The Last Tale, 3rd Magik: Dream's End
Rated R



     "There will come a time when you believe everything 
      is finished. That will be the beginning."

                              -Louis L'Armour



     Almost 3 Years ago....

     Her dark-haired prince was still gone, without words or
pictures or even a phone call. After a beautiful good-bye marked
with an engagement ring and a kiss she treasured, all she could
find in her memories were the tears of her loneliness. Gone to
America to study abroad, and yet now as if he was gone forever. He
hadn't written since.
     As if he had been lost.
     "Usagi-chan?"
     She stared up into the eyes of the dark-haired shrine girl,
everything becoming nothing more than a surreal nightmare in her
mind. Emotions were growing distant and numb, just another memory
she wanted to forget. Forget about her lost prince, and this war
pitting Senshi against Senshi.
     "Let me tell you a story," the dark-haired shrine girl
requested.
     She made no protests, the tears still running their course
down her pale cheeks as she sought comfort in one of her truest
friends.
     "Once, perhaps even before time itself knew when it should
begin, there was a sister realm with the Earth and its moon, a
realm of dreams forever protected by the elusive clouds of the
Myst. It was, and still is, the Dreamworld. Ruled over by Helios,
its DreamMaster, this is a realm that holds kingdom after kingdom
of incredible magik and beauty, each one as different as the next,
each realm being ruled over by a dedicated raven angel sworn to
protect the dreamers inside. 
     "Yet humans in the Earthworld cannot ever remember their way
into the Dreamworld; we all are destined to dance in our beautiful
dreams, but all the wonder is doomed to be a forgotten memory in
our minds. But sometimes, just sometimes, if the dreamer's own
magic is strong enough, they will awaken inside the Dreamworld
itself. There they can walk inside their beautiful dreams, and
witness the Dreamworld's true wonder."
     The dark-haired shrine girl smiled in stroking her hair.
"We've all seen Pegasus in our childhood dreams before. Ne, Usagi-
chan, have you ever seen a raven angel?"
     She shook her head.
     "Neither have I," the dark-haired shrine girl said quietly,
staring up at the darkened skies beyond the open shoji screen. "I
don't even know if such a world even exists. A long time ago I
thought it was just a childrens' faery tale, but when we
encountered Helios and the Dead Moon Circus, I remembered that old
legend. Ever since then I've always imagined what my raven angel
might look like."
     "Do you think Mamo-chan and I might be able to find each other
there?" she abruptly asked, never moving.
     The dark-haired shrine girl paused, a sad smile on the young
woman's face. "I'm sure of it, Usagi-chan. You were destined to be
together and I don't think your love is about to end here. Please,
rest yourself. And may you dream of your Mamoru-san." 
     She let the words of a distant tale move inside her mind, stir
her heart and soul. Slowly she felt her fear, her hurt and even her
sadness be released as she embraced the mysts. Two crystal blue
eyes closed, and her body relaxed. 
     The true princess slept.


                         -THE LAST TALE-     
                     Third Magik: Dream's End


     It was raining, though what fell was not rain. Petals. Cherry
blossoms. Hundreds of pink, fragile blossoms swirling all around
her. They were the only true colour here.
     A strange, dark realm. There was no visible beginning or end,
no walls or ground or sky. There was only a darkness that was not
black, but of a deep evening blue like water in the depths of the
oceans. One solitary shaft of light emerged, and she could see
herself. The cherry blossoms became a pale white as they rained
down, decorating her long, shining blonde hair.
     She slowly turned a full circle, her body moving with swift,
graceful elegance. Her feet dangled in the darkness. There was the
sensation of being liquid, as if the air was hers to control. As if
she could hover or fly--or was already floating.
     Could such a place on earth exist?
     Or was this even reality?
     "A...dream?" she asked herself.
     The blue darkness melted away, and a horizon stretched out
before and beyond her. In the far distance were jagged peaks of
mountains, their sides a hazy grey from the light of a full moon
barely over the highest peak.
     The rays of moonlight also cast an eerie crimson glow upon the
massive Torii at the base of the mountains. Alone it stood, the
gateway between worlds. The sensation of floating faded away, and
she could feel her feet once again touching solid earth. A pathway
of ancient cobblestone led down the slope to the Torii. She chose
to follow it.
     The night skies were clear and rippling with hues of blue.
Only one solitary cloud ventured across the expanse of such a sky,
the cluster of mist sluggish if not frozen in space. And from
distant worlds in distant galaxies, a thousand stars sparkled like
grains of sand in the sunlight.
     It was still raining cherry blossoms as she settled onto the
cobblestone path, her weight shifting about to the sudden pull of
gravity. The midnight wind was cool, causing her to shiver slightly
underneath her diaphanous gown. The folds of beautiful white fabric
rustled in the breeze, and her long blonde hair billowed out behind
her shoulders.
     "What is this place?" she whispered.
     Was this of the Dreamworld? This seemed to move beyond the
borders of awake and asleep; she felt as if she had crossed through
the boundaries between realms, yet nothing truly of the Dreamworld.
     The cobblestones beneath her bare feet were cold, though not
harsh as she took one cautious step down the pathway. She took
another, clutching the collar of her white dress.
     The Torii seemed to loom before her, still bathed in an eerie
crimson glow from the moonbeams. Then appeared a silhouette, a
figure cloaked in a darkness that matched a sky without stars. 
     She froze.
     In this realm, dream or otherwise, she was not alone. Another
soul had joined her--or else had called her to join and walk down
the same cobblestone path. The figure turned, the rays of moonlight
exiling the shadows and revealing a young man. Alone he stood
beneath the Torii, the delicate petals falling around him.
     Her eyes widened. "Mamo-chan?" she called out.
     And then she realized this was not her eternal prince. 
     He appeared only a few years older than she, his face pale yet
handsome. Strands of untameable blonde hair danced around his face,
still cloaked in shadows. His eyes pierced the darkness, an
incredible crystal blue gazing out at her. Robes of darkness flowed
around his body, a cloak of shadows gliding behind him. Yet there
was a talisman dangling from his neck. And it was silver, sparkling
the like the distant oceans when struck by rays of the moon.
     His eyes blinked. The wind seized his garments, ruffling them
in ripples and waves. Those two crystal blue eyes were unwavering
as they stared at her. Then she saw the blood running down his
face, a trickle of scarlet marking his temple and cheek.
     The cherry blossoms became water, cold and sad like the tears
a broken soul cried. Her silken white gown became damp then soaked,
clinging to her skin.
     It was the young man she found herself gazing upon.
     "Karasu!" she called out.
     He turned his head, looking away so that even his piercing
eyes were swallowed again by the darkness. Suddenly two enormous
things spread out from his back, unfolding with a dull 'thwap'. She
recoiled, stepping away as she realized they were wings. Feathers
of a dove, the colour of purified snow. And with them a fury of
feathers that scattered in the winds and the rain, swarming past
her.
     A tempest erupted, cold and harsh against her wet skin. The
gales were biting, and the feathers seemed to be attacking her. She
threw up her arms to shield her face, trying to move away. The
onslaught continued.
     A brilliant flash of lightening almost blinded her, the shaft
of pale magik erupting from the hand of the Wanderer as the Arashi
emerged. Slender and majestically crafted, the blade of the
Stormsword glowed in the rainfall.
     She could see his face all so clearly now: the shades gone,
everything within his eyes so vulnerable. The hurt. The pain. The
fury and thirst for vengeance. Then for but a single heartbeat his
lips parted, forming a single word.
     "Imoto," he whispered. 
     Sister....


     Cool winds were blowing across the city, and as a thousand
stars shone overhead so too was there an eerie reflection brought
to life by the lights of Tokyo. Here amidst these lights did he
stand, the black jacket gone to reveal a torn and bloodied shirt
once pure and white, the darkened shades over his eyes. Far below
his perch upon the lofty towers of the Tokyo City Hall he could
hear the faint sounds of cars and people.
     He glanced down at his left hand, in his palm a solitary
crystal sphere of illusion held in his grasp. The shimmer of the
city was caught on the smooth, glassy surface, yet within the orb
he could see the faint glow of the Golden Crystal.
     "Tokyo," he said quietly, its name but a delicate sound upon
his lips. 
     He turned, the city rippling and becoming a Citadel of
shimmering crystals that were opened up to display a distant ocean
he knew far too well. There was a twinkling song of the crystals,
faint and soothing to the ones who were quiet and willing to
listen. Yet he heard nothing but the winds blowing cold against his
skin, and her last whisper of his name before she had disappeared
in his arms.
     Crystal blue eyes stared out at the Sea of Silver Orchids,
watching the waves in the distance become crashing furies of
breakers at the cliffsides far below where he stood. White froth
against deep blue darkness.
     A final glance down at the crystal sphere, and then he hurled
it as far as he could into the ocean, the twinkling light dropping
into the waters and swallowed up. So many words of bitterness were
on his lips yet there was little voice left to speak them. Curses
to himself, curses to others. He looked away from the oceans, to
the quiet soul residing there with him in the Citadel.
     The Tsukino maiden was sleeping a deep and peaceful sleep,
encased in a beautiful crystal where she dreamed of a future with
her DreamMaster. It pained him to look at her, still feeling the
flickers of the Golden Crystal's magik falling deep into the ocean
within his illusion. He had failed to protect Helios, and while a
part of him wanted to wake her and send her away, far away into the
future, the other half knew the tears she would cry when he told
her of Helios' fate.
     "Rei-chan," he whispered. He could still recall that distant
memory when she had shared that kiss with him. In her own moment of
weakness she had offered herself, and he had refused. There were
times he regretted doing that, yet he knew her heart was for
another. And now both of them were gone, taken by the Scourge.
     The time guardress' words echoed in the back of his mind: "In
death there always is new life...A rebirth."
     He scowled, defiant rage in his narrowed eyes. "Future? A
future?! Damn you, Setsuna, I saw my future! I held her in my arms
as the Scourge took her from me and I was helpless to stop it!" 
     He whirled, glaring into the silent midnight. "What do you
want of me?!" he demanded. "Damn you, why did you have to take them
both?"
     As far as he knew there was no future beyond this Scourge;
He'd already seen it take so many people he loved from him. And by
the powers of any magik he could invoke, if there was no future for
him, then he will make sure there was no future for anyone--Scourge
or otherwise.
     He stiffened abruptly. "What are you doing here?" he asked,
his gaze returning to the ocean waters. 
     The shadows behind him came to life, breathing and dancing and
utter darkness becoming a thousand tiny shimmering starlights. A
cloak cut from the midnight heavens fluttered along the ground,
concealing the soul beneath its folds. Two haunting white eyes
stared out from the darkness beneath the hood draped over the
figure's head.
     A hand reached out from the folds of the cloak, pulling back
at the rim of the hood. Out from the depths of the shadows emerged
a grinning, lifeless skull. Hollow sockets stared out at the
Wanderer, who had yet to face his guest. A second hand sifted
through the robe, fingers grasping at the grey bone.
     The mask was removed.
     "This isn't like the Ancients to pop up in the middle of a
battle, Thanatos," he said. "I thought you were all council and no
action."
     "Ara, but it's also my world, Karasu. And right now it's about
to end unless someone intervenes." Thanatos answered. The skull
mask was tucked away as Thanatos' hands disappeared back into the
folds of a cloak of night. The Ancient was handsome despite a
jagged blue scar running down the right eye. Long, dark auburn hair
was released of the mask's hold, tumbling far down Thanatos' back
before being swept up in the winds.
     "The past is what makes us who we are," Thanatos said. "All
that we are, that which we do, is based on our memories and our
hopes to create better ones. Through this hope do we create our
future."
     The Wanderer's solemn eyes never wavered in gazing upon the
sleeping form the Tsukino child. "They're gone, Thanatos. Only a
handful of the Senshi are left now to stop the Scourge and its
Sandman. And I don't think any of them will slow it down in the
slightest."
     "Sometimes to see heaven you must first walk through every
last fire of hell, Karasu." The death spectre glanced over a
shoulder. "Ne, Hades?"
     And then it appeared, its head rising up from behind the cloak
upon Thanatos' back. Shimmers and shades of emerald and jade green
were upon its back as with slitted cat eyes of sapphire it stared
at the Wanderer. Twin sets of wings rose up around its body as with
an elongated neck the dragon beast hissed, snapping its jaws. Its
body was long, tapering, almost like a worm's in form. Yet its
width was no greater than that of a small house cat. The dragon
beast's neck curled towards him then back to its master, Hades
growling affectionately.
     "Whatever you have to say to me, Thanatos," he stated coldly.
"You're just wasting your time."
     "Don't be a fool!" Thanatos snapped, long hair rippling in the
winds. The outburst caught Hades by surprise, the dragon beast
recoiling and shifting its perching stance.  "Your thirst for
vengeance is the very string this Scourge uses to pull you along
like a puppet. If you continue down this path, you will become like
it: a empty and remorseless entity."
     The Wanderer turned away. "What would you know about demons,
let alone mine?"
     Thanatos approached him. "How long must you continue to fight
this battle alone, Karasu? You keep in the pain and its nightmares
only, and they are consuming your soul. If you remain like this,
it's as if you've chosen not to fight the Scourge at all!"
     "To feel those nightmares reminds me that I am still human,"
he answered. "To remind me that I still have a soul left within
this immortal body."
     Thanatos scowled. "Horrors do not always make you stronger;
they can destroy you just as easily. Unless you release your sins
of the past you will become that which you so now hate. The Scourge
will claim everything you ever valued: your friends, your world and
your dreams, and ultimately yourself." 
     Perched atop the ScytheMaster's shoulder, the dragon beast
cocked its head, snarling yet not in aggression. Hades knew no
forms of quiet purring. Thanatos extended an arm. Hades took the
cue and scuttled around the arm and onto the ledge, leaving the two
alone. The Wanderer held little doubt that the dragon beast would
entertain itself with climbing the Citadel's walls.
     "Do you remember when we first met?" he asked, letting the
cool breezes bring small comfort to his spirit. "My immortality
piqued your curiosity, and you as an Ancient managed to walk
through the Dreamworld's mysts and then back out again without any
problems."
     "I remember it well enough," Thanatos agreed. "You were not
thrilled to see me succeed where you had failed. But the past is
the past. It cannot be changed. Chronos would agree with me."
     The Wanderer scowled. "He would." 
     The ScytheMaster's two eyes widened, pale white glaring at
him. An arc of flaming blue magic cut through the ledge in between
them, forcing the Wanderer to step back. Thanatos extended a hand,
a blazing pillar of fire erupting from his palm. The fires
condensed into thick black smoke, and emerging from it to dispel
the mists was a savage pair of twin blades.
     The weapon of the ScytheMaster.
     Thanatos levelled the tip of the upper blade with the his
head, the double-edged point gently brushing against his cheek.
"This is more than just your personal vendetta, Karasu. The Scourge
is already beginning its conquest of both Dreamworld and
Earthworld...and unless you protect what you still have, then no
more dreams shall ever be danced in again."
     The Wanderer never flinched. His eyes never dared Thanatos to
wield the twin blades across his neck. His eyes never showed
sadness or regret. They were empty, cold and lifeless. As if he had
seen everything and accepted one last thread of fate.
     Thanatos drew back the scythe, the crackling blade retracting
into the pole shaft. The air grew deathly still for a few moments
longer before the wind began again. The ScytheMaster whistled for
the dragon. Hades scurried over to its master, curling around
Thanatos' arm and then getting perched upon the ScytheMaster's
back. 
     He watched in silence as Thanatos turned to leave. "If you see
Usagi," he said quietly. "Tell her I'm sorry."
     A pause. "You can tell her that yourself, Karasu. The night is
young and so is the Sandman. But you must choose now how you wish
to fight: for what is already gone, or for what still remains to
protect?" 
     The hood was pulled up, the dragon beast disappearing beneath
the folds of starry midnight. "I have made my own decision,"
Thanatos stated. "This world may no longer have a place for me, but
I am fighting for it. I left the Council...and the one person I
thought could change everything. I have made my decision, and live
or die, I will not ever regret it."
     Soon the stars upon his cloak vanished, and the cloak grew
still in becoming a true shadow once more, leaving him once more
alone. He shook his head. Fingers splayed open, he watched as a
shaft of glowing blue light emerged from his right hand. And within
the shaft of light appeared the sword. Arashi. His weapon.  For the
future....
     Brilliant crystal blue stared out at the ocean waves of the
Ocean of Silver Orchids. The midnight hour was soon approaching. He
saw his reflection in the shining blade of the Arashi, the face of
a young man who had seen a thousand years of cursed immortality.
     "Yui-chan," he whispered.


