Prompt: #12 Soul

Summary: Transcending time and space, the divided will become one, once again.

A/N: This is a stand alone. It is a semi X-over with Basilisk. Even though the characters are not specifically named (as it would undoubtedly and understandably confuse everyone) if you've watched that anime, you would recognize the lines. The ending scene of Basilisk was the inspiration behind this fic, because when you watch the cutscene between N/S, I sort of get the feeling that they're both feeling... familiar. A link to that particular scene will be posted in my Profile.

Additional Notes: Fatum is Latin for "Destiny". In dedication to the episode it was based off of.

Fatum

In a time, within a place long past. Two lovers are separated by hatred, family and now...death.

They stand off, these would be enemies. Once so full of dreams and hope for the future. Only to clash with the divide of blood and death. Of the fight, there are only two left standing. Him and her. His last battle has mortally injured him. Even if he had not been, he would not have been able to kill her. He does not have much time and she had her entire life still ahead of her. She would win. Her family, her clan would win the war. All she had to do was thrust that sword into his unresisting form and it would be over. It was so easy.

He knows her nature. He knows she is not cruel. She could never be cruel. Even after all that had happened, of all the hate that spilled the blood on either side of their clans, he knows she would never change. She would always be kind. She would always be her. So, he makes it even easier for her. As they stand off, he closes his eyes, knowing that she would be unable to deliver the killing blow if he had been watching her. He does not hesitate and he does not flinch. There is a sense of peace in knowing that it would be her to do this for him. His merciful angel. What he does not expect, is what happens next.

"I love you," he hears her beloved voice whisper, closely followed by the sound of a sword piercing flesh and the sounds of a body falling onto the ground.

Slowly, he opens his eyes.

He watches almost spellbound as her lifeless body falls onto the dirt just where he stands. There is a shrill cry that fills the air and he is not quite sure if it is his. It sounds as terrible as the cry of his heart as he does nothing more than stare at her in disbelief. She had done what was unexpected. She had done the most selfless thing that she could think of. She had been her. He finds it beyond ironic that the thing he loves the most about her was ultimately the thing responsible for her demise. He cannot focus on that right now though. He must claim the victory of their war. So he sends the message of her defeat and his victory. His victory that was also his greatest loss. He pulls out the wretched sword that is buried in her chest as he pulls her prone body close to his own and cries. He sobs with the call of her name.

There is only one thing that is left to do. He has finished his quest. He has won, but has he really won? The battle just before had been gained at a great price and he had not thought to live through this one as well. Yet, he was the last one standing and the one person that he loved and cherished the most, was lifeless and gone. Gone because she would not, she could not kill him herself. So she had left him behind. For a moment, he can almost be angry at her for being selfish. That is, for only a moment, because it was not in her nature to be selfish. She had known that he must be the victor to their sadistic competition of death. She had known much more than he had. Yet, she always thought that it was she that was his weakness? He had ultimately been hers.

Her voice echoes amid the winds that are blowing his black hair with the words she had used in a time that seemed too long ago. They flow through his mind as he steps into the river.

All the times the wind touched us. All the times we forged our dreams. The same thought always came to my mind. Maybe you and I, a long time ago, were a single soul... and that both our souls, born divided, are anxious to go back to its original form. But I am a burden to you.

Within his mind, he gives his reply.

If we were a single soul, I am sure we will meet again. No matter how many generations it shall take. No matter in which era we will do it. I am sure.

"I am sure," he vows in a soft whisper to her lifeless form.

With her in his arms, he thrusts the sword into his own chest, to follow behind her. He feels his life ebb away as he fully sinks into the water. Even in death, they seem to cling to each other as if their shared soul were still trying to reunite itself. Their bodies float with the gentle flow of the river until they are no longer in sight.

In a time, not quite a millennia later nor even of the same universe. A way will be found.

Through the expanse of time, through the impossibility of chance, we find ourselves in a different universe. In an entirely different era. The night is well along but the day is not quite near. A lone soul sits in a darkened room. It sits upon a throne in silent contemplation, that only the marble walls around him can provide. Wordless musings belie the intensity behind closed lids as an obscured face rests upon a black gloved hand.

Then, blue eyes startle open and a formerly prone figure is suddenly alert.

"That, is why," he says with dawning recognition. It is a voice so low that it does not echo in the hollowness of the room. As he moves to make his way languorously out the doors, he thinks back to the reason why. He goes back to that inexplicable pull that he had been feeling for someone he should hate. Someone that he was about to face off with and destroy.

