I know it was a long wait but finally we've reached the last and final chapter. Thank you very much for your patience and I hope you enjoy reading.

I capture the castle

Chapter IX

XX

There was a reason for everything. All things moved according to one divine will, events ordering themselves as destiny saw fit. It was Fate. Hitsuzen.

Fai moved slowly, his limbs made heavy with dread and doubt. He had never been the one to fight when there were always yet others to fight in his stead or better yet an alternative. He had never liked the thought of pain but this time he had chosen willingly to fight and to fight alone.

Kurogane would be pissed, though, thinking about it, the ninja was already annoyed to the point of actually committing homicide, curse or no, that one more irritation could do no more harm. Besides, he wanted to be alone with Ashura.

Even as he travelled down the crumbling passageways, passing broken stone and cracked walls, he could feel security tighten. That was good. More mannequins and other assorted traps only meant he was getting closer and closer to his goal.

He kept a ball of translucent energy in his hand shooting it at the wooden mannequins that hobbled his way. They moved rigidly. The mannequins came at him and surrounded him. It took a fair amount of time to get them to crumbled around him, disintegrating into dust. Fai moved on. It did not really matter if he used magic now, did it? He had already come this far, already used his power and would have to use even more of it in the near future.

The door was emblazoned with a dark red seal. The back door was almost identical to the front; almost identical to the door he had sent Syaoran and Kurogane on their clueless way towards.

Security was tighter the closer he got to the door. It was not that they were particularly tough but that there were so many of them. Those attack mannequins, like a swarm of flies, caused him to slow his pace and forced him to proceed with some caution.

To the right or to the left, sometimes right in front of his eyes. He gritted his teeth and swept them away. There was no time to admire how annoyingly persistent Celes' security could be. When one was knocked down, if he did not destroy it properly, it would just get back up for more.

The door was close now. He could almost stretch out and feel the frozen stone beneath his fingertips. Memories flooded and choked him, trapping him in a web of frozen images.

The fallen mannequins behind him shuddered to their feet and lunged. Fai shook off the cobwebs of memory just in time to turn. His magic rushed to his aid but they were so close and all he could think about was of a time when the door behind him had seemed so big.

"Get down!" he heard someone scream before a body forcefully collided into him, stealing his breath as he hit and rolled across the uneven floor.

"Kurogane!" he choked, hardly noticing that he had pronounced the ninja's name in its complete and full glory for the second time that day. He saw flames in the corner of his eye and realised that Syaoran was forcing back the mannequins. "I thought you said that you didn't care what happened to me," he said, not bothering to ask just why they were here. He supposed that he could figure that one out on his own.

"Don't get me wrong," the ninja growled. "I hate the way you pretend to smile, how you always run, how you laugh and act like a fool. I hate your principals, I hate the way you think!"

"Then why - "

"Idiot! You don't get it, do you, you fool?" he yelled, almost burying his fist into the mage's head in hopes of getting some oxygen to that woefully irritating brain.

He opened his mouth again but then closed it. How could he say it? What words could possibly be enough to tell this stupid wizard? He hated the man. He hated him and wanted him to live, not just exist, but really live the life he had. He wanted him to suffer and see him laugh until he cried, or cry until he laughed, he forgot which way around they went. He wanted to yell and shout and shake him and speak in soft whispers. That he did not know just what he wanted to say himself made it all the more worse.

He wanted to say more but those few words were firmly lodged in his throat. He had never been one to think before speaking or waste moments fretting over the choice of words and he certainly never regretted the things he said but somehow this was different. It was too close, too real. Everyone, even the best of people, had barriers and these words lay too close inside those protective walls. So no words. Only forceful gazes and gritted teeth and eyes that wished they could strangle.

"I see," Fai murmured, looking at nothing in particular whilst he gazed at everything. Perhaps he muttered something else, perhaps there was nothing more to say but he moved away then and Kurogane failed to catch what little snatches of truth Fai decided to shed.

Perhaps nothing was said but something certainly happened, though he could not discern what it was. A spell, perhaps, or maybe just simple confusion, for he was sure that for a moment the mage had vanished from his sight and when he blinked again he was further away.