     Once it had been a great shrine, its magnificent entrance
built right into the side of the rock face. Four large Doric
columns supported the overhanging cliff from collapsing on the
front steps leading into the arched doorways of the entrance. At
the base of each column was a caryatid, each one displaying a
different female figure draped in long, flowing robes. Queens of
the Silver Moon, the first who had discovered the realms of the
raven angels, the ones who had learned the wonders and dangers of
the Dreamworld.
     Once it had been a great shrine. Once perhaps.
     Now the pale brown rocks of the surrounding mountains were
broken apart and spilled across the path. A night of serene skies
had become lost beneath a raging storm with torrents of rain that
turned dirt into rivers of mud, and lightening that tore apart the
beautiful landscape around the shrine.
     The Scourge moved underneath the arch, tendrils of darkness
travelling down through a gargantuan tunnel leading deeper into the
core of the mountain, and the heart of the shrine. Rows of torches
illuminated the path, hooked into place along the sides of the
tunnel. Later these torches became found attached to stalagmites
and stalactites as the way to the shrine wove through caverns and
antechambers.
     One by one the torches were snuffed out, the shadows ruling
all. A cold wind, possibly from a vent leading to the surface, blew
across the tunnels. This wind was not a refreshing one.     
Abruptly the stretching tunnel opened up into a cavern. Darkness
paused, a host of shadows waiting and watching from the edges.
     The chamber was a domed cavern, floors cut precisely into
platforms, risers and stairs. Almost every free space was taken up
by candles, their small flames burning together to give off the
inferno-like aura of the shrine.
     Two eyes unlike the others opened, and a figure in black robes
emerged where the rest chose not to tread. Moving up the multitude
of interconnecting staircases and risers, he made his way to the
highest level. Long silver hair fluttered at his back as he came to
the dais, surveying the platform. Candles circled the edges, and
were even inside tiny alcoves carved into the wall of the rock.
     In the centre of the dais was a pool of bubbling, frothing
water. There was a smell something like sulphur, and it was coming
from this pool. Kneeling down, he dipped his fingers into the
hotspring.
     "How dare you defile my kingdom, you bastard," a female's
voice hissed. Out from the rows of candles stepped a woman. She was
tall and slender, her eyes blazing like the fires of the candles.
Her hair was long and in waves, a bright reddish hue almost to the
point of being pure crimson. Yet that look in her eyes; he had
witnessed those eyes many times before as one who had seen things
inside the Dreamworld that others could not even fathom.
     She drew closer to him, staring directly at but acting
oblivious to his presence. Her robes were sparkling black, where
one could almost see through the fabric. The sleeves were long and
cuffless, draping around her fingers. Even the end of her dress was
long and dragging across the dais. She wore a choker around her
neck, a talisman hanging from it and a rune scrawled onto the
gemstone. It was not like an ordinary rune or a guardian angel's
rune. This was a rune of the Empress.   
     Eyes of darkness narrowed and the Sandman rose to his feet.
"Shadowdemon," he stated, meeting her gaze. "We must compliment you
on such a beautiful face you wear. Was the raven angel you killed
to get it just as beautiful?"
     She growled, a noise far from her human guise rumbling beneath
her skin. "Get the hell out of my domain. If you are so powerful,
then why is the Sandman here in the Dreamworld?"
     "We belong now in two worlds at once," he answered. "With the
Elven lord of Chaos' body, neither Dreamworld nor Earthworld is
safe. You are the next one we have chosen."
     The Sandman looked around. "We must convey our surprise in
your kingdom; this is so much like the original form, we find
ourselves questioning if you truly conquered the raven angel who
resided here."
     Suddenly the water in the hot spring turned red, and a stream
of fire exploded through the surface, stretching itself and weaving
its path around the cavern. 
     "You have come for my answer, and I have given it to you," she
snapped. A fierce wind started up, blowing incredibly warm air past
him. Her eyes became as red as the burning flames in the pool. 
     "I shall not tolerate this disturbance of my realm," the
Shadowdemon proclaimed, her voice growing louder once more. She
raised her hands high above her head and the hot spring suddenly
became a pool of fire.
     He held his ground, watching with a dark smile upon his face
as the human guise the Shadowdemon wore was torn apart, skin ripped
and incinerated from the heat. A floodwater of pulsating shadows
emerged, thrashing wildly about, jaws snapping, eyes glaring in
bristling hatred.
     Steam and mist was blowing in all directions, venting more
searing heat. The pool of fire erupted, spewing forth a massive
explosion of fire. He growled as he became swallowed in the flames.
     "Shinbone!" the Shadowdemon screamed, lunging for the Sandman.
She would never let this creature take away this kingdom from her
Empress.
     His eyes narrowed, the host of wraiths in the distant shadows
calling out for him to finish this kingdom, to make it a DarkWorld,
like so many others which had come before it this night. "Baka," he
snarled, stretching out an open hand to the Shadowdemon.
     Then, as sudden as the firestorm had erupted, it was gone.
     The Shadowdemon's eyes widened in utter disbelief as it felt
the numb pain of losing. The dark essence of what made it demon was
blown apart, shreds of night and black scattering across the air.
     She fell before the Sandman.
     Another Dreamworld was claimed. 
     A new DarkWorld was borne.


     The vast forest dwelling inside the belly of the mist was
familiar to those who danced within it, but more familiar to the
soul who guarded over them. His sight was greeted with a dim light
escaping from between the massive tangle of trees and hills around
him. This light was not from the moon; he barely saw the night sky
hidden by the heavy mist and cluster of leaves far above his head.
The very place itself seemed to possess a kindled glow unmatched by
any enchanted lantern.   
     Fleeting ghosts and memories of giggling children.
     He smiled, wintry blue eyes watching the laughing dreamers
race around his form, using his legs as a barrier to ensure they
didn't get caught by the others. The group of children played for
a while longer around him before disappearing. Two young lovers
strolled through the trees, sharing quiet whispers and tender
kisses.
     He paused, a scowl crossing his face. Not an hour ago, a
strange ripple had swept across the Dreamworld. It was not a new
DarkWorld rising up, yet while it was something different it was
very destructive. Magik had come to an abrupt and mournful end. But
where in the Earthworld did magik that potent still exist?
     Abruptly someone tugged at the long sleeves which hid his
hands. Hazel eyes stared back at him from the face of a smiling
little girl. "Tsume onii-chan," she said, smiling up at him.
     "Komban wa, Nekoi-chan," he said, bowing slightly.
     The girl beamed and started to giggle as a procession of faery
starlights swept across the clearing, swirling around her as she
tried to dance to the same rhythm as their flights. He found quiet
serenity in watching her, one of the few souls in his kingdom who
knew that she was walking amidst her dreams. Such souls as her were
rare in these times. 
     Together they walked and watched the dancing dreamers. More
often than not her hand reached up and instinctively found his,
clasping it tightly as if he were her brother. Not too long ago, he
had found her roaming his forest kingdom in awe and bewilderment.
She had seen him, and asked for his name. For the first time in
almost five hundred years, he had told someone his name. She
treasured it, and so did he.
     He slowed his pace as he heard the low thundering of large
amounts of water. The sound was a constant one, one enticing her to
venture forward and explore the mysteries it possessed. 
     "Can we go see it?" she asked.
     "What's to hold you back?" he answered her.
     She seemed to like that and took the lead. Jumping over a
decaying, moss ridden log, the child cut a new path. The sound was
growing as they neared it, the pitch rising to a frenzied
crescendo. She was infinitely curious. He knew that sound all too
well: the waterfall was reaching its peak. Finally she broke
through a tangle of vines and bushes, pushing them harshly away
with her small arms. She was met with raw and untamed natural
beauty as she had never laid eyes upon before. He still could not
get over her wonder as she gawked at the sight.
     They stood near the verge of an immense sinkhole, where on the
opposite side was a fantastic waterfall thundering down to the
rocky pool below. No trees grew around the smooth walls of the
gorge, but the grey rocks glistened with moisture from the
sweltering mass of water. There with the lights of the forest they
stood, watching a display of rugged Dreamworld majesty. 
     Her hand reached up to find his. "It's beautiful," she
whispered.
     "Hai, Nekoi-chan," he answered in the same quiet voice.
     The glow of the forest limited their view, making for a more
incredible display. The mouth of the waterfall was almost totally
engulfed by shadows, while she could only see the dim form of foam
and mist that covered the pool far below. His eyes saw more than
she knew, for as a raven angel he could see the dancing dreamers
and so much more.
     The cool breeze from the waterfall pushed past him, giving his
face a tiny splash of mist. She giggled as she felt the same wave
of water. He leaned up against a small tree trunk, content in
watching the raging waterfall. She leaned up against him, her head
snuggled against the chest of her guardian. 
     "I can only think about how perfect a place this is," he said.
"I'm glad to be sharing it with you, Nekoi-chan."
     She nodded, arms wrapped around his waist. "Can I be your
bride someday?"
     Wintry blue eyes shimmered in the pale glow of the forest's
aura. "Perhaps," he answered, smiling gently at her as his fingers
stroked her hair. The legends of a handful of raven angels had
spread far and wide across the Dreamworld. There was even a tale
now of Sora becoming the DreamSeer. If there was hope for them, for
their love, then there was hope for all, even him.
     A chilling wind swept through the forest.
     And with it came the whispers.
     He whirled, protectively clutching her in his arms as narrow
eyes of winter's blue scanned the forest. "No," he whispered. "Not
here. Not this domain too."
     Then the Elven lord chose to emerge, walking out from the
trees at a leisurely pace. Long black robes danced in the winds,
equally black eyes staring out at him.
     "M-Masaka," he gasped. 
     "Komban wa, Tsume," the Sandman said. "We have found the one
destined to be our Sandman. Your kingdom shall now become a world
of darkness like all the others before it. The dreams shall end
here."
     He took a defiant step forward, his own powers starting to
channel through his blood. Magik manifested itself and even the
rustling of trees was bearing testimony to that gathering.
Crackling green light streaked between trunks, growing in their
intensity. He could feel the child grip his garments in fear.
     "Tsume onii-chan," she whispered.
     "Nekoi," he said in a low tone. "Stay very close to me."
     The Sandman shook its head. "You act as if you possess a
chance to defeat us, raven angel. Comrades more powerful than you
have already fallen--as have enemies. The ones who found the way to
cross over are all but a memory locked within our ranks.
     His expression twisted into one of vicious rage. "Liar!" he
snapped, throwing forth his hands and unleashing his magik. A
fearsome mass of roots and vines punched through the damp earth,
entangling the Sandman within the forest itself. A cruel smile
marked the Sandman's retaliation, and with but a flash of crimson
in the Elven lord's eyes, the roots tore themselves apart and
became ash.
     "Useless," the Sandman growled, unleashing a magik that carved
a trail through the earth and shot towards him.
     "Get down!" he shouted, placing himself between the girl and
the Sandman. The grounds were torn apart as his feet, his garments
becoming tattered pieces of bloodied cloth. The attack was too much
for his own magik, and he collapsed onto the grasses.
     Lurking beyond the shadows of the trees, the Sandman could
feel the presence of the wraiths. They were calling once more. They
had found the ones who had escaped the Sanctuary.
     "At last," the Sandman stated. "Now the Wanderer shall come to
us. We have no reason to remain here any longer."
     He struggled to rise, eyes narrowed as he understood the
implications of what those words meant. His kingdom was about to
fall. No...he could not let this happen. Not when so many dreamers
depended on him to be their guardian angel.
     "Tsume onii-chan!" the little girl cried out, shaking him as
the tears started to fall. "Tsume onii-chan!"
     "Please," he whispered, his voice almost gone from his throat.
"Run, child." He could not stand against the Scourge, but if he
could just stand against it long enough for her to wake up and
escape its clutches....
     "Don't leave me," she cried, grabbing his arm and desperately
trying to drag him away. "Tsume onii-chan, don't leave me!" 
     In his own desperation he managed to rise onto hands and
knees. "Nekoi-chan," he pleaded. 
     She shook her head vehemently, throwing herself into his arms
and sobbing. "I love you, Tsume onii-chan!" Despite the blood
running down his face, he looked so beautiful to her. She wanted to
spend the rest of her life dreaming with her raven angel.
     He smiled, fingers resting beneath her cheek. "Neko--"
     The darkness within the Sandman's eyes flickered as the white
reflection of explosive magik claimed the life of the raven angel. 
     He fell to the ground, blood running down his mouth, his eyes
slowly closing in final peace. The little girl held the fallen
angel in her arms, frantically calling out his name.
     "IIE!!!" she screamed. "TSUME ONII-CHAN!!"
     Her last cry was cut short from her lips as the entire domain
erupted into a new DarkWorld. 



     The midnight hour was upon Tokyo, and this city of lights was
brilliantly in full form amidst a darkened sky and thousands of
stars. But not all of the city was ablaze with life inside the
night. There along the Shinjuku highrises, a violet glow started to
bathe a large portion of Tokyo.
     Inside one of those apartments, she slept and dreamed. She was
but a little girl, a child sleeping peacefully. Oblivious to the
dimming light of the world outside her window, she smiled as her
dream unfolded before her.
     The nightmares abruptly seized her soul.
     She screamed, hazel eyes wide in terror as she was jolted from
sleep. Then they grew dim, clouding over as the life slowly faded.
Without her beautiful dream, without a world to dream in, her soul
was gone. Stolen by a thief in the darkest of shadows.
     And there beside her bed stood a silent witness.
     The Raithe watched her beautiful dreams fade, her body growing
still yet not dead. Cold yet not frozen. Her mind and soul inside
the DarkWorld were within oblivion, a dreamless sleep she would
never awaken from so long as the Scourge existed.
     "So fragile, their souls," he said quietly, stroking her face. 
     Ever since this war had begun anew, he had watched the city
die, piece by piece. There was no mistaking the methodical way the
Scourge was moving; while it searched out the Senshi who had
escaped from the Sanctuary, it was destroying the Dreamworld
kingdoms which held people who lived in this city. The Scourge was
destroying Tokyo.
     And all to drive out the Wanderer.
     Blurry eyes of silver closed, his mind reminding him of those
final words spoken by the ScytheMaster before their parting. Paths
of destiny were always meant to be crossed, some running together
for eternity, others to bridge away after but a few moments in
time.
     'The Sanctuary...it's been destroyed!'
     Such destruction.
     So much loss.
     Magik was once again asserting itself in the Earthworld,
proving with devastating force its existence to humanity. He only
wished it could have been different, that the dream he once saw
long ago had been of something else.
     Yet it was a dream destined to become reality.
     There was nothing he could do to change it.
     'You knew this would happen, didn't you? You knew the
Sanctuary would be destroyed, and did nothing about it! What good
are you doing to this world if you merely sit by and let the
Scourge wipe everything out?'
     The eclipse was still swallowing the world up in a total
darkness, a forever night which matched that of the Dreamworld's.
His eyes opened once more, mists of grey staring out at Tokyo's
vast cityscape through the little girl's bedroom window.
     The last words Thanatos had spoken to him were in anger and
frustration. The ScytheMaster acted so much like a human at times;
under other circumstances he would have found it amusing. But he
had a duty, one that he had sworn centuries ago to keep. The dream
would only survive if he did not fight.
     'I came to you because I thought you were different from the
other Ancients. That you would take control of destiny. But I was
wrong; you are worse than them.'
     Winds pounded against the window as another part of Tokyo was
taken into the arms of oblivion, night skies lit up like the day.
Blind eyes looked back at the child in the bed, and with quiet
respect, he slid his fingers down her face and closed her eyes.
     'To hell with you, and your dreams, Raithe! I'm going to fight
the Scourge, whether or not you approve.'
     His head bowed slightly.
     And at last the Raithe spoke, an enigmatic smile appearing on
his face. "Baka. You have no idea what the repercussions of your
actions here will do. The ripples of this battle will move further
into the future than you could ever imagine."
     This battle was not over. 
     The dream was unfolding into the future he had foreseen.
     And it would be beautiful.


