Resolution Chapter 7, a loveless fanfic

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.

Resolution
Chapter 7
"Beginning of the End"

"You are the Sacrifice, Ritsuka."

"It is… painful. Very painful. Can you withstand it?"

"No matter how much you suffer, can you bear it, Ritsuka?"

"… I love you."

*****

Kio knelt by the bed and watched as Ritsuka cradled his head in his hands as if to shield himself from the sheer magnitude of the truths with which he had just been confronted, realizing that he was bearing witness to a mind on the verge of imminent collapse. He couldn't believe it himself, the multitude of atrocities that the young teen had so adamantly accused Soubi of committing; it was entirely too impossible to fathom. Even if Seimei was alive, Soubi was… well, he was different now.

Wasn't he?

"Ritsuka…"

A loud knock interrupted him- which was just as well because he had absolutely no idea what to say to the boy- and he pulled himself to his feet and hurried over to the door. Perhaps Soubi had lost his keys… although Kio knew in his heart that wanting to believe so was merely a desperate shot in the dark at some small measure of hope. He flung the door open and found himself face to face with Natsuo and Yoji, and he felt his already slippery grasp on disbelief waning very quickly.

Because if they were here, then that meant…

"Yo, Old Man. Where's Ritsuka?" Natsuo demanded, barging past Kio without invitation and pulling Yoji along with him. "Ritsuka!" he called out, making a beeline for the bed. "Ritsuka!"

"Hey, wait a minute!" Kio slammed the door and followed them. "You can't just come storming in here like this!"

"Listen."

Yoji's serene face bore the reality that Kio could no longer deny. The words that followed were merely a vocal confirmation of what his heart now knew to be true. And Soubi is with him. Three people are already dead. Maybe four. The longer we wait…"

"Seimei is alive.

Natsuo stood beside his partner and gazed sadly at Kio.

"… the more people Soubi will kill," he said. "Come on, Yoji," he added, tugging on his partner's hand and leaving the man to watch gape-mouthed in their wake.

They approached the bed and crawled in beside the broken teen, flanking him with matching expressions of urgency and concern. Ritsuka did not acknowledge their intrusion until Natsuo grabbed him by the arms and turned him to the side so that they were facing one another.

"Ritsuka," he started, searching the depths of the boy's amethyst eyes for any sign of awareness. "You know, don't you? … What Soubi did…"

Upon the mention of his lover's name, Ritsuka squeezed his eyes shut, causing a tear to fall from both of them. A small, tortured moan escaped his lips and he shook his head as if to ward off any implication of the things that Soubi had already done.

"Your brother- Seimei has him under his control again," Yoji said, placing a hand on the teen's back. "Ritsuka, we have to fight them. And we have to do it now, before they hurt anyone else."

Natsuo continued where Yoji had left off. "Ritsu called us. He called all of us. The others are outside right now, waiting for you."

"If it was just Seimei, then maybe we could beat him. But with Soubi… it's too much." Yoji frowned in frustration over the limitations of his and Natsuo's strength compared to that of Beloved. "We can't win against him. Not without you."

"You're the only one who can stop him," Natsuo finished.

("You are the only one who can save him.")

The teen shook his head again and attempted to pull away from Natsuo. Yoji sighed impatiently. It wasn't as if they weren't sympathetic to what he was going through- or as sympathetic as they could be- but they were quickly running out of time.

"Ritsuka-"

"Leave. Both of you."

The three young men gawked at Kio, who had silently approached them as they were speaking to Ritsuka. He looked between Natsuo and Yoji with an intense yet eerily calm gaze that they had never seen before, one that dared not be denied.

"Go wait outside," he said. "I want to talk to Ritsuka. Alone."

*****

After a careful amount of consideration, Seimei concluded that facing them all head-on was bound to be his best course of action, as premature as it was. He had so wanted the pleasure of picking them off one by one, sniping each team until they were all eliminated, but because of Ritsu, it was going to be impossible now. He could feel them, all of them, gathered en masse like some obstructive tumor, waiting-

for Ritsuka

- to make their move against him. Stupid children. Their misguided plight would almost be laughable if it wasn't such a damn hindrance to his original plan. It was rather annoying that he had been reduced to such a less than eloquent course of action, but it would have to do.

