Mages and Knights

Summery: AU Takuya is the son of a poor farmer and on one day discovers he is an Elemental. Powerful people are out to get him so he travels to a School were he meets a lot of interesting people. And maybe fall in love with one of the strangest. Kouji/Takuya

Warnings: Digimon crossover, Cursing, Yaoi, T rating

Chapter name: Run the Day of Night

Disclaimer: You know the drill.I don't own Digimon

Author Notes: How's it going, everyone? I know I dropped off the face of the earth for a long time but I finally got something through the mother of all Writer's Block. This is not, by the way, the final chapter. It was going to be but I've been away for far too long and by reviewers are getting sad. This is shorter than my other ones but it's chalk-full of information for all you confused people out there. Tell me of any confusions that are left and I'll reply.

Thanks for all the reviews, love, and support all of you have shown me. A big shout out to Catching Rain who kicked my lazy behind into action with her awesome review.

Enjoy.

"Upon old wounds shall fester fresh, poisoned ones."

Takuya's ear still vibrated with the woman's heartbroken sobs and shrieks of pain. He felt himself shake with tremors at the visions that Ange had shown to him. The visions had been broken and old but the emotion made him uneasy with confusion and worry. It didn't make any sense. What did those three had to do with anything that was happening to him? So far the only real thing he had learned was that his body would deteriorate early in his life and the power he was given would tear apart his body once his power completely manifested itself.

If that wasn't a sign of bad luck he didn't know what would be.

"I don't understand!" Takuya cried out, thoroughly frustrated. He forced himself to stop the shaking but a sudden burst of cold wind brought the shivers back tenfold. The wind appeared out of nowhere, blowing from between the shadowed trees without an apparent reason.

Ange raised her sightless, closed eyes in the direction of the blowing wind, her golden hair fluttered and spun with the breeze. She quietly sat as Takuya struggled to keep his red robe from blowing off into space, his eyes darting at her face. The bitingly cold wind howled as if it was blowing through a cave and stirred the dirt and made the flame flicker almost into extinction. The way this wind blew so strongly and the odd sent of lilies made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. This wind was too spontaneous and, well, wild that it even seemed to make the star flicker and move in the sky like tiny fireflies. The sensation that buried itself within Takuya's stomach was similar to the Weavers' atmosphere but there was something different about this. It was too pure, too strong, too powerful.

Too ancient.

The rustling of clothes was barely heard, as Ange stood up, her chillingly familiar green dress wavered and danced in rapid, jerky movements as if the wind was trying to lift her off her feet. Just as Takuya noticed the odd nature of the wind surrounding the woman he noticed that the wind seemed to be doing the opposite to him. It was almost as if the wind was falling down on him, pinning him down to his seat but it still pushed his clothes away from him as if the wing only wanted his body to stay, never mind pesky hitchhikers like articles of clothing.

"What's going on?" Takuya cried loudly, his voice muted by the whirlwind. The fire was completely snuffed out by now and the only sources of light were the stars and moon.

"Roads of myself and thee shall part a-ways as of this time," Ange said, her hair blowing into her face. She did not resist the wind and started walking quietly away from the campsite. As Takuya started to protest- what kind of adult leaves a kid alone at night in a dark forest?- she turned back. "A wielder of ancient might shallst have a greatest need that pray heed not ignore. Resist shall not bear well with those of glass souls. Her words, not of mine, are of most importance, as such is." Ange smiled at him with a mother's smile and allowed herself to be swept into the shadowy night without another glance at Takuya.

As soon as she disappeared from sight the wind suddenly dropped and his robe, which had been flying over his head despite his best attempts, fell over him and covered his face. Takuya flailed his arms, not expecting it and struggled with his robe as he accidentally stuck his arm through the neck hole in the arm flailing. It took a few minutes before he managed to get his clothes in working order. Takuya huffed, annoyed, and looked around, unnerved in the dark, and slipped sideways onto the ground with a surprised gasp

Instantly the smell of lilies invaded his senses and the vicious eyes of several hawks suddenly bored into his head. There were at least a good dozen of the huge birds hanging around in the tree branches, the moonlight glistening of their feathers and eyes. It seemed like an odd thing to not have noticed a dozen raptors clicking their beaks at a person but it was as if they appeared out of thin air. Takuya shivered, both at the eyes and at the loss of heat. It was cold….Idea! Takuya smacked his fist into his palm triumphantly. He could make the fire and maybe it would scare off the birds. The creepy things were eyes him like their next meal.

