Five Years Later

Erik lived with Lilith in relative peace and tranquility living like, if anything, a brother and a sister would. At least that was what he thought she would think. He, on the other hand, had grown fond of her to the point that, in his fifteen year old mind, amounted to what he could only describe as love. This could be a good explanation to his latest mood, but unfortunately for him this wasn't the only thing on his mind.

- "This is him," came a whisper, barely audible in the darkness of his sleep.

"I can see…remarkable. His soul shines so brightly," answered another whisper.

"Yes. Untaintable by your power, but perhaps not to madness. I will test it myself,"

"He is beginning to awaken. I must go," a voice, dark and silken, said nearby in the darkness. Erik awoke slowly, eyes opening to see Lilith using her strange lights to heal him. They were dimmer than they normally seemed to be, but discounted it. He thought about asking who had been there with them (a cursory glance revealed that there was no one else in the room) but dismissed it, allowing her to continue without interruption. When she was done, she smiled and unwrapped the bloody bandages around his hand, showing that the wound was completely healed, save for a small scar where it had once been. The same could be said about the cut on his throat, though no scar was evident.

"There we go," she said cheerfully, standing. She had been, as far as the boy knew, working tirelessly to heal him over the course of the night, though now she wore not the black cloak she had been wearing when they first met, but a white tee-shirt and shorts. Home wear. With her features shown, she looked like she was no older than her twenties. Stiffly, Erik sat up and stretched, his back popping in three consecutive places, as it had after his fall at El Mundo. He had to admit that it wasn't all that unpleasant. On the contrary, he rather enjoyed the feeling, despite the fact that it would likely persist for all of his life. With groggy eyes Erik watched as Lilith walked to the other couch and sat on it, crossing her legs before turning her violet orbs on him. There was a moment of awkward silence before Erik spoke nervously.

"So...," he started, feeling out of place in his dirty, somewhat tattered uniform, "Where am I?" At this she smiled.

"Well, I suppose you can call this my home, or at least the more "homey" part of my home," she started before noticing the confused look on the ten year olds face, "Er…what I mean is this is the part that I live in. There's more to it." She let out a heavy sigh then, noticing the still somewhat vacant and confused stare of the boy before her.

"I can't be explaining it that poorly…let's see…this is the living area of my house, with a kitchen, bedrooms and bathrooms. You know – the works. And connected to this is a kind of cave system…also part of my home. Do you understand now?" Erik nodded slowly.

"I think so…what do you have the caves for?" he asked, and Lilith was taken aback by the question, not expecting him to push the issue any further.

"That's not important," she said quickly, dodging his question.

After that first conversation, the woman introduced herself as Lilith, and that she was nineteen and living here on her own. Any time Erik would question why she lived this way, she would just shrug and say she enjoyed the quiet, and that the village nearby could supply her with everything she needed. Erik would accept this answer, though he felt that he wasn't getting the whole story. At one point, a few days after she had taken him in, Erik questioned her about it.

"Is the village the one that I came from, with the orphanage?"

"Oh," Lilith said, eyes saddening when she looked down on the boy. She had been working on making the two of them dinner at the time, and set down the knife she had been holding. She crouched down to look him in his steely orbs and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Erik…before I found you in the woods…I passed through that village…I don't know how to say it." At her next words, the young man was frozen, unsure how he could feel so deeply for that little town – the Sisters, the orphanage, the little blonde girl, all of them passed through his mind in a blur.

The village….it was burning…it's gone." –

That conversation was five years ago, but Erik still couldn't get over the fact that he had been powerless to stop it. Now that he was older, he had a better understanding of why, after she had told him that, he had cried all that night. Despite the miserable conditions, and the circumstances of his arrival, it had still been akin to a home for him.

"Their blood…" he whispered, standing in a cavern lit by dimly glowing crystals, looking at the scar on his hand in disgust, "Their blood is on my hands…it's all my fault," with a growl he balled his hands into fists and put them against his forehead in frustration, anger and self-loathing beginning to build. So absorbed was he in his thoughts and fury that he didn't hear the beep, nor did he hear the clicking of heels coming toward him. It was only until he felt a hand on his shoulder that he looked up calmly, anger hiding just behind his pale, blue-gray gaze as it met with Lilith's dark violet one.