"What the hell?" He shot before realising just where he was and just where Fai was "Hey!" he yelled at the idiot as he began doing all sorts of magical things to the door that Kurogane did not understand

"I'll be okay," Fai assured him, though he had never expressed any concern for the mage, he would have liked to believe that somewhere, for a second, he had seen the barest hint of panic in those red eyes.

"What the hell - " Kurogane paused mid-sentence. His words were stuck between demanding what the hell that magician thought he was doing and what the hell was happening, causing a second clog in his throat.

The magician turned towards the ninja just as he released the seal on the door. "Don't you remember, Kuro-tan?" he smiled so softly that the ninja could have been fooled to thinking that it was real. "You told me so a while ago. You said it yourself - that I am not weak."

XX

The doors closed behind him. He heard them slam and saw the ice blue seal replacing the broken red one without having to turn around. What lay behind him did not matter. His world was concerned with this room and the person currently sharing the room with him.

"Fai," Ashura was crouching besides the Solar magnet but he stood as the door resealed. His eyes were closed and unreadable, his face taking on a permanent frown. For a moment, they stood staring at each other, a brief eternity in which they recognised each other's existence, simply accepting without judging, without thinking of the past. Fai and Ashura. Wizard and King. Just two people standing in one room. It was simple.

Then the spell broke and the memories and emotions clogged the room. Broken ambitions and failed dreams turned the air black and the strings of conflict tied them together once again.

"Ashura-ou, enough. Is there really a need for this?" Fai nodded towards the great construction standing erect in the middle of the chamber. His nails dug into the palms of his hands, almost drawing blood.

Ashura glared at him. "Of course there is! The people - "

"The people are suffering because of this!" he cried. Why? What did he have to do to convince Ashura of that? His hands clenched by his side. All this time, all this pain, everything that he had been through and everything that he felt now was all one man's fault! How could they have been so blind? How could this have happened?

The fury and frustration threatened to burst inside of him. His mask, his perfect composure was crumbling into dust before him.

"Fei Wong Reed…he gave us a device that would bring prosperity to our land but all the while it's been draining us, forcing us to rely on him even more and offer him ever more of our powers! He tricked us!"

Ashura looked at him through eyes that could shot daggers, full of scepticism, full of mistrust.

"I'm not lying to you, Ashura-ou!" he cried out in earnest, willing for some miracle to happen, that Ashura would believe him. Just once. If he just believed this and nothing else, that would be enough. If he just believed him this once maybe they could be saved.

Ashura shook his head. "I have nothing else," he murmured, running his fingers across the cool smoothness of the Solar magnet. "Everything I knew has gone, everything except this."

I'm here. What about me? Fai wanted but refused to say. He slowly gained control again, slowly dragging back a smile from the bottom of his being to force onto his lips. He should have known. After what he did, Ashura would have to be stupid and mad to believe him again but still, even so, he would keep trying.

Taking one cautious step forward, he tried to reason with his king. "We'll make something new then. Let's just stop this. Fei Wong Reed deceived us; he never wanted to help us! He used us and gave us a sun that slowly sucked up the life of our land! This thing that he gave us is draining Celes and will continue to do so unless we destroy it!"

He trembled ever so slightly, straining to keep a calm appearance. Was there really a need for such pretences? He wondered what it would be like to suddenly break down and start screaming and shouting at Ashura, at himself, at everything.

Yet the king continued to shake his head. They stood on either end of the chamber, separated by several feet of floor, one giant mechanism and over a hundred years of distance. The invisible glass wall erected between them was clouded with feelings, words neither would say, emotions neither would act upon.

Ashura's eyes grew gentle whenever he looked upon the contraption. In it were all his dreams, everything that he had ever worked for standing proudly before him. "The feather will change that. Your skill with transformation and the power of the feather will make it safe! We'll have an eternal sun and a beautiful blue sky!"

"You don't know that!" Fai's voice strained and echoed across the chamber. "Things could get worse! Things are getting worse but you're so obsessed that you can't see it!"

"Maybe I am," Ashura's voice fell softly. "I just wanted to see it, Fai, just once, a blue sky. Just once. I have spent years in search of it. If this is wrong then what did I live for?" he wondered and for a moment, Fai was able to glimpse a piece of the past he thought had been lost forever.

