Hey everybody! Yeah, I know- finally, Silver updates! Well, I only received one review of my last chapter, but I don't mind that so bad... I love you guys anyway!

REVIEW:

Tiger5913- Hey Tiger! Glad to see you got your name back the way it used to be. It was really confusing when I went there and saw "Forever Tiger" written on the page- it was like, " Hey, who went and stole Tiger's profile page? I have to go get her back!" I was spared an attempt to rescue your ass by reading the profile and figuring out it was still you. Regardless of the name, you're everybody's favorite Tiger ("A rose by any other name smells as sweet"... indeed, Juliet, indeed), but it's still nice to still see you as your old name, rather than some new-fangled "Forever Tiger" name.

Heh, makes me think what I'd do if they changed my name on me... I'd probably call myself "Silvery" or something like that... Heh.

Still, on the review itself:

I'm really glad you liked Stun's final fight scene, it was a distinct pleasure to write. Though, I kinda want to go back and change the conversation between him and Xion... the spirit of it is correct, but it's not exactly too abrupt, but simply "un-Stun like". Not the conversion- that, might I add, gets dealt with later- but rather, more the way he does covert. For some reason, I never thought Stun would be the one to spout out pain, suffering, and the fact that God has nothing to do with it in my mind. Heh. Guess that goes to show that sometimes, you can't change a character... they end up changing you.

I do, however, have a gripe against I hate their frigging new QuickEdit system, as it screws with all of my punctuation. Sentences don't come out like they should. Oh well. I'll try to fix that this chapter. And if anyone has any idea how to keep it from deleting punctuation, and especially my particular problem, help me out here.

Now, here's my problem (at least the one I'm familiar with at the moment): whenever I am writing a sentence and break it in the middle, using a quotation mark to end that particular part of the sentence before stating something else and going back to it, it deletes all the punctuation before that quotation mark. Example: I write " Sandy runs" and then something about the beach she's on (don't worry, that part isn't supposed to have punctuation), and, if I put a comma before "runs", it deletes the comma. If I put an exclamation mark there, that gets deleted too! Any idea how to help?

Even if you don't, reviews are welcome. :) Oh well, it's time to get this show on the road. So...

"SHOWTIME! "

Night of the Mark

Chapter 16

A Well-Deserved Rest

Rooftops of Tokyo, Japan, near the headquarters of the Mishiyama Corporation, 5:15 a.m., Night of the Mark.

We fly over the rooftops with Stun in our grasp, fast losing our grip on reality (it was strange, wasn't it, to fly into this night without warning or prelude, and actually fight in it? To fight for this world, like the heroes we so admire do? It was fascinating, wasn't it?) but so far managing to keep enough to keep Stun firmly in our hands. As we fly away from the now empty rooftop of the Mishiyama Corporation (the shadows that were running up its sides did reach the top, about a second after we left it- they had reached out at us with slavering jaws and claws that swung so fast they howled- but a few good tail smacks and the fierce fists of one of our feathered number were enough to drive those off, and we have escaped without casaulties), we notice that the rain that's falling over the city hasn't stopped- it's gotten harder. As the sledgehammer raindrops pound the ground, we think we realize something- we have greatly annoyed Xion, stalled Xion, halted Xion- but we have not stopped him. No, not when the world is still like this. Xion won't go down so easily; and if he can't fight the bug man on his own grounds, then he'll fight the bug man on his. This has not been the last fight between Xion and Stun, I believe.

I think you do, too.

As we fly through the night, bearing our precious cargo, we find that Stun has relaxed in our arms- he still doesn't know quite who we are, but we have taken him from danger, and he's content with that. Of course, he doesn't know about the crawling shadow-demons that covered the Mishiyama Corp.'s rooftop after his fight with Xion ended, but he does know that something happened, and that's good enough for him. We fly on into the night, carrying our silent burden, and watch what is going on around us.

