_Wreckage, Room 1891, RumbleDome Hotel_

	Morrigan fought for her unlife.

	Quickly, she grabbed Robert Garcia, Shadow Bladed the arrogant little
bastard into the ceiling rafters, and jetpacked away before the falling form
of Colossus could crush her on the spot. The X-Man threw himself back to his
feet, running back towards Kintaro, saying something in Russian that sounded
very much like the crack of doom.

	As Morrigan achieved what she thought had been a safe altitude, she
realized that she'd flown too close to the fight between Iori Yagami and Kyo
Kusanagi, and a stray blast of flame very nearly reduced her to a pile of
ash. To be honest, she couldn't tell if it was a fight at all; a gigantic
sheet of violet and black fire obscured any view of either fighter.

	She studied the flames too long; from behind her, Dan Hibiki bounced off a
wrecked couch, the dry bar, and the wall before getting high enough to put
his knee into the small of her back. Morrigan fell out of the sky, hitting
the floor with Dan on top of her, and immediately bucked Dan off of her and
into the closest stray projectile she could find. That happened to be an
Optic Blast. Dan exited her field of vision in a hurry.

	The suite had become a war zone, even worse than before. Kintaro and
Colossus' fight ranged across the room and into the hallway, sounding more
like an artillery barrage than a brawl. The other fighters constantly had to
scramble to avoid one or the other of them.

	Cyclops, meanwhile, was having a hard time with Terry Bogard. The Garou was
simply too agile to hit. Morrigan sighed; she'd made a mistake when she'd
bitten that X-Man. Enslavement had made him careless. Optic Blasts
scattershot throughout the room, cutting down his friends and foes alike. As
Morrigan watched, Sodom was struck by two blasts in succession, and went down.

	Mizuki's lack of concern caused similar problems. Pigs, formerly fighters
who hadn't watched their backs well enough, ran around squealing, and more
than one person in the room had been struck by a stray Confusion Orb and
paid the price.

	Morrigan began to move forward, intending to rearrange Dan's internal
organs while he was stunned, but heard a familiar voice scream something in
Japanese. Morrigan stepped backwards, and a wall of flame streaked past her
to impact with the unfortunate Sodom. As Morrigan turned her attention to
Robert Garcia, the author of the fireball, she noted Hibiki attempting to
sneak up on her, and paid it little attention.

	It, however, made Mai Shiranui frantic. "Get out of my *way*, Yuri! My
Mistress is in trouble--"

	"YURI SUPER UPPER!" Mai went sprawling. Yuri Sakazaki, standing over her,
pleaded, "You've got to listen to reason, Mai! She's *not your friend*!
She's a *vampire*! Vampires are *bad*! They're--"

	"RYUENBU!" Mai immolated Yuri with a sweep of her tail. "You don't
understand, Yuri! You don't know how kind she is! You don't know how evil we
all are...how much the Multiverse deserves whatever it gets..."

	Yuri, smoldering figuratively and literally, discarded her ruined gi top.
"Mai, if you're not going to listen," she rushed forward, grabbed Mai, and
held her with one hand while the other flew back and forth across Mai's
face, "then I'm. Going. To. Have. To. Beat. Some. Sense. Into. You." Mai
collapsed in a heap.

	Mai's head jerked up, her cheeks flaming red, and she stood without using
her arms. There was a look on her face that made Yuri involuntarily retreat
a step. "If that's the way you feel about it, bitch..." A fan snapped into
her hand, and Mai advanced on Yuri, slashing at Yuri's face, a look of
madness in her eyes.

	Meanwhile, Robert, intent on Morrigan, beckoned her onward. "Come on,
Arnsland! I know you have better than this..."

	Morrigan cancelled Robert's fireball and took a step forward. "Little boy,
if I showed you just how much better than this I could get, you wouldn't
stop crying for ten years..."

	"Talk is cheap, slut. You have to *show* me," Robert growled.

