********* (I Love You) Interlude XIII: Despair (Zetsubou)Follow

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is the next chapter of my fanfiction Aish*teru (I Love You). We are two pieces away from being totally done with it...scary, isn’t it?

Read and review, as you wish.

I don’t own any of this, so yeah...no suing by teh SE please.


Previous Chapters, Aki, and Interludes

Part I - Connection (Enishi)

Kasho II - Kodoku (Solitude)

Part III - Reunion (Saikai)

Kasho IV- Suriyoru (Closer)

Part V- Secrets (Hiou)

Kasho VI- Hanarebanare (Apart)

Part VII- Longing (Akogare)

Kasho VIII- Takatobi (Escape)

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(Chapter LVII)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35;mid=1158658394285452028;num=8;page=1

(Aki LVIII)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1160487418129598544

(Chapter LIX)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=116215072938586841#116232451255312339

(Aki LX)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=11683340869501875

(Chapter LXI)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1170686480312991438

(Aki LXII)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=1173454020128048747

(Chapter LXIII)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10;mid=117708938380248789

(Aki LXIV)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35;mid=1177332956241669586

(Chapter LXV)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1182858527209482995

(Aki LXVI)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=118615554215661313

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Bonus Story: Rainfall Memories

Bonus Story: Morning After

For anyone who’s ever wanted a knight to come brave the hell of the world to save them when all hope seems lost.

*****

Interlude XIII: Despair (Zetsubou)

*****

"Welcome back, my child."

I scrunched up my twin green eyes for a moment, then popped them open suddenly in a poor attempt to focus them. The voice was damp and harsh, as if he wasn’t accustomed to speaking.

But I knew who it was. Last time I had heard that voice, I was just beginning to make my journey to purify his realm of the evil that would spring forth as a result of the Crystal War.

My knees gave out beneath me as I dropped down to the cold cobblestones that made up his ethereal dream chamber. Meekly bowing my head down in submission, the tip of my nose touched the harsh flooring as my black hair pooled all about my face.

"Lord Diabolos..."

He let me stay down there for a moment in submission to him, before uttering a single word.

"Awake..."

My eyes snapped open once more, only for me to be rewarded by sharp ice crystals rocking against my pupils in return as a partially-solidified handful of ice and snow was thrown at my face. I felt some of the ice bits slice into my skin and create jagged marks in my flesh, the rich red blood spilling away down my whitened cheeks, only to freeze up nearly instantly.

I looked up into the face of my tormentor, a demon who’s own face had small icicles danging off unnoticed. My arms were stretched out on either side of me, a lengthy chain snaking around each of them and across my back, only to ultimately lock off my fingers from moving before locking into each of the rosewood posts on either side of me. It was a frighteningly effective kind of encasement, and I felt my stomach twist against itself. I knew that behind me was their lord’s castle, the lord that spoiled my sweet homeworld, with his dreams of intoxicating sin.

The world that I was supposed to protect but failed.

"If we are meeting here...either...you were successful, or you died in the plane of the awakened flesh." The Keeper of Dreams’ wings beat the air, making a soft whumphf sound with each stroke that they took as he kept his form levitated just in front of his dream portal, as if it was his throne.

I swallowed the glob of saliva forming in my throat as my mind traced back to where I was just moments before.

...Escaping beneath Tavnazia to try to save us both from the beastman hordes...my mana already at it’s limit...draining myself completely, simply because we found each other once more and he was willing to die if it meant protecting me...

"My lord, I fear that my living form died on the plane of Vana’diel, as a result of mana depravation. I was not able to kill the Archduke, nor was I able to prevent the war from happening."

I bit the bottom of my lip to brace myself for the harsh scolding that was sure to come.

"You are charged with treason against the Dynamis Lord, for corroborating with the former owner of this world in an attempt to bring our true master down."

A felt a clawed hand grasp at my face, his talons only adding more scars to my cheeks and chin as he roughly tilted my head up to look into his eyes. Our sights connected for a moment and I felt myself starting to become sucked into that eternal damnation of the Underworld and Mordion Gaol before I rallied myself together enough to pull my gaze away.

"And you are guilty. You must die, traitor."

"I see." I spoke softly, all hope lost for my salvation. Dimly, I realized that I couldn’t feel my fingers or toes anymore, and a sense of clamminess was starting to creep it’s way up towards my chest.

My feelings and senses dulled, I let my head fall against my chest.

"You were sent into the world of Awakening, charged with preventing the Keeper from realizing her own destiny and bringing bout the Apocalypse. And it is because of your failure to complete your task that my realm will continue to drip with darkness and sin of invading dreamers, now that we cannot prevent the past from flowing into the future and in turn slipping into my time outside of time."

He paused for a moment, and I nervously shifted just a tiny bit of my body’s weight from one leg to the other, my knelt form quivering slightly in front of him.

"Was he worth it?"

The question took me by surprise, and my soul stiffened up.

"My lord..." I whispered softly, the words lodging themselves in my throat like a sickened thick honey.

"Was he worth it?", the Keeper of Dreams asked me once more, obviously expecting an answer from me.

I attempted and failed to dry swallow before parting my lips once more, to give a response.

"...Yes..."

"So you admit to the fact that you understand and don’t deny any of it?" The demon crowed into my face as he pulled his long dark grayed great sword out from the scabbard creased into his back’s armored scales, and held the tip just against where my heart was trying to continue beating in rhythm. A dulled pinprick, and I knew that he was starting to push the metal inside of me.

I spoke once more, to admit once again what I knew would be my last words ever. My body felt so cold, so so cold at this point, that I realized my flesh was shutting down into death as I said that one single word.

"...Yes..."

"You will be sent back to the dream world of Dynamis then, and I seriously doubt that the demons there will overlook your actions at trying to destroy their world. You will probably die not long after you are placed into the Xarcabard wasteland."

Diabolos swept himself down to me, closing his leathered wings around my body, trapping me against his body. He felt surprisingly warm, not cold as I had expected. My sight enveloped by darkness, I had a sensation of myself being drawn backwards into what I assumed would be the portal that would return me back to where my certain, true, death awaited me.

Snow crunching.

Pressure removed.

A sword drawn.

Faint, dim words spoken.

"...Hey butterfly, is this where I return the favor you did for me back in Tavnazia, and save you this time?..."

~Interlude XIII: Despair (Zetsubou)