Disclaimer: I do not own HxH.

Summary: When a soon to be 18 year old Gon receives word that an incurable disease has stricken Whale island, he returns home to a dying Mito. However, Hisoka decides that the fruit will soon be ripe and begins the hunt for his prey. Can Killua save Gon from Hisoka's woven web, or will Gon's 18 birthday be his day of downfall?

Pairing: Killua x Gon; Hisoka x Gon; Hisoka Illumi; One sided Mito Jin

Warning: I am notorious for my lack of updates. However if I do continue expect lotsa shounen ai, yaoi, non-con, masturbation, kink ( All lemons will NOT be posted here, if I write any at all.), a hella lot of mind-fucking via Hisoka, and a lot of other disturbing themes. A/U, I'm taking a lot of liberties considering the series isn't finished.

Killua-centric! Not much Gon… but it has Killua feeling angst over Gon.

Title: Surreal Symphony

From the moment Killua had walked out of Leorio's office he had been trying to come up with a suitable plan for locating the nin-user. Even now, hours later, he sat in front of his computer with research after research list on nin-users and their different abilities. Any information at this point was helpful, none, however, was forth coming.

Weary hands tiredly reached up to scrub at the skin around his eyes, valiantly fighting the aspect of sleep. With a groan the silver haired hunter rose from his seat, his leg muscles aching with the lack of use.

"Coffee," Killua half mumbled to no one unparticular. 'If I'm gonna finish this anytime soon I'm gonna need a lot of it.'

Tiredly he searched the cabinets above the sink, knocking over more than one complementary spice or too that had been stashed up there. Far be it for him to care though, he was looking for something specific. "Where are you? Where are you…" One silver brow furrowed in concentration until his hand met the familiar canister. Bringing down to eye level he double checked the label, smirking in self-satisfaction as the label declaring the coffee beans to be 'chocolate flavored' greeted him in return.

He sat the coffee to boil in the coffee maker and then turned to grab his favorite coffee mug. A yawn graced his features and the stretch of his arms over his head felt to good to deny himself at this point. Tiredly he drug his empty coffee cup back into the room that held his laptop to continue his work whilst waiting.

A small symbol blinking in the corner informed him that he had only just received an e-mail. Sighing heavily Killua brought the pointer around to click on the message. When his coffee cup fell he didn't even budge to retrieve it. Glaring boldly at him were map coordinates and a message.

You'll find your goal, but hold no faith.

It will destroy you.

He could feel the chill in the air. It felt like the fingers of Death reaching out to claim him. This place that was so out of the way, displaced from society. It felt like he shouldn't be here, the living shouldn't be here. The ominous building ('No, that's definitely a temple.') gave birth to sensations in his spine that Killua really just didn't want to name.

Nestled deep in the undergrowth of a forgotten jungle, in the crater of a dead volcano, in the middle of the sea. This was where the coordinates led him. A place that no man would willingly ever go. The place he was supposed to find the answers he sought. And it took him two damned weeks to get there.

Killua had to be careful as he traveled up the surface of the volcano. The surface rock was loose and he didn't want to risk falling. The air, also, was thinner than what he was used to, making it hard to breath, his muscles almost seemed paralyzed as if some creature was trying to hold him back, force him to turn around. The wind even fought against him. Some supernatural being determined to break his spirit. Good thing he liked a challenge.

The temple itself took up almost the entire crater. It was a dilapidated and sorry looking place, yet still held it's foreboding air. It was a warning. "Something bad happened here," Killua thought to himself as he stood at the edge of the crater. His survival instincts picking up, he walked faster. Killua never thought he'd be terrified of a place, but he couldn't ignore the feeling that steadily arose with each step, each breath.

Walking toward the building, Killua had to make his way through the remains of what looked like it once could have been a town. There wasn't a single roof left intact and most of what remained were piles of rubble and the bases of just a few lonely homes. One door still clung to its hinges, the frame the only thing still standing.

His senses were going hay wire, nothing about this was right. Everywhere he looked loomed with unnatural shadow. It almost seemed as if there should have been a war here.

But wars leave bodies.

There wasn't even a bone fragment anywhere. Killua dug through some of the broken rubble, nothing. The buildings looked old, but not that old that any remaining body would have turned to dust. This just wasn't right. Killua walked toward what seemed to be the center of town. "What's going on here?" He'd asked this out loud, almost expecting an answer from the wind.

