Hatred ran through his being. A hatred that began over a century ago.
"I'm going to pull your guts through your halo!" the Watcher exclaimed to the angel lying beneath his feet.
The hatred began to burn him. His insides hurt. His heart hurt…what was left of it anyway.
He remembered what had ignited this flame within him.
War.
This was his entire fault!
His mind suddenly flashed back to when the Council summoned him...
Right before they brought War before them to be judged.
The day his hatred toward the Horseman and all associated with him began.
XXX
When he was before the Charred Council, the sprite performed a simple spell that gave him legs, enabling him to kneel to the Council.
He remained on the ground, keeping his eyes off his superiors and waited to be addressed by them. It was what he was always taught, ever since he was a youngling.
"Watcher, do you know why we have summoned you?" a deep, rough, and dangerous voice asked. The Watcher shook his head and answered, "No mighty Council. I do not."
Another voice, this one calmer and smoother spoke this time. "We regret to inform you that you sister has been slain."
The Watcher suddenly looked up, shock evident in his six electric blue eyes. "What? How is that possible? I was just talking to her an hour ago!" He didn't notice the slip in his tone.
This couldn't be true…
His sister couldn't be dead.
She couldn't be…
The Charred Council gave him the proof he required…
They materialized his sister's lifeless corpse right before him. He gazed at his sibling's body. She looked so much like him except for the feminine parts of her anatomy. And he soon found the cause of her demise. She had been impaled by a sword through the abdomen.
Not caring how it looked, the Watcher gathered his sister in his arms and held her close. "What happened?" he asked. He needed to know what had caused this tragedy.
"The Horseman, War, has broken the law." The rougher voice answered. "We sent your sister to bring him back and he murdered her in cold blood."
The Watcher looked down at his sister. Anger began to fill his mind and body. He looked from his sibling to the Council and asked, "He will be punished for his crimes I assume."
He wanted nothing more than to see the Horseman in a pool of his own blood after this injustice.
The calmer voice spoke. "War may be innocent of breaking the law. We have been given knowledge that the Hellguard may have transpired against us in order to attack Hell without question. It could be that War was summoned by mistake."
"So he will not be punished!" Watcher forgot everything he had been taught. He didn't care if the Council destroyed him because of his tone. He didn't care if he was speaking out of turn.
His sister was murdered by the Horsemen and he walks away without punishment because he may have been summoned to Earth by mistake!
If the Council were angered by his tone, they didn't show it.
"No Watcher. We plan on sending War back to Earth so he can punish the ones who dared to transpire against us. We are sending you with him. When he has completed his task and all who have dared to disobey our laws are proper dealt with, you will destroy him."
The Watcher looked at each member of the Council before asking, "You are serious? I do not possess the power to kill a Horseman."
"We will grant you the power Watcher. Do you accept the task, or not?" the angrier voice sounded annoyed.
The Watcher didn't need to be asked twice. War murdered his sister…
He would make sure he paid for it. "Of course, mighty Council."
XXX
The Watcher prepared to kill the angel before him, when a larger hand grabbed his more fragile one. He looked and saw War.
He expected as much.
After all, the seventh seal had been broken.
"Keep getting up?" the Watcher inquired spitefully. He chuckled before continuing, "I'll just kill you again!"
The Watcher suddenly found himself flying. He landed ungracefully on his wounded arm. As War approached him, he growled.
No!
He wouldn't die without getting justice for his sibling!
He cast his spell to materialize his legs. War didn't notice as he began his approach. The sprite remained on the ground and as the Horseman walked toward him, he summoned all the power he could.
When War stood before him, he attacked. War cried out in pain as a black aura covered his being.
The Watcher stood and shouted, "You bastard! This is your entire fault! She would still be alive if you hadn't gone to Earth!"
"What…What are you talking about?" War asked through the pain.
He looked at the Watcher and was surprised to see not only anger, but pain in his eyes as well. "You dare play dumb! My sister! Don't you remember her! Do you not remember how you killed her in cold blood!"
The Watcher increased the power of his spell.
Uriel looked up from her place on the ground. As she heard the Watcher scream about War murdering his sibling, a memory from the day of the premature Apocalypse came to her mind.
She remembered seeing a sprite similar to the watcher scouting around the area and watching the chaos unfold. But the entity never went anywhere near War. In fact, she disappeared the moment the Horseman engaged Straga.
"Sprite!" she called out as she stood up.
The Watcher turned his head in her direction; he kept his remaining arm raised and a stream of black/blue energy continued to shot from his palm to the Horsemen. "What do you want whore!"
Uriel used a spell of her own and stated, "I wish to show you something." He had to know that War wasn't the only one who had been lied to by the Council. Uriel projected her memory to the sprite.
The Watcher cried out, as if in pain as flashes appeared before his mind. He saw places and events that, at first, made no sense to him. He slowly realized that he was seeing through Uriel's eyes on the day War was summoned to Earth.
He saw his sister but…
She was doing something else…
She wasn't looking for War; she was scouting the area and doing her best to avoid any sort of conflict.
What?