The world itself seems to be splitting apart- the lightning strikes and the sky rumbles, and it's almost as if the ground itself is trembling, even though it is the sky which is doing all the moving and shaking here. As we fly through the night and witness all that is going on around us, we notice that the lightning is decreipt and jagged- it's kind of like a knife edge that is slashing through the black, making the sky around it white for a second as it flashes down. It seems almost raggedy, torn apart, as if its falling apart while it attacks the city, and will soon disperse into random electrons when it dies. We fly through the night, and bear our hero.

We eventually find a good rooftop, and set him down gently atop it- no good trying to be rough with him, the poor man has had about all he can take today- and we slowly melt back into the air even as he turns to watch us go. He doesn't know who, what, or (and maybe this is the really important part) even why we are, we stood in the darkness and the rain with him, and that light can carry on even when we do not. He turns to watch us leave, and with a strangely beautiful smile on our lips, a smile that we did not summon but that came out us anyway, one that makes us think that somewhere, deep in our heart, someone is thanking him for his choice here tonight, we disappear into smooth, quiet nothingness.

But fade entirely we do not- our senses begin working again, and we realize that we are back in business, back in control, back in power, and a few of us let loose a couple of shouts of joy that echo silently in the silken night. Joyous that our partial omniscience and invulnerability have returned to us, we spin in the air, clap, and dance. This is a happy time, and a joyous one.

But a time is all it is; like all time, it passes on, and soon, we are involved back in the affairs of the world, and must continue our journey in the night. It shall not be long now, though; for even now, as we begin to fly, the sun itself is rising, and soon, in but a few hours, it will rise. But until then, we have much to do, but (oddly for us and most others) much time to do it in.

We fly.

Tokyo, Japan, 5:30-7:00 a.m., final hours of the Night of the Mark.

We fly throughout Tokyo, Japan, this early morning, and we see the sights that need to be seen; we see all and hear what is in even the darkest of hearts. We see the clean-up crews passing by the alley that Yugo stopped in and removing some odd traces of lupine hair that have scattered everywhere, which is odd, considering that Yugo was not in wolf form when he caught sight of the Heaven Breaker, but not so odd when we consider everything else that has happened here tonight, and that, try as we might, we cannot help but think that the beast form within mimics the human without. We notice the small, slightly muffled sounds of tears coming in from an open window; Alice is asleep in her home, and when she is gently awoken by a slight tapping on her door (which is still slightly ajar; blocking most of the outside world, but a slight hint of the night air wafts in through its cracks, and it is through these we slip into her house on this last run of our magnificent, star-filled night), she walks down to it to see who is standing there, and finds Yugo, still partially deaf but mostly strong, standing there, waiting. We see her eyes light up and tears fill them as she grabs him in a fierce hug, and he reciprocates, and something happens; For there, in front of her door, they make love, almost falling over themselves in their desperate need to touch each other and be warm. Yugo pulls her away from the door, into their living room, mouth biting her as he seeks to be warm and put his love at ease; Alice, her own mind filled with nothing more than a mad, desperate relief that he is alive, kisses him back just as fiercely as she pulls him on top of her. They make love to each other, and in the morning, when they awake, they are slightly disgruntled and almost embarassed by what they have done, but somehow, neither is apologetic, neither is ashamed; for whatever they have done, it was right, and it was okay. Alice spends the next few days praying "Holy Mary" after her Catholic guilt instincts kick in and she feels slightly guilty for it, and even Yugo mumbles a half-hearted apology to God every now and then, but they both sense that, though not strictly right, it's a bit like stealing bread because you are starving to death; it's not supposed to be right, but circumstances can convene to make it right, and that makes it okay. They both soon get over it and go on with their lives- which get a lot more complicated after this night, and especially after Busuzima enters their lives again. But that's a story for another night- or, more correctly, a couple of nights from now.

