AN: This story continues the storyline begun in The Maoh's Last Command. It can be read on its own but TLMC is the prequel to this tale.

This is the last chapter and what a journey! Thank you to everyone who have followed this story, made it – and me – a favorite, and most of all for the incredible reviews. Your support helped me keep going even when my life took turns I never expected or wanted. Sorry I took so long to get this up. A health issue put me out of sorts for a couple of months and when I got back to this I ended up putting it through several rewrites.

Some of you hoped I'd cover Yuuri and Wolfram's time on Earth, and I do touch on it. But when I tried for more detail, the flow wasn't right no matter what I did. That part of this tale kept demanding its own due and wouldn't settle for a flashback, so I will be taking the rejected sections and rewriting them into a separate story. I don't have as much time to write in my real life right now, but I will post the first chapter as soon as I can. Enjoy!

The rating is for dark themes, spooky stuff, and adult situations (nonconsensual sex and mpreg – nothing graphic and with warnings at the start of the affected chapters). This is not meant for young readers. Please do not read if that describes you or this sort of thing is offensive to you. Everyone else, enjoy and please review. Thanks!

I do not own Kyo Kara Maoh or its characters. This is written for fun, not for profit.

What Belongs to Me

Chapter 20: The End is the Beginning

Sinister laughter and a heavy tread followed him as he fled through a maze of rose bushes. They towered over him so he couldn't see his way out. Gouges scored his palms from his failed attempts to climb out. More scratches on his face, arms, and legs from the abnormally long thorns bled and burned as if the thorns were tipped with acid. As impossible as it sounded, the maze malignantly rose up to prevent his escape. Even now, he heard it shifting and growing as it changed to hinder him at every turn.

Without moonlight or even starlight he had to make his way by touch at a speed far too slow. The nightshirt he wore hung from him, little more than rags, torn and bloodied by more than the thorns that clawed at him. Exhaustion twisted every nerve and muscle but if he stopped to rest, he'd catch him again.

"Why waste time running? We both know this will end as it always has."

How can he be here? He's dead! From somewhere he found a new burst of energy. Unfortunately, the maze again worked against him. He just barely saw the shifting in the darkness that meant the bushes were growing to close off the path before him. He tried to stop but crashed into the maze wall. Branches flowed around him. The thorns grew and hooked into skin and cloth, contriving to hold him trapped. Weeping in terror, he frantically strained against their hold despite the pain to get free before it was….

"Too late," the hated voice whispered into his ear.

He screamed as powerful arms engulfed him….

Wolfram's eyes snapped wide open. Bed curtains replaced the walls of thorns. Hanreid's grasp became the blankets his nocturnal twisting had coiled around him. A cold sweat covered his body and he panted as if he'd truly run a twisting maze for half the night. His heart pounded in his chest while he lay still, listening. He heard no echo of a scream lingering in the silence of their room. Thankfully, this nightmare hadn't pierced the real world before he woke.

With shaking hands, Wolfram untangled himself and slumped on the mattress. He waited until he had control over his body again before pushing himself up so he leaned on one elbow. Relief warmed his heart as he gazed down on the double black beside him. Yuuri slept on undisturbed.

Bad enough Hanreid continued to haunt his sleep, but he hated it when his cries woke Yuuri and put the lie to his repeated reassurances that he was fine. When it did happen, Yuuri never called him on it. He just held him and let him cry out his misery, whispered reassurances, or when Wolfram couldn't bear even his touch, sat beside him and spoke of the events of the day or told stories of his childhood until Wolfram stopped shaking long enough to drift into sleep again.

In most of the nightmares he relived his captivity, those were bad enough. The maze dream was worse in a way. Once started, it repeated again and again. If he woke from it before morning, it resumed where it left off when he fell asleep again. So much for a full night's rest.

Wolfram carefully slid out of the bed so he didn't wake Yuuri, tugged his white flannel nightshirt out of its restless sleep tangle, and walked barefoot through the connecting door to the nursery. He called up a small globe of fire to illuminate Lyssa's bassinet in a gentle light. She wore one of the little sleepers that Yuuri's mother bought for her during their visit, a lovely little outfit of soft white cotton cloth with pink ribbon trim and drawstring at the bottom. It came with a matching cap but Lyssa fretted and cried whenever they put it on her so she slept bareheaded.

Wolfram felt the now familiar idiot grin blossom at the sight of her sleeping face. Just watching his angel banished the last remnants of the nightmare from his mind. With a sigh for another night spent awake, he gathered up his art supplies from the nearby table, settled comfortably in one of chairs by the hearth, and set to work.

