[FoR/YYH/R.5] The Last Darkside Story (Title Pending)

[Midnight Sun]

God...been way too long since I actually finished a chapter. Anyway, comments, criticisms, and the lot are appreciated. A fair bit of warning, it tends to get overly wordy and descriptive at parts, and I got REALLY lazy near the end of the chapter, so the sloppiness factor increases noticeably.

Also, this chapter is one gigantic spoiler for the last volume of Flame of Recca, at the same token (and yes I know this is bad practice) it assumes the reader has read said volume (I'll likely edit things to make this aspect more reader friendly).

TO LIDDO-KUN: Yes, as you can see I have not incorporated your changes yet. I will do so as soon as I get C&C for the entire chapter.

Anyway, here goes.





[Flame of Recca/Yu Yu Hakusho/Ranma 1/2][Crossover]

[FoR/YYH/R.5][Crossover]

Disclaimer: Flame of Recca, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Ranma 1/2 do not belong to me and
are the sole property of Nobuyuki Anzai, Yoshihiro Togashi, Takahashi Rumiko and
all other associated creators, owners, and distributors.






"Do you really have to go?"

It was early morning. The sun was just beginning to rise in the east, but the
biting autumn cold from the night before still hung in the air.

"We've discussed this already Nodoka, this has to be done," he answered sternly,
clouds of milky white mist bursting from his mouth with each word. "I have much
to teach this boy if he's to be a proper heir, and the only way to do that is
out there in the world, not here at home."

Husband and wife stood outside the front gates of their home, looking into each
other's eyes one last time.

"Besides, its not like we'll be gone forever. We'll be back before you know it,"
he said with the same overbearing and confident smile his wife found so
endearing. "And when we do, our son will be a man among men. I swear."

"I know, but I had to at least ask one more time," Nodoka said with a small
smile across her face. She turned her eyes toward their still drowsy five-year-
old son who stood at her husband's left, holding his hand. "Now Ranma, I want
you to behave yourself. Don't give your father any unnecessary trouble alright?"

Little Ranma simply yawned his response, too tired to really grasp what was
happening. His father had told him that they would be going on a trip, but he
never told him that he would have to get up so early in the morning.... At the
very least, he was told that he would be missing a few days of elementary
school, which was always good...

"If you promise to behave yourself, I'll give you a present before you go," she
added, which immediately roused her son from his drowsed stupor.

"Okay, I promise I'll be good!" he answered with typical child-like enthusiasm.

Nodoka knelt down to his level, reached into the sleeves of her kimono, and
produced two small, sparkling objects.

"I want you to have these Ranma," she said. They were both jewels, one made of
bright ruby quartz, and the other of pure emerald. Both crafted in the shape of
magatama, which resembled a sprouting seed with a hole through it. "These are
very special, and not because of what they're worth."

"Pretty..." he whispered as he stared in wide-eyed wonder.

"One of these is for you to keep," she instructed, holding up the jade hued gem.
"The other is only for someone special to you. This gem is meant for a true
friend, and no one else. Someone you can hold dear to your heart for as long as
you live."

"True...friend?" Ranma repeated, trying to understand.

"Yes, someone you can trust no matter the circumstance," she elaborated. "When
you find that one person, I want you to give the ruby jewel to that person."

She placed them into Ranma's waiting hands before standing up straight. She
smiled briefly as Ranma continued to delight at just watching them glimmer in
the creeping sunlight. She then turned her eyes straight toward her husband.

"Jewelry Nodoka?" Genma started before Nodoka. "Isn't that unbecoming of a
future man among men?"

"Genma, those stones I gave Ranma are very important to me," Nodoka warned her
wayward husband. "I don't want you doing ANYTHING to them, ESPECIALLY taking
them from Ranma. Do you understand?"

"Tch, just who do you take me for?" Genma scoffed at the notion. "As if I would
take from my own son, especially little trinkets like that."

Before he could say another word, Nodoka took his face between her hands and
pressed her lips against his. The kiss was long, warm, and sweet. Fortunately
Ranma was too distracted by his new gift for any harmful thoughts to form in his
innocent mind by watching them. Eventually, in what seemed like an eternity, she
pulled away, leaving her husband slightly flushed in surprise.

"As for you Genma, I want you to promise me something as well," she said with a
stern expression.

"What might that be?" he asked in genuine curiosity.

"Promise to make our son strong, stronger than anyone on this Earth," she
answered. "Strong enough to defeat the world if he has to."

