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Ten years had passed since the night of the Full Eclipse, and for the first time in his life, death, and everything in between, Zarc felt fulfilled.
After stopping Rasca's dire plans in their tracks, he'd achieved some measure of redemption for the sins of his past, and was allowed to live on as an exile from the dragons' society. He spent his time traveling between the human nations, getting to see how the people he once loved had changed since his fall; for the most part, they weren't much different from how they'd been back then, but their general ignorance was a boon for them - they weren't around when Zarc was in power, and they hadn't had the opportunity to learn what he had done. To them, he'd stopped the Earthbound Immortals from permanently altering the course of their cyclical history, and so he wasn't the dangerous outcast that his own kind claimed him to be.
Not every dragon saw him as a villain, of course. The four guardians, now instated in positions of power within the human kingdoms, understood the former Supreme Dragon King and sympathized with him. To an extent, they even accepted him, and the young dragon known by the humans as Yuya had welcomed Zarc into Penduluma's royal castle; there, Zarc witnessed a miracle like none other, three little hatchlings born of the union between the new queen of Penduluma and her consort. The potential slumbering within their souls was closer to that of a human, but they resembled altered dragons with their eyes and teeth, and Zarc found himself wondering if such mixed children had always been possible.
He didn't dwell on it for long, reminding himself that with the blessing of the Crimson Dragon, anything was possible - including his own resurrection and what had come afterward. He spent a few days there, playing with the little ones and aiding in their care, and then it was off to his next destination, the royal castle of Synchronia where he had put an end to the last of the Dark Signers.
On his way there, however, Zarc happened across a figure from his past. He hadn't seen her since the battle against Rasca, and if he was to be honest, he'd dreaded the inevitable meeting between them; the Queen of Light had borne a grudge for all this time, and even though she'd claimed that he was no longer a threat, he questioned if she was just saying that to avoid further conflict or if she genuinely believed it.
Ray stood on the newly-forged path between Penduluma and Synchronia, watching the horizon with a distant look in her eyes. Zarc deigned to approach her, and she didn't notice him at first; it was only once he stood before her that she acknowledged his presence, though her expression didn't change a bit.
"...Hey, Ray." Unsure of what to do, Zarc decided to go for a more casual greeting, waving at his former friend. "What's up?"
"Zarc..." Ray averted her gaze, looking uncomfortable. "What made you change your mind?"
It took a moment for Zarc to figure out what she was getting at. He'd explained that to her before, after the battle concluded, and he had thought that she was satisfied with his claim then... but apparently not, so he had to come up with something else.
"Felt like it," he decided on after a lengthy silence. "I mean, no king rules forever, right? You made sure of that back then."
"That seems a little too simple." Ray shook her head. "...Then again, you've always been like that, haven't you?"
"Do you believe me?" Zarc asked, not entirely sure if he believed himself. More than anything, he just wanted things to go back to the way they'd been back then - but he knew that was never going to happen, not after what he had done.
"...Yeah, I guess so." Ray looked back at him, and this time, there was an intense look on her face. "It doesn't matter whether I believe you or not, does it? You were the one who stopped Rasca. Not me."
Zarc wanted to tell her that this claim wasn't entirely true, but he thought better of it, and focused instead on the first part of what she'd said. "It matters to me. You know how much it stings that you still hate me, don't you?"
"Hate..." Ray looked away again, clutching her arm with her hand. "That's a strong word. I'm more just... disappointed." Her tone shifted, filled with an indiscernible emotion. "...Do you hate me?"
"Of course not!" Zarc answered her immediately, and this time, it was his turn to shake his head. "I could never hate you, Ray. I..."
He trailed off there, not wanting to open old wounds. Even when he had absorbed the souls of his fellows and she had rallied her entire kind to fight against him, he hadn't held it against her - he knew on a conscious level that she was just doing what she had to do, and that reminder just made him more upset that he'd given in to his own negative emotions. If only he hadn't become the Supreme Dragon King...
"...You were in love with me." Just like that, Ray touched upon the very same sore subject that Zarc had intended to avoid. "And you still are. That never changed..." She breathed a small sigh. "Well... I guess things are different now. My descendants... really changed everything..."
The emotion in her voice became clearer then - a mixture of sorrow and hope, nothing like the fear and anger that Zarc had come to expect from her. It was as if she had been searching for a reason to reconcile, and after all this time, she'd only just now found it.
The thought was, if Zarc was to be honest, immensely flattering, and not at all what he had imagined. He'd assumed that Ray would always hate him for what he'd done, and now that she was ageless as well, he'd just have to put up with it for the rest of their mutual existence.
"Ray..." Zarc thought back to what he had seen in Penduluma's royal castle, and despite himself, a smile drew across his face. "Did you see what happened with Yuya and Yuzu?"
"No, not yet." Ray turned away from him, looking to the horizon again. "But if it's anything like what happened with Yuto and Lulu, or Yugo and Rin..."
The thought that there were more hatchlings of mixed blood besides the three he'd seen sparked something unfamiliar in Zarc's heart. If the new rulers of the human kingdoms had breached that barrier in his stead-
"We don't need to stay here, you know," Ray continued, interrupting Zarc's train of thought. "We don't belong here anymore. We're relics of the past... you can't go back to the realm of dragons, right?"