So Takuya forced himself to look away from the feathery animals and onto the logs that were still smoldering. Takuya breathed in and out in a slow rhythm, feeling his body respond and relaxing. For a brief moment he felt a stifling sense of darkness pressing in from all sides, making his breath hitch before regaining the rhythm. The darkness responded to his feelings of worry, fear, and slowly growing panic, lurching and slithering over his core like oily silk, darkening the path towards the tiny ball of light. In that precise moment Takuya couldn't help but catch the fleeting thought of his power being stifled forever. It both terrified him to his core and gave him the greatest sense of relief.

That moment passed however as he felt familiar blue eyes float through his mind and the tide of darkness retreated like a kicked dog, letting light shine brightly. The flow of restricted power coursed through his physical body like a warm blanket had been placed on his shoulders. It was so different. He would have never thought that his destructive power could feel so welcoming and so familiar. Back at the village all he had ever felt was dread and fear as the red-hot fire burned through his vines and clouded his mind with a copper fog. There had always been a fear of one day hurting someone and having to face the consequences. His whole family had been scared of it and the last thing he ever wanted was to bring harm to his family. But now, it finally felt like it was okay to use what he had been given. He could control it, not be controlled by it. And the people who gave him that gift were in danger, all because of him.

His bones sang and his blood warmed as power inched down his arms and his eyes glowed with a soft red sheen of light behind his eyelids. His power crawled slowly down his arms as if expecting the manacles to restrict it again. There was a tiny flash of cold as his power pasted his wrists but it disappeared just as quickly and faded away like an old wound. Takuya furrowed his brow at the sensation but ignored it, concentrating on collecting enough power to manifest a good-sized fireball inside his cupped hands. The hawks rustled their feathers in the trees at the unexpected luminosity. All of a sudden a mass of brown shot past his face with a loud cry and it startled Takuya so much that he lost his concentration.

Takuya could practically hear the crack in the restraints and the sudden burst of power jolted him so much he dropped the fire, his bones vibrating with such intensity that he didn't have control of his body. As panic started to settle in Takuya frantically tried to reel in his power but the red fog was already settling on his mind, mixing up his thoughts. The fire started to spread, licking the blades of grass and scorching the ground black. He felt the fire burn and grow and he felt the connection. The fire, the flames were an extension of his being. As the flames were more powerful and smoke filled the air so did him. The haze grew stronger and his bones danced to the sway of the flames, letting the flames lick his skin like loyal pets. All the restraints he had worked so hard to mold and create crumbled away like paper in the heat of this energy.

Hawks cried their outrage as the fire started to climb their trees and they flew into the night sky. And Takuya let them because the air was their territory just as fire was his. It was all so beautiful, all the flames growing and reaching higher and higher into the air. The thick smoke and ashes were inhaled like the purest of oxygen and the fire reached out to him, they were hungry. The pulse of shockwaves of energy made his body numb but that wasn't important. He was hungry. Red eyes looked at everything around him, beautiful fire and heat.

He was so hungry…

A solitary hawk cocked its head at the figure engulfed in flames, its white birch tree untouched by raging flames. The red and orange flames recoiled from the tree, even the smoke curved away from the hawk's nest as if afraid to touch it. It shook its magnificent head and fluffed its feathers. It reared up from its perch and beat its great brown wings once.

The reaction to the sudden gust of air was instantaneous. The fire reared back as one single being, detaching from trees and arching back like a wave. The gust of wind hit Takuya in the face like a sledgehammer, knocking him down and stealing the wind from his belly. As soon as his back hit the ground the fire was snuffed out like a candle, the heat disappearing and the smoke blown away into the night sky. The grass grew quickly and turned back to a healthy green while the trees grew back their bark and leaves, broken branches sprouting again and arching into the sky. It was as if there had never been a fire in the first place. A small fire still burned in the fire pit, shy and timid at the rebuking wind.