We fly through the streets, and reach his house; Shina is there, asleep on Yugo's couch, having called the hospital and telling them to tell Gado and Long where she is spending the night, keeping watch on Uriko and Kenji, who are upstairs, kind of being half-shy about being in a single bed with each other, though not really shy at all as they curl into a small ball around each other and rest. Kenji could have slept in his own bed, but Uriko was scared- not of anything or for herself, but scared for him- and that knowledge humbled Kenji into cuddling with her in Yugo's bed, up above Shina's head, and though they haven't done anything yet as they are both tired and young and not actually all that interested in doing anything, that possibility is still there, and both have trouble sleeping this night. When Kenji, however, finally moves his arm and puts it behind Uriko's head (it had begun to fall asleep in it's half-awkward position of being thrown back from his body, away from Uriko, afraid that if he touches her she'll slink away from him), she looks at him with her cat-like night eyes (she has excellent night vision, on par with Shina's, though not quite so good as Long's- Kenji's mole counterpart has never had a need for eyes and has generally terrible vision, especially at night, which has led to Yugo jokingly saying "blind as a mole" when referring to Kenji's night vision), and, seeing the honest worry and sadness on his face for her, arms. Kenji, in the mental conversation he's been having with himself over Uriko and her beauty (though not literally, this time; he's actually talking in his head with himself, not Bakuryu, like a normal person does every now and then) is surprised to hear Bakuryu leap in near the end, as he finally drifted off to sleep, with a small, " Hey, Kenji."

" What? " Kenji says, slightly spooked.

" Good night, sleep tight, " Bakuryu says, his harsh voice somehow managing to sound not so rough this night. " And when you wake in the morning... "

" What? " Kenji says again, still not trusting Bakuryu and still worried over what he might say.

" Give her a good pinch in the rear for me. " With that, Bakuryu (in a rather impromptu manner) falls asleep, his mind like a slightly slumbering, oozing form in the back of Kenji's mind. Kenji blinks once or twice (mentally) and then, shrugging it off, proceeds to fall asleep. Like a litany from the back of his subconscious (past where even Bakuryu goes), this is the last he hears before he sleeps:

" Remember your promise... Remember your promise..."

And, of course, the line that he is asleep before hearing but which haunts him anyway:

" It will curse you more than you can know."

We fly.

We go to the hospital, and there, under the watchful eyes of a pair of nurses, Gado and Long slowly heal from their terrible wounds. Gado and Long had enough sense as they reached the hospital to try to fix the worst of the visible damage; that way, they can now heal the internal damage without the nurses noticing (had they not fixed the outside damage first, they would have had to contend with two very freaked out nurses, running and screaming that their patients' wounds were healing by themselves and that the world must be very wrong at the moment), and the result is that the two are going to be able to spend the next few hours in a relatively peaceful state as they rest and recuperate from their wounds. Long himself expects to stay quite a while whilst he heals wounds; his injuries were very bad, and that which he has will take him some time to recover from. Gado himself is feeling quite frisky, as his body has already managed to heal most of the critical damage he received and what is left amounts to nothing more than flesh wounds for the old goat. Gado is tough; long hours spent in harsh, terrifying environments have accustomed him to hardship, and when he is not suffering himself, he is often taking the suffering for others. Gado is used to leaping in the way of enemy attacks; he's spent a lot of time protecting his friends from pain by absorbing it himself. That is even how he lost his eye; a crazed Japanese mercenary he had met, one who had read the code of bushido a million times over in Book of Five Rings (that wondrous book that Long himself has perused a million times over; Musashi would sit up in his grave if he had any idea how popular that book has become in this world, or how important it will be to this central story when it is all over) and carried a Japanese katana with him always, ended up fighting him on the field of battle and had almost been about to kill him when a friend had run up and kicked the guy in the knee. Turning, the madman had slashed at him, but a nimble dodge had saved Gado's African mercenary friend, whom he had jokingly called "Akimbo" (it rhymed with his real name) because of his long legs and arms, and when the madman had tried again, this time deciding to use the point (bad idea; katana are meant for cutting, not piercing), Gado had managed to get up off the ground he'd been so unceremoniously thrown to and push his friend out of the way. For his trouble, his eye was torn out as the would-be samurai's aim missed and connected with Gado's cheek. Meeting harder-than-expected resistance there, he'd suddenly whipped his blade up, and...

Well, there had went Gado's eye. Snicker-snack. As consolation, a friend of Akimbo's had proceeded to blow the madman's brains out as Gado fell. Gado still remembered the shotgun blast. It was the last thing he had heard before passing out.