"I thought I might find you in here, but I didn't think you would just be hanging around. Usually you're practicing." She said, trying to sound cheerful with little success. Though he was good at hiding it, she could still feel that something was off about the way he stood, or the way the line of his mouth was shaped, and as she noticed these tiny details her eyes filled with more and more concern. Erik turned his gaze from her then, stepping away and wiping dust from the faded blue jeans he was wearing before turning his attention to the chamber, a small room with stone walls and the one door that Lilith had entered through moments before. The ceiling was adorned with crystals, only a few of which were glowing with a soft, pale light, and scattered throughout the room on the floor were dark crystals, all broken in some way or another. It was this that turned Erik back to looking at the woman.

"Yeah," he said finally, "I just had to think for a second…" he stepped forward, eyes intent on her own now, "Lilith…something's been bothering me."

"Well that's fairly obvious," she said, smirking, "After five years you would think I could tell that." She stepped forward to meet him then, looking up into his face and marveling at how much taller he had gotten in so short a time, "But what makes me upset is when you won't tell me what's wrong with you. Don't you trust me?"

"Of course I do…" he said quietly, "but in the time I've been here, I've learned a lot – things that I didn't even know were possible. In five years, you've helped me realize my potential, taught me how to use my Soul Wavelength like a weapon, and how to see other peoples souls. What you never told me was…why? Why did you want me to know all this, and better yet why do you know all of this? And why haven't you changed a bit in all the years I've known you?"

"Erik I…"

"No. No more excuses. Tell me why." Erik demanded, staring unwaveringly into her eyes as he spoke, unable to help but notice how beautiful she was; raven hair shining softly in the pale lights, bangs covering one of her eyes, the other a violet pool that seemed to pull his soul into its crystalline depths. With a sigh of defeat, Lilith spoke.

"I knew you'd wonder sooner or later…" she said, eyes closing for a moment before looking back at him with sadness, "After all, you've grown up so much since the night I found you. You were running from something, and I saved you from it." Erik looked away from her, taking in the information. He remembered the lights that had held the man at bay, and he cursed himself for not making the connection sooner.

"Lilith….who are you?" he asked, trying to keep his voice steady.

"I'm a Witch, Erik," she sighed, and Erik looked away from her, anger in his eyes. He had heard all about Witches while he was in the orphanage, and he knew that not a one of them were any good. Meanwhile, Lilith just wrung her hands together and continued, her eyes on the floor.

"Witches have a bad reputation…and I knew you would have already known about them, and I knew I would have to teach you more about them in your training…so I kept it from you so you wouldn't lump me in with them."

"Yeah? Then is that why you had me train for so long? So I could do your killing for you?" Erik said, feeling bad about it shortly after but staying strong.

"I'm not like that, Erik!" Lilith retorted angrily.

"Then why train me at all? Why keep me around?"

"Because I loved you, that's why!" Lilith yelled, her voice echoing through the caverns before everything went quiet. Erik was filled with joy and disgust all at once, though he refused to let it show on his face.

"You loved me? Since I was ten?" he asked, and Lilith looked at him, baffled.

"Well, yeah. I mean, not like a man would love a woman, but like a mother might love her child. Or a sister might love her little brother. I liked having you around because you were the closest thing I had to a family anymore." Erik felt his heart sink, but ignored it as his temper flared back up.

"You've been lying to me for five years and you say it was out of love? I find that difficult to believe." Lilith looked aghast for a moment before glaring at him angrily, slapping him before turning on her heel and stomping away. Erik had to admit that he was scared now – he had never seen her face look so angry. Before she left the chamber she turned to him, a tear rolling down her cheek.

"I should have left you there to die!" she cried before the steel door shut soundlessly behind her. Erik could do nothing but stare idly after her, unsure what had just happened. He felt guilty about what he had said, but he couldn't figure out how he was going to make it right.

Meanwhile…

Lilith stepped out into the night air, exiting through a door labeled "Gate C." The initial rage she had felt before storming out was replaced now by disappointment. What she had said was true, for the most part; she did love the boy, and he had helped her cope with being alone after leaving her sister to her project, but she knew that such feelings couldn't last. For her plan to succeed there would be no time for such a trivial thing as love. She needed to turn his Pure Soul into a Kishin Egg, if she could, and then she could begin some real research. She was sure her dark ally would assist her in any way she needed. But the only way for her to do that is if Erik trusted her. She would have to find a way to make it happen.

"It's sad really, but I can let nothing stand in the way of my goals. I've waited long enough, and though my magic keeps me young I doubt it makes me im…" Her thoughts were interrupted by a rustling in the brush nearby. She had just enough time to turn her head and see something rush at her before it hit her, moving at impossible speeds. She was aware of rushing wind and hot fingers closing around her throat before everything stopped. Opening her eyes, she found that she was pinned against a tree, hardly able to breathe. In front of her was a dark figure with glowing red eyes.

