[ History ]
Now for a short novel...
Early History
Suik was born over five centuries ago into the wealthy De'Zerra family on a wealthy planet within the space controlled by the Elfen Empire. The point he would have been born at on a human calendar was somewhere in the area of 2200, but that's little matter. Anyway, young Suik De'Zerra was initially spoiled and more than a little sheltered for the very early years of his life. But when he was barely twenty-five [still a toddler by the standards of his long-lived people] his last remaining relative, his mother, died of illness. Thus, he became the sole heir to the entirety of the De'Zerra's substantial fortunes... with a clause. Unfortunately for Suik, his father before he died (shortly before Suik was born) willed that the fortune only could be inherited after Suik's marriage to the eldest daughter (who was then unborn) of the Marseli family, another wealthy Elfen family.
As it was, the Marseli family had their first daughter, Iris, in that same year. At birth, she became engaged to Suik on order of the Elders (the rulers of the Elfen, as they nod to venerability) to fulfill the will of Suik's father. From here on out, Suik was raised by the Elders themselves, who took in the young orphan. He knew Iris all her life; he played with her when she was born and got to knew her as he grew up -- the two were good friends, but the Elders could see their connection was not as deep as it should be. Certainly not as deep as the bond Suik was quickly forming with another boy at this time. An older boy from the Celestia family, Freidei, became Suik's first real friend, and after a sparse three years together to two became very close. It was apparent to both the Elders and to the tow of them that these two would be friends all their lives.
Well, time passed, and eventually, when Suik was about a hundred years old (making his friend Freidei somewhere in the area of 150 and Iris 75) he found that Iris was, in fact, not the first daughter of the Marseli family. However, the will explicitly excluded a daughter of that family (if they were still alive) under one condition -- that they ceased to exist, while still remaining alive. In Elfen society there are two ways this can happen -- exile from Elfen space (though in this case you're legally considered dead) or joining the ranks of the legendary Xei. The true eldest daughter of the Marseli, Naihe, has done the former. Naihe, as Xeiname 'Phoenix,' was a guardian of Elfen space, protecting her people from demons and other things which would move in on their largely peaceful society. Suik and Freidei were introduced to her by Iris on that day when Naihe returned to visit her family, having recently completed her first mission following her Xei training. All three were captivated by her and her power, her authority. What happened next would make all of Suik's family members (the De’Zerra that is) roll in their graves.
Life as a Xei
Suik and his friend Freidei both signed on to training as Xei. The Xei, a secretive force of Elfen Empire who amounted to everything from secret agents to police forces, to spec-ops soldiers, and their official duty -- demon hunting. Since the dawn of Elfen society there had been exceptional Elfen who in some field or another where far, far above the bar of the (considerable) psychic abilities of the Elfen as a whole. As it turned out, both Suik and Freidei fit this bill. Time passed as they both underwent the rigorous training which needs to happen to become a full-fledged Xei and they were both given their Xeinames. Left alone on the outside, Iris would follow along in their footsteps, and past this point, Freidei's younger sister, Saori. The training for the Xei is extensive and time-consuming, but by the standard of generations before, Freidei and Suik both finished exceptionally fast. Suik was two hundred when he was assigned to his first mission. And from that point on, he and Freidei were both paired together with Naihe as their commanding officer as a special-forces unit.
While Iris and Saori were both left behind (as both were much younger and still trainees in the Xei lifestyle) Freidei, Suik, and Naihe would all attest that those days when they were all a team, going out on missions and protecting Elfen space, while stressful, were the best days of their lives. All three of them developed exceptional bonds towards each other, but more and more to Freidei it was becoming apparent that Naihe and Suik held deep feelings of love towards each other... but both held back for various reasons. Naihe, of course, was painfully aware that her beloved younger sister was the betrothed of the man she was growing to love-- and in those days, Suik was Iris's world, as much if not more than Naihe was to Iris. Suik, in turn, held back for the fact the Naihe was both significantly older... and, as he often was in those days, he was blind to her feelings. He felt that if he made his move, so to speak, she would not share his sentiments. He was trapped by fear. Freidei, always reckless but always perceptive, was aware of everything in this very strange triangle, but felt that things would see themselves out.
...Unfortunately, Freidei could not have been more wrong, something that he to the day regrets. Naihe was sent out on a solo mission when Suik was roughly three hundred fifty years old. Naturally, all three of them had a strong mental link to each other by this time, but Naihe's connection to both of them was extremely strong, due to her larger grasp of telepathy as compared to most other Elfen. Thus, when Naihe's life was put in significant danger of ending, the resulting mental shock to Freidei and Suik was great. They themselves were on a mission of their own, but in a moment of recklessness characteristic of him in those days, Suik immediately took off to try to find Naihe. Freidei was left to finish the pair's mission alone, something he gladly did, figuring that his friend would save Naihe somehow. As it was, Suik did indeed save Naihe... but at a terrible cost. To the date, Suik has only ever confessed the exact parameters of what happened to Freidei, who has never spoken to anyone about it, but when Suik returned from going to save Naihe, his formerly sky blue eyes had been replaced with pupil-less silver and he was carrying her body.
In short, Suik performed a long-forgotten ritual of the Elfen he had learned of in the databank of the Xei. A ritual which was forgotten for a reason; the cost to both parties involved is so terrible that it was labeled as taboo. The ritual binds the soul of a recently dead Elfen into another container. Suik had assumed he could bring Naihe back from the dead with this, but he didn't know the two purpose of the ritual -- he had inadvertently sealed Naihe's soul within his own body, and the strain of two souls on even someone with mental powers as fantastic as his own was terrible indeed. Suik collapsed the minute he returned with Naihe's body, and Freidei took him in to rest in the house of the Celestia family. Iris were about to complete the Xei training by now, but in light of this crisis, both of them took off to go the House Celestia as well. The next part of the time period is hazy. For a period almost as long as a year, Freidei was forced to speak with the Elders in council meetings on behalf of his friend, who was in a coma. Saori cared for Suik while he lay resting in her house. Iris, meanwhile, locked herself away, unable to accept that it seemed like both her sister and her loved one were gone.
