The Circle of Darkness
by
Jennifier D.



IV:


Rumours of a traitor in the Dark faction spread like wildfire, 
and everyone was currently pointing fingers at one another, 
accusing each other of things they didn't do. The Oracles were no 
help either, insisting that what they Saw was accurate. 
Everyone's suspicions narrowed down to either Gackt or Yoshiki. 
Yoshiki, for the plain reason that he wanted to regain his own 
position in the faction. Gackt-- for the reason that he wanted to 
usurp Mana of his position. Nobody was sure who was on the 
traitor's side and who wasn't, so everyone was suddenly wary of 
any strangers or people they were unfamiliar with.

The Visual Kei artists were all behaving like separate 
individuals, selfish and cowardly, wanting to protect themselves 
only. Mana knew that this would happen sooner or later. That was 
the reason why he had asked Klaha and Yu~ki to gather all the 
Oracles in the Dark faction, wanting a clear answer from them 
about this prediction which was causing anarchy even within his 
own council.

Mana's eyes flickered over Kyo, from Dir en grey, then Aiji, from 
Pierrot. Kikasa from Due'le Quartz was sitting quietly in a 
corner, his head lowered. Sitting beside Kikasa was Shin from 
Kagrra, looking dull and tired with everything. There were an 
assortment of powerful and weak oracles sitting in the room, but 
the number only totaled up to around a dozen. Some of them were 
from bands Mana either didn't know of, or had never bothered to 
check out due to the fact that they were all formed by lower 
level mages.

Kyo was the first one to talk.

"What is it that you want, Mana?"

The only difference between Mana's followers and the Oracles was 
the latter all fall into a class of their own. They didn't use 
any suffixes when they addressed Mana and they were pretty intent 
on not using any, even should a mage threaten to kill them over 
such an inane issue. Even someone like Aiji, who seemed to be 
quiet and mouse-like at times, was adamant about not calling Mana 
with the added 'sama'.

Mana gave them a thin smile.

"I've heard from the rest that confusion, anxiety and fear are 
spreading among the lesser mages because your Oracles have been 
spreading rumours about the downfall of this faction."

"We do not spread rumors. We only tell what we See." Kyo's reply 
was curt and he matched Mana's glare.

"If that is so, then you all ought to have told us who the 
traitor is."

"We are not obliged to, Mana."

"Also..." Aiji began slowly with a mild look of irritation on his 
face, which was strange to begin with. He usually wasn't this 
assertive. Or bold for the matter. "We will not reveal things 
that have the potential of changing the future drastically... If 
we reveal who the traitor is, I'm- we are sure that you will not 
hesitate to destroy that person... And this can't happen."

"Yes," Kikasa continued after Aiji, his steely gaze meeting 
Mana's. Neither flinched. "We are allowed to watch the future 
under the condition that we do not change the major events in the 
world. If we do, the thread leading to the future will be cut and 
left flapping free. When this happens, we will lose our ability 
to See."

There was a long moment of silence as Mana watched all of them 
frostily, his eyes traveling over the faces of the Oracles. The 
younger ones looked frightened, but he dismissed them as they 
were weaker than the three who had spoken so far. His gaze 
finally rested on the face of the fourth most powerful Oracle in 
the room, whose bored gaze seemed to be focused elsewhere. 

"Give me your comments on this, Shin."

The blond guitarist ignored Mana, closing his eyes as if he had 
fallen asleep. Mana continued watching him quietly, his eyes 
piercing. 

After around fifteen more seconds of scrutinising, Shin finally 
sighed in an exasperated manner and spoke. "When that happens, 
Mana, all of us will get different versions of the future. They 
may be right, they maybe wrong, but the probability of hitting a 
right sequence will become almost impossible. So we lose our 
powers by default. Some of us might even go mad. Are you 
satisfied with the answer now?"

"So, none of you are going to tell me what will happen?"

"We haven't seen the ending yet, Mana." Kyo replied before Shin 
could, rolling his eyes. "We only saw the rising of a traitor, 
nothing more."

Mana's eyes flickered over the faces in the room again, before he 
finally announced.

"You may all leave now."

