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EL-HAZARD THE FINAL NIGHT
WORLD OF ENDINGS PROMISED
PART THREE
"...I _wish_ it didn't have to end like that."
"It always ends. That's what gives it value."
-Death
"Hello, Nanami."
The lieutenant had often wondered why his master was filled
with such venomous hatred, a hate that had driven her to become
one of the most powerful people in the world. It was disgustingly
fascinating, like a gangrenous wound. It was compellingly horrible,
like studying serial killers. Often, he had thought about doing what
he knew to be right, but somehow he could never have done it until
he knew, really _knew_, why she hated.
Staring at the hazy image coming through the bug he'd placed
in his master's interrogation room, he felt as though he were on
the verge of understanding everything. And he had a name to put to
her evil: Nanami.
"Ah, Ifurita, I see that you haven't forgotten me." Her
voice was filled with a sick joviality, a gloating humor that he had
never, not in his twelve years of service, ever heard from her lips.
"How could I forget? How could I ever forget? It was you..."
Nanami shook her head and chuckled. "It isn't like you to
spread blame. All I did was choose to live my life as I wanted."
The platinum hair woman - Ifurita, that was her name - swung
on her restraints in a vain effort to somehow strike Nanami. "You
said you'd never return!"
Nanami shrugged. "I lied."
"DAMN YOU!!"
She laughed again. "Too late."
The lieutenant reached out and touched the staff that he'd
taken from the woman. Perhaps, this would be the only opportunity
he would ever have. After what he had done last night...
Decision made, he seized the staff and left the room. Thus,
he never heard his master say, "I damned myself the moment I left
Floristica, all those years ago..."
****
Karylis was conscious of the dirt, blood, and filth mingled
together on her once-clean uniform as she was escorted to the
Commander by the seven ceremonial guards, but she was determined
to hold to what shreds of dignity she still had left, determined not
to let any of the doubt that gripped her soul show. She walked with
a bearing that had been the envy of every one of her classmates.
All around the camp, refugees looked at her, wondering what
she might have done to warrant such an escort. It gave her hope,
knowing that most of the people had, indeed, escaped, but she
still didn't understand _why_ they had fled in the first place!
The man in the lead stepped to the door of the small house
the Commander had converted into the center of operations and opened
it. With no ceremony, they ushered Karylis in. The inside of the
building gave off a bustling air, despite the fact that there were
only ten people inside, all of them poring over a small map laid on
the table in the center of the room. A harried-looking woman was
serving tea, but no one seemed to have any interest in her drinks.
Her arrival caused no stir for a moment, but one person
looked up, noticed her standing there, and nudged the person next to
him. Soon all but the Commander were staring at her until one of the
adjutants cleared his throat. "Commander Yolin."
Commander Yolin looked up. His weather-beaten face creased
into a slight frown that cleared up a moment later as he recognized
her. "Uh... you're the young Warrior I sent out to escort Professor
Teslas at his request, aren't you?" After receiving a slight nod, he
continued, "report."
Karylis tried to keep her report brief and to the point, but
the Commander kept picking at her brain, asking questions about things
that she hadn't thought about. After spending nearly half an hour
grilling her, Commander Yolin leaned back and chuckled. "I see that
you've done the best you could in a bad situation. I rather doubt that
I could have done anything else. Good job, Karylis. Report to the baths
and then climb into an empty rack for six or so hours of sleep. We'll
need you tonight." He turned away, but Karylis stood there for a moment
before speaking.
"How can you be so casual, sir? We've done nothing to fight back
against these invaders since the first battles, we've let them destroy
the Academies, and now the Guardian has fallen! What are we going to
do,
sir?"
The various people scattered around the room gasped at her
petulant tone, but the Commander acted as though what she had said was
a
serious question he was required to answer and not a breach of all
protocol. He turned around and nodded slowly. "Indeed, you have raised
some troubling points." He looked almost frightened for one brief
moment. "The Guardian.... But now," he shook himself and swung one hand
to indicate the map, "it doesn't matter. The prisoners in their hands
escaped due to a traitor in their midst, so there is nothing holding us
back. Tonight, we will strike. And we will strike hard."
****
I stared at Nanami, startled that she would admit to such a
thing. In my amazement, I almost didn't listen as she continued,
"To be honest, I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't left
that day. Would I have been happy? Someday? I doubt it. Not if
I'd've had to watch the two of you..."
I asked, softly, "What was so bad about what we had, Nanami?