After much deliberation, the Elders concluded that the suffering Suik was going through now was enough of a punishment, and that unless the soul of Naihe within him asked for more, assuming he awoke again; they would pardon him of his crime of performing the taboo ritual. Freidei then asked them how to awaken him, to which the Elders answered they knew of no method. Frustrated and more than a little angry, Freidei tireless the searched the old texts for a way to save his best friend even as his sister continued to care for Suik. In the end, what Freidei found to save Suik was a desperate gambit, and one which is also a taboo art. Freidei performed a ritual with eternally gave all of his psychic power to Suik, giving his friend the unnatural power of two Elfen -- enough to barely support the concept of two souls in one body. Freidei lost all of his psychic powers from telepathy to telekinetic ability, and for his crime he was removed from the Xei and never allowed to work a legitimate job in Elfen space again. However, his plan worked -- Suik awoke.
Intermediate Period
Suik awaking had such a profound effect on all parties involved, that by no less than a year later, they had all chosen their taken names. In Elfen society, when an Elfen feels the time is right, they made revise their birth name with a new 'chosen' name which they feel fits them better. Freidei was forever known afterwards as Jaemelle (meaning 'ever friend' in old Elfen). For all the others, their taken names were more symbolic than anything -- Iris took Dramelle ('ever hatred') the soul of Naihe within Suik's body took Eskmelle ('ever love'), Saori took Naihe, the name of Suik's most beloved... and Suik himself took 'Seraphiel,' who in Elfen culture (specifically the culture of the Xei) are said to be the messengers and works of Tomhet, a god associated with the bleak nothingness that comes with both the dawn and the end of the universe. Iris, while still officially engaged to Suik, swore that she would one day kill him to set her sisters soul free, and as a punishment for loving another. Saori, meanwhile, due to her time of bed-nursing Suik, had come to love him as well.
For Suik's part, on the day he awoke, he all but gave up on living. He ignored Saori's feelings and accepted Iris's oath with a sense of resolution -- he too felt he deserved that. Jaemelle and Naihe inside him were the only things which could start to inspire hope in him, and gave him the motivation to come to the conclusion he did -- that he would remain alive until the time that Iris would kill him, because Iris was the one that deserved to give him his fitting punishment for his Sin. He was still officially a Xei, so he worked tirelessly on missions for the next century or so -- never so much as returning home to Elfen space once. Jaemelle and Saori regularly visited him on the naval ship he unofficially had stationed himself on, but for the most part he also shut himself off from anyone and everyone which could remind him of the past. Slowly, the two of them reached into him though. Slowly, the wounds which were once raw from Naihe's deal were becoming (if painful) scars.
In any case, while Jaemelle was discharged from the Xei and Iris unofficially quite, both Saori and Suik dove head-first into their work. They were partners, for a time, but it soon became clear that Suik was in another class all together. He became an avenging angel, seeking out anyone and everyone who he or the Elfen as a whole felt deserved death, all the while questioning Naihe in his -- their -- head for who killed her. During this period, he rarely returned back to Elfen space, instead stationing himself on an Elfen warship which was doing long-distance patrols around the outer-most borders of Elfen space. He slowly lost contact with Saori, his official partner, and then Jaemelle, and finally with the Elders themselves when he finally hit on the lead he'd been searching for.
As it turned out, Naihe's killer was another Elfen. An exile that went by the name 'Ruirin.' His motives were unclear to either party, and once Suik found the trail of Ruirin [close to seventy years before the present date], he never bothered to try to figure it out. He spent twenty years tailing the exile and the organization that he had joined, and when he was done with it, he killed everyone in it, burning their home base to ashes. However, this search did not come fruitlessly -- Ruirin appeared after that incident, carrying a half-dozen stones only a little smaller than a common baseball. At the time, Suik couldn't know what those sphere were, but that incident lead to a deadly duel. The two battled for almost three hours straight, but when both were exhausted to the limits of their strength, Suik 'met' someone who would later become a key player in his later life. A demon that identified himself as 'Hienton' broke in on their fight, killed Ruirin, and stole the strange stones. Suik, battered and tired, returned to the naval vessel he'd stationed himself on and used his authority as a Xei to demand them to give chase to Hienton's space ship.
Suik chased Hienton to a remote world colonized by a primitive species they knew as the 'Terrans' but identified themselves as 'humans.' Terrans had first come into contact with the Elfen some hundred or so years past, and were by the standards of the Elfen an extremely young and short-lived race. Either way, the demon Hienton landed on the Terran world of Chien. Suik of course pursued him onto it. It was his duty -- to hunt demons -- but more than that, he wanted to avenge Naihe. This demon had stolen his chance to personally kill Ruirin, and Suik intended to fix this error. The battle with Hienton took place over a period of some seven days, resulting in massive amounts of death to the local population as Hienton absorbed their life-forces to increase his own power. In the end, however, Suik managed to seemingly destroy Hienton. When he returned to the ship, however, he discovered at what cost.
When he returned to his ship, the Elders finally accomplished what they had wanted to do for some time now. Suik's attack on Ruirin and the following pursuit of Hienton without prior informing of the Elders gave sufficient evidence to what the taboo had already suggested -- that he was unfit to continue as a Xei and that he was a traitor to Elfen-kind. Suik was stripped of his name and labeled as an exile, just like Ruirin. He was now to be known as his Xeiname ("Zero") and was never to return to Elfen space. In addition to this, the captain of the naval vessel he was on administered the 'mark of exile' -- a tattoo in the shape of a cross over his right eye with navy blue ink. He was left stranded on Chien, and forced to make his own existence from there.
Exile Period
And thus began the life of the Elfen exile, Zero. The first fifty or so years were largely uneventful. Zero gained skills and learned much about the universe outside of Elfen space. He learned how humans lived and died, and learned just what they did to get through their relatively short lives. He gained a great many practical skills as well, such a haggling, or how to deal with human -- Terran, as the Elfen knew them -- mentalities related to material things, religion, and politics. He learned how to make use of his psionic abilities for purposes other than battle, and learned well how to travel with little more than the clothes on his back. He would go to a planet, do some odd-jobs, use the money he earned on that world to support him there, and within a few weeks at most, he'd move on. In time he grew to be satisfied with this life -- to an extent, even to like it. Certainly, it allowed him to escape most of the reality of his Sin. To Zero, it seemed a suitable way to live, shamed but contented, until Iris finally came to kill him.