"You lived for the people. You were our king."

"Not any more. Time has taken that," he turned, eyes turning hard again, he fixed Fai with a cool glare "You have taken that. This is all I have," he gestured to the huge contraption, to the Solar magnet in the centre.

Fai swallowed back the bitter taste of the guilty. It was true. He was the one who had sealed Ashura. He could say there was no choice, claim that it was for the greater good and whether of not that was true was irrelevant. He had sealed Ashura and ran.

In the end, was everything his fault? If he had been able to support Ashura better, if he had been able to keep the king from Fei Wong Reed's manipulative clutches, if he had never pushed such expectations onto Ashura in the first place maybe, just maybe, things would never have turned out this way.

There was no turning back. They were both caught up in events beyond their control, tumbling downwards like a boulder, unable to stop.

This would be the end.

Fai knew it. Ashura knew it. They both could tell without speaking; the resolve in each other's eyes, the wavering, conflicting emotions, the wishes and desires each held all finally laid bare.

This would be the end.

Ashura moved first. He picked up pieces of sharp crystal that had broken away from the wall. Light erupted around him. Soaring birds of translucent colour swooped overhead. They swirled and finally landed upon the hand that held the crystal. It took on their translucent glow, stretching, transforming into something else.

As the light dulled, a simple crystal sword lay in Ashura's hand. The blade itself was tinted with blue, shining with a sharp, honest edge. Fai mimicked the king's actions, his weapon of choice a long staff.

There was no time to stop and stare. The minute their weapons were fully formed they collided. Magic burst forth and ran in streams, filling the air with its heady scent. It tore the room apart whilst weapons clashed beneath.

Fai aimed blasts at the Solar magnet whilst he tried to defend against Ashura's assault. The mechanism shuddered and groaned under the barrage. The blade ripped through his robe and sliced into skin. He gritted his teeth and leapt away, aiming again for the Solar magnet. Ashura moved to block it but Fai took the sudden opening to slash at him. Light spiralled and swerved as if it had a life of its own. With a yell, he focussed his energy into destroying the thing, not caring about the wounds he suffered in consequence.

A burst of light erupted around the contraption. Smoke and dust formed and mushroom cloud around it as it toppled and fell.

Ashura's face was livid yet still it managed to remain beautiful even contorted with rage. Fai smiled at his fury and they charged.

Ashura's sword swung down in a descending arch whilst Fai took the opening created to run him through with his staff, leaving him completely exposed to Ashura's blade. A double-kill - what an ironic way to go and yet, somehow, Fai did not mind. It was always the pain of dying and not the actual death that he feared more.

He closed his eyes as he thrust, hearing the sound of metal through flesh. He froze. He felt dizzy, almost afraid to move. His heart shuddered and seared with pain. He could feel the warmth of blood, smell its hot, metallic scent and yet he knew.

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

XX

He allowed himself into Ashura's study, bearing a tray. The study was full of books and scrolls filling shelves that reached dizzying heights. It was spacious but the dim lighting and piles of text gave it a cramped and cluttered impression.

Ashura stood by the window overlooking the land below. From the open window, Fai could hear the sound of voices, light, happy children's voices, floating through.

"Goal!" one of them cried triumphantly.

"You cheated!"

"Who cheated? A win is a win! I captured the castle!" the other retorted as he ran, feet sending powdered snow flying through the air.

Fai smiled. He remembered that game, though he could not recall ever playing it more than once. The door to the study closed behind him and he crept closer to the desk.

"Ashura-ou?" he glanced at his king. He seemed more distracted, more distant than usual.

Ashura looked at Fai, only just realising the man's presence. He murmured a small "oh, Fai," before turning back to the window with a cloudy gaze.

"Ashura-ou?" Fai tried to steal a glimpse of his king's face as he set the tray onto the desk.

"Why are people so greedy, Fai? The more they have, the more they want. Why are people never satisfied? Why do people always want more?"

"That's just the way people are," Fai shrugged, though Ashura was obviously not content with such an explanation. His demeanour turned sour and his lips turned down in a frown.

"It's no good. No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, they always complain, they always want more!" He cried, slamming his hand against his desk. Paper and pots of ink jumped under the impact.