Why did you hate it so much?"
She didn't answer my question immediately. Instead, she
tilted her head and asked, "Do you remember what I said when you
came to me, pleading for Makoto's life all those years ago? Do you?"
I sighed in bitter sorrow as I said, "Of course I do. I
remember what you said very clearly. You said that you... enjoyed...
watching me cry. You said that I had hurt you so much that you
wanted to see me in pain. And you said that you hated that part of
yourself." I let that sit between us for a moment, then added, "Why
did you let that part become the only thing left in you?"
Once again, she ignored my question. Instead, she said,
almost to herself, "Did I say that? I must have. And yet....
Actually," she said, turning her attention back to me, "I was
thinking of something else that I said that day. Something it took
me ten years of living in El-Hazard, watching everyone around me, to
realize. It was about power. You had everything you could want. So
did Makoto. So did Fujisawa-sensei. Even my _brother_ had a
power he could use! All I had was a stupid ability suited only to
sidekicks and comic relief!"
Nanami stopped for a moment, rage creasing her face, then
stormed, "I refuse to be a second-rate character in someone else's
story. I have more pride than that. I'd rather be a villain, and
create my own story!" Now it was her turn to let a thought sit
between us. "That was why I left. As long as I was there, I was
nothing. Now, though, I am one of the most powerful people in this
world and my own!" She held out her open hand to me, then clutched
it into a fist. "And I hold the secret to immortality in my fist,
thanks to you and this ring you made for me, 'in case I ever wanted
to come back.'"
I stared at the ring I had, indeed, given to her so long
ago. It was slightly more tarnished than the rest of the jewelry
decorating her fingers, not as ornate, but worth more than any of
the more gaudy baubles around it. I looked away from the ring and
into her eyes as I asked, "How did you get the ring to take so many
people from your world? I never..."
She laughed carelessly as she moved the ring away from my
eyes. "You wrought better than you imagined, Ifurita. My scientists
worked for decades to unravel the secrets of this ring, and failed."
She scowled at the memory. "However, they did manage to figure out
how to stretch the field. And that is how. Why? Because I intend to
conquer this world, using the powers granted to anyone from
Earth, and rule both worlds from this one as I live forever!"
Then, she stopped laughing and assumed a very quizzical
expression. "Well, my brother is proven right once more. Telling
your helpless enemy all your plans before killing her _is_ more fun
than just killing her outright! Perhaps I should have done this with
my last partner..."
I snarled and reached for the power to crush this hideous
visage from my past, knowing that all my efforts were in vain, and
that my long life was about to end. And I wondered... why I cared so
much. Would it be so bad to die, after all this time? And I answered
my question quickly. I would not let myself die at this madwoman's
hands, no matter how tired I was of this... existance. Nanami
watched and laughed cruelly as I struggled to reach her.
The man who had been standing off to the side, holding me
from the start, went to his knees and clutched his head, groaning,
as I battered at the barrier he kept between me and my powers.
Nanami stopped laughing, but still didn't look too concerned. "I
suppose that now is the time to destroy you."
Then, the room shook with a violent concussion. The man was
thrown against a wall. I felt all my power rushing back into me,
like blood into an arm long since fallen asleep.
The first thing I did was tear asunder the steel ropes that
held my arms. The next was turn a gout of plasma-hot flame against
the man who had held me captive, melting his outline into the deep
carpet. Then, I turned my attention to Nanami, who was still looking
at me with that expression of unconcern.
I threw a simple wave of pure energy against her, more than
enough to cut her in half. She deserved a lingering death a thousand
times over, but I just wanted it over.
The energy passed right through her, and slammed into the
wall behind her! She flickered, like a bad camera image, then threw
her head back and laughed madly. "You don't think I was stupid
enough to come in person, did you?! I took a page from an old book,
the book of that ridiculous Phantom Tribe, and set up a room where I
could use a hologram to deceive you. It's too bad I killed my
brother, there are times when I think he could appreciate my
genius..."
I lost control. Throwing a wave of sheer kinetic force
outwards from my body in all directions, I wrecked everything that
could have possibly been a projector. Nanami's image shimmered and
died, leaving me alone.
I ignored the only door out of the room, because it was
probably a trap. Instead, I simply tore my way through a wall, and
was very surprised to see Makoto waiting there for me, holding the
Power Key Staff.