Meanwhile Takuya was on the ground, unsettled and confused. The shock had been enough to shake loose the hold of his power on him and it has retreated back, leaving him cold. He coughed and gasped, partly from the surprise and total disorientation and partly from the lack of air. His lungs burned from all the smoke he had inhaled and his throat was irritating, making it hard to swallow. As Takuya regained his bearings and breath the first thing he noticed was that the grass beneath him. It wasn't burned nor did it look like it had ever seen a bad day in its life. In fact, it looked even healthier than before. The second thing he noticed, after he gingerly sat back up, was the brown and black hawk watching him from the other side of the small fire, its bone-white talons delicately gripping the wood and balancing itself on the log.

Takuya gingerly rubbed the back of his head and eyed the motionless bird. There was just something strange about the bird and they it was staring at him. The fire's light made the bird's eyes seem almost orange and aggressive. Takuya was unnerved. He was in the past, just met an ancient Elemental, saw even older visions, and got his power cut off. Who knew what else was going to happen to him?

Takuya blinked.

The hawk was gone and it its place was a woman- another one- that scared the crap out of him. Ange had brought in him a feeling of family and safety while this woman brought out the chills and the feeling that he was going to get a really bad scolding. He didn't like getting scolded.

Even though she was sitting down Takuya got the feeling she was tall, probably even taller than seven feet. She was wearing a long, gossamer skirt that trailed several feet past the floor, completely covering her feet. The outline of her feet and legs were clearly seen through the pale pink skirt. Several long flight feathers decorated her waist and white pearls dangled on strings down the length of the skirt at random lengths. Her upper body was bare except for the white cloth wrapped around her breasts with a metal hawk placed in between.

Velvet white skin stretched over her frame like a million butterflies, giving the illusion that with every breeze her skin would flutter like the feathers of a bird. They would make Takuya's eyes come out of focus and blur the outline of her body. His head would ache at just looking at her eyes. The eyes of a hawk with a giant pupil that seemed to stare right past him and at him at the same time. They were eyes that would engulf a person until there was nothing left of them, just a faint whisper in the breeze. Thin strands of sliver danced in the soft breeze like tiny finches around her face, giving the fantasy of two falcon's wings extending from her hair to rest at either side of her face as if waiting to take off.

She unnerved Takuya even more than Destiny and Fate. The glare in her eye was like one from a wild animal. Her long nails curved like talons waiting to rip into flesh and her pursed mouth displayed her great displeasure. Takuya felt threatened and instinctively reached for his flame but before he could even reach his core her eyes narrowed and Takuya suddenly felt cold. It was as if there was a small lump of ice sitting within his chest.

"I would advise not to test my patience, youngling," the woman said in an annoyed tone, the echoes of screeching birds vibrating behind her voice. "I have not stepped on Earthen land for far too long and it annoys my essence." She waved a finger and Takuya felt the icy cold melt away.

Takuya shivered, partly in relief and partly in fear. She could destroy his powers with a wave of a finger and probably him too. Takuya felt way too exposed as if he had been "I don't have time for this," Takuya said stubbornly, glaring at the woman. "I have to get back to the Black Oracle and find out what's going on." And with that Takuya made to stand up but a sudden gust of wind forced him painfully back down, pinning him to his seat with enough force to break his behind.

He suddenly felt like he was forced to shed his skin and present himself to a predator. As soon as he thought that he felt a flash of annoyance, both at himself and at her. He's dealt with too much crap up till now to bow here. He needed to get to where they had been keeping him prisoner and find out what he needed to know about his ancestors and why that guy, Luce, was after him.

Whoever she was, she would have to stand aside.

"Do not pretend to have control over something you do not," the woman said, scowling. She lifted her head to stare directly into Takuya's eyes. He saw something move deep in her eyes like a shadow or something even darker but brighter at the same time. As soon as he spotted it, he felt a sudden stab of pain made him close his eyes for a few minutes, unable to keep them open.

He pressed the heels of his hands into his sockets, trying to alleviate some of the pain. Takuya waited painfully, fully aware of the woman in his defenseless state, until the stars and bursts of light had all but faded, leaving the edges of his vision fudged and hazy. Takuya felt a spark of anger flare in his stomach and he glared, a rather stupid thing to do as he thought about it later, at the weird woman.

