After more than a year of waiting, the sequel to Defending their Hero is here.
Disclaimer: This really isn't needed at this point.
If it were anyone else, the person waltzing through the prison beside Walker as if he owned the place would have garnered more than a few curious stares. However, Plasmius was not just anyone, so the prison guards barely spared him a glance.
"Walker!" a prison guard called out as he hastened towards them.
"What is it?" Walker asked irritably.
"It's the halfa, sir. Prisoner 5563 and 5564 won't let him go."
Alarm grew in Plasmius but he kept his face carefully blank.
"Lead us to him," Walker said curtly.
They wasted no time navigating through the prison passageways until they reached a cell where the hallway was saturated with prison guards.
"Who did you leave Daniel with?" Plasmius asked Walker. Deep down, he already knew.
"Spectra and Bertrand. Your suggestion was to keep him mentally insecure," Walker replied.
The guards parted to allow them passage to the cell. Plasmius was not happy with what he saw.
A large lion stood at the opened door, batting away prison guards effortlessly as if swatting flies in the air. The way it carried itself screamed of arrogance and ecstasy. Things didn't look to be in Daniel's favour.
Behind the lion, Spectra had an arm wrapped around Daniel in a parody of a mother's embrace as she whispered poisonous words into his ear. Her green eyes lit up when her gaze met his. Her lips curved up at the corners and she tightened her hold on Daniel, bringing her other arm around Daniel's neck. Vlad silently seethed at her blatant challenge of his power. She was trying to control what belonged to him and she knew it, revelled in the illusion that she was strong enough to steal from him.
"Nobody loves you," Spectra whispered. For the first time since Vlad reached the cell, he noticed the son he had always wanted.
What he saw made his blood freeze.
The emerald orbs, once bright with confidence and determination were like twin black holes. They were empty, dull and seemed to draw him into its endless depths. The Daniel before him was completely broken. He took no notice of the fact that he was being held captive by an enemy. He did not seem aware of his surrounding. Daniel was like a puppet with his strings cut.
Perfect, if not for the fact that it was Spectra who broke him.
"You are unwanted," Spectra said softly into Daniel's ear.
Bertrand roared as the halfa's despair filled him. His power was so great that it was almost palpable, rolling off him like waves. It seemed that Daniel was functioning very efficiently as their battery. He had to take Daniel away from them. Energy could not be created or destroyed but it could be converted from one form to another. To make Bertrand so powerful, Daniel was being torn apart.
Already, the boy was having trouble keeping his form. His outline was hazy and his limbs were starting to take on the consistency of mist. A few times, he came close to fading away. With Daniel's state of mind, if he unravelled completely, he might not be able to put himself back together. Vlad would lose a valuable chess piece.
"I believe the boy is mine." Plasmius stepped boldly before the lion. Should a battle of power broke out, Vlad was confident that he had the upper hand.
"That's a lie. Your own parents abandoned you. Why should an outsider want you?" Spectra continued to poison Daniel's mind.
"I have great plans for young Daniel. If you become my son, Daniel, I can give you anything," Vlad said.
The dull eyes lit up briefly and Vlad caught a glimsp of the headstrong Daniel he was familiar with, but as soon as the spark appeared, it was snuffed out and the glazed look returned. Vlad felt a flicker of concern. Daniel had always been stubborn to a fault, always insisting that he would be the hero who would never give up. It made him wonder how deeply Spectra had dug. He didn't want to finally possess Daniel only to find him too broken for his purposes.
"I want you, Daniel. You will become my son and I will teach you my skills and secrets. The person who abandoned you can never comprehend your full potential but I can, Daniel. If you want to come with me, you have to take the first step. Let me know that you want me and I will come," Vlad said. He quietly readied himself for battle. Daniel should be able to respond not matter how deeply Spectra dug into his mind. If not, perhaps the teen was not such a good investment after all.
A game of waiting began. Vlad held his ground, doing nothing to neither encourage nor discourage Daniel. He needed Daniel to ask him to save him. In the future, should Daniel start accusing him of holding the teen against his will, Vlad would be able to point out that it was Daniel who asked Vlad to take him away.
Slowly, Daniel's lips parted and formed a word.
"Please."
The whisper reached Vlad's ears and he struck. A calculated ectoblast left the massive lion disorientated and easy prey for the rest of the guards. Plasmius headed straight for the other prisoner.
"Release him," Vlad said.
"You don't need him. I can make full use of him. Look at all this power. Even the air is filled with it. And the best thing is, I can drive him even deeper into despair." Spectra was flirting with the boundary between sanity and madness. She might have saturated the prison cell with power, but Bertrand couldn't control all of it and she was now paying for it. The sheer magnitude of power was making her drunk and slowly pushing her towards insanity. He personally wouldn't mind if she went crazy, but what of Daniel?
He slowly peeled Spectra off Daniel. The ghost was so drunk with power that she giggled while her feeble attempts to keep her hold on Daniel failed utterly against Vlad's strength. Pitiful. The display only showed that not everyone could handle the power he and Daniel were destined to wield.
"I shall leave them to you," Plasmius said to Walker.
Looking down at Daniel, Vlad noticed that the boy could barely move. Young Daniel would need a good night's rest before he could be useful to anyone. Vlad swept Daniel into his arms.
"Let's go home."
I hope this was worth the wait.