After a moment of sudden happiness, a burst of warmth that
defied all logic, I knew that it wasn't my Makoto. Only a fake,
created by Nanami to distract me. He looked at me and said in an
offhanded manner, "Don't kill me, Ifurita. I still have promises to
keep."
Creator, he even sounded like Makoto. Not noticing the
sorrow wavering in my eyes, he said, "The forces of this planet are
attacking. No doubt my men will beat them back soon, but I've found
that I don't care anymore. Here." He tossed the Power Key Staff to
me, and I caught it reflexively. "Leave. I'll kill my master myself.
It will be my final duty."
I looked at him, almost lost myself in Makoto's liquid eyes,
almost succumbed to a desire within me, a desire to ask this
doppelganger to come with me. I wondered absently if this is how men
feel when they look at pornography. They have to know that the woman
they are looking at is fake, only doing it for money, and that the
images are 'touched up' to make the women more beautiful, and yet...
they still desire those images. That was how I felt about this man.
Perhaps I am almost that shallow. But not quite. I simply
nodded and said two words that I had never used before meeting
Makoto. "Thank you."
He waved one hand in a casual gesture, and any illusions I
held about this man shattered in that one motion that Makoto never
would have made. "De nada, chica. But get gone." He was slipping
into an unfamiliar accent now. I nodded and left, walking away
slowly.
****
The lieutenant watched Ifurita's retreating backside
appreciatively, knowing that it was going to be the last time he
ever got the chance to look at a beautiful woman. He reached down to
his holster and unsnapped it, drawing out an ancient weapon handed
down for as long as the sword he had used in the battle outside. He
held up the pearl-handled Colt Peacemaker and said grimly, "If my
sword is my honor, then you are my conscience."
He smiled again, very sadly. "It seems you were right, Toni.
This really was a fool's mission..." He reholstered his weapon and
started off for the place he knew his master would be.
****
Nanami watched the battle rage around the base through a
thousand eyes. Linked to technology in a way that she had long since
forgotten had once seemed unnatural to her, she saw one of her men,
who had been gifted with incredible strength, literally rip apart
six or seven of the attackers before being burnt to a cinder. She
glimpsed the Commander of the Elmesi, whom her informants had said
was named Yolin, as he waded into the battle himself, hoping to turn
the tide.
But there was no hope for that, now. No doubt he had been
expecting a defense that used the same strategies as her initial
offensive: Numbers but little else. The natives had not been
expecting a one-for-one match, so they had already lost, no matter
how hard they fought. The powers that had been granted to her men
were far more than a match for whatever weapons the natives
possessed, even if those weapons had been created by a technology so
powerful it may as well have been magic.
She set six of her men upon Commander Yolin, and he went
down under their pack like a wolf beset by dogs.
Feeling a sudden surge of pleasure that threatened to break
the delicate concentration needed to maintain her link, she forced
her mind out into the meat world for a moment and wrenched her hand
out from between her legs, glaring at it angrily. Of course, it
showed not an ounce of guilt. This youthening body had... urges...
whose strength she had forgotten.
One incredible thing, however, was that just when she had
thought that she couldn't hate any more, her hate had redoubled. She
hated with the fiery passion of youth, hated with the withered
strength of old age. Her hate had kept her alive when even the
foremost doctors had said she was dead, and now that she was young
again, it gave her the strength to shatter mountains. And she wanted
nothing more than to feel a pale white throat in her hands as she
crushed the life out of Ifurita.
Knowing that the battle had been won, she didn't bother to
relink. She reached out her traitor hand to caress a cylinder that
never left her side. Even if she couldn't kill Ifurita with her bare
hands (she was a realist in many ways), Nanami knew from experience
that death could come from other angles...
A door slid open behind her, hissing slightly, but Nanami
didn't turn around to see who it was. She had known this day would
come from the moment she'd hired the young man who had shown such
talent in so many ways. So many of the young men that day had shown
talent, but none had born a slight, almost coincidental resemblance,
to a long-dead fool.
"I've been waiting for this day, Madam. Or should I say,
Nanami?"
Now she did swivel in her chair, and she saw her
lieutenant's eyes widen as he saw the young woman she had become.
"I've been waiting for this day too, my Right Hand. And it matters
little to me what you call me."
He raised the ancient pistol that dwarfed his right hand.
"I've come to kill you."
Nanami laughed throatily. "I've been wondering how long it
would take you to decide to do that. I've kept you out of...
amusement, I would say, the same way someone else might keep a coral
snake and not have the fangs removed. It's so exciting to play with
death."