"Ashura-ou, don't trouble yourself," Fai tried to soothe his king's dissatisfaction.

Placing the tray in front of him like some divine offering, he took his place by the window, feeling the cold air chill his skin. The children were laughing against a sheet of white nothingness.

"There's no way that everyone can be happy."

XX

"From the very start, you were always a selfless person," Fai caught Ashura as he slumped, warm blood seeping from the fresh wound. Crimson spread across the king's body, seeping everywhere, unstoppable. He lowered his king to the ground, lying him on his back where he could look upwards to the stars.

There was blood on his hands. Dark, sinful, crimson stains. He breathed and took a moment just to check that he was alive only to be disappointed by the results. His body ached, his skin was littered with cuts, and his flesh felt pounded to the bone but he was still very much alive. Something crept up his throat and choked him. How could this be? Why was his heart beating so fast? It was wrong. This should not be happening. It was all so wrong!

Yet he suppressed the fear dancing in his eyes, pushed all the terror and pain running about inside of him to the furthest recesses of his being and held his king with gentle hands stained with blood.

"You were always dreaming of better things but when those dreams did not turn out as you wished they only turned to dissatisfaction. When you were asleep, did you have good dreams?" he asked, quietly trembling, silently crying, holding back the tide of emotions within him.

"Dreams?" Ashura chuckled but ended up in a coughing fit. "When I close my eyes all I see is a blue sky. You should know that."

"I thought that, if I died, you would be free. This thing would fail and you would be free of that spell Fei Wong Reed wrapped you in," he whispered, afraid to speak any louder for fear that his words would chase away what little life remained in Ashura's body.

Ashura made an odd sound, something akin to a half-snort, half-laugh. "Too bad, things don't work out for you."

Was this what it felt like to be betrayed? He had carried out his part, it was Ashura-ou who had turned and deceived him. It was Ashura-ou who had betrayed him by not killing him. He felt wounded, stabbed in the back. If only that had not been so. If only they could have gone together. The sword of his fallen king lay a little way away from them but he could not bring himself to reach for it.

"Why didn't you kill me, Ashura-ou?" Ashura-ou smiled but all he offered was an ambiguous half-shrug. "Who knows?" he replied, yielding no answers, giving away nothing. In the end, there was nothing.

Fai returned Ashura's smile with one every bit as strained and painful as that of his king's. His hands were shaking as he ran his hand through black threads, soaking his fingers in an ebony sea. "All I wanted was for you to take me away from the war and the cold. We didn't have to be caught in our duty. I wanted us to be free."

Ashura turned his eyes to the ceiling and looked beyond it, to a future that could have been theirs or perhaps to a past that was lost forever. His eyes were beginning to cloud, steaming over on the inside, becoming clogged with memories, with the spirits of dead wishes.

When he spoke, his voice was rough and hoarse, unlike the usual liquid quality of his voice. "Fai," he turned to his subject, his last remaining subject in the world. "Was I a good king? Fai?"

The mage's hands returned to his side, clenched painfully, let his nails dig into the palm of his hand. "Of course!" he nodded vigorously, forcing his smile to remain ever bright. "You were the best! The best in the world…the best in all worlds."

"I see it," Ashura held a trembling hand towards Fai's face.

"Ashura-ou?"

"A smile as warm as the sun…eyes as blue as the sky. It was right there all along. Why did I never see it before?"

Fai fell silent, straining his ears for the sound of Ashura's heartbeat that he swore he could hear. He put a hand on his king's chest, feeling the warmth of the blood soak through, pressing lightly against the laboured rise and fall of his chest.

"I'm happy," he wiped away the tears that blurred his vision. He grinned; forcing himself to smile through the pain that tried to keep his lips curved downwards.

Let the sun shine for him, for his fallen king one last time.

"I'm happy that you finally found your blue sky, why wouldn't I smile? I'm happy for you," his voice trembled, pausing to take one long shuddering breath and regain his composure. It had been so easy back then, to lie and cover everything up with a smile, it had been second nature so why could he not do it now? "Very, very happy," he choked, forcing his last words out, though they wrenched at his throat.