-o0O0o-

Yuuri woke for no discernible reason. Quiet ruled the night, Lyssa wasn't crying, and it was still dark so it wasn't time to get up yet. He rolled on his back and that was when he realized Wolfram wasn't in bed beside him. He stretched out a hand to find his side of the bed cool. The fire demon had been up for a while.

That meant he'd had another nightmare and rather than disturb him had gotten up. Yuuri climbed out of bed and reached for his robe. As he donned the woolen wrap and got his feet into the slippers waiting at his bedside, Yuuri knew exactly where to look for him. He padded across the cold wood floor to the door that separated their suite from the nursery.

He turned the latch carefully. Lyssa had amazing hearing. The slightest noise sometimes woke her. His mother had said she just didn't want to miss anything. Yuuri half believed her because their baby daughter's eyes tracked everything with an almost uncanny interest.

When he pushed the door aside, he saw what he expected: Wolfram in a chair by the small fireplace with a globe of fire above his head for extra light as he worked. His back was to the bassinet, in easy reach if the baby started to fret. Yuuri smiled to find such a tranquil scene. He waited until the blond noticed he was there so he wouldn't startle him before tiptoeing closer. He leaned in to take a peek at the drawing of the girl named Ilse. She was very pretty with long dark hair. Wolfram had drawn her happy and carefree the way he did all the children: as they should have been.

He remembered Wolfram telling him that she ran away from home and he'd never learned where she was from so didn't know how to deliver it to her family. Yosak learned of the dilemma and one day came to their rooms. He spent nearly an hour interrogating Wolfram for all the details he could remember. He then set out to find Ilse's home. Conrad and Yosak made a friendly bet on how long it would take. The maids caught wind of it and started a pool that didn't take long to grow into a rather lucrative pot. Yosak actually put coin down on a blind bracket. "I'm doing all the work," he'd shrugged when Conrad asked him why. "I should have a chance at the prize." Last he heard even Gwendal had a bet in.

This was the last of the remembrance portraits Wolfram had tasked himself to do of the spirits who had done so much for him. Keeping his promise to the children had been a major part of Wolfram's recovery. Like the Lost Boys in Peter Pan who never grew up, the Lost Children, as he'd come to think of them privately, would be forever young in that strange in between world. Nothing could be done about their pasts, but Yuuri hoped that getting their stolen souls back from the sorcerer meant they were happy now, or at least at peace.

"You're thinking too hard," Wolfram's soft whisper put an end to his admittedly unhappy thoughts. "You'll get wrinkles."

Yuuri delayed only long enough to check that Lyssa slumbered on in her bedding before taking the chair next to his husband's.

Likewise keeping his voice soft for their daughter's sake, he replied, "So will you if you keep drawing in the middle of the night like this."

Not that it was true. The weeks on Earth, far from people with their questions – well meaning or otherwise – about his health and the reasons for the abrupt, at least by royal standards, wedding, Wolfram had blossomed. His cheeks filled out again and the color returned to his face. Gisela had been right. Time away from everything with his small family had done wonders, though there had been bad moments.

Yuuri blessed his family every day for not pushing. They hadn't told anyone back home at first what really happened. Wolfram simply refused to talk about it, and every time he tried to find the words to tell his parents and big brother, Yuuri had choked. No way his parents didn't know about Wolfram's nightmares, but they never mentioned it. Even Shori had kept his thoughts and curiosity under control after getting a good look at Wolfram.

Wolfram kept insisting he was alright and, trying to follow Murata's advice, Yuuri didn't argue with him and pretended everything was fine. Things didn't start to get better until an afternoon about a week into their visit. After lunch, while Wolfram helped his mother with the cleanup, he'd gone into the living room to set up a video game for Greta. The sound of china breaking sent them rushing back into the kitchen, his father on their heels, to find Wolfram on his knees in the midst of shattered plate. As he gathered up the pieces, apologizing all the way, he just started to cry. Only tears at first but soon he was sobbing so hard he couldn't catch his breath. His mother simply dropped to the floor beside him and wrapped her arms around him. She pulled Wolfram close so that he wept into her shoulder.

She rocked the smaller boy and calmly suggested, "Shoma, why don't you and Yuuri take Greta to the movies? There's a double feature matinee today. Just be back in time for dinner."

"Yes, dear. Come along you two."

Yuuri obeyed, as reluctant as Greta to leave Wolfram hurting the way he was. But his father had taken them each by the hand as if it had all been planned ahead of time, and led them out of the house. Yuuri fretted too much to enjoy the experience; he couldn't even remember much about what they'd seen. Greta sat wide-eyed at her first big screen movie experience, but she'd been just as anxious as him to return to Wolfram's side. The instant the second feature ended, she was on her feet and urging him and Granddaddy Shoma to hurry home.