The woman raised her sliver eyebrows elegantly and looked down her nose at him, thankfully not giving him another headache. "How like him," she said coldly, her tone sending shivers down his spine. It was like she was made of steel. "He chose the stupidest one out of the lot."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Takuya cried, feeling outraged at the way she was treating him, stranger or not. All fear and apprehension he had of her had been thrown out of the window by rage and he had a nasty right hook.

She gave him a look that could freeze ice if that made any sense. "I have no need to repeat myself," she said, looking down her nose at him. The constant breeze made her skin flutter like the feathers of a bird and the sent of fresh lilies and jasmine wrapped around her in an almost physical haze. "For a simpleton that does not recognize one such as myself, you have made a rather unimpressive impression."

Takuya opened his mouth to protest- he was not stupid thank you very much and he didn't give two flying cahoots who she was- when she level a finger at his face, its curved nail looking very threatening. "I have not come to this place of dirt and dust to argue with an infant," she said sternly, forcing Takuya to look away from her eerie yellow falcon eyes. "Have it be known that we are much displeased with your existence. It is only for Aguni's favor that we Gods do not strike you dead."

It was then Takuya noticed something he probably should have noticed before. Call him slow but it had seemed rather unimportant at the time. Everything is rather unimportant compared to the fact that Kouji and his friends might be hurt or dead for all he knew. So forgive him if he seemed off his game today, or yesterday, or hundred years ago, whatever.

Situated right under a silver necklace decorated with pearls and blue feathers was a pink symbol that seemed to be etched right onto her skin. There was a smaller symbol in the middle with a circle and it was almost boxed in completely with another line, It was the symbol of Kaze, Lady of the Wind.

"You are-" Takuya started to say, unable to process the thought at all. Representations of destiny and fate, an ancient specter from a hundred years ago, an old, powerful organization that was after him, now that he could believe with relative ease. But that a goddess would appear before him in physical flesh was a little too hard for him to swallow.

"Yes, I am Kaze, goddess of the skies and winds. Keep up, boy," the goddess snapped, looking like she wanted to slap him upside the head. She may just as well had because a buffet of wind did whip him on his ear, much to his embarrassment.

"You, Kaze," Takuya whispered, tilting his head in order to prevent Kaze from blurring. "But-."

"Your lack of proper speech does not impress anyone," Kaze quickly interrupted again. The sent of lilies increased for the slightest moment around her as the shadows of hawks flying high in the night sky flew across the ground like silent ghosts. The shadows, Takuya noticed, were even darker than the night sky and tiny pinpricks seemed to stand out in the bird's shadows like they had taken a piece of the sky. She waved a single sharp finger in his general direction without even looking.

Suddenly he felt his lips seal shut as if his mouth was a zipper and she had just closed it shut. Takuya panicked and brought his hands to his mouth, furiously trying to open it again but only causing pain from pulling his cheeks and lips. He glared at the otherworldly woman, insisting with various hand motions to release him from unfair punishments.

"Pipe down," Kaze said, surprisingly speaking in typical human speech patterns with ease unlike all of the other unworldly being he had meet so far. There seemed to be a sense of urgency about her, making her agitated. Well, not really frantic but more like impatient. Her fingers kept twitching and the air was starting to get brisk and choppy. "I do not have time to argue with a child. I am here because Aguni cannot. Do you know why I have come here to meet with you, little impudent human-child?" She glared at him as if he had forcefully brought her here to have a nice, bloodthirsty chat. Kaze seemed to think that sewing Takuya's mouth shut was of little importance.

"You have something that I have come to, foolishly, care about therefore sit still and shut up."

She reached towards her neck and deftly plucked a feather from her necklace, a soft chime sound resonating in the air like a songbird. She tossed it with a nimble gesture into the fire which exploded upwards, sending flying embers into the sky, and changed colors to a deep purple like a giant plumb on fire. The hawks in the night sky all screeched as one, echoing across the empty forest and making Takuya jump at the unexpected loud noise.