"Hah, of course," he said with a laugh. He never knew his wife was so agreeable
to the training. "By the time I'm through with the boy, he'll be invincible!"

"Hmmm, I look forward to seeing it," she whispered, more to herself than to her
husband. "I truly do."





The Last Darkside Story
By Midnight Sun

Chapter 1





"Eternal...slaughter..."

"Eternal...greed..."

The death throes of madmen, just before their echoing final scream as a burned
and bloody fist ripped through the mutated mass of flesh that was their brain,
the vessel of their combined essence. The force of the final blow caused the
core of the Tendo Jigoku to nearly explode on impact, sending its shredded,
deformed remains sailing to the winds, slowly disintegrating into nothing.

"It's...over...," they relented woefully. Even beasts driven by the basest of
human desires can realize their own defeat. "Eternity...has ended..."

A stunned silence hung in the air. The cavern was still thick with the heat of
the flames given off during the battle with Heaven and Hell. The fight had been
too long, too hard, and too bloody, and finally it was all coming to a
conclusion...

"Now...the history of the Hokage has come to an end...," Resshin proclaimed.

One by one the madougos cracked and shattered, first the Ensui, then the Shinryo
Shinto, the Fuujin...anything even remotely related to the Hokage legacy was
being reduced to dust in the winds of time...

"With the Tendo Jigoku destroyed, our final task is complete," Resshin
continued. "The Hokage will disappear from this world...forever."

"Ah!" Recca cried in surprise as the symbols representing the eight karyu
emblazoned on his shoulders slowly burned themselves away. They felt...hot...a
sensation he had not truly felt since he awakened to his powers... "Wha...what
the hell..."

Even as his powers faded, he looked up so see the face of the person he'd nearly
given up his life to save. To see her smile again was a gift greater than gold,
even as her left wing of flame slowly unraveled into a miasma of sparks and
feathers...

"No...don't mess around like that..." Recca muttered as reality dawned on him.
All things Hokage would vanish from this world, the madougos, the power of the
flame...and all things created by that flame. "NO! YOU CAN'T DISAPPEAR!"

On impulse he threw his arms around her. Maybe he thought if he held on tight
enough she would not disappear, maybe if he willed her to stay, she would, or
perhaps the futility had simply not set in fully yet...

"You've fulfilled your duties as a flame master of the Hokage, without any
regrets, and because of that the curse of the flame dragons has finally been
lifted," Resshin explained. "We will vanish, the Hokage will vanish, and all of
its powers as well."

"DAMNIT! YOU ASSHOLE! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" Recca screamed in protest as Yanagi
continued to fade in his arms. "I DIDN'T DO ALL THIS FIGHTING JUST SO SHE COULD
DISAPPEAR! YOU CALL THIS FULFILLING MY DUTIES WITHOUT REGRETS?!!"

"Recca..."

Yanagi's whisper broke through his fevered ranting. She sounded so...calm, even
as her own life was fading away...

"Recca...the time I had to spend with you...they're times I'll never forget,"
she said, ever smiling and staring up at him with those crystal blue eyes of
hers. "I love you, Recca."

"W...what are you saying, hime?" He replied, his voicing cracking. "D...don't
talk like that. W...we'll find a way...you won't fade away...you won't..."

"Recca," she said, cutting him off again. She placed her hands on either side of
his face. Even with his rapidly declining resistance to flame, he was not
affected by her touch... "The Hokage are gone, you're not a ninja anymore, and
I'm not your hime anymore."

She drew him closer and pressed her lips against his. She had done this once
before, but this time felt so different. It felt like the flame that made
Yanagi's body was leaping down his throat and filling his entire body, it could
not understand what a sensuous feeling it was, only that he did not want it to
end...

"I'm just Yanagi, and you're just Recca," she said after she broke away. "Never
forget that, never forget me, and never forget how much I love you Recca."

Little by little, what was left of her faded away like a flickering candle in
the wind. His hope...his love...his flame. She had given him a second life, she
had given him something worth fighting for...and most importantly...she had made
him a true flame master...

"Wait...don't go...please..." he pleaded in vain. It was all he could do...

"Goodbye...Recca..." her final, ethereal words echoed throughout the cavern has
she finally vanished. At the same time, the mark of Resshin disintegrated
completely.

As the final wisps of flame extinguished, Recca collapsed to his knees. It all
seemed too unreal, too unfair. He stared blankly at where she had been with tear
filled, reddened eyes...

