Izanami no Jidō: Mother, Forgive Me...

The End is Nigh...
New York's atmosphere had transformed from it's black and golden orange, to a depressing white and grey one. As if though the entire world had been covered in it, snow fell from the skies. It's massive towers were covered in it, the city streets were being cleaned from it all, civilians held umbrellas up to keep themselves shielded from it's cold sting.

Tearing through the wintry skies were two VTOL aircraft, both moving at hasty speeds. Within one of them was a young woman with a blood mark in the center of her head, the rest of her body bruised and tattered. She looked as if though she had emerged from a nuclear crater, though what she went through could easily be described as worse...

...she had a child on the way, and she had no way of helping it if it came sooner than expected. All that was on her mind was the apprentice that she had lost. She could not fight the tears emerging from her eyes as she recalled her final moments with her...

Within the other aircraft were two men, one with an elder appearance with red eyes and black hair, and a younger one with blue eyes and brown hair. They were previously wounded, but their captors healed them on behalf of their master.

The younger man covered his face with his hands, slight tears emerging from his eyes as well. The young woman in the other craft was his wife, and she carried his child. He could not fight the anger and sorrow within him, knowing that he would never see his child in person.

The older man, however, seemed to be more resolute. He was sitting in one of the seats nearer to the rear exit of the V-22 Osprey he was flying in. His arms were folded in his lap, and his eyes were closed. His daughter had been killed by his nemesis, who was the very same one who had taken them all prisoner. Apparently, they were going to witness the "destruction" of the world, as he had put it. All in all, it was a gloomy, depressing, and disappointing situation.

He had promised his father that he would keep his fragment to the dying breath. He had failed.

He had promised himself to bring his family back together. He had failed.

But he was too tired of failure to care. It brought him nothing but weariness. So he simply sat there, silent and waiting patiently for his time to come.

"...I'm sorry."

The younger man said a couple of words through his breath, expressing his sorrow over the death of the man's daughter.

"You have nothing to apologize for, Akisame." Haralson answered calmly, opening his eyes to look over at the other man. "You're not the one who killed Brina. So don't blame yourself for my kid's death."

"No. No I should blame myself for her death. For everything. If I had never found out about all of this, and if I just stopped looking for you, then maybe we could have enjoyed our lives before the end came..." Akisame said, guilt riddled his face. So much to the point to where he could not even look at Haralson.

That was something that Haralson could not take.

Reaching over, he grabbed Akisame by the top of the head and jerked his face forcefully up. His eyes were fixed up in a stern glare. "Listen up, laddie." He growled, clearly annoyed with Akisame's moping. "If you and your lass hadn't met me, I would've never been able to overcome my own personal demons as I did. I'm not going to say it again. None of this is your fault. So stop acting like it is!"

"...Yeah. I helped you." he said, his voice still low. "...but did I help the people of your hometown? Did I help the pilot back on the plane? Did I help the innocent people in the village? Did I help my wife and child? Did I help Bri..."

He stopped himself before he could say more. He gently took Haralson's hand off of his head and layed his head back up against the window of the craft.

Haralson closed his eyes, placing a palm to his face in frustration. "....you did what you could." He spoke, taking in a deep breath and sighing. His back was hunched over as he did this, his other arm resting in his lap. "No one can blame you if you were trying your absolute best to protect everyone. The only ones who will mock you for that are the ones that you see as enemies. No one else matters. Think about that before you decide that you want to die in such a pitiful, self-loathing manner."

Akisame chuckled, shaking his head. "I'll be sure to tell myself that before I go to sleep at night."

As he finished, the chopper landed on a large helipad that was fit for two craft. As they landed, an armed guard came up to the door, rifle ready to shoot either of them dead where they sat.

"Out of the chopper. NOW!"

With that, Akisame looked over to Haralson and nodded, as he left the craft for the guard. As he looked to his left, the other craft landed and a robed figure emerged from it, Soifon in tow. She looked over to Akisame and then to the figure. She was speaking to him and he looked down at her before looking back up at Akisame. He then took her and walked over to the young man with Soifon.

"On behalf of the Prophet's whim, this woman has been granted permission to stay in the same cell as you." the figure said.

She embraced Akisame, their hands still cuffed, kissing each other briefly before being nudged by a guard to move.

"Well.... end of the line...."

Haralson sighed heavily, stepping out of the thing and hopping out in his own cuffs. He had to admit, the reiatsu suppressor on the things were strong. Even he, with the strongest reiatsu out of the three of them, could not break them as thought he could. With his cuffed hands lowered in front of him, he could only look on as the couple kissed and were told that they could share a cell together.

"What..." He drawled sarcastically, rolling his eyes at the guards. "Gonna stuff this old man in a cell by his lonesome? I thought your mothers taught you better than to treat your elders like this." He knew he was probably irritating the guards, but all they could really do was kick him around or shoot him. Their options were severely limited, and what options they could take did not matter to him. So he would settle for jeering them to his dying breath.

He did have pride, after all.

The guard simply shoved him on. "No talking."

As they moved through the dark hallways, Soifon could smell death and suffering within the sealed jail cells, it made her sick. They arrived at their appropriate cell and the guard shoved Akisame into it, while simply nudging Soifon into it. Perhaps they knew of her condition?

As they entered the white and empty cell, the door behind them was shut and their cuffs fell off, though their powers remained sealed by the specially designed room.

"Ugh... you guards are boring...." Haralson huffed, but he simply started walking accordingly. As he passed by the couple's cell, he passed a glance towards Soifon and Akisame before looking forward once again, allowing himself to be led to his own cell.