The flames then became pale, almost transparent in color like it had been sucked out of it and Takuya's eyes widened at what he saw in the depth of the fire's belly. He saw a girl with matted, pale-gold hair and the saddest green eyes he had ever seen. Her crimson-red dress was torn at the hem and she was covered in dirt and mud as if she had been dragged through a muddy field. Her lips were chapped and bleeding and she had deep circles under her eyes. Her sadness reminded Takuya of the girl in Ange's vision though Takuya didn't remember what she looked like. He just remembered her deep sadness in the last scene he was shown.

"I believe you have already glimpsed her visage before," Kaze said indifferently, watching Takuya's face as his eyes widened, unable to talk. "She's one of the first of your kind. She was the first that befell the power of Kuma, the Lord of Ice. Her name, the giver of hope, Ohpani." She waited until recognition befell Takuya's face before moving on.

The wind goddess plucked another feather from her necklace, blue in color, and tossed it into the flames. The flames rose up violently then simmered down to the size it had been before, changing colors from red to orange to green and back to the transparent pale-white hue. Takuya saw another figure in the flames, crystal clear even though the flames crackled and danced to the wind's tune. The boy in flames looked like a mirror-copy of the girl from before, Ophani. He had the same pale-gold hair but his blue eyes were fierce, rebellious of everyone who glanced in his direction. His back was straight and his expression, defiant. He was like the hero in every storybook fairy-tale that needed a champion.

Kaze gestured at the boy like she was pointing at something mildly distasteful. "This one turned out to be a great disappointment. Lobo wandered off in a huff for a few decades because this one managed to get himself killed before twenty-five and opened the way for the Chaos Regime. A sad beginning for the Light Elementals." She waved away the question on Takuya's face and the wild gestures at his mouth did little to bring her attention to the fact that breathing through his nose was making saliva build up in his mouth in the most unpleasant of ways. "Hush up. It's rude to insult your Gods, you know. What a hard time your mother must have had with you."

Takuya bristled in annoyance. He had no idea that Gods could be this annoying. It was like listening to an all-powerful, omnipotent Izumi with feathers.

The feathered goddess took another feather, a purple one this time, and threw it into the fire, extinguishing the fire for a brief moment, bathing the clearing in darkness before it slowly building back up again. Kaze frowned at the reaction in the flames and thrust out her hand at the fire pit in a brisk manner like she was angry. The symbol of the wind lit up with a pinkish light and the fire painstakingly turned black like tar then a dark blue like the bottom of the ocean.

"Damn you, Kaiserleo," she muttered angrily, glaring slightly at the shadows hanging around the forest's depth.

A blurry figure was slowing forming in the flames. It looked like some sort of dog or canine before it shifted into the figure of a recognizable human. But just like Agne's vision the boy's face was pitch black, blocking any recognizable features. All that could be made out of the figure was the black hair and the weird mark hovering over his shoulder. It looked like a rounded rectangle with a figure of a bone inside the hollow space.

"Cherubi committed a crime not only towards his own kind but towards the bond between Gods and mortals. From his actions he began to close the bridges between Hades and Earth," Kaze continued as she glared with disgust at the faceless boy. The winds snatched at Takuya's clothes and hair as her mood began to worsen. "Kaiserleo forbade the boy's existence after he died from all three planes but the damage had been done. The first and last Dark Elemental was cursed for all eternity."

"What did he do that was so bad?" Takuya asked, startled at the sound of his own voice. His mouth was free! Kaze didn't even seem to notice that she had let go of Takuya's vocal chords as she absentmindedly began to stroke the back of a blue bird that had landed on her knee.

Even if Takuya had wanted to flee the pensive look on the harsh goddess's face made him curious. All Takuya had ever gotten were pieces of a puzzle that seemed to repeat itself. It was a puzzle that was seeped in history and that went all the way back to the first Elementals. But how can something that happened since the beginning of human kind matter to Takuya? How does this related to the Luce guy and his little posse, the Black Oracle?

"The road to Hell is laid with good intentions," Kaze said distractedly. "Cherubi's soul was sent to Hell instead of Hades were all the rest find peace in the river of time. A human soul cannot survive there by itself. It was fused and distorted into something even we Gods hesitate to remember. For protection towards the girl, Ophani, he exchanged the freedom of all Elementals until the end of time. Under the contract of life-blood, he gave them the means to bind souls of our children to the Chaos family." The smile on her face was grim and unpleasant. "He even sacrificed the boy, her brother, to make the contract forever binding. Ah, such is family."

