Roads of Destiny Part Three

A girl with white dragon wings sat beside a calm lake mirroring the sunset. She looked like she was waiting for someone. A guy with wings painted sunset and set in glass came up.
         "Hi, Josephine," he said simply. The girl turned towards him.
         "You shouldn't have done that, Mathew. You know I would've waited for you."  Matt embraced Jojo, tears silently sliding down his cheeks.
         "All I did was speed up the wheel. I couldn't live knowing you died in my arms."
         "Matt, what you did was wrong." A woman wrapped in black shadows appeared. She could've been Josephine's mother before the creatures she had to call parents while she was alive.
         "I came for what's to be mine." She grabbed Josephine's wrist and started to drag her away. Matt sprinted over to take Jojo back but fell right through her. The woman in shadows just laughed. "You think you can take what the Dark One possesses?" It was on that note that she vanished with Jojo. Matt screamed in inner pain as he tried to follow where they went but all he got was five feet away from where he was.
         "Bitch!" he screamed out, stomping the ground.
         "I can help you get her back," came a gentle voice behind him. He spun to see the same woman only without her left arm and bathed in light. He advanced on her, his magic crackling about his frame. It was lightning caressing his body.
         "Who are you?" he snarled, his magic leaping off his body to form a wolf of pure energy.
         "You may calm your powers. I am the Goddess, if you wish to call me that. Most call me Mother. Call me as you will." Her power stayed in check but it seemed her voice had powers of its own. The wolf beside Matt broke apart and faded away, unable to stay in form without his anger. He bowed quickly.
         "My apologies. Now, how can I get her back?" he asked impatiently. Mother walked around him slowly, no malous in her steps.
         "You have died many times. Honestly, this is the 26th time you've been reincarnated to this fate. You must die one last time to know what has been, is now, and will come." Matt took a step back. Die again? Was she mad? To die now would mean being back in the living world where he'd be no help at all. "No, you wouldn't be brought to life back in the other world. You would breath again right here."
         "How would that be possible?" Mother walked right up to him and thrust her arm into him. It went through and vanished.
         "The curtain that hides this realm from the mortals is unstable. This is the reason you will come back here." She retrieved her arm and stepped back. "I'm sorry but it must be this way." Cold, sharp pain ran through his body from behind. Looking down, he saw a sword sticking out of his chest. Matt fell to his knees as the sword dislodged itself. "Just sleep for now. And see what will save us all," was the last thing he heard.

         Everywhere he looked, it was nothing but shimmering pale light.
         "You don't belong here," came a voice from everywhere and nowhere at once. "You aren't allowed to know what you've been sent to seek."
         "Please," he cried. "Tell me how to save Jojo!" An elderly woman appeared before Matt.
         "Are you willing to sacrifice your last offering to save her?"
         "Yes! Anything!" The old woman came up to Matt. She held out her hand.
         "Give me your magic. It is your only offering left. You leave here with either power or the knowledge to save your love." Matt held out his hands without hesitation.
         "Take it all," he said, determination in his eyes and voice. The old woman placed his hands on her temples and her hands on his. Lightning danced before his eyes and he fell to the ground.
         "You know what you came for. And you may keep your powers." The pale lights started to fade out and the ground seemed to vanish beneath him. Matt tumbled into an endless free-fall just to jerk forward in his body.
         "Welcome back to us, Saigith WhiteBlade. Do you know how to save us all?" came that calming voice. Matt forced his eyes open to see Mother looking down at him. He was some place soft and comfortable. Saigith WhiteBlade? The name seemed so familiar...
         "Why is that so fa... My original name! Saigith was my original name millenia ago. I was"
         "A prince to a royal court that suddenly died out but for you. You came into this realm of existence while living and proclaimed your name always be Saigith WhiteBlade for the sword you wielded, the Opal Blade of Love. Forged with the blood of your loved ones, charged with the power of Love when the Holy Star fell from the sky, it was the reason you lived when all others died. You died protecting our kingdom from the Dark One and the sword vanished with your life. It has returned when the one you love in living form dies. But this time it didn't. It still resides in Andromeda. As well as the other three Cardinal Powers: Hope, Rage, and Despair. This is why she wasn't born a split soul. While the four Powers wage war upon themselves within her psyche, they balance out and she is a neutral mage," Mother said.
         "I know all this. If the Dark One can talk her into following through with one black rite, all is lost for us because she will ascend to the cursed throne and drown everything in darkness until the end of days. How long have I been gone?"
         "Fourteen days. So, what are we doing?"
         "We are doing nothing. I am going to convince Jojo to come back." Matt got out of the fluffy down mattress and padded across the room. Turning back to the Goddess, he said, "If you have me followed, I will have no choice but to destroy them." With that, he swept out of the room, the wieght of so much sitting on his shoulders.

