Chapter Eighty Two - Yin and Yang

Aidan opened his eyes to discover he had returned to the white space and let loose a sigh. This was not what he had wanted to see after a good night sleep beside his beloved. Closing his eyes in denial, his mind formed the image of Ah Liû's pale face with it's aged lines surrounded by a wealth of silver grey hair, but as clear as the memory was now, he knew with time it would fade a little. Despite his memory seeming to improve each life, once he returned here, all he could usually recall were those two, beautiful pale eyes.

A soft, shuffling noise disturbed his thoughts. He opened his eyes and turned his head to one side and stared for a few long moments, before his vision began to blur. A boy lay beside him. He was perhaps no older than 16 or 17, the age where the features of the child had sharpened with maturity, but still glowing with youthful vibrancy. His hair was not long or at least not long in the sense that he had become used to, but the bangs fell over his face, almost reaching his soft pink lips. It was mostly straight, as it hung over his ears unstyled, but seemed to curl at the tips. The roots and undergrowth were ash brown, but layered with tints of dark to white blond. He seemed to be all arms and legs and far too skinny. He nuzzled against the floor as he slept, before unconsciously reaching for Aidan next to him. One outstretched finger revealed a black metal ring with an embedded pearl.

Aidan wiped the moisture from his eyes and reached for his small lover, who suddenly woke and stiffened as his wide, pale eyes darted about. "Where am I?" He said, holding down the panic within him, as he sat up and looked around. "Where is Yu Long?"

"It's okay," Aidan said, softly, hoping to sound reassuring, moving to sit beside him. "Ah Liû, it's me, I am Yu Long."

The boy looked suspicious, his eyes narrowed. "Say I believe you... is this supposed to be some sort of after life?"

"No, not exactly," Aidan wasn't entirely sure how to explain it. "Although this is the place I usually come to after I die." There was clear confusion in the boy's eyes; Aidan wasn't able to refer to him as Warren or Ah Liû easily. As much as he knew this boy was the same person he had chased for five lifetimes, he did not resemble any of his incarnations.

As Aidan tried to formulate an explanation in his mind, the rings on their fingers began to melt and reform in the air as two spheres, Yang all white with its one black eye and another, all black with one white eye. The boy was startled, flinching away from the floating ball that he had been wearing. "Ah this is Yang," Aidan said, pointing to white sphere. "And the other..."

"I have named that one, Yin," a voice interjected behind them. As usual, the dark haired man with the linear markings on his pale white skin sat upon his throne like chair. In his hand he balanced a huqin, a single string musical instrument played like a cello, from their last world. Naturally, the instrument was pure white. It seemed he had found a new hobby.

"And this is the Master," Aidan introduced, before rising to his feet. He held out a hand to the boy, who cautiously reached for it and allowed Aidan to help him stand. He gasped softly and stared at their hands, how they fitted so perfectly together and knew in that moment that Aidan was telling him the truth.

"You are Yu Long," he whispered. "You do not look like Yu Long, but my heart tells me that you are him. How is this possible?"

"There is much to explain," the Master advised him, but then continued in the mysterious way he seemed to enjoy. "However, you know the answers you seek." He placed the instrument to one side and rose to his feet. The instrument and throne sank into the ground as he approached. "Those answers are sealed away here." He pressed one finger against the boy's forehead. "Do you wish for me to unlock your memories, I warn you, it will be most painful."

"My memories? I do not understand," Came this reply.

The Master turned to point at Aidan. "This one has been seeking you and attempting to protect you through several lifetimes. But each time you die, he returns here while you are reborn elsewhere. This is not all of the story, of course, but it is your decision whether you wish to know more."

Ah Liû frowned. Yu Long had been with him in his past lives? Was that why he accepted him so easily when his heart told him that he was the one? His Guardian? He tried to trust those feelings that he had experienced in their last life, but sensed they would no longer worked that way. This made him nervous. He had relied on his sixth sense for so long. He looked at the man beside him and felt a certain reassurance spread through him, that this man would not leave him the same way his gift had. And then suddenly, he wished to know what their past lives together were like.

