Fan Fiction ❯ Moment's Memory ❯ Closing ( One-Shot )

Moments Memory

A/N: the characters in this story belong to me, and if I find you using them without permission, I will prosecute you within the full extent of the law. Repeat: ALL THE CHARACTERS USED BELONG TO ME.

The day was, ironically, beautiful.

The sun, glorious and bright with its rising, made the surrounding clouds blaze with color, creating a mockery of the carnage the light bathed. There was a fresh breeze from a nearby meadow- bringing sweet scents and the touch of coming rain.

Selene wanted to smile as she looked down at the woman, kneeling at her feet, holding the body of a dead child. She had won- she had defeated Larania, made her feel the agony of soul that she had felt, every day for the past two hundred and fifty years.

The once dragon warrior was covered in ashes, dressed in a fine white gown now soaked with blood and torn to tatters. There was one thing missing; the one thing that would have made her victory complete.

There were no tears. No tears at all. Larania's pale green eyes were dry.

It didn't matter that the soot had settled into the creases of her smooth face, making her seem to be far older. It didn't matter that her red hair had long since gone white. The anguished tears and sobbing she wanted were denied her.

The ruins around them echoed when the wind suddenly picked up. The imagined sounds of children playing haunted them both. Their bodies lay scattered- slain by their mother's hand.

"I find this rather pathetic," mused Selene, trying to coax more despair to the surface. "You, their savior, their hero- their final destroyer. I remember when they started to call me the Betrayer of Hope. But you..." she forced a laugh. "You never cared for names like that. You just-"

"I never just anything," a voice croaked, interrupting. "I was doing what I was told, doing what I had to, becoming the hero they needed. I never chose that role- I was never allowed to follow my heart. If I had... this never would have happened. Isn't that right, Carla?"

"MY NAME IS SELENE!" snarled the dark haired sorceress. "Carla has been... discarded. And because of your arrogance- you were tainted, driven insane. You caused the insanity of the others, ou- your friends, who are now wrecking the world as you did."

Larania didn't look at her- she just continued to caress the face of her youngest son. "You were the only person I ever hated," the halfling admitted softly, the raised her now completely human eyes to meet Selene's black ones.

Selene wanted to sneer, but she couldn't. They had spent so long, fighting, that this ending... it was wrong. They had become connected in ways that...

Larania noticed the expression soften, so gently, on her old friend's face.

"How can you not regret what I caused you to do?" snarled the Betrayer, finally, frustration overcoming her, not realizing that she had finally taken responsibility for what happened.

"Because- because-"

There was a disruption in the air behind her nemesis, as someone teleported to this spot.

"Why is she still alive?" called Seth, hissing angrily. "You were to kill her as soon as you arrived!"

"I was getting around to it!" Selene called back, enraged. "You have no right to barge in here!"

"I do if..." there was a nasty smile," if you were planning on aiding her. On helping our Enemy. Like you did before-" Selene snarled and whirled around, readying herself to leave, forgetting she had not killed Larania. "HOW DARE YOU??"

"How dare I?" Seth answered silkily. "I dare, because you have no right to be our Lord's right hand. I dare... because you are Betraying us, as well as our Enemy-"

There was no warning, no sound or feeling to give him away, as he drew a dagger from his hooded cloak. Seth struck like the serpent of his name. His aim was true- and he struck home, aiming for the Betrayer's kidneys.

Blood sprayed from the wound, and a choked cough came from the victim's filling lungs. Disbelief colored the faces of the two survivors-

As Seth pulled the dagger from Larania's now ruined chest.

"NO!"

"What?" the Serpent asked in disbelief, seeing the dragon warrior fall to her knees, smiling at him. It was the last thing he saw, as he was disintegrated by Selene's powers.

"LARANIA!"

Carla fell to her knees, catching her old friend before she was splayed on the cold dirt, seeing blood froth at her lips. Her face was rapidly turning blue.

"Why- how, just why?" she asked, her world, her universe tilting out of control in that one instant.

"Because however much I hated you," said a soft voice, barely above a rattle. "You were the only person I ever really loved, too. I wish I had given up duty for...." the confession stopped by a fit of more bloody coughing. Shivering overtook her cooling body.

Carla curled around her, desperately trying to put warmth back into her dying enemy. Her dying love.

"Why? Why?"

"I could never save you before," was the simple, nearly non-existent reply. "I wanted to..."

The clear, lovely weather of the day had darkened to a stormy gray. Rain began to trickle, then fall more heavily, the sky weeping.

"Damn you," Carla answered, hugging her friend tightly. "Don't die, I have to say more to you, damn you, don't die on me!"

More coughing.

"Don't die on me either... live."

"HOW?"

"Never thought dying would be this cold... Carla- I can't see you, its dark..."

"I'm here, I'm here," Carla whispered, trying to bring her powers to bear. There was nothing she could do, though. Larania was almost gone, and they both knew it.

"Sing?"

Carla didn't know what else she could do, why Larania wanted her to do that, but she did, singing a love song from childhood. One they had sang, listening to the radio, laughing together...

She didn't realize that, until much later, she couldn't feel the shallow rise and fall of Lara's chest. That she had gone completely icy.

All that mattered was the look of peace on Larania's face.

"You tried so hard to save me, didn't you? I don't know if it worked... but you had to try one last time. I loved you too," the wind carried her voice- then a wild sad keening.

Then the rest was silence.