The whispers came from far away. The cries of a people in anguish. "Oh great one, save us! Spare us from the death of fire. Save us from the horrors of the sky and earth." And the raven heard their pleas.

She arose from her nest beneath the earth and stretched out her wings. With a single beat she arose from her hell, with another she flew away from her home, and with a third she reached the world.

Before her stood the ruins of a great nation, a nation the power of the sun had built and destroyed. Its cities had once reached to the sky, but now they were simply rubble across the earth, like all the works of man. She sensed youkai and demons wandering the broken streets, and sneaking through the regrowing jungles.

Beneath her wings people stood atop the crumbling ruins of pyramids and offered their faith up to her. They asked her to protect them from the demons, to spare them from her wrath. But they called her by the name of another.

She shook the doubt from her feathers. She was not one to worry about names. They had faith, and faith was what she ate. A raven did not refuse food. She reached down to take the streams of power into herself.

"Stop black bird of the east. This offering is not for you."

The raven turned to see a man in bright clothes, decorated with feathers. A black mirror sat upon his chest, and to her surprise his right foot was merely bones. She could tell he was an old god, if weak. Still he had challenged her right to feed. "The people below call for the sun, for the god of flame who took away the old world. That is me. Who are you to claim these offerings?"

"I am Tezcatlipoca. I am the Smoking Mirror. I am the one who is master of all humans. They call upon my name," the god proclaimed boldly.

The raven cocked her head. That was the name the people called upon. But they called upon her aspect. Still it was strange. If it was his name they called, then he should have taken the aspect for his own in this land. Cautiously she walked around the god, looking at his true self.

Finally she reached a conclusion. "You are a dead god. They abandoned you. You are trying to revive with their prayers."

"They did not abandon me!" The god swung his fist, and the winds roared. The raven twisted in the air to keep aflight. "They were stolen from me! And now that the tongueless god can not protect them, I shall return! So be gone from this place, eater of carrion."

The raven preened at her feathers and thought some more. The ways of the gods were strange to her, and there were many possibilities to consider. Her head filled with scenarios and worries.

But in the end, she was a raven. And the god was weak.

"They call upon my aspects. They worship my attributes. They speak of my actions." The raven's eyes began to glow, and the flames of the sun fell upon her like a mantle. "If they call your name, then I shall consume you and take your name for my own."

"You will eat me? I am Tezcatlipoca! I shall consume you, and take your faith to aid my rebirth," the god roared.

The god's body twisted and shifted as he transformed into a great jaguar large enough to slap the sun from the heavens. The sleek feline pounced upon the raven, but she was quick and wise to the ways of cats. She flew forward under the jaguar's body and pulled at his tail as she passed.

The jaguar god spun around as only a cat could do and tried to crush her beneath its claws. Her wings beat and she flew into the sky above the stars. She hovered just out of range as the god leaped up at her and laughed cruelly at her foe's attacks.

Tezcatlipoca roared his rage and the winds came at his commands. The air itself turned into razor sharp talons that ripped through the air. Even with her agility, there would be no escaping the attack.

She closed her eyes and reached inside herself. To the core of her being where molten fire curled and roiled. Her mind removed the barriers keeping her powers in check, and the gem on her chest flared as the power of nuclear fusion roared to life.

The blades of wind bent and warped as the sun within her heart pulled the air itself to its core. Her body was lacerated. Her blood soaked her clothes. But the plasma in her soul slowly expanded as the winds fed her true essence.

Howling, the jaguar flung a hurricane into the sky, then another. The raven's skin was flayed again and again, and her blood began to glow, then ignite as the power in her body grew and grew.

With a raucous cry of victory she flung her wings open, and disturbed the massive magnetic fields that were constraining her godly essence. A flare of power tore free from her body and slammed into the jaguar god. Tezcatlipoca was slammed through the ground, into the darkness of hell.

The raven glided down after her prey. First through dark caverns of earth, then of shattered bone, then of screaming fire. But she knew the ways of hell, and the hells recognized her. There was nothing that stood in her way.

Finally she reached a cavern of smoke where the fumes billowed and swayed like curtains in the wind. It reminded her of the caverns back home, the ones that led to the mystical surface world that she so rarely saw, even as a god. Here she had found her best friend hidden in the smoke and fog, lying so close yet so far to the corpse she needed to eat to survive. Was that a corpse in the mist? The raven's mind swirled and spun in the smoke and fog, the corpse before her giving a rigid grin as she fluttered over it.

