They turned around and found themselves face to face with their predecessors.
"Hey, Yoji. Looks like Ritsu was so desperate for help he called these old ladies, too," Natsuo ribbed.
"Not just them." Because Yoji's voice was so full of uncharacteristic wonder, Natsuo followed his eyes, looking beyond the annoying presence of Koya and Yamato….
"Holy shit," the Fighter said, stunned and humbled by what he was seeing.
The four Zero looked in awe upon the mass gathering of Fighters and Sacrifices.
"He called all of us," Koya marveled.
"But why?" Yamato asked.
"Because we're going to war. We're going to war against Beloved…" Yoji looked over his shoulder towards Soubi's apartment.
"… and Ritsuka's the one who's going to lead us."
TBC
Call of evil's mastermind…
The time is right to destroy the world.
~ Damnation by Morbid Angel