"Alright," he conceded and the Master signalled for Yang, who floated over and lightly touched the same place upon his forehead that the Master had.

His vision began to swim with images, things he had seen as Ah Liû, running backwards. Comforting each other as their bodies grew weary, being introduced to Lian offspring, meeting Wáng Jie Long's first grandchild, Chen Xue Min and Wu Chang's private ceremony in the Holy Lands, the Emperor's wedding, their own ceremony, their first kiss...

And then further, he was a green skinned man who loved a man with dark, grey skin and pure black eyes. They had worked hard to build their strange home, which catered to two very different people, but it was lost in a quake...

Further...

He was a model, wearing men's clothes with a feminine twist and winking at his celebrity husband, who sat proudly in the first row beside the catwalk...

Further...

A shy man with wire rimmed glasses and a handsome, devilish sort of man who favoured the colour black in a sea of vivid colours... but there was someone else there... inside him...

Further...

He was a scientist.. no that was not him!

His head began to pound as the memories poured into him like water of a falls into a river. He clutched his head and began to scream, before he collapsed, unconscious into Aidan's arms.

"W-what's happening?!" Aidan panicked, picking the boy up into his arms, noting how light he appeared to be.

"Well, he is not only trying to absorb the memories of the lives you both shared," the Master said, waving his hand to one side, where a white bed suddenly rose, covered in a single white sheet. Aidan moved to the bed and slowly lowered his lover onto it. "He also has to accept the lives that came before it. You see, this child has lived countless times, but they were seldom long lives and often not kind to him. So long as he performed the missions, he was thrown about quite harshly. How nice am I, allowing you to live full lives each time?" He added almost smugly.

Aidan stroked the soft hair upon the boy's head, wishing he could help him in some way. "Will he be alright?" He whispered.

"He will live," the Master replied. "Having gone through a few rebirth's, his soul is no longer weak. If he remains well... that depends on how he copes with what he has done. He might be a little more similar to the boy you first met than the men you came to know, however." Aidan swallowed hard, he recalled how lost Warren was when he had first met him, how, even after he had broken from his shell, distant he could be at times.

The boy remained asleep for a long time, although eventually, he began to stir, he did not open his eyes. Aidan attempted to distract himself with a game of Go against the Master, but he lost miserably as he couldn't concentrate. In the end, he began to read through the books in the Master's library, thankful that the white theme only leant itself to the cover and pages. The writing was still black.

As he lay beside his lover, reading poetry that fit better in Rush and Kez's timeline, Yin and Yang, the two system's began to stir.

"We found anomalies in the Helixia galaxy, seventeenth era," Yang informed the Master.

"Ugh, I hate that place," the Master grumbled. "It takes up so much memory. And to think we have nearly twenty records of it... is he there?"

"Uncertain," Yin responded. The little black sphere only ever seemed to answer using words sparingly, unlike the chatter box that was Yang.

"Fourteen planets and two stars have collapsed without explanation," Yang informed. "It may need to be reset."

"Agreed," the Master sighed. "But we can no longer do that." He looked thoughtful for a moment, which looked strange on the face that was normally quite passive. "We will need to investigate further, perhaps from the inside, before attempting a rebuild and patch job. We have the sixteenth era as reference, however, I do not want to fix something that might just break five minutes later." A sly look swept into his eyes and Aidan felt himself shudder. "Find a host body."

"What? Wait... hold on!" Aidan protested. "He.. Warren hasn't even woken up yet!"

"I know, so he will remain here," the Master replied. Aidan at the sleeping boy beside him. He didn't want to leave!

"Master..." Yang nervously hovered over the Master's white palm.

"Tch," the Master exclaimed. "You always find the awkward ones! Fine, you will just have to accompany him then!" And that was the last Aidan heard before he blacked out.