"Himura?" Usagi asked, her voice filled with fear. She didn't know who this newcomer was, but his mere presence sent the powers that she had sensed earlier skyrocketing.

"Who's that?" Heero growled, shielding Usagi's body with his own.

"Aaa, the young... how quickly they forget souls like me," Himura replied, his voce thick in amusement.

"I thought you were gone," Aed whispered. The power surge that had hit him earlier began dropping. The sword disappeared from his hands and his eyes reverted back to their hyacinth beauty.

Himura turned his head to rest upon Aed fondly. The corners of his eyes crinkled just slightly as he gave the younger man a soft smile. "Forsake you, my child? Never. You forget my role in this? And you, Morrigan... look at you... look at what you've done to yourself."

Morrigan inhaled sharply, the pain temporarily forgotten as she too powered down, wings vanishing from behind her body. "What do you mean?" Pain laced her words, and Aed could only send a sympathetic gaze in her direction.

"You've surrendered to it..."

"Iie, she had no choice. That... monster," Aed nearly spat the word out. "She forced her hand. Look at what she did to Morrigan and made her become."

Sakura gave Aed a hurt look and with a smirk, pulled the sword out of Morrigan with a cruel twist. The Elder Goddess gave an unearthly cry of pain before collapsing to the ground. Aed moved over, catching her gently.

"I have you, Morrigan. You're safe now. You can rest. You can rest." His tone was soft, loving, yet filled with pain, his words hesistant. The one he loved was being taken away from him again.

"There was always a choice, Aed. By surrendering to that, you become... me." Himura's purple eyes flared a deep golden as he became drawn to his human days, before he became this. All he ever wanted was a life for himself... and his love. He had believed that they could be happy, but it had been all snatched away cruelly. The loss of his other half had all but shattered him, and he had locked himself up in a place so he could die. His soul slowly ebbed away, and he became forgotten, remembered only as a legend.

"Enough of this nonsense. I'm here to stop the two of you," he continued. "You know what the consequences would be should you allow your powers to fully evolve."

"Consequences?" Usagi squeaked out, unable to help herself.

"Let me stop them then, Himura-san," Sakura replied, the evil glow from within her eyes at odds with the sweetness of her tone.

"Don't you dare touch either of them," Heero spoke up finally. "I don't know who the hell you are, but touch them and die."

"I'd like to see you try, little god," Sakura spat out.

In a blink of an eye, a sword was leveled against her head. His voice deep and unemotional, Himura said softly, "Leave now, demon. The time for fighting is not now."

Morrigan stirred despite her injuries. "No... Himura... we must stop her... I'll do anything I can to stop that bitch."

Aed's arms only tightened around her, shifting her so that she was laying against his chest with him supporting her full weight. "Iie, you are in no condition now to fight."

"I can... and you know what I'm capable of."

Sakura wanted so badly to move and destroy that Elder Goddess that stood in her way of getting Aya. He had been the one to save her in the first place, so long ago, before this form. She alone knew his secrets, and was the only one he trusted. She had had it all. And then, he had left, leaving her behind. Forcing her to follow him in any way possible, as she has always done, even if it meant joining the dark side. She shifted a little, and that Himura's sword pressed sharply against her neck. She shrieked as the sword came in contact with her skin, searing it with a loud hiss.

"Leave now, before I alter destiny and destroy you myself."

Encompassing them all with the dirtiest look she could muster, she shot out, "I'll be back for you, Morrigan. Your saviour can't protect you forever." With that, she disappeared.

"At least that's a relief," Usagi muttered as she ran by Aed's side.

"I'm not so sure who's more dangerous," Heero said with a scowl.

With a smile of satisfaction, Himura turned around to face the two Elder Gods and the blonde goddess that had run to their side. "Stay away. This is between myself and those two. Touch them, and you may become tainted, just as they have."

"Tainted? Nani?"

"Don't you know? They're not just simple Elder Gods as they have led you to believe. Buried deep in their minds, they know the secrets and the truths behind who they are."

A sob came from Morrigan, drawing shocked eyes towards her. She had always been the strongest one, allowing no one to see her pain and her anger or even her frustrations, and now she seemed to be folding in on herself in her suddenly very apparent pain. "I am weak. I gave in. I had to. She would've hurt Aed, and Thanatos would've taken over this world. What would you have me do, Himura?" she demanded hoarsely.

"Be stronger than this," he replied cryptically.

"Leave her alone, Himura," Aed said wearily. Why had Himura come for them after so long? He had all but abandoned them so long ago, pursuing something that had been strictly been forbidden by the woman who had created them. Besides Morrigan, there was only one other person he had grown to care about during his time as Elder God.

"You can't go..." Aed said, a pleading note entering his voice.

"I thought I taught you better than this. This patheticness doesn't become you. I have to go," Himura said scornfully.

"You haven't fulfilled your duties to me or Morrigan yet! We haven't learned everything about our powers and what they're capable of."

"Don't you mean your dirty little secret?" Eyes flashed golden briefly before reverting back to normal. "I have to go."

"Shishou..."

"Never call me that again. Ever," Himura said sharply. "From this day on, you are no longer any student of mine."

Himura smiled coldly. "I've come back to take care of something I should've done a long time ago."

"Before you left to pursue your own selfish pleasures?" Aed retorted, causing Morrigan to struggle against him.

"Stop... pushing him..."

"What do you know of selfish pleasures? She was everything to me, unlike you. You shut the world off for over a thousand years, refusing to let the only woman you've loved to come into your heart. You think I don't know about these things? I may have been gone, but I'm not blind, baka deshi." A fond smile curled his lips upon the last words.

"Shishou, you're back," Aed said.

"Yes I am... but you two... are a giant mess." Regret tainted his words. "Now let me see what I can do to heal Morrigan. God, I leave you two for a thousand years, and you just fall apart."

Usagi stared at the scene in disbelief. What an odd relationship to say the least. She took a step closer, and Himura waved a hand towards her, creating a field around them.

"I meant what I said earlier, little goddess. If you value the purity of your blood, do not come any closer."

"What... what do you mean?"

Himura mumbled something under his breath as he began tending to Morrigan's wound.

"Sumimasen, Himura-san, what did you..."

His brow furrowed as he studied Morrigan's state. She was losing blood fast, not to mention, Sakura's stint with the sword did more damage than she had let on. By having Morrigan's flesh come into contact with demonic or demon-controlled objects, it was doing something none of them could've imagined. He had indeed failed them a thousand years ago.

"Shishou?"

"This isn't good, Aed."

"What isn't?" Aed thundered.

Scowling at his student, Himura reverted his attention to the increasingly pale Elder Goddess.

"It's happening, isn't it?" Morrigan asked with the barest of breaths.

Nodding his head, he scrambled to find something that he knew that would prevent disaster from happening, at least for now. Those bastards... They truly did their worst on these two by tampering with stuff they knew nothing about.

"What is?" demanded Heero.

"I'm gonna have to stop it once and for all," Himura announced.

"Stop what??"

"The second coming. A wave of evil so powerful that it makes Thanatos look like the chicken shit that he is."

"Make sense, damnit!!!" Aed yelled.

Himura reached for his sword at Morrigan's barely perceptible nod. Raising his arms high, he positioned the weapon directly above Morrigan's heart. White energy surrounded it, before he slashed it down towards her.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Aed's cries never did reach Morrigan in time.

21 October 2001

Author's (closing) notes:
Merry meet, my friends. We're passed Mabon and moving towards Samhain, if you didn't know. I posted a list of things I would like for a Samhain present this year in my journal.

And now, seeing as how it is very late and no one ever reads these, signing off.