Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ 'Do You Want to Live Forever?' ❯ The Source ( Chapter 12 )

A/N: I feel soooooooo stupid!!! I was going through and reviewing everything on FF.net and MediaMiner to make sure it was kosher, and I discovered the most heinous mistake. I FORGOT TO POST CHAPTER THREE!! I can't believe I did that. I honestly can't believe it. I was so busy making sure I posted everything in the right order and so on, that I skipped an entire fucking chapter. Stupid old woman. Geez!!!

So, Gomen nasi for a thousand years. Here it is. It may help a few things make more sense... and God forbid I made a reference to it in the future without it being there. Dumb, dumb, dumb... banging head on floor... dumb!

Chapter Three

The Source

New York City

Elis Island (Deserted)

Underground Complex 100,000 sq. ft.

The Black Lands

April 2004

The Weekend

2:37 a.m. Sunday Morning

Characters:

Mara Rostovich

Hiko Seijuro

Soujiro Seta (Kamiya)

Kaoru Kamiya

"You fucking stupid bitch!" The sound of the slap was only out classed and out matched by the sound of a body slamming against a metal shelving unit filled with countless stacks of medical supplies, books, instruments, and other miscellaneous items as it went crashing to the floor. "Didn't I tell you to stay the hell off my side of the City?" The level of negative energy boiling inside of the large square room filled with hospital gurnies and emergency medical equipment was astonishing, and the source was even more perplexing. It was coming from two very beautiful females. One blonde with large dark brown eyes the color of the darkest and deepest centers of the Earth, and the other with hair as dark as the blackest night, her eyes sparkling with the light of the bluest sapphire diamonds from the richest mines in all the World, and it was her anger that raged the hottest in this battle of wills as she screamed again at the blonde who was struggling to regain her feet. "Don't you ever fucking listen to anything you're told, you bloody ditz? Broadway Alley is my district, my turf, my streets... the pimps and dealers are MINE." A well-manicured nail polished in the deepest red pointed furiously at her chest, but the blonde female looked on nonplused by the pompous action.

"Yeah, so what? Do you think I give a flying shit about YOUR fucking 'TURF'? Well, newsflash, Baby... I don't." Tossing her waist length hair over her shoulder and narrowing her dark eyes, she curled her full pouty lips into a disrespectful sneer. "Hell... I even bag one of your

so-called scum-sucking weasel-boys just as good as you ever have, and I dusted me a 'Made' in the process... an 'Ancient' at that." A smile of purest gloating pleasure curled her lips as she faced the other seething Vampire; she was going to enjoy putting this 'Almighty' self-important bitch in her place. "Tell me, Oh Thou Queen Bitch of The Universe, HAVE you ever done that? Hmmmm... have you ever killed one of your stinking rat-faced pimps AND dusted a Made in the same night? Let alone dusted an 'Ancient' on the same night? Hmmm... have you?" The last was said with just enough of a honey-sweet voice to make the dark-haired female momentarily drop her eyes in discomfort.

"It doesn't really matter if I have or not, you stupid empty-headed, Bimbo... The point is, you

were lax and sloppy as hell with your kill. You left evidence and clues all over the place... the New York Police aren't stupid. They will most certainly find every one of them seeing as how you messed up your pretty boy by fucking him AND breaking his neck." She snorted in keen irritation over the mention of that fact, and then she pointedly looked into the slightly confused brown eyes of the other female. "DON'T YOU KNOW ANYTHING?!" She practically shouted into the perfect porcelain features. "YOU. NEVER. LEAVE. EVIDENCE. BEHIND. FOR. THE. COPS. TO. FOLLOW. BACK. TO. THE. NEST." And then suddenly, like the blinding flash of a whip, the sound of a packed fist hitting bone rang through the square room echoing off the flat brick walls like the slam of a hammer striking stone. The blonde Vampire sailed through the air like a rag doll landing in an unconscious heap on the floor several yards away.