However, the real excitement in Zero's life as an exile began with meeting a man named Draco. One night, getting a room on a relatively remote Terran world, Draco Lunarik helped Zero get a room by way of pretending to be his date. As 'payment' for that, Draco manipulated Zero into taking in his 'younger sister,' Keyoto, as a traveling mate. Zero was reluctant at first, but something in Keyo reminded Zero of Saori. While Keyo was barely fifteen years old, and a Terran, she somehow displayed a maturity far, far beyond that of what a fifteen year old girl should be capable of -- such that in many ways, it seemed like Draco depended more on her than she on him, despite his position as 'older brother' to her. In the end, Zero accepted Draco's demand. Draco took off alone for the world known as Kix, while Zero, Keyo, and her stuffed blue rabbit Momo, set off the continue the adventures of Zero's exile.
His travels with Keyo had him meet two more souls who would eventually complete the mainstay of his traveling party on the planet Gamma, which was at the border of the space the Terran Republic controlled and the space controlled by the Nekon Protectorate. After a large misadventure there with a group known as the 'Bandit Rangers' as well as with a man named Antonio Forester, Zero ended up with two more girl companions. One of them was Yugi Hagane, one of the 'Bandit Rangers' themselves. She was a punk-ish, bombastic half-Elfen, half-Terran telepath, who Zero took in as a promise to her dead brother, Sessha, who died saving his, Yugi's, and Keyo's life. The other was a Terran woman named Aeria Gloris. She was twenty-two, but acted little better than a ten-year-old, pronouncing that Zero was going to teach her 'badass magic'
...Well, there are a huge number of other tales from his exile with these few individuals, but I'll expand on this later, because that would be really, really time consuming. The only things you really need to know to go on are thusly -- First, Draco was an incomplete human, and his other part was named Zephyr Gallur. They're both components of a man named Zephyr Windrift, and eventually re-combined to create that man again. Second, Keyo was a component of the princess of the planet Aiernadi, largely unknown to her. Third, those stones Ruirin was holding and Hienton took, were known as the 'sin-stones,' and each represented one of the seven deadly sins. They gave extraordinary power to their uses, and Hienton (now reborn as the demon overlord Zwei) used them to manipulate others to cause all hell of problems for everyone. Like I said, there's a lot more, but that's why I'm skimping it a little.
Homecoming
Eventually, Zero's travels and trials (most notably working with insurgent forces to defeat Emperor Fish of the newly made 'Terran Empire' to stop a new Xeno-war and proceeding to kill a man named Ryo Sha who was the actual person behind the uprising) lead him to start to actively hunt out the remaining sin-stones, because of the damaged they caused and the damnation they put on the people who use them (such as Ryo Sha, who was slowly transformed into a demonic being by his stone of Envy). This pursuit let him destroy the stones for Envy, Lust, Wrath, Sloth, and Greed. Unfortunately, Pride was held by none other than the seeming mastermind behind this whole plot -- the self-proclaimed 'demon overlord,' Zwei.
Unfortunately, Zwei's forces -- which had previously only really consisted of two women -- had swell considerably. Up until now, his right-hand person had been a woman named Yume, who may have once been a Terran, but was now something akin to a zombie who would live as long as Zwei lived but was madly in love with him and more than a little psycho. The other was a Vaan girl named Lillia, who the group had done away with before now in a very long and tragic story. His forces, in fact, had become legion -- from the far reaches of space, Zwei had somehow created a Demon Armada -- thousands of space-born battleships filled to the brim with war-happy demons, working to create a new universal order. After initial infiltration was complete, Zero and his allies discovered that they were going to target Elfen space.
Well, long story short, Zero returned home to warn his people. Because he was an exile, and because he brought with him two Terrans and a half-Elfen on top of that (plus some people that followed him there) they initially wanted to put him under arrest, but Saori and Jaemelle invoked an ancient Elfen custom -- they gave themselves freely to arrest under the Elders to allow Zero and the others to stay there until they finished their hearing with the Elders. Zero and co thus had one shot to convince the Elders of the Elfen of an immediate danger of the Armada. And while the Elders did listen, they concluded that there was unfinished business that Zero needed to attend to before his word, even ignoring his exile status, could be trusted. Thus, with his companions in tow, Zero went to visit the one woman he had always been waiting to confront again... his fiancée, Iris.
Initially, perhaps as expected, after their initial talk, Zero intended to let Iris kill him. He figured that then, in death, Naihe would not only be set free, but Iris would be free of her chains and his word would have merit now with all his debts behind him. He figured that in dying he might save everyone. Yugi didn't like this choice, but she could see the logic in it, so she didn't directly protest it. Keyo considered it to be Zero's choice, and while she was hurting, she allowed him to go through with it. ...Fortunately, Aeria is not as accepting. As Iris was about to strike Zero done, Aeria kicked Iris to the ground, saying that the 'exile Zero belongs to me alone! I mean I sleep with him!' Needless to say... this infuriated Iris, who then tried to strike down Aeria due to the misunderstanding of words. Aeria has meant to incite her, but the fact of the matter is that Zero and she had never had sex. Either way, in the resulting fight, Iris ended up dead, killed by Zero.
This reversal of fates seemed oddly expected by the Elders, who then prepared defenses against the Demon Armada... but they had one more job for the Elfen exile to do in order to let Saori and Jaemelle go free. Namely, he and his companions needed to personally assassinate Zwei. Now, I could tell the epic tale of how they did this, but suffice it to say that they did, and that the Elfen forces (with some help from Terrans and Nekon) managed to repel the Demon Armada. I should go into more detail sometime later...
The Dream Demon
Now with the Demon Armada stopped and Emperor Fish's reign in shambles, there remained only one more loose end for the newly re-named Suik to tie up. The sin-stones for greed, lust, envy, wrath sloth, and now pride destroyed; there remained only one more - gluttony, the one which he never witnessed before. Determined to put an end to everything that Zwei had started, Suik set off with Aeria, Yugi, Keyoto, and the newly re-made Zephyr Windrift beside him. They were searching for the origins of Zwei (and by extension, Hienton's) rise to power. They had little to go on but for what Yugi were able to extract from Yume's mind in the short period between Zwei and her death. The team traveled the far end of space, through the Nekon Protectorate and into the unknown reaches of space.
