The Heart Of Time

Shinbe stood protectively in front of Suki, blocking her body from Hyakuhei's view. The wind from Kotaro’s anger blew Shinbe’s midnight blue hair about his face… lending a haunted expression to his knowing amethyst eyes. His worry for Kyoko intensified as he felt the power of the Crystal building.

“No….” the word left him as if he had the wind suddenly knocked out of him. Shinbe knew if Hyakuhei obtained the full power from the guardian heart crystal then both worlds would be in grave danger. A scalding tear raced down his cheek as he felt his heart shatter with the fact he could do nothing. “…Kyoko.”

Hyakuhei looked around at the enemies who had stood in his way for so long… his own brother’s offspring. He knew they were afraid to attack him because he now held Kyoko as a shield and he could feel rage building all around him.

His ebony wings expanded, creating a dark backdrop behind him as his equally dark eyes locked on the girl in his arms. "They are trying to protect you." He stated in a calm soothing voice, as if they were not in the midst of a battle but only watching it from the sidelines.

He could feel the sacred guardian heart crystal that was still visible in the center of his naked chest. Her love for the guardians fighting to protect her was the only thing still keeping the crystal from sinking the rest of the way into his body and giving him the power he desired.

The purity of that love was her power, and she was using it to try to draw the crystal from him… he could feel it. But he could also feel the power that was already coursing through his veins, and it made him only want more.

His eyes softened for a moment as he whispered to her as if talking to a lover. “It’s not enough.”

Hyakuhei decided he would use the power he had already gained from the crystal against Kyoko in a way that would destroy the bond of love that surrounded the small group. He knew he had to stop her… for her power alone was just as strong as the crystal she had once held within her. The same crystal that had once allowed him to love… only to then take that love cruelly from his grasp.

He pulled Kyoko’s face flush with his and placed a gentle kiss upon her innocent lips. Staring into her stormy green eyes, he entered her mind using the power of the guardian heart crystal.

Hyakuhei sought out her memories of the guardians whom she loved so dearly… he would take them from her. Stealing her memories of the people she fought for would weaken her power and strengthen his.

Kyoko couldn’t blink. She felt his evil claws within her mind trying to destroy her memories and rip the reason for this fight from her… trying to take her love from her. Her friends, all of them, she wouldn’t allow it.

Kyoko felt her control snap, leaving her with only one thing to use against him, and that was the very thing he was trying to take and destroy. Her eyes flashed with anger no longer suppressed. She latched her hands in his silky midnight locks and thrust their foreheads together, shaking with a tidal wave of power.

Her voice piercing the silence of the battlefield, she screamed. "You want it that bad? HERE!! Take It!!!!"

Kyou's golden eyes glowed intensely as fear shot through him like the blade of a hot knife. What was the priestess doing? He knew something was terribly wrong and felt his psychic powers call to him… urging him to listen and to see before it was too late! He narrowed that power and entered Kyoko's mind, trying to see what was happening. He would have fallen to his knees with what he witnessed had the shadow demons not been wrapped so tightly around him… holding him immobile.

The images and sounds would be forever implanted within his mind’s eye and Kyou somehow knew he would never be able to shake the feelings that washed over him. For he realized by looking into her mind’s eye, Kyoko had harbored feelings of love for him as well as his brothers. He could see every touch, feel every emotion caress him and every hidden tear shatter him just as it must have her.

Kyou was also shaken to the core with the rush as he realized Kyoko had more power than anyone had ever thought her to have… power even she was not aware of. He could see and feel every memory as it passed from her mind to Hyakuhei's as if it were shooting straight into his heart where he would never release it.

Years of love, heartache, and sacrifice… given all in an instant.

Angry tears streamed down Kyoko’s cheeks as she thrust every memory of love and friendship, pain and secret feelings she had for everyone that fought with her into Hyakuhei's mind. It was the only weapon she had left.

Instantly, Hyakuhei’s evil was destabilized. Everyone felt the shift in power as the crystal started to blink from dark light to a blinding white light, and the shadow apparitions holding Toya and Kyou disintegrated into thin air.

Kyoko watched as the angel of darkness became confused, his pale perfect face becoming distorted with pain.

Just as she felt herself slipping, Kyoko reached both of her small hands out and grasped the crystal, pulling it from his flesh. She knew what had to be done, because she could already feel her mind losing its struggle with memories she didn’t want to forget. Crystalline tears ran paths down her already streaked cheeks.

She had given her memories away in order to save them all. Quickly, before she lost the thought, she held the guardian heart crystal against her own chest… parallel with her heart.

Turning to see Toya and Kyou both leaping straight for her she whispered, "Remember me… please… find me."

The last thing Kyoko caught a glimpse of as her sight began to tunnel was both of them screaming her name and reaching for her. One with liquid gold eyes and the other with molten silver eyes… then her world turned black.