It was obvious the blonde had suffered an intense crying jag. He sat on the sofa with his mother watching anime on the television, looking exhausted and about to fall asleep. Whatever had passed between them, Wolfram came away the better for it.

"You're staring again."

Yuuri shrugged, "I like to watch you work. You get this really peaceful, relaxed look on your face. How long before it's finished?"

"I'll have it done in an hour or so. Conrart sent word last night that Yosak has found Ilse's parents."

"That's great!" He'd have to ask the maids in the morning who won the pool. "We'll frame and pack it, and Yosak will make sure it's delivered."

A familiar crease of stubbornness turned down the fine golden brows. "I want to do it this time, Yuuri. Talk with her family."

That brought a sigh out of him. "We've been over this. You can't be the one. We were lucky to come up with a good story that first time. Can you imagine what could have happened if you delivered a portrait to the family of a child who was taken before you were born? It's better to have the rest delivered anonymously."

"I know that," the blonde admitted, frustration coloring his whisper. "Did Yosak tell you they're traders in woven cloth? It's been years but they still ask after Ilse at every fair, it's how Yosak found them. He read one of their notes on a village market board saying she's welcome home when she's ready to return. They never stopped hoping, not even when everyone else gave up."

Yuuri reached out to brush aside the fire lit bangs to peer closely at his eyes. "You look exhausted. Come back to bed. I'll stay awake until you fall asleep." Most of the time knowing someone guarded his sleep kept the nightmares at bay. "You can finish tomorrow."

Wolfram peered inside Lyssa's bed to make sure she still slept on before packing away his materials and returning them and the lap board back to the table where he stored them. He leaned into him when Yuuri timidly wrapped an arm around his shoulders to guide him back to their bed. He settled his husband down and under the blankets before climbing in from the other side after kicking off his slippers. He left the robe on in anticipation of sitting up t read while guarding Wolfram's sleep. They lay facing each other.

"I keep thinking if it was me and God forbid one of our daughters was missing, I'd never stop looking." Wolfram struggled to explain. "Ilse's parents won't give up. For the rest of their lives whenever they see a woman who has the same color hair and is the age Ilse would be, her mother and father will go through the pain of her loss all over again. Yuuri, I know taking the risk doesn't make sense to you, certainly not to Gwendal, but it'll be worth it if I can spare them that."

He searched for and found Wolfram's hand under the blankets and laced their fingers together. Yuuri reassured him, "Then we'll figure out a way that won't risk you. Now, I really don't want Gisela yelling at me again about letting you wear yourself down to a frazzle. Go to sleep," and ended with the soulful pout and eyes that never failed to sway his husband.

Wolfram chuckled at him but closed his eyes. As he wiggled around to get more comfortable, Yuuri heard through a yawn an affectionate, "Wimp."

-o0O0o-

Loud purring reached into Yuuri's dream and pulled him out of sleep. Blinking in confusion, he tried to sit up only to find himself pinned by a flaming lion sprawled like a house cat across his stomach. He still heard Wolfram's soft snore and that worried him. Was he conjuring fire in his dreams and the spell manifesting in real life? The bedding wasn't smoldering so he didn't panic…yet. He turned his head to Wolfram who still lay on his side facing him.

His breath caught in his throat. Instead of their usual bedding he saw they lay in a nest of blankets, sheepskins, and cushions so white they practically glowed. Over Wolfram's shoulder, the paneled walls of their bedchamber were gone, in their place nothing but blackness. They were back in the Void.

"Wolf?" he called out hoping he didn't sound as scared as he felt. The lion gave him a red glance and started kneading the pile of pillows under its paws. "Wolf, wake up!"

"Mph!" The fire demon only snuggled deeper into the nest of bedding.

The lion, purring loud enough to sound like a small engine now, stretched out its head to lick Wolfram's face. Sputtering, the blonde came around. He sat up only to be bowled over as the big cat pounced from Yuuri's body to greet its creator.

Freed of the weight, Yuuri pushed himself up to sit cross legged and watch the brief playful tussle. It ended with Wolfram rolled out of the nest and onto the ground. He happily curled his fingers through the dancing flames of the lion's mane as the beast burrowed its head into the fire wielder's lap.

"Wolfram, don't panic or anything, but have you realized we're back in the Void?" He looked nervously around them. No sign of the unquiet dead or anything else. "We need to find a way to get home."

Wolfram smiled. To Yuuri's surprise, he didn't seem at all upset at waking far from where they'd gone to bed. "It's alright, Yuuri. This is a dream. Our bodies are sleeping back at Blood Pledge Castle."