	Morrigan beckoned him to try something, and Robert did. Moving forward,
underneath Morrigan's fists, he jabbed once, feinting towards her body, then
spun and drove upwards off his heel, vaulting upward in his Ryuga technique.
There was a very brief, satisfying *crunch* as Morrigan's nose broke.

	Morrigan touched her face, and saw the blood on her hand. She licked her
fingers and grinned at Robert, crimson streaking her lips. "Be careful what
you wish for..."

	As Dan raised his fist to cave in the back of Morrigan's head, something
reached out and grabbed his wrist.

	A second body pulled its way out of Morrigan's back, using Dan's hand as
leverage, not so much being born as reproducing by cellular osmosis.
Morrigan kept smiling, enjoying the look on both their faces and the
sensations, being used to the horrid sounds of flesh and bone popping apart.
Something like amniotic fluid, clear and stinking like alcohol, dripped free
from the junction of the bodies and showered the floor underneath her.

	Robert swung a roundhouse kick at Morrigan's face, but her expression
didn't even change as she caught his heel. With ease, she pushed Robert's
leg away, nearly jarring his hip out of its socket as he corkscrewed to the
ground. As Robert got back up, she remained in the same position, her face
angelic, gasping as she felt her skin pull apart.

	Dan watched in horror, as a second Morrigan pulled its way out of the
first, smiling exactly the same way as the original, dressed the same.
Hurriedly, Dan tried to free himself from her grip, but it was no good; she
wouldn't budge. A single foot touched the floor, then a second. As
Morrigan's double split off entirely, she noticed she still held Dan firmly.
Absently, the second Morrigan blasted Dan to the floor with her free hand.

	In unison, both Morrigans declared, "...you just might get it."

	"What in the hell is *this*?" Robert murmured, ducking under the first
Morrigan's swinging heel.

	"Usually," they replied, still in that maddeningly perfect synchronization,
"we like to produce Dopplegangers more mystically. It takes less effort."
The second Morrigan spun around and slammed a kick into Dan's jaw. "But you
boys are just a little bit special." The first Morrigan drilled Robert
viciously, spattering herself with blood, and smiled, showing her fangs. "I
want to see how long I can make you bleed..."

_Hundred and Eighty-Third Floor (maintenance floor), RumbleDome Hotel_

	The first thing that Takuma saw when he woke up was the face of Jon Talbain.

	Admittedly, he didn't react as well as he could have.

	Jago/Doom held him down as Takuma regained his equilibrium. It was amazing,
the stamina of the man! He was covered in bruises, burns, and older wounds,
and almost certainly had several broken ribs, yet he still fought. "Calm
yourself, Sakazaki-sama. You are among friends."

	Takuma squinted up at him. "Who are you?"

	Jago/Doom's mouth moved under the mask in an invisible smile. The only
light here was that provided by the faint green glow from his sword, since
the fighting on the upper floors had, long ago, forced a complete power
outage in the hotel. "That is a long story. I'm sure, however, that you know
Jon Talbain?"

	"Yes. Yes, I do." Takuma looked painfully at Jon. "_Gomen nasai_."

	Jon got up, rubbing his chin. In the green light, he looked demonic.
"That's a helluva left you've got there."

	"He has accepted your apology, Sakazaki-sama," Jago/Doom noted.

	"That is...somewhat of a relief." Takuma abruptly sat up. "Where is Ryo?
The last thing I remember, was Morrigan--"

	"Ryo covered our escape," Jago/Doom answered him, pushing Takuma back down.
"Rest." He glanced around at his motley party of refugees. The sounds of
battle from the roof had grown louder, not softer, the further he'd gotten
them from the roof, but even he had had to rest. He and the werewolf were
the only ones capable of walking on their own, though Haohmaru's strength
appeared to be returning rapidly after Doom had wiped the Glyph of Weariness
(Demitri was more learned than Doom had anticipated--under other
circumstances, Doom would have considered him a worthy adversary) off of his
temples.