Undaunted, he snapped, "I know why you've kept me! It was
part of your 'plan' against that woman with the platinum hair..."
"Her name is Ifurita."
"So?" He eased the hammer back, and Nanami knew that she
could no longer afford to play around. Linking back up quickly, she
sent a command via radio that she'd memorized long ago. A wet 'pop'
sounded, and her lieutenant's eyes suddenly rolled back in his head.
He collapsed, and Nanami stood up and removed the pistol from his
limp hand.
"And, knowing that your sense of 'honor' would compel you to
bite me someday, I placed a contingency in your cybernetics. A small
bomb in your spinal cord, not of any material that would show up on
a scan, but big enough to disable you permanently. Now, I hope that
you'll stay alive long enough to watch Ifurita die when she returns
to me." She sat back down, holding the pistol in one hand and
caressing the cylinder in the other, watching her lieutenant die.
****
It was... hard... staying on my feet through the smoke-
filled corridors, but I grimly kept at it, fighting back the
memories with a strength borne of terror. I needed to escape before
I fell victim to my dreams again.
Reaching a dead-end tunnel that I could _feel_ would lead
outside, I channeled enough of my power to blast the barrier to
smithereens. When the smoke cleared, I saw a familiar face.
"Karylis?"
She looked at me with a mixture of furious hatred and grim
determination. "You useless wind-up toy. I hope that you're satisfied."
"What?" I almost fell, and only prevented it by leaning
heavily on the Power Key Staff.
"You heard me. Thanks to you and your 'fainting spells', the
entire Elmesi military force is devastated, the survivors are
running for their lives, and Commander Yolin is killed! Everything's
gone! If only... if you only had been..." Her face distorted, and I
realized that she was holding back tears only by grim force of will.
But now I was angry too. "Do you think I want to go through
this? Do you think I enjoy the suffering that simply being awake
inflicts upon me? Do you want to see what I've been suffering?"
Without waiting for a response, I did something very rash,
something I hadn't done for longer than I could remember. I ripped one
glove off, touched Karylis's bare cheek, and interfaced. It was a skill
Makoto had tought me long ago, and it seemed... fitting... to use it
and share the final part of my worst nightmare. How my love's life
ended.
****
I flew through the Vortex of Worlds, maintaining my balance
and my sanity almost without conscious thought. It was good that I
could do so, because my mind was whirling in a way that made the
Vortex look like a tame children's pool.
My love was doomed. His parents were dead (the result of an
accident), he'd never been close to any of his other relatives, and
Nanami...
I pushed her to the back of my mind. I couldn't afford to
think of Nanami, lest I fly back and tear her head from her body.
Maybe... there was some hope. Maybe someone still had a
connection to him back on his planet. Maybe...
But I didn't think so. And, knowing that hurt more than
anything else I could imagine.
I reached El-Hazard, and appeared right above Floristica.
Not wanting to waste whatever time I might have left with Makoto, I
flew straight to his window and tore through it, making a mess for
the maids to clean up another time.
Makoto looked at me from the bed. He had aged well, much
better than even I could imagine, but he no longer looked like my
love. He tried to talk, and failed.
"It's been a month."
I turned at the sound of Maki's voice. She was sitting in a
shadowed corner. "Maki, is he... is he..."
"What took you so long?"
I shook my head. "I didn't know it would be so long."
"He's almost dead." Maki stood up. "I want to blame you. I
wish I could. It would make me feel a lot better. But I can't." She
walked out, leaving me alone with Makoto.
I reached out and took his hand in mine. Our minds brushed
each other, at first tentatively, then in a heartfelt embrace. We
felt each other, as extensions of our own bodies, and my mind ached
at the pain pulsing in his body. He showed none of it, though, and
said to me, *I love you. I can't do anything but love you. I wish
that the words to say 'I love you' took longer, because that's all
that's been keeping me alive. I couldn't leave you, not without
saying that.*
I replied, *I know you love me. I feel the pain eating you,
I wish you hadn't had to suffer that, and I can't let you do it any
more, no matter how much my selfish wish is to keep you with me
forever. Please, don't do it any more.*
Makoto smiled, and I felt the flesh tearing from the effort
of that simple gesture. *I have one last thing to do, before I
die...*
*Yes?*
And he was in my mind, more than ever he had been, his mind,
his soul, transferring into my own brain through our interface. He
touched me from the inside, and everything I had ever, ever
experienced paled, was nothing, nothing compared to this! He said,
*I will be by your side forev...*
And he died.