A little improvising never hurt anybody, after all.

*****

"Get up and get out there right now."

Ritsuka was stunned by Kio's demand. His present demeanor was so unlike his usual kind and bumbling self that the teen was momentarily distracted from his sadness by the man's wholly uncharacteristic behavior.

Get out there, huh? And what exactly was he supposed to do after that? Run off to war against his brother and his lover? That was pure insanity. Madness.

And precisely the plan, from the looks of it.

"Look, Ritsuka," Kio began, sitting down beside him. "I never hid the fact that I always thought your brother was a piece of shit. Sometimes I think I would have killed him myself if I'd had the chance, and you know I'm not a violent person. And even if you do know about everything he did to Soubi, you weren't there to see it. It was... so bad...

"A long time ago, I told you that you brought him back from the dead and I meant it. You really did. But this thing with Seimei… it's like…" He removed his glasses and folded them carefully, his brow set in a stern frown. "It's like Soubi can't even breathe without his permission. That's how it always was. And as long as Seimei is alive, that's how it always will be. I know you don't get it. Hell, after all of this time, I still don't get it. But it doesn't change the fact that that's just the way it is with those two."

Kio ran a frustrated hand through his blond hair and tugged nervously at his earrings. "If all of this is true, then you really are the only one who can stop him. So please, Ritsuka… please… bring him back. For good, this time."

Ritsuka turned away from Kio and stared blindly at the wall in front of him. His mother was dead and his dead brother was alive. Then there was Soubi, who was… a liar. And a murderer. Even if there was some part of the man left to redeem, could he forgive him after all of this?

And what of his brother's betrayal? The idea that Seimei had actually ordered Soubi to kill his own mother… that was something only a monster could do. And Seimei wasn't a monster. At least, not the Seimei that he knew. Or rather, the Seimei he thought he knew.

Either way, the harsh fact of the matter remained: if he chose to do nothing and someone else got hurt then he would share a hand in the blame. That was irrefutable. And while he wasn't sure that he could do what everyone else apparently thought him capable of doing, he had to do something.

He didn't want to, but even so... he had to try.

"Okay," he said, giving Kio a slight nod.

The teen stood slowly, ignoring the ache in both his body and his heart. There would be enough time to deal with those things later.

Entirely too much time, as it would turn out.

*****

He's decided to defy me.

Seimei sighed in disappointment. He supposed that he had known it would come to this; Ritsuka's unbelievably distorted views of right and wrong had always been the one glaring flaw in such an otherwise perfect being. It wasn't entirely the boy's fault though- Seimei felt that his disappearance had contributed greatly to his brother's... shortcomings.

Still, if he could talk some sense into him before the inevitable fallout, then everything would be fine. He would kill the others and he and Ritsuka could live their lives together the way he had always envisioned- free from their mother, free from all of them. So all was not lost.

At least, not yet.

"I'm coming, Ritsuka," he whispered, quickening his pace towards what was ultimately to become his final destination.

*****

"Um… Y-Yamato… could you please get your… chest… off of me?"

Ritsuka pried himself out of the Zero's crushing embrace, blushing furiously at being smothered with the Sacrifice's ample cleavage. While it wasn't anywhere near Yukio's proportions- not that he looked but it was damn hard not to notice- it was considerable enough to hurt any unsuspecting soul who had the misfortune of falling into its grasp. Like him.

"I'm sorry," Yamato said, sounding anything but. "I'm just so happy to see you again after all this time." She glanced at the teen's notable lack of ears and beamed happily. "All grown up."

"Come on, Grandma, let him breathe," Natsuo snapped, scrunching his face in disgust.

"Oh, fine." Yamato released Ritsuka and pet him dutifully on the head, her smile slowly fading into a look of sympathy. "I'm sorry," she said again, this time for reasons other than her impromptu glomping.