	"ha! even i, the legendary haohmaru, can be brought low by treachery, it
would seem, for if the legendarily loathsome and foul undead demitri was
almost able to use my fighting spirit to further his own demonic goals and
thus take control of the netherworld (and truly, if i had to be the focus of
such a scheme, it is fitting that i should be involved with one with such a
legendary aim, even if the sheer disgust that rises up within me at the
thought of such a deed makes me wish to retch), then he must be an honorless
dog of the lowest order--"

	Charlotte placed a finger over his lips. Doom had bandaged her wrists.
"Hush, Haohmaru. You are still weak." She held him tenderly, and away from
her, so he would not see the marks on her neck.

	Doom looked away from them and tended to the final member of their party.
The wrestler--King was his name, if Doom remembered correctly--was very
close to death, and thus was their largest problem. The second- and
third-degree burns that coated much of his body were torn and bleeding from
his exertion, and he was not sweating at all-this was a bad sign. The man
was almost certainly suffering from heatstroke, and appeared to be in an
advanced stage of shock.

	Jon Talbain crouched next to Doom. "How is he?"

	Doom did not look up. "He is badly, perhaps mortally, injured. We should
get him to the infirmary as soon as possible." He considered the werewolf
momentarily. "You are capable of moving quickly in your present form,
correct?" Talbain nodded. "Excellent. Take this man and rush him down to the
medical center. Keep him as level as possible and attempt to avoid jostling
him unnecessarily." Doom got up and brushed off his hands.

	"I just got two questions," Talbain said.

	With effort, Doom kept his voice level. "What?"

	"Why are you bein' so nice to this guy? I heard of you, Doom. The words're
usually 'evil genius'. Why do you care if he lives?"

	It was a long moment before Doom answered, and when he did, his voice held
an unmistakable undercurrent of scorn. "You should pay more attention to who
my detractors are. This man pushed himself well beyond his limits to stand
against Demitri. Alone, that would make him worthy of respect. In addition,
it is quite likely that if he had not done so, both you and I would
currently be bending our knees to the great god Demitri Maximov." He
gestured at King. "This man has earned the eternal gratitude of Victor Von
Doom. Should he die due to this extra time you have taken to question my
motivations, I will be...most upset." Doom's tone left the meaning of his
last two words open to a wide variety of interpretations.

	Talbain's face betrayed no emotion, but he tightly nodded. Doom almost
smiled, but caught himself. He knew that he had won this staredown.

	"Does that answer your questions?" Doom asked, tightening his--Jago's--gloves.

	"One more."

	"Quickly, Garou."

	"Where will you be?"

	"I will be on the roof battling the vampire with Sakazaki. Haohmaru,
Charlotte, and Takuma are injured, but it is not necessary for me to keep a
watch on them. Pain is the most effective antidote to vampiric control, and
Charlotte was cut to the bone. She has regained most of her free will, and
she will be an effective guard until I return."

	Talbain started to say something, but apparently thought better of it. He
ran off, cradling King in his arms like a child.

	Doom nodded in satisfaction. A werewolf could be an excellent ally in
future endeavors, and Talbain seemed intelligent enough to mandate further
association. A lesser man--wolf?--would have obeyed without question. He
turned around to tell Charlotte of his plans, and stopped.

	Takuma Sakazaki was gone.

	Doom frowned. He had not thought Takuma capable of motion. Adjusting his
opinion of the man, he moved towards the roof. But he stopped.

	Something intruded upon Doom's mystical senses, triggering every alarm he
had at once. Something very old, and evil beyond typical human
comprehension, was now in this dimension.

	Takuma would have to fend for himself.

	Doom went for the elevators.

_Sub-Basement DY1_

	Rose, unconscious, dreamed of fire.

	She did so often, ever since she had met Akuma, but this was different.
This was closer, and more urgent. Sensations nudged against her
awareness--she caught fleeting impressions of fire, screaming, and endless,
ceaseless rivers of pain--forcing her out of her dreams.

