And, finally, we arrive at the ending.  You asked for it.  This
is the part where things remain dark and depressing.

	Some final author's notes:
	The original characters herein are mine.  I do not own any of
the following series/games which are either referenced, mentioned, or
parodied: Neverwhere, A Song of Ice and Fire, Sailor Moon, Revolutionary
Girl Utena, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Unreal Tournament, Final Fantasy
VII, Kingdom Hearts, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Dungeons and Dragons,
Rifts, Time Crisis, and any others that I've forgotten.
	Cynic is approximately 80,000 words and took roughly three
months to write, mostly over my summer break.
	My website is at http://www.bloodgod.com/smgray/index.html.
This will be up there eventually.  In the mean time, if you missed a
chapter, just get in touch with me.

	This is the end of fanfic writing for me, at least for the
moment.  (Until I get the urge to actually write
Cute-Blue-Haired-Girls-Conquer-The-Universe, my Eva/SM
Gray/Nadesico/Crest of the Stars crossover.)  However, I'm doing some
more serious fantasy stuff, and I'm happy to take on pre-readers.
Anyone interested, get in touch with me.

Django Wexler (khaine)
khaine@mindless.com

	"Well, Ken old chum, this has been a most riveting holiday
season."
        "Tell me about it."
        "We had some big fights, spent a lot of money, and made a lot of
promises we don't intend to keep."
        "I feel so congressional."
        -The Japanese Beetle

Cynic
Chapter Eleven

    "And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"
		-Shylock
    

    The Outer Realms were not exactly what Mary had been expecting.

    [I don't know what I pictured, really.]  Something out of Tolkien,
maybe -- a warped, twisted landscape covered in horrible monsters.
[After all, this is where those things come from.]  But the reality
wasn't bad at all -- a marble corridor, comfortably carpeted, lit by
flickering braziers, adorned here and there with small, tasteful works
of art, and leading up to a set of double doors that wouldn't have
looked out of place in any wealthy dwelling on Earth.  [Not exactly the
burning pits of Hell.]

    She realized, absently, that the black sword had relaxed its grip,
letting her take back at least some of her mind.  The power was still
there, though, and she caressed the hilt at her side and felt it bubble
and spit, just below the surface.

    [_Oh,_yes.__I_will_always_be_there,_when_you_need_me._]

    Reassured, Mary approached the doors.  There were no handles, but
they swung inward of their own accord as she approached, revealing a
dining room so vast she couldn't see the walls.  Candles hung in mid-air
every few feet, spreading out into the dark infinity like fireflies
marching in lockstep.  The floor was polished silver, chased with gold,
and the vaulted ceiling was lost in the darkness.  In the center of the
room was a long, intricately designed table.  There were two place
settings, and two chairs, both at the far end.  One of the chairs was
occupied.

    Mary stalked the length of the table, one hand on the sword at her
side.  The man in the chair raised his glass as she approached, as
though in salute.  He was tall and handsome, with hair past his
shoulders, dressed in an dark, immaculate suit.  Gray eyes glittered
with intelligence and malice, but when he smiled, the almost physical
force of him lashed at her.  Mary shrugged it off, and her eyes
narrowed.

    If the man had expected anything to come of his attempt, he gave no
sign of it.  He gestured languidly to the empty chair.

    "Please.  Sit down."

    Mary shook her head.  "I'd rather not."

    "As you wish."  He sipped at the glass, and set it down.  "I am
Tsuiren."

    [Tsuiren.]  The one who was responsible for everything.  The Dark
Lord, the end of the line.  Mary stared at him with contempt.  [This is
it?]

    "Might I ask your name?"

    "Mary."

    "Mary."  Tsuiren repeated it to himself, swirling the crimson liquid
in its flute.  "It was a long time before we were prepared to accept
that it was a lone human who was opposing us, Mary."

    She smiled humorlessly, but said nothing.

    "Somehow you've beaten us.  You've anticipated our every move, up to
the last.  And now you've beaten the strongest daemon I've ever known."
He sighed.  "What am I to do with you?"

    Mary's hand drifted to rest on the hilt of za'Tsara'vor.  Tsuiren
nodded, slowly.

    "All in good time.  Would you like something to eat?  A change of
dress, perhaps?"

    She glanced down at herself, amused.  Her shirt was in shreds,
plastered to her skin with sweat and blood.  On one of her legs her
jeans had been ripped away just above the knee, while the other side was
nearly burned through in several places.  Underneath, her skin was
unmarred, protected by the power of the black sword.

    "No."

