After a long time, I have discovered that I suffer from Attention Deficit Creator Disorder (ADCD), which in TvTropes is basically detailed as writer's block. So, I have started on the last chapter! Yay!

After this one, I will be turning my hand to Dedication to Light and Darkness, my YuGiOh! x Dresden Files crossover.

My beta has been curiously MIA for a while. Anyone seen The Glorious Cheshire Cat around yet?

Enjoy.

It was winter when the short captain and the Winter Lady clashed once more. With the Archive, a dragon named Ferrovax, and the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven (who curiously brought bananas along with him) judging, and with me as a witness, they froze the tops of Lake Michigan in an epic clash of magic that I could feel even through my leather duster and behind the Archive.

It was sadly interrupted as a gang of malks attempted the Et tu Brute and tried to murder the Winter Lady. We would have killed the malks and left it if not for the curious smell of freshly painted blood on their claws. The blood was white, instead of human red, brown troll or green goblin.

It was Sidhe blood.

The ire of Winter was unleashed that day as the Winter Lady flew back to the Nevernever swearing the air literally blue with power as the Lady left to secure her throne, declaring the duel null and void. Ferrovax and the Monkey King left soon after, leaving one half-frozen wizard and an equally cold god of death in their wake.

"Strange things are stirring in Chicago," Hitsugaya muttered as the double gates materialised before us again. "The next time I see you, I hope for it to be on auspicious terms."

"Er, thanks, I guess," I replied, not knowing what to say to a guy who guided souls to the afterlife for a living.

He shook his head sadly. "You are fated to die soon. The most auspicious death is one without pain, Mr Dresden."

I thought back to my own past. How a demon from Outside was waiting for me, to rip apart molecule by molecule. How many would want me dead. How many would bay for my blood when I finally did die.

"Wizards live a long time," I finally chose. "Maybe I'll still be around for a century or two."

Hitsugaya smirked. It did not reach those cold, teal eyes. "You have a destiny. I doubt it. I will tell you a secret; destiny is a wonderful storyteller, but not a fair player. In the chessboard of fate, I would say that you are a pawn who has reached the other side of the board. Destiny does not like that."

"Destiny," I replied. "Can live with it."

"Goodbye, Mr Dresden," he stated with finality. "If we meet again, I can only hope it under auspicious terms."

As the gates slammed closed, the winds of Chicago howled like the ice dragons of legend amidst the clouds.

Destiny, huh? Destiny is many things, but what they never tell you, is that destiny is a lousy father figure. If destiny was responsible for all the shit in my life...I'd still take my life.

It sure beats the alternative.

Conclusione della storia.