"It's done," he says, and even he hears the tone of finality in his voice – even as Damon's heart breaks when his host's expression shatters. For a moment, nothing more; as soon as it happens, Raha hides his hurt, raises his chin stubbornly, and his face tightens with determination.

It's a vain play, as the immortal can feel his boy's heartbreak, but he doesn't point it out – as they both know the stakes. Almost. Despite it all – he couldn't bring himself to warn his host of the worst part of their task – for both – knowing it would break any hope his selfless host's heart was still clinging to.

And if he had any hope left in his millennia-old soul, it was that at the end of it all, that tiniest spark brings his precious Raha salvation he couldn't afford.

There was a price to everything in life, he learned long ago, and it was his turn to pay his due.

For Ares, for his boys, and for the ability to love.

And despite all his intellect and running countless calculations while their hosts and friends were busy implementing their plan, he kept arriving at the only possible solution – to save their star – as much as he resented it, he knew there was only one last path to take. For this new, broken world – that opposite to theirs embraced his beloved husband's soul – and for all he came to love… Damon had to die.

Using his reality-bending gift and a massive portion of the aether they brought back from Elpis, he created a spell to bring that along without sacrificing his lover's heart – and while he had to include Raha in the part of his plan, he kept the true magnitude of that to himself.

So as he leans in, he wraps his hands around his host's cat-like face and smiles with the reassurance he doesn't feel – because Raha, the hope incarnate, needs it.

"Senri…" the boy whispers and closes his eyes. "…he will be all right…?"

"He will," he says with confidence – this one thing he is sure of, their goal and expected outcome.

"All right," Raha sighs and opens his eyes – hard rubies brimming with fierce determination. "I'm ready."

And Damon smiles despite it all – again in awe that someone so brave and selfless could spring from his soul – even as his selfish heart rebels against what he has to do.

But Meteion and her sisters must be stopped for this star to survive and for all he cared about to thrive – and as his heart breaks with the price of it, he can't regret anything that led him to this point.

So he places a tender kiss on his boy's forehead and whispers a spell with a smile even as his soul weeps.

"Sleep well, Raha," he says, watching his host stagger instantly, leaning against him.

"Th… Thank you… for everything," his boy slurs sleepily as the slumber slowly claims the wonder of his soul. "Lo… ve you, Damon…" he stammers weakly, nuzzling against his chest.

"Love you too, Raha. But don't thank me yet," he chuckles wetly, embracing his limp form when he collapses. Without missing a beat, he spins multiple thick layers of his aether… his soul around him, locking and securing him so carefully even he would be unable to open it again—his only last hope of keeping his boy safe through the storm that was awaiting them outside.

He calculated it'll take time for him to break out of it, eventually. The price his host believed he had to pay. And, hopefully, he will… one day, to learn the true extent of the payment they had to offer to keep those they loved safe and happy.

Leaving the massive cocoon shimmering with white reflexes inside the space he created for his boy, Damon sighs sadly, then smoothly takes their body over.

When he opened his eyes, Damon again smiled with reassurance – this time at his husband's host – as, for once, playing the role of his boy comes easily. Involuntarily tightening his fingers around the tiny crystal hidden inside his palm – the same in function as the one Ares used to win their last bet – he watched with cold detachment as Senri's expression lit up with the smile reserved for his lover – bright and full of trust.

And his own smile didn't falter – same as his resolve – even when his heart broke again.

"We are ready," he assured Senri with a slight nod toward the immobile puppet across the room – set in front of the crystal mirror that they believed was supposed to work as the portal to the Thirteen. His clone, the puppet, was never really supposed to work, but its true goal was to buy his husband's and his host's compliance. "You can set up your trap," he added with another easy smile. He didn't care whatever Ares succeeded in securing Meteion they met back in Elpis – but wasn't above using his hope for it as a diversion to keep them as far away from him and the real portal as possible.

He knew – without a doubt and no matter the consequences – his Ares would do anything to stop him if he knew his real plan. And with his gift, he was the only one that could.

They were always a perfect match… simple as that. But what his husband didn't seem to remember was that Damon was as determined to protect him as he was… if not more. And Ares, more than anyone else, should know that in opposition to him, he had no ideals, morals, or scruples in achieving that.

He told Raha once that he would rather kill Ares than ask his eternal love to watch him die… and he didn't lie about that. But what his mortal host did not comprehend – predictably – was the loophole in that statement.

Ares was his everything – and one way or another, he owed him everything and everyone he came to care about since the moment their eyes met for the first time so very long ago… To spare him any and all suffering, he would bend the universe to protect his heart… to protect their family…

The loophole was… Ares won't suffer if he – and everyone else – don't remember that Damon ever existed in the first place. And, sadly… his host alongside him.