Furious eyes, the color of red-hot coals burned in hatred as the remaining female looked on dispassionately at the work she had created with one blow of her fist. Absently she swept a stray

lock of ebony silk out of her perfect porcelain features that were at this moment marred by the

furious look they bore. Tossing her head, she managed to throw the rest of her thigh length hair back over her shoulders where it belonged, and then leaned over and picked up the mangled useless piece of black silk that lay on the floor beside her. Examining it closely, she realized it was the tie that had been holding her heavy mane in a tight top knot on top of her head. At some point during her altercation with the other female it had been ripped free and torn. The two ends were still tied together. The knot itself had held... the ribbon had torn. It had been her favorite ribbon despite its planeness, and she felt her anger swiftly returned. But as she stood and made one step toward the unconscious blonde, a deep baritone voice halted her in her tracks as it barked an order of authority she could not ignore.

"Stop! That is enough. You have more than made your point, Kaoru. I don't think Mara will be stepping a single foot inside Broadway's boundaries for a good long time after this little thrashing you just gave her."

"She had better not..." The angry beauty licked her long lethal canines in an absent-minded threatening gesture. "Next time she does, I swear I'll kill her."

"Don't you that is a bit harsh, My Dear? Hmmmmm......?" She turned and faced a tall heavily

muscled white-haired man who was rising from his strategic point of observation next to one of the gurneies, and glared her displeasure at he opinion. "I know she made a big mistake tonight, but its only one mutilated body out of how many? And how many clues could she have possibly left for the Police to find, considering how many murders and other blasphemous practices go on down there at night in such a crime infested place as Broadway?"

"I have only been able to exterminated three... men in thus far in the Broadway sector... you forget, Father...I just started working that particular part of downtown." Her voice thickened with scorn as she cast a murderous look over her shoulder at the body laying on the floor. "Mara's fucked up kill tonight makes four. What the hell was she doing over there anyway? I thought you assigned her to China Towne with Misao's group?"

"I did."

"So what the hell was she doing in Broadway tonight?"

"That is a damn good question, and I am afraid I may have the answer."

"What? What answer? Tell me, you've got my undivided attention now." Kaoru turned and

looked at the Man who had been her Father for the last 600 years and waited patiently for the answer he claimed to have, but he was giving her that look. The one that said he was gauging her mood and hence her response, and when Hiko Seijuro, the once Royal Horse Master to the last King of the Pure Bloods and Retainer to Prince Crede looked at anyone like that, it meant he would talk when he was bloody good and ready too. "Come on, Father...don't make me wait all night."

"I just don't want you to make good on your threat and kill her." 'It isn't like I do not believe you won't do it..., No, dear daughter, it is that I am afraid you will.'

"Why do you say that? What has she done?" 'That disgusting little ....'

"Now Kaoru, calm down or I really will keep it to myself." 'You hotheaded, suspicious..'

"All right fine... I am calm." 'Geeez... what does it take??'

"Yeah right, like a volcano." 'Do I look stupid... don't answer that.'

"FATHER!"

"All right, all right... In the last few months, I have caught her several times going through the old archived records while your brother was away doing something else..." He cast a swift look in his daughters direction checking to see if she were indeed going to blow up, to his relief she merely looked a tad surprised if not puzzled as she returned his gaze.

"You punished her, of course."

"No, actually... I didn't." The looked morphed from puzzled to outright confused and irritated.

"Why not?" Demanded Kaoru in a belligerent voice. "I thought it was strictly forbidden for anyone to go through the archives excepting you and Soujiro?"

"Technically it is, but I really didn't feel like stripping her back with a cat-o-nine-tails at that moment." His daughter rolled her glittering blue eyes at his caustic remark just to show him how she felt about his ill placed jibe at her obvious hatred of the other female.

"Whatever..." She replied in a testy tone of voice. "What DID you do?"

"Nothing." At the disbelieving look of pure outrage his daughter threw in his direction, Hiko decided to elaborate... for Mara's benefit, not Kaoru's. "She is complete obsessed with 'The Prophecy' of 'The One' and all of the written word surrounding it."

"Aren't we all?" Kaoru's voice was nasty and sarcastic as she tossed her head in annoyance. "That doesn't make her special."

"Not like this, Kaoru. Non one is obsessed like this."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Mara actually believes She is the one who is destined to become 'The Source.'"