     Another part of the city erupted in a pillar of raging violet
light, the hues of darkness falling up the apartments, roadways,
stores and skyscrapers. The city reeled, the very foundations of
Tokyo shuddering beneath their feet. Silence reigned, even the
tempests growing deathly silent for reverence in another fallen
Dreamworld. Then came the devastation. That part of the city
erupted with a violent convulsion, coming apart at the seams.
Streets ruptured, buildings toppled, and lightening bolts raced
across the stormy skies in a frenzied parade.
     From their vantagepoint, they could witness the destruction in
all its hellish glory. The observation deck of the Tokyo Tower was
closed, lights turned off, deserted and empty. Here they found a
safe haven to regroup and recover before the Sandman chose to
return. It appeared the Sandman was busy enough in the Dreamworld.
     "Shimatta," the tall sandy blonde muttered. "Not another one
so soon. At this rate, the city and hundreds more like it will be
torn apart before the night is out."
     "The Scourge is targeting specifically the Dreamworld realms
that hold dreamers from Tokyo," the time guardress said. "It's
closing off our means of escape one by one. We need a way to seal
its powers."
     She brushed some stray bangs of shining blonde away from their
princess' face. The girl was sleeping in her lap, overcome when the
Sanctuary had witnessed the power of the young harbingers. Once
before they had come so frighteningly close to that power being
unleashed, but the odango-haired blonde had stopped it. Now Death
Reborn Revolution was reality, and she finally understood what its
true destructive power was.
     The shadows in the observation deck became flashes of violet
hues that danced along their faces and bodies. Looking up, she
could see another piece of Tokyo torn apart by the magik connecting
it to the Dreamworld.
     "We had better do that fast," the tall, sandy-blonde said,
grimacing as the flare of violet light exploded in the backdrop of
the dark skyscrapers. "The Scourge is levelling everything out
there." The woman turned. "Or is this because of what Okami did in
the Sanctuary?"
     She shook her head, stroking the face of the odango-haired
blonde in way that seemed so motherly. She could recall the time
they had raised Hotaru, their young harbinger, up from an infant.
The maternal instinct in her had grown despite knowing that,
because of her relationship with the tall sandy-blonde, there were
certain restrictions. But the young harbinger was gone, and so too
was a part of her.
     "The Sanctuary was a special realm between the Earthworld and
the Dreamworld," she countered. "It was designed to be hidden from
both yet connected at the same time. Even at full power, I doubt
that attack would have made very little impact in either place."
     They were lucky enough as it was that the Scourge had fled in
that heartbeat of dead silence, and gave the time guardress a
chance to open a gateway. She was uncertain if the Wanderer had
made it out; she had not seen any traces of him since those suited
men had first attacked. Mentions of his name, yes, but he had yet
to appear.
     "But nothing could have survived inside," the tall sandy-
blonde said quietly. "How many creatures of magik did Sorata manage
to save before it ended?"
     The time guardress stared out at the sprawling city of Tokyo
before returning to look at the tyger cub being cradled in the
sleeping princess' arms. 
     "Only one," the time guardress said in a hushed voice. "The
Scourge trapped them all inside with us, and sealed their fate with
Hotaru's Silence Glaive. Hundreds of living, breathing creatures of
magik never had the chance. They were all lost with the Sanctuary."
     Her eyes lowered to the ground, the severity of those words
almost numb to her. She had faced such horror before, yet at that
time it had been for the tall, sandy-blonde. Talismans hidden deep
within their pure hearts would have left them both dead had the
time guardress not intervened and saved them. She had been ready
for such a sacrifice then; was this to be the same again?
     "Why hasn't the Scourge attacked Earth yet?" the tall, sandy-
blonde inquired. "I was under the impression it could come after
Earth once it found someone to become its Sandman."
     "The Scourge itself can only exist in our dreams to destroy
the Dreamworld," the time guardress answered. "Yet with its human
bond to the Sandman, its powers can also begin to destroy Earth.
The Scourge remains in the Dreamworld. The Sandman is given the
power to cross over at will. Two battles with one enemy that
neither yields nor sleeps."
     Another distant flash of frenzied violet rays bathed the skies
and their shadows. Distant rumbles and perhaps distant screams
echoed from outside the rattling windows. They all stared out at
Tokyo, brooding over what had already happened and what was yet to
come.
     "This will change the course of all our futures," the time
guardress said quietly. "The revolution has begun."
     "Setsuna," she asked, staring out the window at the city of
lights. The odango-haired blonde stirred in her arms. "Is this the
revolution that will usher in Crystal Tokyo?"
     A long pause, and finally a response. "I don't know, Michiru.
This might be the first of a chain reaction, or a final link. Time
becomes clouded here. All I know is that we are facing now shall
never have anything like it ever again. Not the Dead Moon, not
Deathbusters, not Beryl and not even Galaxia."
     She looked down to the sleeping form of the odango-haired
blonde. Their ethereal princess, so innocent as the girl slept in
her lap. What dreams was the young woman dreaming? At least the
odango-haired blonde didn't have to witness the slow fall of their
city.
     Winds shifted where no winds should have existed. The
observation deck seemed to grow darker despite the spectacular
display of lights shining through enormous windows. The tall sandy-
blonde and the time guardress both turned sharply, drawing their
own respective weapons.
     Her eyes narrowed, long bangs of aqua-green hair by her cheeks
as she leaned over to stroke the odango-haired blonde's face one
last time. Then gently she slid the girl's head off her lap,
resting it on the floor. Their princess stirred, curling up into a
tighter ball and clutching the slumbering form of the black tyger
cub.
     She didn't need her Aqua Mirror to understand what this aura
was she felt. Slowly she stood alongside her fellow soldiers, ready
to face what could very well be her final battle. 
     "You what I'll regret most about this?" the tall sandy-blonde
inquired.
     She smiled playfully. "Na ni?"
     "We won't be able to finish this life in bed tonight." A
wicked grin from the tall, sandy-blonde, yet within the woman's
eyes she could see true regret.
     "Ara, you're such a tease, Haruka," she said.
     "It's here," the time guardress stated, taking a defensive
stance while gripping the key-shaped staff of time.
     He emerged from the shadow of a metal beam, mysts of the
Dreamworld flowing out at his footsteps. Long, silken black robes
fluttered around his form as two eyes of lifeless darkness stared
out at them. "We have come," the Sandman stated. 


     She was dreaming again.
     Yet this time there was no strange vision of her brother
beneath the crimson Torii. In that moment she had thought him to be
her dark-haired prince, her beloved guardian and protector.
Darkness swarmed all around her, and she was unable to tell if she
was truly walking or just floating in the air. Cherry blossoms
danced in a majestic rainfall around her, pale pink against her
shining blonde hair.
     "Hello?" she called out.
     The cherry blossoms were no more, the last petals falling onto
the ground and fading like a distant dream. Shadows of nothingness
pulled away to reveal a stone cavern illuminated by enchanted
lanterns that burned with eerie blue auras. Pillars with inscribed
runes of the ancient powers were scattered across an enormous
atrium, the very height becoming a glass dome that stared up at a
full moon in total eclipse. Fountains and waterfalls flowed around
every corner, carved into the rock walls and floors, emptying into
pools that were carved into the ground near her feet.
     The echoes of her footsteps were chillingly loud, vibrating
off each individual stone despite the moving waters. Her long
blonde hair drifted in the air at her back, hands clutching at her
breasts to feel her heart pounding from within. Her sailor fuku
that marked her as a soldier was gone. She was wearing her high
school uniform, now just as ordinary as any other girl. 
     Crystal blue eyes came to rest upon his figure. There he was,
torn away from her grasp but now here with her once again. Was this
reality, or just her own beautiful dream?
     "Mamo-chan," she whispered.
     He sat leisurely upon a highback throne, one arm draped over
an armrest and one leg draped over the other. With a curious,
enigmatic smile he continued to watch her with closed eyes. Magik
knew not a handicap such as blindness. It saw beyond what the eyes
could simply see. And with magik he had watched her slowly lead a
procession of one up to his throne.
     Yet he was not her dark-haired prince.
     A marking burned itself onto the back of his hand, flickering
in a crimson glow before disappearing once more in the same abrupt
manner as it had appeared. The dark-haired prince's eyes opened.
And they were beautiful, dark and dangerous. "Come closer, Usagi-
chan," he said, motioning to her with his fingers. 
     She approached, hesitant at first, but her feet moved with a
will of their own. It was him, her dark-haired prince. Yet she
could not only see within his eyes but feel in his presence
something that was not her beloved.
     "You are not him," she said, delicate hands balling up into
fists. "You are not my Mamo-chan."
     She had played this game before with the Shadowqueen, and
almost lost had her own will and the illusions of the Wanderer not
pulled her through. Then it had been dreams upon fantasies upon
dreams, reality being lost with the turn of her head. Yet she had
seen how twisted the memories she treasured so much could become.
It was her heart that she walked with, not her eyes.
     He smiled, a cruel taunt in the way his lips curled up. "Very
true. But who else can be here for you, Serenity-hime? So many were
lost inside the Sanctuary. Your closest friends and their lovers
were all taken into our fold. They are here with us now, even as we
speak."
     With a gesture from his hand, the waterfalls parted to reveal
four silhouettes. Each one in turn stepped out into the light,
their sailor fukus now elegant gowns that could have only come from
a life once lived upon the moon centuries ago. The dark-haired
shrine girl, the blue-haired genius and the long-haired blonde were
all standing to be counted among the ranks of the Scourge. All were
smiling darkly under the Sandman's domination. The tall brunette
was among their ranks, brandishing a small whip in hand.
     They were the faces of her friends. But their eyes: their eyes
were as empty and soulless as the Elven lord's or her prince's
eyes. No spark of life, no vibrancy to pursue their dreams and
hopes.    
     She felt herself cringe as the tall brunette's icy gaze met
with hers. "Rei-chan," she whispered hoarsely. "Ami-chan. Mako-
chan. Minako-chan...." 
     Her dark-haired prince laughed. "Ara ara, what are we to do
with our little princess of the White Moon?"
     The tall brunette stepped forward, brandishing the whip.
     "Mako-chan!" she pleaded with tall brunette. 
     She cried out in pain as the whip struck against her cheek,
drawing blood. A roar of laughter and applause sounded from the
depths of the chamber, from faces unseen, as she fell to the floor,
her trembling eyes lifting up to her once close friend. Rising to
her feet she raced towards them, only to be held back.
     "Mako-chan!" she exclaimed, frantically struggling against the
blue haired genius and long-haired blonde's grips. "Please, no!
This isn't you! Mako-chan! Minna!"
     "Urusei!" the dark-haired shrine girl snapped, delivering a
swift, hard punch into her chest. She gasped, doubling over as her
knees gave way. The two former Senshi made sure she never had a
chance to rest upon the floor.
     "Rei-chan," she gasped, her voice weak from not only the blow
but this entire nightmare. 
     "Helios belongs to us," he said leisurely, motioning to the
Senshi. They retreated, leaving her there before his throne. "Your
brother watched us take him, standing there as helpless as a baby
as we claimed him for our own. Yet his Golden Crystal is with the
Wanderer."
     Crystal blue eyes widened as she slowly lifted her head to
stare in disbelief at her dark-haired prince. A cold and cruel gaze
told her the truth, and in those eyes of the young man she once
loved, she could see the DreamMaster being slowly pulled down into
the earth amidst a tangle of enormous thorns.
     "Iie," she said. "Iie. Why are you so cruel to me, to all of
us? Why are you hurting something so beautiful as our dreams, as
our love?"
     His face danced in lights of crimson hue, the mark upon his
hand glowing once more. Winds were stirring all around the throne
room, the growing howls of the gales becoming the only sound as his
female servants remained silent in anticipation. He stared at the
growing wormhole as the gales became thick like tempered glass,
frosted in blue and churning like the torrents of a raging rapid.
They converged, smashing together to form a limpid pool, a small
orb of water bouncing up from the splash. Yet instead of crashing
back into the waters below, the bead floated into his hand, turning
to fine crystal glass.
     The crystal flickered, and the pool of water before him
glittered with violet shades. The water melted away and there
before him was a clear mirror to display three lone Sailor Senshi
standing before the Sandman.
     "Uranus!" she exclaimed. "Neptune! Pluto!" And then she saw
herself, a young odango-haired blonde girl curled up in a peaceful
sleep with a tyger cub as they fought to protect her.
     Why was this happening? Why?
     He smiled, cruel lips rising up to inflict more pain upon her
fragile heart. "These younger ones are so innocent, so beautiful,"
he said, gesturing to her friends. "They shall make wonderful
servants for us. Would you like us to show you how we wish to see
these Outer Senshi exist before eternity?"
     She stepped back as four large, thin artefacts pushed out from
the waters, emerging from the violet surface with a magik all their
own. She felt her entire chest tighten up, constricting her breath.
"Iie...." she whispered, her fingers gently touching her lips.
     There they stood: Kaio Michiru, Tenou Haruka, Meio Setsuna,
Tomoe Hotaru. All four of the Outer Senshi were there inside the
mirrors, each one with closed eyes and a passive face as if they
were caught in a warm dream just before they were stolen into the
mirrors. Beneath the surface of what might have been glass was in
fact a realm all unto itself.
     Michiru's mirror was deep ocean blue, the sleeping form of the
Neptune princess caught up in a delicate sea of bubbles that
wrapped around a graceful form. Strange how even in such a sleeping
death, the aqua-haired woman seemed more elegant than ever before.
     Haruka was encased in a beautiful mirror coffin of rolling
clouds and starry heavens. The tall sandy-blonde's arms were
reaching out, and if her mirror and Michiru's mirror were put side
by side, one could have seen how much they were straining to be
together.
     Setsuna seemed the most peaceful of all, forehead gently
pressed against the jewel atop a key-shaped staff. Silver sands
that seemed to catch the rays of an equally silver moonlight
swirled around the time guardress' flowing, dark hair.
     Hotaru's pale face was given eerie light by the Aurora
Borealis ripping inside her mirror. The young harbinger's arms were
crossed over her chest as if the girl was trying to wrap herself up
in one last memory of Earth before the mirror had taken the
Darkqueen of the Mystwolves. 
     She felt her legs grow weak as she stared at the fate of the
four Outer Senshi. Everyone who was trying to carry on the fight
was falling. The vicious laughter of her friends, once her fellow
soldiers, reached her ears.   
     "This is just a dream," she chanted to herself, fighting back
the tears. "This is not real. We haven't lost yet. I refuse to lose
this battle. We can still fight to protect Earth and the
Dreamworld."
     The laughter grew in multitudes and suddenly she could see a
ghostly reflection of a host of wraiths, each one looking down at
her crouched form, each one watching her pain. The laughter began
to fade one voice at a time, until only a young girl's giggling
could be heard. 
     She looked, and found her dark-haired prince and the throne
room gone. Her friends had disappeared, the waters and stone
chambers all but a figment from someone's mind. Now she was
standing amidst a darkness that she might as well have been
floating in. A circle of blue light was at her feet, rippling like
the waters of a gentle lake. Cherry blossoms were raining down once
more, so many of the delicate petals getting caught up in her
shining blonde hair.
     A girl was standing across from her in this expansive
darkness. Tresses of long, dirty-blonde hair cascaded down around
the girl's face. Such beautiful blue eyes. She knew those eyes. She
had seen this girl before in dreams not of her own.
     "You!" she cried out. 
     The girl smiled, lips curled up in a dark and savage gesture,
mocking her. "Komban wa, Serenity-hime. We see you recognize this
girl."
     "She is not Yui," she stated. "She is not the one Karasu fell
in love with, and was stolen from his arms by you! She is nothing
but a lie!" 
     "Oh, but it is her, the girl the Wanderer called Yui-chan,"
the girl responded. "We have her face, her magik and her soul. Her
Imagika is ours, and thus we are a part of her now."
     She glared at Yui, and at the forces lurking behind this girl.
No more masks; she wanted to face the host of wraiths who were
haunting her visions. "Why are you doing this?!" she demanded.
     The girl giggled. "Because we can. Our beloved Sandman is
about to take all you value, all your brother values. Soon there
will be nothing left but DarkWorld. There will be no place for
Karasu to wander any longer, neither in Dreamworld or Earthworld.
Everything shall belong to us."
     Yui leaned forward with closed eyes, lips touching her own.
With that final kiss against her lips, the dream faded away. Yet as
everything disappeared into the darkness, she could still feel the
cold droplets of tears running down her face. 
     "Mamo-chan," she sobbed. "Minna. Karasu...."
     

     The ruins were vast and littering the entire stretches of this
kingdom. A few scattered lanterns bearing the runes of magik were
here and there, but more than anything he lived and fought by the
light of the twin moons high above. Scattered patches of green
grass were stitched and overlapped with broken stones, half
standing pillars, toppled columns, and the skeletal remains of
temples and other once rich and beautiful buildings.
     There was silence, the winds picking up with a mournful howl
on occasion, yet not enough to be deemed as true noise that would
give this place life. And then came his footsteps, slow and
unhurried if not meditative in their procession.
     He emerged from the shadows of columns stippling the belly of
a gutted temple, Arashi in one hand. His jacket was removed, the
white dress shirt beneath still bearing telltale marks of burning
and blood. Shining blonde hair danced around his face as, fateful
with each step he took, he made his way down the stairs until he
reached the battleground he was searching for, until silence became
sound.
     It was partially clear of debris, a stone dais overlooking the
cliffshores that faded into near obscure shadows far below where he
could hear the breakers pound against the rocks. Pillars without a
ceiling to support were in perfect rows at the front of the dais,
the very back being dangerously exposed to the cliffs without
railing or barrier.
     He turned his head, staring off at the distant shimmer of the
Citadel and its lofty crystal spires. The Tsukino maiden would
remain there, locked in that peaceful and dreaming sleep. If he
ever emerged from that place again, if he won, then she would never
know the darkness that was striking them all down. 
     "I swear I will make you bastards pay," he whispered. "Every
last one of you."
     It was time for him to return to a place he had once sworn to
never see again. They were all waiting for him once more. And so he
would find them, in a realm of the Dreamworld he knew all too well.


