Author's Note: -insert excuse for two months of waiting- Yeah, sorry loves! But at least I bring good news...

THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER, BEFORE THE EPILOGUE, OF REVELATION, DEFAMATION!

Yeah, I originally planned on dragging this out for a very long time, but unfortunately, I lost my inspiration for this story. Instead, I did the only thing I could and ended it. This way, there is no longer a few months of waiting before an update is put out and I am happy with how I ended everything. It does feel a little bit rushed, but I think the epilogue kind of makes up for that...

DoppleGengar: Lack of Hiei was pretty bad in this story, but it was focused more on the war efforts instead of the hot, dirty sex. (I should've added some hot, dirty sex... .) I tried my hand at war stories and found I love them, but damn are they hard to keep straight, especially with writer's block chipping away at my brain. Anyways doll, I hope the last two chapters don't make you cry... I don't think they should, but I pray you like them. =3

Song for Chapter: The Fortress of Tears - H.I.M., Love Metal

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Redemption

Kotone had heard Yuji, her precious son, speak to her in her head, humming light words to her when she thought he was dead. And she had listened, but it could not have been so. The moment Yomi tore his heart from his chest, live and beating, Yuji had died.

And so, Kotone had dug a grave with her waning winds, feeling the strain upon her flesh as that freshly dug hole was sealed. A stone had marked the grave site, reading a single word.

Martyr.

The grief overwhelmed her; why had she been born into world that would lead her to happiness, only to later rip it from her? She was a sinner, never a saint, and as a demon, she had none to pray to.

There was nothing she could do.

As Kotone wept at the grave, a fierce power churned inside her gut, rolling wildly. She felt the tear as her youki began to rise from her body, twisting angrily as explosions erupted all around her.

She had brought back the dead… She had stolen souls from under Enma's nose. She was a monster.

Now was the time to prove it.

~:.:{No One Can Hurt You Now}:.:~

Hiei felt the pain his mate was experiencing the moment grief overwhelmed her. A mental link had been made with the kaze dai youkai long ago, and now he knew something had twisted her, warped her, and he doubted he could save her any longer.

Thus, when Mukuro advanced upon him in nothing but her skin and the glaring mechanical devices jutting from her, he snapped.

His hand flew out, sending the demented King of Alaric flying from his person and against the adjacent wall. His red eyes were glimmering in the darkness of her cocoon palace, a snarl burning nastily in his throat like fire.

"You will not touch me!" he snarled at the woman as she rose, wounds littering her body and the whirring of her mechanized parts tittering pathetically.

"Hiei, if you leave me now, I will slaughter them all," Mukuro promised snidely. He believed her, but now was not the time to worry about it. "You know I have that power."

"If you can find us," he told her. "We will meet again, and when I do, I will tear you apart with my own hands."

It was a promise, one that hung in the air as Hiei fled the moving castle. He felt Kotone near and that was the only place he wished to go. He had been away from his mate for far too long, but now it might be too late...

~:.:{In This Haven Safe and Sound}:.:~

With an unconscious Hatsukichi on his back, Hajime made his way alongside his friends. Daiki was leading, though the soul demon had a feeling of where he needed to go.

Kotone was in danger and he felt it to his core, a sentiment shared by few amongst the group.

"We need to move faster!" Yuji Takanari hissed just as a wild stirring of a familiar youki filled the air. They were not far from her, but feeling Kotone's energy churning so violently meant nothing but bad news.

"What the hell is that energy?" Tadao murmured, his face washed with fear.

"Ko," was the answer he received from a nervous, frowning Daiki.

"That power is Aunt Ko?" Shoichi mumbled.

No one answered, but their pace increased ten-fold.

~:.:{No One Can Save You Now}:.:~

"Something is amiss," Kurama said loudly, though very few were around to hear it.

Karasu and Jin just happened to be two of those wearied demons, and both turned to him with blank eyes. Their youki was exhausted, though the only one openly showing it was the Windmaster. He had arrived not long ago, Yusuke and Touya in tow, and the five had slaughtered hundreds of demons in Yomi's army before they had the chance to breathe.

As they did, they felt that unnerving youki just a mile away from them.

"I recognize that energy," Genkai called as she limped into the recently-obliterated clearing. Toguro was next to her, bleeding profusely, but the two were still standing. "It's the she-idiot."

"Ko needs us," Yusuke guessed. "I have a bad feeling and we need to hurry the hell up. I can't lose anyone else in this war."

He had no idea he had also lost his wife, just hours before his best friend.

"Let's be movin'!" Jin, with a great gasp, tugged the winds beneath him, only to fall back to the ground. "She's got it all, she does. She's takin' the winds from right beneath me!"

"Then let's hurry," Karasu said, but all hear his quiet words. He may have been an enemy once, but he favored the wind demoness enough to give her shreds of loyalty.

And so they did hurry; all surged towards the pained feeling just a short mile out.

~:.:{From The Grace You Are Drowning In, Just Hold Your Breath On Your Way Down}:.:~

"Something is about to change," Yukina whispered to Akiye from their place in a quaint tent.

"You can feel it too, huh?" Akiye was shaking lightly, and not from expending a lot of her youki to protect the camp from a few stray troops of Yomi's that had wandered too close.

"All we can do now is hope," the ice maiden said, stroking Mizue's hair as the exhausted mother slept with her son.

~:.:{This Fortress of Tears I've Built From My Fears For You}:.:~

The fight had been long and hard for Izume, but she had the upper hand. Not only had Yomi been vaguely exhausted from the war efforts, he had underestimated the Mazoku. He should have been smarter; in most families, the Mazoku gene skipped generations. Her father was powerful enough to pass it on to one of his two children, and that child had been strong enough to hone it to the point she could use it now.