Why wasn't she doing the task assigned to her by the Council?
Not once did she go near War. When the Horseman began to fight Straga, he watched as she cast a simple teleportation spell that would return her to the realm of the Charred Council. That is when Uriel released the sprite from her memory.
In his shock, his remaining arm dropped to his side.
"What?...But the Council….They told me they sent her to…" He looked at War as the Horsemen stood back up.
He stared at the sprite and the Watcher stared back. "The Council said they sent my sister to bring you back…They said you killed her."
"I did not," War stated simply. "It appears I am not the only one the Council has manipulated."
The Watcher fell to his knees before the Horsemen. He didn't understand. What had happened to his sibling if she were not killed by War?
"If you didn't kill her…then who did?"
It didn't take long for the answer to reach him. The Watcher's eyes became hard and he clenched his hand into a fist before slamming it to the floor.
"The Council! They killed her. They knew what I would do if I thought you did the deed. They fucking used me to do their dirty work! Those treacherous bastards!"
As the realization of this hit him, the Watcher felt his rage toward War vanish. He looked up at the Horsemen and asked, "Isn't this the part where you kill me?"
At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to die.
The Charred Council…an order he had been raised to respect and trust…had murdered his sibling and used him to do help settle their conflict. All because they were too good to dirty their own hands.
If he no longer respected the Council, or trusted them…If he no longer wanted to serve them, what reason did he have for continuing on?
Instead of claiming the sprite's life, War extended his left hand.
The Watcher stared at the large gauntlet for several moments, not knowing what was expected of him until War spoke. "We have both been used. Perhaps, we may both benefit from a…alliance?"
The Watcher contemplated the Horsemen's words.
An alliance?
Serve the rider of the red horse instead of the Charred Council?
Hm…The idea had…possibilities.
Perhaps, if he actually worked with and helped the Horsemen, they could both have vengeance on the Council.
The Watcher stood and looked into War's glowing eyes. War kept his arm extended to the sprite and waited for an answer.
The Watcher chuckled then looked at his left arm. It was missing from the elbow down and his black blood still oozed from the wound. He held his remaining hand under the steady flow and began to murmur ancient words forgotten by most. The blood that dripped into his palm began to glow a blackish-blue light.
War and Uriel watched.
War with indifference and Uriel in amazement.
When there was enough blood in his palm, the Watcher stopped speaking and looked at War. He then shook the hand offered to him before. The horsemen stared as his gauntlet seemed to absorb the Watcher's blood.
The sprite then stated, "The spell is complete. From now on, I serve you and all in your bloodline until I either die or you or your next of kin sets me free."
War released the sprite's remaining limb and nodded his understanding before turning to Uriel. Other members of the Hellguard had come and were now standing at either side of her.
"You knew…" she stated, pointing her sword at the Horsemen, "You knew what would happen here. What I would do. That's why you spared me."
The Watcher took several paces back deciding that this conversation did not evolve him. He would allow his new master to deal with it.
"No," War stated plainly.
"Then why?" Uriel inquired, never lowering her sword.
War approached the angel; her Hellguard tensed suddenly and held their weapons at the ready. The Watcher tensed as well, several spells coming to his mind. He didn't side himself with the Horseman just to watch him die at the hands of the Hellguard.
War answered Uriel's question, "Because I would not have the last of Heaven's honor die with its Champion."
Uriel lowered her weapon. She planted her sword in the ground and, still holding onto the handle, she kneeled before the Horseman and stated, "All debts are repaid. The duty I uphold-it may call me to raise my sword against you. And if that day comes, I won't hesitate."
War turned and walked away from the Hellguard. Uriel stood back up and the Watcher followed his new master.
"You will be hunted!" Uriel stated, getting both the sprite's and Horseman's attention. "The White City for certain…the Council…and there will be others! You would wage this war alone, with no one but a sprite to aid you?"
War turned and answered, "No."
He showed the angel the broken pieces of the seal then continued, "Not alone."
In the distance, the Watcher could see three meteors traveling closely together. Each was a different color. One was purple, the other green, and the last yellow.
The other three Horsemen.
The Apocalypse…the true Apocalypse had begun.
Without another word, the Watcher merged himself with War as he had done throughout their journey. He chuckled to himself as he prepared to rest and recuperate. This had defiantly been a strange adventure. And he never would've guessed that he would willingly forge an alliance with the being he had once thought to be his sister's murder in the end.
Life was funny that way.
Before he allowed himself to fully drift off, he made a mental note to replace his missing arm when he was at full strength again.
And he dreamed of avenging his fallen sibling by helping War and his brothers fight the Charred Council. And…he also dreamed of the Third Kingdom…
He dreamed that they would one day return…
When that day was, he didn't know…
But he had a feeling War would be the cause of the humans' return.
The End
Hiyas. This is just a little experiment I've been working on every since I saw the Darksiders ending. For some reason, I liked the Watcher and I didn't like the idea of him dying, so I rewrote the ending. I usually do Transformers fanfics, so I decided to try something a little different. Please give my your honest opinion on how I did. Be brutal.