In the far reaches they discovered the first operational demon gate, which had been functioning far longer than ever the Elfen or the Vaan had been sentient species. There, they also found one of Xaviel's people -- a Creator. The creator, who they never learned them name of, was dying for much the same reason Xaviel had been so weak, namely that he hadn't used his energy in far too long and he was going to burst. Before he died, he gave Suik knowledge which he could use in his hunt. Namely, the one that opened this demon gate was the holder of the Gluttony stone, the self-titled 'Demon of Dreams,' Karsaburo.
Following this, the five went through a series of misadventures, trying to track the elusive fiend. During this chase, many small planets in the Nekon Protectorate were reduced to little more than over-sized ghettos as the populations of these planets were reduced to raving lunatics in Karsaburo and the team's came of deadly cat and mouse. Eventually, when they seemed to have him pinned back in Terran space, they came across a terrible fact. The end result of that battle, though they seemed to have killed the Demon of Dreams, was that Zephyr was critically injured. As it turned out, Karsaburo wasn't able to be killed in the physical world using conventional means -- he existed in dreams, and he existed everywhere at once. All of time and all of space were his domains. Following that hard lesson, Yugi took Zephyr off to a hospital to recover, and the rest of the team continued on alone.
Their search continued, but only a short time later it took an unexpected turn when Keyo mentioned that her and her 'sister's' shared dreams were becoming erratic... and eventually she up and collapsed. They were contacted from back on Aiernadi by Toshi saying that Nyaako too had collapsed. It seemed that for this stage of the game, Karsaburo had struck a bit closer to home. He was ripping apart the stand which helped them both be independent from within their dreams -- the stand Danica has died to re-forge, theoretically eternally. Suik and Aeria of course rushed straight to Aiernadi, taking Keyoto with them. The two 'sister' princesses needed be close to one another now or they were going to die.
When they arrived on Aiernadi, Karsaburo confronted them all once more. With the help of Toshi, Aeria and Suik managed to once more pin Karsaburo down, but were faced again with the issue of how make sure that he stayed dead. As it would be, it would be Aeria who would figure out how. And old spell from her master's book revealed an altogether simple way to seal an ethereal being in a physical location, so long as there was a focal point. It was with a heavy heart, but Toshi suggested they use his body as the point. Karsaburo's form was sealed in Toshi's body, and Suik proceeded to electrocute the demon to death, forcing out the sin-stone of Gluttony... which Aeria then promptly destroyed. The destruction of this stone prevented Karsaburo from ever becoming a physical being again. Toshi, though gravely injured, was able to be saved because of his covenant with the Lightning Dragon.
In the end, all the sin-stones were destroyed and the galaxy as we know it was saved, but dozens of worlds would be wrapped up in civil war for generations to come, Zephyr and Toshi were reduced to within an inch of their lives, and the freedom of Nyaako and Keyoto was forever severed. the best estimates suggested that, working on the big 'if' that Karsaburo never paraded their dreams again (for he was still alive in the world of dreams) they could last up to two years, and even then they needed to be in close proximately to each-other at all times. Keyoto was effectively grounded on Aiernadi.
The Aftermath
Following the end of all of those conflicts, all the involved players it some way settled down. For Suik, this meant going back to Elfen space and working out with the Elders exactly where he was going to go from here. Iris was dead and he was now unable to collect the De'Zerra fortune as it had been intended by his parents. All the other involved parties settled in their own ways elsewhere, but Aeria came with Suik. While this all happened, they stayed with Jaemelle and Saori. Aeria got along with them well enough, though both found themselves shocked by the Terran -- by how close she had become with Suik, and exactly how little she fathomed it. Saori in particular was jealous until she saw how attached, in her own way, Aeria was to him. Realizing his own mistakes with Naihe, Jaemelle spoke with Suik about the same thing Naihe had been talking to him about for some time -- where he wanted his relationship with Aeria to go.
It took development, time, and convincing, but as it would be, the Elders married Suik and Aeria within a year. Shortly thereafter, unexpected to all and to Suik's utter horror, Aeria became pregnant with a half-Elfen child, commonly known to both Elfen and Terran as a 'child of taboo.' Jaemelle, on learning the news, shook his head and told his best friend that this was for himself, Aeria, and Naihe in his head to work out. Heading Naihe's suggestion, Suik and the pregnant Aeria hopped all over known space, meeting with the various people they'd met during their journey, getting their thoughts. This was a long process, but slowly, Suik came to accept the idea that he might be a father, just as he had come to accept his relationship with Aeria.
Their last stop would be Aiernadi, which would be where the child was born. They named the child Vincent, at Aeria's suggestion, and they went to meet Keyoto. Unfortunately, it would be the last time the three of them would speak. Keyo spoke to both of them independently before speaking to both at once. To Aeria and her conversation Suik never became privy to, but to Suik Keyo talked about how happy she was for him, and assured him that he would be a great father. She said 'after all, you were such a great one to me.' Then, to both of them, she said how glad she was that she got to see them one last time, as well as the birth of their child, Vincent. Her last action as an independent being was to hold Vincent in her arms, smiling. After that, 'Keyo' and 'Nyaako' both died, finally re-combining into the princess of Aiernadi. Suik, Aeria, and Vincent all left after that, to settle down somewhere else... away from all the memories of their effectively dead friend.
Current Life
Suik, Aeria, and Vincent all now live on the relatively small Terran world of Valanar. Vincent is twenty-two, now, and is attending university, often seen along-side his best friend, Mark, a half-demon. The two half-breeds tend to stick together for everything. Aeria, meanwhile, is a stay-at-home mom, but also runs a day-care. There is rarely a time that the house isn't full to the brim with some type of kids, including their second child, Keyoto. Every bit as tenacious as her namesake (though with much more of her mother’s disregard for society norms) the seven year old is something of an adorable terror. Suik, meanwhile, works as an Agent of the Goman Report Bureau, traveling across known space, keeping things safe for everyone. Even so, he tries to be home quite often, almost every night. Aeria wants even more children, even though she has her two. Suik refuses utterly, and in fact Keyoto may have been a 'happy mistake' herself. The Elfen spy tends to be a rather tight lip about that little detail. Yugi lives down the street from them, and they think Zephyr probably lives somewhere on Valanar too.
They have a happy, if somewhat erratic, life going for them.
