The betrayer
A.N.: A little fic from Schwann/Raven's eyes.
Summary: Schwann wishes to deny the part of him called Raven as he sees himself fighting his once friends in the shrine of Baction.
*spoilers if you haven't fought Schwann yet*!
If you don't like RavenxYuri, you can just ignore the very last part of the story… (The one between the [])…
He was Schwann Oltorain. It was all he was, Raven was not him… Or at least that's what he tried to force into his mind as he faced his –NO!-, Raven's friends. They wanted to save the little lady, and Alexei's orders for him were to make sure they would never stand in his way again…
He convinced himself that Alexei's, his savior's orders, were the only laws he needed to uphold. He calmed his mind as he faced the disbelieving youths' faces: he would fight them with all he had… and he would kill them.
His nerves ceased to send any sort of signal throughout his body as he drew his sword. He tried not to see the look of fear on some of his opponents' faces. They too realized that they would have to fight him, and so, they also readied their weapons.
His warrior's instincts told him that the best thing to do was to lead the dance, so he started the battle. He immediately spotted his first target: someone who wouldn't be able to react at his first blow…
He closed his mind as he threw himself at the bunch. They were like a pack of monsters to him: scattering at the approach of an enemy running full force onto them. They probably thought that he wasn't serious in that run, but he was… They probably didn't expect the man they had believed their friend would raise his sword and cut through the flesh of one of their own; himself probably didn't believe it either.
His mind screamed in agony, much more than the one he was killing, as his blade met with the tender young flesh of the small twelve years old boy. He had seen the boy like a son -NO!- Raven! That stranger that was not him: HE saw the kid like a son. But he was Schwann, and Schwann did not need to verse tears as his blade sunk in the tender body like it was butter. The sharp blade didn't even stop as it met the adolescent's bones…
Behind him he heard a scream. It was angry and desperate. He knew that sort of cry: he had heard it many times during the war. They were screams of mothers who wanted to save their children by getting the enemy's attention; even when they knew it was too late…
The beautiful kritya was really no more than an easy target to Schwann: she had just attacked him senselessly, without any attention to her guard: rage had her blinded. She jumped, her deadly spear held high above her head, ready to strike full force on her enemy. But her descent was like slow motion to the well trained captain of the knights. He watched her slowly come down while he dislodged his weapon from the youth who let go of his very last breath. In a fluid move, devoid of hesitation, he plunged the blade right into her chest. He ironically hit the heart dead on, he who had tried so had to do this on the metaphorical level –NO!-: that had been Raven, not him...
A terrible expression of fear and surprise would now forever grace her beautiful features. She gasped: her very last action as a living, as her torn heart ceased to provide her body with the much needed life force.
When the kritya went limp and dropped her spear to the ground, he noticed the mage. She was casting magic, even when her voice trembled, even while her eyes cried, even now that she felt so powerless…
He made a move, settling for that next target, as he noticed the spell was coming to an end. The fast moving creature on his right alerted him however. And he barely had the time to dodge a blow from the four legged beast, one that could very well have amputated his right leg, if he hadn't. The blade had pierced through his armor and blood oozed out of it. He didn't care however, as he finally heard the mage chant the end of her spell.
He ran to her, ignoring the dog and the black shadow that ran after him, they were screaming the mage's name. She barely had the time to realize that she wouldn't have the time to finish that spell, before he appeared in front of her horror struck gaze. In a desperate move she stopped the spell and turned around to run. It was useless. She probably realized it in a last moment of clarity while his blade ran through her stomach from behind. He had never realized the mage was so light: he could almost not feel her weight on his sword as he lifted her from the ground. Unceremoniously, he threw her dying corpse aside to face his last opponents.
The dog latched on his already wounded leg, probably hoping that would make him stagger. But Schwann was a void: he didn't feel anything; he was but a war machine in Alexei's hands. He made a wrong move though: as he pointed his weapon down to spear the beast's head, he forgot about the enraged shadow. The second that the blue and white fur bathed in red, he felt his mistake in the form of an angry, deep slash on his back.
He merely had the time to bring his weapon up in defense as the black haired swordsman tried to land another blow on him. Their swords clanked against one another. Both had to put their whole strength onto them in order not to be outmatched.