     So it was to be their final stand here, inside the Tokyo
Tower. So many other times this monument had been focal to their
battles, a point of origin for this eternal struggle they found
themselves in. Was there ever at time they had found a chance to
forget they were soldiers? Would there ever be such a time?  
     Even though she had seen so many hundreds of years pass her
by, she remained uncertain. Time was something found in constant
flux, and right now the future could be either changing or
unfolding before them. She knew not what tomorrow's sunrise would
hold. She knew not if there would be another sunrise.
     For now they were facing the Sandman. To protect their city,
to protect their world, to protect their princess, they would
choose to fight to their very last breath. Until death came to
claim them as its own. Such was the fate of a Sailor Senshi.
     She remained back, closest to their blonde-haired princess, as
the tall sandy-blonde and aqua-haired woman summoned their magiks,
unleashing each attack with loud shout:
     "RUMBLEQUAKE!!"
     "TIDAL STORM!!"
     The Sandman punched through both attacks, dispelling each one
into mists and steam as he soared across the observation deck.
Hands outstretched, magik erupted from his palms. 
     "Shimatta!" the tall sandy-blonde exclaimed, leaping aside as
the fiery magik burned a hole through the metal floor. Smoke and
flames were spewed out.
     The aqua-haired woman summoned an older magik, one that send
crashing waves to quell the growing blaze. "Deep Submerge!"
     Her own deep magenta eyes widened as she saw the Sandman
swiftly close the gap between him and their princess. She closed
her eyes, the jewel atop her staff flickering to life as grey mists
swarmed around her body. Her attack was summoned in but a whisper:
     "Dead Scream."
     She unleashed the fierce blast at the Sandman, its form lost
within the light. Yet all that remained, when the magik faded and
their eyes adjusted to the darkness, was smoke. No Sandman. Not
even ashes. She held little doubt that the creature who once was
the Elven lord of Chaos was still alive.
     "Where is it?" the tall, sandy-blonde muttered, cautiously
scanning the empty deck.
     "Pluto?" the aqua-haired woman asked.
     She shook her head, looking from one piece of darkness to the
next. "I don't know," she answered. The damned thing could be
hiding anywhere; for all they knew the Sandman had returned to the
Dreamworld to aide in the Scourge's rampant destruction of that
realm.
     Suddenly the shadows rippled from behind the aqua-haired
woman. Hands of the Sandman wrapped around the woman's neck,
hoisting Sailor Neptune off the ground. The aqua-haired woman
struggled yet could not break the grip.
     "Michiru!" she exclaimed. Her own eyes narrowed, her entire
body tensing up. If only she could unleash her silent scream, but
if she did there was no guarantee for the aqua-haired woman's life-
-or that they might actually destroy the Sandman. Already it had
beaten angels and demons, soldiers and wolves.
     The Sandman was smiling, savouring his grip around the aqua-
haired woman's neck. Slowly the fingers were closing around
Michiru's windpipe, crushing the air from the senshi's lungs.
     "Michiru!" the tall, sandy blonde shouted, drawing a mystic
sword. "You bastard, let her go!"
     "Sometimes, no matter what happens," the Sandman replied
evenly. "The past is doomed to repeat itself. Not in the exact same
method yet in the same cycle. Tell us, Sailor Uranus, what do you
know of the Talismans?"
     The Sandman plunged a hand deep within Michiru's chest, and
the woman screamed in agony, aqua-marine eyes wide in shock and
terror. Light pushed out where fingertips pushed in. 
     "Michiru!" both of them cried out.
     The Sandman pulled out the Imagika, holding it before them all
like it was merely a prize. "Like your Talismans, the Imagika that
lies deep within you contains untold magik. So many dreams and so
much potential. But to seize it and gaze upon the beauty of such
dreams, you must die."
     The aqua-haired woman collapsed onto the floor, crawling away
with laboured motions, fighting the slow disappearance of a body
without its Imagika. "H-Haru...ka...."
     "Kon chikusho," the tall, sandy-blonde swore, eyes trembling
no longer in despair but in absolute rage. "KON CHIKUSHO!!!"
     A split second later the tall sandy-blonde was racing towards
the Sandman, mystic sword unsheathed and prepared to slit anything
its blade could touch. The Sandman merely held his ground, grinning
at her.
     "Haruka, no!" she snapped, raising her time staff. "Dead
Scream."
     She was struck by the Sandman's powers, the blow sending her
reeling backwards. She fell, tumbling across the ground, the time
staff lost from her grip to clatter across the tiled floor. It took
her a moment to realize that her Imagika was not yet taken from
her. 
     Magenta eyes widened in horror. It was the odango-haired
blonde the Sandman truly wanted now!
     The Sandman paused, lowering a glowing palm from the tall
sandy-blonde's form. Sailor Uranus collapsed, Imagika gone just
like her lover's. Haruka fell next to Michiru, both of them
flickering out from sight.
     "You are so selfish," the aqua-haired woman scolded. "And
reckless too, love."
     "But with good cause, Michiru-chan." The tall sandy-blonde
smiled, their hands clasping and fingers lacing together.
     "It's so warm," Michiru whispered.
     Haruka nodded. "Sayonara, my love."
     Their cheeks, even as being ghosts, nuzzled against each
other's. And then they were gone, just like the other senshi before
them. She felt a hollow emptiness growing inside of her chest,
every beat of her heart heavy within her. Now she alone was left to
defend their princess. 
     Princess!
     She whirled, stretching out a beckoning hand. The time staff
rattled to life and flew across the air into her awaiting grip.
Amidst the sadness and tears, fear and uncertainty, she still had
a duty to perform as a Sailor Senshi.
     The Sandman was looming over the odango-haired blonde. "It
took us so long to realize she was a princess of the White Moon.
That Karasu has a sister. She is the one we have come for, the one
we shall use to finish our revenge upon him."
     "Get away from her," she stated icily.
     A cruel smile was her response, and the Sandman reached down
towards the girl. Suddenly an explosion of crackling lights
ruptured the eerie darkness in the tower. Twin blades, long and
slender, reached out from the shadows and neatly cut through the
Sandman's outstretched arm.
     A lifeless limb tumbled to the floor, black ooze gushing out
from the open stump. The Sandman curiously looked at his severed
limb, and then towards the scythe that had been used against him.
Eyes of a hollow black followed the slender pole-arm until their
gaze came to rest upon a person hidden beneath a hooded cloak.
     "Don't touch her," the hooded one snarled. "Don't even try."
     Windows behind the young man shattered, glass shards
scattering across the deck. And amidst the glass came a creature
that could have only been an ancient Earth dragon, a wormlike beast
whose scales were like rainbows of emerald. It landed upon the
floor, its body coiled upon itself. The dragon growled, its lips
pulled back slightly to display rows upon rows of clenched,
gleaming teeth.
     A burst of tempest from the exposed windows tore at the edges
of the stranger's cloak of night, cloth shredded instantly. The
hood was blown from the face, revealing a grinning skull.
     That Sandman regarded the ScytheMaster, a ribbon of black
matter wrapping itself around the stump to reform the lost arm.
Fingers curled up and stretched out, perfectly intact. "Your
scent...we know of you."
     Her own surprise was there too as she stared at the young man
with a jagged scar running down one eye. "Thanatos...."
     What was someone such as the ScytheMaster doing here,
interceding in a battle? She instinctively knew that something had
to be wrong within the council for such an occurrence to be
happening. Had dissension over the past year's events finally
stirred up the ranks?
     She had little else time to think about such things as magik
crashed in waves upon the Tokyo Tower. Thanatos pulled the double-
bladed scythe out from the hole it had carved into the floor,
levelling the crackling weapon with the Sandman's head.
     "I wish I could say it was good to see you again, Pluto,"
Thanatos said aside to her. 
     The dragon hissed, its elongated back arching up as it
prepared for a charge and assault.
     "Hades, wait!" the ScytheMaster snapped. 
     The dragon-beast snarled in response; jaws opening wide to
reveal glistening fangs as saliva ran down from its exposed mouth.
     Yet Thanatos' glare never went unfazed. "Iie! He's mine."
     With slight amusement, the Sandman gestured for the fight to
begin. "This is our first time testing our magik against an
Ancient. We thought you had all died so very long ago."
     "Surviving does not necessarily mean living," Thanatos replied
evenly, brandishing the double-bladed scythe. "But I will not allow
you to destroy this world. I care for it too much to simply stand
by and watch you wipe it out!"
     Thanatos charged, bringing down the scythe in a merciless arc
upon the Sandman's face. He merely stared down the Ancient, and
unleashed a storm of magik. Thanatos was sent careening backwards,
crashing into the wall with enough force to leave a deep imprint.
     No time to admire his own work was given as the Sandman made
a savage gesture with his hand, dark magik attacking Thanatos once
more. The ScytheMaster was catapulted into the air, slammed into
the ceiling and then sent right through to the next deck. The
ceiling above their heads exploded, spewing shrapnel into the air.
A gaping hole through the floor and then through the roof revealed
the starless heavens suddenly opened up to them.
     She winced as she felt the cuts on her back drawing blood.
Carefully she lifted herself and her weight off the odango-haired
blonde beneath her. A quiet smile appeared; their princess had not
suffered any injuries from the blast. But as she turned her head,
she found the remains of the observation deck empty once more. 
     "Masaka," she whispered.
     The Sandman had gone to finish the fight against Thanatos. And
as powerful as she knew the Ancient to be, she also knew that the
former Elven lord would return to claim her own Imagika. And then
the soul of their princess.
     She looked down at the odango-haired blonde, brushing some
bangs of golden hair away from the young woman's face. The black
tyger cub mewed slightly in its own sleep.
     The Tokyo Tower shuddered slightly.
     So, they had taken this vendetta onto the roof.
     And while they fought, she had to find a place to hide the
odango-haired blonde. If their princess became lost to the darkness
of the Scourge, then all hope for the future was lost too....


     On any other night, the midnight heavens would have been
bright with thousands of stars, amplified by the light reflected in
a beautiful white moon. Yet tonight there was an unprecedented
eclipse, and the stars were blotted out with stormclouds unlike any
others he had seen before.
     Even Vritra's storm was nothing like this.
     Cobalt blue eyes scanned the cityscape of Tokyo. Patches of
the city were dead in darkness, destroyed with the Scourge's
attacks inside the Dreamworld. Everything was descending into a
hellish vortex he feared that no one could stop.
     And while all this was happening, somewhere out there within
the shadows, the Raithe was sitting by and letting it all happen.
Without a fight. Without a dream. He had been around the Council of
Ancients far too long to know what it was like to lose sight of a
dream, to become lost in endless debates over what the dream might
have meant, to forget the wonder of an ever-changing world that
affected the course of the dream.
     He couldn't stand by silently and let this happen.
     Once, a long time ago, he had fought during the Senshi Wars
alongside Sailor Galaxia, against the entity known as Chaos. It had
been that first reluctance to fight when Galaxia returned, bent on
wiping everything out, that had cost him his homeworld. His
hesitation resulted in an end to his dream.
     Earth had given him sanctuary from the raging Senshi Wars,
asylum for a weary soul of magik. And then once again he had been
lulled into a deadly complacency; Galaxia came to Earth and nearly
destroyed everything. Again he had hesitated. 
     Indeed he trusted the Sailor Senshi.
     But trust can only take you so far before the need to take
matters into your own hands is the only option left. His homeworld
had been annihilated once before; he would be damned before he
allowed it to happen a second time.
     Slowly he turned, glaring at the appearing Sandman as he
picked up his battered body from amidst the grids of steel girders
and beams. In the hazy glow of light coming from scattered regions
of the city, the jagged blue scar down his right eye shimmered from
beneath the folds and shadows of his hooded cloak. Long auburn hair
thrashed wildly in the winds behind his back.
     Hades was circling the Sandman from the air, the dragon-beast
cautiously approaching like a shark. Abruptly Hades charged with a
hellish howl, claws and teeth snapping at the Sandman. There was no
warning as the blak magik stirred to life. An explosion of magik
smashed through the air, the dragon-beast sent crashing into the
side of the tower. Hades never had a chance to stop its flight
before its tapering body collided against the metal beams hard
enough to dent them.
     "Dammit, if you're going to fight then fight!" the
ScytheMaster growled, rising on shaky feet with the scythe as his
crutch. "Quit playing around with me!"
     The Sandman smirked. "Would you rather we demonstrated
something a little more grand?'
     Suddenly a wave of magik erupted from the Elven lord's form,
the blast ramming itself into him with incredible force. He toppled
backwards, bearing the full brunt of the assault. The skull that
had been hidden in his cloak clattered across the rooftop before it
pitched itself over the edge of the Tokyo tower and plummeted to
the ground far below. The shadows pulled away from his face let the
nearby neon lights openly display the jagged scar running down his
eye.
     He gasped for air, fumbling to find his scythe. It was nowhere
near him, in fact closer to the Sandman. He struggled to lift his
chest from the ground, on the edge of the hole he had been pounded
through.
     Abruptly Thanatos convulsed, his eyes widening as he choked
and then coughed out a thick stream of blood. The crimson liquid
fell through the hole, splashing outwards as it struck the floor
below. Cobalt blue eyes narrowed as he wiped the blood dribbling
down his chin with the back of his hand. Slowly he turned to face
the approaching Sandman.
     "K-Kuso," he hissed weakly, struggling to rise as the blood
flowed freely from open wounds that ran down his face and chest.
     The Sandman stretched out an arm. "And now, lord of the
Scythe, you die."
     And then the dragon-beast's fangs found substance, fangs
sinking deeply into the Sandman's arm. Yet for all the power Hades
had within those deadly jaws, it was not enough to combat the blak
magik of the Sandman. The face of the former Elven lord remained
hauntingly passive as a black mass writhed on the arm and rose up
from the surface, tendrils reached out and seizing hold of the
dragon-beast's face. Hades snarled and thrashed as the tendrils
curled over its face and wrapped themselves around its long,
tapering body. All too quickly the dragon was swallowed up and
pulled within the folds of the Sandman's robes of living shadows.
     In the midst of the dark cloaks appeared a light. 
     And it was the creature's own Imagika.
     "Hades!" he shouted, voice giving way to the pain wracking his
body from the abuse he was taking in battle. Yet the rage was
replacing the pain. He was growing numb to it. His only constant
companion through the centuries, his first friend here upon
Earth...gone.
     His magik stirred. The scythe began to twitch, gaining new
life and breath of its own will. Abruptly the weapon flung itself
into the air, the blade spinning to cut off the Sandman's head. 
     The Sandman dodged the strike, merely stepping aside. 
     With another series of spins the scythe was caught in
Thanatos' hand. "You had your fun," he stated darkly. "Now it's my
turn."
     Laughter rumbled from the Sandman's throat. "Ara, who said I
had even begun to have fun?" 
     Eyes closed, the Sandman began to utter murmured chants. The
magik began to gather, crackling and pulsating in a frenzied mass.
Everything swarmed around the Sandman's form.
     It was screaming to be unleashed.
     The ScytheMaster stepped back as an unnatural light rivalling
the sun gathered force and energy across the rooftop from him.
"What the hell is he summoning?" he muttered.     
     The Sandman's eyes of darkness suddenly opened.
     The floodgates of magik were released.
     And then the explosion hit, a blast of magik shooting out from
the Sandman as those eyes of soulless darkness were thrown open.
The blast burrowed into the roof and then through the floor of the
observation decks. A blue and white fireball smashed through metal
before starting its hellish onslaught towards him, tearing apart
everything on the observation deck. Metal debris was scattered in
every direction as the last intact windows beneath them shattered
and rained down upon the ground far below.
     "Masaka!" he exclaimed, his entire face alight in the
reflecting glow of the blue inferno. He stepped back, raising the
scythe in front of his face. How had the Scourge found such power;
its magik was more powerful than anything he could ever hope to
summon!
     The Sandman's shadowy silhouette was barely visible through
the flaming explosions. There was no time to react, no means of
fleeing something that was swiftly and systematically destroying
half the Tokyo Tower's entire observation decks. 
     Thanatos braced himself, unable to quite fully believe it.
There was no chance that even his best barrier field could hold
this back. Grimly he watched the raging magik come for him. 
     "Looks like this is the end after all," he remarked sourly.


     She cradled the sleeping form of the odango-haired blonde as
another explosion from above sent the entire tower structure
reeling. Beams and ceiling tiles rained down as electrical cords
and cables came tumbling out from their hiding places. A light
fixture crashed down next to her, barely missing crushing her
ankle.
     And then all was silent.
     She barely even dared to breathe.
     Darkness began to move of its own accord within the dimly lit
observation deck. She was on her feet in an instant, the time staff
gripped tightly in her hands as she searched out the Sandman.
     She never found him.
     He found her.
     Stood right behind her, waiting for her to turn around.
     She acted instantly. Hesitation was not an option. Fear was
not an option. All that mattered was protecting their princess. The
garnet orb upon her key-shaped staff shone with newfound light as
she aimed it at the Sandman.
     "Dead Scream."
     The glow from her attack reflected in the Sandman's eyes, and
in that moment his face appeared wholly unnatural. Pale skin and
eyes shining brightly. And his smile....
     Suddenly he was gone.
     A blast of magik sent her tumbling across the floor, shards of
glass cracked apart as she rolled over them. The edges of her fuku
were cut apart. Her skin wasn't faring any better. Long tresses of
dark hair which shimmered a deep emerald green in the dim light
covered part of her face, bangs stuck against her skin with sweat.
She was instantly looking for her princess as she regained her
senses; the Sandman was already there, kneeling down and reaching
out for the odango-haired blonde. 
     "Usagi!" she cried out.
     Magik exploded within the observation deck. Even she had to
shield her eyes from its intensity. The Sandman let out a startled
shout as the odango-haired blonde was suddenly caught up in a shaft
of fierce white light, the princess' form slowly sinking into the
floor where she laid. 
     With a desperate lunge the Sandman tried to grab the princess,
to pull the girl back. Already his hands were too late, scraping
across metal as the shaft of light swallowed the odango-haired
blonde up and flashed itself away. With quivering anger the Sandman
rose, eyes of darkness slowly turning to her.
     Only two of them remained.
     She met his gaze. Dark magenta eyes narrowed, her knuckles
whitening beneath her gloves as she gripped her time staff. The
jewel began to glow, her own magik summoned for the final time. For
as immortal to the others as she was, she was still human. 
     The Sandman's hand was lifted at her, fingers opening to
display a palm crackling with dark magik. "Shin'ne, Sailor Pluto."
     She charged, wielding her staff with a speed that she could
only pray would be faster than the Imagika about to be torn from
her body. 
     "Dead Scream."
     Seconds later, there was only dead silence.