Nearly an hour had passed, and Soifon and her husband sat on the opposite ends of the room. He leaned up against the wall, his arm resting on his left knee. She sat up against the other wall, her knees curled up and wrapped by her arms. As he looked at her, Akisame began thinking about the child resting within her, what they would name it, what it would look like...

"...So, what is it?" he said, his voice casual.

She looked back up at him in confusion before realizing what he meant. "...Oh. Heh, it's..."

She got up and walked over to him, then sitting down on her knees in front of his casual figure. "...It's a girl....just like you always wanted." she said with a warm smile.

He smiled back to her. "Why did you wait until now?"

She frowned and closed her eyes, looking downwards. "I...I wanted to keep it a surprise. I planned to tell you after the dinner party but...I was so mad at you, I thought I would wait for a while longer."

Within the confines of his own cell, Haralson was sitting against the wall with his bent legs stretched out in front of him. He had his eyes closed, and he appeared to be sleeping. However, his voice said otherwise. "I let the Prophet defeat me and take away the only thing that could've been holding this world together. With one mistake, I put the fate of my life in my enemy's hands. Thanks to me, I have handed over the key needed to unlock the destruction of existence....you're not to blame, Akisame, because everything is my fault, and my fault only...."

"Pathetic."

Immediately, he jolted up out of surprise upon hearing that voice. "W-who's there?!"

"A last will by me.... and you couldn't even do that right." He recognized it as his father's voice, scathing and disdainful in nature. "You are nothing but a complete and total failure rotting in your own waste. Look at what you've allowed yourself to become, Haralson. A man of 700 is moping like a child over his own failure...is this REALLY what I passed my knowledge to?"

"N...no...dad...." Haralson's voice started to tremble, immediately taking on a horrified and apprehensive tone. His expression started to obtain more panic, more loss of his composure. "Please.... don't talk like that. I'm not dead yet, I can still--"

''"Still WHAT?!" ''The voice's snarl caused the man to flinch a bit. "Still beg for the piece back and then allow him to kill you? Maybe if you're lucky, he'll be nice and offer you the whole blade... right down your THROAT." It paused for a moment before speaking again. "I don't know why I even bothered wasting my time on the likes of you...."

"N...no, you don't mean that--"

"You are as worthless as my so-called apprentice, if not even moreso. I'm starting to wonder why I even dared to call you my son..."

"Please, Dad, don't do this....I beg of you, calm down--"

"As a matter of fact, I think I WILL stop calling you my son. Consider this my new last rites: die with a pitiful and agonized heart and discard yourself from my memory. You're pointless to me now."

"Dad, don't do this. Don't leave me."

"...."

"Please... I've already lost my daughter, I don't want to lose you...."

"...."

"What's with your silence....? Please....talk to me... Dad--"

"...."

"Dad, please! Come back! Don't leave! I still need you!! Dad!!! DAD!!!! DADDY!!!!!"

That was when the dam completely broke.

WHAM!

WHAM!

WHAM!

"LET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!"

Haralson, completely losing face as well as his earlier bravado, began to slam his hands onto the door in a blind and crazed attempt to break free. It was not coordinated punches that he was using, nor was it even blind swings. If anything, he looked like a trapped animal attempting to break free from the cage. His eyes were wild, and a snarl was visible on his face as he continued to slam his hands on the door.

All the while, he continued to scream.

"LET ME OUT OF HERE!!!! I HATE THIS PLACE!!! DON'T LET ME DIE ALONE!!! PLEASE, SOMEONE!!! HELP ME!!! HELP ME LEAVE!!!! DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!!"

CRACK!

CRACK!

CRACK!

CRACK!

After a few moments more, Haralson had only managed to shatter one thing - the bones within his hands. He had slammed them against the metal door only to have them bend, stretch, and eventually break into pieces. Blood was now dripping from the metal, covering his gashed and mangled knuckles. As the blood slumped to the floor, he slumped to his knees. His words were like a broken mantra.

"Please...."

"Please...."

"Please...."

All of a sudden, he could feel a light tap on his shoulder. As he turned his head around, a figure with black spikey hair and piercing yellow eyes grabbed him by the shoulder, turned him all the way around, and brutally punched him in his face.

As he fell to the floor, the figure stood over him and then leaned down to where he could clearly be seen.

"Hello...brother."

That punch was enough to sap all strength completely from Haralson. He lay on his side, not even bothering to get back up or say anything for that matter.

Soifon had just finished her statement by the time Haralson started going mad. She turned to look in his direction, before looking back at Akisame with concern.

"We need to..." she stopped herself. She realized that it would do none of them any good to try to talk him out of it. He probably wouldn't even hear them. All she could do was lower her head in pity.

"...We need to give her a name." Akisame said, pretending to pick up from where she left off.

She looked back up at him in confusion and surprise. Why should they even bother naming her if they were going to die shortly?

She ultimatley gave a large exhale before giving in. "Okay...you first."

The figure then grabbed Haralson by his shirt collar with his left hand and picked him up with little effort. "Come on brother." he then punched Haralson again with his right fist. "What is my name? Tell me who I am, and I'll let you go."

"Please...." Haralson's voice was a shadow of the power it once was. "De Soto... stop it...."

De Soto then laughed as he dropped Haralson back to the ground. "HA! Looks like you were right old man. He does remember me after all."

Then, another figure phased through the door, his hands behind his back, and his figure hunched over as always. "But of course De Soto, who could honestly forget you?"

De Soto chuckled some more before looking back down at Haralson. "Heh, based on his condition, I could have sworn he'd forget who either of us were." He leaned over to where Haralson could see the other figure clearly. "You do remember the old man, don't you?"

It just made Haralson want to shrivel up in a corner and die. With his broken fingers, he clutched his head and shut his eyes tightly. "Stop it....stop it now....!" He continued to plead, wanting to shut his environment out and leave himself alone.