Author’s Note: HEY FOLKS! I posted this separately for the folks who don't like BDSM, but I wanted to make sure those who had this story on alert got to see it. If this is against the rules (I don't think it qualifies as a repost cause it's an epilogue not the whole story, but tell me if you think it's a problem and I'll remove it!) WARNING: This piece can stand alone, but you should read the prologue and first two chapters (See profile links), or this epilogue won’t be as powerful. However, the first sections are torture, bondage and Sasuke-abuse, so I posted this separately for those who don't find those theme to be there cup of tea. Reviews are my muse food and are greatly appreciated. Seriously, you guys are all that keeps me writing.

Encore

Sasuke had imagined this brief firing of synapses in the mind of Father Time, this point of existence in the vast void of the universe, for the better part of his life. In his dreams, he saw it. In his rage, he saw it. In his hatred, he saw it.

Now.

It was here.

Faced with the inevitability of the end, it was almost a disappointment to be here. Now. With him. Anti-climatic even.

“I will leave this darkness, and you will be my new light, foolish little brother.”

Itachi’s fingers trembled with excitement as he reached to him, his nails eclipsing Sasuke’s vision like inversed crescent moons. Instead of resisting, he bowed his head and knelt. He could almost hear Itachi’s shock vibrating in the air. Sasuke suppressed the mirth bubbling beneath the surface of his skin, lifting his eyes to his opponent’s gaze. He forced himself to remember every pain – the blood of his parents, the lifeless Uchiha district, the deserted police station, the severed bonds with his teammates, the emptiness of his life at Sound, the shame of yielding.

Itachi stopped his slow advance, as good as backpedaling from any other opponent.

“You have taken everything from me,” Sasuke hissed, letting the strength of his hatred throb in his eyes, giving Itachi one last chance to see the truth. “Take your light and leave me to die.”

Sasuke offered himself.

Itachi, in his ignorance, reached forward, forgetting his own words.

Not enough hatred.

Sasuke allowed his eyes to be plucked from his own head without so much as a whimper. After all, he had endured worse for the last three years.

Itachi’s near sightless eyes glinted with euphoria.

Before the katana pierced his lung.

“You must see beneath the unseen, foolish brother,” Sasuke rasped, his eye sockets gaping holes, and white bones gleaming in his red, red mouth.

Itachi stared as the illusion dissipated, but Sasuke’s eyes were still only dark spaces that seeped blood and trailed limp optic nerves. “How…”

Sasuke’s nose twisted and his laughter was the hiss of an ancient serpent. The curse marks moved, black worms across his skin, a demon painted black. “I merely supplied a tactic sensation to enhance the genjutsu, to bind you to my illusionary world.”

“Your…eyes,” Itachi wheezed, inhaling, slicing his lung on the unyielding metal in his chest, feeling the soft, wet squish of them between his fingers. “You…gave…me…your…eyes…”

“I don’t need to see you to see you,” Sasuke spat with relish, twisting the katana handle. “Your body heat is light enough.”

Itachi twitched his arms and his stoic eyes widened.

“Don’t bother,” Sasuke whispered, his macabre face a centimeter from Itachi’s. “The blade was laced with poison.”

Itachi’s eyes slid closed.

“Sleep tight, brother.”

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

There was darkness.

At first, he thought himself blindfolded. It was only when he blinked that he knew the truth. There was nothing behind his eyelids.

Gone.

The chains shook, belying his fear, fear even he would not voice, not even to the darkest corners of his consciousness.

“Ah, so you are awake.”

He willed his limbs to stop shaking. They disobeyed him.

“Perhaps it is too soon to begin, but I am impatient.”

Who? Who? Who?

“It has been too long, brother.”

His light. His light. His light.

“You used your eyes too much, nearly made them useless, but I kept them anyway.”

No. No. No.

“Spares, I suppose.”

Hot breath on his cheek. He jerked away.

“Now…”

Don’t take the light.

“…We shall remake you.”

The End

Author Notes: Yes, this is what I had planned from the start. Kishimoto just made it better and more morbid and fabulously in line with what I had planned forever ago.