Why was she here?

She did her best to remember the past moments, to think through the haze. Did she need to eat someone?

"You came here to eat someone, but you could not," the corpse replied.

That did not seem right to her. "I can eat anything now. I am the sun," she replied.

The corpse lay before her and said, "You are the sun of your realm, but you are not the black sun of this realm. The black sun of this realm lost his foot and rebuilt it with bones."

She cocked her head to consider this. "I lost my foot to the fires humans unleashed. And I rebuilt it with their bones."

"The stars are at the sun's mercy," the corpse protested.

She held out her cape. "The stars are my raiment."

"The sun died and was replaced by other suns, but now rises again in new form," the corpse said softly.

"I have died and been reborn, both as myself and as a god," she replied confidently. "I am the returned sun."

"Then you have already eaten Tezcatlipoca," the corpse said mournfully. "Go little raven. There is nothing for you here."

The raven nodded. "That is right. I am Tezcatlipoca. I am the Yatagarasu. I am Utsuho Reiuji."

And with that she absently ate the dying god's heart.

Orin shifted uncomfortably in her sleep. The furnace of the underground was ebbing, but her body was hot. Her dreams flickered and shifted, the strange fever twisting about in her mind. Jaguars and serpents rose from the flames, chasing hummingbirds and butterflies before returning to the flames again. Suns rose and were extinguished. Temples were built and were crushed. The scent of blood wafted across her nose, and was pushed aside by screams and fire. And in the background the horrific clouds that had soared over the land during the night of destruction slowly gathered in their malignant beauty.

"Orin."

The kassha's eyes opened, but she knew she did not wake. Sleep and waking had no meaning to a youkai in this state. She was not in her room. Time and space were an illusion that had no use right now. She was inside her true self, a broken and cracked cavern filled with corpses and ghosts, the only light the glow of magma from below. Right now the magma was pulsing, roiling, while the ghosts seemed to hum with power. And in the darkness beyond she began to see different shapes shifting and moving.

Utsuho stood before her. Her best friend. Her goddess. A three legged crow with eyes burning like lava. A striking black winged humanoid with an intricately etched arm cannon and the finest machined clothing. A whirlwind of fire and death with a smoky mirror at its center. The black sun of hell. All of those stood before her, the goddess unbound by form in this realm.

Orin squinted as Utsuho held out a hand. "Come Orin. We must speak with our supplicants. There is much to teach them."

As Orin reached up pain flashed through her body. Her skin seemed to peel away from her body as it expanded, her inner flesh slower to fit her new form. She could feel it now. The warping and shifting forces of chaos that were altering her very nature as a youkai. She knew if she followed Okuu her very existence as a youkai might change.

She held her breath and took her goddess' hand. The pain was less sharp this time. "Goddess, I fear you must speak, for I do not know the words these people will hear," she said as they started heading back to the human world.

"Trust in my divine power, for I have seen their hearts and know their ways," Utsuho replied. "You need but act on my will."

Kanako shivered as she looked at herself in the mirror. It had been centuries since she'd prepared to do something like she had today. And she had never gone through with it.

To absorb a god was not something to do lightly.

"Are you still hanging around?" Suwako asked as the frog goddess entered the room. "That raven has already finished her part and then some. If you don't get a move on you're going to be late."

Kanako whirled on the smaller goddess. "Well, forgive me if I'm not as quick to throw away my sense of self." She frowned and looked back at the history books she'd been reading ever since she'd felt the disturbance. "These gods are old and powerful. Far greater than we ever were. Even with their faith destroyed and scattered to the wind they still had the force of legend behind them."

Which meant if she consumed one, their legend would be as strong as her own. And legends were the essence of gods.

"You always were squeamish about this kinda thing weren't you," Suwako said. The little goddess then smiled. "Not that I should complain too much. After all if you weren't such a scaredy cat you might have eaten me." The little blond goddess laughed at Kanako's growl.

"Hopefully it won't come to that," Kanako muttered.

Suwako shook her head. "It will. But it'll be fine Kanako." The little goddess smiled. "It doesn't matter what the humans say, in the end, your true form is the goddess of change. Always moving towards the future. You'll end up in charge no matter what."

Kanako blinked at her fellow goddess' encouragement then smiled. "Thank you."