     Slowly her eyes fluttered open, crystal blue staring up at the
beautiful skies. Stars became a twinkling entourage for a
shimmering moon. Laid in a soft bed of grasses she awoke, the tyger
cub of midnight fur and jagged white streaks still cuddled in her
arms. 
     She laid amidst rows of hedges and flowers, an ethereal rose
garden before them as angelic cherubs of stone fiercely guarded
over the blossoms. The roses were of all different shades of
empathic magik, their rows twisting and flowing, covering hills and
lining cobblestone pathways, climbing trellises and encircling
gazebos. Somewhere, somehow, she knew this place. 
     She was back inside the Dreamworld.
     "I see you're finally awake, Usagi-chan."
     It was the Wanderer.
     He was quiet once more, his own blue eyes glancing down at the
emerald-tipped roses; it was hard to let go sometimes--especially
when you didn't want to. It had been so long since he had visited
this place, and now with everything slowly falling to the Scourge,
it was the only kingdom in the entire universe he would have been
content to exist in. The Sanctuary was gone. The Citadel harboured
too many memories of her face. And many of the kingdoms that had
captivated his spirit were now DarkWorlds. 
     There was no other place but here for him to call home. 
     Someplace like home....
     "Karasu," she said. "You're alive."
     He looked up. "I always was, and probably always will be. In
that split second when the Scourge fled the Sanctuary to avoid
annihilation, I had just enough time to find my senses and escape
through an illusion."
     Lips parted as she tried to ask something of him, yet she
could not find the words. That nightmare of her dark-haired prince
and her friends' cruelty still haunted her memories.
     He seemed to guess regardless as to her question. "Gomen,
Usagi. There...there was no time left to take anything else with
me. Everything within the Sanctuary was destroyed. So much magik,
both gentle and destructive, gone forever."
     Crystal blue eyes widened as she fought back more tears of
despair. The sleeping tyger cub mewed, burrowing its face deeper
into her chest. Before she realized it she was sitting next to him.
     "I saw her, Usagi," he said, staring at the rose and not her
eyes. "She fought until the end but fell regardless. I held her
tightly in my arms, praying she would be different, that she might
not disappear."
     The dark-haired shrine girl.
     She couldn't bring herself to tell him of her nightmare, the
vision of her dark-haired prince now possessed by the Scourge, and
the dark-haired shrine girl being one of her tormentors. He seemed
so vulnerable in this brooding state, moreso than she had ever seen
him before.
     Kneeling down he plucked one of the roses, the petals changing
colour upon the touch of his fingers. Emerald green became steel
grey and then a full-bodied crimson that covered the entire rose.
He watched the petals change once more, becoming crystal blue to
match his eyes. And there he could see an immortal Wanderer staring
back through the reflection.
     Finally he spoke, though it was a distant thought from a
distant story. "When you were taken to her palace beyond the Sea of
Night, that wasn't the first time I'd seen the Shadowqueen's realm.
Right after the Scourge was sealed, she brought me there to see if
I would be interested in joining her ranks."
     She looked up at him. "What did you do?"
     A faint smile at the memory. "I told her I'd think about it.
Still am considering, for that matter. I suddenly find myself
wondering if I might find myself before her throne once more,
willing to use any magik--even the damning breeds--to destroy the
Scourge."
     The rose was crushed in his hands moments later, his
reflection lost in the violent ripples of blue that slowly turned
to scarlet. She opened her mouth in protest, but stopped when she
saw a slow illusion heal the wound; he probably wasn't even aware
of its presence.
     "You can feel it, can't you?" he said. "You can hear their
screams of torment and fear. I can sense it in your soul, Usagi-
chan. Somehow you're linked to all this. Somehow you are a bond
between the Scourge and I."
     Those cries she had been hearing, those faceless creatures
haunting his dreams. Screams and cries. Not the ones swallowed up
by the Scourge. Lost souls. She saw once again that image of the
girl from her brother's past, the one who had kissed her to end a
cruel nightmare of her dark-haired prince.
     "Karasu," she asked. "Who is Yui?"
     He plucked another sleeping rose from the garden, forging a
droplet of water in his hand and letting it drop into the petals.
The flower blossomed, turning into the colours of the sea. Lips
blew on the rose, its delicate petals breaking apart and dancing
out with the winds. They scattered with the midnight air, going
their separate ways.     
     "On the eve I was to send her back home to Earth, the Scourge
came and took her from me. She was a lost soul too. I could have
almost relived history over again with Rei-chan; it came down to a
decision Yui had to make. She could either remain with me, or go
back to a family that was desperately trying to wake her."
     She smiled somewhat at that. "And she chose to go back?"
     Although she was certain it had crushed him at the time, he
was a survivor. Perhaps it ran in their own family. This all
sounded like a tragic romance. Yet the story ended differently,
horribly.
     There was little difficulty in speaking the next sentences.
Even still she could hear the strain in his voice given all that
was happening now.
     "It was in a deserted city, so old and beautiful like Europe.
We stood there on the bridge and...and then the Scourge first
appeared inside the Dreamworld. It took her, tore her hands from
mine. And then I watched it consume her soul, make her a part of
it. That realm of the Dreamworld was destroyed moments later.
     "As far as I could tell, two more endless nights passed before
I was able to overcome my grief. I swore to myself not to let what
happened to Yui happen to anyone else. In the end I was given magik
from Helios and the Empress and faced the Scourge alone. That night
it was sealed. But not destroyed. My vengeance was only delayed,
not fulfilled."
     She recalled seeing the Sandman attacking her friends, the
Outer Senshi. Although it pained her to think about it, she was
certain they were gone. She was reliving Galaxia's onslaught all
over again. Except now there seemed to be no ray of hope.
     She shook herself of those thoughts as she heard him stand to
his feet. "Where are you going?" she asked.
     He paused but did not look back. "It's waiting for me, Usagi.
I was on my way to face it when I sensed your arrival inside this
kingdom, and chose to remain here until you awoke. Leave the
Dreamworld now and go back to Earth. You at least might stand a
chance at surviving this."
     "Karasu?" she called out after him, rising to her feet.
"Karasu?"
     The tyger cub awoke, mewing loudly for its mother. 
     She stumbled after him, yet with the awakened tyger she didn't
get very far before she tripped and tumbled onto the cobblestone
paths. This didn't stop her from calling out his name, crying out
to him not to leave her. He never looked back, not even when he
disappeared into a cloud of illusion-summoned myst.
     "Karasu! Please!"
     She hung her head, the tears starting to roll down her cheeks
again. She was alone once more. The dam burst and all the emotions
she had thought were finally contained flooded throughout her body.
A concerned tyger cub rubbed its furry head against her side and
mewed concern as she began to sob. For her friends. For her world.
For herself.
     "Please...onii-san, don't leave me."


     Perhaps it was the Midnight Masquerade. But this was not the
masquerade wraith's floating palace. These were not his guests. And
this was not his kingdom. For the one who wore the mask of living
oceans was stolen away alongside his beloved.
     The revellers gathered at the grand palace to celebrate. More
than once there was no reason for it, but there was a celebration
none the less. They met at here at the grand palace, garbed in the
most absurd masquerade costumes ever conceived. These people were
dressed in garments that were outrageous, imaginative, and just a
little bit idiotic. A crowd of dancers and masks, twirling and
twisting, laughing and drinking, lost in the gaze and smiles of
each other. Plumage and colours, sparkling gemstones and fiery
bodypaint flashed by in a blur of exotic costumes, silken suits and
fine garments.
     Laughter was everywhere. Wine was everywhere. The indulgence
was everywhere. And yet upon the second floor balcony, overlooking
this enormous ballroom, he found the entire jubilee making his
scowl grow even more. He wore no mask. He wore no paint. He did not
even wear the suit he had discarded when she was torn from his
hands.
     In a torn and stained dress shirt he slowly made his way down
the curving staircase, each step slow and deliberate. The shades
were gone and thus two crystal blue eyes stared out at the crowds
here tonight. Drafts from the open skies played with his wild
blonde hair. And in his hand he gripped a weapon fashioned from the
heart of a storm's magik.
     Arashi.
     The revellers stopped, all turning to stare at him. Music
died. From behind their masks, beyond the facepaint and glitter
decorating their skin and cheeks, he could see the eyes of a host
of spectres staring at him. He was standing in the presence of the
Scourge, here at their invitation. Strange that history seemed to
repeat itself so much.
     Was he doomed to fight here once more another thousand years
into the future? If the time guardress were here he might at least
try to ask. But she like everyone else was lost, nothing more than
faded memories in his mind. There could be no future to see unless
he followed through with this choice made. No future...for him or
the Scourge.
     Here was a DarkWorld. The first DarkWorld that had ever
existed, created in a fantasy the Scourge seemed to enjoy parading
within between tearing apart Dreamworlds.
     It was at the base of the stairs that he met her. The
ballroom's enormous dancing floor was cleared as the revellers
moved back to form a ring around the edges, an endless army of
gowns and masks all watching his every move right down to the last
detail. They parted and let her saunter across the floor, slinking
towards him with such cruel blue eyes.
     Her gown was just as beautiful as the day it had taken her.
Her hair's sweet fragrance was carried by the winds into his face.
"You've come at last," she said. "You've chosen to face me once
more."
     His heart was numb, so much that he couldn't tell how much his
eyes really betrayed him. "Yui-chan...."
     This was where he had plunged the final illusion into the
heart of the Scourge, where the third and last seal had trapped its
onslaught for what he had once prayed would be forever. In their
decadent arrogance they thought they could control him here in
their own twisted dreams. The crystal had come crashing down hard
that night. He had come close to never seeing the moon again.
     A second figure moved through the crowd, suddenly behind her
before he could react. Silken dark robes fluttered around Chaos'
form as the Elven lord gently lifted her arm up and kissed the back
of her hand. Lifeless black eyes focused onto him. Inside them, he
could see his own reflection.
     "Kageno Karasu," the Sandman said. "So good of you to join us
once more on the eve of it all."
     For a moment he hesitated; as much as they had fought in the
past, he more than anyone else wished it didn't have to end this
way. "Chaos...."
     The Sandman stared at him with those black, lifeless eyes,
hands still clasped with hers. "Welcome to the beginning of the
end, Wanderer. An end to anything you so desire and moreso. An end
to war and hatred, an end to love and peace. An end to philosophy
and scholars. An end to chocolate cakes, strolls through the park,
childrens' laughter, a nightmare and a scream. An end to dreams and
angels. An end to it all. An end to your world, your magik, your
hopes. And in it's place a new beginning: DarkWorld. Our world."
     He scowled. That was Chaos's flair for the dramatic talking in
behind the Scourge's mind. The bastards were using everything
against him. Crystal blue eyes lowered to the floor and finally
rose up to level an icy stare at the Sandman. No words were said,
for the silence in his voice said it all.
     The Arashi was lifted up.
     Yui, the one he once loved, glanced up at the Sandman and
shared a passionate kiss before she broke away. She returned to be
with the other spectres surrounding him. Alone he stood in their
midst, masks and faces piercing the beauty of a place deserving to
be a Dreamworld.
     With but a gesture the Sandman gave life and birth a sword
that seemed to match the Arashi in both magik and form. All heads
turned to a creature cloaked within the embrace of the atrium's
collection of shadows. Two flashes of sapphire pierced the darkness
and thus the creature emerged.
     A slender, twisting dragon raced across the floor, snarling
and snapping while its sapphire eyes blazed in its emerald green
body. This dragon's worm-like form was no thicker than his wrist,
but its length was more than his own full height.
     He still recognized it.
     Hades, the dragon-beast once belonging to the ScytheMaster. 
     The Sandman knelt down and held out an arm to the dragon. The
dragon snarled, but not with a threatening tone. This snarl might
have been almost called a purr. The dragon shot forth, snaking its
body around the Sandman's leg, its snaking form working up around
the thigh and then around the waist and chest until it twisted
around the Sandman's outstretched arm.
     Nestling its head in the open palm, the dragon's forked tongue
tickled the Elven lord's fingers before it moved forward once
again, its neck now in the Sandman's grasp. The Sandman closed the
grip around its neck, meeting with a firm substance. The dragon's
head snapped straight, its jaws suddenly opening wider and wider
still, stretching out to incredibly grotesque proportions.
     The eyes flashed, and then a large blade of shining steel
exploded from its mouth, shooting out until it was fully extended,
a lethal sword to be wielded by the Scourge's chosen one. The
dragon's mouth and head had become the hilt. The body had become a
mere extension of its master. But the creature was now a weapon of
darkest magik. Bolts of blak energy crackled and snaked their ways
down the blade. The savage sword was taken into the hands of the
Sandman, and awaited its chance to draw blood.
     "What an exquisite weapon. Ne, Karasu?" the Sandman inquired,
brandishing the savage blade. "When we took this creature from the
Ancient who challenged us, we simply could not allow such deadly
beauty be wasted. Behold the dragon-beast's new form: our sword."
     He growled, lifting the blade of the Arashi before his face.
Eyes of crystal blue narrowed at the eyes of soulless black. Now it
was his turn to challenge the Scourge and its Sandman. Now it was
time to finish a war that had begun almost one thousand years ago.
     "Are you ready for us, Karasu?" the Elven lord inquired. "Are
you ready to accept your fate?"
     "Destiny may decree what our actions ultimately create," he
answered solemnly. "But we control our own actions, our own fate.
And I will not surrender it to the likes of you."
     And then he saw the blue-haired genius. The girl was there in
the crowd, scornful eyes taunting him from the heart of the
masquerade revellers. The ballroom started to reel, his own heart
beating faster and his senses spinning as he saw the long-haired
blonde smiling as well. And the tall brunette with emerald eyes
that seemed to slap him from across the crowd.
     He clutched his forehead, fingertips pressing hard against his
temples. Deliberate breaths of air were forced in and out from his
lungs. A calming exercise. This was nothing more than a game for
the Scourge, their cat to his own mouse.
     Crystal blue eyes widened in disbelief. "Rei-chan," he
whispered, straightening up as he saw the dark-haired shrine girl
with the Scourge. She stood there in their ranks, draped across
another reveller, cold eyes taunting him like all the others.
Stolen. All were stolen.
     He started to laugh.
     The laughter from his lips filled the entire ballroom in
echoes upon echoes. Black laughter at this entire war. He shook his
head, almost stumbling with his own faltering steps. And then he
attacked. A battle cry that could have awakened the dead escaped
his lips as he lunged for the Sandman, Arashi erupting in a frenzy
of sparks and magik.
     The Sandman leaped aside and then pounced, the savage sword
passing right through his chest. A heartbeat later he was right
behind the Sandman, raking down a blow upon the Sandman's head. The
Sandman blocked, wielding the savage sword with such rivalry to
every move he could make. 
     The blade swung at his chest as he charged once more. Suddenly
the Arashi was pushed aside, the Sandman grappling onto his neck.
His feet were hoisted off the ground before the Sandman threw him
across the room, slamming his back into a wall. Upon impact he
exploded into a geyser of water, a surging flood swept past the
Sandman's legs, and he erupted from the frothing waters to strike
once more. 
     The Arashi was denied blood, cold steel meeting with cold
steel. He pushed and the Sandman pushed back, their blades rubbing
together, faces just a breath apart.
     An evil smile. 
     The Sandman abruptly pushed harder, sending him sprawling
across the floor. He rolled back onto his feet, vaulting away as
the Sandman plunged from above to drive the savage sword into the
floor. The Sandman barely had any time to react before he was in
front and then behind and then all around. Yet every attack he made
was blocked and then dealt a counter-attack.
     Karasu winced as he felt the tip of the Sandman's blade nick
his cheek. The warm droplets of blood were burning from the cold
air driven by their swords. Abruptly they drew away, each one
springing backwards to opposite ends of the ballroom as if gravity
no longer held any meaning to them.
     The Sandman glanced down at a torn sleeve, the blood of the
Elven lord dripping down the Sandman's arm, gathering at the
fingertips. The ballroom was silent aside from their heavy breaths
of air.
     "Excellent, Karasu. So passionate tonight."
     "I was too careless last time," he stated. "Because of that
the Sanctuary was lost. I'm not about to make the same mistake
twice!"
     Without waiting for a response, there was a snap of his
fingers and a thick cloud of dark mist pulsated out from behind
him. The mists began to swarm and close together to create form and
essence of raging tempests around his body. 
     "Shin'ne!" he shouted, smashing his palm into the earth.
     Upon contact the ballroom floor broke apart, an underground
magik tearing at the marble as it streaked towards the Sandman, red
lights punching through to the surface.
     The Sandman snarled, sending up a barrier that caused the
attack to be stopped dead cold. "We know your magik all too well,
Karasu. Your illusions, your petty tricks, mean nothing to our
powers."
     He met those words, letting a mandala of crystals appear to
shine and summon their own magik. Both summonings were creating
massive barriers, each one sending down a shower of sparks when
magic clashed violently against magik. More of the tiles were torn
apart from the confrontation, the air becoming alive with their
energies.
     The Sandman abruptly pushed harder, a shockwave of magik
sending the Wanderer tumbling backwards. He rolled back onto his
feet and right up a pillar, vaulting away as the Sandman plunged
from above to drive the savage sword through the core of the
pillar, bisecting the column in half. The Sandman barely had any
time to react before he was in front and then behind and then all
around. Yet every attack he made with his illusions and his magik
was promptly smashed by this creature.
     Arashi met with a rival blade, technique countered with
perfect technique, magik shredded apart by another deadly magik. He
jerked his head back as he felt the blade from the dragon's mouth
cut his cheek.
     They drew away, vaulting backwards with enough momentum to
clear the crowds and the floor. Both he and the Sandman twisted
their bodied to land crouched upon the walls. The walls became
their floors, gravity shifted for their magiks.
     He was panting heavily for air, his adrenaline not allowing
his body to back down in the slightest. Newfound strength summoned
magik of a different breed.
     Wings unfurled from each of their backs. Upon his back, long
angel's wings stretched out across the ballroom. A surge of white
feathers were sent across the realm, drifting past them all like
snow. The Sandman's eyes narrowed as the black robes around the
Elven lord's body pulsated and rippled from beneath. Two demon
wings punched through, leathery and black. Claws adorned the edges
of the wings as they flapped and stirred up gales.
     "Appropriate, don't you think, Karasu?"
     He growled, wiping the blood from his face with his sleeve.
The stain of crimson upon his whitened shirt became lost amidst the
other marks of blood, sweat and ash. The grip on the Arashi
tightened.
     Angel and demon pounced with their wings. They took to the
air, their bodies twisting left and right, going upside-down and
backwards as sword met against sword and sparks rained down almost
as furiously as the feathers seemed to sweep across the ballroom.
He was barely aware of his actions as he struck and struck again,
the blade of the Arashi just a blur in his vision.
     The Sandman curled up and rolled backwards, wings sending the
Scourge's chosen one into the rows of archways. There the Elven
lord remained, perched on the underside of the arch. The magik from
the savage sword gained in strength, enormous streaks of black
electricity thrashing around the ballroom.
     He dropped to the ground alongside the host of wraiths before
lunging for the Sandman once more. Yet as his feet left the ground,
he erupted into a horde of spinning crystal orbs that converged
upon the Sandman.
     The Sandman's lips turned upwards into a cold smile, and then
a burst of energy was delivered. The crystal illusions were
shattered by the Sandman's powers, and he felt his own cry cut off
as the warm blood that was his own flooded down his chest. And that
never stopped him from charging, the distance between the Wanderer
and the Sandman growing closer every second.
     His own angel wings pushed back against the air and sent him
spinning towards the Sandman. "SHIN'NE!!" he howled. His wings
exploded, an aerial onslaught of white feathers overtaking the
Sandman with him lost in the very core of the illusion.
     The Sandman's lips were licked, and the Elven lord brought
down the savage sword. "Baka."
     Angered eyes of crystal blue widened as the attack was driven
through his chest, the surge of magik tearing through his back and
driving forth a geyser of scarlet blood across the air. The
Wanderer's body dropped back to the ground, and he feebly tried to
rise up.
     His shirt was torn apart; whatever white had been left on it
was now stained crimson. Moments later a second blast of dark magik
sent him crashing into the staircase. The impact cracked the steps,
his body convulsing from the shock. Blood flowed out from his lips
as his body tumbled down the staircase.
     By the time he hit the floor of the ballroom, the gaping
wounds in his body had already sealed themselves. Half of those
attacks had struck only an illusion. But as for the other half--
     He coughed up more blood, wiping it from his chin.
     "Why?" he demanded, shakily rising to his feet, the Arashi
being used as his only crutch. "Why are you haunting me? Why can't
you just die?"
     The Sandman slowly approached him, closed the gap between
them. "Because, Kageno Karasu, we are alike. You are one of us...."


