[ Watashi ]

[ Tomodachi ]

[ Saint Seiya ]

[ Clamp ]

[ Fanfiction ]

I sighed, reading the message on the monitor and clicked on the close button. Damn. I had been trying to settle that problem for the better part of an hour, without success. Sometimes, one wished for a hammer to break one's computer in tiny little pieces. There was a quiet knock on the door and I said :

"Yeah, come in, the door's wide open anyway..."

I turned away from the script I was busy analyzing and looked at my visitor.

"What is it Alain ?"

He looked embarrassed.

"I'm afraid Pierre has moved the meeting to this afternoon. A matter of agenda problem on the customer's part I think. He asked if you could put some order on those analysis notes of yours and present the thing..."

I looked at the ceiling and laughed shortly.

"It's a joke... Tell me it's a joke Alain... Or I think I'm going to scream..."

My godsrotted boss was being a fool again. Hell, did he think I was going to do during my lunch time what I had planned to do quietly during a half day ? I got up and began pacing in my office.

"Hey, don't take it out on me Fiona, I'm not the one responsible you know..."

I sighed.

"Yeah, yeah I know. The coward didn't have the guts to come and tell these wonderful news to me. He knows too well I'd have sent him to hell..."

I smiled bitterly.

"And I bet he just left and won't be reachable until the meeting, am I not..."

Pain erupted inside of me and I moaned, falling.

"Fiona !"

Alain was holding me. Oh gods, that pain... It was as if something inside of me was trying to get out, as if I was being torn from the inside. Unable to help myself, I cried.

"Fiona ! What's going on ? Fiona !"

There was panic in Alain's voice. Strangely, I couldn't lose consciousness, I couldn't escape from the pain. I got a grip on myself and whispered with a weak smile :

"Sorry... No meeting..."

The pain eclipsed every other feeling. I wasn't even afraid. I freed myself from Alain's grasp and managed a few steps towards the door.

"Help me out... Will you... I'm going home..."

He passed my right arm around his shoulders and supported me. Damn, this one would be on everyone's lips, they'd talk about it during months... And I hated gossip. Great.

Alain looked at me worriedly. We were both waiting for the taxi to show up. Gradually, the pain was receding. It was bearable now. I smiled :

"I'll be okay... I must have eaten something bad..."

Alain nodded.

"I sure hope it's only that..."

He swore, looking towards the street.

"Shit ! Where's that taxi ?"

Suddenly, a secretary came to us, running.

"I'm sorry. There's been a call from the taxi company. They can't send anything now, and no other company can."

Alain shook his head.

"What's this joke about ?"

She looked at us, surprised.

"Haven't you heard ? Something terrible has happened in the center of town. Skyscrapers have fallen, hundreds of people have died. Everyone is trying to leave the city. They said that at the noon news, five minutes ago..."

I thought my heart would stop. Ashura... No... Forgetting everything else, I ran towards the center of the city, my mind full of pictures of blood and death.

Everything had been destroyed. It was like... Exactly like what I had seen in the vision, it was... I closed my eyes, feeling sick. Eventually, I began walking again. I ignored the now almost gone pain in my stomach and the tears streaking my face. I didn't know if the future was set, if there was no way to try and stop this monstrosity, but I couldn't go away and wait for the outcome. I had to do something... I knew Ashura, I knew her. There had to be something I could do.

The proud skyscrapers were now nothing more than a pile of rubble. I leaned against a fragment of wall. There was a solitary figure standing at the center of a small plaza. I shivered. I knew those pointed ears, that long, flowing black hair... The sun was reflecting on the balde of a sword she was holding in her right hand. A cristal blade tainted by blood. Clearly, not all the people whose bodies were covering the plaza had died in the destruction of the skyscrapers. Suddenly, I saw someone emerging from the rubble, getting up with difficulty.

Yasha...

He was holding that giant saber of his in both hands. He had mutliple wounds on him, it was a miracle he could still stand. Ashura turned slowly towards him, and a smile lit her face. Evil. Full of hatred. Yasha took a faltering step towards her, raising his weapon, and abruptly I understood.

"We won't let the other wake. We'll do whatever we have to to prevent that..." Yasha's own words... Then he meant... I bowed my head. He meant to kill the person he loved. No... Unable to bear the thought, I walked up to them, crying :

"No ! Yasha don't do that !"

Surprised, he looked in my direction, and at the same time Ashura hurled a shining ball of flames to him. It caught him squarely in the chest and he fell.

"So..."

Ashura had turned towards me. Her golden eyes were observing me with curiosity.

"Why would a lowly human being meddle in my affairs ?"

I shook my head, pleading.

"Ashura, I beg you... We are friends... I know this is not you..."

She laughed, and I found myself savagely pushed back against a piece of concrete. I watched her coming slowly towards me, unable to move. Despise was now written on her expression beside hatred.

"Foolish human... Who do you think you are ? Your presence, your very life disturbs the silence..."

