City of IF

[Kalanna Rai]

This is the last entry on this story. Enjoy!
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Epilogue: The Unforgiven

Once there were six, perfect, flawed, and fair. Then fair fell to a hidden flaw and flaw was shattered by perfection. Yet perfection is not all it seems and there is always more than one side to any tale. There are those who greive over the worst of sinners, those would would see the most valiant saint fail...
-Unknown

It was the worst storm anyone in those parts had ever seen. The dumpy little diner next to the long road that stretched off into the night had become a haven from it. All sorts had been driven in by the sheeting rain, wailing winds, and lightning that raced cloud to cloud like a demon's promise.

There were the usual long haul truckers, in because they couldn't see past the nose of their rigs. Bikers, caught out by the savage fury and worrying about their tarp covered rides. And the strangest of them all, a man dressed in black who'd been riding a horse. He sat, alone, in a corner booth staring out the window at the lonely landscape.

He hadn't spoken three words to anyone, save to say thank you when a cup of hot coffee had been poured for him by a fawing waitress. He hadn't touched the coffee and it was rapidly growing cold on the table before him. His long black hair was plastered to his face, sheilding those in the room from the sheer force of it's perfection. His eyes were hidden behind those sodden tendrils of abyssal night, save every once and a while when a glimmer of bejeweled violet would be glimpsed as the wet veil shifted.

Water spread in an ever widening pool at his feet, running in rivulets off his long black coat with it's shimmering silver edges. Nobody could say what the coat was made of, nobody could say what he wore under the coat save black boots of some kind. With straps that ended in solid silver clips and thick soles that softened his footsteps. His hands rested on the table a fraction of an inch from the cup...as if he was waiting for something...or someone.

Headlight suddenly pierced the sodden gloom and there was the sound of tires on gravel over the booming thunder. A door slammed and, moments later, a woman entered the diner. Despite the fact she'd only been out in the storm for less than a minute, the time it took to get from the car and into the diner, she was soaked to the skin.

Her soft, white, suede jacket was ruined and dripping water onto her white cordeuroy pants. A pair of soft, white, suede boots squished on the tiles of the diner floor, their soft perfection marred with splatters of mud. Heads turned in the diner, eyes drawn to the face of the newcomer. Breath caught in many male throats, jealousy flashed white hot through female eyes.

She was fair and flawless, her stride implied grace unmatchable. Her torso was slim, lithe, and compact. Her legs long and supple, muscles easily visible through the taut, wet, material. She was perfect, fair and flawless...the woman every man secretly dreamed of. Her hair was the color of the fire of the summer sun, her eyes the deepest twilight of midwinter.

She slid into the booth across from the man in black and, almost negilgently, he slide the coffee toward her with a deft flick of his fingers. She took the cup, greatfully, and held it in trembling hands. Steam poured off the top despite the fact the coffee had been nearly cold when she'd picked it up. She sipped it even though her attention really wasn't on the coffee.

It was on the man himself, her eyes devouring him as if he were her favorite meal and she hadn't eaten in a year. Several unnamable emotions flickered through her eyes faster than concious thought, her heart speeding up a little faster with ever moment spent in his presence. Perhaps, off all those in the diner, only she saw the faint violet aura around him. And if any of the others saw that faint purple sheen...they would have put it down to the glow of the purple lightning storm outside.

Thunder boomed, loud and commanding and the power went out leaving the diner bathed wholly in the strange violet glow of the storm outside. As another fork of lightning split the sky again, time froze leaving the mortals stranded and the woman in white free to talk to her companion. He slowly turned to face her, his violet power enveloping him as if one of the lightning's outside had struck him and now caressed him like a lover.

The woman's throat worked painfully as he flicked his now dry hair out of his eyes. Finally, she gathered the courage to speak. "Fallon..."

His voice was different from when she'd last heard it. It was hard and cold and...weary. "You fool."

She was taken aback, her eyes widening slightly. She felt her heart flutter as if a dozen arrows had pierced it, felt the weight of his gaze like an anvil around her neck. He was angry with her? Impossible, she knew the nature of his sacrifice...his emotions were forfit. A small voice in the back of her head called her a fool for doing this, for meddling in his affairs.

His gaze had her pinned, she an Entity in her own right, and she was as hopelessly bound as a mortal. Such was the might of the Firstborn, he who was the Architect and the Unforgiven. Yet that is what she had come to offer him. "Fallon...you can come back now. He's offering you a second chance."