He thinks back to that walk up those spiraling stairs. The sounds of his steps as his hard soles clanked against the metal, to slowly climb up to see her turned form. It had been attraction, yes. It had been curiosity, definitely. It had been something else too. It had been something deeper. Something that was already deeply engrained into his mind. More than his mind perhaps, it was deeply engrained into his very being. That he knew this creature. He knew this being and not in the introductory, obligatory sense. He already knew her. He had already known her in a way that was just not possible. He had never seen her before. They had not met until that very night. Or so he had believed. Now he knows that to be different. They did know each other and they knew each other better than anyone else could ever know them. It made sense as much as it seemed unfathomable that it should be.

He needs to see her. It is time. He needs to see her right now. So he is quite surprised to step foot outside and see that there is company awaiting him. His eyes are already red as he surveys the challenge before him. When he moves next, there is no hope of survival for them. He does not hesitate and he does not hold back. They mean to stop him. He will not be stopped. It is when he is sure that they no longer pose a danger to him, that he makes a run for it. He runs to her. He can feel her as he gets closer. Something inside him seems to sing in elation as he reaches her in a skidding halt. She is waiting for him.

There is an expression of conflict on her face that he knows must be reflected in his own as he steps closer. She makes to run to him but they both stop when they realize that their battle has begun. Their runes have been activated and they must fight. Fight as they had fought on a different ground, in a different place, of a different time. Yet, this time, he knows what she will do. So he moves to strike her before she can try anything else and she is forced to dodge his attack and counter with one of her own. Their swords strike each other and he maneuvers her, but she is as clever as he is. Only, he had the advantage. He knows what she plans to do this time and there is nothing that will stand in his way of having her as he could not have had her then. Because he is looking for it, he sees when she is just about to make her move and he swirls his sword around hers to dislodge it from her firm grasp and flings her weapon away from her.

She looks almost triumphant in her loss. He does not understand how she can always be so selfless, in this life and the last. Perhaps that was why they balanced, because he would be the selfish one now. As he points the tip of his sword at her for emphasis, he watches her eyes before flinging it away from himself as well.

"What are you…?"

"You would leave me again?" he accuses with a slight hiss, taking a small step towards her. "I will not let you this time."

Her eyes widen before narrowing and it is then that he realizes that she has known from the beginning. She has known throughout their journey and she had never mentioned it to him. Of course she had. That would have been completely her too. He does not know whether he is angry at her or not. He is not sure if he would have believed her regardless of how greatly he felt the truth of it. Now he feels that it must be true simply because she has known about this for all this time.

"I never left you," she whispered. She looks out of breathe and all he can do is look at her as he finally sees her through eyes that finally see what has been there all along.

"Only because I followed right along behind you," he says a little resentfully.

She nods sadly as she processes this. She had not saved him then. She had given him, his rightful victory.

"Thank you," he says, not able to meet her eyes now. If she had not done what she had before, his clan would not have won and it would have caused a severe unrest amongst the clans. "But this time, I will not let you leave me behind. This time we will be joined as we should have been joined then."

She looks up hesitantly at him. "Is this not easier?"

"Easier?" he asks as his eyes fly to hers again.

"You could rule without hindrance."

"Do you think I care about that when all I have ever wanted was to be with you?" he shoots back almost angry now, but he cannot be entirely so. He has learned from the last time. "What is anything if we cannot be together?"

Her eyes are moist as she nods her agreement.

"I understand why now," he says in a voice that is a little more soothing than a moment before. "Why the Light holds no sense of hatred from you."

She smiles, a relieved one, as she looks up at him. He takes another step closer.

"It makes so much sense now," he says in awe. "This is why we have been chosen for the gifts that we have. The reason we did not die as children."

She nods and her smile is widening.

"Our shared soul still longs to be reunited," he tells her, even though she already knows this. He reaches up and grabs her face. "And you would repeat history and leave me again?"

"I thought it best," she says weakly.

"For who?" he asks, bringing her face closer to his own so he can stare into her eyes. "Not for you and not for me."

She nods her agreement. "Not this time," she says.

"Not this time," he agrees and then he is kissing her.

Lips seal and a soul, once divided, can now sigh in relief. For now, after transcending time and space, it can finally be whole once again.