Early History
Suik was born over five centuries ago into the wealthy De'Zerra family on a wealthy planet within the space controlled by the Elfen Empire. The point he would have been born at on a human calendar was somewhere in the area of 2200, but that's little matter. Anyway, young Suik De'Zerra was initially spoiled and more than a little sheltered for the very early years of his life. But when he was barely twenty-five [still a toddler by the standards of his long-lived people] his last remaining relative, his mother, died of illness. Thus, he became the sole heir to the entirety of the De'Zerra's substantial fortunes... with a clause. Unfortunately for Suik, his father before he died (shortly before Suik was born) willed that the fortune only could be inherited after Suik's marriage to the eldest daughter (who was then unborn) of the Marseli family, another wealthy Elfen family.
As it was, the Marseli family had their first daughter, Iris, in that same year. At birth, she became engaged to Suik on order of the Elders (the rulers of the Elfen, as they nod to venerability) to fulfill the will of Suik's father. From here on out, Suik was raised by the Elders themselves, who took in the young orphan. He knew Iris all her life; he played with her when she was born and got to knew her as he grew up -- the two were good friends, but the Elders could see their connection was not as deep as it should be. Certainly not as deep as the bond Suik was quickly forming with another boy at this time. An older boy from the Celestia family, Freidei, became Suik's first real friend, and after a sparse three years together to two became very close. It was apparent to both the Elders and to the tow of them that these two would be friends all their lives.
Well, time passed, and eventually, when Suik was about a hundred years old (making his friend Freidei somewhere in the area of 150 and Iris 75) he found that Iris was, in fact, not the first daughter of the Marseli family. However, the will explicitly excluded a daughter of that family (if they were still alive) under one condition -- that they ceased to exist, while still remaining alive. In Elfen society there are two ways this can happen -- exile from Elfen space (though in this case you're legally considered dead) or joining the ranks of the legendary Xei. The true eldest daughter of the Marseli, Naihe, has done the former. Naihe, as Xeiname 'Phoenix,' was a guardian of Elfen space, protecting her people from demons and other things which would move in on their largely peaceful society. Suik and Freidei were introduced to her by Iris on that day when Naihe returned to visit her family, having recently completed her first mission following her Xei training. All three were captivated by her and her power, her authority. What happened next would make all of Suik's family members (the De’Zerra that is) roll in their graves.
Life as a Xei
Suik and his friend Freidei both signed on to training as Xei. The Xei, a secretive force of Elfen Empire who amounted to everything from secret agents to police forces, to spec-ops soldiers, and their official duty -- demon hunting. Since the dawn of Elfen society there had been exceptional Elfen who in some field or another where far, far above the bar of the (considerable) psychic abilities of the Elfen as a whole. As it turned out, both Suik and Freidei fit this bill. Time passed as they both underwent the rigorous training which needs to happen to become a full-fledged Xei and they were both given their Xeinames. Left alone on the outside, Iris would follow along in their footsteps, and past this point, Freidei's younger sister, Saori. The training for the Xei is extensive and time-consuming, but by the standard of generations before, Freidei and Suik both finished exceptionally fast. Suik was two hundred when he was assigned to his first mission. And from that point on, he and Freidei were both paired together with Naihe as their commanding officer as a special-forces unit.
While Iris and Saori were both left behind (as both were much younger and still trainees in the Xei lifestyle) Freidei, Suik, and Naihe would all attest that those days when they were all a team, going out on missions and protecting Elfen space, while stressful, were the best days of their lives. All three of them developed exceptional bonds towards each other, but more and more to Freidei it was becoming apparent that Naihe and Suik held deep feelings of love towards each other... but both held back for various reasons. Naihe, of course, was painfully aware that her beloved younger sister was the betrothed of the man she was growing to love-- and in those days, Suik was Iris's world, as much if not more than Naihe was to Iris. Suik, in turn, held back for the fact the Naihe was both significantly older... and, as he often was in those days, he was blind to her feelings. He felt that if he made his move, so to speak, she would not share his sentiments. He was trapped by fear. Freidei, always reckless but always perceptive, was aware of everything in this very strange triangle, but felt that things would see themselves out.
...Unfortunately, Freidei could not have been more wrong, something that he to the day regrets. Naihe was sent out on a solo mission when Suik was roughly three hundred fifty years old. Naturally, all three of them had a strong mental link to each other by this time, but Naihe's connection to both of them was extremely strong, due to her larger grasp of telepathy as compared to most other Elfen. Thus, when Naihe's life was put in significant danger of ending, the resulting mental shock to Freidei and Suik was great. They themselves were on a mission of their own, but in a moment of recklessness characteristic of him in those days, Suik immediately took off to try to find Naihe. Freidei was left to finish the pair's mission alone, something he gladly did, figuring that his friend would save Naihe somehow. As it was, Suik did indeed save Naihe... but at a terrible cost. To the date, Suik has only ever confessed the exact parameters of what happened to Freidei, who has never spoken to anyone about it, but when Suik returned from going to save Naihe, his formerly sky blue eyes had been replaced with pupil-less silver and he was carrying her body.
In short, Suik performed a long-forgotten ritual of the Elfen he had learned of in the databank of the Xei. A ritual which was forgotten for a reason; the cost to both parties involved is so terrible that it was labeled as taboo. The ritual binds the soul of a recently dead Elfen into another container. Suik had assumed he could bring Naihe back from the dead with this, but he didn't know the two purpose of the ritual -- he had inadvertently sealed Naihe's soul within his own body, and the strain of two souls on even someone with mental powers as fantastic as his own was terrible indeed. Suik collapsed the minute he returned with Naihe's body, and Freidei took him in to rest in the house of the Celestia family. Iris were about to complete the Xei training by now, but in light of this crisis, both of them took off to go the House Celestia as well. The next part of the time period is hazy. For a period almost as long as a year, Freidei was forced to speak with the Elders in council meetings on behalf of his friend, who was in a coma. Saori cared for Suik while he lay resting in her house. Iris, meanwhile, locked herself away, unable to accept that it seemed like both her sister and her loved one were gone.