	Forcing her awake.

	"GGAAAHH!!" Rose sat bolt upright, shocking the hell out of Nightwolf and
Rasputin. Nightwolf bounced to his feet, looking around for someone
dangerous to electrocute. Rasputin muttered something about overly violent
youth before approaching Rose.

	"What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Rasputin reached for his bandages.
"Oftentimes, there is some physical pain or injury associated with magickal
exhaustion..."

	Rose brushed him off. "Can't you feel it?"

	"Feel what?"

	Rose gathered her scarf up and rushed for the door. "The beginning of the
end. I haven't much time..." She was out of the room before either man could
react.

_Control Booth_

	"Yeah, I need you to engrave our trophy," Birdman said into the phone. "In
an hour." Covering the receiver, he said to Scott, "John says that the
threat's over. See if the security people have changed their minds about Ryo
and Demitri yet." Uncovering the phone, he said, "Yeah. Same size as last
year--I think you call it Monstrously Huge. 'Champion, Second Annual Video
Rumble,' then, on the next line, 'Bishamon.' Yeah, I can...B. I. S. H. A--"

	Wanderer poked him in the arm. "Birdman..."

	"--hold on. What? If you want a job next year, talk to Brant."

	"It's not that, actually. It's this." Wanderer pointed at the DimensionCam.
The screen was blank.

	"Yeah. So?"

	"If Guy went over the ropes, shouldn't he have shown up on the DimensionCam
by now?"

	Birdman slowly hung up the phone. "Yeah. He should have." He moved slowly
over to the screen. "Maybe it's broken."

	Brant looked up. "It shouldn't be. I ran a diagnostic a couple of hours
ago, and it was fine."

	As they fussed over it, Wanderer looked at the monitors that showed images
from ringside, his eyes scanning rapidly. He found what he was looking for a
moment later, though no one else did.

	As Bishamon prepared to exit the ring, a hand grabbed onto it from the side...

	...a hand wearing an orange fighting glove.

_Rooftop, RumbleDome Hotel_

	Ryo dodged to the side, rolled, blocked a side kick, landed a solid blow to
Demitri's jaw, spun around, had his own wheel kick blocked, and fell down as
Demitri clipped his leg out from underneath him.

	As Ryo rolled to his feet, he looked down, off the roof, and saw the
scoreboard.

	Guy's name was no longer on it.

	"YOU'VE *LOST*!" Ryo screamed over the helicopter and the rain.

	Demitri inclined his head inquisitively.

	"BISHAMON WON! THE RUMBLE IS OVER! HAOHMARU IS NO LONGER THE CHAMPION!"

	Demitri smirked, slow and languid. "HARDLY! THE POWER HAS NOT LEFT! QUITE
THE CONTRARY--IT'S STRONGER THAN EVER!" Demitri walked slowly at Ryo. "EVEN
SO, DO YOU THINK I WOULD SPARE YOUR LIFE JUST BECAUSE OF THAT?"

	Ryo gestured for him to come closer. "I'M NOT DEAD YET!"

	"YOU SOUND UNGRATEFUL!" Demitri floated slowly forward, his fangs sliding
out. Ryo got ready to counter, but as he moved, something dug into his side.
He still had Heavy D!'s stake. Quickly, he slipped it out of his gi, and
held it easily in his left hand.

	Demitri continued to drift forward, and he smiled as he watched Ryo try to
block once more. He reached out to feast, once more, on the boy's enchanted
blood...

	Ryo moved at the last second, and the stake went cleanly into Demitri's
chest. Demitri's eyes widened in shock--

	--as the stake shattered. Ryo looked at the collection of splinters in his
hand, then at Demitri's chest, and then back at the splinters.

	Demitri started laughing. "DIDN'T YOU THINK THAT THE INSTANT I HAD ALL THIS
POWER, I WOULD REMEDY MY NATURAL WEAKNESSES?"