I couldn't look away. This... This couldn't be the gentle Ashura who enjoyed making a fuss with my cat... I whispered :

"This... cannot be... Please Ashura... Please come back... Do not... Do not destroy this world..."

The tip of her blade touched my right cheek, right below the eye and she laughed.

"Tell me... Tell me why I shouldn't destroy this earth... Tell me why I should spare cruel and disgusting creatures like you... Tell me why I shouldn't grant the peace and silence of death to all those who suffer because of humanity..."

My tears were running along the blood on her blade. What could I answer to that ? What could I answer when what she had said found an echo in my soul ? Suddenly, I remembered deep purple eyes, gentle laughter and infinite tenderness and said :

"Because there is still love. Because we can still love..."

Her sword opened a deep cut in my cheek and pressed dangerously against my throat.

"Ridiculous ! Love is a lie !"

The cristal blade was slowly entering my flesh. She was going to kill me, everything was going to happen as I had seen it... I said, searching desperately her golden eyes :

"Why... Why does it have to be set ? Why does the vision have to be true ?"

Suddenly, she looked at me closely.

"Vision ? You knew what was going to happen and still you came ?"

I smiled sadly.

"Yes... Yes I've had this terrible vision, I saw you... killing every living thing... Killing me... I never told you, I didn't want to believe...

She chuckled.

"I see... I am indeed going to kill you, but first I will prove to you that love is a lie..."

The light in her eyes was terrible. She said loudly :

"Stop hiding you meddlesome thief ! I know you're here !"

There was a small chuckle, and a voice said, coming out of nowhere.

"Come on Ashura, I have to protect myself from your wrath... I don't want to die again... It's really not an enjoyable experience you know."

That voice... I... The voice telling the prophecy of the end of the world... And yet a bit different... Familiar... Ashura smiled.

"I knew it had to be you... Although I don't know how you can be alive."

"Oh... That..."

The voice had taken on a mocking tone.

"As my life left me, I knew that I had failed. I knew that you would be freed one day..."

There was suddenly pain in the voice.

"I had never known such despair. My failure meant that all that had happened before had been for nothing. All these pains, all these deaths..."

The voice laughed shortly.

"But then, I was lucky. A tainted and sinful soul like mine could never know peace. I was found unworthy and so was trapped in a new life, condamned to wait during centuries, to prophesize the end of this world and..."

Ashura smiled.

"Yes, and..."

The voice said harshly :

"That's not your concern."

Ashura laughed.

"And what do you intend to do this time ? Will you try to play against Fate ? Will you try to cheat ?... If you want to win, you will have to do better than this pitiful human fool..."

There was a sigh.

"There is only one Fate. Even I know that. Still, we are the ones building our own future... You cannot say how this will end."

Ashura smiled, looking at me.

"Oh, but I think I do. The time of your sick little games is over. Show yourself, let the truth be known or I shall be the one to do the telling..."

Suddenly, a dark shape appeared at the other end of the plaza and came towards us.

Black wings, raven black, two deep purple eyes and a third one, horrible, like an open wound... I whispered :

"Kujaku... ?..."

Could this dark angel be the man I loved ? He looked at me.

"I am sorry Fiona."

I shivered, feeling a cold shroud of ice closing around my heart.

"Who are you ?"

He smiled wistfully.

"I am the last of the seers of Tenkai... And I am also Ashura's friend..."

I searched his face.

"Then... Our meeting was no accident..."

He chuckled.

"No... Of course not !..."

This... This was not happening. It was a nightmare, and I was going to wake up soon. He became serious again.

"The only person in this world who matters to me is Ashura. For her I have gone against Fate once already, and I intend to do it a second time. You... You are a possibility in the balance of things, a pebble that can bring about Fate one way or the other..."

Suddenly I felt empty inside, as if my heart had died. I said in a voice devoid of emotion :

"Then you used me... Like a tool... You said you loved me..."

He shook his head.

"My poor little lady... I myself have lost track of the number of lies I've told in my both lives..."

Each of his words was a shaft piercing my soul.

"You swore you would never hurt me..."

His expression was hard.

"No. I said I wouldn't harm you if it was in my power to prevent it... It is not."

I looked at him helplessly, unable to make myself deaf to his words, hearing them echoing endlessly in my mind. I was beyond thinking, beyond caring, beyond feeling pain. Ashura laughed at this, and told me :

"So you see... Love is a lie... You have no reason to wish this world to live... Better death and peace than pain, don't you think ?"

I stared at her a long time and eventually said :

"Maybe... But why should you care ? Why destroy this world ? Didn't you have enough with your own ?"

She withdrew her cristal blade from my throat.

"I want peace, and silence... I never destroyed Tenkai, you are mistaken. Tenkai died thanks to you... You stupid humans who abandoned your beliefs, who stopped believing in your gods... Humanity may have depended on gods to create it, but in their turn gods depend on the prayers and beliefs to exist... What is a god in whom no one believes anymore but a myth quickly forgotten ? You were the ones who destroyed my world."

I bowed my head.

"I... I'm sorry..."

She laughed again.

"Now you die."

End of Part 7.

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