    "You're really not being--"

    She cut him off with a gesture.  "I'm impressed, Tsuiren, but it's
not going to fly.  I might have believed all this, before, but not now."

    "Believed--"

    "This little game."  She waved her hand.  "As though it was all
beneath you.  But you're scared.  I can see it in your eyes.  So I'm not
going to play."  Mary tapped the sword.

    Tsuiren's mouth tightened.  "Scared.  Of you?"

    "Even if you won't admit it."

    He waved, and the table vanished, along with the candles.  The pair
stood at the center of a vast hall of black marble, totally empty and
echoing with every footstep.  Another wave, and daemons appeared by the
score.  These were not the carefully crafted constructs Mary had met
before, but bare simple sketches adequate merely to kill.  Their bodies
were misty, amorphous -- all that was clear was a floating white oval
where the head should be and two blades, twisting and shimmering like
liquid, in their hands.

    "Still afraid?"  Tsuiren smiled, slowly.  "This is my realm, you
know.  I control everything here."

    Mary drew the black sword, and the room buzzed with echoes.  The
daemons tensed.  Tsuiren's smile faded.

    "[Kill] her!"

    A dozen spears of white-hot energy ripped through their ranks before
they could even move, shattering swords and face-plates.  The air seemed
to shiver as Mary threw herself into them, and for all their numbers
they never had a chance.  At the end of every instant, everything within
arm's reach of her was dead.  [za'Tsara'vor] buzzed softly to itself,
complacently cutting the constructs down, and the clash of steel doubled
and redoubled through the echoes until it filled the universe.

    It seemed as though only an instant had passed.  Tsuiren took a
single step back as the bodies of his minions faded from sight.  Mary
sighed and returned the black sword to its sheath, and the buzzing cut
off abruptly.

    "Last chance, Tsuiren.  Take your best shot."

    The Dark Lord's hand twitched, but he maintained his composure.
"Ayre!  Get out here!"

    There was a long moment of silence.  When nothing emerged, Mary
blinked.

    "Ayre!  *Ayre!*"  The demon's calm reserve had finally cracked, and
he was screaming.  "Where the hell are you?  Come out here and *help* me
-- we can destroy her!  AYRE!"

    "Tsuiren."  His gaze snapped back to her, and Mary took a
threatening step forward.  "_Take_your_best_shot._"

    Fear and arrogance warred behind the demon's eyes.  He hesitated.

    "_Take_it._"

    "DIE!"

    Even at the end, Tsuiren was calculating.  He summoned a sword of
pure energy to his hand and feinted towards Mary's head, intending to
block her counter-attack and cut her down.  It didn't matter.
[za'Tsara'vor] flashed from its sheath, its buzz deepening into a thick
growl, and its edge was unstoppable.  It went through the Dark Lord's
blade without even slowing and passed through flesh and bone with ease.
Mary stopped at the end of the stroke, sword extended, and Tsuiren
staggered back.

    "Ayre..."  His voice was a croak.  "Help...me..."

    Then he faded, vanishing before he hit the floor.

 

    Mary sat cross-legged on the floor for some time.

    She wasn't really thinking.  Her mind was blank, except for the
regular pulses of the black sword's power.  Eventually, though, doubt
flashed a cautious fin.

    [That can't be the end of it.]

    The power of the sword pulsed in agreement.

    [He can't have been the real leader.  The demon I destroyed on Earth
was stronger than that.  And where are the rest of them?]  Mary's
thoughts flickered, suddenly, to Kei.  [I left her on Earth.  I wonder
if she survived the demon's attack...]

    ["It's...just a scratch.  I'll...I'll be..."]

    [...Sumiko died without another sound.]

    Mary's body jerked as the black sword's power slammed down, cutting
off that line of thinking.  She rose to her feet, automatically, and
looked around.

    The hall was still there, though not nearly as impressive as it had
been.  The black marble didn't quite sparkle as it had, and no longer
seemed quite so immense.  There was a door, too, that she hadn't noticed
before -- a simple, white, wooden door, completely out of place.  It was
the only feature of interest in the giant chamber, so Mary made her way
towards it, curiously.  It became no less ordinary as she approached.

    A quick twist of the handle proved that it was locked.  Mary looked
at it quizzically, shrugged, and then blew the wood to fragments and
stepped through.  It was dark inside, and she was silhouetted in the
doorway.  She got only a brief glimpse -- a bed, a desk, a chair, some
books -- before something large and heavy flew towards her head.  Mary
reacted instinctively, carving the object to bits.  Shredded pieces of
paper cascaded around her, and the person who'd thrown the book cowered
back on the bed in horror.  Mary put one hand on the sword, took a step
forward, and -- stared.