"Goodbye...Yanangi..."


*


Another goodbye, yet another in the many he had had to suffer through since the
beginning of his crusade...

"Kurenai...Jishou..."

He did not know whether he could call them all close friends, some them even
turned out to be enemies, but they had all, at one point or another, fought by
his side. And at one point or another...they died.

"You have been my friends throughout my journeys," he says. Was he really
speaking just to them? Or to everyone who had sacrificed themselves for his
cause? "I will never forget you! I swear!"

Let this be the last goodbye...

Kai...

Joker...

Jishou...

Mother...

Father...

Kurenai...

Let this be the last goodbye...

"Kurei..."

That voice...it sparked something long thought buried. It had been so long since
he last heard her voice. It was like some long lost music to his tired ears...

"Kure...nai..." he whispered as he raised his head. His angel...his greatest
weapon...her face was now more human than it had ever been. Ever since the flame
of the Phoenix touched the soul of his love she had always been something like a
machine, cold...emotionless...only seeming to experience emotion while in the midst
of battle, blindly following the orders of her master and creator. "You...can
speak?"

She gently floated down to his level. Her eyes sparkled with the same beauty and
life they did when she was alive...

"I've always been able to speak, you just haven't been able to hear," Kurenai
said. "You can hear me now...because your heart is open to me...to yourself..."

Her words seemed to travel far deeper than just his ears. He could not quite
place it, but he felt she was talking into him, rather than just to him. He
guessed she was most likely speaking to him telepathically; her lips not moving
when she spoke drove that thought home.

"My...self?" he managed to get out.

The winged flame maiden reached up and touched his weathered mask with both
hands. It was only a slight touch, but cracks began to spider web from where her
fingers and the façade met. In a second it burst into a thousand pieces, each
one erupting into flame and incinerating in mid air.

"Masks to hide herself, chaining your soul down into the depths of your own
darkness. You've taken so many burdens onto yourself...you've forgotten what
relief feels like," she spoke in a dismayed tone, but then...slowly...a smile formed
on her face. "But...I think you might be going back to the man I fell in love
with..."

What did she mean? He was silenced by his confusion, until he felt something wet
down the sides of his cheeks, and the vision of his love was suddenly blurred.

"W...what?" he stammered as he reached up to touch the wet trail of tears.
"How...can this..."

Kurenai reached up again, and placed her hand over the scar that stretched down
over his left eye. Her touch was...warm...not what he expected from the searing
flame that had burned so many of his enemies to ashes.

"Up 'till now, you've only used me for destruction, but I didn't care. I was
only content to be at your side forever," she said. Her hand glowed as she
slowly slid it down his face as she caressed his acid scarred skin. "But now
your heart is open again, and now I can do so much more..."

She removed her hand...and the burn was gone. Ever since he had received it from
Mori Kouran, he was constantly aware of a deep tingle, like a thousand pins
slightly pricking the flesh underneath, but now that feeling was gone. Was this
what it was like to be healed?

"This is the beautiful face I remember," she spoke with joy lacing her voice.
"Even though the Hokage is gone, your flame will still burn, because you're the
last true flame master. It will never leave you, and I will never leave you."

She floated back into the air. Jishou had already dispersed, leaving his best
wishes in the form of a simple wave goodbye.

"Farewell, my beloved Kurei," were her last words.

She exploded in a torrent of fire, her flame washing over her love like a tidal
wave.

"Kurenai, we will meet again," Kurei proclaimed, his determination as unwavering
as ever. "Even if I must move the heavens and earth with my bare hands, we will
meet again. I swear it."


*


"Is...it over?" Neon whispered as she and Raiha watched both events unfold before
them in stark silence.

"One can only hope so," Raiha answered.

Neon stared longingly at Kurei's back. She saw but could not hear what had
transpired between he and Kurenai. She could only wish that she had the deep
bond and devotion Kurenai had to Kurei. She thought she had, at one point, but
it had been fleeting at best. It seems she would always be destined to merely
cherish him from afar...

"Raiha, Neon," his voice broke her inner monologue. "You've both done well, and
for that you have my gratitude. From this day forward, the Uruha is officially
disbanded."

He was smiling, she never knew Kurei to smile. It was a wonderful thing to see,
and she now saw why Kurenai had fallen for him to begin with.

"Kurei-sama, what..." she spoke as she watched him perform several intricate hand
seals while at the same time murmuring something indecipherable.

