Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Raising the Past ❯ Epilogue

A/N: Here is the Epilogue of our little story 'Raising the Past'. We would like to thank all those who have read this whether you reviewed or not. Just believing that you read it is good enough for us.

Kathrine: Thanks for the support you gave us and pushing us to keep going. This is the first chapter fic that we've finished and published so we thank you. These five months have been very good to us.

JC: I hope that this is up to your standards.

Kathrine: We got a treat at the end.

Disclaimer: Only own misunderstood Makuyo.

Warning: Character death, angst, fluff, THE FINALE!!

Raising the Past

BY JC and Kathrine

Epilogue

He stared out the window, watching as the rain fell down, his fingers against the ice-cold glass. He sat on the sill-seat with his legs were pulled up to his chest. He sighed, I should be happy. Why can't I accept everything as it is? He let out another sigh before the sound of the door opening caught his attention.

" Touma?" he called to the one who entered the room, turning away from the stormy sky to look into concerned eyes.

" What's wrong?" the archer questioned.

" Nothing," the other replied.

" You haven't gone down to eat yet," the bearer of Tenku pointed out.

" Gomen," he apologized. His companion crossed the room slowly and wrapped him in a comforting embrace.

" You don't have to apologize," Touma told him. " I understand how you feel." He lowered his chin so that it rested upon the others soft hair.

" Everything feels different," he whispered. " After going back, it all feels so different."

" Yeah," the blue-haired boy agreed. " Like you don't fit in anymore, everything's changed and we missed it."

" I feel him in me, curious and surprised by the world," he continued as Touma ran a hand through his blonde locks. " They both are in a way."

" He died for you, Seiji," his lover tried to soothe him. " Makuyo didn't want either of you to die."

" But I was there," he mumbled. " Even though I couldn't do anything, I was there. I saw what he did and what Sage did. I tried to break through, but something would always force me back, make me forget what I was fighting for."

" That wasn't your fault," Touma pointed out.

" I know," Seiji nodded. " But I hated him, Touma! I hated him for making me forget, for convincing Sage everything he said was true. I wanted to be free, to be able kill him. How could he give his life up for me?"

" Even if he wasn't thinking about you, he wouldn't have let Sage die," Touma answered. " He loved him enough to let him go and enough to die so he wouldn't." He pulled the blonde to his feet and wrapped his arms around him, attempting to soothe away his guilt.

Seiji sighed at the warmth the other provided. He still couldn't get the guilt or sadness to leave him. Makuyo, for all the evil, hateful, vengeful things he had done, had indeed loved his other half. He still remembered the strange feeling of bonding with his other half when the eclipse had ended that day, only a week before. The feel of Touma's lips against his own as he returned to the outside world had been unbelievable.

He had known he was going to die, watching everything though Sage's eyes as if he was watching a movie. But he'd also felt the pain of the arrow in his chest, the fleeting sense of his life slipping away. He'd looked into Touma's eyes and known he was himself as well. Then there had been the shadow.

Seiji remembered looking up into the emerald eyes and seeing the love, determination, and sadness in those eyes. He had opened his lips to speak but Makuyo had kneeled and placed two fingers to his lips.

" Don't speak," he whispered as he stared straight into his eyes. Touma looked at him curiously and with a warning edge in his midnight orbs.

" What are you doing?" he asked.

" You'll see," Makuyo told him as he slowly moved the hand from Seiji's lips and traced the path down to the arrow protruding from his chest. He touched the tip of the head before wrapping his fingers around the small piece of the body that was there.

" This shall hurt greatly," he warned. Then he gripped the arrow tightly before wrenching from it place in the blonde's body. Seiji screamed out but Makuyo wasn't finished. He watched as the young boy's eyes glazed and his breaths lessen.

" Are you crazy?!" Touma shouted. Makuyo ignored his anger and placed his hand on the bleeding wound that was pulling the life force out of the Korin.

" Life for life, Soul for souls, to keep this one whole, remove mine from this world." A white light over took the field and Touma covered his eyes. A cry was heard and suddenly the light was gone. He removed his hands and allowed his to focus once more. Before him was Seiji, slowly reaching over to touch the limp body next to him.

" Nani?" he didn't understand. What had happened? Why wasn't Makuyo moving and how was Seiji able to?

" Seiji?" he whispered. The blonde stopped reaching for the inanimate form that was once Makuyo and turned to him with tears in his eyes.

" H-he's g-gone Touma," Korin whispered in a hurt voice. " H-he'd died…for m-me."

Seiji remembered feeling that sense of restoration and knowing that he wasn't going to die anymore. He remembered the bright light and the blood returning to his veins. But then he also remembered the cry he'd heard and turning over once he'd been able to, only to find Makuyo lying on the ground, eyes glazed over and breaths non-existent.

" I don't deserve the sacrifice he made," Seiji whispered in a sad tone. " He might have done some very evil deeds, but he didn't have to die. I killed him."