"What? Are you kidding? That meelly mouthed little bitch??" A short, sharp bark of laughter leapt from the ebony-haired females swan-like throat as she thought about what her Father had just said. "HER? The Source?? That is the most ludicrous thing I ever heard. She doesn't have the strength to become Mate to 'The One'. Her blood isn't even close to being pure enough to wake him and bring him into this world let alone 'thick enough with the Power of the Old Ways' to claim his Destiny."

"And I suppose you think your's is?" Hiko's voice rose angrily as his daughters arrogance finally succeeded in getting on his last nerve. "How dare you presume to quote the Prophecy to me, Daughter!! And how dare you presume to know who is or is not meantd to become 'The Source.' Not even your Brother nor I know that, and we are more familiar with the Holy Word inside of the Archives than you could ever hope to be!" Snapping emerald gems glinted with red fire as he glared furiously into Kaoru's face. "So, do not dare ever lay claim to the Prophecy again."

"I never said that I was." She fumed into his angry visage and snapping emerald eyes.

"Perhaps not, but your behavior endears you to that end, and many have made that assumption because of it."

"So? What does that matter... there is always talk circling the Prophecy and what the future holds for our people. There always has been, and there always will be until 'The One' is found." Shrugging in snobbish indifference, Kaoru turned away from her angry Father and started to walk over to the fallen blonde female. "I don't see the problem with the rumors about me... there will always be rumors... who cares who they involve."

Suddenly the scent of danger filled her olfactory passages, and Kaoru's whole body and every system went on the defensive as she whirled to meet the impending threat lurking behind her. Shocked blue eyes widened in confusion as she found herself facing her brother's more than angry face. Soujiro was livid with fury and his usually soft blue-gray eyes had gone brilliantly glowing, bloody red as they raked her with disgust.

"You fucking bloody Witch!" He sneered through his fangs. "You're the most conceited person I know... How did you get this way, Kao? Once upon a time, you were a sweet, kind, and gentle girl who everyone loved. Now, no one has anything pleasant to say about you because you are such a pious, self-centered, self-serving Bitch!"

"Hey! You don't get to talk to me like that, Brother!" Angry fangs lengthened as she crouched down and met his raging bloody gaze with one of her own. "You aren't even in the same league as I am... You aren't out in the streets working the trenches... You aren't even attending the Academy for training sessions anymore. Why, I'll bet I could beat your fucking sorry excuse for a fighters ass with both hands tied behind my back."

"Fuck you!" He yelled back and made to rush her, but Hiko laid a hand on his shoulder and held him back, and when Soujiro looked up at his Father in hurt confusion, he found himself looking into the reluctant but honest green eyes he had grown to trust such a long time ago.

"Unfortunately, Soujiro..." The older Male began gently. "Your sister is right. She could beat you without even hardly breaking a sweat, but that means nothing when considering either or your value to our cause."

"Huh?" Soujiro looked up into the ambiguous face of his adopted Father. "What do you mean? Our value?"

"Despite your sister's arrogant and self-serving ways... she is one of the best 'Slayers' I have... and you. You have one of the most magnificent minds I have ever come across. You know the Holy Archives backward and forward better even than The Council does." Smiling benignly at the Younger Male, Hiko squeezed his shoulder encouragingly. "That is why it is you who are 'The Keeper', and not one of the Older Men."

"Thank-you, Father." Soujiro bowed his head in humble acknowledgment of the compliment because he was aware that his Father was not one to give them if they were not deserved.

"However, back to your sister, and the original reason you were so angry..." The green gaze traveled across the room and came to rest on the fallen form of the young female.

"Mara...?" Soujiro's voice was quiet and filled with stiff anger.

"Mara."

"Is she all right?" Soujirou skirted his seething sister and quickly knelt beside the blonde female Vampire and then gently lifted her head into his lap. "Mara, Sweetheart? Can you hear me, Baby?" Tenderly he stroked his hand along the perfect porcelain cheek noticing the ugly bruise that was forming there. "Did you have to hit her so hard, Kao?" Hurt and angry eyes looked up at Kaoru, and for the first time since her altercation with the other woman, she felt a twinge of guilt.