Killua's head perked up. The wind..? Was this really the wind? On the way up the volcano the wind howled as it tried to force him back down, in fact it had echoed in his ears long after he'd reached the top. Now, he noticed what he hadn't before. The wind was still as strong here in the crater as when he was climbing the side, but the difference that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up was the unbearable quiet. With the ringing in his ears gone, he heard nothing. It was silence to suit the dead. Not even the wind made noise.

Killua took a step back, needing time to recollect himself in the midst of all this strangeness. That one step sent him into shadowy darkness., almost as if the sky was too cloudy to let the tiniest bit of light creep in. Killua looked up to face the sun. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky. Cold sweat broke out over his face and his cheek muscle spasmed slightly at the revelation. Swallowing air he took off at a jogging pace towards the temple.

The air seemed to thin out even more the closer he got. The towers of the temple lay in broken pieces on the ground, all of it charred black. However, it didn't look like it was caused by fire, but more like the color had just seeped out of the brick. The temple itself was the only place you could consider even close to intact, though you could tell by looking at it that it was the size of a gigantic castle once. Most of the outer walls and rooms were in the same state as the rest of the so-called village. The roof in other parts look like they never even existed, but the building still seemed to loom above everything else. Killua walked towards the giant iron doors, miraculously still intact.

The building seemed to be sucking the very breath from his lungs and the darkness from earlier was hanging at the edges of his vision. Thoughts of Gon made him go to open the door. He had to finish this, he couldn't turn around. He reached out to pull open the doors. This was his chance to find a cure, to prove to Gon how much he'd do for him.

His fingers froze on the handle. What if this town had fallen victim to the disease too? Was that what he was supposed to witness, the devastation this thing caused when inflicted on a society? If so, then where were the bodies? Maybe this was where the Nin-user was hiding, maybe this was where Killua himself would fall ill, maybe die? There were so many different thoughts and reasons flying through his head that Killua let his hand fall away from the door.

Truly if the Nin-user at fault was here, then why would he just hand over his home address to someone trying to kill him? The sporadic inflictions of the disease in so many different places, at the same time, obviously wasn't the work of someone who wanted mass attention. Was it too far fetched to believe that Killua himself had become a target? Then why not afflict him with the illness from afar like everyone else? Perhaps, just perhaps, only certain people could be infected, maybe they had to meet certain qualifications. It wasn't too far fetched, he'd seen it before after all, Kurapica couldn't attack anyone with his chain unless he was a member of the Spider. There could be a good chance that this was the same situation, all the infected people had to meet certain qualifications before they could be infected. If that was the case then Killua had to be careful and try not to 'qualify' to receive the unlucky end of the Nin-user's abilities.

He pushed the door fully open and stood for just a moment in the doorway. All of the light trying to filter in behind him didn't even touch the walls or the floor. It was just like in the center of the town. Steeling himself Killua took a careful step inside. He could have sworn he felt the hair on his eyebrows stand on end.

This place, with it's blackened walls and crumbling structure, felt wrong. It felt like the whole building had become twisted with some inner illness. Killua glanced across the room, pews lined each side, broken and mangled, some had even been turned over and lay across the room like an unhappy child had discarded it's toys. Dirty stained glass lined the walls, none of them were intact, all of them had the same colorless black air that the rest of the temple had. The end of the hall, however, was what brought the most attention. A giant golden cross stood at the very end. It was the only thing that seemed untouched by the creeping blackness. It was also the only place light seemed to be shining. The light filtered through a giant hole in the ceiling directly above the cross. Killua, remaining alert, walked closer.

Now that he was standing in the light and only a foot away, Killua could see words, written in a language he didn't understand, had been etched into the gold surface of the cross. "What kind of place is this?" He said out loud.

"It is the place where the world ended and time stands still."

Spinning fast on his heel, Killua turned to meet the speaker. Short and pale, he couldn't have been more than 16 or 17. His long black hair hung around his thin face. His eyes seemed to glow in the blackness that surrounded him. Even his clothes seemed odd, a white robe that draped over him like it was too big, yet still seemed to show way too much skin. If it wasn't for the showing skin, Killua would have thought that the boy was actually a girl. Hell, he made Kurapica look masculine. "Who are you?"