If everything goes how he predicted, he hoped that one day, when Raha breaks out of his cocoon, he will easily win his Warrior's heart again. As their body was, after all, truly immortal as long as Hades was alive – that now, once again, should count in millennia – he found comfort in that idea.

And one day, perhaps, his boy would forgive him for being the only one bound to remember him…

There was only one way to make Meteion and her sisters come at him bearing her all: show her his power, skill, and the hole in his armor against her. Not Raha's, as he swore – a promise he more than intended to keep forming his cocoon – to keep his soul safe.

No, not his, but Damon's own last, deepest insecurity. The only thought that ever and always brought despair to knock at his mind. And by doing that, let them feast on it, breaking his mind and setting off the last part of his spell: their complete destruction alongside gathered by them dynamis.

"Are you sure it'll go well, Raha?" Senri asked hesitantly, wrapping his hands around his cheeks, and even in its cat-like version, Ares's beauty in him made Damon's heart ache as he wrapped his hands around his wrists and nodded with the conviction of his goal.

"Damon's more than sure," he said quietly and saw the hint of relief in the boy's ice-blue irises when he leaned in and kissed him – a fiery, deep thing full of hope for the future. And he returned it with a fervor no less than his boy would, in thought, saying his last goodbye to his lover inside the tall Seeker.

"See you on the other side," Senri purred teasingly afterward, resting his forehead against his and closing his eyes. And pushing back his heartbreak, Damon chuckled and petted the boy's hair soothingly, chasing away any worry he might have still harbored.

"See you later, Snark," he said, hoping it wasn't a lie: for Raha.

The Warrior grinned, then pressed last, fond kiss on his cheek and headed out of the Tower's Ocular, leaving him alone.

Making sure to think only of their goal, he, for the last time, checked the cocoon around his boy's soul – almost nervously adding a few more layers of aether to the shield around it – then, with a somewhat wry smile, snapped his fingers, making the puppet dissolve. Taking its place between the mirror – the portal – and the edge of created for him tunnel leading from the edge of Hades's barrier to this spot – both ends carefully sealed for now – he carefully thought of nothing, waiting.

Making sure none other accompanied him was a gamble – sparking the glint of suspicion in Senri's pale eyes – but similar to their hosts' friends and their family, the boy trusted by now his – Damon's – judgment and will to survive… for Ares.

It was part of his plan, too…

He didn't flinch when the linkpearl at his host's ear beeped, but with the calm hand picked up, with another almost absentmindedly opening the portal behind him.

"Ready," Senri's deep voice sounded steady and confident, making him smile involuntarily.

"I hear you feel sure that it'll work, Ares?" he said, closing his eyes for a moment as his heart stuttered helplessly.

"Perhaps not sure… but hopeful," his husband chuckled sheepishly. "Think especially you can appreciate that, Raha."

"I do," he replied smoothly. "Damon says that setting up a net using your gift at the other end… is ingenious," he said honestly, though in Raha's gentler, sweeter tone. "I do hope you can save her," he added, opening his eyes and looking up toward the ceiling of the round room. "Take care and see you… when it's over," he lied, finally letting the scorching heat of tears slip.

"See you soon, boy," Ares said and ended the connection…. And for a moment, everything he wished for was to be able to say goodbye….

Instead, he wiped his face and steeled his resolve, took a deep, steadying breath, and exhaled slowly, then, with a mere thought, unsealed the tunnel.

Predictably, too wary – they didn't react at first… so he smiled wryly again, then cleared his throat and whispered the word to set off his finished spell – the most complicated and powerful he had ever created – into motion.

"Break," he barely breathed in their native tongue while focusing on the question that haunted him since he gave in and submitted his heart and soul to the dark-haired immortal of uncanny beauty and sky-blue eyes.

The question he guarded securely since taking over the care of the barrier – and the moment she started to bash against it…

What if they never met…?

The hit was fierce and instant – full of fury at his earlier interventions and glee at the crack in his shield – and he grinned, despite it all as he stepped back and let the portal claim him while his spell erased all memory and evidence of his existence… including his eternal bond.

Unnoticeable to all, changing and falsifying memories of all that ever knew him… Damon ceased to be.

Damon is bored.

Unbearable, excruciating, and mind-numbing boredom is a bane of his existence – and some days, he almost hopes it would finally drive him mad enough to end it.

The world or himself – he never can decide what he would prefer.

He is brilliant, and he and all around him knows it. A true prodigy with a reality-bending gift to boot – a few takes more interest or awe than him and his intelligence.

His thoughts seems to run far ahead of everyone else, and sometimes he feels like he almost knows the future, he is so rarely wrong in his predictions. What is going to happen, or how is someone going to react… And all of that only works to infuriate him with constant boredom.