    "Please don't kill me please don't kill me."  Robyn had her arms
crossed over her eyes, babbling.  "I didn't mean any of it, I'm sorry,
I'm *sorry*--"  

    Mary grabbed her friend's arms, and tried to pull them away.
"Robyn--"

    Robyn screamed.  "AYRE!  Where are you, they're *here*, they're--"

    "ROBYN!"

    Robyn froze, finally recognizing the voice but hardly daring to
believe it.  She didn't move her arms.  "M...Mary?"

    "It's me.  Open your eyes."

    The other girl blinked, still in shock.  "But...you...what are you
doing here..."

    "I came to find Tsuiren."

    "He said the enemy was coming, and that he couldn't find Ayre...he
was going to k...kill me, but he didn't have the time--"  Robyn
practically jumped forward, throwing her arms around Mary's shoulders
and sobbing.  Mary sat down carefully on the bed, guiding her friend
next to her.

    "Robyn..."  She stopped, softly.  There didn't seem to be much else
to say.

    "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."  Robyn voice was muffled, since she
didn't raise her head.  "I've always told you everything, but I
couldn't...Ayre didn't want me to...we were helping people, I had to do
it..."  She squeezed tighter.  "You're not mad at me, are you?  Mary?"

    "No.  I'm not mad."

    Robyn looked up, eyes still half-filled with tears, her long hair in
disarray.  Mary brushed one errant lock among many back into place,
leaned forward, and kissed her.

    Startled, Robyn didn't respond for a long moment, then tried to pull
away until she felt Mary's arms twined around her shoulders.  After
another spare second of consideration, she leaned into the kiss,
wrapping her body close to her friend's.  Mary could feel Robyn's hands
warm on her back through the ruin of her shirt, feel Robyn's breasts
pressed against her own.

    When she finally pulled away, her voice was a bare whisper.

    "Robyn."

    "Mary--"

    "Shh."  Mary silenced her with a finger pressed over her lips.
Robyn waited, and Mary felt the weight of her body: warm, vibrant,
alive.  "_Shh._"

    A moment of silence passed.

    "_When_you_get_to_hell_" -- Mary swallowed, hard -- "wait up."

    A thousand razor-currents materialized in an instant and fell
inward.  Robyn certainly never had time to scream, and Mary felt warmth
paint her face.  She closed her eyes.

 

    Her hand trembled.  

    [I can't believe it.  I'm afraid, now.]

    The black sword raged at her, promising and threatening by turns.
She ignored it.

    [After everything, how can I be afraid of this?]

    She willed her hand into steadiness, and somewhat to her surprise
it obeyed.  Mary swallowed, and concentrated.  Moisture condensed out of
the air, gathering in a solid matrix, and a dagger of ice materialized.

    [I'm not afraid.]

    She positioned it carefully, right over her heart.  The tip trembled
only a little.  When she breathed in, it pricked the skin of her breast,
drawing a tiny drop of blood.

    [Not afraid.]

    The sword shrieked in her mind.  She breathed out.

    [I am *not*--]

    She breathed in, and slammed the dagger home.

    --[afraid.]

    There was a moment of pain.  Mary felt the breath rattle from her
lungs.  Then, darkness.

 

    Ayre materialized in the vast, marble chamber with a 'whaum.'

    He stalked over to the little bedroom, shoes clicking and echoing in
the huge space, and shook his head silently.  The place was covered with
blood and bits of bone, with Mary's body lying in the center of it.

    Another 'whaum' echoed through the chamber, followed by frantic
footsteps.  Ayre turned to find Kei, out of breath and somehow out of
focus, as though her body were seen through smoked glass.  

     "Kei."  Ayre smiled.  "You've come back to me."

    "What...what did you do?"  Kei stared at Mary and what was left of
Robyn.  "What did you do to her?"

    "Me?  Nothing."  Ayre shrugged.  "They brought this on themselves.
Lord, what fools these mortals be."

    "I...I can't believe..."

    Kei shook her head.  Her thoughts swirled, uncontrollable, and she
felt as though her mind were falling apart.  The marble hall grew fuzzy,
indistinct, and only Ayre remained solid.  His eyes -- one black, one
white -- looked at her compassionately.

    "Poor Kei.  You've done such a good job.  Let me help you."

    "No!  You--"  But she couldn't move, and he put a hand on her
shoulder.  Everything suddenly snapped back into focus, and new energy
surged through her.  Kei felt her mind sparkle for the first time since
she'd left the Outer Realms, and she stared at Ayre with a mixture of
hatred and awe.

    "You.  You're the Dark Lord."

