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>> THE YEAR OF DESTINY
Fast forward to 1999. The world is at the millennial edge, and the final battle to determine man's fate is about to begin. The Dragons of Earth (also known as the seven angels) will grant the earth a revolution by destroying mankind, while the Dragons of Heaven (aka the seven seals) will stand up for humanity in this nightmarish struggle. Subaru and Seishirou are now fighting on opposite sides, one as a seal and the other as an angel. They don't appear to interact very often and when they do, the mood is always one of repressed hostility and their meetings more or less end with a big fight. They are both incredibly misled about each other's intentions, and neither can seem to guess each other's thoughts. You can always feel the tension in the air when they appear in the same scene, but even so, old habits are hard to break and their feelings about each other haven't entirely faded away either.
>> THE SEAL
The Subaru in Tokyo Babylon and X are so incredibly different, both appearance and personality wise, that it's hard to talk about them as the same person without going off on a tangent. For one, being rejected by Seishirou and losing his sister to the man he loves has completely robbed him of his innocence. This is apparent in the way he looks and dresses. His hair's cut shorter and his eyes have lost that brilliant shade of emerald green that made them once so beautiful and enchanting. Instead they're like grey-green glass surfaces that reflect neither happiness nor anger. If he's feeling any stirrings of emotion deep down, then his eyes are doing a good job of disguising that. It's been nine years, so he's a lot older and looks a lot more masculine. Gone are the black tank, red jacket and matching hat he used to be so fond of wearing; he now prefers black pants, boots and a long, white trench coat instead. He's also ditched his gloves for bare hands. He smokes a lot - no doubt a habit he's picked up from his former lover. Subaru wanders around Tokyo, still performing his onmyouji duties as necessary, but his mind is still elsewhere and he doesn't seem to be in touch with what's going on between the seals and angels. Even Arashi and Sorata took a while persuading him to see Princess Hinoto and join them as a comrade. Sometimes, he just looks angry and seems hell-bent on killing Seishirou. But is that what he really wished for?
>> THE ANGEL
Seishirou is pretty much the same guy he used to be and always has been, except he's more forthright, looks cooler and has dropped that "I-am-a-kind-and-harmless-veterinarian" facade of his. He smiles a lot - a smile of indifference that's plastered on his face indefinitely. Even if buildings are collapsing, barrier fields are dissolving and people are dying, Seishirou will still be watching from afar through his black shades, puffing his cigarette and smiling his smile. He's kept his cool demeanor as always, so much so that he has time to enjoy an ice cream with his fellow Dragon of Earth, Fuuma. Throughout, Seishirou has attempted to figure Subaru out and read him like an open book. After Hokuto died, Subaru closed his doors to the world and shut himself inside his own heart. Seishirou believes it is Subaru's wish to kill him, and he's cool about it but once again, he's wrong and the truth is not revealed to him until he's knocking at Death's door...
>> THE DUAL
Subaru and Seishirou's X saga plays out like a Shakespearean tragedy that will only end in death, whether it's physical or emotional death. The outcome is so bleak that it weighs down on you until the climactic confrontation in episode 16. You watch one thing lead to another, and even though you know how it's all going to turn out, you somehow wish that reality would be different. Just as Hinoto said, she may have known about Saiki's destiny to die, but somewhere at the back of her mind she's wishing hard that there would be a different outcome, because after all, the future has not been determined yet.