Chapter 1 - Disaster

"Oh gods," Saichi breathed, not quite sure he should believe what he saw in front of him. "It's all…gone." His faint proclamation was barely audible, even in the hush that had come over the horrified Guardians. They just stood there for a few moments, making no sound at all after Saichi's expression of horror.

Then, true to his nature, Shinigami lost his control. "What the fuck?" he exclaimed, no longer able to keep his silence. "How the hell did the Nothing get in here? What happened to our security? Everything was fine when I left!"

"I was only gone for an hour," a voice came from behind Saichi. Once he heard the voice, he remembered feeling someone run into him shortly after he and Shinigami stopped dead in their tracks. Turning to see the new speaker, he found him to be a dragon, a Guardian he'd seen out in the field before. "There was nothing wrong when I left," the dragon continued.

As the dragon spoke, Saichi opened his mind to search the compound mentally. None of the three had passed through the gates yet, in case the Nothing was still there, waiting for them. Saichi was particularly sensitive to the Nothing, something he'd discovered not too long after he became a Guardian, and if there was any Nothing left in the compound, he would know it. He was very certain that he didn't want to enter if there was Nothing left.

He found no traces, except for the gaping holes in reality where the Nothing had exercised its full power. This known, he started forward, skirting the very angry death spirit beside him. Shinigami, as he did whenever he lost his temper, had manifested his natural weapon, a huge silver scythe that Saichi wouldn't be able to lift if his life depended on it. He looked ready to kill, so Saichi tried to avoid catching his attention. But then, just as Saichi passed Shinigami, the dragon grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Don't you think it's a little too dangerous to go in there?" he asked. "After all, the Nothing could still be there, waiting for stragglers…"

"I already checked," Saichi said. "I can feel the Nothing, and it's gone. We should go and make sure there aren't any others alive in there."

"Do you honestly think there are survivors in there?" Shinigami asked angrily. "You know the damned Nothing's even more persistent and brutal than Death himself! It wouldn't leave if there was still someone left."

"I already know that!" Saichi exclaimed, a hint of panic creeping into his voice despite his firm resolution to stay calm. "I can't feel anything from in there. But I can't believe that everyone's just gone, in less than an hour! It just…"

He could feel his own control slipping. Like Shinigami just before him, he couldn't handle the destruction and negation of all of the rest of the Guardians. It was too much for him, and he could feel the hot tears starting to well up in his eyes. Before he knew it the tears were streaming down his face, and he was sinking down to the ground weeping.

To his surprise, he soon felt a comforting arm around his shoulders, pulling him into a loose hug that was meant to be calming as opposed to amorous. He couldn't believe that it was Shinigami, who treated the most minor physical contact as an insult, but he didn't imagine that a stranger would do that. A turn of his head told him that it was the dragon though, and that the dragon had silent tears forming in his eyes as well.

"I'm sure everything will be all right," he said in a soothing tone. "We'll get through this, I'm sure."

"How the hell can you say that?" Shinigami asked hotly. "Just look at what they did to the compound? If you hadn't noticed, all of the others are gone. We're the only ones left! How are we supposed to protect everyone with only three of us?"

"We'll find a way," the dragon said, surprisingly calm despite the tears that were starting to flow down his own face. "We're Guardians. It's our duty to protect existence from the Nothing. I'm not going to let anything stop me."

As the dragon spoke, he unconsciously tightened his arms around the sobbing quasi-angel. His sheer determination was a comfort to Saichi, who was starting to feel lost with the absence of the mental clamor that usually surrounded the Guardian compound. The only people he could feel were the angry, but oddly alien death spirit mind of Shinigami, and the comforting solid presence of the dragon. It was more than nothing, but nowhere near enough.

"You'll die, and you know it," Shinigami said hotly. This angered Saichi, who was feeling down enough already. Shinigami was being fatalistic, and that would end up depressing Saichi even more. He did not want that.

"That's enough Shinigami!" he said firmly, wiping the tears from his eyes as he lifted his head. "He's right. We need to continue with our duties. We are honor bound to continue to fight, no matter whether we're three, or three thousand."

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Shinigami asked. "I know that neither you nor I have any experience with actual fighting against the Nothing, and just one, if he is one of the fighters, which I doubt, isn't enough by far. There's nothing we can do."

"We still have to try!" Saichi exclaimed. "Or do you just want to stand by and watch the Nothing consume all of existence? Can you actually just watch as it takes everything?"

"There's always the records," the dragon suggested. "We may be able to find something in there that we can do, even with just three of us. Perhaps there is some sort of ritual we can do, or something like that."

"You aren't a fighter either, are you?" Shinigami asked, completely ignoring his suggestion for action.

"No, I'm not," the dragon said. "But that doesn't mean that I'm just going to watch all of existence disappear just because I'm not experienced. Now, will you help search the records, or do you have a better idea?"

Shinigami looked like he was about to protest again. Saichi had decided that he was not going to let the death spirit just sit there though, and before Shinigami could speak he glared at him full force. Shinigami knew, from prior experience with Saichi before his promotion, that he didn't want Saichi angry with him. He may have been rather powerful in his own right, but against an angry and stubborn Saichi, something that happened very rarely, he was nothing.

"Fine," he muttered, not sounding pleased at all.

"Great!" Saichi exclaimed, perking up now that he had something to do and work towards. He hurriedly wiped at the tears still on his face, trying to completely cheer up, not that he thought he would be successful. "Let's get started right now. We don't know how much time we have before it strikes again." He stood up, grabbing Shinigami's arm to lead him into the compound and toward the huge building where the records were kept.