Kyo snorted and got up to leave, grumbling to himself about 
stupid meetings and stupid people who asked stupid questions. 
Before he reached the door, Shinya appeared, and the both of them 
disappeared into the ground. Just as Aiji got up, Kirito 
appeared, bowed before Mana, then took the guitarist away. Both 
Kikasa and Shin had to wait for some time before Miyabi turned up 
in a shower of black rose petals to bring them back. The rest of 
the Oracles left with their own respective band members and soon 
enough, Mana was left sitting on his 'throne' with Klaha and 
Yu~ki flanking his sides.

"Klaha, Yu~ki."

The two stepped forward and bowed before Mana, before getting 
down onto one knee. "Yes, Mana?" Yu~ki's yellow eyes glowed 
eerily.

"Since our Oracles are all so unstable and unreliable, it looks 
as though we'll need help from the White faction." 

There was a pause.

"Regardless of whether they are happy to help us or not, of 
course."

Mana then smiled.

"Bring me the Oracle who goes by the name of Kamijo."


-----


Masa patted You on his back and smiled encouragingly. The 
violinist bowed his head, then smiled in return, a little 
embarrassed. "Thank you, Masa."

Masa laughed cheerily. "It's nothing."

Gackt continued watching the two men for about a minute, then 
finally, with a bemused look on his face, he spoke. "Do the both 
of you mind sharing with me the content of the conversation which 
just took place?"

"No, Gaku." Masa stuck out his tongue teasingly after he saw the 
chagrined look on Gackt's face.

"Right. This is our secret. Stop being a busybody, Gaku-chan." 
You grinned at Gackt.

After a moment of silence, Gackt shrugged, then sat down on the 
couch beside Masa. The latter grinned naughtily. "Well, if you 
behave really, really good tonight... I might just tell you."

Gackt blinked a couple of times, then grinned in return. "That 
can be easily arranged."

"Ugh." You almost gagged at the scene between the two of them. 
Couldn't they be less obvious of what they were doing at night? 
To say the truth, it wasn't as though they were really trying 
hard to be discreet. With the amount of noise they make at night, 
one would think that they were worse than rabbits in heat. And 
rabbits were, to speak from one point of view, perpetually in 
heat.

"What happened?" Ren bounced, in the way only this man could 
manage to do, over to the two of them, grinning widely.

"That two." You jerked his head in the direction where Masa was 
coddling Gackt, who seemed to be enjoying himself.

"Oh." Ren stared for a moment. He then shrugged and made a face. 
He was no stranger to Gackt and Masa's relationship either, since 
like You, he was staying in the same apartment as the two men. 
You shook his head slowly, smiling gently.

Masa stopped fussing over Gackt's hair then paused, a horrified 
look stealing over his face, as though he had forgotten something 
important. He said something to Gackt and slowly dissolved out of 
sight, teleporting himself back to their apartment. Gackt gave a 
soft sigh before he got up from the couch and began to put away 
the microphone. When he finally noticed You standing behind him, 
he smiled and wriggled his fingers at the other man. You gave 
Gackt a bemused look before he spoke. "If you are really that 
interested to know what Masa told me... well, it'll get to you 
sooner or later."

"Hm?" Gackt straightened and blinked owlishly. "What do you mean 
by that?"

"I'll be going down to New York with him two months later. He has 
informed the council at AMA of the change of leaders in the White 
faction, so they want to meet me to discuss an alliance."

"Ah."

"And..." You paused, uncertain if he should tell Gackt the rest 
of the news of not.

"Yes? What's the matter?"

You sighed. "Well, Masa said that he's not sure if they will 
allow him to come back to Japan after he returns to New York."

There was a moment of silence as Gackt contemplated what You 
said, and the latter watched him carefully, wary of his 
reactions. "Gaku-chan?"

Gackt shook his head. Although he smiled, You could see that he 
was not truly pleased with the news. Maybe telling him that had 
not been as good as a choice he had thought...