I wept there, shedding tears over his dried, brittle body.
For the next ten years, I tried to awaken the shard of
Makoto that rested in my mind. Nothing I did ever so much as stirred
him. I couldn't end my life, not as long as part of him was with me,
but I couldn't bear to feel him there, like a fire through a window,
like a tingle just before a shock, so... I constructed a bed and
went to sleep, hoping that I could find him that way.
It was the closest I ever came to him. Or maybe I was just
deceiving myself. Nevertheless, it stopped the torment, living in
memories of the past or entirely new dreams of a life with all of
us, still alive, still happy...
Just in case the people Makoto had so whole-heartedly
adopted needed me again, I placed protocols on reawakening me in
several locations. I begrudged every moment awake, though, because I
was so much more aware of _his_ mind within mine when I wasn't
sleeping. And it hurt, more than anything else I could imagine. Hell
is being alone, but knowing what it is to be surrounded by people
who love you. That was worse than anything, living life as I had
once, long ago, and knowing that there was something else, something
better.
And then, I was Awakened by a young woman who looked much
like an old friend...
****
Ifurita broke the contact, and Karylis fell to her knees,
this time weeping openly, unashamed. She heard the demon god say,
softly, "It seems that my love was right, all those years ago. Pain
shared is pain lessoned..."
Karylis looked up just as Ifurita whirled around. "Wha....
Where are you going?"
Ifurita looked over her shoulder and smiled sadly. "To end
it all. Isn't that the way every legend should end? I'd run away,
far away, if I were you." Then, she stepped back into the cave, and
Karylis took her advice, running as fast as anyone ever had.
****
I killed, but only as I had to, when fools that should know
Death when they see Her tried to stop me in my hunt. My hunt for the
center, where Nanami would be perched like a spider waiting for
prey. It wasn't hard to find.
I knocked the door down, not wanting to waste time. I was
not surprised to see the body of the young man who looked so much
like Makoto lying on the floor between Nanami and I. Nanami chuckled
and spoke. "I've been waiting for you, old friend. I wondered how
long it would take you to get here."
I leveled the Power Key Staff. "I will kill you now."
"Will you?" Then, she faded and vanished, and I knew that
she'd readied her ring as soon as she'd heard me coming. I spotted
the cylinder lying on the table beside the chair she had been, and I
knew her plan.
I grabbed the cylinder and quickly neutralized the weapon
inside. Then, I gathered the energies to travel the Vortex of Worlds
myself, and stepped into there in pursuit of my foe.
The tempests were stronger this time, much stronger then I
remembered them. Perhaps they had felt the chaos inflicted on two of
the worlds and were reacting? I steeled myself to them and looked
for Nanami. I didn't have to look far.
She hadn't been expecting the strength of the Vortex either.
Nanami looked at me with bared teeth, and her eyes barely widened
when she saw the cylinder. I reached out with one hand and grabbed
the front of her shirt. I dragged her back to El-Hazard.
Throwing her to the ground in front of me, I held the
cylinder in one hand. Crushing it, I said coldly, the coldest I have
ever said anything, "Plasma-neuronic weapon. Capable of killing all
life in a forty-kilometer radius and vaporizing everything within
two hundred meters of the actual detonation." I let a slight smile
touch my lips as I added, "A child's toy. Let me show you how it's
done."
And I gave myself to Holocaust...
****
The Elmesi Academies were rebuilt, and in the coming
centuries grew to a point that made the Academies as they were
before Ifurita's Last Battle seem insignificant. Many advances were
made, and a peaceful age that would, seemingly, last forever,
followed. However, like all things, this age came to an end as well.
But that is another story.
The buildings were more elaborate then ever, the sidewalks
more ornate, and the women and men more beautiful, but the first
thing every newcomer to the Academies saw was a simple statue, placed
in front of the headquarters of the Elmesi Warriors. It was
obviously carved by someone with more determination than skill,
though that wasn't saying it was carved _badly_. It was of a woman
slumping heavily on a staff, every line of her body expressing a
weariness that makes a person looking at it for the first time
wonder how she still stayed on her feet.
Looking more closely at her face, however, they see that the
woman is looking far away, a slight smile on her face, as though she
has finally reached the end of an endless journey, finally walked the
last few steps to an ending long promised.
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