Skepticism warred with the relief at those words. "Are you sure?"

"I recognize it. This is where I came in my dreams to get away from...things for a while."

Yuuri pushed to his feet and walked around, dodging the lion's sweeping tail. No sign of the lost souls that had threatened them before. Only a little relieved, he turned back at Wolfram. His face had taken on a pensive expression. "How in the world did we get here?"

"This is probably my fault. Lately I've been wondering about the children and Marissa. What happened to them? Is what I'm doing enough, are they free or trapped still? My worry must have triggered the dream, though how that brought you along too…." Shaking the distracted thoughts out of his head, Wolfram cupped the lion's gold and orange head between his palms and peered into the face. "If you're here to greet us, then I think they are here somewhere. Can you take us to them?"

The fire beast actually nodded before getting to its feet. It faced a direction then looked over its shoulder at them. Yuuri reached down to Wolfram. They clasped wrists and he tugged the other boy upright. Yuuri looked from the flame beast to the unknown around them. "You know, I really hate the idea of wandering around out there in just our pajamas."

"This is a dream, Yuuri. You can wear whatever you like." And with that, a beige tunic and brown leggings replaced Wolfram's nightshirt and leather boots covered his bare feet. "Just picture it in your head."

"Really?" He'd never had that kind of control in his other dreams. Still, it worked for Wolfram. He imagined himself in jeans, Nike high tops, and a denim shirt. "Sweet!" He declared at the transformation. "This is much better."

Seeing they were ready, the lion began trotting off into the dark. They hurried along to catch up and walk alongside their guide.

"This fire lion isn't quite normal, is it? I never saw any of the others you made before act like this."

His husband chuckled. "Nothing's what you'd expect here. In the real world my flame lions are a manifestation of my magic that I direct with word and will. Here this one became aware. I think because that was what the children needed."

Yuuri stared at the creature next to him and his eyes went wide. "You mean it's a pet?"

Wolfram nodded.

"It makes sense actually." Yuuri ran a hand tentatively along the lion's back. Oddly enough, it felt like very warm fur. "Back on Earth, we have groups that take cats and dogs to visit patients in hospitals and retirement homes. They swear it helps just to hold and pet them for a while. I wonder if they named it – or should we be saying 'him'?"

The lion made no move to shrug him off, so Yuuri grew bolder, stretching to reach into the mane, scratching behind an ear. Tiny flames danced between his fingers. He grinned at Wolfram who walked on the other side of the lion doing the same sort of petting.

"It's kinda weird, like petting a kitten that's been sleeping too close to a space heater."

"Just don't try that at home. It won't end well."

"Gotcha." Wolfram said it in a light tone, but Yuuri knew he meant every word. "Hey, look at that!"

A huge dome had appeared before them. It looked like it was made of milk-white glass. He couldn't make out anything through it, but from the other side came the scent of flowers. Yuuri realized what he hadn't consciously been aware of before. There had been no smells in the Void. That had added to the creepiness of the place on a subconscious level.

Wolfram stopped so he did too, but the lion kept on going and passed through as if it were nothing. With a shrug, Yuuri started to lead the way but Wolfram immediately made sure he entered first. He didn't complain as he normally did when his companions put his safety before their own. He counted every sign of the old Wolfram coming back a win.

They emerged on the edge of a garden filled with every conceivable color in nature just in time to see the tuft of the lion's tail vanish into it. The riot of plants included species he'd never seen before, but they all somehow worked together to make it all perfect. The rainbow of blossoms filled the air with a perfume that triggered all kinds of happy memories – walks in the park, the first summer holiday he could remember with his family, even the festival he took Wolfram and Greta to on their last day before they returned to Shin Makoku.

From the closed eyes grin on Wolfram's face, he'd had pleasant memories triggered as well.

"This is amazing!" Yuuri proclaimed. "No wonder you liked to come here."

Wolfram's head shook back and forth. "This wasn't here before, or at least I never saw it, just that island of light I told you about. Everything else was darkness." Suddenly he pointed the way the fire lion had gone. "I can just see the roof of a house. Maybe there's someone there who can answer our questions."

It took a while to reach it. One or the other of them kept spotting a particularly beautiful flower or a colorful butterfly that they had to pause to examine. But Yuuri felt no urgency, in fact he felt as if they had all the time in the world and absolutely nothing pressing on them. By the time they approached the house where it stood at the garden's center, Yuuri felt rested and at peace, the way he'd been told by patients that an intense magical healing left them. From the subtle easing in Wolfram's posture, he'd gotten the same reaction.