For the rest of the day, the vocalist was distant, his mind 
occupied by that issue. This was a new development, which, upon 
telling Mana, could have both good and bad effects. He was afraid 
of Mana's decision after he found out... There were too many 
possibilities and Mana had been rather disorientated lately, 
upset by the Oracles from their side. If he could somehow delay 
Masa's departure...

With a soft sigh, Gackt teleported himself back home.

Sometimes, there were things which even he himself could not 
control.


-----


Although the mages didn't have a religion of any sort, there were 
myths, legends, which traveled together with them over the years. 
One generation would pass it on to the next, so on and so forth. 
Though they are technically without any beliefs, there was a very 
old myth in existence.

Older than time, in fact.

Mages were known to exist since the dark ages of humans' 
existence. Back then, without civilisation, they were known as 
unworldly creatures which held keys to another world. Normal 
humans always held them in either awe or fear, since they were 
powerful enough to decide the fates of other humans. After 
civilisation caught up with them, they were considered pagan in 
some way. Also known as sorcerers, witches, wizards, magicians 
and etcetera, there was never a moment where nobody was ignorant 
of their existence, in one form or another.

There was one myth which talked about the beginning.

Not the beginning of humans' existence, of course. There were 
enough myths on that. 

It was a myth about the very first mages.

They were rumoured to be extremely beautiful creatures... so 
heavenly looking that they could have been angels who fell from 
their heavens. With beautiful voices and angelic faces, they 
snared the hearts of thousands, and took them away, never to 
return them to their owners again.

But they all slowly died... one by one, until none were left 
walking on the surface of Earth. Since they were the First, that 
would also mean that their powers were the most pure known to 
exist.

Sadly, all that were left of them were myths of their greatness 
and beauty. Stories talking about the tremendous amount of power 
they held, and all those whose lives were affected by them. Mages 
were left with only words describing their ethereal existence, 
and they held onto those words dearly. After all, everyone wanted 
to know where they came from, and mages were no exception. These 
myths were like proof to the fact that they were not genetic 
defects, but people of a superior race.

They were proofs that they truly existed, and were not fickle of 
humans' imaginations.

And that was all which mattered, eventually.


-----


Masa held up the glass figurine with a happy smile, then placed 
it back into it's box. One more week and it would be Gackt's 
birthday, which was why he was in such a hurry to buy the gift. 
He had to go back to New York a couple of days before Gackt's 
birthday for a scheduled meeting and he wanted to buy things 
first just to be sure. Humming happily to himself, the dark 
haired mage left the shop and started walking rapidly towards the 
apartment he and Gackt shared, together with three other members 
of Gackt Job.

Just as he turned round a corner, Masa froze.

Kozi was standing in the narrow street, waiting for Masa quietly 
with an expressionless face.

"Good afternoon, Masa."

"Who are you?" Masa asked the strange man warily, as the air 
around them began to take on a different texture. Things were 
beginning to blur, turning into something that resembled an 
impressionist's art. Kozi knew that Masa was lapsing the both of 
them into a dream sequence, so he quickly raised his right hand, 
with the palm facing up. A flame flickered to life on the palm, 
then grew rapidly, until the both of them were caught in a circle 
of flames. They jumped and separated into tongues of fire high 
over their heads, creating a barrier between them and the normal 
world. People who were not mages usually didn't notice things 
like this. They were not equipped with the ability to begin with. 
Furthermore, humans had a tendency to disregard things which 
didn't hold any resemblance to reality, so the mages were usually 
quite safe.

Masa frowned and began to expand his Dream, but Kozi stopped him 
with a sharp kick in his stomach. The White mage stumbled back 
with a gasp, then collapsed against the wall behind him, bent 
double. Masa remained in that position, grimacing in pain, as 
Kozi began to talk softly.

"I have no intentions to cause you any harm, Masa. But I have 
instructions from Mana... to inform you that you shouldn't always 
trust the people around you too much. The closer they are to you, 
the more you should fear them... Since they have the ability to 
twist and warp your future far more easily than you will imagine 
possible."

"Remember who Gakuto is and where he came from."

"The Dark Prince is a man who dons many masks... and nobody has 
ever found out what the real him is like. But the truth is, 
nobody has ever managed to get that far to begin with. Don't be 
fooled by his beautiful face and charming personality. Or even 
that heavenly voice and the fascinating amount of talent hidden 
behind the facade of a former Dark Mage. For all you know, these 
may just be an act on his side."

