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tampered2007-05-30 01:48 am
bright-shield.livejournal.com) wrote in tampered2007-05-30 01:48 am
Log; Complete [Duel of Fates]
When; May 30th, Sunset
Rating; PG, Some Violence?
Characters; Jowy![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
for_destiny and Riou bright_shield
Summary;
One year of war
Two worlds
Three fates
Nine weeks of running at an end
A promise put on hold
The final battle
This is how it really ended
Log;
The setting sun gilded the branches of the trees that Riou pushed through, his right hand burning quietly, leading him further onward, upward, away from the ever-waiting city.
The northern forest. Again. Like that night the ghosts whispered to him and he found and helped Jowy. Like that day the curse possessed him and he hunted and nearly killed Jowy. No-- he wouldn't think of that. It wasn't going to be that way, no matter how strangely the other boy may have been acting since his return.
Even if it was Jowy who was cursed this time, even if Jowy had truly forgotten everything that had been so painfully learned in this city, it would be all right. Bright Shield was the defender and Riou had been long prepared-- it would be far less shocking than having the shield go against its own nature and attack.
And for perhaps the first time since their arrival in this strange place, the will of Riou and that of his rune were once again one and the same. It had certainly taken long enough.
Black Sword. Riou's rune guided him with unerring accuracy towards their counterpart. Surely, Jowy could sense him coming as well. But what was his childhood friend doing here, of all places? The forest ringed the nameless city entirely, but once, twice, thrice, he and Jowy had been drawn back to this same patch of trees and land.
Is there something here we're supposed to find?
Although Riou didn't remember climbing quite so high the times before. He pushed onward. And as he came to a break within the trees, Bright Shield throbbed upon his hand in warning. Fate. For a moment Riou raised his gloved hand to his eyes as he was blinded by the light of the dying sun, streaming out behind the mountain cliff before him.
He froze.
Not a clearing. Not the one where he'd found Jowy's unconscious body nor the one where they had fought. But a path. To a mountain pass. A waterfall rumbled nearby-- how could he not have heard it before? A river threading through the land far below.
And the familiar figure of Jowy waiting next to an 'X' etched deeply within the towering stone.
Tenzan Pass.
It couldn't be. A memory from a year ago. A lifetime ago.
"If we make it but somehow get separated... Let's return to this spot. That way we'll be reunited. Promise me, Riou..." Sparks flew from Jowy's knife as he slashed it across the face of the stone.
"Forget it... we'll make it together!" Riou reassured his best friend and tried not to think of the deep currents of the river below that had killed older men than they.
"Fine... Then this mark is my prayer that we make it together." Jowy smiled as he completed the X. On the brink of the edge they looked at each other, held hands, and jumped into the abyss. And were driven apart.
He had forgotten.
But he hadn't... he hadn't promised. They were supposed... supposed to have made it through together! He hadn't-- was he supposed to have come back? Here? No, it was all still a trick of the city, he was sure. Something else to play with their heads. They weren't really back... But even still Jowy was here and--
And then more memories flickered through his mind. Of when he had first arrived, confused and lost, and stared deep into the depths of a sparkling fountain and had found... death, death and blood and failure, over and over again, within a familiar mountain pass, beneath a mark in stone that was and was not a promise.
Had he forgotten that as well? No, he had pushed it from his mind. Sometimes the fountain lied and-- here it was. Bright Shield waited. That, at least, was indeed a pledge. To be reunited-- to be one. But it didn't have to end in destruction. He took a deep breath, walked out of the shadowed forest and into a memory he had long given up for lost.
"I'm sorry," Riou called out to the other, his voice breaking the quiet anticipation that hovered about the mountain pass. "It seems I'm a bit late."
Rating; PG, Some Violence?
Characters; Jowy
for_destiny and Riou bright_shield Summary;
One year of war
Two worlds
Three fates
Nine weeks of running at an end
A promise put on hold
The final battle
This is how it really ended
Log;
The setting sun gilded the branches of the trees that Riou pushed through, his right hand burning quietly, leading him further onward, upward, away from the ever-waiting city.
The northern forest. Again. Like that night the ghosts whispered to him and he found and helped Jowy. Like that day the curse possessed him and he hunted and nearly killed Jowy. No-- he wouldn't think of that. It wasn't going to be that way, no matter how strangely the other boy may have been acting since his return.
Even if it was Jowy who was cursed this time, even if Jowy had truly forgotten everything that had been so painfully learned in this city, it would be all right. Bright Shield was the defender and Riou had been long prepared-- it would be far less shocking than having the shield go against its own nature and attack.
And for perhaps the first time since their arrival in this strange place, the will of Riou and that of his rune were once again one and the same. It had certainly taken long enough.
Black Sword. Riou's rune guided him with unerring accuracy towards their counterpart. Surely, Jowy could sense him coming as well. But what was his childhood friend doing here, of all places? The forest ringed the nameless city entirely, but once, twice, thrice, he and Jowy had been drawn back to this same patch of trees and land.
Is there something here we're supposed to find?
Although Riou didn't remember climbing quite so high the times before. He pushed onward. And as he came to a break within the trees, Bright Shield throbbed upon his hand in warning. Fate. For a moment Riou raised his gloved hand to his eyes as he was blinded by the light of the dying sun, streaming out behind the mountain cliff before him.
He froze.
Not a clearing. Not the one where he'd found Jowy's unconscious body nor the one where they had fought. But a path. To a mountain pass. A waterfall rumbled nearby-- how could he not have heard it before? A river threading through the land far below.
And the familiar figure of Jowy waiting next to an 'X' etched deeply within the towering stone.
Tenzan Pass.
It couldn't be. A memory from a year ago. A lifetime ago.
"If we make it but somehow get separated... Let's return to this spot. That way we'll be reunited. Promise me, Riou..." Sparks flew from Jowy's knife as he slashed it across the face of the stone.
"Forget it... we'll make it together!" Riou reassured his best friend and tried not to think of the deep currents of the river below that had killed older men than they.
"Fine... Then this mark is my prayer that we make it together." Jowy smiled as he completed the X. On the brink of the edge they looked at each other, held hands, and jumped into the abyss. And were driven apart.
He had forgotten.
But he hadn't... he hadn't promised. They were supposed... supposed to have made it through together! He hadn't-- was he supposed to have come back? Here? No, it was all still a trick of the city, he was sure. Something else to play with their heads. They weren't really back... But even still Jowy was here and--
And then more memories flickered through his mind. Of when he had first arrived, confused and lost, and stared deep into the depths of a sparkling fountain and had found... death, death and blood and failure, over and over again, within a familiar mountain pass, beneath a mark in stone that was and was not a promise.
Had he forgotten that as well? No, he had pushed it from his mind. Sometimes the fountain lied and-- here it was. Bright Shield waited. That, at least, was indeed a pledge. To be reunited-- to be one. But it didn't have to end in destruction. He took a deep breath, walked out of the shadowed forest and into a memory he had long given up for lost.
"I'm sorry," Riou called out to the other, his voice breaking the quiet anticipation that hovered about the mountain pass. "It seems I'm a bit late."