"She went into my designated area and very likely may have caused irreparable damage with the police.... the little tramp."

"What do you mean? Irreparable damage... what did she do that was so awful compared to what you do all the time?"

Kaoru glared at her brother fiercely. Sometimes she almost hated him. "She fucked up and left a shit load of evidence around her kill."

"What kind of evidence?"

"Well, First of all, she broke the dirt-bags neck through 5 and 6 and left him alive while she drank him nice and slow. Second, she fucked him in his car... left her body fluids, skin samples, and her long blonde hair allll over him, and Third, the car was parked in an abandoned lot that was covered with dirt."

"Huh? So what?"

"Dirt! Are you stupid??" She was raging in his face and her eyes were flaring hot coals.

"Footprints, you dumb-ass... footprints." Now Soujiro was looking at Hiko and both of them were wearing the same perplexed expression. "Oh My God! Are you both that dense?"

"Kaoru..." Hiko's voice was laced heavily with warning signals that she was treading on thin ice where her respect issues were concerned. "Watch your mouth, Daughter."

"Fine," She grumbled, but her level of incredulity level did not decrease one ounce. "Mara likes to wear those funky spike heeled boots... they ones with the rubber tread in front and the custom made wooden spike in the back... capped with the steel cap??"

"And...."

"It leaves a very unique print in the dirt. There is only one establishment here in the City that makes and sells those kinds of boots. Moody's... over on 49th street next to the 'Raven's Wing Club'."

"Oh my..." Hiko's hand rose to rub his chin thoughtfully. "I was not aware of that."

"I didn't think you were."

"I imagine being a custom store they keep very detailed records of all the special jobs they do... nu?"

"Yes. They do at that." Kaoru's eyes were beginning to fade back to their usual deep sapphire blue as she noticed her Father was actually listening to her... and understanding for a change. Plus, he had all of a sudden stopped defending the unconscious blonde. That was the best thing of all.

"Has Mara been discreet?"

"I don't know... but, I'd almost wager she hasn't."

"Why do you say that? Mara isn't stupid you know.' Soujiro's anger retort brought his sisters attention right back to him and his precious blonde burden.

"No. I agree... reluctantly, brother. Your girlfriend is NOT completely stupid, but ever since you two moved out of the compound and took that apartment when she was reassigned to Manhattan... It just doesn't seem like she is being as careful as she used to be." A thoughtful wrinkle furrowed the handsome Vampire's smooth flawless brow as he considered this statement, and he had to admit... his sister could be right.

"Dammit!"

"You know, Sou... One of these days, her slutting around is going to give you some kind of a disease or something..." Kaoru shuddered and walked out of the room leaving Hiko and his son looking at each other with odd expressions. It was as if that were the very first time that particular idea had occurred to either of them.

"Shit!"

............................................................... .

Glossary: Fiu=Son, Nu=No, Desigur=Yes,

Excerpt from The Holy Archives ... No date

The Demon's of War will rise to fight

their armor and swords posed for battle,

waiting, and waiting, and waiting...

they will wait for the battle cry

the shout from the Almighty One, Himself.,

He who will come to guide them onward.

Leading his Army ever forward, they plunge

into the jaws of blood and death,

their swords are red, their hearts beat strong,

their bravery is unwavering.

Victory lies within their grasp, gauntlets of

gold, silver, steel, and even purest crystal...

All reach for the Glory of Freedom,

The Stillness of Peace,

The Oneness of Unity and Non-Segregation.

Prophecy speaks of Legend's unknown,

strange days that are faraway from now.

The Will of The One Rises

From the Ashes of The Long Past Dead....

The Time is Nigh upon The Moon

as Blood drips over her porcelain face.

Long has he lived in the shadows of his

own soul, his own life...

Long has he waited... waited for release,

for freedom, for time to open the gate of his mind.

Now men fly on wings of steel, and

paintings speak with the voices of the dead and the living.

The worlds of the Light and the Dark cross and

fuse, they mix and intertwine like lovers...

limbs... hair... clothes... minds.... all things...

All things are colored into blurring images, and where

one stops and the other begins,

This is where you will find Him...