In a sudden burst of light and sound a literal tear opened in mid air. It
cracked and swirled with indescribable energies. It ripped the earth around
Kurei and lifted any stones not rooted to the ground, regardless of their size.

"JIKUURYUURI?!" Kagerou suddenly screamed, turning everyone's attention, at
least those who were capable of it, to her. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, KUREI?!"

"I didn't think it would work, but it seems I still possess enough Hokage powers
to complete this final hijutsu," he explained. It likely had something to do
with Kurenai, yet another of the many powers she possessed. If only he had known
sooner... "The Hokage are gone, so there should be no chance of me becoming
immortal."

He stared deep into the lighted abyss of time. One last fight, and then he could
rest, then he could return to being the man Kurenai loved so much.

"There is still...one last thing that needs to be done..." he continued. "So I am
returning to that time...alone..."

This would be a grisly mission, one of vengeance, the only kind he knew. Better
to not involve anyone else...

"KUREI-SAMA!"

He stopped in midstep and looked back. He guessed it was Neon that screamed,
judging by the upset look on her face.

"I...can't...allow that," Neon seethed as she stomped toward him. "Alone? ALONE?!
WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I'LL JUST STAND BY AND LET YOU WALK THROUGH THAT THING BY
YOURSELF?!"

She was in his face by the time she started screaming. He really did not know
what to do in this particular situation. Neon had never acted like this toward
him before.

"Jishou, Raiha, and I swore a blood oath to protect you no matter what. That
will not end just because the Uruha don't exist anymore," Neon informed him.
"Jishou would never forgive me if I let you go into that portal alone, and..."

She stopped, her face softening considerably from its previous mask of righteous
outrage.

"I couldn't forgive myself if I let you go alone," she finally got out, quietly.
She stared into his deep black eyes. She always remembered as hard, cold, orbs
of onyx. Now, they seemed so much more human, so much more beautiful. "I realize
now...that I can never have you...not like Kurenai does, but...at least...I can be near
you. You can have my love, even if I can't have yours."

He was silent, his face unchanged even with that proclamation. He then closed
his eyes and sighed, there was not really much he could do about it, was there?

"Better to let her have her way, Kurei-sama," Raiha spoke up as he approached.
"She tends to be quite obstinate about things she wants, myself as well."

He glanced over at him, the only other besides himself and Recca that shared
Hokage blood.

"This technique, Jikuuryuuri," Kurei started as he turned his eyes back to the
portal. "I only saw it done once, a long time ago. It isn't exactly a technique
that can be practiced, so this is my first time attempting it. I can't guarantee
what the results will be."

"After all the battles, all the bloodshed, do you really think a simple threat
of danger will keep us away?" Raiha asked rhetorically, and with his ever-
present smile. "That just proves we can't let you run off by yourself,
especially into unknown territory, Kurei-sama."

The last of his Jyuushinshuu, to think that out all he had gathered only these
two would remain. Maybe it was bad luck, maybe it was fate, either way...there
were no other two people he would rather have at his side...

"Hmph, do whatever you want," he relented flatly.

"Then, if you permit us, Kurei-sama," Raiha declared with a bow. "We shall take
point."



*


He watched as Neon and Raiha dove fearlessly into the portal before Kurei. He
was not able to hear the conversation very well, but from what he understood
that gateway was one giant uncertainty, yet they still jumped through without a
second thought.

"Kurei..." he whispered as Kurei began to walk toward the breach in time.
"What...should I do...?"

Kurei...was the first older brother he had ever had. He had come at a time where
he was too afraid to face life itself anymore. He had taught him everything he
knew, the good and the bad. Now he was walking away...he would never seem him
again...

...but there was Recca now as well. Looking down at his side, he could see Recca
was emotionally dead. He was on his knees, staring blankly into space, his face
betraying the agony and hopelessness he now felt inside. Would he be willing to
leave one brother for the other? Either way he would lose something precious to
him.

"Kaoru."

As if hearing his silent debate, Kurei had stopped just before the tear and
turned to face his younger brother.

"K...Kurei," was the only response the young boy could muster.

"Kaoru, he needs you now," he told him, indicating the greatly crestfallen Recca
next to him. "No matter what...make sure he doesn't turn out like me."

"I..." Koganei stuttered. "I promise."

A flicker of a grin flashed across Kurei's face before he finally crossed the
threshold into the unknown. As soon as he passed through, the time portal
erupted in a burst of light before vanishing from existence.