	Ryo threw the remnants of the stake away. *Boast a little longer...* He
began to focus his own strength into his hands, and it responded in a rush.
His aura began to swell slightly.

	"PERHAPS YOU HAVE SOME GARLIC FOR ME? OR PERHAPS RUNNING WATER?" Demitri
laughed, casting his arm across the roof, indicating the falling rain.

	"NO! I HAVE SOMETHING BETTER!"

	White light filled the sky.

	"SHINKUU...HAOHSHOKOH*KEN*!"

_Control Booth_

	As Bishamon prepared to leave the ring, a white light consumed the top of
the hotel, and, by association, the section of the viewscreen that showed
the fight. For a moment, there was dead silence in the audience, and then
mass hysteria erupted. People scrambled for the exits, thinking that some
kind of bomb had exploded in the Hotel.

	Bishamon turned around towards the light. His face was very still.

	"Steve! Answer me! STEVE!" Brant Rogers leaned over Birdman and hammered on
the commlink to the helicopter, getting nothing but static.

	Scott looked up, and shook his head. "Don't tell me something else blew up..."

	Birdman bristled. "What do you mean, 'something else'?"

	"I wouldn't worry about it," John said. "We've already had a couple of
explosions today. When things go this wrong, it's almost never in the same
way twice."

	Wanderer looked at the Akashic Brother out of the corner of his eye. "I
wish that didn't make sense."

	"I said, 'What do you mean, *something else*'?" Birdman yelled, but his
sentence was cut off by a crackle of static and a voice from the
communication panel.

	"...we're...alive. Yeah. We're fine. Barely. This is Steve Cranston for the
Multiverse Television Network, and I'm broadcasting live from the Rumbledome
in Dream City, where, immediately after the declaration of Bishamon, from
the Darkstalkers node, as champion, a startling development has taken place
below me! As you can see in the studio, Austin--"

	Birdman hurriedly punched buttons, and the current feed from the MVTN
studios came over one of the monitors. Austin Loomis and Putrid had
apparently forgotten that they were on television, and both were goggle-eyed.

	Finally, Austin recovered his voice. Whatever he said was converted by the
MVTN censors into "...what the *smeg*?"

	"Great. Loomis gets to make commentary on this before we do," Birdman said.
"Why didn't you send some of our own people up there, Brant?"

	"We don't have a helicopter camera crew, Birdman."

	"...I knew that..."

	"--Ryo Sakazaki and Demitri Maximov are facing off on the roof of the
Rumbledome Hotel. While Maximov raised a lot of eyebrows earlier in the
Rumble by entering the ring at a greatly enhanced power level, it would
appear that Sakazaki now enjoys a similar boost! Right now, we're trying to
reach the announcer's booth to ask Christopher 'Birdman' Bird what and why
is happening!"

	Birdman noticed the comm button from Austin's booth flashing madly. He
looked around at the other people in the booth.

	"So. What's happening, and why?"

	"I take it we're lying," Brant noted.

	"Like rugs. Any ideas?"

_Delirium (Room 1891, RumbleDome Hotel)_

	Kyo could not see Iori.

	He found himself, after Iori closed to fighting distance with him, in a
small room, without any windows or doors, but he could see just fine. He
didn't see Iori.

	The Source crackled around his hands like a living thing, ready to do
whatever he wanted it to. There was something wrong with the color--he
remembered that much; he remembered that it had not always been black--but
it didn't really matter. He didn't see Iori.

	The rest of the warriors who had been out for his blood were nowhere
around. He'd killed a lot of them, but he knew there were more. There were
always more. But one worried him more than the rest.

	Kyo couldn't see Iori.

	Purple flame exploded towards his back, and Kyo whirled around, swinging
his arms wildly, arcs of flame trailing them. He struck nothing.

	Iori slowly walked up to Kyo and put his hands on either side of his head
from behind. Cruelly, he yanked backward, pulling Kyo against his chest, and
sank down to his knees, Kyo's head in his lap. Violet Sourcefires crackled
up and down Kyo's body, preventing him from moving without burning himself
to the bone.