Touma knew that there wasn't anything he could do. Once again Seiji felt he had caused someone's death and much like after the events of New York, he hated himself. He knew that it would take time to make him see that it was because Makuyo HAD found the light, because he HAD loved someone enough, that he had died. But he knew that there was something he could do to ease his lover's mind.

" You feel you aren't worthy of what he gave you?" Touma questioned.

" I'm not," Seiji mumbled more to himself that to the archer.

" Then make yourself worthy," the bearer of Tenku told him. " Don't let his love for Sage or you been something of regret. Live because he would have wanted you to, love for the same. Don't be sad because he's gone. Be happy because he found the truth before he left."

Seiji spoke nothing for what seemed like an eternity. Touma didn't know if the blonde would ever say anything. He placed a affectionate kiss on the top of his head before turning to leave the room. He was stopped by a gentle yet firm hand on his wrist. Touma turned his eyes back to his lover to see the tears that were ready to overflow.

" I want him to be remembered," he whispered. " I don't want to regret what he did for me."

" Then I won't let you," Touma promised. " All you have to do is agree not to."

Seiji nodded to him before wrapping his arms around Touma's waist, silent tears fling down his cheeks and soaking his lover's shirt. " I love you Touma, remember that, always," he announced.

" I will, as long as you remember the same from me," he smiled as he felt himself beginning to cry. He held onto the blonde's shoulder, providing comfort and security that he knew the other needed. He wasn't about to let his lover go anytime soon.

I love you and so did he, Touma thought. As long as you stop thinking of the pain, everything will be all right. He leaned down and slowly helped the blonde to the bed. He knew that he was too tired, both emotionally and mentally, to get their himself.

" He died because he loved me Touma," Seiji spoke as the blue-haired boy wrapped him in his arms. " I don't want you to leave me too."

" I won't, we have many years to spend our lives together, didn't all of this teach you that?" Touma kissed him on the back of the neck as his eyes flickered sea green. " Our souls are meant for each other Sage."

Seiji's seemed to become blue/violet before he smiled weakly. " Yes Rowen, I see that now," he agreed before he and his lover both fell into a peaceful silence. Holding each other, using the other for strength that they needed. Their souls remained at peace, connecting through their love as they were meant to.

A/N: What do ya think? That's it, no more, all done.

Kathrine: I barely got anything out of this part, but I knew ya didn't think we would kill Seiji/Sage did ya? How could I torture him if he was dead?

JC: Now Kathrine has a song that she wrote and she wanted to see if ya liked it. It really doesn't have anything to do with the fic, but we decided to give it to ya as a gift for actually reading the entire story.

Kathrine: It is dedicated to Shadow of Arashi because it was the title of her story, 'Death Hospital,' that gave me the idea for it. I hope you like it.

JC: We would like to thank all these people for reading and reviewing our fic:

Shadow of Arashi

Isabel Night

Luna

Unintentional Nightmare

Destiny Lot

Kayla

Kida

Eboni

Celesta Sunstar

AlexAlevia

Evil Penguin

Nichole

Halowing4

NightShadow, and

Those that I forgot or that FFNet took off my review page cause of their little anonymous miff thing.

Thank you all so much!!!

Kathrine: Here's the song I wrote. This might be sad, but it still is kinda a thank you for yall who want to read it.

Death's Hospital

By Kathrine

You left me, clear and simple

You hurt me, so much more opaque

I'm broken, unable to fix myself

I feel like I'm dying inside

That's when I heard of Death's Hospital

Place for people in dire straits

You enter, but never leave

I knew that was where I could hide

Death's Hospital has one-way doors,

Never to release its patients from within

Its morgue is forever over-full,

But not with what you would expect.

It's full of dead souls, lost hopes,

And broken hearts that never did mend.

I dabbled in thoughts of suicide,

The scars of your betrayal always there.

I want a way to escape what you've done to me

A way to set me free again.

So I checked into Death's Hospital,

Knowing that you wouldn't even care.

But now I cannot leave,

I lost myself to the fatal pain.

Death's Hospital has one-way doors,

Never to release its patients from within

Its morgue is still forever over-full

But not with corpses or bodies,

It's full over dead souls, lost hopes,

And broken hearts that never will mend.

I can't escape, I gave up my life

I didn't know how far this would go

I'm trapped, I will forever be dying

From the tears behind its doors

I'm so lost, unable to see,

My heart starts to slow

Were you worth what I've done?

The blood is dripping to the floor

Death's Hospital has locked its doors

Never to release its patients like the rest

Its morgue has one more resident

Cause I guess I'm here to stay

I'm just another dead soul of lost hopes

And a broken heart that bled to death

Kathrine: What do ya think? I hope it's not too screwy for ya.

JC: We thank you for all of your support. Hopefully, we can keep ya through the entire time we are apart of the Fanfiction Family.