"Who? I believe the correct question is what."

"Huh? What?" Killua was confused. This kid seemed a bit deranged, maybe he'd been sniffing too much black mold. This place seemed like it had enough of that to go around.

"Exactly, I do not exist as you do."

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Killua was getting pissed off at this kid, the setting for this conversation wasn't helping his mood any.

"I exist as a figment. You exist to exist."

"I don't understand." The white haired man was trying hard not to take his frustration out on the boy in front of him. He couldn't talk if his jaw was broken, after all.

The boy looked up his eyes maintaining their glassy look. "I am a memory."

"A memory of what?" Killua had been slightly taken-aback with the boy's statement, now he was kind of curious. He hadn't forgotten that there was a chance that this boy could be the nin-user, he still needed to be careful… Had the room become lighter?

"When all things began, only He existed. Then He brought forth the angels and many other things. Finally, He made man. With this creature came His greatest creation. Freewill. With this, all things that represented his divinity became undone. The angels, who were meant to love and serve him, turned their love into war. They believed fiercely that He loved man more than them, because man was granted the ability to determine their own destiny. He cast them out of His presence and into darkness.

"He realized at that point that giving man free will was a catalyst for His own destruction."

"Catalyst?"

"When someone is capable of deciding their own destiny, they do not need a God do they?"

"God?! So, God is killing off all the people in the world?" Killua was starting to think this was a load of bullshit.

"Yes and no. Their faith in Him is their destruction, for He can only exist through them.

"If he can only exist through them than why is he killing them, huh?"

"All people have energy with in them, this you know. Imagine a being with the power to draw that energy into one place to utilize it."

"I don't understand." Killua had stuffed his arms in his pockets and cocked his head to the side. "Doesn't make much sense to me."

"When faith ceases to exist, all that will remain is chaos, and the world will perish. All that will remain is one who can reform the world with the power of faith. God shall once again rise from the ashes of what has fallen and all will begin again."

"The end of the world? Gotcha. Look, I'm not falling for any of this bullshit, so you can tell me the truth." Killua had pulled his hands out of his pockets and put them behind his head, a satisfied smirk on his lips.

"If you wish to help Gon, you must do as I say. "

Killua hunched over, his legs apart and a snarl making it's way through his throat. "What do you know of him?"

"I know you love him, and that's all I need."

"Who are you?!" there was a white flash as he dashed forward. Using his speed he flipped over him, and, allowing the joints in his arm to realign itself, his fingernails extended. He landed right behind the small boy and brought his arm down like the stab of a knife, planning on taking his arm through his throat.

The boy's head turned to look over his shoulder to see Killua's deadly attack, yet made no other movement, no facial expression. He just disappeared. Not all of him, just part of him. That part that Killua had just shoved his arm through. It had disappeared into a thick black fog, small tendrils of the black stuff coating the walls. " Who are you…?"

The boy slowly turned around, Killua's arm still where his neck should be. He looked like he had been decapitated, his head floating over his body. "I am all that remains of the civilization here."

"Civilization? You're a ghost!?"

"Yes," the boy said, he still didn't flinch when the hand was removed from his "neck". The fog reassembled itself and the boy was whole. Killua shivered.

"How can you be here?" He was trying not to wipe his hand on his jacket.

"I myself was a powerful mortal such as yourself. In my young enthusiasm to gain more power I ended my life."

"Then why are you here? Shouldn't you be in hell or something?"

"Hell is a place for the damned, I merely no longer retain my body. I remain here, because I await the coming of The Almighty."

"Why is this place so special?"

"Because this is the gate to Heaven. The only place remaining when the Earth was destroyed."

"Destroyed? This has already happened before?"

"Yes."

"Destroying a whole world over and over again merely to exist… Makes you wonder what kind of God he really is. Why are you waiting for him?"

"To remake the world." The boy was developing a faint look to him, like a ghost in some B-rated horror flick. The room was also looking a bit more dark.

"How can you 'remake' the world?"

"Through faith." The child burst into inky shadows that rose up into the air, clinging to all the walls like swarms of leeches, and the room was doused in colorless black once again.