"Darkness always lingers, no matter how far one has gone in 
trying to get rid of it. For Gakuto's case... he's far too 
infused with it to be able to shrug it off entirely ever again."

"And here is one last message from Mana..." 

"The Dark Prince belongs to the Shadow Mage, so he wants you to 
lay off him." 

"Permanently."

With a polite bow, Kozi disappeared together with his flames. His 
mismatched eyes seemed to hold pity, in Masa opinion. It was as 
if they were telling him that there was one secret which he knew 
but Masa didn't. And that secret could either make or break the 
White mage.

Masa could only stand there staring at the spot which Kozi 
occupied merely moments ago, the box holding the glass figurine 
clattering to the floor with a soft tinkle.


-----


Kamijo ignored Mana totally, turning to face the other direction 
with his head held high. He was ambushed by Mana's two helpers, 
Yu~ki and Klaha on the way to the studio. They had captured him, 
then bundled him up and brought him to meet the Shadow Mage.

Whatever which followed after that could be aptly described as an 
almost impossible yet hilarious task, because dealing with an 
unhappy Kamijo was as tedious trying to bathe a spitting, hissing 
and clawing cat.

"Now, Kamijo, I will repeat myself one last time," Though Mana's 
face was expressionless like usual, there were certain strain 
lines around his mouth and eyes. "Who is this traitor in the Dark 
faction?"

Kamijo sighed and rolled his eyes, looking for all he was worth 
like he was addressing a gibbering idiot and not the head of the 
Dark faction.

"And how many times must I tell you that I DON'T KNOW? Are you a 
retard? I think I have already put it as clearly and as simply as 
I can, you know. Any simpler and I'll have to think like a retard 
as well, which, I'm afraid to inform you, I could not. It will 
require a certain amount of time and effort. Wait, why should I 
even bother? I have no idea what the hell really goes through 
that apparently pretty-yet-good-for-nothing head of yours, so I 
very sorry, Mana. I don't live on the same wavelength as you. 
Therefore, I can't help you at all."

Mana only gave the rambling Oracle a thin smile.

"Oh, you _will_ tell us what you know, Oracle Kamijo." The smile 
widened and took on a tinge of maniac.

"Unless you want to see your boyfriend in several pieces instead 
of one, you can alleviate the situation right now telling us what 
you know about the betrayal."

Kamijo's eyes narrowed.

He closed them briefly and the sight of Aya mutilated and torn 
came into his mind almost immediately. He knew that Mana never 
gave empty threats. If he wanted Aya dead in several pieces, Aya 
would never be able to escape his fate as minced meat. It might 
sound funny now, but when you got down to the seriousness of the 
situation...

Yet, Kamijo had another scenario in his mind, where Aya was 
lecturing him again until his ears bled. He would be saying that 
the loss of his life was insignificant compared to the loss of 
the whole world. And Kamijo was being an ass and an idiot again. 
Never mind the amount of torture Kamijo went through to save 
Aya's skin. It probably wasn't going to be worth a lot if the 
world was about to fall in Mana's hands in the next instance.

Sometimes, Aya scared Kamijo tremendously. To the point where he 
started questioning himself certain very important questions on 
staying alive in general. Exactly what the hell he was trying to 
accomplish by dating Aya? Effectively shortening his own 
lifespan? Or getting lectured by another man much younger than 
him? Or frequently enjoy the sensation of bleeding ears? They 
were a result of Aya's words, all calculated to maim with 
absolute precision. Add a whole string of them together 
effectively and Aya would have the ability to kill a few million 
of Kamijo's poor, tortured brain cells every time he lectured the 
vocalist.

Kamijo gritted his teeth.

"I really can't tell you, Mana." Kamijo sighed heavily. "I'm 
still too young to die from a stroke."

Mana tilted his head to one side, then started talking.

"Don't worry about it too much, Kamijo. So long as you tell us 
what you Saw, your boyfriend will go away unharmed."