At mere thousand years old – some days he just wonders if it is some twisted joke of the gods – as his existence leads to nothing more than an unending litany of questions from his peers that are so unbearably below the level of his intellectual prowess, he half the time thinks they are mocking him.

Some other days – better ones – he wishes for something – anything – to surprise him.

He muses that – as he tends to do – when his babbling companion wraps her hands around his arm as they stroll across the square near the Bureau of the Architect. He only agreed to leave his office briefly on her request, of half a mind, to add her to the list of his current lovers. Beautiful, with a dark-brown hair and green eyes, she isn't any more interesting than any of the others… but well, customs. And his body – as annoying as he found it – demands its needs occasionally.

He stills for a moment – for some reason, his cyan eyes are drawn to the other side of the square as if expecting to see something… someone… then the woman holding onto his arm tugs him along, and he blinks, frowning as he shakes himself up and smiles politely at her obvious scoff with his distraction. For that alone – so painfully predictable – he sets his mind and excuses himself, then heads back to his office and studies – soon forgetting about her… and his momentary distraction.

Day pass, then a week, month, and a year…. Centuries and millennia run along unchanged and so predictable some days, he feels like fate decided to mock his life when it seems like each day is exactly the same as the previous one.

He acts the part he's been bred to be – and only sometimes feels almost like something is missing…

…until he snaps, millennia down the road and so painfully lonely… it makes the decision for him.

Him or the world…

…and he chooses both.

From the back of their shared head, T'senri watched his immortal close their hand around the tiny, blue crystal, looking at it with consideration before Ares sighed and carefully stuffed it inside his pocket.

Not going to try to restore her, yet? He asked with confusion.

"Later," his immortal replied, then looked down at the mind-blowing sight of the surface of the Source. Hovering high, high above it – not the first time T'senri was thankful that their body didn't need to breathe – thanks to the Kojin's blessing or the immortality… he wasn't sure. "First, we should check if it worked."

Okay, he replied in agreement and felt a slight jolt when Ares teleported back into the round room inside the Crystal Tower. Risky as their plans were, he shared in his immortal's obvious relief to see the luminous portal open and no sign of Meteion's sisters.

"Close," Ares said toward the door to Thirteen using his gift, and the portal's surface shimmered then its light went out. "So far, so good," he sighed, then frowned, looking around. "Hades?"

Familiar sounds sounded behind them, and T'senri almost snickered involuntarily when for some reason, it made Ares flinch while he still seemed to look around the room of crystal walls as if looking for something.

"You called?" his younger brother drawled hauntingly, pointedly raising his white eyebrows when the older immortal in the Warrior's skin turned toward him with a sheepish chuckle and waved his hand toward the closed portal. "It's done, then?"

"It would seem so…" Ares frowned, then looked around the room again, strangely distracted. "Hades… doesn't it feel like something is off…?" he hummed, almost nervously running his fingers through their hair.

"What do you mean?" the golden-eyed immortal scowled, following his gaze and looking around before he shrugged slightly. "So far, all seems well… and like it went according to your plan, brother."

"It does…" Ares hummed, stopping and tightening his hand into a fist in the ink-black hair before he shook himself up and exhaled slowly, dropping his arms around his sides and looking at his younger brother again, nodding toward the portal. "You mind checking?"

"As you wish," Hades sighed with resignation, then disappeared in the familiar cloud of purple-black aether.

What's wrong? T'senri asked carefully. You seem… out of sorts, Ares.

"I… don't know," his immortal rolled his shoulders, then rubbed his neck and shook up again. "I should be happy it worked… if it did, I mean… but I can't help but feel somewhat... off."

The too-familiar sound again made him flinch and turn his too-bright, sky-blue eyes toward his brother as he raised his dark eyebrows.

"It did seem to work," Hades sighed, wrapping his arms over his chest. "Thirteen is no more. Though, it looks a bit different than I expected," he admitted.

"How so?" his older brother asked with another frown, still rubbing his neck… seemingly more than a bit antsy.

"It's hard to see through all debris… but it looks like everything kind of… imploded…?" Hades hummed as if unsure, raising his hand to scratch his chin… in a strangely familiar gesture that had both Ares and T'senri gaping at him, and if he didn't understand earlier, now he as well felt kind of… almost itchy. Something felt off… but as he tried to figure it out, the sensation quickly melted away.

Ares blinked slowly toward the closed portal again, visibly calming as well, before he cleared his throat and sighed, heading toward the door leading out of the Ocular.

"It's… ah, let's go," he said calmly, motioning for his brother to follow. "Have to tell the others."

"Coming…" Hades replied with distraction, and when his immortal looked back at him, the golden eyes were narrowed toward the closed portal… but he swiftly shook himself up and followed him out, leaving the room empty and silent.