After much deliberation, the Elders concluded that the suffering Suik was going through now was enough of a punishment, and that unless the soul of Naihe within him asked for more, assuming he awoke again; they would pardon him of his crime of performing the taboo ritual. Freidei then asked them how to awaken him, to which the Elders answered they knew of no method. Frustrated and more than a little angry, Freidei tireless the searched the old texts for a way to save his best friend even as his sister continued to care for Suik. In the end, what Freidei found to save Suik was a desperate gambit, and one which is also a taboo art. Freidei performed a ritual with eternally gave all of his psychic power to Suik, giving his friend the unnatural power of two Elfen -- enough to barely support the concept of two souls in one body. Freidei lost all of his psychic powers from telepathy to telekinetic ability, and for his crime he was removed from the Xei and never allowed to work a legitimate job in Elfen space again. However, his plan worked -- Suik awoke.
Intermediate Period
Suik awaking had such a profound effect on all parties involved, that by no less than a year later, they had all chosen their taken names. In Elfen society, when an Elfen feels the time is right, they made revise their birth name with a new 'chosen' name which they feel fits them better. Freidei was forever known afterwards as Jaemelle (meaning 'ever friend' in old Elfen). For all the others, their taken names were more symbolic than anything -- Iris took Dramelle ('ever hatred') the soul of Naihe within Suik's body took Eskmelle ('ever love'), Saori took Naihe, the name of Suik's most beloved... and Suik himself took 'Seraphiel,' who in Elfen culture (specifically the culture of the Xei) are said to be the messengers and works of Tomhet, a god associated with the bleak nothingness that comes with both the dawn and the end of the universe. Iris, while still officially engaged to Suik, swore that she would one day kill him to set her sisters soul free, and as a punishment for loving another. Saori, meanwhile, due to her time of bed-nursing Suik, had come to love him as well.
For Suik's part, on the day he awoke, he all but gave up on living. He ignored Saori's feelings and accepted Iris's oath with a sense of resolution -- he too felt he deserved that. Jaemelle and Naihe inside him were the only things which could start to inspire hope in him, and gave him the motivation to come to the conclusion he did -- that he would remain alive until the time that Iris would kill him, because Iris was the one that deserved to give him his fitting punishment for his Sin. He was still officially a Xei, so he worked tirelessly on missions for the next century or so -- never so much as returning home to Elfen space once. Jaemelle and Saori regularly visited him on the naval ship he unofficially had stationed himself on, but for the most part he also shut himself off from anyone and everyone which could remind him of the past. Slowly, the two of them reached into him though. Slowly, the wounds which were once raw from Naihe's deal were becoming (if painful) scars.
In any case, while Jaemelle was discharged from the Xei and Iris unofficially quite, both Saori and Suik dove head-first into their work. They were partners, for a time, but it soon became clear that Suik was in another class all together. He became an avenging angel, seeking out anyone and everyone who he or the Elfen as a whole felt deserved death, all the while questioning Naihe in his -- their -- head for who killed her. During this period, he rarely returned back to Elfen space, instead stationing himself on an Elfen warship which was doing long-distance patrols around the outer-most borders of Elfen space. He slowly lost contact with Saori, his official partner, and then Jaemelle, and finally with the Elders themselves when he finally hit on the lead he'd been searching for.
As it turned out, Naihe's killer was another Elfen. An exile that went by the name 'Ruirin.' His motives were unclear to either party, and once Suik found the trail of Ruirin [close to seventy years before the present date], he never bothered to try to figure it out. He spent twenty years tailing the exile and the organization that he had joined, and when he was done with it, he killed everyone in it, burning their home base to ashes. However, this search did not come fruitlessly -- Ruirin appeared after that incident, carrying a half-dozen stones only a little smaller than a common baseball. At the time, Suik couldn't know what those sphere were, but that incident lead to a deadly duel. The two battled for almost three hours straight, but when both were exhausted to the limits of their strength, Suik 'met' someone who would later become a key player in his later life. A demon that identified himself as 'Hienton' broke in on their fight, killed Ruirin, and stole the strange stones. Suik, battered and tired, returned to the naval vessel he'd stationed himself on and used his authority as a Xei to demand them to give chase to Hienton's space ship.
Suik chased Hienton to a remote world colonized by a primitive species they knew as the 'Terrans' but identified themselves as 'humans.' Terrans had first come into contact with the Elfen some hundred or so years past, and were by the standards of the Elfen an extremely young and short-lived race. Either way, the demon Hienton landed on the Terran world of Chien. Suik of course pursued him onto it. It was his duty -- to hunt demons -- but more than that, he wanted to avenge Naihe. This demon had stolen his chance to personally kill Ruirin, and Suik intended to fix this error. The battle with Hienton took place over a period of some seven days, resulting in massive amounts of death to the local population as Hienton absorbed their life-forces to increase his own power. In the end, however, Suik managed to seemingly destroy Hienton. When he returned to the ship, however, he discovered at what cost.
When he returned to his ship, the Elders finally accomplished what they had wanted to do for some time now. Suik's attack on Ruirin and the following pursuit of Hienton without prior informing of the Elders gave sufficient evidence to what the taboo had already suggested -- that he was unfit to continue as a Xei and that he was a traitor to Elfen-kind. Suik was stripped of his name and labeled as an exile, just like Ruirin. He was now to be known as his Xeiname ("Zero") and was never to return to Elfen space. In addition to this, the captain of the naval vessel he was on administered the 'mark of exile' -- a tattoo in the shape of a cross over his right eye with navy blue ink. He was left stranded on Chien, and forced to make his own existence from there.
Exile Period
And thus began the life of the Elfen exile, Zero. The first fifty or so years were largely uneventful. Zero gained skills and learned much about the universe outside of Elfen space. He learned how humans lived and died, and learned just what they did to get through their relatively short lives. He gained a great many practical skills as well, such a haggling, or how to deal with human -- Terran, as the Elfen knew them -- mentalities related to material things, religion, and politics. He learned how to make use of his psionic abilities for purposes other than battle, and learned well how to travel with little more than the clothes on his back. He would go to a planet, do some odd-jobs, use the money he earned on that world to support him there, and within a few weeks at most, he'd move on. In time he grew to be satisfied with this life -- to an extent, even to like it. Certainly, it allowed him to escape most of the reality of his Sin. To Zero, it seemed a suitable way to live, shamed but contented, until Iris finally came to kill him.