He thought whimsically, 'If only we had a way to bottle all this and take it back with us when we wake up.'

Up close, the house they had seen from the distance made Yuuri think of a storybook illustration. The two-story farmhouse was big enough for a wraparound porch and swing, with a whitewashed stone foundation. It rested in the shade of a massive willow tree. Their feline guide lounged in the curl of its roots. Variegated ivy and pink to white clematis twined through the lattices that shielded either end of the long porch.

A little boy he recognized from Wolfram's sketches, newly amazed at Wolfram's gift for portraiture, slumped in the swing, pushing off with one foot from the railing to keep up the steady motion. He looked totally bored. But he perked up the second he saw them approaching.

"Wolfram!" he shouted, as loud and clear as an alarm. "Everybody, they're here!"

-o0O0o-

Wolfram knew the boy couldn't be hurt, but he had to bite down on a surge of parental instinct when Kurt leaped off the swing at the top of its arc in a daredevil stunt that a professional acrobat might have been proud of, and came tearing down the porch steps whooping and waving. Four more kids came pouring out of the house in his wake.

Wolfram recognized each one. Eric with his red hair and freckles; sweet Ilse with her brunette ponytail bouncing in her wake; Kurt's lookalike sister Marta; and Lily, the last of all the children to find her smile again. Because of them he survived the night he thought his world had ended. They'd been the first to give him their names along with their strength. They and the others helped him endure what Hanreid put him through. Though he didn't have the details – and would never ask – Wolfram knew they were in this place because they too had suffered at the hands of that man and his sorcerer. His heart ached that after everything, they were still imprisoned in the Void.

But he buried that sorrow for their sakes. He had barely braced himself before the little ones practically buried him in their efforts to hug him. The lion joined the pile and sent the lot of them rolling about in the grass while Yuuri looked on with a bemused expression on his face.

"Look at you all!" Wolfram felt a real ear-to-ear grin growing as he peered into their happy faces. "No need to ask how you've been. You look wonderful!" If he hadn't known better, he might have thought them actual living beings.

Lily made herself their spokesperson. Sitting up, she combed loose hair off her flushed cheeks and behind her ears and told him, "It's thanks to you keeping your promise. As you envisioned us, so we became. Something of us is in the living word for those we left behind. We've got back what the sorcerer stole from us and healed our souls."

In every tale of the unquiet dead Wolfram had ever heard or read, once they achieved justice, the spirits moved on to whatever destiny awaited them. The children had gotten their justice. "Then why are you still here?"

"We all wanted to thank you, so Lady Marissa made this place for us, and we've been waiting for you to dream your way here ever since."

Eric elbowed him in the ribs, "Took you long enough."

The sound of a door squeaking open caught their attention and drew their eyes to where Marissa emerged from the house onto the porch with a tiny girl in her arms. Wolfram had never seen her before. Who was she and how had the poor thing ended up in the Void?

"Don't just sprawl there, children." Her teasing tone and gaze included him and Yuuri. "Come up on the porch out of the sun."

They untangled from their puppy pile and did as they were told. Wolfram felt his cheeks warm as Yuuri wove through the small group to approach at his side. He relished each sign from him of a growing closeness and what it meant for their future together. Shyly, he reached out his hand and Yuuri grasped it without hesitating.

When they reached their hostess, Yuuri leaned in to smile at the child Marissa held. She shyly, adorably, smiled around the thumb in her mouth at him before burying her face in the curve of Marissa's neck.

"Welcome to my home," Marissa greeted them. She too had changed for the better, rosy and bright as she must have been before Hanreid entered her life. "I call it Haven, for that is the purpose it serves both in the Void and the dream realm. What do you think?"

Wolfram gazed around them. "It is amazing. How did you manage?"

Her free shoulder lifted in an eloquent shrug. "A complete soul has incredible potential in this place."

Marissa raised her left hand, thin fingers weaving a pattern in the air as they passed through it that Yuuri tried and failed to follow. A table sporting a tray with tall glasses of iced lemonade appeared next to the swing. Suddenly thirsty, he was the first to grab a glass.

"Come, sit and tell me everything."

Wolfram walked over to sit on the swing. Marissa joined him, settling the little girl between them. She immediately leaned into her side and stared at the golden haired stranger.

Wolfram smiled down at her upturned face, "Hello, little one." Remembering her timidity with Yuuri, he didn't push for more. Once she got used to them, he was sure she'd open up.

Yuuri perched on the railing so that he fell into the light that warmed as if it came from the sun and drank from his glass. Wolfram sipped from his own, savoring the incredibly refreshing lemonade, wondering if its effects would carry over into the waking world.