It was then that the scenes Agne showed him began to make sense. The three kids had been related and had been in the midst between a civil war in their family since the grandfather, the head of the family, was sick and, Takuya supposed, dying. Takuya didn't know much about noble and royal families but he knew that being the head honcho would mean being powerful. Kouichi had tried to explain the complicated relationships and power struggles between the old, noble families of their history books. If Cherubi had been trying to protect Ophani then it was possible she was a likely candidate to be the head of the family. Other jealous family members or rival families could target her or kidnap her for power or money. It had been done many times before in the past especially if there are dividing sides in extended family.

So maybe Cherubi was trying to save her. But to actually go to another family and give the souls of all their kin to save a girl from something that might happen seemed a little too extreme.

"He was in love with her, wasn't he?" Takuya asked, already knowing the answer.

Kaze fixed an eye on him, not even bothering to intimidate him anymore. "Maybe so," she admitted, inclining her head slightly. "But excuses do not make a man indestructible. He chose the path that robbed Elementals of their power and, in turn, the Gods' as well. Humans that meddle with godly affairs do not get a happy afterlife. It's not something we wish to do but it must be done." She threw her head back sharply, causing her hair to fly behind her. The bluebird cried out and shivered as its feathers turned from blue to a bright red.

"The Chaos family would have been struck down with all the wrath of the immortal Gods eons ago but they had the reluctant protection of the only humans able to hinder us, our children." She stopped here, seemingly unable to speak. There was an old sadness in her eyes as if she had spent millennia with the heavy burden of watching her children be manipulated like toys. She reminded him of when Takuya's mother when she lost Shinya that one time at the market for almost the whole day, staying strong while pushing back unwanted tears.

She shook her head, making her silver hair puff up slightly in the shape of wings. Her wild eyes hardened again as she regained her composure. "The Chaos family passed down the contract through direct descendants these past millennia. A special group of them, hidden from mortal eyes for many years, found and retrieved Elementals that were still yet vulnerable, under the age of sixteen. They were made puppets, with free will but without the ability to execute it." Kaze chuckled humorlessly, looking in Takuya's direction but without really seeing him.

"Those troublesome sisters have shown you enough examples." She waved a pale hand and the fire turned back to its normal size and color, crackling quietly in the background. "The destruction of Sylin and the War of the Canted were enough to enrage the Gods to the point of a war within Kamigami Court. A staged war. A pointless war for both kingdoms."

Takuya frowned, trying to remember what Destiny's book said and the visions that the Weavers granted him. The destruction of Sylin was caused by a Water Elemental wearing enemy armor. That Fafdin guy and the famous lady, Mibea Iroka, were both killed in the War of the Canted by accidents. But that most disturbing thing he remembered was the small army at the bottom of two cliff sides being crushed to death by boulders by an Earth Elemental's actions. If it's true that it was a staged war then was it possible that those Elementals weren't from an opposing kingdom but actually unwilling agents forced to start a war by the Black Oracle. But what the hell? Why would the Black Oracle want to start a war within their own homeland?

"I don't get it," Takuya frowned. "What would starting a war within the kingdom do for them?"

This question seemed to irritate the goddess even more. "The qualities of mortals are not something we take meticulous care of. We have little interest in every mortal spawned on plane Earth. A fault on our part, perhaps, but however the human heart matures is none of our interest." The red bird cried out again and fluffed out its feathers like it was aggravated, changing it plumage to a dark green.

"Certainly, your puny brain is capable enough to remember details such as the demise of your human king's family." She didn't wait for Takuya's indignant response before continuing. This was becoming an unpleasant pattern. "Four heirs to the throne yet only a single soul remained. Surely you can realize the connection." Her hawk eye bore into his and despite Takuya wasn't looking into her eyes he felt a strange ache all over his body as if his muscles had been worked to the brink and finally allowed some rest. Takuya resisted the urge to shiver.

If she was hinting at something she was doing a very bad job. But since the person in question was a very powerful goddess it was probably better to not announce that fact lest he wished for a painful afterlife. How was he supposed to remember something he only saw once months ago?