With that she took a deep breath and summoned the winds to her. Her mind split and she entered the realm of the gods as a great white snake. With a flick of her tail her form soared through the skies towards the lands east of the easternmost islands. She was an ancient goddess, and she had learned much about the world before retreating to Gensoukyo. Unlike the raven it was easy for her to find the person she was seeking.

As she flew into the other god's realm the spirit whirled to face her. "Who are you who comes to the lands of Quetzalcoatl? Tell me your name intruder! And tell me why do you have the smell of the one who has taken the place of my enemy, the one who slew my brother?" The god stood before her, proud and tall in his warrior's regalia. As he spoke his wings rippled with the colors of the rainbow. This god was weak, but not dead.

Kanako stopped before the god and respectfully bowed, never letting her eyes off the warrior's face. "I am Kanako Yasaka. I am the god of Suwa. I am the patron of the new empire of the rising sun. The one who took Tezcatlipoca's name and place is of my pantheon and my making. I come to stand in balance to her in this world." She drew her sword, but did not raise it. "I come to take your place oh great feathered serpent."

Quetzalcoatl raised his blade, but as she had so many years before she lifted her free hand and called upon her divine powers. There was a piercing shriek and a wave of sound washed over the winged serpent's obsidian sword, shattering the blade. Quetzalcoatl cursed and stepped back, staggered by Kanako's display of godly might.

"As you can see my powers as a god are greater," Kanako stated. "I offer you a bargain. Surrender and I shall let you aid me as a subordinate god. With your aid I shall lead your people to a even greater future."

The native god looked at his shattered sword, then tossed it aside. "I refuse." He looked Kanako in the eyes, and this time she was forced to take a step back. "I can see now to fight is futile. You are a very strong god now. But a strong god is not enough!"

The sky turned dark as the god continued speaking. "These people do not need just a god. They need Quetzalcoatl! They need the winged serpent! They need the god who has stood over these lands since humans first walked upon it."

"And Quetzalcoatl is a god of sacrifice!" the native god's voice boomed like thunder through the heavens. "I will not give up my place to a foreigner. I will not give up my people to strange new gods. Only Quetzalcoatl will rule." The winged serpent called forth another weapon to his hand. "If you wish to be that god, you shall have to sacrifice yourself and absorb my person."

Kanako blinked, then bowed again. "I apologize. You are right. Quetzalcoatl is the god of this land." She took a breath to steady herself, then opened her soul up. Her clothing shifted and warped to the warrior's dress of this country, and her sword changed from her old Japanese blade to a shining maquahuitl. "And I shall be Quetzalcoatl, even if it costs me myself!"

To offer anything less would be unworthy of a ruler.

The two eyed each other with respect, then ran forward to clash in battle.

Sylvia shivered as the extravagantly dressed priests began their ritual.

To say she had misgivings about the ceremony was a grave understatement. The ritual was horrid, barbaric and cruel. Her heart twisted within her every time the priests kicked the sacrifice to force the man to run further.

But it was the only way.

When the apocalypse had come their city had been spared by chance. It had been right at the outskirts of Mexico City proper, and the deadly neutron rays that had wiped all life from the city hadn't quite reached. It had been a terrible and agonizing day which had turned everyone's lives upside down, but they had been lucky. There was food and water in storage in the towns warehouses. Enough for everyone and all the refugees that had arrived. So while they lacked electricity and gas, they had what they needed to begin the slow transferal back to a farming lifestyle. Many people lit candles for that small miracle.

The first three years had been mostly shock. Everyone was just trying to survive. Without the communications they had all taken for granted, the world was both larger and smaller then it had ever been before, and it took time to cope. The struggle had forced their community together and no one had dared to start a big fight. There had been arguments and crimes of course, but a makeshift police service had helped keep the problems to a minimum, just as the makeshift defense force helped keep the mutants and creatures of the night away.

This year however the troubles began. One moonless night, a great howl and cry had erupted from the north. A noise so terrifying that the guards had turned on the generators to shine lights out from the city. Lights that revealed a jungle, fresh and reborn from the ground, like no humans had ever lived there.

Panic spread throughout the town, but the leaders quickly quelled it. However calm and unity did not return. One of the leaders, Miguel Quezada, had proclaimed that the old gods had returned. That it was time to throw off the trappings of the Spanish invaders and reclaim the ways of the Nahua. He said only by returning to the worship of the city's god Tezcatlipoca could they stave off the monsters of the jungle.

At first people had laughed. When Miguel had shown the power to call fire from his hands the laughter faded. Father Rodriguez of course dismissed the claims as madness, and all but openly called Miguel a witch. The town became tense and conflicted. It seemed likely the two camps would erupt into open violence.