The vocalist closed his eyes again, then sighed.

"You're leaving me with no choice after all, hm?"


-----


Kaoru put down his guitar with a terrible feeling of unease. He 
held up his hands and watched them critically.

They were trembling.

Something was wrong. Very wrong. The faction was beginning to 
fall apart, Mana was turning insane and things were beginning to 
occur with the frequency of a random smoke particle being 
bombarded by air molecules.

He was worried... but there was nothing he could do about it. He 
knew that there was no way which he could effectively change the 
future without affecting his band mates. There were some things 
which he knew... and he was pretty sure that even Kyo didn't know 
what he possessed the knowledge to.

Everyone was planning something presently, due to the warning 
from the Oracles, thus making the present situation much more 
confusing that it should be.

But Kaoru knew everything, and from his point of view, things 
were actually very simple.

Just get rid of one person and the whole faction would be safe.

Just one person.

Then everything would return to normal once more.


-----


Hyde closed his eyes briefly with a pained look. Then opened them 
again and glared at Takuro, as if trying with will alone to make 
Takuro do immediate human combustion. The leader of GLAY cringed, 
then sighed.

"I'm sorry."

Hyde snorted.

"It's rather LATE to tell me that now, isn't it?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure that picking You is a-"

"Bloody stupid idea and you want to shorten your own lifespan by 
several years? OR you want to die early from the effect of your 
brains leaking out of your ears?"

Takuro frowned. "Haido..."

"WHAT?" Hyde narrowed his eyes. "Picking You has better be a 
decoy, or else I'm going to make YOU explode all over this room. 
And trust me, it wouldn't look nice. Especially from your point 
of view."

Currently, Teru was in his room, talking with Tetsu, Ken and 
Yukihiro. After Teru had finally exhausted his own anger, the 
three other members of L'Arc~en~Ciel quickly bundled him into his 
room and kept him there while Hyde took his turn.

"Listen," Takuro began, still frowning. "You was picked because 
we need an alliance with AMA. And he's one of the only other 
alternatives we have. I can't pick Gakuto, because not only will 
_you_ try to slaughter me, everyone else in the faction will. But 
I'll say that between Gakuto and You, Gakuto is still the better 
choice."

Hyde stared at Takuro with an incredulous look. "Because Gakuto 
is Masa's boyfriend?"

"Yes."

Silence.

"TAKURO!"

The guitarist hissed before Hyde could continue. "Listen to me 
first!"

The L'Arc~en~Ciel vocalist snapped his mouth shut with an annoyed 
look.

"Masa is our ticket to the AMA. And we need their help, 
especially now when Mana is so close to doing something either 
psychotic or suicidal. There are rumours that traitors are 
arising within his faction, and it is not only one traitor. 
Apparently, the Oracles Saw different people, thus, they 
themselves too are afraid to tell us who that person is. It can 
be all, yet it can also be only one of them."

"We might not be able to put Gakuto on that pedestal, but we can 
put his best friend there. Since You is Gakuto's best friend, he 
will be pretty good friends with Masa by default. And I have 
already heard from him that he will be going over to America soon 
to discuss an alliance. My only worry is that they won't be able 
to make the alliance before Mana decides to do something, 
anything."

Hyde seemed to have somehow calmed down after he heard Takuro say 
his plans. Yet, the vocalist was still sulky. "You could have 
told me earlier."

"What? And miss that stupefied look on your face?" Takuro laughed 
when Hyde tried to hit him with a cushion.

Tetsu peeked out from behind the door to Teru's room, wary. He 
turned to face the rest of the occupants in Teru's room and gave 
them thumbs up.

The bassist then whispered with a relieved look.

"It looks as though peace has been restored."


-----


Mana was sitting on his throne, tapping his fingers on the 
armrest impatiently. Beneath his closed eyelids, his eyes 
flickered wildly, as though in panic or he was dreaming. 
Suddenly, the blue-haired man opened his eyes wide and sat up 
straight on the chair, a slight frown etched between his 
eyebrows.

"Kozi?"

The familiar pair of mismatched eyes glowed in the darkness, 
before their owner stepped out from the shadows into the light. 
Kozi kneeled before Mana, but the latter made an impatient 
gesture for him to get up.