That, and the death of her beloved fueled her.

"You underestimate my love," Izume whispered angrily to the King of Gandara from his place upon the ground, panting and covering a wound that had nearly tore him in half.

His mouth turned up into a scowl. "How… a brat… like you could defeat… me… is… un… unbelievable."

"Do you curse me with your last breath?" she asked, her eyes leaking. "Because I curse you to whatever hell can hold you. I curse you to die a thousand deaths for what you have done this day. I curse you, Yomi."

"But… you'll still… never see him again."

Izume tore his heart from his chest, screaming in rage as she crushed the organ and killed the mighty king in the same way her beloved had gone.

It did nothing to help her.

~:.:{This Fortress Won't Fall}:.:~

Martyr.

Kotone did not see anyone that appeared in the clearing, even as her entire entourage made their way to find her. She did not feel them as they stared at her, each injured and all exhausted. She did not want to realize they were there, not until a hand touched her shoulder and all surged to be closer to her.

He died because I killed Shura.

My son died because I was ruthless.

She had not realized she was speaking aloud and did not hear the words of comfort Hiei whispered into her head, willing her to come back. If she had, she would have seen the way he was affected by the death of their first-born.

If Kotone had only looked up, she would have seen how Avaron, Hajime, and Jin cried. She would have heard Yusuke and Daiki's screams of rage and heartache. She would have even felt the way Kuronue, Karasu, Kurama, Touya, Yuji, Tadao, Shoichi, Genkai, Toguro, Raizen, and any other of her misshapen group grieved or felt remorse for the broken demoness and her loss.

But she did not see, hear, or feel any of that.

Instead, the youki that had been building from long ago pooled within her, warping itself. With her grief, her hatred, and her pain came the power she had hoped for, one that ensnared every shred of wind in the area and twisted it into a tornado, with her loved ones at the eye.

The winds did not encompass the newly formed grave that she had crawled from just moments before, but instead chipped away at it. Trees began to uproot and swirl, causing bewilderment and panic amongst her loved ones, but they were safe in the eye of this tornado.

I should have saved him.

I SHOULD HAVE SAVED HIM!

Time stopped in Makai as those fierce winds tore, leaving only those at the eye unaffected. If they could have seen, rather than feel, what was happening just outside that blinding swirl of chaotic winds, all would have seen trees righting themselves into their places and holes becoming covered again. They would have seen bombs implode back into themselves and wounds mend again.

They would have experienced time as it churned backwards with the ferocity of Kotone's youki, warping Makai, Ningenkai, and straying into Reikai.

Because there was a way Kotone could save her son, her Yuki Kaze Tsukai, and all those that had died she loved desperately.

And if everyone would have been able to look beyond those churning winds, they would have seen a grave disappear, a burnt body rise, and a temple rebuild itself.

~:.:{No One Can Free You Now}:.:~

"Koenma, sir!" Botan screamed as the wind outside grew louder. "What is going on?"

"I have no idea, Botan," he said to her honestly, "but we have a team pushing back the winds that are infused with youki. They are getting it under control."

"Is it-"

"Yes; it is Kotone's youki and I have been told that traces of her specialty are mixed with it," Koenma whispered. "She's doing something and it's big, Botan. Be ready in case we have to take extreme measures to stop her."

"But, sir-" she began again, but stopped when she saw the pained look come from the new King of Reikai. "Yes, of course."

But they held off her wild youki, that which had strayed into the three worlds. They held it beyond their borders and survived what could have altered Spirit World in the worst possible way.

Enma remained sealed.

~:.:{From The Chains Around Your Heart}:.:~

That day, the world changed. Those that were not within the eye of the impossible storm reversed and regressed to who and what they were weeks before.

The casualties were still monumental from the previous skirmishes, but three very important bodies rose from the dead that day, unaware that anything of the sort had transpired.

The first was the last to die, Yuji Kaze Tsukai.

The second was an orange-haired human with an impossibly long life, Kazuma Kuwabara.

And finally, the third and first to die, Keiko Urameshi.

Kotone had just enough strength after realizing what had happened to cry, begging Hiei to stop the war from progressing. Then, as he swore to her, she fell into a coma that would last for decades.

Hiei upheld that promise and, upon finding Mukuro planning her attack on Yomi in her moving castle, he ripped her head from her body.

Izume, who had regressed back in time as well, did not kill Yomi. Instead, with Kurama's aid, it was Avaron that re-tore his beating heart from his chest, backed by the Fire Clan that still swore allegiance to their leader.

Though Yusuke rejoiced over the resurrection of an unknowing Kuwabara, he annihilated the resistance left of Yomi's forces and allowed those that swore allegiance to a new King of Gandara to live… for now.

Keiko woke up with her friends in Genkai's Temple, never realizing she had been dead. She was reunited with her loved ones shortly after they delivered the confusing news that the war was over and that no one had been lost to Yomi or to Mukuro.

Kotone has not woken up since, even as two new kings were instated into Gandara and Alaric, ringing peace throughout Makai. Not even as a pact was made with Reikai, heralding in a new age. Not even as all of the demons she resurrected were offered a full life… though Raizen declined and returned to death, where his beloved waited for him.

Yet, she is taken care of and endlessly watched by loved ones, praying that one day… she will return to them. As a mother, a friend, a sister, and a hero.

~:.:{Don't be afraid now
Just dive in this emptiness
And hold your breath on your way down}:.:~

Next in 'Revelation, Defamation':

There is not much left to say; the war is over, Kotone is comatose, and many lives were saved because of the demoness. All that is left is a glimpse into the far future, where there could be a chance the hero of Makai could wake...