         Matt edged his way through the halls, wary of any black mages that were walking by. Getting into the Cursed Palace was no problem. The problem was going to be leaving at all, let alone alive and with Jojo in tow. Scooting down another hall, he darted in an unlocked door as two guard mages approached. He spun to survey the room he chose to hide in. A canopy bed sat draped in green and black silk against the far wall. It looked like someone was sleeping on the bed but the figure was obscured by the sheer silk covering the frame from sight. Matt crept over, every nerve on end. Quietly pulling back the silk, he finally saw the person. A midnight sky weaved into satin gently covered the starving frame of Jojo. Purple was splashed across her face in a variety of bruises and slowly-healing cuts. It looked as if they were in the torture stage of securing her compliance. The door handle jiggled and swung open as Matt dove under the bed. Silently cursing that he didn't just blend into the wall, he watched as three sets of feet marched over to the bed.
         "Get up," a sinister voice practically sang to the sleeping figure. Matt's skin crawled at the tone he heard. Everything about it screamed tainted victory for the wrong cause. "It's time for the curtain call on these pathetic mortals." Jojo's voice moaned out as the wieght was removed from the bed. Matt carefully slide out to see two black mages and the Dark One dragging Jojo out of the room. He sprang up and charged, going for the Dark One's throat. Magic rippled the air around him, power being charged to stop his attack. A wall of black fire roared into existence before him but Matt ran right through it, scorched but continuing on his suicide course. Jojo raised her head to see Matt running full-boar at her captures. The Dark One threw Jojo to the floor and brought out her own hands to use the unsurpassed power of a demon goddess on him.
         "MATT!" Jojo screamed as demon dragons burst out of the floor to halt Matt's progress.
         Powers of divinity, hear my cry! he screamed out in his mind as he continued through the dragons' claws ripping at his flesh. Worlds are lost and many die. I set my hands to this final task. Grant me the power that I ask! White-hot sensations raced through his body as light flooded the room. It lanced the dragons into dust and utterly destroyed the two mages. The Dark One screamed out in pain, backing into the wall. Jojo laughed, soaking up the light. The bruises and cuts vanished from her, and she looked healthy once again. The light faded out and Matt collapsed to the floor. Crawling over to the nearby wall, Matt struggled to his feet and staggered over to the Dark One. A bedpost cracked off the bed and flew to his hand.
         "The suffering you've rained on mortals and us alike ends here," he snarled as he plunged the broken post deep into her chest. An unholy scream raced from her lips and shook the palace. Jojo fell to the floor, gripping her head. "Josephine! What's wrong?!"
         "They won't stop. Make them stop! MAKE IT STOP!" Jojo's wings extended to their fullest, a new color washing over the original white. Blood seemed to pour into her wings, painting them crimson. Jojo finally looked up as Matt, all love and caring replaced with the bloody stare of hatred. She vanished from sight as the castle stopped trembling. Matt fought his way out of the castle to see places from the living world. Jojo had finished destroying the veil between the worlds. Hordes of demons swarmed everywhere, devouring millions of people in thier wake. Matt scrambled up to Jojo, who sat on the highest tower to watch in all her dark glory.
         "Make this stop, Jojo!" he ordered viciously. She turned her bored gaze on him, unamused with his pathetic assumtion that she would listen to orders from him.
         "I think I finally figured out what to do with you." She reached out and touched Matt. Crystal swept over his body from the point of contact. "I'll crystalize you so you can watch as I destroy it all." Matt stared in horror at the carnage around him as the crystal washed over his frame.

         Doyle writhed in pain, fighting off the dark powers that were forcing their way into his soul. He called on all that was light and banished them away from him. Out the window, hordes of demons descended on the masses. So, she couldn't stay with the ways of the blessed Goddess. Now what? he thought, discouraged.
         "There must be balance," he growled aloud.
         "I couldn't agree more, Angeles," came a little girl's voice behind him. Doyle spunned and lunged, a dagger made of iron in hand. A little raven-haired girl, probably 10 years old, sidestepped his attack and relaxed against the window sill.
         "Who are you?" he demanded, every sense on high alert.
         "I have many names. Just call me Fate." Doyle's mind went reeling. Fate? The third Goddess whose domain is the future? Automatically, he went down to one knee.
         "How may I serve you?" he asked, utterly servile.
         "By returning the worlds to balance. By striking down the demon queen. By killing Josephine."
         "I-I-I can't do that," he stuttered out. "She taught me everything I know about fighting. I'd never make a hit."
         "I never said it would be easy. It will take the ultimate sacrifice on someone's part for it to work. But you won't be making that sacrifice. Another will." Fate started to fade from sight.
         "Wait! I don't know what to do!" Doyle called out in anguish.
         "Don't worry. You'll learn what to do and how to make everything right." Fate finished fading out, leaving Doyle to his jumbled thoughts. Grabbing Jojo's own sword, he started out of the house. On the distant horizon, he could see the Cursed Palace from the other realm. Grim determination set into his face.
         "Here I come."