- A/N -
This is more or less going to be a gathering of completely random one shots. Most of them are going to be about my characters in City of Heroes/Villains so some of them may overlap at random intervals. Some of them will not be about my own characters and may even be written by completely different authors. If that is the case the authors name will be under the story title. If there is no mention of another author or editor then its just another one of my random mind blurts that I get while playing the game. Anyways enjoy the show and please review. If you see something in a certain chapter that interests you tell me in a review... please... pretty please. I don't even care if you review several times as long as it is all on different chapters, after all each chapter is its own story. Now on with the first of (hopefully) many.
- End Notes -
Of Heroes and Villains
The Mind of the Twisted
One
I am... a monster. My heart beats like yours, but it's beat does not move blood nor does it's study pulse keep me warm. My veins are filled with nothing but darkness. My eyes see, but I see the world with eyes unclouded by time. I see only the suffering of a mortal world, only its pain and anguish as death slowly claims it. I feel, but all I can feel is the cold beat of my own heart, and the shivering numbness of an empty shell that once had a soul.
My soul was lost to me long ago. You would think I would remember how, but I cannot... I cannot recall... it was so long ago... in the darkness... in the desolate void that is shadow... that is were I was trapped until the one I serve found me...
I serve the one who brought me back to this world. Another creature twisted by the darkness. He is a being like me, yet he is even older then I. A creature from another time... another place...
Draconum... Lord Draconum... The creature that pulled me from the void. He is my tormentor... he is my hope... he is my master. To be a slave is to be a creature loathed and hated even by the one you serve... that is always what I had thought at least. But my master... my master is kind to me... he sees me as nothing more then a tool, but in his eyes I am a shining blade of gold and silver that he can use to rend his enemies. I am something of value to him... something he sees as useful... to others I am nothing more then a horrifying, mindless monster.
What was I like before? I wonder that sometimes. Alone in the darkness of my own existence I have nothing but time to wonder. So many questions and nothing to awnser them. What was I before the shadow slithered into my veins? What was I before the power of darkness twisted my form and corrupted my heart? Was I... was I a man? A woman? These wings of mine, their dark leathery skin, their long narrow bones. Were they always there? Did my veins always run as cold as ice? Was my body always wreath in shadows? Was my skin always covered in flesh that reeks of death and decay? Or was I something more? Something less?
I know I am old. Ancient in by mortal standards I suppose. Was it a thousand years perhaps that I have roamed this small little world? No, longer... so much longer...
I saw your first ancestors, small furry creatures with warm blood that made them almost glow in the cold of this world. I watched them crawl from the dark places of the earth and change. I saw it all, just as I still do. It is your time now. The peek of your species, but you will fall just as others before you. Perhaps you will leave behind a monster as well. Another phantom from the forgotten past. A creature that should not be, but cannot die. Then I will not be alone at least...
But I am alone. None can understand my suffering. It is... impossible for your kind to understand. You cannot understand infinity. You cannot even grasp the simple concept of it. Nothing to you is eternal. Even worlds go cold. Even stars wink out. Even galaxies die...
But I... I watched a world change before my eyes, and all that I knew was lost to me. Someday when your kind too falls into destruction I will still remain. And the cycle will begin again. And I will watch it all again. Even when you vanish something will rise to replace you. Over and over and over again the cycle will go and I will never know final peace.
Perhaps... perhaps if the cycle stopped I could rest. Perhaps if this world died I could finally sleep. Yes, perhaps then I could finally close my sightless eyes and slumber undisturbed for eternity. But how to stop the cycle? Destroy... destroy life? Yes, to stop the cycle life must be removed. As long as it remains the cycle will always return. I can stop the cycle! I have power enough to release myself from this nightmare!
But no... I cannot... I know that... The cycle will never stop. Not until this world is dead and cold. Not until all creation lies in ruins. That is beyond me. I cannot free myself from this nightmare. But... Perhaps I can bring others the same suffering that has been cast onto me. Eternity...
Yes. Yes, that is what I will do. I will bring to your kind the same suffering that I have enduring for time beyond remembrance. I will bring your world crashing down around you! I will show you the true terror of darkness! The nightmare of immortality! I will burn and pillage this world until all that remains is rock and ash and lost phantoms never destined to rest! I will make you all join me in eternity!
I am... I am Clanin... Yes, that was my name... long ago. Mortals call me Crog the Twisted One now. My appearance inspired that name. I will not burden your fragile mind with a description. I have learned humans are easily shattered by such things, both physically and mentally...
I was a king. I remember now... but I am the forgotten. I am the unseen...
No!!
I refuse this exsistence! No longer will I walk in darkness alone! No longer will my foot steps be the only ones to echo down the corridor of eternity! I will drag as many of you as I can, kicking and screaming with me! I will plunge it into darkness and laugh as you scream and thrash, begging for a release that will never come! Begging for a mercy that does not exist!
I am Crog the Twisted! I am the forgotten king! I am your eternal damnation! I am the bringer of unending torment! The judge, jury, and executioner! I will be hated and feared and reviled...
But... I... I will no longer be alone... you will be with me... won't you? We can all be together... trapped together... in our misery...
Then maybe... maybe when I am no longer alone... maybe then I can finally be at peace. Is that wrong of me? To want to end my own suffering at the price of others?
I wonder what you would do. I have seen the evil of your kind. The nightmares you unleash on one another. You, who kill your kin for petty gain, who create weapons capable of destroying entire cities with the push of a button, who look at each other with loathing and distrust. What right do you have to judge me? Are you and all your kind any less of a monster then I? I wonder what you will do when I trap you with me in eternal suffering. In eternal darkness. Will you too seek to pull others into the shadow? Or will you simply seek freedom? Escape as I once tried to do... an escape that is impossible...
Tell me... what do you think... what do you think I was like before? Was I a man? Or was I always... was I always a monster...