There will either be two more chapters after this one, or three, depending on how things get broken up. Though those ones will be another week or so out, as I am still finishing writing and editing those. Once again, I thank anyone that reads this (and even if no one does, I'm just happy to have finally finished a fanfic that I started 18 years ago. Oh god...time is scary.)
The silence that had settled over the battleground was deafening as every pair of able eyes focused on Cole, still surrounded in that web of blue light. He looked as shocked as everyone else, however, staring down at his hands like they suddenly belonged to someone else. It was Masaya who broke the silence, words deadly calm and even.
"What the hell is this? What are you playing at?"
Cole looked at the man, his face clear in its confusion; he had no clue, no idea where the light had come from, or even how he had accessed it.
"I don't…I don't know…"
Ichigo wanted to rush out to Cole, bring the boy back to safety so that they could regroup. As she turned to Kish to ask if he was capable of helping to do just that, she saw his expression and stopped short.
"Kish, what is it? What's wrong?"
His gold eyes were wide, focused on Cole intently, not answering Ichigo. She was worried and shook his arm, but Kish remained firm. Only after a moment did he speak, voice so quiet that Ichigo strained to hear the words.
"It's alien."
"What? What is? What are you talking about?"
"His power, it's…alien. And not just that, but it's…"
His words trailed off but Ichigo felt like her world had been thrown out of orbit. Cole, using an alien power? But how? It wasn't possible…unless he was an alien himself.
"No, it can't be…"
Ichigo, for a moment, wondered if her thoughts had slid from her lips, but after a beat, the Mew realised that the words had come from Masaya. The calm on his face had given way to wide eyed shock. He took a stumbling step back away from the boy.
"That…that's not possible. That's my power!"
Cole looked up at the madman, his brows furrowing as he clenched his hands into fists.
"What the hell do you mean your power?"
Masaya gazed at the boy in disbelief but slowly seemed to regain his composure as he pieced things together in his mind.
"I mean it's my power. Power that has been passed down to my son."
"Your son!?"
Kish's incredulous voice pierced the air, and everyone else looked dumbstruck, none more so than Ichigo. She took a few tentative steps out from behind the concrete barrier towards Masaya, unsure of which emotion in the maelstrom swirling in her chest she truly felt. In the end, she settled on anger.
"Your son? Your son!? So you are allowed to cheat with no repercussions, but when I cheat it is punishable by death!?"
Her voice bordered on hysterical, but her mind was suddenly assailed with images from the night she had run away from Masaya's abuse. She had known, back then, that her husband had been cheating because she had found a long strand of brunette hair on his clothes…
The same shade of brunette that adorned Cole's head.
"Wait a second, hold on, you're lying! My parents died in a car crash when I was thirteen," Cole snapped, finally breaking from his stunned stupor.
"I wish I was lying, but I can see the truth now. You're my son. I can sense it in your power, and see it in your looks. I don't know how I didn't see it before. You look so much like that woman that it makes me sick," Masaya sneered, looking down at Cole, an icy hatred in his eyes.
"No! My mother and father died in a car crash…you're just trying to get inside my head," Cole hissed, shaking his head. But Masaya only growled, his voice carrying across the area.
"No, you are as alien as I am, as your damned mother was. And you were a mistake that was never meant to happen, that should have never been born."
The words made Cole flinch and he looked, for a moment, like someone had punched all the air from his lungs before he replied, voice quiet but flat.
"What do you mean?"
Masaya sneered and his silence made it seem that the question would go unanswered. But after a few moments, the madman sighed and responded.
"Your mother's name was Sena, and we met under accidental circumstances. After the battles between the aliens and the Mews years prior, rifts popped up all over Tokyo that led to the alien's homeworld due to their countless times teleporting between. As I was on my way to work one day, I took a path that I didn't normally take and stumbled into one of these rifts.
"I was ripped from earth to the alien world with no warning and found myself dumped in front of a small hut like house with no other settlements in sight. It was there that I met her. She was as shocked to see me as I was to see her, but she took me in and let me rest at her home. Her kindness was only outshone by her beauty, and I found myself instantly drawn to her, attracted to her. It was only sweetened and intoxicating, the thought of allowing myself to spend time with her when I had a wife at home. I remained for the day before I left, vowing to return to her soon. And thus, I began my double life.
"I told her about myself, save for the fact that I had a wife, and she told me about her own life and her world, how they were healing thanks to the Mew Aqua they had been given. She told me of her husband, who had perished in an accident years prior and how she had been alone since his death. It was intriguing in part, but ultimately droll in the long run. But in her loneliness grew a desperation. All she wanted was someone to talk to and when she had that, she gave me everything I wanted from her. That was, until she began to demand more.