"Huh? What do you mean by that!?" Killua shouted at into empty space.

" You must return here on the 13 hour. When He touches the earth, He will momentarily exist in this place. You will be able to severe His connection to this world all together. All that will be needed is a sacrifice."

"The thirteenth hour? When is that? What's going on? What sacrifice? I'm not done talking to you!" Killua looked around, more than pissed. He might not have been finished with the conversation ('more like 20 questions'), but apparently the spirit was.

Killua ran out of the temple. He needed to get to Gon, something important had just happened. However, he came to a sudden halt outside of the doors. Looking from here he could see perfectly out over the tiny town. The town center was perfectly set in his line of vision and so was the shadows he ran into earlier. From this vantage point, he could see carvings in the brick of the village center. It looked like a giant clock had been made into the ground. A clock with 13 hours. The shadows from his earlier run in loomed directly over the clockwork. It covered everything, all but for a small sliver before the 13th hour.

Killua knew what this was, didn't need to be told. Deep down he understood that this was a timer for the end of the world.

Killua took off at top speed. They didn't have a lot of time.

Quickly he made his way to the end of the crater, stopping short of the edge. He twisted his body to the side and braced himself. One leap and Killua was using the soles of his shoes to sled down the slope of rock, his right hand keeping balance from behind. Blisters and scars be damned, he needed to hurry.

As the end of the slope neared, becoming a quick drop off into solid rock below, Killua pushed himself back onto his elbows and used the heels of his soles to slow his momentum. One foot slid dangerously close to the edge as he came to a stop. With out even bothering to feel relieved, He positioned himself to climb the rest of the way down. He didn't expect something to happen, after all, when faced with the end of the world, small details become unimportant. However, as many times before had proven, both to himself and many others (the majority dead by his own hand), the smallest most careless mistake is normally fatal. So, as the wall above him shook and the jarring of his body as it dropped down slightly, despite not having moved at all, Killua already understood, he really should have checked the stability of the ledge he was clinging to before deciding to climb down it.

Rock fell above him as his grip came apart from the wall, pieces of hard earth still fisted in his hand. Above him, beneath him, and all around, the ground crumbled. He twisted and turned his body in an attempt to grab another part of the rock, in the end grasping only air. Silver hair whipped passed his face as he turned to face the ground. 'Man, this is gonna hurt…'. But as he opened his eyes, when he'd closed them he didn't know, he was faced with blackness. No ground, no falling rocks, no sky. Just falling in an eternity.

'Killua.'

It was the voice of the boy from before.

'Wake up.'

When darkness succumbed to light, it took a minute for his vision to return. Through the original haze, the exceptionally bright light seemed oddly square, but Killua's slowly focusing vision allowed him to make out his computer screen. Had he fallen asleep at his desk? What about those coordinates? Had he even gone to that strange place or was it all a dream?

Groaning, the white haired man slowly pulled his head up off the keyboard. Bringing his hand up to his cheek, Killua searched for the reason that particular side of his face felt so odd. Feeling his slightly lumpy cheek, he could only assume, if he bothered to look in the mirror, that it would bare a striking resemblance to the keyboard he face-planted on in his sleep.

"What the hell…" Groaning, he sat up fully in his chair, his neck giving him the third degree as his back cracked from the new movement. "That shoulda' felt better than what it did." He rubbed his eyes more to clear out the rest of the sleep.

Beep.

Killua froze, hands still over his eyes. Was he so delirious that his computer was talking to him of its own accord? Slowly he brought his hands down from his face to gaze at the now black computer screen. The computer was still running and he didn't recall setting up the save screen on this computer.

Beep.

Killua's eye twitched in aggravation. "What do you want you broken piece of…"

Beeeep.

Cut off short, Killua became entranced by the words slowly forming on his screen in an old fashioned DOS mode.

Dreams are what you make them./

Reality is merely a figment of imagination, a dream extended in the mind./

Which reality will you choose?/

Killua's face went slack and his head tilted down slightly. "I'm going fucking nuts."

The screen went black once again only to show several generic looking time clocks, one within the other. Small hands kept track of the small clock and large hands kept track of the larger ones. It would have been hard to discern what time it actually was if he didn't already know what it meant.