However, the real excitement in Zero's life as an exile began with meeting a man named Draco. One night, getting a room on a relatively remote Terran world, Draco Lunarik helped Zero get a room by way of pretending to be his date. As 'payment' for that, Draco manipulated Zero into taking in his 'younger sister,' Keyoto, as a traveling mate. Zero was reluctant at first, but something in Keyo reminded Zero of Saori. While Keyo was barely fifteen years old, and a Terran, she somehow displayed a maturity far, far beyond that of what a fifteen year old girl should be capable of -- such that in many ways, it seemed like Draco depended more on her than she on him, despite his position as 'older brother' to her. In the end, Zero accepted Draco's demand. Draco took off alone for the world known as Kix, while Zero, Keyo, and her stuffed blue rabbit Momo, set off the continue the adventures of Zero's exile.
His travels with Keyo had him meet two more souls who would eventually complete the mainstay of his traveling party on the planet Gamma, which was at the border of the space the Terran Republic controlled and the space controlled by the Nekon Protectorate. After a large misadventure there with a group known as the 'Bandit Rangers' as well as with a man named Antonio Forester, Zero ended up with two more girl companions. One of them was Yugi Hagane, one of the 'Bandit Rangers' themselves. She was a punk-ish, bombastic half-Elfen, half-Terran telepath, who Zero took in as a promise to her dead brother, Sessha, who died saving his, Yugi's, and Keyo's life. The other was a Terran woman named Aeria Gloris. She was twenty-two, but acted little better than a ten-year-old, pronouncing that Zero was going to teach her 'badass magic'
...Well, there are a huge number of other tales from his exile with these few individuals, but I'll expand on this later, because that would be really, really time consuming. The only things you really need to know to go on are thusly -- First, Draco was an incomplete human, and his other part was named Zephyr Gallur. They're both components of a man named Zephyr Windrift, and eventually re-combined to create that man again. Second, Keyo was a component of the princess of the planet Aiernadi, largely unknown to her. Third, those stones Ruirin was holding and Hienton took, were known as the 'sin-stones,' and each represented one of the seven deadly sins. They gave extraordinary power to their uses, and Hienton (now reborn as the demon overlord Zwei) used them to manipulate others to cause all hell of problems for everyone. Like I said, there's a lot more, but that's why I'm skimping it a little.
Homecoming
Eventually, Zero's travels and trials (most notably working with insurgent forces to defeat Emperor Fish of the newly made 'Terran Empire' to stop a new Xeno-war and proceeding to kill a man named Ryo Sha who was the actual person behind the uprising) lead him to start to actively hunt out the remaining sin-stones, because of the damaged they caused and the damnation they put on the people who use them (such as Ryo Sha, who was slowly transformed into a demonic being by his stone of Envy). This pursuit let him destroy the stones for Envy, Lust, Wrath, Sloth, and Greed. Unfortunately, Pride was held by none other than the seeming mastermind behind this whole plot -- the self-proclaimed 'demon overlord,' Zwei.
Unfortunately, Zwei's forces -- which had previously only really consisted of two women -- had swell considerably. Up until now, his right-hand person had been a woman named Yume, who may have once been a Terran, but was now something akin to a zombie who would live as long as Zwei lived but was madly in love with him and more than a little psycho. The other was a Vaan girl named Lillia, who the group had done away with before now in a very long and tragic story. His forces, in fact, had become legion -- from the far reaches of space, Zwei had somehow created a Demon Armada -- thousands of space-born battleships filled to the brim with war-happy demons, working to create a new universal order. After initial infiltration was complete, Zero and his allies discovered that they were going to target Elfen space.
Well, long story short, Zero returned home to warn his people. Because he was an exile, and because he brought with him two Terrans and a half-Elfen on top of that (plus some people that followed him there) they initially wanted to put him under arrest, but Saori and Jaemelle invoked an ancient Elfen custom -- they gave themselves freely to arrest under the Elders to allow Zero and the others to stay there until they finished their hearing with the Elders. Zero and co thus had one shot to convince the Elders of the Elfen of an immediate danger of the Armada. And while the Elders did listen, they concluded that there was unfinished business that Zero needed to attend to before his word, even ignoring his exile status, could be trusted. Thus, with his companions in tow, Zero went to visit the one woman he had always been waiting to confront again... his fiancée, Iris.
Initially, perhaps as expected, after their initial talk, Zero intended to let Iris kill him. He figured that then, in death, Naihe would not only be set free, but Iris would be free of her chains and his word would have merit now with all his debts behind him. He figured that in dying he might save everyone. Yugi didn't like this choice, but she could see the logic in it, so she didn't directly protest it. Keyo considered it to be Zero's choice, and while she was hurting, she allowed him to go through with it. ...Fortunately, Aeria is not as accepting. As Iris was about to strike Zero done, Aeria kicked Iris to the ground, saying that the 'exile Zero belongs to me alone! I mean I sleep with him!' Needless to say... this infuriated Iris, who then tried to strike down Aeria due to the misunderstanding of words. Aeria has meant to incite her, but the fact of the matter is that Zero and she had never had sex. Either way, in the resulting fight, Iris ended up dead, killed by Zero.
This reversal of fates seemed oddly expected by the Elders, who then prepared defenses against the Demon Armada... but they had one more job for the Elfen exile to do in order to let Saori and Jaemelle go free. Namely, he and his companions needed to personally assassinate Zwei. Now, I could tell the epic tale of how they did this, but suffice it to say that they did, and that the Elfen forces (with some help from Terrans and Nekon) managed to repel the Demon Armada. I should go into more detail sometime later...
The Dream Demon
Now with the Demon Armada stopped and Emperor Fish's reign in shambles, there remained only one more loose end for the newly re-named Suik to tie up. The sin-stones for greed, lust, envy, wrath sloth, and now pride destroyed; there remained only one more - gluttony, the one which he never witnessed before. Determined to put an end to everything that Zwei had started, Suik set off with Aeria, Yugi, Keyoto, and the newly re-made Zephyr Windrift beside him. They were searching for the origins of Zwei (and by extension, Hienton's) rise to power. They had little to go on but for what Yugi were able to extract from Yume's mind in the short period between Zwei and her death. The team traveled the far end of space, through the Nekon Protectorate and into the unknown reaches of space.