"Yeah, they kicked me out for good." Zarc's smile only grew wider. "But that's probably for the better. Did the humans kick you out, too?"
Ray breathed another, more exasperated sigh. "I really wish they would. I'm tired of all the praise... I just want to run off somewhere and be left alone for once. Maybe if Declan had been brought back..."
She was still thinking of her family, now forever lost to time. Zarc knew that her younger brother had been special to her back then, and it seemed that hadn't changed; his own family had only ever brought him ruin, so he couldn't relate, but on some level, he was able to sympathize with her. The modern world was strange and confusing, and no matter how happy it made him that their races were able to come together in the end, he also kind of wanted to be away from it all - to run away to some place that no one would ever find, and live the rest of his eternal existence in peace and quiet.
More importantly, the fact that she'd said that now was...
"...You know I can't do that." Zarc had to force the words out - there was nothing he wanted more than to run off with her. "You already said no to being my queen. I won't-"
Ray turned back toward him quite suddenly, and grasped his shoulders with both hands; her stare became even more intense, and all his thoughts left his mind as he realized how close she was. If he wanted to, he could lean in and kiss her right then and there, but just as he had before his fall, he held himself back for her sake.
...Why was she even more beautiful now than she'd been back then?
"Aren't you leaving the past behind?" Ray reminded him, and she leaned in even closer. "Well, so am I. Things are different now - we aren't the Queen of Light and the Supreme Dragon King anymore. We're just two ancient, ageless beings... who've always loved each other."
That caught Zarc by surprise more than her actions. She'd rejected him back then - had she really always returned his feelings?
"...Yes," Ray went on, as if reading his mind. "You know exactly why I rejected you back then... it wasn't because I didn't love you." She took a deep breath. "...Do you have any idea how much it hurt me when you became... that? I never wanted to kill you - I had to. At the start, I thought that maybe there was a chance you'd turn around, but..."
"I didn't," Zarc finished for her on instinct, and he was alarmed by his own words. "I just disappointed you even more..." He shook off his shock as best he could, meeting her piercing gaze. "...Sorry I screwed up. I'm sorry I hurt you... I didn't realize..."
"Of course you didn't realize," Ray said, and then her tone softened. "I never told you. You couldn't have known how I felt..." She hesitated for a brief moment. "...I'm sorry, too. If I'd known that everyone would turn against you... I would never have done that. I was a coward."
"You were a coward, and I was weak..." Zarc laughed, the weight of hundreds of years falling off his shoulders all at once - a feeling beyond description. "We make a fine pair, don't we?"
"We do." Ray laughed as well, a beautiful sound that reminded him of the distant past, back when life was simple for both of them; her hands dropped downward, settling on his hips. "But in the end..."
She pressed her lips to his briefly, then pulled away - but he wasn't having any of that. He'd gotten what he wanted at last, and he decided to remind her that dragons were very possessive; he yanked her close with both arms and kissed her in turn, demanding to claim her, and she responded in kind, understanding at last that this was what he had wanted all along.
She'd had a mate before - the sire of her children, her descendants - but Zarc had no such luxury, and so Ray guided him along with more patience than he knew her to be capable of. She deepened the kiss, snaking her tongue inside his mouth and running it along his sharp teeth; he did what he could to return the favor, but after far too short a time, he had to pull away, gasping for breath and feeling like kind of an idiot. Ray just laughed and embraced him, her warmth nothing like that of a dragon, but that happened to be what Zarc preferred.
"H-hey..." Zarc blinked at Ray as a thought crossed his mind. "...Your human mate... how'd you feel about him?"
"Well... I loved him." Ray sounded as if that was something she didn't want to admit. "Not like I loved you, but... he's- he's in the past, too." Her voice grew strained. "He died before I did... and left me alone. You... wouldn't have done that..."
"No, it would've been the other way around." Zarc considered a scenario that he hadn't given much thought to before - the real reason Ray had rejected him back then. "Maybe I would've done the same thing, anyway... except there wouldn't have been anyone to stop me then. So... thanks for living your life."
"...Zarc..." Ray buried her face in his shoulder, and he felt her tears staining his skin. "I-I know it's selfish... but I... I just... want to be alone with you. To make up for the past... I..."
"...Alone with me it is." Zarc ran his hands along her back, attempting to soothe her. "Let's find a place where no one's been before. I'm sure there's plenty of 'em, right?"
Ray hummed in response, but said nothing; she lingered there for a few moments longer, then moved back, leaning out of his embrace. He met her gaze again, and through the dampness in her eyes, he saw determination - the same resolve that had brought her victory against him.
"...Let's go now," Ray said at last, and she took a few steps away from him - giving him space to shift into his true form. "To a place where no one's been before."
Zarc nodded, then focused inward, drawing out the energy that resided within all dragons. His form was not quite as massive or imposing as it had been when he was the Supreme Dragon King, but it was more than enough to carry Ray; he lowered himself to the ground, and she climbed upon his back, and then he took off, his wings stirring the dust beneath them.
It wasn't quite resting in peace, but at least they could find some measure of happiness now.