"She should have just been content with having the life I gave her; sex, attention, company. But no, she wanted more. She wanted me to stay with her, marry her, start a family with her. Her demands grew more and more insistent over the months, and so I had to put her in her place."
The casual words, the nonchalance at the mention of abuse made Ichigo flinch, a sickening feeling settling over her. She unconsciously wrapped her arms around herself as Masaya continued his story.
"I started distancing myself from her as she grew increasingly more needy. Even hitting her didn't seem to dissuade her desire to have me stay with her. So after a point, I stopped going to see her for a few months, trying to show her that what she wanted would never be. Upon returning after that time, imagine my shock to find her pregnant."
Masaya clicked his tongue as he looked away for a moment, anger burning in his eyes before he turned his attentions back to Cole, pointing his sword at the boy.
"She was too far along, nearly ready to give birth to you. But I didn't want you, and she had outlived her usefulness. However she persisted, kept begging me to move to earth with me where we could have our family together. I kept denying her, beating her down at every turn. It was a few days after you were born that she told me she had been looking through to earth, trying to find a place that she could come to so that we could be together. It was the last straw.
"I could only see red at her impudence, for daring to defy me when I had told her how things were going to be. So I beat her with all my might until she stopped moving."
Masaya dropped his sword to his side, a sickening smirk rising to his lips as he saw the rage on the boy's face before him.
"I thought about killing you, too. It would have been easy enough. But when I saw that she was alive, only barely, I decided that I wanted her last memories to be of you crying, knowing that once she died, you would too, suffering slowly. However, I must have underestimated just how much life she had left in her, how much fight, to have teleported you to safety before she died."
That smirk slid from Masaya's face as a deadly calm shifted to replace it.
"Leaving you alive was a mistake on my part. One I won't repeat, trust me."
He was still for a moment before he raised his sword, crackling dark energy radiating from the blade. But before he could swing the attack down on Cole, Masaya was interrupted as a bolt of light blasted out, crashing to the ground at his feet. He jumped back, swearing as he looked to the source of the attack. His eyes widened as they fell upon Matsuru, her weapon raised, chest rising and falling in rapid, shallow breaths.
"You dare to attack me? To protect him!? He doesn't love you!"
Matsuru was torn, her body trembling, her eyes darting between Masaya and Cole. After a few tense moments of stillness, she gritted her teeth, squeezing her dark eyes closed as she shot another blast of energy in Masaya's direction.
Much like the previous attack, Masaya dodged it with ease, but the rage that spilled across his face was wild, feral. His lips curled back from his teeth as he snarled at the girl before him.
"You bitch! You will pay for what you've done. I will gut you!"
He raised his sword only to be met with Mint and Sakura suddenly standing before him, their weapons raised to hold back his attack.
"We can keep him busy, but you need to go to Matsuru," Mint called out to Cole. "You are the only one that can reach her. You are the only one that can bring her home!"
Cole was frozen, conflicted as he looked to Matsuru for a moment before turning to look at Ichigo. The woman stared at the boy, a myriad of emotions seeming to pass through her eyes before she gave him a firm nod.
With her silent blessing, Cole turned back to Matsuru, his shoulders set as his shield seemed to brighten. He took slow, cautious steps toward the girl he loved, concentrating on keeping that web of blue light surrounding him. As he moved, Matsuru snapped her gaze toward him, looking absolutely terrified.
"D-Don't come any nearer!"
While she became distracted by Cole, Masaya tried to swing an arc of dark energy past the Mews at her, but the two women worked in tandem to block the attack. Realising that he would have to destroy them to get to the source of his rage, Masaya growled and began to fight them in earnest.
The sounds of the fighting strayed Matsuru's attention for a moment, but when she caught the movement of Cole from the corner of her eye, she attacked him through blind panic.
"No! S-Stay back!"
The attack slammed into Cole's shield, crackling around it as he gritted his teeth, the force of it sliding him back a few inches. However, he regained his footing quickly, moving forward once more. As Matsuru realised he wouldn't be deterred, she went wild, shooting attack after attack at him.
The boy's breathing was ragged as he weathered each attack slamming into his shield. It drained so much energy from him, maintaining it, but Cole knew that if he didn't keep moving forward, Matsuru would fall out of his reach forever.
"Please, Matsuru, look at me! Don't be afraid of me, I am not here to hurt you!"