Silence once again settled across the cave. Nobody knew what to say, so much had
happened over the past few minutes it was impossible to know if it had all
settled in.

"What...now...?" Fuuko finally asked after several harsh minutes of intimidating
stillness.

"We go home," Kagerou answered, she being the only one with a clear head at the
moment. Centuries of experience gave her such skill. "And we heal...as best we
can."



*~*



A soft breeze flowed from the west, carrying with it the sweet scent of lilac.
Slowly she roused from her slumber, cracking her eyes open little by little to
let them acclimate to the bright morning sun. The sky was crystal blue, streaked
by wisps of white, and dotted by flocks of high flying birds.

"Oohhh," she groaned as she brought her hand to rest on her forehead. She felt
like she had awakened from a hundred year sleep. As her senses became more aware
of her surroundings, she noticed her head was laying on something soft, and
warm. "Where...am I?"

Suddenly, a face appeared in her field of vision. It was a woman, only slightly
older than herself. She had light brown eyes and long auburn hair with bangs
streaked with bright red framing both sides of her face.

"Oh, you're finally awake, that's good," the woman said.

"W...who are you?" the younger girl asked.

"Oh, you probably don't recognize me in this form," she deduced. "I'm Kurenai,
though you only remember me in my flame form, the Phoenix."

"Kure...nai?" the girl repeated. The name...and her face sounded and looked so
familiar. She remembered her...from a dream, if she recalled correctly.

"Yes, and you're Yanagi I believe?" Kurenai surmised. "We both have very much in
common don't we?"

Yanagi sat up slowly. Her head had been resting on Kurenai's lap it looked. For
the first time she got a good look at where she was. They were in the middle of
an endless field of violet flowers. In the distance she could make out a line of
majestic mountains. It was unlike any place she had ever been before.

"What is this place?" she asked as she turned to face the older woman. "I've
never seen anything likeAHHHH!"

Yanagi practically jumped back in surprise, which was amazing considering she
was still sitting down.

"Is there something wrong?" Kurenai asked, puzzled at her response.

"Y...you're...naked," Yanagi answered with an embarrassed blush and with all the
conviction of a mouse.

"Ah, yes. It seems we were brought here in the form we were in when we were
touched by the Phoenix flame," she explained. "When I was Kurei's flame...I was
naked so..."

Yanagi was, in fact, still wearing the flowing white dress she was in during the
entire fight with the Tendo Jigoku.

"The last thing I remember...was fading away," Yanagi tried to remember. "I was
floating farther and farther away from Recca...then I blacked out...and wound up
here. Was it the same with you?"

"Yes, it was," she answered. "I'm still not entirely sure what this place is.
Could it be...heaven?"

"I'm...not sure," Yanagi said as she ran her hands over her arms and face. She
felt warm, and the dizziness she felt upon awakening all felt the same when she
was alive. The wind against her skin, the scent of the flowers, and color of the
sky...they all looked and felt so real. "I...don't feel dead. I imagine being in
heaven would feel a lot different than this."

Kurenai stood up slowly, Her hair billowing in the wind that passed. As
beautiful as this place was, something about it felt...off. She could not quite
place it, but all this pristine serenity felt too perfect. Despite the seemingly
limitless wide open space, she felt confined, like she was a trapped in a cage,
but for the life of her she could not figure out why.

"Wherever we are, it looks like we might be here for a while," she whispered, to
herself more than Yanagi. "Kurei...I wonder what you're doing right now..."


*


The smooth, even rhythm of hard wooden soles falling on a cobblestone floor
echoed throughout the corridor. A line of wall-mounted torches ran along both
sides of the murky passageway, lighting his way through the dark. He could feel
the sharp bite of the cold increase as he neared his destination, coupled by the
onset of an odd tingling sensation behind his eyes. An strange feeling to most,
but one he had long since grown accustom to. Soon enough he stopped before a
pair of great and ominous double doors, each one forged of reinforced pitch-
black iron.

"Entry, authorization," he spoke. He wore a black casual business suit. His
raven hair was short and spikey, with a few bangs falling down near the sides of
his face, which was framed by mirrorshades that, for whatever reason, he wore
wherever he went. "Sakyoshi."

A waist high obelisk of pure onyx with a slanted top slowly rose from the
ground. He removed the leather glove from his right hand and placed his palm
upon it. A horizontal emerald line ran vertically across the polished stone top
several times.

"Genetic marker confirmed, entry access granted," a flat computerized entity
intoned, its voice echoing across the passageway.