"Mana, I've checked out Masa as you wanted... all of the 
information Gakuto had provided you with is accurate. And... I 
had also forewarned him. He will be wary of the Dark Prince from 
this point onwards."

"Good..." Mana murmured, his eyes distant. "Very good..."

"Nobody owns the Dark Prince except me... He's mine." Mana closed 
his eyes, his whole body trembling slightly. The Shadow Mage's 
eyes flickered open. "Tell Gakuto... tell Gakuto to come and see 
me. That he will have to leave the White faction immediately. 
That he is mine and only mine... and he..." Mana trailed off, as 
his body began to shake.

"Mana?"

"Go... go Kozi... bring Gakuto to me. Bring my Dark Prince to me. 
I want to see him..."

Kozi only watched Mana with a frown for a moment longer before he 
bowed and disappeared in a small explosion of fireworks.

On his throne, Mana could only curl in on himself, trembling non-
stop as tears began to flow from his eyes. He looked like a 
broken doll curled up there on the chair, and the tears wouldn't 
stop flowing, contrasting sharply with his emotionless face.

"Gakuto..."

"Ga... kuto..."

The Shadow Mage closed his eyes again, and slowly drifted off, 
his body still quivering.

"My prince..."

"Mine..."


-----


Gackt stood on the mountain top, enjoying the breeze which 
threaded through his hair and his loose clothes, caressing his 
body in the most intimate manner. He closed his eyes and smiled. 
It had been a long time since he met the other... and he was 
still wondering if he should really meet him. After all, times 
were already different, and he was pretty sure that they were 
working under different principles now. The other had never been 
fond of darkness, no matter how welcoming it seemed to him.

Time seemed to travel quite fleetingly for himself, as he never 
really managed to shrug off the fact that he was able to live 
longer than most people. He didn't really appreciate that fact, 
because it never felt good to see the people you love passing on 
before you did.

But he was tired. So very tired now of what was happening...

So tired of what had happened now that the truth was out. He 
might not know who the traitor was currently, but he was sure 
that the other would not lie in wait anymore. Especially now, 
when Mana was so out of himself and so disorientated. When he was 
at his weakest and all those who were bound to him suddenly seem 
to have their loyalties lying elsewhere.

Yes, he would admit that he himself wasn't totally loyal to Mana 
either. After meeting some other people, he found his own 
loyalties wavering. That person might not be aware of his impact 
on him, but that wasn't important now.

"Masa..." The name rolled off his tongue so easily, sometimes he 
was afraid that he would slip it out by mistake during one of the 
wrong moments. No, he wouldn't say that he loved the other. He 
was, after all, incapable of love. 

And incapable of most things, actually.

But all those could be rectified easily.

Yet... he didn't want to subject the other to pain and loss when 
the real truth was revealed. The other truth. The other secret 
which nobody knew.

Therefore, he never loved Masa.

And never told him that he loved him. Or did things which would 
exhibit his loyalty and attachment. He was fond of him, there was 
no doubt about that, but there was very little he could do for 
him. This was one fact he would readily admit to.

And when it was time, he would have to leave.

Because his role in this world was fulfilled. He would cease to 
exist. This was almost like his punishment, sending him here to 
do all these.

Therefore, he would bear it like it was a cross on his back, and 
travel the rest of the way without putting it down once.

After all, he was not alone in this.

He knew, with certainty, that fact was true.

He was never alone.

Gackt looked up to see Kozi observing him with an indescribable 
look on his face. "Yes?"

"Mana wants to see you... now."

Gackt nodded his head, smiling slightly.

The ending had already began to take form in the future. He could 
see traces of it... the outline of the eventual result. The 
solving of several enigmas and the dissolving of barriers between 
people.

And black feathers fluttered slowly onto the grass, lingering for 
a moment on the lush greenness before it took flight again, 
soaring into the wide expense of the midnight blue sky.

The end was beginning to arrive.

And this time... it would not leave without taking a tribute.


End: IV

Date completed: 270102
Last revised: 270102

to be continued

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