"Um," Takuya stalled for time, trying to recall. "The fourth…no, the second…uh, guppy-no!- The guy with the…hair and the…eyes…applesauce!" No, wait. He frowned. The book never mentioned anything about applesauce.

"Apple…?" The goddess blinked then frowned, irritated. "This is why Aguni should not be allowed to be on his own devices." The small green bird shivered like it was cold then spread its tiny wings and flew into the folds of the goddess's gossamer skirt, disappearing into a fold of cloth. She then waved her hand in a brisk motion and a rather large hawk swooped down from the dark sky with a hair-raising screech. Takuya was alarmed to notice that landed a few feet from him, clacking its sharp beak in his direction with a large eye full of danger.

The feathers on the body of the hawk were black with tiny pinpoints of light like the shadows of the other hawks he noticed earlier. The only funny thing was that while the bird stood still the tiny stars moved and shifted positions like tiny comets and shooting stars. It blended into the dark so well that Takuya could only see the pinpricks of light moving around its body.

"Shush your ever-gaping hole humans call a mouth," Kaze snapped and gestured at the hawk again. It let out a short cry and dropped something as if it had melted away from the seemingly dark depths of its wings. With the order done the bird spread its darker than black wings and disappeared into the starry sky without a single noise or rustle. A short gust of wings blew the item towards Kaze and she held it with a reverence that seemed strange. What could be more revered than a god?

She held it delicately like it could break with the smallest careless move. Her eyes bore into his with a strength that made him slightly dizzy. "Do not fool with the gods, boy. In the year of 249 of human time a boy died. A boy most coveted by the Lady of the Wind." There it was again. It was the same look she had when she talked about the enslavement of the Elementals. There was such sorrow in her eyes that it left no doubt that this boy had been important to her.

"His human name was Yume, the catcher of dreams, and the third son of the human king." The sphere seemed to glitter the slightest bit as she rolled it in her pale hands. "They caused his death…They were the ones to ambushmy darling, the one human given divine protection. They held him captive as he withered away until there was nothing left. And the only thing I could was set his soul free into the eternal river of time." There was anger, righteous and divine wrath seeping behind every word, heating the choppy air around him. But at the same time there was a sorrow so powerful it wasn't just sadness, there was guilt. Horrible guilt. After all there couldn't have been many instances where a goddess was rendered helpless.

The words got stuck in his throat as he just sat there, speechless. There just wasn't anything he could possibly say to consol a divine being. Despite her less than welcoming attitude towards him she was helping him by answering the questions that he needed to find the answers to. He felt horrible thinking this but he needed those answers in order to protect those he loved and he was running out of time. He didn't know how but he knew that every second that passed by meant that there was a slimmer chance of getting everyone out intact.

He understood her pain. He knew what it was like to be helpless. His life had been taken over by his uncontrollable power and every time he went into public, even now, he couldn't help but wonder when the next careless comment would trigger the burning of a town. It wasn't as strong as before but the memories were still there, in the back of his mind. There had been too many close calls, too many people, too many screa-

"If I have to bare witness to what humans call a 'panic attack' then I will be much displeased. Pull yourself together, boy."

The sharp words startled Takuya out his blast from the not-so-nice past like someone had dumped a bucket of water on him while he had been sleeping. Even though he wasn't looking directly at her he could feel her eyes digging into his head, making a second-long migraine explode in his forehead before it slipped away just as fast, leaving him disoriented and his head throbbing. At least the Weavers never caused him head-splitting headaches.

"You have less focus than a March hare, I swear." She snapped her fingers at the end of the sentence and the sound was tremendous, like a crack of lightning struck right next to him.

Takuya flinched at the sound but resisted the urge to cover his ears. A sense of panic was starting to run through his body and suddenly faces flashed across his mind's eye. Juri, Tai, Daisuke, Sora, Izumi, Destiny, Ophani, Kouichi, blacked-out faces, a crying eagle, Rappa's wise eyes, faces, faces, hate, peace, glowing, glowing, glowing, eyes, eyes, hurtinghimmake, makeitstop, stop, stop, stopstopstopSTO-

Then it did stop. All of the somehow loud images stopped flashing across his mind like an extra fast picture show faded away until he was left feeling slightly dizzy and more than a little sick to his stomach. His heart pounded away at a faster than normal pace but the weird thing was that it kind of hurt, like every beat of his heart was pulling something out of place in his chest. Takuya rested a hand of his chest with a grimace. Please don't tell him he was going to have a heart attack. That was so not the way he imagined himself dying.

