Hisoka would die. Nothing could stop that now. Tsuzuki had tried to break his Master's hold on the boy's soul and he would be repaid a thousand fold for the mistake. Dimly, with each weakening breath and hot mouthful, Tsuzuki felt his own heart skipping. He was tangled in the threads of the boy's curse, like sargassum weeds dragging both of them to their deaths. The imagines faded and his master's laugh along with it. Faintly, over the sound of his own screaming heart;

/Tsuzuki, with you, through you, I found my vengeance. As you die, so does the last of the hatred I felt for this world. You, who had the eyes of an angle and the face of my brother. I was cheated his death, but you…/

In the blood was silence and darkness; darkness that was tangible and inescapable. It smelled of rain, tasted of ash and everywhere was the soft calling of a violin in the distance. Numbly he felt his mouth slip away as he fell to the floor, a cool body falling against him, the sound of rushed footsteps and shouting. All he felt this as if through another person's senses. The darkness was all that was left now. He turned his head and focused as something firm brushed against the side of this hand. White snow, no, white petals fell all around him. The sound of scissors snipping brought him to his knees. Sitting up, he found himself in a garden under a darkened sky filled with row after row of deathly pale roses. As if with a will of their own, a pair of rusted scissor made the slow motions of cutting the roses from the bush, sending them crashing in to an ever growing pile. With rising horror, a familiar and lovely scent reached him. Blood pooled around the cut roses, bleeding in a stream that watered the uncut bushes, giving them life.

"I…I never wanted to kill anyone!" He screamed, backing away from the grizzly scene. "I never…" The once burning violet fire of his eyes became lit with a smoldering and dark purpose. Looking down, he saw his colorless arms wrapped with the scarlet binds of his master's power. Like so many strings, he lifted them from his skin, ignoring the burning pain and entwined them tightly through his fingers. "If I am not allowed to exist, if I was never meant to be here…" With each word his conviction grew just as the last parts of him that were human died. "Then let us go together Muraki." In answer, the skies seemed to part shadows and a figure that had haunted his waking dreams for lifetimes came stumbling through the fog. Gasping, blood dripping from his perfect lips as Tsuzuki dug his trembling nails in to the cords of power that lie in his palms, Muraki gave a half smile.

"For love?" He asked, breathless. "Do you drag me with you because you cannot stand to face this darkness alone?" Muraki gave a mocking laugh, weakly falling to his knees. "Even now, in your moment of Awakening, you are still the same, scared, naive boy that approached me years ago. Do you think you can take my empire? And then what? You and your little boy live happily ever after? Do you think scars like yours can be covered with my blood?" He screamed, voice rising in rage.

The sky above began to come down in a snowfall of ash, uncovering a heaven made up in colors to put a sunset to shame. Muraki's power had always been founded in death; Tatsumi was shadow, Watari, lighthearted and wonderful Watari, had the power of the birds he loved so dearly but for Tsuzuki there could be only one form his soul could take in this other life. Fire.

A great coil of flame came burning from the heavens, consuming the oxygen around it in a sucking vortex of heat. The fire was the size of planets, the size of eternity, it was the entirety of Tsuzuki's pain given form and it was burning.

Dawning realization crept into Muraki's eyes, horror drew his lips open. "You seek to destroy us all!"

"Born in darkness, I will burn away everything." Tsuzuki bowed his head. He could feel the air a blaze all around him, chocking him. He would burn Muraki, burn himself burn each and every poor soul caught up in the bloodline. All of them. –Forgive me Watari. Tatsumi, I know if you were here, you'd disapprove of my rashness, but,- he smiled softly, -I know when this is over, you will comb hell trying to find me so that you can lecture me and then we'll all be together, again-

Ahead of him, somewhere in the flames that were quickly consuming the darkness, Muraki bent over, his flesh burning into his clothing. "Saki!" He bellowed, drawing the fire deep in to his lungs. For a moment, time seemed to freeze.

Tsuzuki feel to his knees, mirroring the image of his Master dying before him. Wicked flames ate his hair, his face. He could feel the flesh around his eyes swelled into blisters that blinded him and yet, he smiled as he felt the last trace of his Master's power burn away from his fingers. "Finally," He whispered, pulling apart his bleeding lips. Had he breath left to laugh, he may have. But such things were past him now and would be forever.