Then the jaguar demons attacked and the matter had been settled.

The guns of the people and the prayers of the holy were equally useless against the monsters. But the flames of Tezcatlipoca drove the monsters back to the jungle. His loudest critics dead, and his followers the only hope of their small city, Miguel had demanded a day of celebration and sacrifice to the gods. With the last surviving Catholic priest as the chosen sacrifice.

What could they do? She had been an atheist before, but there really wasn't a question any more. Miguel had produced results. The gods had spoken, and they had spoken with fire. No matter what she thought of the brutality.

Sylvia winced again as the victim stumbled on the last staircase. The priests of Tezcatlipoca had run the poor man ragged until he could barely stand. The man tried to push himself upright but his arms gave out again, and his body fell onto the stone pyramid's steps.

This was enough for the priests apparently. Miguel and his assistant grabbed the sacrifice by the arms and dragged him to the top, where they had set out their alter. Another priest of Tezcatlipoca carried forth a heavy stone bowl, while Miguel raised his obsidian knife. "Oh great Tezcatlipoca, he who gives us life! Lord of near and far! Enemy of both sides! We who are all your slaves give thanks for your works and offer you this sacrifice!"

The knife descended, and Sylvia closed her eyes. She had hoped that the poor victim at least had lost the power to scream, but the man's death wail cut through the crowd's gasp. She forced herself to open her eyes as Miguel pulled out the heart and raised it up. The priest held the bloody organ for all to see, then cast it down to the waiting bowl. "For Tezcatlipoca!"

Sylvia cried out in shock as a burst of flame roared to life on the stage. The priests too screamed and fell back as a dark figure strode from the blast onto the pyramid. A hand lazily reached out and plucked the sacrificial heart from the air. "Behold my people! I am Tezcatlipoca!"

The crowd fell to their knees. Sylvia knew she should bow, but the sight was too stunning. The god before her was both everything and nothing like the tales.

The most obvious truth was the figure was a goddess. A dusky beauty beyond mortal comparison. The woman was dressed in great finery, clothing as ornate as the priests' vestments, but made of the most modern fabrics. Her right arm was covered in a power armor gauntlet that turned it into a claw, and her right leg was a cast of bone, recreated after the great monster that formed the earth had bitten it off. Smokey black wings fluttered behind her, while a cape that seemed to be formed from the night sky itself both concealed and was concealed by the black feathers. A black jaguar covered in red spots slowly prowled around the goddess' legs, and in the center of the woman's chest a obsidian mirror glowed and smoldered, as if the magma of the earth's core had slipped inside it.

Tezcatlipoca looked out over the people and raised her arms. "Oh my people! By your faith I return to you! I have heard your cries and I have answered!"

"F-f-false god! Who are you!" Sylvia gasped along with the crowd as Miguel stood and pointed a shaky hand at the goddess. "Tezcatlipoca is no woman!"

The goddess turned to face Miguel and sneered before snapping her fingers. The priest that had accompanied Miguel threw his head back and howled, then his body twisted and churned into the form of a Jaguar man. "False priest, though your words brought my return you never had faith in me, only yourself. You made a pact with the monsters to secure your power, and used witchcraft to fake my blessing. For this I give you death."

Tezcatlipoca snapped her fingers again and the black jaguar behind her pounced. Miguel managed to scream only once before the mighty cat tore out his throat. The jaguar man yelped then turned and fled before suddenly exploding in flames. The priest who had carried the stone bowl up to receive the sacrifice prostrated himself on the ground before the goddess shivering in terror.

The woman casually gnawed on the heart a bit before tossing it into the bowl and standing before the last priest. "Rise boy. I have seen your heart and fed on your faith. You stand true to me, and in time will be one of my servants here." The man slowly stood and then followed the black and red jaguar in stunned silence as the great cat led him to stand behind the goddess.

Tezcatlipoca raised her hands, and power seemed to wash over Sylvia. "Hear my words. I Tezcatlipoca shall give you power. I shall protect you from the demons, and give you strength against your enemies. So long as you praise and give sacrifice to me, your city shall be strong and unassailable!"

"You never see the long path sister." Sylvia shivered as another powerful voice boomed over the crowd. There was a rush of wind and then two goddesses stood upon the temple heights.