The smallest clock was normal, could've been the one currently ticking in the kitchen. The second was keeping track of the months and cycles of the moon, he'd seen similar ones on fancy watches. The third and outermost clock was the one that made Killua's breath hitch and his eyes widen. It seemed much like the first clock, but it had thirteen hours.

Time is running out./

Tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock/

Tick tock tick tock tick tock/

One after the other the screen repeated the same words over and over. Mimicking the clock above it in perfect synchronization of time. The computer chair went flying as Killua stood up abruptly. He didn't even register the wave of dizziness.

"If you wish to help Gon, you must do as I say. "

He flew around the desk to his jacket and grabbed the cell phone that was resting on the night stand be the beds. He glanced at the front LCD screen of his phone before freezing again. Two weeks. He felt numb. In his dream it had taken two weeks to get to the remote island. In his dream, he learned Gon was in some sort of danger. In his dream… It was no use, he couldn't remember how it ended, only blackness. However, reason came to him and he understood, if it took two weeks to get to the island, dream or no, why didn't it take any time to get back?

His hand shook on it's own accord. What was going on?

"Dear God, let this be a dream."

Unfortunately, no Bible qoutes today.

Q&A time. If you have had complaints or questions regarding the story, please read below. :D

1) Now, as for the direction of the story… Yes, God is currently being used as an antagonist. Flame away.

2) I should change my main genre preference to horror. Snark.

3) For those of you who are curious about my reasoning and the plausibility of the story, I'll explain.

A) in the Bible (I'm not joking, go look this up if you don't believe me.) The world will end when God calls his children to him, however it never says how he will do it. It also says that all those who have sinned will remain in the world when the devil takes control, and all must suffer his (God's) name, despite the new ruler, to be redeemed. It also has some mumbo jumbo about bar-coding people and crap like that, but we'll skip that for story sake. (let me know, hardcore Christians reading this, some more information.)

B) Plausibility in the HXH world. Despite the fact my story clearly states that it's an A/U. I'll go into detail… in later chapters. After all, I don't want to give anything away. J However, any philosopher will gladly tell you that what you perceive is not necessarily true for all others and therefore reality in the mind is only based solely on what your senses tell you, that is unless someone tells you different and you're of gullible nature. Much in this sense, and as a few good examples, as someone slandering another's reputation. It may not be true, but that doesn't mean others don't believe it. In their mind it is true, and such brings about a "self fulfilling prophecy." It happened merely because someone said it would and you believed it and therefore act according to that nature, because that's what people expect. Why does this mean that rampaging God fits hand in hand in the HxH world? Because even in a badly written Mary-Sue fic, it works, because I say so. J

4) For further explanation of a self fulfilling prophecy read 'Oedipus'. That story is the pure definition of the phrase. And it's good brain-fodder!

5) Character interpretation. Many people keep telling me that my characters seem a bit off. Once again referencing the A/U, you don't know exactly how someone is going to turn out somewhere along the road. My number one complaint received so far is Gon not noticing that it was Hisoka. To address this, even as a child, Gon shows signs of amazing memory, true. However, think of it in terms of this, do you remember, be it the manga or the anime, the first time you saw Hisoka not looking like, well, Hisoka? Hair down, business suit, no makeup, and he was even calmly sitting in an airplane (in the anime). How long did it take you to notice it was him? I know it took me a minute. Also, in the preliminary Hunter Trial, Gon was able to distinguish those animals (can't remember what they're called) apart by minuet details something no one else can really do. Now, if Gon does well at distinguishing others from small details, what if you changed them? What if you changed those details and he didn't know? How well would he have been able to distinguish someone (or something) then? Like I said, Gon never really did get a good look at a 'normal' looking Hisoka. So, coupled with that, a hair trim, and a few more years under the belt of not seeing each other (Come on guys, Hisoka is how old? He has to have a wrinkle or two by now. Crazy people do tend to age quicker.)

If it makes you feel any better what so ever, you can think of Hisoka like Superman. No one ever uncovered his identity. Crazy jester-clown by day, mild mannered business man by night. XD

Also on the Hisoka Subject. Someone made a comment about him smiling. Really there's no shocker. Hisoka does smile, just not nicely. Okay, so it's more like sadistic smirking.

6) And thank you reviewers very much for your support. The story shall continue on.