Hisoka slipped in and out of consciousness many times over the long weeks that followed. It would be Wakaba's face that he awoke to, hair messed up and eyes dark from lack of sleep. At first, no one would tell him anything of what had happened; though later he was to learn that the town had talked of nothing else for months afterwards. He knew there had been a fire as was evidence in the twisting burn marks that wrapped around his body although no one could explain how he had been burned as if with a designed iron. The fire had completely destroyed his family's estate, consuming his mother and father while they slept. The news was by far the happiest he had ever heard. The small part of him that felt loss was similar to an empty socket where a rotted tooth has been pulled from.

"There is one thing."

Wakaba looked up from her needle work with an intensive smile. "Only one?" She laughed. "You're the only person alive that could go through such a life-altering few weeks and come away with only one lingering question."

Hisoka ignored her comments and continued to glaze out the window. He had recently purchased a small summer home. Wakaba had wanted one closer to the village, but upon driving by the secluded cottage, he felt he must have it and she made little protest. "I seem to remember a man." He swallowed roughly at the memory, rubbing one of the exposed scars on his arms.

"A man?" She asked, placing down her needle work.

"It's nothing." He blurted out, a blush rising to his cheeks. "A dream, perhaps." Noticing she was still watching him intently, Hisoka felt his embarrassment grow. "I'm heading out for a walk." He muttered and made his exit.

Outside, his feet clicked quickly over the cobblestone road. There was still an amount of uncomfortable ness around Wakaba he couldn't talk around. –Stupid girls. Why do they have to confuse everything so that a man can't have a quiet thought to himself?- As the cottage faded from the distance, he tucked his hands in to the large pockets of his overcoat, looking around at the changing of the seasons. Ahead, the sun dipped against the horizon, warming the skies in deep reds and purples. Lost in half remembered images and confusing feelings, he barely marked the approach of footsteps behind him. It was, after all, a well used road for those wishing to take a more visually pleasing trip to town. Without looking back, Hisoka shifted his steps more to the side of the road, allowing ample space for him to be overtaken. Everything had been so simple for him since the fire. No controlling parents, no more nightmares and yet...

He glanced up at the sky. Such a familiar sense, these red colors…

/-Tsuzuki!- The voice yelled over the flames. A voice filled with life and anger. –Baka! What do you think you're doing!?-

Through watering eyes, the blurry image of bare feet running towards him filled Tsuzuki's eyes. Kneeling in front of him, a familiar face, greeted his. –We're leaving, now!-

Weakly, he shook his head, smearing the tears that feel freely from his eyes in to the ash on the ground. "That's enough, Hisoka. I have freed you from this curse. Leave me here. I have lived a very long time and that's enough. It's enough." The words were so weak he doubted the boy could hear him and for that he was grateful. I'm so tired, he thought, so very tired.

Strong cool arms wrapped around him, pulling him from the ground and gripping him in a tight hug. Blinking through the pain and the fire, Tsuzuki stared straight ahead, shock filling his face. The arms gripped him tighter, as if it was Hisoka that was clinging to Tsuzuki for dear life. –Please! Please…I-I don't want to be alone anymore!- Painful images of his family shunning him, a life filled with shame because he was different, shame because he was always somehow less, filled Hisoka to the point of breaking.

Tsuzuki had been wrong, again. Perhaps there had been a twisted wisdom in his late master's words. /Didn't it ever occur to you that sharing my pain with you was the purest thing anyone could have given you?/ He could not save Hisoka, not like this. The flames seemed to fan away from the pair, the skin began knitting together on his bared bones and for once in forever, Tsuzuki smiled without a sense of bitterness. "Can I..I stay, with you?"

Hisoka shook himself, laughing nervously. "Who wouldn't have strange dreams after almost being burned alive?" Laughing louder to cover his feeling of unease, Hisoka decided it would be best to turn back to his home.

Turning, he was met by a tall man, with dark hair and a childlike smile. Hisoka stopped and the pair stared at each other in silence. Smiling widening with each passing second, the tall man approached the younger and gently pulled the collar of Hisoka's jacket up tighter. "You know, if you stay outside too long, you'll catch a cold." His slender fingers brushed against the underside of his chin and he chuckled as the young man pulled back from the touch, blushing.

With a look of pure joy, the man waved away Hisoka's embarrassment and lightly walked past him. Recovering from his surprise, Hisoka turned and yelled after him. "Do I know you?"

The man stopped and without turning around, answered. "Oh you could say that. You know me, you've known me and very, very soon, you'll know me again. Very soon, Bon. I'm going to come wake you up and together," he looked over his shoulder and smiled sweetly, "I don't believe there's anything we can't accomplish." With a short backwards wave, the man continued down the road, walking with sure steps to a castle that was covered in thorns.