"Is all well? How is young Lyssa doing?

"She's perfect."

Their simultaneous praise set them all laughing. Wolfram went on, "She's already rocking on her hands and knees. She'll be crawling soon. Mother says she is the happiest baby she's ever known. She insists on calling her Sunny."

"I like that better than Lyssie as a nickname," Yuuri offered with a wiggle of his eyebrows in his direction.

It wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation, nor would it be the last. Using nicknames was an old debate between them, ever since they named the baby dragon what seemed decades ago. Yuuri still thought Liesel was much too formal for a baby and insisted on calling him Pochi.

"Our daughter has a fine name," Wolfram insisted once again to his husband."It doesn't need to be shortened or replaced by something entirely different."

This time Wolfram didn't pursue it beyond that statement. Instead he looked around as the others settled on the porch floor or steps with drinks of their own. "Where are the other children? Aren't they joining us?"

Happiness lit the faces around them. Marissa explained, "The promise was kept. They have healed and moved on." Her gaze took in the boys and girls grouped around them. "These chose to linger a while longer."

"We made a promise too!" piped little Marta, her rust-brown hair flying with the vigor of her nod, which was echoed by all the others.

Wolfram leaned over to brush a finger over the tip of her nose and set a blush rising in her cheeks. "And what promise was that?"

"A secret one, so we can't tell. I'm bored." She grabbed his hand in both of hers. The lemonade she'd been holding simply disappeared. "Let's play!"

As if the words were a signal, the lion shook its fiery head and got up to make its way to the porch. The maned head poked over the railing – not much of a stretch, it stood so tall – to nudge at his shoulder, practically knocking him off the swing.

Red-haired Eric finished what the lion began by pulling him to his feet by his other arm. "Yes, there's lots more room here for games than in the circle of light or," he added with a gap-toothed grin and a wink, "behind fireplace dragons."

Wolfram stared at him in confusion. "Fireplace dragon? What…?" A faint memory from his early childhood came back to him and his eyes widened in recognition. "It's you! I had forgotten – everyone told me I'd dreamed about playing Hide and Seek inside a dragon."

"Now that sounded like an interesting story." But before Yuuri had a chance to ask questions, Wolfram was being herded by the children toward the lawn.

"Come on, one last game of Tag!" urged Kurt, and his sister and friends took up the plea with variations of their own.

Wolfram looked at Yuuri over his shoulder. He grinned back. "Go on, I'm fine here. Maybe I'll join you later."

"Yay! Wolfram's it!" declared Kurt before darting off on flying feet; the others scattering with him.

"Oh, very well," the blonde grumbled, fooling no one, and took off in pursuit with the lion bounding around him.

-o0O0o-

Yuuri left the railing to join Marissa and the little girl on the swing to watch them at play. "What about you?" he asked as they set themselves in motion. "Did you make a promise too?"

"Only to myself. I died so young, lost so much." She cuddled the little girl against her side, her fingers carding the shiny curls, "Everything in me demanded revenge. I know I would have been one of those lost souls in the dark beyond if not for those little ones and Wolfram. Caring for them and helping your husband when the time came gave me focus, a healthy outlet for the rage that might have destroyed me. I remained aware of selfhood even though I had lost my name. I'm whole again now that the promise has been kept, and happier than I ever hoped to be after Hanreid married me."

An enthusiastic whoop drew their attention back to the lawn. Marissa laughed. "It seems my charges are giving Wolfram a run for his money."

Yuuri watched the antics as the kids deftly avoided Wolfram's every effort to get in a touch. His smile spread as he realized that Wolfram only held back with the very smallest child. They really were making him work to win the game, and they were all having a ball.

Marissa commented in a soft voice. "Wolfram seems well here. How is he in the waking world?"

His happy mood slipped a little. "Better. But he has bad nightmares sometimes, though not as often as he did at first. He tries to hide it, but Wolfram can't bear to be touched by anyone. If he sees it coming, he can control his reaction, but…."

His companion nodded in understanding. "It will be better when you wake."

He hoped so. "So how did you build all this?"

Marissa lifted a hand palm up. Above it appeared a miniature dragon the color of pale jade. It winged in a tight circle, breathing fire."What I can imagine is in this place. Haven is not just for the little ones."

Marissa pointed. Yuuri looked that way to see in the distance a topiary arch at the end of a flagstone path. Beyond the arch, pitch black against the darkness, a few human-shaped figures milled about. The sight made him tense at first, but Marissa's calm let him relax. If she wasn't afraid, he'd trust her and not panic.

"The peace of this place draws them. In time, some will want that peace enough to dare the path. Within my garden, they will rest and heal until they too can move on."