In the far reaches they discovered the first operational demon gate, which had been functioning far longer than ever the Elfen or the Vaan had been sentient species. There, they also found one of Xaviel's people -- a Creator. The creator, who they never learned them name of, was dying for much the same reason Xaviel had been so weak, namely that he hadn't used his energy in far too long and he was going to burst. Before he died, he gave Suik knowledge which he could use in his hunt. Namely, the one that opened this demon gate was the holder of the Gluttony stone, the self-titled 'Demon of Dreams,' Karsaburo.
Following this, the five went through a series of misadventures, trying to track the elusive fiend. During this chase, many small planets in the Nekon Protectorate were reduced to little more than over-sized ghettos as the populations of these planets were reduced to raving lunatics in Karsaburo and the team's came of deadly cat and mouse. Eventually, when they seemed to have him pinned back in Terran space, they came across a terrible fact. The end result of that battle, though they seemed to have killed the Demon of Dreams, was that Zephyr was critically injured. As it turned out, Karsaburo wasn't able to be killed in the physical world using conventional means -- he existed in dreams, and he existed everywhere at once. All of time and all of space were his domains. Following that hard lesson, Yugi took Zephyr off to a hospital to recover, and the rest of the team continued on alone.
Their search continued, but only a short time later it took an unexpected turn when Keyo mentioned that her and her 'sister's' shared dreams were becoming erratic... and eventually she up and collapsed. They were contacted from back on Aiernadi by Toshi saying that Nyaako too had collapsed. It seemed that for this stage of the game, Karsaburo had struck a bit closer to home. He was ripping apart the stand which helped them both be independent from within their dreams -- the stand Danica has died to re-forge, theoretically eternally. Suik and Aeria of course rushed straight to Aiernadi, taking Keyoto with them. The two 'sister' princesses needed be close to one another now or they were going to die.
When they arrived on Aiernadi, Karsaburo confronted them all once more. With the help of Toshi, Aeria and Suik managed to once more pin Karsaburo down, but were faced again with the issue of how make sure that he stayed dead. As it would be, it would be Aeria who would figure out how. And old spell from her master's book revealed an altogether simple way to seal an ethereal being in a physical location, so long as there was a focal point. It was with a heavy heart, but Toshi suggested they use his body as the point. Karsaburo's form was sealed in Toshi's body, and Suik proceeded to electrocute the demon to death, forcing out the sin-stone of Gluttony... which Aeria then promptly destroyed. The destruction of this stone prevented Karsaburo from ever becoming a physical being again. Toshi, though gravely injured, was able to be saved because of his covenant with the Lightning Dragon.
In the end, all the sin-stones were destroyed and the galaxy as we know it was saved, but dozens of worlds would be wrapped up in civil war for generations to come, Zephyr and Toshi were reduced to within an inch of their lives, and the freedom of Nyaako and Keyoto was forever severed. the best estimates suggested that, working on the big 'if' that Karsaburo never paraded their dreams again (for he was still alive in the world of dreams) they could last up to two years, and even then they needed to be in close proximately to each-other at all times. Keyoto was effectively grounded on Aiernadi.
The Aftermath
Following the end of all of those conflicts, all the involved players it some way settled down. For Suik, this meant going back to Elfen space and working out with the Elders exactly where he was going to go from here. Iris was dead and he was now unable to collect the De'Zerra fortune as it had been intended by his parents. All the other involved parties settled in their own ways elsewhere, but Aeria came with Suik. While this all happened, they stayed with Jaemelle and Saori. Aeria got along with them well enough, though both found themselves shocked by the Terran -- by how close she had become with Suik, and exactly how little she fathomed it. Saori in particular was jealous until she saw how attached, in her own way, Aeria was to him. Realizing his own mistakes with Naihe, Jaemelle spoke with Suik about the same thing Naihe had been talking to him about for some time -- where he wanted his relationship with Aeria to go.
It took development, time, and convincing, but as it would be, the Elders married Suik and Aeria within a year. Shortly thereafter, unexpected to all and to Suik's utter horror, Aeria became pregnant with a half-Elfen child, commonly known to both Elfen and Terran as a 'child of taboo.' Jaemelle, on learning the news, shook his head and told his best friend that this was for himself, Aeria, and Naihe in his head to work out. Heading Naihe's suggestion, Suik and the pregnant Aeria hopped all over known space, meeting with the various people they'd met during their journey, getting their thoughts. This was a long process, but slowly, Suik came to accept the idea that he might be a father, just as he had come to accept his relationship with Aeria.
Their last stop would be Aiernadi, which would be where the child was born. They named the child Vincent, at Aeria's suggestion, and they went to meet Keyoto. Unfortunately, it would be the last time the three of them would speak. Keyo spoke to both of them independently before speaking to both at once. To Aeria and her conversation Suik never became privy to, but to Suik Keyo talked about how happy she was for him, and assured him that he would be a great father. She said 'after all, you were such a great one to me.' Then, to both of them, she said how glad she was that she got to see them one last time, as well as the birth of their child, Vincent. Her last action as an independent being was to hold Vincent in her arms, smiling. After that, 'Keyo' and 'Nyaako' both died, finally re-combining into the princess of Aiernadi. Suik, Aeria, and Vincent all left after that, to settle down somewhere else... away from all the memories of their effectively dead friend.
Current Life
Suik, Aeria, and Vincent all now live on the relatively small Terran world of Valanar. Vincent is twenty-two, now, and is attending university, often seen along-side his best friend, Mark, a half-demon. The two half-breeds tend to stick together for everything. Aeria, meanwhile, is a stay-at-home mom, but also runs a day-care. There is rarely a time that the house isn't full to the brim with some type of kids, including their second child, Keyoto. Every bit as tenacious as her namesake (though with much more of her mother’s disregard for society norms) the seven year old is something of an adorable terror. Suik, meanwhile, works as an Agent of the Goman Report Bureau, traveling across known space, keeping things safe for everyone. Even so, he tries to be home quite often, almost every night. Aeria wants even more children, even though she has her two. Suik refuses utterly, and in fact Keyoto may have been a 'happy mistake' herself. The Elfen spy tends to be a rather tight lip about that little detail. Yugi lives down the street from them, and they think Zephyr probably lives somewhere on Valanar too.
They have a happy, if somewhat erratic, life going for them.