From: "Alex Gray" ******************************************************* Revolutionary Girl Utena The characters and concepts of Chiho Saito are used without permission. Other original characters are copyright of Alexander Gray This story maybe freely distributed as long as this section is also referenced and the author is quoted. ******************************************************* Redirections - Prologue ------------ The dim light of the northern stars shining in the dark sky overhead glimmered, and was finally lost as the infinite sea of encroaching darkness slowly consumed the glowing points one by one. The speed at which that empty nothingness spread across the heavens was frightening, and as each star vanished it became obvious, even to the survivors who were watching anxiously from the ground below, that the end was nigh. The desperate battle that they had been fighting for so long was finally over, and soon that great darkness would engulf everything - there was absolutely nothing they could do to stop it. This universe was now food for the myriad Spawn of Leviathan. A pale faced young girl looked up at the blacking sky overhead and staggered as the last of her strength finally gave out. Spasms of pain began to shake her slender form as a series of wrenching coughs ripped themselves lose from her throat. Small droplets of dark red blood seeped from her mouth and began to slowly drip onto the ruined ground below. For a moment, the girl stared at the growing puddle in disbelief unable to accept what her eyes were telling her, but then, with a shuddering gasp, she collapsed to the ground, her body no longer able to support her weight. "Charline!" a voice cried out in horror as another young girl came running over. With a pain-filled sob she threw herself down to the ground and gently gathered the dying girl up into her embrace. "Charline!" she screamed once more. "NO!" The dying girl groaned, and with a supreme effort, opened two rich sapphire blue eyes that attempted in vain to focus on the hazy face looming over her. A pair of blood stained lips twitched and then painfully pulled themselves back into such a pitiful mockery of a once strong smile that the sobbing girl's heart broke. "...Cho...s...en..." The whisper was so faint that the girl to whom it was directed almost missed it completely. "...Ae..yn... Cho...s..." the faint whisper sounded again. "No!" the sobbing girl cried out in denial as she cradled the broken body tightly against her. "NO! You promised me, Charline! You promised me you would never leave me! DAMN IT, CHARLINE! PLEASE! YOU PROMISED!!" The flicking embers of warmth deep in the cobolt eyes rallied, and with a strength of will drawn from sources unimaginable, the dying girl raised a shaking hand to touch the sobbing face of her Chosen. "Aeyn..." the whisper said again. "Celeline..." The sobbing girl caught the shaking hand in her own and held it pressed up against her own cheek. With an effort, she looked down into the fading eyes of her beloved and tried to smile. "You saved her, Charline," the girl said as steadily as she could. "Celeline managed to escape - her and the others... You saved them..." "Po..r..." "The Portal is closed," the girl reassured her, still clutching at the other's hand. "Celeline sealed it. For now at least, Leviathan is contained... All thanks to you..." The girl's attempt to reassure the figure cradled in her arms made it instead shudder, and the blood stained lips twisted in a super human effort to hiss out a denial. "No... escape... Aeyn... you... flee... mu.. st..." Aeyn gently pulled the slender figure of her Chosen tightly against her, and for the very last time kissed the now rapidly cooling lips. Into that one kiss she tried to put everything. All the love, all the passion, all the joy that she had ever known. This was her last chance, her very last chance and she wanted to be sure that Charline knew how she felt. And that the last moments they shared together were filled with the love that had long burned between them. Finally, she pulled back and looked down once more into the failing blue eyes. "You promised you would never leave me, Charline," she said gently. "And I intend to make sure you keep that promise, my love. I Chose you and you Chose me. No matter what the price, I will never leave you." The elfin form of her Chosen spasmed one last time, and then, with a small sigh, went still. With a sense of dread, Aeyn felt the warm presence that had been part of her for so long gradually fade and then vanish altogether. A wrenching howl of unimaginable grief tore itself from her lips and she held the now empty shell of her Chosen against her in a grasp that sought to deny the terrifying reality now before her. "NOOOO!!! CHARLINE!!" The scream of lost and pain went on and on, building in resonance and power until it seemed that for a moment the very air shook with its strength. It was however, only for one brief moment. The last of the dying stars overhead flickered and were finally consumed by the mindless Hunger that the pale girl had died trying to fight. As the last of the sweet warmth of Life faded, the gnawing coldness that drove the Hunger ever onward once more began to reassert itself. Blindly, driven by an instinctive need, the Hunger groped around for a fresh source of the warmth with which It could fill Itself. Nothing. The coldness and aching need for the warmth tore at the Hunger, and desperately It redoubled Its efforts. It _had_ to be filled! Still nothing. The warmth was gone. The Life was gone. The Hunger was alone, alone and cold. Cold and Hungry...