Yuuri whistled, impressed. "You've taken on an awful lot for one person."

"I'm not alone." She bent to kiss the crown of the head of the child at her side. "My daughter is even more gifted than I am."

"Your daughter? How?"

Marvel rang in her reply. "She waited for me all this time so we could share that next journey, watching and listening to all that transpired. After the day of the Promise, our mutual desire to meet again allowed her to pass through into the Void."

Surprised, Yuuri examined the little girl sitting between them more closely. He should have guessed. She had rich auburn hair like Marissa's but in springy curls even tighter than Greta's. Her hazel eyes sparkled with the humor behind them just waiting to find expression. She lifted an eyebrow in a very adult manner, causing him to stammer a bit.

"Forgive my bad manners. Let's start over, okay?" He turned enough to hold out his hand more comfortably. "Hello, my name is Yuuri. What's your name?"

"Hello. I'm Joy."

Mother and daughter shared a secret smile. "She chose the name herself. As I no longer needed it, I had no objection. I think it suits her. After she saw the garden and learned what I hoped to provide for the poor souls trapped here, Joy joined my cause."

Yuuri marveled at the strength it must have taken Marissa and her daughter to make that choice. "But doesn't that mean you're trapped here?"

Their heads shook as one. Joy piped up, "In the fullness of time, there will be a changing of the guard. That too is promised."

He gave little Joy a quizzical look. "Wow. You speak really well for your age."

A giggle escaped her, "I can be whatever age I want here. Today I'm a child. Tomorrow I'll be grown up so I can help Mother with the gardening. Another time I might be a grandmother, as need or desire dictates." She got up from the bench, smoothly aging enough that she didn't need any help. "I know you two have things to discuss so I'll leave you to talk. I want to play some more before everyone has to leave."

Joy gave her mother a quick peck on the cheek and scurried off to join in the fun. She grew a little older with each stride across the grass until she was of an age to compete with the others. Wolfram's jaw dropped at the sight but the rest took it in stride. The fire wielder shrugged it off soon enough and resumed racing about. It all looked like a lot of fun. Yuuri pushed to his feet, ready to join them, but Marissa's grip on his wrist stopped him.

"Wait a moment longer."

The now not-so-little Joy reached the others and everyone gathered around. Yuuri couldn't make out the conversation, but from the actions that followed, he realized that they had now gone from a game of Tag to Blind Man's Bluff, and Wolfram was it. Joy untied a sash from another girl's waist for the blindfold and covered Wolfram's eyes.

They'd played the same game with Greta during lighter times. In Shin Makoku, the rules were a little different than on Earth. Here it was a way to give young Demons a way to try their burgeoning powers. The combination of stealth and magic – causing a bush on the other side of the field of play to move or making a splash in a puddle as a distraction, that sort of thing – made it hard for whoever was it, but helped the children learn the limits of and creative ways to use their elements.

They all started dancing in a ring around Wolfram while they called out the game's rhyming song.

Tit for tat

A touch, a tap

Find us one by one

Tit for tat

A touch, a tap

Until the game is done

The circle broke and the children scattered. Arms outstretched, Wolfram tried to locate them from the sounds they made. The children played with the focused concentration only the young can devote to a game. But unlike any version of the game he knew, no one tried to avoid Wolfram. In fact, they deliberately stepped into his reach.

"I don't get it," he said to Marissa who smiled mysteriously at his side. "That isn't the way the game is played."

"Keep watching, Heika," she told him.

So he did. Wolfram's pale fingers found the shoulder of Eric as he put himself in front of his husband. Yuuri blinked, not at all sure what he was seeing. At first he thought it had to be a trick of the light, but as the game progressed, specks of darkness appeared and rose up to hang in the air above the players like a faint cloud of ash. They formed strands of black that braided in and out of each other in a streaming flow. After a bit they merged into a blob and flew off to join the night beyond the garden.

A breeze stirred the long strands of the willow tree, carrying with it a sound barely heard over the shouts of the raucous bluffing on the lawn. Wolfram paused as if he too heard it but soon went back to dodging about like a dervish. The others either didn't hear it or ignored it.

Yuuri didn't have that option. Faint as it was, the agony and rage came through. It sounded like a tormented animal but he recognized the voice even stripped of the little humanity he'd once had.

"He fell down dead the second we passed through the portal," he whispered to his companion even as the breeze died and the sound with it. "I didn't care so long as Wolfram and Lyssa were safe. But sometimes I wished Hanreid had lived long enough to pay for what he'd done, especially when I see how Wolf still suffers because of him."