A hiss of hydraulics, followed by a loud clacking noise, and then finally the
screech of cast metal gears grinding against each other as the massive doors
labored against their own weight. A brief, but sudden, rush of cold air
accompanied by a wave of what felt like static electricity greeted him as he
took his first steps into the biometrically sealed chamber.

The inside was brightly lit, a welcome change for his eyes, by the radiant glow
of a multi layered magic circle etched into the smooth granite stone of the
floor. The design was comprised of a pentacle in the center of two concentric
rings, each one containing a series of elaborate symbols within their borders.
Four smaller, one-layer, rings were made on the outside of the larger one, each
one corresponding to one of the four cardinal directions. At each cardinal ring
sat a figure garbed in the traditional robes of a Taoist priest. All four of
them were chanting perfectly in synch while their respective auras blazed in
equal brightness with the circle itself.

"These Wu family spiritualists are amazing," a young woman said as he approached
her side. Her long lavender hair reached all the way down to the small of her
back, along with two side locks on either side of her face that fell just past
her shoulders. She wore a red qi pao, a Chinese dress, as well as rather simple
looking bracers on her wrists and legs. "To keep them in a state of complete
dormancy, while at the same time crafting a carefully orchestrated illusion.
You've even crafted new bodies for them."

"Lady Xian Pu," Sakyoshi greeted with a slight bow. His voice was even and
smooth, the type that came from both years of skillful negotiation and natural
charisma. "Your presence, as always, is a pleasure."

"From this point forward, I will be speaking as the voice of all three sovereign
nations of Jusenkyo," she announced formally. "They have chosen me to me their
direct voice outside of the continent."

"Hm, I'm surprised they came to a decision so quickly," he said in such a tone
that it was difficult to tell if he actually cared, or was just making cursory
conversation. "And an Amazon no less."

"The Musk and Phoenix are very reluctant to leave the sanctity of their domains,
also, they thought it best if predominantly human affairs were handled by
humans," she explained. "I was chosen due to my prior experience with his
country during my youth."

He gave no response to that. She stared at the man with her deep garnet eyes.
Her inability to gauge his state of mind was a constant source of frustration.
To say nothing of the simple fact that he refused to let anyone look him in the
eyes. She knew nothing of his current abilities, only that they were enough to
grant him the title of master of the Hong Kong underworld.

"You've already gathered two of the necessary elements," she said. "My masters
will be very pleased at the speed of your work."

"Lady Xian, please don't misunderstand," he spoke. "I wish...to unravel the
mysteries of this world..."

He stepped closer to the magic circle, stopping at just outside the edge of it.
He reached up and placed his hand on the barrier surrounding the two inert
figures. His mere touch sent arcs of electricity webbing out from the point of
contact. Despite the apparent disruption, the monks showed no signs of wavering
in their task.

"Reincarnation...resurrection...abilities that surpass death itself. These two
represent but two of the keys to unraveling the truth of the world...to realizing
the ambition that has been passed down to me," he explained in a quieted voice.
"I am merely a son paying proper respects to his father. I am not doing this to
please your masters, nor out of any sense of obligation to Jusenkyo."

"I am well aware of that," Xian Pu answered. "I was not implying otherwise."

He approached her side again. The short speech he had just given had done
nothing to ease the tense atmosphere between them. In fact, it seemed even
stronger.

"So? I imagine you have more pressing reasons for leaving the continent besides
telling me that you'll be my new liaison," Sakyoshi said.

"Yes, I am also here on a diplomatic mission for the Grand Matriarch," she
answered.

"Do you require men?" he asked.

"No, I have my own subordinates," she replied.

He walked back toward the chamber doors, which still were still laid open. Xian
Pu followed him closely with her eyes. His sudden stop just as he reached the
threshold caused them to widen slightly.

"You can tell your masters to be at ease," he spoke. "This chamber was built and
sealed according to my exact specifications. It is completely invisible to all
forms of detection, both technological and supernatural, and only those with
express permission, such as yourself, are allowed to enter."

"We shall hold to your word, and your life, Mr. Sakyoshi," she said. "You have
been remarkably resourceful in this endeavor, almost to a fault."

"Resourcefulness is my business, Lady Xian," he responded flatly. The poorly
veiled threat had no real effect on him it seemed. "Consider it a family trait,
passed down from my loving father."


To Be Continued....

[Midnight Sun]

Updated. The final scene has undergone a rather significant revision, hopefully the last one.