Anyway, the point is, Gado's used to pain, and as he heals himself up he thinks that it's not so bad. For a man just fried by a million volts of electricity (approximately) he is in remarkably good health, and might even be out of here by tomorrow. Of course, he would never leave tomorrow- oh, no, that would raise the doctors' suspicions faster than anything, for a patient so badly injured to just get up the next day and be fine- but he thinks that he is well enough to do so if he so decides, and that's good enough for him.

Long, for his part, is going to be spending a lot longer than one night healing his wounds- and they hurt like hell, too, which doesn't help his situation much- and as he lays there he ponders over his fate. It's interesting, to him, to wonder about the differences in fighting and healing between himself and Gado. The nurses are watching them, and he hasn't said a word once, but Gado has managed to choke out a few garbled responses to their words (lies;... Gado can speak perfectly fine now, but he's supposed to have slight brain damage and a concussion, so he really shouldn't be just chatting away with these people, again a case where his true powers as a Zoanthrope could not be revealed just yet), and so Long has begun considering just why Gado is so tough and he is not. A mere moment's thinking does the trick; Long realizes that Gado is tougher than he because Gado is a soldier, a warrior, someone who tends to get out there and do his job, regardless of the consequences or opponents in his way. Long is an assassin; he tends to sneak about, striking his enemies from behind, skipping those foes he can and going straight for the jugular of the ones he can't. Gado moves and attacks like a bulldozer, plowing through enemies with short, brutal attacks that usually result in broken necks and shattered bones; Long fights like the wind, moving swiftly and quickly through his opponents, using lighter attacks that result in slashed throats or gutted bodies. Gado doesn't bother dodging enemies, and so takes the punishment they give out. Long, on the other hand, focuses completely on dodging enemies, sometimes to the point of not even bothering to engage them so that he can continue towards his main target.

Thoughts continuing, Long sees that both he and Gado have their advantages- while Long's fighting style is without doubt somewhat easier on mind and body and gives him the advantage of seeming as slippery as shadow and strong as darkness, Gado inspires fear, and heartens those of his comrades who see him holding back the tide with his sheer strength alone. Long almost grins at the contrast. Gado has always fought beside others; henceforth, his combat is geared towards both guarding, protecting, and motivating others. Long has always fought alone; his fighting style is that of a loner. Gado is used to fighting groups- he is used to attacks he can't dodge and so has become tougher, more immobile, and has the undoubtedly better technique when dealing with a group than Long, who's art, while flashy, stylish, and powerful, is geared towards lone enemies, who he has always targeted. Long's big combo strings are intended to absolutely rip one enemy to shreds- if he tried them in a crowd, he'd get killed by someone else as he was focusing on the man in front of him. Gado's not so tough against one enemy, as he hasn't quite figured out how to "trap" them like Long does, keeping them off balance with long attacks and sudden shifts between hesitation and offensive... but against groups, Gado can bring his short attacks into full focus, quick and short movements letting him damage one enemy and quickly switch to another before someone can sneak up and hurt him. The two styles are quite at odds, Long realizes.

We leave Long to his philosophical musings and fly onward, onward, to Jenny, and as she lies on her bed in the room with the now-shut window (we slip in through a small crack between it and the stone brick facade outside, going in under the window, so to speak), she wonders about what happened tonight. She wonders if something terrible really did happen to her... and then her hand touches the scars on her stomach and she knows. Shivering (and not from cold), Jenny pulls her covers tighter to herself and prays for Stun's safety. She has no religion, but tonight it feels good to think that somebody's up there, watching over you. Jenny falls asleep whispering that, if there really is a God,she wants Him to know that Stun has to be okay. He has to be okay.

Watching her, one could almost feel like there was love there. Almost.

We fly.

Yugo's house, Tokyo, Japan, 7:30 a.m., final hours of the Night of the Mark.

Sunrise.