    Ayre's smile widened.

    "Tsuiren was just a puppet.  You manipulated him the whole
time...but..."

    "Close, but not quite."  Ayre stepped back, and spread his arms,
like a magician revealing his trick.  All around him, Tsuiren's realm
vanished as though it had never been, leaving nothing but blank, white
space.  The marble hall was gone, the bedroom was gone -- only Mary's
body and little droplets of blood, hanging in space, remained.  Kei
looked around in horror.

    "I am, as you seem to have guessed, the Dark Lord.  But it's a
little more than that, Kei."

    Kei's mind, once again sharp and precise, had already raced ahead to
the inevitable conclusion.  Her lip quivered.  "No."

    "I'm all there ever was, out here."  Ayre sat cross-legged, hanging
in space.  "It's all mine, all of the Outer Realms."

    "I don't believe you."  She straightened up.  "This is another
trick.  You're playing games with me."

    "For the first time in your life, I'm not."  He put his chin in his
hands.  "Would you like me to demonstrate?"  Ayre's form blurred, and
Kei found herself surrounded by a dozen copies of him, all speaking in
unison.  "I control all the realms, and everything in them."

    "What about Tsuiren and the others?"

    He waved a hand, and the duplicates vanished.  "What others?"

    "Myrgai...and..."

    "When was the last time you really spoke to one of them?  Tsuiren
was a nice piece of work, I have to admit."  Ayre cracked his knuckles
modestly.  "He did require near-constant supervision, though."

    "No."  Kei shook her head.  "I remember..."

    "Not as nice as you, Kei."

    Her gaze snapped to his face, and her voice dropped to a whisper.
"What?"

    "Nothing I've ever done has worked out as well as you.  You lived on
*Earth*, for weeks!  Admittedly, there was some breakdown by the
end"--he waved a hand airily--"but nothing that couldn't be repaired."

    Kei felt her hands close into fists, of their own accord.  "I
don't..."

    "Wait."  Ayre held up a hasty hand.  "I know this all comes as a
shock to you.  But if you think about it, it doesn't really change
anything.  You and I can still be together.  We'll make a new realm,
crush the humans beneath our heels.  If I can make something like you,
Kei, I can do *anything*--"

    "*NO!*"

    Kei brought her hands up, and power crackled.  She lashed out
instinctively, trying to wipe away Ayre's words with a tide of fire.
She focused on his smug, knowing grin.

    Ayre rolled his eyes and waved one hand in front of his face moments
before impact.  Both Kei and the fireball froze for an instant, then
dissolved into white nothingness.  He sighed.

    "Another failure.  And I was so close this time, too.  Ah, well."

    He raised one hand, and Mary's body floated into the air as though
hanging from her hands.  Ayre regarded her still form for a moment, then
solemnly extracted the black sword from her belt and thrust it through
his own.  [za'Tsara'vor] purred to itself, softly, happy to be home.

    "Now I'll have to find some other way to amuse myself," said Ayre,
more or less to himself, and the only Category Seven in existence
teleported back to the Timestream with a 'pop'.

 

    Rin sat in the driver's seat of the black sedan, staring numbly at
the destruction.

    [I'm tired.  *So* tired.  And I still have to find a way to write
some kind of report about this.  But...]

    She'd been waiting for hours, since the destruction of the demon,
for someone to come striding out of that mess.

    [Mary.  Or Deus.  I can't just leave...]

    The flames were almost hypnotic -- she didn't notice the figure in
the black suit, approaching from the other side of the car, until he was
almost on top of her.  Rin started as his shoe crunched on the gravel
and spun around.

    "Agent Rin," said Deus, gravely.

    Rin let out a sigh.  "Agent Deus.  I'm relieved that you're safe.  I
was...worried."

    "Of course, Agent Rin.  I'm sorry to have troubled you."

    Deus circled the car and opened the rear door, tossing something
long and cloth-wrapped into the backseat.  Then he opened his own and
climbed in.

    Rin moved to start the car, then paused.  She turned to her partner.

    "Agent Deus..."

    "Yes?"

    "What happened?  With the demons, and Mary.  You were in there -- do
you know?"

    Deus considered for a moment.  He reached up, carefully, pulled away
his ever-present sunglasses and folded them into his breast pocket.
This done, Deus leaned back against the head-rest.

    Rin couldn't help staring at his eyes.  They were different colors
-- one black, one white, with no apparent pupils.

    "All I can tell you, Agent Rin, is that matters have been concluded
satisfactorily."

    After a moment, Rin nodded.  She gunned the black sedan to life, and
drove away.

 	
	
END


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