The orb is pale white hands glowed with a soft red haze that faintly reminded Takuya of something. Like something from his childhood or old dreams.

"The connection is weak," Kaze mused, gently rubbing the orb. "But there is no other reason for it to be stronger. Still he lives in you and for that, I am rather unpleased. Yet, even the Gods cannot control the human wants of the spirits. Oh, we do try, boy, we try. Yet there is never fruit to reward our labors." Her smile became melancholy, as if their blunders amused her.

"Why...are you telling me all this? You obviously don't like me," Takuya said slowly, still rubbing his chest and wincing. "I don't understand. Who lives with me? I don't get it."

The goddess was silent for a long moment as a gentle night breeze brought the sent of ashes and smoke, just enough to smell it but not enough to be unpleasant. Takuya shivered unexplainably at the smell and he was filled with a sense of utter loneliness. The forest was dead silent like a tomb and it was almost as if he was the last person on Earth. There were no animals rustling in the bushes and even the circling hawks were silent as if they never existed.

The gentle sound of chimes sounded as the bangles on her arms were moved by her own winds. "I knew…I knew that once his soul was released that I could no longer watch over him. We gods do not have jurisdiction over the river of time. It is far older than the gods know for it was born before we were brought alight. Yet his soul flew across time and he chose you to merge his soul with." Her eyes slowly closed then opened a few seconds later, her eyes a deep, deep blue like the endless mid-day sky. "Have you not noticed my presence when you entered the haven, when your heart was in unease? I was there, youngling."

The whirlwind when his name was etched into the stone. The whispering winds when he ran into the forest, his heart breaking by a momentary betrayal. She was there with him the whole time. Just like the Weavers and Aguni's power. She had been there. Takuya was silent for a moment, trying to digest the fact that an ancient goddess told him that he hosted the soul of a boy that died years ago. Takuya thought about it for a moment. Was that really the weirdest thing that had happened in his life?

No. No, it wasn't.

"He's been trying to contact you despite his status as a mere bystander," Kaze continued softly, a besotted smile wavering around her lips. "My dear, precious Yume gave you the means to obtain the power that Aguni irresponsibly gave you. They killed my Yume, they forced our children to murder the loyal Ristek and brave Shiut."

"And now they trying to chain me."

She solemnly chuckled at him, a strange chirping sound vibrating in the air. "Ah, little ignorant one, but they already have." She bared her teeth at him in something that was too malicious to be a smile as Takuya gaped at her, totally throw off balance by the statement.

"What-" Takuya started to defend himself against that ridiculous statement.

"Don't you feel it?"

Her words cut across his like a fish through water, effortlessly and naturally. Takuya was no longer surprised at being interrupted and by now expected it very time he opened his mouth.

"Feel what?" Takuya whispered, unnerved by the sudden aura around Kaze. It was restless and bitter at the same time, like a furious whirlwind trapped in an unbreakable jar.

"Fell the connection of your heart, and they shall no longer have a hold of you. But while your heart calls out for those you call dear their chains bind you tightly. Magic they need not, restraints they need not, fear and love is what they now hold in clawed hand. Or are you so far gone that you cannot hear their voices?"

A soft, gentle breeze flew through the dark night, filling the air with the smell of orchids and the cold, bitter taste of ice. Icy-cold hands reached into him and started pulling at him from all directions, stretching his soul until he could feel two hearts beat in unison. Whispers slowly crawled down his ear, so broken and twisted that only words were understandable.

They were so cold.

"..save….prot-….."

"….stan….tal….no.."

"Magi….out…help…..Ju-…."

"Sword…brok….cold….Tak…"

"…dea-….stop…"

"I do not fear death!"

Kouji.

So here you have the shortest chapter I've done in a long while. Well, the only chapter I've done in along while but it's better than nothing, right? The climaz will boli over in the next chapter as Takuya and Kouji reunite. About time anyway.

See you all next time my faithful viewers,

Illusionwolf