Disclaimer: The plot is mine but Gundam Wing ain't.

This is a sort-of sequel (well, more like a sequel/what-if scenario) to my two other vampire fics, Eternally and Ever After so I suggest that you read those two first to avoid spoilers.  Actually, this is the original plot but since I couldn't get any of the facts straight by then, I opted to just make it a spin-off.  Hope you like it.

For comments, suggestions, flames or reviews, you can email me at raizenheero@aol.com

In Blood

by Neesah

Prologue: The quill that writes the sounds of the Winds of Fate blowing 

Love and Hate, Good and Evil, Darkness and Light

They've always been extreme opposites, antonyms, contrasts. They always have existed together, side by side, half of the same whole --- for how can you distinguish one if not for the other? Attributes have been shown through two ways, and more often than not, people find contrasts more effective than comparisons. Well, it is easier for most people to grasp a concept when the opposite of it was pointed out. That's a known fact.  

But though they are separate entities, they still exist alongside each other, so there would be a point where they meet in between, just like the river would eventually merge with the sea. And this area, which is not entirely black, nor white, but a mix in between, gray if you must, is the demarcation line --- the point of transition. It is where one could decide whether to move forward or go back.    

It was believed that there is a fine line separating Love and Hate, Good and Evil. Of course, these four are always interchangeable, so it could also be said that the line that distinguishes Love from Good, Hate from Evil is blurred, indistinct. This is understandable for they occupy the same sphere, do they not? Love is Good while Hate springs from Evil, or so they say. But what of Love and Evil? Of  Hate and Good?

Isn't what happened to this world evidence enough of the slim distinction between Love and Evil? Can we really say that it was purely Love that triumphed when at the end, they chose each other over the world because to live without the other is incomprehensible? Or did Evil had something to do with it, especially when it was Evil that prevailed that night when the balance was lost, thereby heralding the coming of the Golden Age of Darkness? 

As for Hate and Good, slayers hate vampires because they feed on humans, so, in order to save themselves and their loved ones they hunt vampires down, which is good. Well, to humans that is. But one can also look at it this way: 'because slayers love their fellow humans, they hunt vampires down, doing any evil acts imaginable against these creatures just so what remains of the human race would be saved.' It all depends on how one chooses to point out something, just like it is how lawyers dress up the truth that leads to winning a case, not because of the truth per se. It is a matter of presentation, as you can see. So does it mean that the concept of Love, Good, Hate and Evil is subjective? That there is no fixed truth other than the Truth that springs out from our need to justify ourselves and our actions?

Is Fate just the result of this justification? Something that we made up so we could blame something for the acts that we say we didn't have the power to control? Or was Fate real and that our Destinies had been preordained since our birth?  Aren't we just actors in a stage who breathe, talk and act according to a script? If that were true then the very idea that we make our own destiny is laughable!

But here's a more disturbing question: how could we be sure that when we think that we're struggling to create our own destiny that we really are creating our own destiny and not just fulfilling what fate had preordained us to do?

And isn't it possible that when we think that we are just doing what fate had decreed, we are, in fact, making our own choices, unconsciously resulting to us molding our own destiny?  

If this was the case, who is more of a fool, the one who accepted what Fate had decreed wholeheartedly or the person who continually struggles to choose his own destiny?

They're both fools, actually. All of us are Fate's fools. Then again, it is more likely that we're just fools who are fooling ourselves.

The hand paused, lifting the feathered quill from the parchment on which it was scribbling furiously earlier just to dip its red felt tip on a jar filled with red, viscous liquid.

So what is really what then? We all know that we need something to hold on to if we wanted to continue on surviving in this world.

The answer to that is, in actuality, very simple.

It is always what you believed in which is real. 

As you can see, it just comes in a full circle. Well, everything comes in a full circle --- in a vicious cycle, more often

The hand suddenly shook, then stilled. When it resumed writing, it seemed somewhat different --- possessed even.

Everything in the universe follows a cycle. There's always a time for everything --- if there's a beginning, there's an end. There's no exception to this, even how powerful a being one is. Things happen for a reason, but those reasons we may never know. And as always, balance has to be maintained. It is the nature of the universe to always seek equilibrium, returning to the point where there is harmony between the opposing forces.

For a whole millennium, the Scales that governed the universe tilted too much in favor of Evil. And the Hand that controls it had allowed this to be so. But now, it is time to right the balance.

Fire is fought with fire. The Fall of Humankind was caused by a human, isn't it just fitting that the collapse of the Golden Age of Darkness be brought about by one of its own?

'An eye for an eye

Tooth for tooth

Blood for blood'

It was Love and Blood which had started this. Love and Blood should also be the one to end this.

'Love mingled with Blood

Light tinged with Darkness

Bloodied Light'

In Blood there is Life,

And there is Death.

The hand stilled again. Eyes, which were in some sort of a trance just seconds ago, regained focus as it skimmed through the writing on the parchment. The eyes didn't hold any look of surprise as it read, for this had happened many times before. It would just start as the usual jotting down of random thoughts when suddenly some sort of force would control the hand that held the quill. It was a gift, a power, if you must --- the ability to glimpse the past, present and future. But it was also a curse. What was the use of seeing everything (though often in shadows) if all one could do is just write it down? Especially when one had an idea on the part one had to play in the Grand Scheme of Things and couldn't do anything about it. Wasn't it better not to know anything at all?

The eyes gleamed as it read the last part. The Final Act was about to start and the Main Cast should be assembled any time now.  It was something the Chronicler was looking forward to. Though the play had been laid out, the Chronicler still hadn't seen the faces of the main players.

The Chronicler dipped the quill on the inkwell again and with a wry smile, added one last sentence to the parchment, thereby completing the entry.

It is a vicious circle indeed.