     She ran.
     She didn't know where to run, yet she ran.
     Perhaps she was following her own intuition. Perhaps her
magik. Perhaps her heart. Or perhaps there was no difference
between them all. Her legs moved with a will of their own, long
blonde ponytails fluttering behind her with each step she took.
     "Karasu," she whispered between gasps for air.
     The crystal locket upon her blouse erupted with white light
that flowed all around her body. Her Sailor Senshi fuku took shape
around her contours, and then everything around her became lost
within that same light of her own magik.
     Shining blue eyes closed and sought out the heart and soul of
the Wanderer. No matter how few of them were left, it was still
their world they shared. No battle was ever meant to be fought
alone. No soul was meant to remain alone forever. She would find
him once more, and they would be together. And they would fight so
that no one had to be alone in the darkness of the Scourge ever
again.
     Karasu....


     He collapsed to the floor as he strength suddenly left him,
Storm Sword sliding across the floor. Raging eyes of crystal blue
glared upwards as the silhouette of the Sandman appeared in the
moonlight. The glint of the savage blade shimmered in his vision,
coming closer towards him. Coming to claim his Imagika. Coming to
claim all he ever loved.
     A spark erupted within.
     Yui.
     Not again. 
     Helios.
     Not ever again. 
     Rei.
     This time it ended here! 
     His feet found solid ground, illusions catapulting him into
the air just as the Sandman tried to cut him in half. The savage
sword from the dragon's mouth caved in part of the marble floor,
bits of debris lifted up into the air from the impact.
     "I am nothing like you!" he howled from above.
     Without wings or weapon he shot towards the ground, towards
the Sandman, magik crackling from his open palms as he hurled
frenzied streaks of lightening.
     "Baka," the Sandman said, leaping high into the air. There the
Sandman remained, hovering for only a few seconds in wait as the
Wanderer ricocheted off the floor for a violent assault. The savage
sword was lifted and then slashed at him with its sharpened tip.
"If only you had seen what we have seen."
     Blazing eyes of crystal blue never even flinched as the savage
sword was driven through his chest, the blade tearing through his
back and driving forth a cloud of scarlet blood across the air. His
arms wrapped around the Sandman and clutched the Elven lord tightly
against his body. With an enraged howl, he flipped them both over
and dropped headfirst to the floor of the grand ballroom.
     "The only thing we may share together," he snarled. "Is a
place for us in hell!!"
     Only at the last second did the Sandman tear away from his
grip and spring back. Yet it did not stop the Sandman from crashing
onto the floor, footing lost and senses reeling at such an insane
attack. The Wanderer's own body toppled into a heap, exploding upon
impact into a hundred small faery starlights. 
     Black lifeless eyes turned abruptly, and widened upon seeing
his true form already upon the Sandman. He screamed, bringing down
the Stormsword. A swirling blaze of fiery blue lights encircled
him, the apex of the sword exploding with the magik unleashed.
     "ARASHI!!"
     There was a split second before the blade touched the
Sandman's skin that the black magik of the Scourge saw it had lost.
It retreated from its host. In that momentary heartbeat, the freed
Elven Lord of Chaos smiled, jade eyes slowly closing.
     "Sayonara, Chibiusa-chan," Chaos whispered, surrendering to
the cold edge of the Arashi's power. 
     It took very little effort to push the blade of the Arashi
down through Chaos' shoulder and chest, the bloodied blade soaking
in a heartbeat the Elven's lord garments. Chaos gasped, blood
spurting from lips that breathed their last. The sickening sound of
a tumbling Imagika echoed across the grand ballroom.
     He drew out the sword, throwing it aside, the bloodied weapon
leaving a crimson trail across the floor. And then he lunged for
Chaos, clawing at whatever he could to keep the Elven lord there.
But Chaos was already disappearing, the Imagika already claimed,
the magik already gone. He became lost in a whirlwind of cherry
blossoms that swirled around him, the face of Chaos dissolving into
the petals. Breaking apart to behold and become one last thing of
beauty in atonement for a darkness that would haunt them all.
     The Scourge retreated. Dancers and masks faded as the shadows
overtook the grand ballroom. He was left alone with his own tears
and regrets. All that remained was a shaft of light overhead as
everything was left in darkness.
     Crystal blue eyes stared into the jade eyes of Chaos. The
Elven lord's gaze was staring at him, yet distant in its focus.
They both knew they would never again meet. And then Chaos was torn
away, ripped apart by the blossoms that spattered across his face.
As the fury of petals disappeared, the last swirls of pink and
white falling at his feet, he slowly rose up, one fist clenched
tightly, fingers wrapped unrelenting around a 
handful of those petals. He wasn't sobbing, yet the torn look in
his eyes and the silent tears streaming down his face spoke enough
of the pain. 
     "Karasu!"
     Slowly he turned to see her running towards him. Once again
she was a soldier, the hues and shades dancing off her face and
hair as a shaft of light illuminated her from the surrounding
darkness. He looked back at her, all emotion drained from his eyes.
All that remained was vengeance, cold and savage.
     "You should not have come," he stated, opening his palm. The
last handful of Chaos' cherry blossoms scattered into the darkness.
     She stopped only when her hands came to rest upon her
shoulders, her head pressing against his chest. "Please," she asked
of him. "Don't fight this alone. Karasu, we are--"
     He gripped her tightly, no longer hearing her words as the
darkness surrounding them rippled and grew both form and colour.
Their world was changing once more.