Fallon stood abruptly and walked past her, his hip slamming her shoulder but he either ignored the pain or didn't feel it at all. She sprinted after him a moment later, catching up to him as time resumed and rain poured out of the sky. She sped up and slipped around infront of him, determined not to leave without him. If he left, if he didn't come back, this was the last time she'd see him until his task was complete...this foolish task he'd set himself.

Wrapping her arms around him, she kissed him passionately. But his mouth might as well have been forged of iron for all the softness his lips imparted, his body carved of ice for all the response he showed. As impassive as a december blizzard yet she pressed herself tightly against him, eyes shut tightly. Then, with something akin to horror blooming in her best, she pulled back. When her ear was pressed to his chest no heartbeat had echoed in it, no pulse could be felt to course through him.

She had known, intellectually, that he had no heart. But to realize it physically was a blow she hadn't seen coming. Now, as rain beaded her lashes, she knew that He was right. He'd allowed her to make the offer, was sincere about his part in it, but he'd warned her what to expect. He'd warned her Fallon's destruction was unavoidable.

And He was right, Father was always right. Fallon had forsaken the final offer extended and now he was marked. She stepped back, shaking her head. "I risked so much for you. For you I am banned from ever setting foot here again! I wasted my last visit to Creation just to see you...I am a fool arn't I."

Fallon moved past her and mounted his steed. A lightning flash etched him against the turbulant heavens and she laughed at him. "But you are a greater fool Fallon! He'll not protect you anymore from Tempest's fury! He'll unleash her upon you now and Tempest will kill you for your part in the affair!"

Fallon looked at her, rain tracing his lines like the lover she no longer was. A slow smile crossed his face, a smile of pain and promise and too many things seen. A smile that, if faked, was the sign of an actor capable of anything. Yet it was not faked, it was a pure emotion channeled from the blade that rested, like dead weight, against his back.

"I welcome Tempest's attempts. Surely a swift death would be better than the one I'm currently experiancing." His smile vanished as a sudden realization struck her. "That's right Serenity. I've been marked for death for a long time. Your 'gift' of my powers has only hastened it. No matter what the Master told you, I have been dying by inches for some time now."

"But he said..."

"No doubt he could have reversed the process, restored me to my pinnicle. But I gave my word I'd see this through. I will be dead before I am dishonored." Suddenly his steed was next to her and his blade was pressed against her neck. "If you cannot understand that, then you are just one more foe I must cut down."

Then, in one flash of lightning to the next, he was gone. Born away on some black wind that left the smell of damnation in her nose and the taste of ashes in her mouth. As her form fell apart and she was removed from Creation, Serenity realized that Fallon had been forgiven by all but the person who mattered most perhaps the only one that had ever mattered at all.

Himself.
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He was riding far from the diner, far from the worlds, when a slender wire sent his steed to it's knees. Fallon flew through the air, his blade before him, cutting through more wires of the same dark substance. They clung to him as no others had, quickly wrapping him in their folds.

Daggers flew from the darkness to pin him against the machinery of Creation. Slowly, a figure resolved from nothing, the ends of the threads in one fisted grip, an unthrown dagger in the other. Her long hair the color of the cirrus of the moon contrasted against her eyes the color of the spring leaves. She smiled at him, tying the threads off against themselves.

"At last, Fallon, you are mine."

He met her eyes uncaring. "It matters not Tempest, you lack the ability to destroy me."

Her grin widened and she reversed her grip on the dagger, trailing the blade along his jaw, watching the muscles clench of their own will. "I'll enjoy trying even if I cannot."
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And that's it. As he came into the story, so he goes out. With great mystery.

[Mephistopheles]

well, i guess that it really is over. too bad. but it was fun following while it lasted. thanks rai.

[Lilith]

*sniffs* No more hot guy? *sniff* Oh, okay, I'll deal with it. Well ended Rai... but I can smell a sequel, I just know it.

[The Meaning Of Fear]

Well, that was a bit annoying. I expected something more... Dramatic. This... It was... So... Anti-climatic.

And an extremely horrible cliff hanger, too. I can understand it if it left questions to be answered, but left a bit of an idea of what might happen next...

This... Well...

It killed it. This extra bit pretty much killed the story.

[dinranwen]

Undeniably, you're best ending ever! I loved it! It was so unexpected, so mysterious, yet so perfect! *twirls*

Oy, I'm sad to see it end though. I won't lie and say I won't. And Lily's right, you Should get this published! Because I want to read it, over, and over, and over agian. And if you don't, I promise I'll creep out of the grave I've been shoved into and personally hunt you down!!!!!!

*winks* And that's a threat I can fulfill, Dragoness, I guarentee.