This goddess was white to Tezcatlipoca's black. The woman was fair skinned, and the robes she wore were something that could have appeared in a fashion show back before the apocalypse. Based on old traditions, but still modern. The woman kept her hair short, and most tellingly her wings shimmered and gleamed with every color under the sun. Sylvia did not need an introduction to know who this goddess was. "Quetzalcoatl," Sylvia whispered, and the people nearby seemed to agree.

"Who are you to interrupt me, sister?" Tezcatlipoca said angrily. "These are my people. They gave me faith! I am the ruler of the west, just as you are ruler of the east. Keep to your own kingdom. I will give my power to these people."

Quetzalcoatl shook her head. "You have power yes, but remember it was I who gave you that power to begin with. A people with only power will never become an empire. They will crumble before others, betrayed from within like a poorly built house." She raised her hands. "I am the goddess of the east, and the east stretches forever. The poets and builders shall receive my blessing, and my people will become prosperous."

Tezcatlipoca laughed shortly. "The west stretches forever as well sister. You can talk about poets and builders, but in the end, they too crave my power. Just a more subtle form. The east has the empire of the rising sun, but this shall be my empire, and they shall guard the setting sun!" The dusky woman snapped her fingers and then turned back to the crowd. "But your words do not matter. We shall let faith decide! Give praise unto me, and you all shall have power. The power to crush your foes. The power to lift up your friends. The power of the future!"

The rainbow serpent turned to the people as well. "And if you give your faith to me you shall have the innovation and skill to not just rebuild, but to create a new world. To rise above the past to a greater future. You shall teach others the arts. You shall show others the way to live. This I offer you for your worship."

The two goddesses turned to face each other again. "Hmph. We shall speak more on this," Tezcatlipoca said. "First though we must remind the star goddesses who rules these lands."

"Indeed," Quetzalcoatl replied. "We will set the world aright. Then we can teach the people how to praise us properly." The black jaguar leaped inside the dusky woman's form, and then the two goddesses vanished. One in smoke, the other in light.

A silence fell over the crowd, then the surviving priest of Tezcatlipoca moved over to where Miguel's corpse was. The priest lifted the body over his head, then cast it down the stairs. The shattered body bounced all the way down, leaving a trail of blood behind. "Thus is the fate of all who abuse her mighty name for their own ends!" the man cried. Those closest to the bottom of the temple, those who had accepted the miracles of Tezcatlipoca first, cheered at the pronouncement.

Sylvia though simply nodded at the poetic justice and turned away. She could not oppose those who served the smoking mirror but she had another plan.

It was time to fix up the temple to Quetzalcoatl.

The world has had six suns.

The first five suns were created by the gods. Each time a god created a sun through their own sacrifice, but each time the god's faults and failures caused that sun to fall. It was only the fifth sun, noble and brave Nanahuatzin that stood up.

But the humans of the fifth sun were not as strong. The followers of the tongueless god brought their war to the world, and when the battles ended, they tore down the temples and ceased the prayers of the people. The sun became stale and dead and the stars fell silent.

In the silence humans built their cities of steel and glass. They picked up the tools of the gods and learned secrets that once only the stars understood. In time they tossed aside even the tongueless god in their power and reached up to touch the face of the lifeless moon.

And in their power, they turned to folly.

By their own hands they called forth the end of their world. Their weapons turned the skies black, and the lifeless sun could sustain them no more.

But from the ashes two gods awoke from their slumber. Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca. Long had they struggled against each other, often had they worked together.

Seeing there was no sun in the sky the two each considered how to bring forth a new sun. Both had tried before, and both had failed before. Finally Quetzalcoatl found a flock of crows who had eaten pieces of the old suns. He said to Tezcatlipoca "if we eat these birds we can create a new sun, but whoever does so will lose their old self and become a crow."

Tezcatlipoca replied, "What old self do I have to lose? You were remembered, but most have forgotten me." And so Tezcatlipoca ate the crows and became one of them, shedding his own self and becoming the goddess of the black sun.

Quetzalcoatl, jealous of his newly reborn sister's power shed his skin and let the human's world seep in. He transformed himself into the goddess of the ivory tower.

And so reborn they came down to the people who had once forgotten them. Our people. With their guidance and strength our empire rises. Our cities spread from California to Panama, and our ships sail to across both oceans. The spirits recognize us, and do not harm us, and in return we treat them with respect.

This is the era of the sixth sun. The second black sun. It is our golden age. May it last as long as all the eras before.

- Sylvia, High Priestess of Quetzalcoat