We fly on, and eventually find out that Stun himself is heading back towards Yugo's this night, and that is where the strangest of things will happen on this new, great-hearted morning for the world. For when he knocks on the door, he is greeted by Shina, and after a first strange proclamation abouyt being woken up so damn early, and a second strange proclamation as she discovers the appearance of the bug man on Yugo's front door tonight, she lets him in. A long story unfolds as Shina speaks to him, relaying all that Alice has told her of this night. Of course, she doesn't know all that's happened in this night; but she tells Stun all she does know, and he files it away in the back of his mind. Nodding softly to her, he begins to speak, and we, the silent ghosts who have helped save this world (well, a hero of it, anyway- give us our moment, will you?), perch nearby to listen. Maybe he senses us; maybe not. But he does begin to smile.

" Shina, come here."

Shina, eyes dead but still curious, walks over to him, arms folded over. As Stun looks outside, the world begins its first soft, hesitant glowings, as the sun starts to rise over the city. Stun walks to the door and out it; turning, he makes a great leap and lands on top of the house, then another, until he is standing on top of one of the bigger buildings in the area. Shina, curious but confused, leaps up after him, having to scrabble slightly for purchase as she makes her way to the top of the building he is on. From where they are at. they can see over the tops of buildings to the mighty bearings of the great harbor of Tokyo, and past that, the sea. There, far off in the distance, some kind of light is rising. It's holy, almost.

" Shina, " Stun says, after a moment of silence, in which both he and Shina think thoughts that are not too far apart in spirit. " do you ever wonder why we're here?"

Shina coolly considers this, not even batting an eye at such a strange question at the end of such a strange night, then says, " No. "

Stun takes a slight breath and says, " Shina, do you ever think that maybe there's light out there? That maybe, somewhere, far away, there's some kind of light and beauty... "

HIs words trail off, and both sit there watching the sunrise as we circle about them and wait. Stun speaks again, slower, more softly. His words almost sound like a benediction, given to the poor.

" Do you ever wonder that maybe there's holiness out there, Shina? Do you ever think that maybe there's something out there that so beautiful we can't even imagine it? And that maybe... instead of it being the fragile beauty we're supposed to protect, that it's the thing protecting us? Do you ever wonder that, Shina?"

Shina says nothing, merely watches the sun rise. She knows he has more to say, and stands there to hear him say it. She does not understand what he is talking about, but she does know this- whatever he is saying, it is important to him, and she will listen to it. She owes him that much, at least.

" Shina, I think I've found the key to life. "

Shina greets this with calmness, and some curiosity.

Stun points to the sun.

" There it is, " he says simply. And we look and see that it is true.

The sun rising is not just the sun- it's the sum of all the good in the world. And as it blazes down, burning the night that once was and eliminating the memory of it in the streets, we realize something- this is what it was all for. The pain of this night does not stand up to the glory of this one single morn. And though the world is still dark and the nighttime has moved on to the other side of the planet, here the sun is shining, and that has made it all right. The world is not empty of pain; but something mightier than tears does exist, and for that, we are grateful.

We turn to see the dawn and wait.

Whew, guys. Last chapter. I can't believe I'm finished with it... almost two seasons too late, but it's here now, and I'm done. I'm glad to have seen all of you guys here, and I love what you've said about my story. Thank you all very humbly for what you've done, and I'm grateful to you all. And to you...

My friends, keep going at it while you still can. Tiger, never stop writing and never let fear bother you- you have traveled more roads than I can imagine and still keep your head held high, and that, my friend, indicates that you have more steel in you than you dream. Keep going, my friend. You'll find your light in the darkness ahead.

V Guyver, keep on reviewing, buddy. And hold your head up high, too, for there's a lot of tears in this world, and they all want to drown you... but if you can still remember to find the light, you can swim past them and climb ashore. And then, maybe, you can even help others aboard the one boat that can never sink.

Indigo Siren, you keep on chucking, too. We all need a friend in our lives, and it's been good to have you. And I hope you return for the sequel.

As for you, Soundwood, if you still exist and still bother to read my tired old crap. Thank you for being such a wonderful person to talk to, and an interesting project to start on. I believe that, in a way, you might even supersede me and Tiger in your writing... for your ideas are original and your possibilities great. Keep writing, Soundwood. And send to me if you like. There can be no greater honor than helping someone become a greater person than I am.

See you all in the sequel.

Your Friend, Author, and Writer,

SILVERLOCKE980

Fin