"Thank you," Ritsuka said softly, appreciating the gesture. He looked around at the many faces of Fighters and Sacrifices who had come to his aid at Ritsu's last ditch request. With the exception of both Zero teams and Sleepless, he didn't recognize any of them.

All of them, there to fight Seimei and Soubi...

Were they really that strong?

"Hey, Ritsuka," Yoji said. "Are you ready for this?"

"As ready as I'm going to be, I guess," Ritsuka replied, casting his eyes toward the ground. "But I don't really know what I'm supposed to do."

"Don't worry. You'll know when the time comes," the Sacrifice promised.

"That's right," Natsuo piped in.

"Yeah…"

Unfortunately, Ritsuka wasn't nearly as optimistic as the others. This was his one and only brother, after all. In spite of everything that had already happened, could he really stand back and let them hurt him...

("As long as Seimei is alive…")

… or worse?

Even if it was the only way to save Soubi?

Ritsuka rubbed absentmindedly at his chest; the massive weight of their undertaking was beginning to take its toll on the fragile teen, making it feel as if something- or someone- was bearing down on him, absorbing what little remnants of willpower he had left and-

"THEY'RE HERE! EVERYBODY, GET BACK!!!"

Ritsuka gasped as Natsuo grabbed onto his shirt and yanked him back roughly, stepping between him and the two faint figures moving towards them. Even from such a distance, even after all of these years, he immediately recognized his brother and the undeniable truth and horror of the entire situation hit him hard, all over again, bowling over him and sending him catapulting headlong into a darkness from which he was loath to return...

*****

"Battle system, initiate!"

Seimei ignored the rallying cry of Ritsu's summoned horde and watched as the disgusting Zero Sacrifice held his unconscious little brother, sullying him with his dirty touch. Although the sight filled him with an almost inexplicable rage, his voice remained gentle, masking the fury beneath.

"Put… him… down."

Another Zero- the fighter, Seimei assumed- took a step closer to him.

"No way. We're not gonna let you hurt him, you asshole." Natsuo said.

" I have no intention whatsoever of hurting him," Seimei replied calmly.

"Bullshit! You killed your own mother, you sick fuck!"

Seimei chuckled softly and shook his head. Oh, how he hated dealing with such simple, dimwitted things. "My mother was inconsequential. As are all of you. Ritsuka is the only one who matters to me."

"Yeah, well you can't have him." Natsuo turned his animosity towards Soubi. "And you. Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"Don't speak to him," Seimei warned, showing the first mild traces of his anger... and completely unaware of the faint flinch on Soubi's face at Natsuo's accusation. "Only an idiot would address a dog's master through the dog itself," he added.

"Stop this now, Seimei," Yoji said, cradling Ritsuka closely. "For Ritsuka's sake, just stop it."

"You already know that I won't do that any more than you will. Besides, I'm doing this for Ritsuka." The Sacrifice let his dark eyes trail across the sea of assembled bodies. "But enough talking." Seimei let out a heavy sigh, having already grown weary of such a futile conversation. The time had come to end this.

"Soubi, bring Ritsuka to me. Then kill them all."

*****

Kio stood outside the door of the apartment and looked out upon the vast open space. Although he couldn't see what was taking place due to the multitude of barriers set forth by each and every Fighter that had cast one, he could feel them, all of them, ominously distinct beneath the nothing.

The fight for Ritsuka... for Soubi... and for the very world itself had only just begun.

"The life we knew before is gone;
I don't know where we lost control…
It's the beginning of the end."

~ Beginning of the End by Spineshank

AN: This chapter is a bit shorter than the norm, because it's meant to set up the fight and other subsequent incidents leading up to the end. There is only one chapter left, plus the epilogue, which will finally address the events in the prologue (remember, this entire story is basically a flashback). My goal is to have them posted by the end of the month. It's been a rather bumpy, emo ride, this fic; I started crying as I was jotting down notes and bits of dialogue for the upcoming parts, if that's any indication of how draining this whole damn thing has been (and consequently, one of the reasons why it took me so damn long to update it :F)

I'm fairly certain I will never write another story like this.