	"Listen to me, Kyo," Iori hissed, "and pay attention, for I will only say
this once."

	Kyo shuddered underneath him, and tried to blast his way free. Iori
countered it, his own fires burning momentarily hotter, the black flame
wincing away from the light.

	Iori whispered, very calmly, into Kyo's ear, "Look at yourself, Kusanagi.
Look at what you have been made to become." He held a hand before Kyo's
eyes, glistening with internal violet flames. "You have become a dark mirror
of yourself, as I have always been. You wield my flames. You act with my
recklessness." Iori sighed, and ran the same hand down Kyo's cheek, leaving
a red trail on his skin. "There can only be one of me, Kusanagi."

	The gentle hold Iori had on Kyo turned into the Maiden Masher.

	"THERE. CAN. ONLY. BE. ONE. IORI. YAGAMI!" Iori screamed, punctuating every
word with a vicious overhand blow, raging against Kyo like a madman. As he
landed a final blow, he picked Kyo up by the lapel of his jacket. Violet
fire surged. "And that is me," Iori whispered.

	Kyo rose into the air moments later on a funeral pyre. His skin boiled. The
moisture in his body reached flashpoint, his unnatural resistance to heat
(his birthright as a Source user) the only thing saving him from simply
exploding like a potato in a microwave.

	But it still hurt. A lot.

	Not coincidentally, pain is one of the things that can break a vampire's charm.

	When Kyo finally returned to the floor, he felt like every nerve ending he
had was exposed and bathed in salt; his skin seemed to be boiling with acid
and venom. He fought back the impulse to claw his arms and face, and slowly
climbed to his feet.

	As Kyo got up, Iori noted that the look of madness had departed from his eyes.

	Kyo demanded, "What the hell is going on, Iori?"

	Iori swung his arm and cast a Yami Barai at him, sparking across the
ground. Kyo instinctively threw one of his own, to cancel the fireball--and
noticed the color of his flames. The fires that clashed were both a violent,
sparking purple.

	In the back of his head, Kyo heard Saishu's mocking laughter.

	Iori smiled, as tears ran down Kyo's face. "It's about time you understood.
I've often found you foolish, but never actively stupid before."

	Kyo got up. "Did you do this to me, Yagami? DID YOU??!!"

	"Hardly. You did this to yourself, whelp."

	The truth struck Kyo to the core, and he seemed, to Yagami's eyes, as if
his bones had melted within his skin. He had gone against every rule he had
ever been taught about the Source, willingly...and it had taken his greatest
enemy to bring him back.

	The fires crackling around his arms slowly faded back to orange.

	Iori nodded in satisfaction. "So has it been. So shall it always be."

	"What in the hell are you talking about?"

	"Just close your eyes, Kyo." Iori came closer, and put out his hands palms
up. Flame crackled across them. "Close your eyes, and await the inevitable
end," he whispered. "You are yourself again. And you are still my enemy.
Until death. Yours."

	Kyo raised his fists. "Hardly, Yagami."

	"Then let us finish it, _kisama_."

	"Tonight? Forever?" Kyo asked. He readied himself.

	Iori smiled. "Of course not." He raised his hands. "Only I decide when
forever ends."

_Wreckage, Room 1891, RumbleDome Hotel_

	The structure of flames collapsed two minutes later.

	It was abrupt; one moment, there was a wall of ebon fire, the next, it was
dying down and shattering like obsidian. In five seconds all that was left
of the wall was its creator.

	Kyo Kusanagi lay in the center of a scorched circle of earth. He was
unconscious.

	Of Iori Yagami, there was no sign.

---
Thomas Wilde
wanderer@ecom.net,  vox_ex_machina@hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/3114/index.html
***********
You only see what you want to believe
When you light in the back with those tricks up your sleeve
That don't mean I can't hang
But the day that I die will be the day I shut my mouth
	-Sublime, "Same In The End"