     Maybe it was a distant memory relived in the blink of an eye.
Or else it was just a dream that would be danced in only once. It
was of a realm he had wandered, a kingdom he had once seen. Yet the
chances of them really being there were next to nothing. Long ago
this place had been wiped clean of the Dreamworld.
     Yet it was here amidst empty and narrow cobblestone streets
and a long, congested maze of residences that they found
themselves. They stood at the edge of a bridge that curved over a
canal of the clearest water she had ever seen. The stars were
twinkling just beneath its surface.
     His hands wrapped around her back, protectively holding her.
The blue-white glow of the enchanted lanterns lining the streets
made her blonde hair appear silver; the colour of her true mother's
hair from another life so long ago.
     And then there was another with them inside this dream,
standing in the centre of the bridge as if awaiting for his
arrival. The girl was once more in that crystal blue dress, tresses
of long, dirty-blonde hair cascading down around a young and
beautiful face.
     Such beautiful blue eyes. 
     Yui-chan....
     Everything was perfect right down to the last detail in this
deserted city: every bridge and cobblestone, every shimmer of light
and sparkle of Yui's eyes. Yui was smiling as he slowly let the
odango-haired blonde go, and walked onto the bridge to face the
Scourge. Each step echoed across a silent night.
     "So eager to kill again," Yui remarked. "It was almost
beautiful how you drove your sword right through our Sandman."
     She held her breath. "Chaos," she whispered, trembling fingers
touching her lips. Was the Elven lord gone too...slain by the
Wanderer's hand?
     "We are both to blame," he answered coldly, opening his hand.
"You made him what I killed. And now it's time to end this war."
The Arashi appeared, hilt just a few inches above his palm. There
it hovered for a heartbeat and then dropped into his awaiting grip.
     Yui laughed. "They belong to us now, Karasu. Your friends,
your world, and now your magik." Yui's eyes shifted to her.
"Welcome, Serenity-hime. Your turn has now come."
     She cried out as she was blown backwards with the furious
battle aura erupting from his body, his eyes suddenly glowing with
fierce magik as lightening crackled all around him. Bolts tore
holes through the cobblestones and blew apart lanterns, burning the
stones of the bridge and causing the waters below to bubble and
churn.
     "Don't you touch her," he snarled. "I don't care whose body
you put before me anymore! Do you here me?! You may have taken the
others, but you won't take my sister!!"
     His eyes closed, fingers moving into strange gestures, lips
chanting barely audible words. Suddenly the orbs shot into every
direction, scattering across the skies to form an enormous Star of
David that engulfed the area. Six seals, six magiks, six furies:
all were at his call.
     Yui merely smiled. "Tenacious even to the end, Karasu. But
tenacity will only take you so far."
     "Oh yeah?" he retorted. "I still have a few of those petty
tricks up my sleeve...LIKE THIS!"
     Crystal blue eyes opened wide in rampant ferocity. All his
blonde hair danced wildly around his face as gales rose up inside
the forgotten city with enough force that the billows of winds
could be seen as waves of misty grey. The Star of David flared up
from the ground, lines of magik tracing the design and invoking a
new windstorm hellion.
     He smashed down the Arashi, the bridge shuddering as his
attack drove itself into a frenzy towards Yui. Yui's eyes flickered
with a magik all their own. Dark electrical arcs flowed around
Yui's form, the magik lashing out and destroying the foundations of
the stone bridge. He hovered in the air, never even noticing as the
stone blocks over the frothing waters buckled and cracked apart,
jagged pieces of the bridge being thrown into the sky. The chunks
of stone beneath his feet crumbled.
     "Is this it?!" he shouted angrily, kicking off the flying
debris and hovering in the air. A mandala of crystals appeared
circling around him, each with a different ancient rune glowing
upon it. The rocks trying to collide with him were suddenly
shattered into dust.
     She had to shield her eyes from the intensity of their powers,
abruptly forgotten by both Wanderer and Scourge as the two enemies
fought once more. The silhouettes of Yui and Karasu were virtually
lost within the fierce auras. The streets were rumbling and
trembling, the houses lining the canal starting to fall apart and
crumble into dust and debris. 
     The Scourge's dark magik abruptly lashed out at her, and in
her confusion she realized she could not move away in time.
Suddenly he was standing alongside her, scooping her up in his arms
and vaulting away as the blak magik burrowed into the earth and
tore itself a newfound crater.
     He set her onto the ground further down the road, glaring up
at the hovering form of Yui slowly moving towards them. "Usagi, I
told you to leave me already," he hissed.
     "I'm not going to let you do this alone," she stated. "Karasu,
we've been through so much already. I could never let my friends go
on without me, and I'm not about to let my family do the same."
     "This is my fight!" he snapped. "It may have taken friends we
both cared for, but it came after me first!"
     He whirled and leaped into the air, Arashi high over his head
to be raked down upon the figure of the young woman he had once
loved. But then as the shadows from the flashing magiks played upon
all their forms, the face of the young woman he once loved changed
to become one of long dark hair and violet eyes.
     "Karasu-chan!" the dark-haired shrine girl pleaded, trembling
eyes starting to shed tears.
     He faltered in his attack. "Rei...."
     The dark-haired shrine girl's eyes narrowed in malevolent
intent and the Scourge's magik exploded. He was caught in the
middle, pushed back to the earth with a harsh landing in the dust
and cobblestone. With a groan he forced himself up, and then felt
the heat of the Scourge's magik at his back.
     "Karasu!" she cried out. 
     The ground beneath them both shattered once more, an enormous
but shallow crater spewing up stones, wood, light posts, and
whatever else might have been there. And yet she found herself
safely away from the blast. But she was more concerned with the
Wanderer, who was wincing as a piece of bloodstained metal poked
out from his ribcage.
     "Daijobu," he said through gritted teeth. "I saw that one
coming." Taking the bloodied end of metal in his hands, he simply
pulled it sideways out from his body, his chest rippling like the
ocean as the shrapnel was effortlessly removed.
     Suddenly another wave overtook them.
     He gave startled cry as the furies smashed his body into the
air, sending him crashing against the cobblestone once more. This
time, a force came with the impact that nearly crushed his body
into the rock. An illusion sent his body erupting into flames, and
he quickly reformed himself as the magik dissipated.
     But even that defence was only delaying the inevitable.
     His eyes widened as he saw from Rei's hands a sphere of magik
which shimmered like eternal darkness finding a crystal soul. From
the palms of a girl he once loved, the blak magik erupted and
smashed through the already broken walkways, rampaging towards him.
     Before even she could realize it, she was between him and the
Scourge's magik. The Silver Crystal shimmered as she summoned her
own magik, a barrier rising up to hold back the onslaught. Yet the
Scourge's powers tore right through and found her body instead of
his. She screamed as she felt the arcs attack, her skin in searing
agony as if hundreds of needles were being jabbed into her. And
with the agony came the nightmares. Crystal blue eyes were wide in
terror as she witnessed every last one of her friends and fellow
soldiers fall before the Sandman.
     The Elven lord losing a soul to become the Sandman. The tall
brunette being held in the arms of the raven angel. The shrine
protege trying to protect the long-haired blonde. The blue-haired
genius clasping hands with the masquerade wraith. The tall, sandy
blonde and the aqua-haired woman sharing one last moment together.
The Darkqueen in the arms of the Mystwolf consort, that same
Mystwolf summoning the magik of true death moments later. The time
guardress fighting the Sandman and losing. A mysterious young man
carrying a scarred face and a double-bladed scythe being caught up
in a hellish storm. A long and twisting dragon becoming a savage
sword. The dark-haired shrine girl being cradled in the Wanderer's
arms. Her dark-haired prince being pulled away from her grip.
     Her entire body seemed to shut down, and she collapsed before
him. His eyes widened as he frantically lifted her face off the
ground and placed it against his chest. 
     "Usagi!" he shouted desperately. "Usagi!"
     "Karasu," she whispered, eyes half-open. "Gomen ne, onii-san."
Her Imagika wasn't stolen, but this attack had been meant for him.
Something to drive him deeper into madness, to push him away from
his precious soul.
     "Baka Usagi-chan," he said softly. A trembling hand was lifted
up into the air, and with a nod he held it tightly. He suddenly
convulsed, his head snapping back as he saw what she was feeling.
He saw them all taken by the Scourge. And then finally, for him
alone, he witnessed seeing himself kill the Elven lord of Chaos.
     He whirled, glaring at form of the dark-haired shrine girl.
"What are you?" he demanded, eyes wide in rage. "Damn you, tell
me!"
     "We are what we have stolen, Karasu," the dark-haired shrine
girl answered. "The young woman before you is Rei, but she is our
Rei now. Your voice no longer reaches her."
     He growled, gently laying her on the ground. The grip upon the
Arashi was rediscovered, renewed. He took a step towards the dark-
haired shrine girl, a mark starting to appear on his forehead. A
golden crescent moon, symbol of the life he once could have lived.
It burned brighter than ever before.
     "Why are you haunting me?" he snarled. "Answer me. Answer
me!!"
     Her eyes fluttered open, the magik of the Silver Moon coursing
through her veins and giving her newfound strength. Her own
crescent moon appeared to replace her tiara. She reached up and
felt its burning light upon her fingertips. It was reacting to his
magik.
     And then before them, amidst the winds of magiks, shadows and
silhouettes of human figures appeared before him, an entire host of
eerie ghosts. The same ghosts he had seen and faced and fought so
many times, in both the past distant and past immediate. Yet
something was different, something he could sense with his own
magik. Something kept hidden and buried for so long.
     This aura that sent a chill through his body.
     "Masaka," he whispered.
     "What is it?" she asked, rising to her feet to stand by his
side.
     "You are just like us, Wanderer," the wraiths whispered.
     One by one the shadows disappeared from the wraiths to reveal
the dancers he had seen in the grand ballroom. And one by one they
removed their masks. Each face was a human face. Each one was like
his because of a single common link.
     "We," the host of spectres whispered. "are the lost souls who
never made it out, fading to become ghosts of the Myst. We are the
ones who were left behind and forgotten by both worlds. We are the
ones who came before you, who faded away to become spectres. It has
been we who have watched you from the shadows as you enjoyed time
between both worlds. You, who should have been one of us. You, who
mock us with your every breath as you wander two worlds denied to
us."
     The deserted city cracked, a jagged streak marring the
flawless perspective. Streets and lampposts and canals became
distorted as another crack shot through the dream. She turned from
one direction to another as the ground beneath them cracked apart
and finally shattered. The dream of the deserted city was reduced
to shards floating around them, a new scene in behind the mirrors
of canals and cobblestone streets.
     All around them was the grand ballroom, a place not unlike the
Moonlight Masquerade yet a creation of the Scourge regardless. High
above, decorated with elaborate carvings and surrounded by a series
of archways, an enormous clock neared close to the midnight hour.
Here the Scourge had once been sealed away for almost a thousand
years. Here it had seen the death of the Elven lord of Chaos, its
Sandman. And now it would see the final revolution to change
everything forever.
     She placed a hand over her lips as she heard those screams
again. So many times tonight they had haunted her mind, the cries
of those trapped within the Scourge. No...those cries were of the
Scourge itself. Lost souls searching for freedom, for a redemption
for their mistakes. She had been wrong. 
     They all had been wrong.
     And because of it so many had suffered.
     Crystal blue eyes widened, her body jolted as she suddenly
witnessed the memories of every last soul within the Scourge. She
saw them getting pulled in by the Mysts, felt their frustration as
they emerged within the Dreamworld, shared in their despair when
they realized they were lost forever. She couldn't comfort them.
She couldn't do anything. She was as helpless as they were.
     She blinked. "Karasu...."
     He failed to answer her voice. His face was lowered to the
floor, shadows of his shining blonde bangs covering his eyes from
her. Yet with every inch of his being he was seething, clenched
fists trembling in almost uncontrollable fury.
     The Wanderer reached up and touched the thick rivers of blood
that were still covering his temple and running down his cheek and
neck, onto his chest. His hands were soaked with the crimson
liquid.
     He snarled, slowly raising his head as he spoke their names
one by one as they had been taken. A murderous gaze met with the
souls of the Scourge. "So...this is what you are. The raven angels.
The Sailor Senshi. Chaos. Thanatos. Helios. Yui-chan. You stole
them from me, all because of what I am. I have more reason to hate
you than anyone else now--only because you hated me that way first,
you jaded bastards!"
      He stalked across the ballroom, his body tense as if
possessed, straining his neck towards the legion of ghosts. "Do you
hear me?! Yurusenai! YURUSENAI!!!"
     "Karasu!" she cried out, pushing down on his with her own.
"Don't do this. Can't you hear their pain? They don't know of any
other way to free themselves."
     By the expression on his face, she might as well have slapped
him. "Gomen ne, Usagi-chan," he said. His eyes narrowed, bent on
exacting the last piece of an ancient vendetta. "But I just
couldn't live with myself if I let them live too! I don't care what
they've been through. That doesn't justify what they've done to me,
what they've done to us all!"
     He stepped forward, but she stepped in front of him. Her eyes
were pleading with him to listen. The images were still inside her
mind, all their tears and sadness as they found themselves doomed
to be ghosts in a world not their own. "They are not evil, Karasu.
This is not their hatred. This is from loneliness, solitude from
their centuries of never being loved. This is your chance to redeem
them, to set them free."
     He pushed her away, something new clouding over his eyes. And
it was hatred, a thirst for vengeance that had been growing for
centuries. And now that it was so close to being quenched, he
couldn't hear their cries as she heard them.
     "You're too gentle!" he snapped. "You saw what it's done to
our worlds, to us! Because of it I killed one of my best friends
and there isn't a thing I can do to bring him back! And now your
kind heart goes out for what they've done, so who gives a damn
about what you think, Usagi?!"
     He turned on the gathering of lost souls, the crescent moon
lost from his forehead. Instead his scarlet-soaked dress shirt
started to burn, an ancient rune upon his back appearing. The mark
of the lost souls. "You want to send me to hell? Then if I die,
I'll have the comfort of escorting you all there myself!"
     An armada of crystal illusions began to appear, each one
radiating in harmony with the others. Thin beams of light began to
connect the orbs together, a tangled spiderweb forming within the
grand ballroom. The lost souls were beginning to whisper once more
in their hushed voices, uncertain of what he was doing.
     He was using every last shred of magik and strength that he
could summon. The blade of the Arashi exploded, metal becoming pure
and violent magik. A fiery blast of electric blue light shot
towards the open heavens, tinting everything in brilliant ocean
hues. A dark smile was upon his face. This would no doubt kill him
because of the sheer magnitude of power it commanded--even with his
illusions at work. It would shatter the Imagika he knew to exist
somewhere within the Mysts. And had he not already been touched by
the magik once before tonight, he would have never been able to
summon such an attack.
     Her own eyes saw the magik stirring, wisps of violet winds
rising up from the ground and swarming around his raging figure.
This aura...she had already felt it once before tonight. Her body
went cold, shivering at the mere thought.
     The eyes of the Wanderer stared coldly, distantly, at the lost
souls that had become the Scourge. "Death."
     "Iie, Karasu!" she cried out. "You would kill everyone, even
us!"  
     He grinned savagely as he saw the gathering of lost souls try
to move. But no one could leave, his skein of illusions locking
every door and barring every window. They would all die together in
this DarkWorld.
     She closed her eyes, summoning her own powers. "Please," she
whispered, fingers clenching the Silver Crystal at her breasts.
"Hear me, Karasu. This is an act of revenge, of pure hatred. You
aren't capable of doing a thing like this."
     He never reacted, never turned to face her. "Reborn."
     She raced towards him, one hand stretched out to intervene,
another still trying to find magik within the Silver Crystal to
stop him. "KARASU!!!"
     Suddenly the ground below his feet shattered, enormous thorn
tendrils shooting out from the depths below. His eyes widened,
caught off guard with all the power going to the attack of the
Mystwolf Darkqueen. His body was already weak from the battle, his
strength almost gone. No illusion could save him. No attack could
be summoned in that moment to protect him.
     He gasped as he felt his body torn apart, the tendrils
piercing his skin and moving through him. She came to an abrupt
halt, a scream escaping her lips as she gazed upon his form,
sprawled out high above the floor, thin barbs and thorns moving in
through his back and emerging from his chest. Limbs and legs were
also impaled, his hands shaking feebly as the Arashi fell to the
floor. As the weapon struck the ground, the fiery blade
disappeared. The Stormsword went silent. 
     Silence dominated the grand ballroom. Even the gathering of
lost souls were taken aback.
     "U...sa...gi," he gasped in a hoarse voice.
     She turned her head and froze upon seeing the silhouette of
the Shadowqueen. Long waves of dark gold billowed down past the
Empress' back, haunting eyes of black pearl watching her.
     "Komban wa, my child," the Empress said, walking towards her.
"I trust I'm not interrupting."
     The lost souls seemed to shift, many faces becoming the
masquerade facades and then the shadowy wraiths they had once
chosen to exist as. None were given so much as a second glance, the
Shadowqueen's only chosen one being her.
     "Now that I know what the Scourge is," the Empress stated,
glancing over to the host of lost souls. "I can handle their jaded
onslaught much easier. But as for this...."
     The Empress smiled coyly at her, fingers gently brushing the
Wanderer's pale cheeks. "This is something that would have consumed
us all. I stopped the Darkqueen once before from using this magik,
but that was when she held access to the entire Dreamworld. Karasu
could have only destroyed this realm made by the Scourge...but he
holds the Golden Crystal of the DreamMaster within an illusion. If
the one who forges an illusion dies, the illusion shatters and is
lost. If it had been destroyed along with him, the Dreamworld would
have ended, and Earth along with it."
     The tendrils faded away, leaving his body to fall to the
ground with a harsh crash. He moaned, weakly trying to rise as a
pool of blood gathered beneath him.
     "Strange that I always seem to be the one who intervenes when
your cause looks hopeless, Usagi-chan," the Empress said, turning
away. "Yet I am not about to let my own war end because of such a
petty rivalry as this between lost souls." 
     Her own eyes were trembling as she held her brother in her
arms, her white fuku tainted scarlet. "Don't you care?" she
exclaimed. "Is the world to you nothing but a handful of pawns to
play with? These are human lives and human dreams! Look what you've
done to him!"
     "Child," the Shadowqueen replied, turning back to her. "Do you
not understand? He is a lost soul, a being whose Imagika has been
forgotten somewhere within the Mysts. He is immortal. So long as a
Dreamworld exists for him to be lost within, he shall always live."
     The Empress returned to the shadows, to a palace beyond the
Sea of Night. There was nothing else here to do, nothing else left
here to claim for the Shadowdemons. She was left alone to cradle
his weakened form until his illusions regained their power. 
     "Usagi," he began, his voice raspy and weak.
     "Shhhhh," she answered, pressing a finger against his lips.
Slowly she lifted her head, looking out at the lost souls that were
closing around them both. But they were forgotten in her own mind
as she held her brother in her arms.
     "This is what happened to Galaxia," her quiet voice said to
him. "For all the evil she did across our galaxy, she herself was
not evil. Her mind had been twisted by the entity called Chaos, all
her nobility and kindness replaced with bitterness and a love for
destruction. So too are the lost souls, and thus so too is the
Scourge."
     His eyes widened as he saw their deaths.
     He witnessed each Starseed being savagely torn from their
bodies, dark silhouettes with telltale hair and figures convulsing
horrifically. First the Inner Senshi, and then the Outer Senshi as
well. And he felt her pain, shed her tears, was moved by her heart
as she drove out the entity of Chaos from Galaxia's body despite
all Galaxia had done to her friends, her world, her soul.
     "I thought the younger siblings were supposed to be the
reckless ones," he said, closing his eyes and managing a half-
hearted smile. 
     Blinded by his own rage, by his own revenge. And yet she had
seen through all the tears and anger. Perhaps it had been better
off that he had never been given the power of the Eternal Moon.
Even with his own bloodmagik, he had made the wrong choice.
     The lost souls were encircling them, shadows lost and masks
falling at their feet. Human faces with human hearts watched them
both as he held up his hand. A small crystal orb appeared, and
within its spherical form a beautiful crystal shimmered golden rays
upon her face.
     "I suppose I'll be scolded after this," he remarked, giving a
weak smile.
     She smiled back down at him with understanding eyes. "Hai,
Karasu. You will be scolded. But not now."
     Abruptly a light like purest sunshine breathed warmth onto her
face. She looked up to see the Golden Crystal hovering before her,
the illusion that had held it at the bottom of the Sea of Silver
Orchids shattering to reveal the crystal's power.
     She reached out to take the Golden Crystal in her grasp. Her
own Silver Crystal reacted as she took another magik within her
hands, both crystals suddenly exploding in a fierce blast of magik
that engulfed the grand ballroom, reaching out beyond and sweeping
across the entire Dreamworld. Everyone within those borders
remained still as they witnessed a shaft of light piercing the
eternal night, darkness turning into the brilliance of day. 
     Raven angel, Shadowdemon, Mystwolf, dreamer: all stood still
and watched the magik unfold all around them. Faery starlights were
everywhere, rising up from every last tree and stone and river.
     He managed to sit up on his knees, mouth open in awe as she
was slowly lifted into the air. Her Sailor fuku was gone, a pale
silhouette of her body before him. And then she became the true
Princess of the Moon, a whitened gown fluttering around her. She
lifted the crystals together, silver white merging with shining
gold.
     Crystal blue eyes closed and she tilted her head to the
heavens. The darkened skies above were shattered, the brilliant
full moon shining down. Hands of time were almost on top of each
other, pointing to a moon high in the starry heavens. Faery
starlights rose up from the ballroom floor, encircling the host of
lost souls.
     Lost souls dressed in their costumes of the outrageous and
fanciful shared excited whispers amongst themselves. And together,
brother and sister watched as with one final motion the hands
reached the midnight hour.
     The clock sounded, and a downpour of streamers, balloons and
confetti fell upon the ones that had become the Scourge. Feathers
and sparkles and paints and suits and masks all drank in the
ecstasy of the moment. Everyone there in the ballroom laughed as
they were rained upon by the decorations. And amidst the blurs of
colours, they began to grow young again until they all were in
their own childish versions of themselves. Giggling little boys and
girls raced down the aisles, having foodfights and losing every
strange article of their costumes behind them.
     "What's happening?" he asked.
     "Freedom," she answered softly. "Their dreams have been
reborn, and they have a chance to relive them once more...in
Crystal Tokyo."
     He watched as the light of the moon slowly overtook everything
in sight. The laughing children faded into the light, and the grand
ballroom began to break apart as the Scourge became no more. Soon
all that was left to float in this strange realm was him, and the
Moon Princess. Light died and became the forever darkness of the
Dreamworld. Stars twinkled around, above and below him. Was he
floating? Perhaps he was, though he didn't care.
     Princess Serenity stood before him, her long shining blonde
hair dancing around her beautiful form. She smiled, eyes of crystal
blue compassion looking into his heart and soul.
     "Look," she said, opening her arms.
     He first glanced down at his own body, the wounds suddenly
gone and an ancient uniform returned. The Arashi hovered before
him, awaiting to be taken up by its one and only master. He slowly
turned around, eyes widening as he saw the shimmering lights of the
stars become something else. Brilliant and beautiful crystals
surrounded them.
     Imagikas. 
     Starseeds.
     The Imagikas grew dim as the silhouettes of their keepers
appeared, first like ghosts and then as they were once known to be.
He let himself hover, turning slowly as he saw all those who had
ever been taken by the Scourge return. No matter who held their
Imagikas, they were coming back. There were dreamers of the
DarkWorlds, lost when their angels and demons were taken by the
Scourge and its Sandman. 
     And then he saw them.
     The raven angel, the masquerade wraith, the Mystwolf, the
Darkqueen, the shrine protege, the raven knight. The tall brunette,
the long-haired blonde, the blue-haired genius, the tall sandy-
blonde, the aqua-haired woman, the time guardress...the dark-haired
shrine girl. The Elven lord of Chaos, smiling impishly with the
wyvern and the demon-beast Rampage leaning over each shoulder. The
ScytheMaster and the dragon-beast, already looking away and fading
from the others.
     The dark-haired prince, adorned in armour and a flowing cloak,
appeared next to her, their hands clasping together. "The time has
come," the Moon Princess said. "To heal the wounds of both our
worlds, we all must sleep."
     "Crystal Tokyo," he said quietly.
     He had heard so many tales of such a place. And now the tale
was to become reality. For the city to rise up, for Neo Queen
Serenity to rule over it, the world had to sleep. Every living
creature, everything that ever had dreamed or ever would dream,
would fall asleep for centuries to let Dreamworld and Earthworld
repair themselves, and await the awakening of their new Queen.
     He felt a hand gentle rest upon his shoulder.
     Yui looked back at him, smiling. Those beautiful blue eyes had
returned to haunt his dreams, no longer staring at him with cruel
malice. That same dress, that same fragrant hair. Yui leaned over
his shoulder and kissed him on the cheek.
     "Thank you," her distant voice whispered. Yui's lips never
moved to speak those words, but what he still heard was only
brought to life by that smile as she faded away to be with the
others.
     The faces of his friends were also growing distant as the
Princess' magik took hold of both worlds. The people were starting
to sleep, and dream. Together they left as lovers to kiss one last
time before they shared a last dance.
     "Sayonara, Karasu...."
     It was just them once more, children of the Eternal Moon, the
lone warrior and the immortal princess. "Karasu onii-san," she
said, reaching out her hand to him. "Come with us. This is your
chance to finally have a place to call home."
     He reached out to clasp her hand, but as he did the faery
starlights encircled him, pulling him away from her. Neither
sibling spoke a word as he was taken into the darkness of the
midnight skies. The last time he saw her there, she was still
smiling, though with trembling crystal blue eyes that were shedding
tears.
     Imoto....


