This is the Lock and Key Trilogy. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, it's basically a story and three quarters worth of poor writing that I partially rewrote, tried to finish, and then completely scrapped. It starts of as a romantic comedy, then evolves into a modern-day supernatural urban fantasy, then completely goes off its head into high-fantasy epic land. Those of you who were a part of the entire messed up journey will agree that it was interesting, but that it had a few too many plot holes and useless character development to actually end well. Also, if you look back, it's also got little bits that scream of bigotry, including but not limited to sexism, homophobia, transphobia, consent issues, etc. I wrote that before I realized how wrong bigotry is, and looking back at it makes me feel a strong sense of "wow-was-I-really-such-an-asshole".

I've posted this because my readers loved it (despite its many flaws), but it's a lost cause. Go ahead and dig through it, but I'm not going to finish it and you'd better not ever expect me to.

And to my readers: uhhhhh, I knew I said I was going to rewrite this ... I'm sorry. I gave up on this fandom. But I am totally open to someone taking this and finishing it. Or rewriting it, because I have my halfway finished plans for the rewrite still on hand. Seriously. I feel bad for abandoning this entirely. So yeah. Ask for them, and I'l give them to you.

All rights go to Peach-Pit.

Of Final Adventures and Last Years

Prologue

They say that all the stories are true.

Even the tallest tale, the wildest myth, has a drop of reality hidden within the fantasy. Every story from around the whole world, from folk tales of kindly lumber-giant people sixty-three axe handles high that roam North America to wizards in Europe, to whispered rumors of a man with sand to help children sleep, to beings that take childrens' teeth and leave things in their place; the world is filled with fairy tales.

Of course, we all know that this could never be true. There are no vicious werewolves roaming the Black Forest. There are no bloodthirsty vampires hidden in Romanian castles. Fish-tailed sirens do not sit on jagged, rocky coasts and lure men to their deaths. No lady waits on bridges waiting for men to dance with and toss over the edge to drown if he refuses. The Great Sphinx of Egypt does not constantly riddle tourists and then eat them when they get the answer wrong.

And most certainly, little guardian angels do not follow children around to help them become their would-be-selves.

But even though the people of the world know this, we still dream. We still fear the Dark and the secrets hidden within it, still burned and hanged innocent people for fear they were satanic witches, hunted dragons and dress up as monsters on Hallow's Eve, hope for a man in fur from the North Pole to bring us all presents on Christmas night. We do not forget the world of fantasy. The beauty of magic is as real to us as it will ever be, lighting up our war-torn, divided world where children are forced to kill their parents and unwanted souls kill themselves. It represents our dreams. All of our dreams.

Even the nightmares.

Oh, yes. We cannot forget the spirits that lurk around graveyards, the murders buried at crossroads, the monsters that lurk beneath our beds and in our closets. With red, malicious eyes, cackling laughs, and sharp claws, they await us, reminding us that none of us can escape Fear itself.

But of course, we know that magic does not exist.

Everyone knows none of the stories are true, right?

And this is just another story, waiting to be heard.

This is the tale of the ten character bearers, and their final adventure, from convenience-store ghosts to evil monsters to X-Eggs and Easter. This is the tale of the Road of Stars, of destiny and the Lock and Key Guardians. This is the tale of how everything fell apart and got put back together again.

This is our story.

And it begins on a hot spring day, in the middle of Seiyo Academy's running track...