The knight's captain could see the man speak through gritted teeth, but he couldn't hear or comprehend the words. He didn't want to either…
Finally, he managed to throw himself on the side when his opponent was too concentrated on outmatching him with brute strength.
He had expected to pierce him from behind, like he had the mage. But he saw his reflection within the onyx depth as his blade ran through the younger man's chest. His enemy looked at him in confusion and pain for a moment. He didn't want to see those emotions, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the dark, bottomless eyes.
He was shocked to see tears running down his own face: why? He was just Schwann; he didn't need to cry on the sad fate of people he didn't even know…
Angry at himself, he put his foot on the man's chest to dislodge his weapon. He could feel the scraping sound of the blade running along the youth's ribs. Once his blade out, his mind slowly began to fill with sounds: the echo of a body meeting the ground limply, the echo of the red blood dripping from his sword, he could even imagine the sounds his last opponent's blood made as it wasted on the cold stones beneath his feet, mingling with the thousand years old dirt that was on it.
His eyes wandered from his bloody sword to the young male. And he saw it: the moving lips. Even after death, the man still tried to tell him. The lips called endlessly for someone, it was a name, and he didn't want to hear it. But even as he closed his eyes, he saw the delicate white lips move still; he saw them move on that deathly pale face, even as the man's eyes had turned glassy and lifeless. It hurt, it hurt him from deep inside. He reopened his eyes, full of tears to stare angrily at the still speaking man at his feet.
It called the other him: it called 'Raven' over and over again.
Enraged, he took the sword he had unconsciously dropped to the ground and kneeled over the man's corpse, straddling his unmoving hips. He still saw his reflection in those glassy eyes, but it was deformed: in them he was wearing his hair up in a silly ponytail, he was disheveled and badly shaved; clearly not a captain of the knights. In these eyes, he did not look like a murderer: he had a peaceful, kind smile that reached up to his eyes.
He freely cried at the images he did not want to see. He wanted for it to all stop as the world around him collapsed. He wanted those eyes to stop reflecting a fake he had created, he wanted those dead lips to stop calling for 'Raven'! 'Raven' did not exist: it never did, it was just a disguise, a fake person, from head to toes created by him!
Since he wanted to stop the man below him, he brought his sword up, high above his head, and he started stabbing at the dead body.
Still hot blood splashed against his arms and body, covering him in these fluids that meant life and death. He stabbed and stabbed until he couldn't feel his arms anymore and still he continued sink his blade mercilessly, tirelessly into the body whose lips still moved and whose eyes still shot back images of him as 'Raven'. He had betrayed them, that's what those eyes told him.
He finally gave in, abandoning the idea of stopping the man's rant of this forsaken name. Slumping against the cold corpse, letting the tears run on his blood stained face, he covered both the accusing eyes and lips with his hands. He cried his heart out and begged for forgiveness as blackness claimed his soul.
Schwann woke up, cold sweat running along his spine as the remains of his dreams could be seen through his tear streaked face.
Yesterday night, he had ripped off his 'Raven' mask and had delivered the young princess to Alexei. He had been allowed but a small rest before accompanying the man to the ruins of some forgotten temple. It was a nightmare filled rest though… He knew that the fighting would be inevitable: the kids just would not let things go by so easily. But after that dream… He was no longer so sure of his ability to follow his master's orders. The long haired swordsman's dead face still painfully lingered in the back of his mind.
[He tried to remember other dreams, to get rid of that one. But all his dreams had the young man in them. And now, as he tried to recall those better dreams, all of the swordsman's happy, flustered, joy filled, lust-ridden and smiling faces were replaced by that dead expression that filled him with guilt and shame. In all those memories, he could see himself facing a dead corpse, covered in blood, his hands held the same deadly sword that ran through the youth's body, the same cold blood also coated his clothes, covered his hands and splashed across his face...]
Today, he had to die, somehow…
A.N.: This fic made me remember just how many times Schwann owned my party on my first play through! He was undefeatable! .#!
But I really love him (and Raven). He's my second most favorite after Yuri!
I wasn't sure if I could leave that last paragraph, but to hell with it! I love RavenxYuri! XD;
Anyway, I deeply apologize for all the grammatical mistakes you might spot since English isn't my mother language. I just really wanted to make that fic. And comments will be greatly appreciated since I'm also planning on making another, longer fic!