     A final memory, a last dance, an eternal dream.
     Sorata. Makoto. Somewhere from beyond time the raven angel and
the tall brunette laugh as they play with a little child in a
garden enclosed in crystal walls. Their daughter smiles, long
chestnut brown hair flowing down by her face, her crimson eyes of
a raven angel staring out into the night.    
     Kishi. Minako. The long-haired blonde screams and loves every
minute of it as she and her raven knight recklessly ride the
midnight skies at the front of a flight of dragyns. The wyvern is
there among them, finding kindred souls with these winged beasts.
     Meikyu. Ami. Having retreated from the palace's vast archival
library, the blue-haired genius and masquerade wraith dance
together amidst a blinding array of other revellers. The Midnight
Masquerade is now somehow a reality and not just a mere dream, the
floating palace seen hovering just beyond the coastline of Crystal
Tokyo.
     Yuichiro. Rei. He has become a knight of the new Dreamworld,
she the Queen's royal advisor. Their days are spent within the
serenity of Crystal Tokyo, their nights together beneath an eternal
night they have sworn to protect.
     Hotaru. Okami. The Darkqueen and her Mystwolf consort come and
go at their leisure, both to roam the Dreamworld in their wolfen
forms and to attend the Court of the Queen. They purr in their
quiet moments together, golden slitted eyes piercing the mysts from
which they roam.
     Haruka. Michiru. The tall sandy-blonde and aqua-haired woman
are beyond their solar system now, journeying to discover other
worlds such as theirs. Perhaps to find another Earthworld not
unlike their own. Perhaps to find a whole new Dreamworld to be
together within.
     Setsuna. The time guardress is once more at the doors of the
continuum, alone and solitary. Her current task upon Earth is done,
and so here she shall remain. Many nights are spent watching the
world and its many centuries through her mirrors. Other nights she
spends walking through the Dreamworld alongside an enigmatic young
man and his black tyger companion.
     Chaos. The Elven lord is busy lamenting over how Rampage has
become domesticated, the demon-beast purring as the aqua-haired
woman scratches under the skeletal chin. More than anything, the
Elven lord is now an acting ambassador--grown up yet not by much,
as he is not above pulling the usual stunts he has grown famous for
in the halls of the Crystal Palace.
     Helios. Chibi-Usa. Further into the future, the Tsukino maiden
has grown up even more, blossoming into a beautiful woman. Together
she shows the former DreamMaster the wonders of her world, and he
laughs with her as they dance within this new realm.
     Mamoru. Now he is king, the young man Endymion standing next
to his beautiful queen. He and his wife see their marriage, a
beautiful ceremony beneath a shining full moon. Soon they would
have a child and watch her slowly grow up into a young woman.
     Usagi. As Queen Neo Serenity, she awakens and brings new life
to the sleeping Earth. Now she rules over Crystal Tokyo, a time of
peace and prosperity being brought upon the world. Dreamworld and
Earthworld share the same reborn magik and wonder. And her heart
sees the beauty in everything.
     Yui. She is a young girl when they first take her into the
Crystal Palace. And there she meets them all, ones who know her
through a wandering warrior long ago in another life. Her new life
is lived in the company of friends and laughter, and in time she
grows up to marry the son of the long-haired blonde and the raven
knight.
     Nothing ever truly ends.
     Not in our world, not in our dreams.
     All dreams are eternal so long as we hold fast to them. And
one day a fantasy will become destiny if our magik is strong
enough. Perhaps that moment where your heart soars will be tonight.
Perhaps it shall come years or even centuries from now. But to
forget the magik that is love, compassion, friendship, is to forget
how to dream of beautiful things.
     Oyasumi nasai....


     And as for him....
     And as for him, it was just a case of having nine lives and
living for ten. He could still see the enigmatic spectres around
him, fading in and out of sight at their own leisure. The rose
garden flowed all around him, petals being swept across the kingdom
like delicate pink snowflakes. This was where it had all begun for
him. This was the realm he awoke within when he had first become a
lost soul. And so here he found himself once more on the eve of a
new journey.
     The shades were over his eyes, the Arashi sheathed within his
palm, the black jacket and tie fluttering in the cool midnight
breezes. He turned his head and saw the DreamMaster standing there
upon the cobblestone path.
     Helios' wintry blue eyes met with his. "The Golden Crystal can
only be harnessed by a pure heart. Over six thousand years ago my
predecessor handed down the title of DreamMaster to me, charged me
with the task of protecting the purity of the crystal and the world
it kept."
     From the edge of a fountain appeared Thanatos, the grinning
skull mask gone. "A DreamMaster can only be a child of Earth, a
true master of the magiks."
     Helios nodded. "I have been waiting for someone like you,
Kageno Karasu: a soul pure and dedicated, one whose eyes have seen
all this realm has to offer in both dances and darkness. You know
the Dreamworld better than any of the raven angels or the
Shadowdemons."
     They all stood amidst a field of roses that was rippling with
changes of colour: from red to blue and blue to gold and gold to
violet and then back to red.
     The DreamMaster stood before him. "You and I are the only ones
who have seen the Empress' palace beyond the Sea of Night."
     A hiss echoed across the gardens, the tapering form of Hades
snarling at something in the air. Thanatos turned, expression
solemn. "If the Shadowqueen ever gets hold of the Golden Crystal,
she will use its magik to spread her nightmares across the entire
Dreamworld. The raven angels would be wiped out. No one would be
safe to dream any more."
     The Empress appeared, leaning against the pillars of the
gazebo, arms crossed over her chest and the lesser serpynt on her
shoulder. "Ara ara, you make me sound so lovingly evil." She smiled
seductively at him. "I look forward the new future, Karasu. You
shall definitely make it interesting for me."
     They faded from sight, one by one.
     Soon he was alone among the sea of roses, the DreamMaster
standing before him. Helios' wintry eyes stared into his own
crystal blue eyes. Both reflected the glow of the Golden Crystal as
it was passed from one to the next. A new DreamMaster had been
found, and now Helios could be with the Tsukino child in the future
at last.
     The Tsukino maiden appeared next to Helios, the two grasping
hands and lacing fingers. "Helios," she said, unable to keep the
joy in her tears from running down her cheeks. Helios leaned
forward and they shared a passionate kiss.
     He let them have that quiet moment, ready to turn and vanish
once more. 
     And then a new voice shattered that quiet moment: "Matte!"
     Eyes shifted and bodied turned as a new figure stalked out
from the mysts. Robes of black fluttered in every direction, as if
the night itself had been cut into cloth. Bangs of jet black hair
dangled in front of blurry silver eyes.
     The Raithe had come.
     The Raithe's blind eyes narrowed at the Wanderer. "I will not
accept him as the DreamMaster of my world. After what he did
tonight, he is not deserving of its magik."
     He stepped back, unable to contain his surprise and confusion.
"Who are you?"
     "Kageno Karasu," the Raithe stated, raising up an arm and
unleashing a wave of incredible magik. "If you will not give me the
Golden Crystal by your own choice, then I shall take it back by
force."
     He was on the defensive instantly, the Arashi emerging from
his palm. The Raithe held out a hand, palm abruptly gripping a long
staff, its top ornamented with hanging metal rings that chimed
together. With a scowl, the Raithe pointed the shakujyo at him.
     "You are not a DreamMaster, Karasu."    
     Helios looked from Wanderer to Raithe. "Iie! We all want to
protect the Dreamworld; this fighting between ourselves will only
cause more needless pain!"
     The Raithe's gaze never wavered. "I will never forgive his
recklessness. He was spared by the Scourge; I won't be so gracious
towards him."
     Suddenly the Raithe attacked, wielding the shakujyo with
deadly accuracy. He was thrown backwards as pulses of magik slammed
into his chest, sending him careening into the clouds of myst. The
Wanderer tumbled onto the grasses, rolling right back into a
crouch.
     Arashi crackled, its blade burning brighter as he brought it
over his head for a counter-strike. Yet the Raithe brought up the
pole-arm of the shakujyo, blade meeting with a metal that refused
to be cut apart. Sparks flew and magik went in every direction as
neither one yielded.     
     "I don't know you!" the Wanderer exclaimed. "There's no need
to fight like this!"
     The Raithe leaned closer, blind eyes staring right into his
soul. "Iie. That is the very reason to fight: what are you here to
protect? What is it you don't want me to take from you?"
     His eyes widened. "Na ni?"
     The ground beneath his feet exploded, sending him twisting
through the air. Yet this time he was prepared, vaulting upside-
down and rightside-up across scattered pieces of earth before
dropping from above to smash the Arashi into the ground.
     The grasses sank from the impact, a crater sucking everything
into the epicentre that was he. But the Raithe had already leaped
back to safer distance. Blind eyes closed, incantations chanted in
hushed whispers.
     A rune burned onto the Raithe's forehead.
     One not even Helios could identify.
     One more ancient than all of them.
     The air solidified and grew enraged, swatting him across the
area until he collided with a tree. Yet the wood splintered apart
and he soared right through it before being abruptly stopped cold
by another tree trunk. The Wanderer collapsed onto the ground,
groaning as he felt fresh blood running down his face.
     He staggered to his feet, facing the Raithe.
     "Why are you doing this?" he demanded, one hand over his left
eye now covered in streams of blood. "Dammit, I don't even know
you!"
     "Baka!" the Raithe snapped, spinning the shakujyo around
before jamming its base into the damp earth. "In all your centuries
of life, in all your wanderings, did you ever stop and ask yourself
who had the magik to create the Dreamworld?" 
     He froze, staring at the Raithe in disbelief. "M-Masaka...."
     Even Helios was taken aback, unable to say anything in gazing
upon the Raithe. The rune etched above two blurred silver eyes was
one none of them could ever read, for such a breed of magik had
only existed tens of thousands of years ago.
     Each specialized magik held with it a personal rune.
     The Raithe wore the rune of the 'Dreamsoul'.
     The Raithe's lips curled darkly; a mysterious smile. "It was
my magik which forged the Dreamworld from the folds of the ancient
mysts, my breath which gave life to each kingdom," the Raithe said.
"It was I who sought out the first raven angels, who gave their
Imagikas to become the heart of each realm. I was the first
DreamMaster, and when the time came I gave the Golden Crystal, the
pillar of the Dreamworld, to another deserving of its magik." 
     Blind eyes of silver flickered a pale white, widening in
invoking magik. He backed away from the Raithe as furies erupted
once more, tempests threatening to send him flying backwards again.
     "But you," the Raithe stated coldly. "You, Karasu, were
willing to destroy the Golden Crystal and the Dreamworld all for
your revenge. Yurusenai!!"
     He was forced to his knees as the Raithe's powers overwhelmed
his own. The Arashi fell from his grip, blade sinking neatly into
the grasses. Wind razors were forged from the air, slicing small
but vicious cuts across his body. Arms crossed and gripping his
shoulders, he fought to withstand the onslaught.
     "Stop, please!" Helios cried out. "Why are you doing this? You
never truly fail if you learn--and I can see in Karasu's eyes that
he has learned."
     But the Raithe was beyond all words.
     "I saw the future that is Crystal Tokyo," the Raithe said
through the gales and furies. "I saw its beauty in my dreams, and
vowed to make it as real as the Dreamworld had become. For one
thousand years I have patiently waited for this moment--and your
vendetta nearly destroyed everything!"
     His eyes widened as he heard that.
     Everything he had endured, from birth until death and rebirth,
was from the Dreamworld. It was the only place he knew, the only
place he could ever call someplace like home. More than any other
realm, the Dreamworld was his to belong to. 
     That was why he had become the Wanderer: to guard over the
beauty of a world of waking dreamers. He was not fighting now to
keep his place as DreamMaster. He was fighting to protect the
Dreamworld. And he would be damned if he let it all end here!
     Warmth radiated throughout his chest, a passion consuming his
heart. He had a dream after all, a beautiful dream. One that became
a beautiful dream which encompassed everyone. His soul began to
rise.
     A heartbeat echoed inside of his mind.
     And the Golden Crystal within unleashed its magik.
     The Raithe was thrown backwards as a blinding white light
exploded from his body, ripples of magik washing across the
kingdom. Slowly he stood from his place, the wounds upon his body
fading away. The Wanderer's robes vanished in that moment, and he
now wore ancient robes of living night that matched the Raithe's
own garments.
     He could feel the heat of the Golden Crystal consume him.
     The magik died down, leaving him and the Raithe to stare in
silence at each other. "Ara," the Raithe remarked with an enigmatic
smile, wiping a stray trail of blood on the lips. "It would appear
the Golden Crystal has chosen you to be its guardian after all."
     He said nothing in response.
     The Raithe laughed slightly, abruptly turning and walking
away. Moonlit rays reflected off the polished metal of the
shakujyo, bouncing across the trees. There was nothing more that
could be done if the Dreamworld's pillar had made up its mind.
Sometimes a creator could not change the creation.
     "Was this a test?" he asked.
     The Raithe paused, glancing back. "Perhaps. Never forget what
makes you human, Karasu--even though you may be immortal. The
Golden Crystal accepts you as DreamMaster. I, for now, disagree.
Our paths...shall cross again." 
     And with that, the creator of the Dreamworld faded into the
ancient mysts. Black garments and black hair were clouded in grey,
silver eyes glistening in the moonlight before disappearing as
well.
     For a long time afterwards, there was silence.
     He found himself staring at where the Raithe had last been.
The robes of living night faded away, and once more he appeared as
the Wanderer. Perhaps he would meet with this soul who forged the
Dreamworld again. Perhaps not.
     It surprised him when the Tsukino maiden placed in his arms a
bundle of mewing fur. "I believe he now belongs to you."
     Wide, smoky-grey eyes looked up at him from a black body
adorned with jagged white stripes. With a laugh, he let the tyger
cub affectionately lick his cheek.
     "So this is what you meant," he remarked, looking into the
tyger's eyes. The Tsukino maiden had once said this young cub would
grow up; it appeared he now had a strange sort of companion for his
wanderings after all.
     "Sayonara, Karasu."
     Those were the last words as the DreamMaster relinquished the
magik over to someone else. He nodded and watched the two lovers
fade away to be reborn with the others in the future. The tyger cub
mewed in curiosity.
     He nodded. "Hai. There's one last place to go before it all
begins anew."
     Life is an endless dance of meetings and partings. Sometimes
we can anticipate such partings. Other times they take us all by
surprise. Death could be said to be the grandest illusion of them
all. It is never truly an end, but merely the beginning. For his
wandering soul, it was a second chance for a life and a love that
defied the situation he found himself in. 
     Just as the battle is eternal, so too is love.
     In the end it is all we have left to fight for.
     And all we have left to die for.
     Watching the Raithe disappear into the mysts, a part of him
died that night. What it was he never spoke of aloud, or even
whispered quietly to himself. He only knew that a new beginning was
on the horizon....


     In the distant mysts and shadows, he quietly watched them
disappear one by one from the Dreamworld, preparing for the sleep
that would find a new world emerging from the ruins of the
Scourge's onslaught. They would still dream as they slept, yet it
would be out of sight here in the Dreamworld. Both worlds had much
to restore, and so the mysts between two realms would become their
homes.
     His travels would be indeed stranger than before; he might
hear giggles and laughter carried in the distant winds, but he
would not ever meet even the fleeting image of a dancing dreamer.
The guardian angels would sleep, as would the Shadowdemons. Even
the Empress would be lulled to dream her own dreams. Yet he, still
a lost soul but bound to Earth with his illusions, would remain
awake to wander the vast realms the Dreamworld had to offer.
     The tyger cub growled playfully, trying to pounce on a stray
butterfly. However the butterfly gracefully fluttered away to leave
the cub with a stunned look in its grey eyes and a mouthful of
grass.
     He laughed, shaking his head. Strangers made for strange
companions. Then again, who was he to talk? From behind his shades,
crystal blue eyes watched the moon revolve around the heavens in a
forever night. The future seemed so far away yet so close in his
grasp. The magik flowing through his blood was also becoming that
of the Dreamworld. 
     And yet still he remained a lost soul.
     The paradox seemed too bizarre to even fathom.
     A smile tugged at his lips when he sensed her drawing close to
him from behind. She smiled as she saw him, her tresses of long
dark hair blowing around her. "Rei-chan," he said, a fond
expression on his face.
     "Karasu," she said quietly, a hand gently against his cheeks.
"None of us knew if you were alive."
     He chuckled, his fingers reaching up and sliding the shades
from his eyes. "I haven't survived extinction this long to have it
end here just when the world's starting to get interesting."
     She nodded.
     Violet stared deeply into crystal blue. They kissed, gently,
in remembrance of their times together. And when it was time to
part, both knew that it would be for centuries on end before they
might ever see one another again.
     "Oyasumi nasai," he whispered.
     She nodded sadly as the faery starlights encircled her, the
tears running down her cheeks as, with her hands clasped to her
breasts, she faded away into a beautiful dream with the shrine
protege.
     For a time he remained there, standing still and letting the
wind play with his shining blonde hair. All around him the open
fields and grasses rippled in the gentle breezes. A few solitary
trees in the distant rustled with their leaves. And high overhead,
scattered wisps of clouds rolled across the starry heavens.
     The tyger cub bounded over to his feet and followed alongside
him as he finally turned and began to walk through the fields.
Ancient and flowing robes of living midnight replaced his old suit,
and a silver cloak billowed out behind him as he set off to a
destination even he didn't know. 
     Follow the night, and its moon.
     And so the journey began anew, just as it had begun so many
years ago. A trail of faery starlights drifted in his wake as a
solitary wanderer made his way back through the realms of a
Dreamworld known yet unknown.
     He smiled to himself, the shades set back over his eyes. There
were many old worlds to explore, and so many new ones coming on the
horizon.



                           ENDLESS....



           all along this path I tread,
           my heart betrays my weary head.
           with nothing but my love to save,
           from the cradle to the grave....

                              -Eric Clapton