"There is a legend meant for dark, stormy nights of an evil Mazoku who committed atrocities upon humans and Demons alike. No one ever caught him while he lived, his charming persona so well crafted, no one even suspected him. When he finally died, laughing as he admitted to everything and how he'd gotten away with it, he found himself before the gods. They were not fooled. They trapped his soul in his body and chained it to the highest mountain in Hell. There monstrous beasts devour his flesh endlessly. After each bite, what is eaten grows back. The feasting will never end, his punishment is eternal."

Yuuri cringed at the fate of the Demon in the story. "But that's just a story. What does it have to do with anything?"

"It is the lesson of the tale that matters. Death is no escape from Justice. At the end of our lives, all must face a judge who cannot be deceived or swayed, and a judgment more fitting than any human or Demon court can pass or render." Marissa stared off where the scream had come from. "Be assured that Hanreid pays for his crimes. He suffers the pain, fear, and despair that weighed down the souls of his victims. All save one."

Yuuri tracked her gaze as it shifted back to Wolfram. Out on the lawn, the blindfolded fire wielder stood with head tilted to the side as the players sang out the rhyme again in a new round. He reached out and this time Lily stepped into his touch first. Yuuri squinted and realized with a gasp that the motes of darkness were rising out of Wolfram's body every time he touched a child in the dancing ring.

"Because Wolfram still lives, the relief we once unquiet dead know has not been his." Marissa gave him a sideways glance full of satisfaction. "No one has the power to remove the full burden he bears for us," She gazed on her charges, pride a song behind her words, "but every one of them wanted to do something to make it easier for him, so the children devised a way to rectify the situation."

Even more puzzled, Yuuri watched the participants at their odd game. One by one Wolfram caught them all again. Now that he watched more carefully each time the Fire Demon's questing hands took hold of a shoulder or arm, Yuuri saw faintly glowing light flow from the touch to be absorbed into his body. Even more of the dark miasma poured out of him as if displaced by the light. It rose into the sky to mingle with the remnants that hadn't yet joined the darkness around Marissa's haven.

By the end of the game blackness roiled like an overburdened storm cloud in the air over the yard. Joy ended up the last captured child. Laughing, a little breathless, Wolfram stood with his hands on his hips. "That went a little fast. I don't think you remember the rules properly. You need to make it harder for me to find you. Shall we try again?"

She shook her head so fiercely her hair whipped the air around her. "Nope, this game is done at last."

Joy stood on tiptoe to kiss the fire wielder on the forehead. In the same moment, the last of the blackness hovering high above Wolfram's head shuddered then sped off, as if an invisible tether had been severed, to vanish beyond the garden's boundary.

Off in the distance, the cry came again, barely heard but still with the power to cause an icy shudder to run down Yuuri's spine. Out on the grass, Wolfram snatched off his blindfold to look around in alarm. He was too late to see the retreating cloud that had come from his body.

"What was that?"

Joy told him, "Many things wait in the dark. Sometimes they like to remind us that they're around. I'm hungry. Time for a picnic!"

She waved her hand as she spun in a circle and a spread – enough to feed twice their number – appeared on a large red and white check tablecloth. The kids dropped all around it and started grabbing up the treats. Wolfram shrugged, his earlier alarm forgotten, and sat down cross legged with them. He waved him and Marissa over.

Yuuri stood and offered her his arm. Smiling, she rose, slipped hers into the crook of his elbow, and together they stepped off the porch and walked slowly toward the party.

"What just happened?"

"Each child gifted Wolfram with a portion of their own newfound peace. It isn't a complete healing. He will still have the memories and nightmares from time to time, but when you wake they will not have as much power as before. In surprisingly little time, they will fade until nothing remains that can harm him. It has already begun."

Yuuri believed her. Even over the distance between them, he could already see a change. Wolfram looked happy and lighter somehow. His eyes shown like polished gems in the sunlight of the dream realm, no longer dulled by the pain he'd refused to burden his loved ones with. He shot an impatient look over his shoulder, no doubt wondering why they dawdled.

"Hurry up you two, before everything's gone!"

"Coming!"

But first, he had one last question, though Marissa's earlier story left him thinking he might already have the answer. "And the screams?"

Marissa gazed up at him and, for a fleeting instant, the vengeance-driven woman she had been before Hanreid's death shadowed her face.

"Justice," she announced with profound vindication.

And deep within Yuuri, the Maoh echoed the sentiment with a satisfaction that matched his own.

AN: And so ends What Belongs to Me. Thanks again for sticking with me for so long. Reviews welcome as well as suggestions for a title for the story of their stay in Yuuri's world. I need some inspiration!