As he drew nearer, Cole could see the tears rolling down Matsuru's face as her shaking hands held her weapon before her. She shook her head roughly at the words, her responding voice cracking.
"You will hurt me! Everyone does!"
"That's not true!"
"Yes it is!"
As her scream pierced the air, her attacks grew in intensity, causing Cole to cry out, doubling over as they slammed into his shield. The light flickered for a brief moment as blood trickled from the side of his mouth in a thin thread. Cole wiped it away roughly before standing firm once again, pushing forward.
"No, it isn't! You so easily believe the lie, but you close yourself off to the truth. Enough is enough, Matsuru! Open your eyes!"
Cole pressed onward, steps slow as he withstood each attack. Every hit that struck the shield around him made him falter for a moment, but only a moment before he kept moving, closer to Matsuru.
As he climbed the pile of rubble that she stood atop, the young girl shook her head, squeezing her eyes closed. Power blossomed from her weapon, blasting in a continuous dark beam at Cole's shield. The force once more pushed him back, but he was close, so close. Refusing to give up, he tried to bridge the gap between them.
"I am not going to go anywhere! I am going to keep fighting until my last breath for you, Matsuru!"
Cole's voice raised, trying to be heard over the unending attack, forcing his way forward. His hair whipped around his face from the force of Matsuru's attack. But she only shook her head once again, her lips moving in a frantic, continuous stream of words.
"No no no no no, you'll hurt me! I'll be all alone, alone, alone!"
"Matsuru-"
"No!"
"Matsuru, look at-"
"No, no no no!"
"Look at me!"
Cole's shout seemed to finally break her state of panic, causing her to lift her head with wide eyes, directly focused on the boy no more than an arm's reach away in front of her.
In a beat, the attack flowing from the end of her weapon sputtered and died out, the force behind it dissipating with it. Cole paused, hesitating a moment before he lowered his shield, risking everything as he stepped in front of Matsuru. She kept her eyes trained on him, wide and scared as her hands shook.
"Wh-what are you doi-"
Her words were cut off as Cole's hands lifted to cup her face gently, leaning forward as he cut off any further words with a firm kiss. Her eyes remained wide, but she didn't pull away. After a moment, Cole broke the kiss, pulling back, his chest rising and falling rapidly. He paused only a beat longer to wipe a stray tear from Matsuru's face before he leaned in to kiss her again.
The young Mew's dark eyes were still filled with shock, as if the second kiss was as unbelievable as the first. But like the first time, she didn't pull away, despite Cole's grip on her face being light enough that she could if she so chose. Hope sparked in Cole's chest as he tried to express every ounce of love that he felt for Matsuru through his actions.
When he pulled away a second time, he couldn't help the way his heart leapt when he saw the newly returned gold of Matsuru's eyes. Those eyes looked over every inch of his face, her entire form trembling before her lips parted.
"Cole…"
He smiled at the name, watching her for a moment before leaning close, resting his forehead against hers.
"My Matsuru."
Cole breathed the words gently, thumbs moving to slowly brush the remaining tears on the girl's face away before his smile brightened.
"I finally reached you…"
Matsuru blinked a few times, as if finally clearing her mind of the dark, oppressive fog that it had been smothered in. When she spoke, her words were quiet, stilted.
"Cole, you…you saved me. Even after all the things I've done, all the people I've hurt…Oh god, I attacked you!"
"It's alright, Matsuru, I'm fine and everything else we can handle in time."
"B-but I attacked you, and my mother, and the Mews! Why…why did you all stay? Why did you all keep fighting?"
Cole's smile was warm, and he pulled back a bit to be able to look at Matsuru more clearly as he replied, the words simple and plain.
"Because we love you."
It seemed to take a few moments for the words and their meaning to sink in, but when they finally reached the girl's mind, it caused a fresh wave of tears to break out, spilling from her with a choked sob. Cole wiped a few of those tears away before he pressed a chaste kiss to Matsuru's forehead.
"Let's go home," he murmured against her skin, warmth suffused into every word. Taking a step back, Cole offered a hand out to the girl he loved, ready to end the nightmare once and for all.
A sudden sickening sound rose through the air sharply, clashing with the comforting scene between the two. Something warm splattered across Matsuru's face, making her flinch. She lifted her fingers to her face, wiping at the wetness, surprised to find that they came away smeared with blood.
It didn't seem to make sense, the images and thoughts not seeming to connect. That was, until her eyes traveled down Cole's body and saw the sword protruding from his chest, blood pouring from the wound.