Kyou could feel Kyoko fading and he thought she was dying. He leapt in unison with Toya, trying desperately to reach her when everything changed, as if a drop of water had hit the surface of his sight. Waves rippled outward from Kyoko and she vanished in midair. Then Hyakuhei screamed in rage as he also vanished.

Kyou's mind raced as his brother’s scream that had joined his came to an abrupt stop, as if the sound had been cut with the blink of an eye, and he knew Toya had also vanished. Kyou landed gracefully in the empty spot that had only a second before held his intended target. His angry gaze flashed around him in denial. Everyone had vanished.

Kyou felt the adrenaline rushing through his veins and mixing with his highborn guardian blood. He had seen and felt it all. He now possessed all of her memories. Kyoko had given all of herself to save them, and at the last second he had heard her wish. She probably didn’t even know what she had done… but she had taken them all with her, leaving him behind.

The spell he had cast around himself to keep the sacred crystal from being used against him, had kept him from following wherever the others had gone. With only a couple whispered words, she had taken everything from him.

His body stood tall and proud. His knee length silver hair fluttered around him and the white silk of his shirt trembled in the breeze as if he were standing in the eye of some unseen storm that matched the storm raging in his tormented heart.

His appearance was that of an angel… regal, powerful, and perfect, as he looked upon the deserted battlefield. Until he raised one hand to his cheek, catching the lone crimson tear that even he had not the power to stop.

Kyou's vision swam as golden feathers swirled past him from wings that had sprouted, surrounding him in a vast golden glow, revealing his true identity for the first time in his ageless life.

The only wound left from the battle was the slash that appeared across his heart… a heart that no one had thought he possessed. His gaze swung to the maiden statue that stood only a few feet away and he whispered, “Kyoko, I have not forsaken you. The distance of over a thousand years is not enough to stop me from finding you again….”

Chapter Two "The Flip Side"

On the other side of The Heart of Time, two years later… and over a thousand years into the future.

The letter was addressed to the Hogo shrine. Grandpa Hogo looked at the elegant envelope the messenger had just handed him as he carried it back to the table where he had been sipping tea. Before the knock on the door, he had been enjoying the peace and quiet of the usually over active house.

Everyone else had gone out for the evening. Tama was at the game room in town with friends, and Kyoko had gone to the library to study, while Mrs. Hogo had taken off to do some grocery shopping.

Picking up a small knife from the table, Grandpa slid the sharp blade through the gold-rimmed envelope carefully. He reached in, pulling out a notarized letter on heavy-duty gold-rimmed paper, and started reading it. The more he read, the wider his eyes became. It was a scholarship, a full scholarship to a very expensive school on the outskirts of the other side of the city.

"K.L. University." His old voice held astonishment for the first time in many years. As it read, all would be paid in full, even the cost of the dorm she would be staying at, and it was signed by the founder of the school with his initials reading K.L.

Grandpa’s aged face lifted in the brightest smile it had in a long time. Kyoko was going to be beyond happy. He knew that she had been worried that missing so much school would keep her from being accepted to any academy, and now she would be going to one that surpassed any other academy in the region.

He frowned thoughtfully… It was the hardest school to get into, for he knew none that had ever succeeded when applying. It was also rumored to have very few students because of the extremely high requirements just to enroll. How had she been accepted into a place she hadn’t even applied for?

His mind drifted back over the last two years. It had taken Kyoko awhile to get back into the swing of things after she had come back from the shrine house so disoriented. They had all been confused when she had suddenly returned, because she hadn’t remembered much at all from the time she had been gone.

The Hogo family knew about where she had gone because she had slipped back and forward through the time portal many times… Kyoko was the only one who suddenly had amnesia about it.

She hadn’t even remembered Toya. But to grandpa that was all right, because it was best if she forgot about that time-crossing guardian anyway. It was best she forgot all about the other side and the danger it had brought.

His eyes turned sad for a moment. Yeah, the family had known most everything that had happened because Kyoko would go back and forward between worlds and while on this side, she would fill them in on the latest happenings. He could also tell that she had hidden a lot of what she didn’t want them to know. Things they would now never know because she had forgotten those secrets.

Even after her younger brother Tama had told her a lot of what he knew; she had just shook her head and lowered her eyes. She only remembered being alone in the other world. A world full of monsters.

Grandpa thinned his lips as he mused. He knew things had been set right because Kyoko said she remembered something about the Guardian Heart Crystal coming back inside her, and that it was over. After a couple weeks, she had thrown herself back into her schoolwork and was making excellent grades, and now all that had paid off. Grandpa heard the front door open and his grin widened.

Kissing the letter like it was some sacred good luck charm he watched his granddaughter walk into the kitchen… Kyoko was going to love this.

*****

Three weeks later…

Golden eyes watched as the girl from the past approached the academy. He had found her and somehow he would make things right once again. He felt his human shield slip for a moment as his eyes blazed liquid gold in memory of all that had happen that fateful day in the middle of a deadly battlefield.