Happy. That was right. He was so happy he was crying. He was not sad at all. Even the very thought of being sad, of wanting to break down, made him laugh through bitter tears.

"You finally reached your goal, just as you dreamed," he whispered, letting his words drift away from his lips, vanishing into the air.

Ashura smiled.

"Goal."

XX

"Chi can do whatever she wants," she echoed her creator's words, spinning them over and over again in her mind, still trying to grasp the entirety of his words. She was free. She could do whatever she wanted. What did she want to do? "Chi can do whatever she wants but Chi only wants Fai to be happy."

She paused, listening to the wind play through the castle's wing-like projections. Holding her hands to her ears, she listened intently for whatever wisdom they might impart. Perching precariously upon the highest torrent, she closed her eyes to the snow drifting around her, to icy ground far below her.

"Fai can be happy without Chi. Fai has found people to be with," she said. It was happy thought yet why did she feel like crying? That he could be happy without her, that he could find happiness on his own could make her feel such joy and such pain.

She smiled and felt something hot and wet trace the way down her cheek. It made no sense. How could she be happy and sad too? How could she smile and feel tears near her eyes at the same time? Perhaps she was so happy, she was almost crying.

"Chi too," she decided. "Chi will find someone to be with. Someone for me and only me."

XX

"It's a shame you couldn't stay longer but I wish you the best of luck on your journey," Kaede

Grey light and a white sky filled the wide heavens, as if the town had been drawn on a piece of paper.

"I told you, didn't I?" she giggled into Sakura's ear. "Things will get better. Already, some of the people are recovering from the epidemic."

"Well, I say that it's about time to be off, eh?" Fai grinned. Sakura glanced at him. Even though he was right, they had retrieved the feather from Ashura's cloak, as they had desired, it had not even been a full twenty-four hours and already he had returned to being his usual self.

"Is it okay? What about Chi?" she tilted her head to a side, wondering about that strange, blonde girl Fai had created long ago.

It was a shame that she could not travel with them, she was sure that Chi's presence would make Fai happy too, but what would she give the witch in return? Did Chi even wish to travel with them? The girl had disappeared right after the commotion.

Fai seemed to sense Sakura's mood and patted her on the back. "Of course, Chi knows what she wants. She has her own goals too."

She nodded, though she did not look the least convinced.

"Hmm? You mean, is it okay for me to leave like this?" Fai laughed. "I don't see why not. After all, there's nothing left here for me anyway," he shrugged.

Kurogane coughed and turned away from their party. "So? What will you do now?" he asked, refusing to look the man in the eye.

"Me?" Fai scratched his cheek with a finger, pretending to ponder for a moment. He grinned. "I guess I might try living."

Kurogane remained silent whilst Syaoran nodded and turned away, casting his glance over the snowy scenery for one last time.

"Fai-san!" he clutched the wizard's sleeve, turning the man's attention to the looming castle in the sky. "They're taking down the castle!" he cried, seeming more distressed than the wizard did.

He turned towards the castle. The men that had recovered or had not been affected by the epidemic were hauling carts up the spiralling stairs, setting rope teams to carefully take the looming figure down piece by piece.

"I see," he murmured. He was well aware of the looks and worried glances his companions were giving him as he took a deep breath, drinking down Celes' sweet, frozen air one last time. He stretched, reaching his arms above his head to the colourless sky. When they came down, he was smiling. "Well, let's be off shall we?"

Mokona leapt into the air, opening its mouth to suck them in. The wind pulled at their hair and clothes, butterflies of light dancing around them.

Through the threads of multicoloured light weaving around him, Fai turned his gaze back to the castle the peasants no longer feared. In the brilliance of Mokona's magic, he allowed his smile to drop just a little until it wavered between the lines of a smile and a frown.

Each dark stone was being pulled away bit by bit, so slowly that it was hardly recognisable. Slowly, they were dismantling his past, removing all traces that he and his king had ever existed.

Biting back the feeling that bubbled just beneath him, gripping his clothes so that his hands would not shake, he directed the last of his light towards the castle, the castle soaked in memories, the castle in which Ashura had lived.

He smiled.

"Goal."

That was a very long chapter but it's finally over! Thanks again and I hope that you enjoyed reading as much as I did writing this. Bows