"But…" Shinigami said, refusing to move. "I want to know who this guy is first." He pointed to the dragon. "I don't work with strangers."

"Sorry," the dragon said, looking a little ashamed of himself. "I suppose I should have introduced myself earlier."

"It's okay," Saichi said. "We all were a little preoccupied before."

"My name is Himitsu," the dragon said. "I'm a field operative."

"I'm Saichi," Saichi said. "And he's Shinigami, if you hadn't already figured out that. I would say it's nice to meet you, but it really wouldn't fit with the setting. Well, shall we get started on what's going to most likely be a horrendous task?"

Himitsu nodded and Shinigami just grunted. Saichi figured that that was the most affirmative answer that he would get from the death spirit. Feeling a little more hopeful, and trying to ignore the gaping holes in reality without falling into them, he set forth into the compound. He could hear the other two following behind him.

Once in the records building the three Guardians stood still for a moment. Shinigami and Saichi had both been in the building before, very briefly, and already knew just how much information was stored in the place, but it was still a very, very daunting sight when faced with the knowledge that they were going to have to search through it. Sighing, each of them selected a workstation that connected to the database and prayed that the system was still up so they could search without having to go into the physical records.

The next day the three Guardians were still searching through the records. They worked in silence, mostly because they were all too shocked and upset to want to talk at the time. Several times Shinigami, in disgust at what he thought was the sheer futility of what they were doing, had left several times during that twenty-four hour period. Each time he had returned within the hour though, and between the three of them they were actually making fairly decent progress through the records.

It had been over two hours since the last time Shinigami had left in disgust, and he was getting close to another one. Right before he could actually make up his mind to do so though, Saichi stood up from his station. He had a look of happy excitement on his face.

"I think I found something!" he exclaimed. He beckoned for the other two to gather around him and then started pointing out what he had displayed on the monitor in front of him.

It was a collection of legends that came from the earliest days of the Guardians. Shinigami was surprised they still existed; they were that old. The one that Saichi had been reading was about the first great battle between Creation and Destruction. The specific line, which Saichi had highlighted, told about how the four main forces of Creation had finally defeated the forces of Destruction by banding together. There was a link to a footnote for the story as well, which Saichi followed to show the other two.

"This is the origin of our kind," Himitsu said, as he read out loud the note made by an early Guardian. "One extremely talented human gathered the representatives of the four Forces at the time. This allowed him to bring back the souls of all the fighters recently killed in the battle. He became the first Guardian ever, and those he brought back also became Guardians themselves. I assume it could be done again."

"I don't see where this gets us," Shinigami said. "So we found out how the Guardians started… Big deal."

"But if we do this we could bring back everyone who was killed yesterday!" Saichi exclaimed. "All we have to do is do what he did!"

"There's another note," Himitsu, who was reading on in the legend, said. "It says that this really can be done again, but that it has to be a human who does it, not a Guardian. The human does have to be a potential Guardian though. It describes the ritual as well."

"So we can't do it?" Saichi asked, looking disappointed.

"No we can't," Himitsu said. "But we can get one of the future Guardians to do it."

"All right!" Saichi exclaimed happily.

"But where are we going to find a suitable human?" Shinigami asked testily. "I know I can't tell those kind of humans from normal ones."

"Didn't Himitsu say he was a field operative?" Saichi asked. "Why can't we use his charge?" Shinigami could see the dragon turn visible uncomfortable. He could almost see the giant sweatdrop forming next to Himitsu's head.

"Umm, that might not be the wisest idea…" Himitsu said. "Ana is…odd."

"She can't be that bad," Saichi said. "And wouldn't it be better for us to use someone at least one of us is familiar with?"

"Uh, not in this case," Himitsu replied uneasily. He looked distinctly uncomfortable with the idea of using his charge for the task.

"Doushite?" Saichi asked. The dragon gave him a blank look, not understanding the Japanese word. "Why?" Saichi added, looking a little sheepish.

"Ana is a fangirl, plain and simple," Himitsu said. "At least one of us is going to have to appear to her if we use her for this. I'm afraid of what will happen is she sees one of you two. I don't think we'd be able to remove her without killing someone."

"I'm sure we can find a way to contact her without appear to her," Saichi said brightly. "And using her would be fine if we can do that, right?"

"I suppose so," Himitsu said. "But you're doing it in that case, not me."

"Okay!" Saichi said. He looked much happier, and much more animated than he had been since the three of them had returned to the Guardian compound, even in the last few minutes. Just the hope that this had brought had had enough effect to put the life back in the normally happy Guardian.

"Shinigami!" Saichi exclaimed happily after practically jumping on Shinigami's back. "Isn't it great? We have a solution!"

"Yeah, one that involves some psycho that only dragon-boy knows," Shinigami said. "Doesn't that bother you a little?"

"I'm sure she's not as bad as Himitsu's making her out to be," Saichi said. "After all, she's Guardian potential." Then he looked over at the dragon again. "Himitsu, will you show me her now? I want to get started as soon as possible!"

"Fine," Himitsu said. Sighing, the dragon started walking toward the door of the library. He motioned for the other two Guardians to follow him, but he did not look very happy about it. Saichi almost bounced behind him, and Shinigami followed, resigned to the fact that he was going to be stuck with the over hyper "angel" and the dragon.