'The One'... He rests in the blur of the World...

Look for him there.

..............................................

"Tell me what you see, my Fiu...."

"I can see the Earth... The Ocean's... The Great Desert's... The Endless Sky's..."

"What do they tell you? What can you hear?"

"I... hear... whispering... murmuring... They speak together yet none speak the same language... it is... difficult."

"Listen, My Fiu... Listen with your heart and listen with your blood. You have the ability to understand each language as it is spoken, and you can fuse them together in your mind and hear them as one speech."

"It is... I..."

"Listen... focus on that which speaks the softest, which is the most soothing, which is the most alluring... let it guide you through the dance of ancient tongues and you will remember... you will remember... remember... remember..."

"A... a woman... I-I can hear a woman... OooooOoooh her voice..."

"What do you hear in her voice, My Fiu?"

"The whispering of the Winds across tall green grasses in a meadow of tiny pink and violet wild flowers... soooo beautifulll... sooo delicate..."

"What does She say to you, My Fiu?"

"She sings... sings... sings about The Wheel of Time... The Wheel... The Wheel..."

"What of The Great Wheel?"

"It is 'Fate'... 'Karma'... She sings of 'Pathways' and 'Choices'... and... crossroads in time..."

"Yes, Kenshin, My Fiu... She is The Mother, She is The Cosmos... She is Fate itself, and it is She who control's the pathways of each of our lives. What else does she tell you, Beloved Fiu?"

"I... must... choose... my path."

"Desigur, you must. For there is not another soul alive who can make it for you. What must you choose between?"

"Going forward into the darkness of what is yet unknown, or retreating back into what I already know, but there are... consequences for each choice."

"There are always consequences when we are made to choose between one thing or another. This you have known since you were a small boy."

"Yes... I have known."

"What do you choose now... will you go forward and accept what Mother Fate has set before you to accomplish, whatever it may be, or do you retreat back into the world of facts, evidence, and logic that have been raised to believe is the only truth in the World worth believing?"

"I......"

"You must choose now, Kenshin, for the time of our people's Armageddon is upon us, and it is up to you if we are to step forward into the fray of battle or perish beneath the heel of our oppressor's."

"Why must it be MY choice?"

"Because... YOU are 'The One'.

"I have no wish to be 'The One'. I have only wanted to live a peaceful life and grow old with my family around me... I do not want or need such a vast responsibility."

"What we want and what we need are not always choices we are allowed to make for ourselves. Surely you are aware of this."

"I am not certain I understand."

"No one chooses to die at the hand of another, no one chooses to be born deformed or mentally disabled, no one chooses to be beaten at the hands of a parent or a spouse... need I go on?"

"Nu... I am beginning to see what you are saying, but none of these things are the same as being chosen to save an entire society of people... To be responsible for thousands upon thousands of lives... to lead them screaming into a battle that will surely end in the deaths of many of them... I-I do not want such a mantle to be laid upon my shoulders. I am not worthy of such a position of Honor."

"There is no one but yourself to take up the Mantle and the Sword and lead these people into battle... You are 'The One'... Now you must choose to either take your place as the Leader of our people, or abandon them and return to your Human Life."

"I.... will I remember this?"

"Remember what?"

"This... This conversation? This whispering voice? This crossroads and it's choices? Will I remember any of this should I choose to return to whom I have been all my human existence? Will I carry the guilt of my choice back with me?"

"Nu... everything from the moment you discovered I was Vampire until the moment you choose would be forever forgotten, and I would simply tell you that you had fallen and bumped your head on the pavement. You would remember nothing... Sadly enough."

"I understand."

"Do you? Do you understand the magnitude of this decision? Do you understand how many lives are at risk should you choose not to take your place?"

"Desigur... I understand, but I must think... I must... thinnnnkkk...."

"You do not have the luxury of 'Time', Kenshin, you must CHOOSE..."

TBC

again, gomen nasi... I can't believe I did that... I can't believe I forgot to post an entire chapter when I transfered this story over here. I am soooo sorry. I hope you guys can forgive me for being so stupid. Kanzen ne Tsuki