"Long time…no see…Miss Lilith," said a sinister voice, followed by a giggle that bordered on the insane.

"Hello…Mimic…" Lilith choked, trying to be calm but finding it more and more difficult as the fingers around her throat gripped tighter, closing her airway. She tried to concentrate and blast him with some of her Light Magic, but realized only too late that she had left her crystals, the focuses of her power, in the caves.

"I see..that…" she coughed, "You don't…need…the…kn…knife anymore…"

"You have a keen eye, Witch. No, my power has grown beyond the need for such conventional weaponry since last we met, and I've improved quite a bit at my…impersonations," Mimic replied, voice changing until it resembled Erik's almost to the very way he breathed, "And that's not all…Miss Lilith." She felt him press her harder into the tree, and she was startled when it began to bend and crack from the stress. The movement allowed Mimic to put his face in the moonlight, and Lilith would have gasped had she been able to. Standing before her, with a jagged toothed smile that was not his own, was the spitting image of Erik.

"E….Erik?"

"No, weren't you paying attention to what I've been saying?!" Mimic said in a fit of irrational rage, pressing her against the tree even harder, causing more protests to arise from the breaking would. The effect was eerie, since his voice was still like Erik's, but as soon as the anger had come it was gone, and Mimic let off another insane giggle.

"Uncanny, isn't it? Soon I'll even be able to change the way my soul looks, and then no one will be able to stop me…but we've talked long enough," his smile widened, "Time to take your soul." The fingers around her throat closed ever tighter, cutting off her entire air supply. Lilith's vision began to fill with black dots and she knew she wouldn't make it out of this alive. Surprisingly, her last thought before the darkness began to overtake her was of Erik, smiling at him from under his somewhat shaggy mess of oak colored hair. She saw the jacket, a leather duster, she had given him resting easily upon his shoulders. Relaxing at the strangely calming thought, Lilith closed her eyes and waited for the sweet embrace of death to take her.

"GrrrrRRAAAAH!" came the cry of outrage from nearby, sounding more like some feral animal than a man. She felt the grip on her throat slacken before it was gone altogether, dropping her to the ground. As she coughed she felt a rush of wind passed her by, followed by a startled cry from her assailant. She began to greedily gulp in the forest air, her head feeling light as her vision began to return. To her right she said two Eriks, one holding the other in the air by the throat. She could tell that the one in the air was Mimic by his glowing red eyes and the demented smile that seemed to refuse to leave his face.

"Well well!" said Mimic, hanging limply in the air, "This is a surprise. Just a little boy…a little niño…now look at you. All grown up, ¿lo pillas?" As the man's voice changed to match that of Sad Sax Samm and his face changed to that worn old man's, Erik's grip tightened.

"This is for all the people you've destroyed…Samm…the Sisters…the little blonde girl…"

"Her name," Mimic said, giggling maniacally "was Eletta." This drove Erik over the brink, and his eyes darkened dangerously.

"Your soul is mine. Enjoy your stay in hell," Erik said angrily, his Soul Wavelength gathering in his hand, his fingertips tingling with the power.

"Soul Ripper!" he growled, the pinpoints of power at his fingertips penetrating his foe's wavelength, seeking and quickly finding the tainted, red Kishin Egg that was the Mimic's soul. With a surge, Erik pulled his hand from his opponent, in his hand the glowing red soul of his enemy. Mimic, eyes dull and no longer glowing, fell to the ground without so much as a grunt in response. Vaguely, Erik remembered Lilith telling him that he could eat the souls of his enemies to become more powerful, and without a second thought he brought it to his lips, chewing it slowly and savoring the taste of victory. The texture was strange, but he paid it no mind. When he swallowed, Mimic's body disintegrated into a mass of swirling black ribbons before disappearing completely.

"Erik?" asked Lilith behind him, her voice weak and pained. He turned and saw her leaning against a nearby tree. He walked to her, and she attempted to reciprocate the action, only to stumble in her haze. Erik dashed forward and caught her by the shoulders before she could fall, and she clung to him, breathe coming out in ragged pants. Her throat was on fire, and she knew her neck would be badly bruised in the morning.

"Lilith…are you all right?" he asked, keeping her steady. After a moment she looked up to him.

"You saved me…why?"

"You're the closest thing I have to a family," Erik said, unwittingly quoting her, "why wouldn't I?" Lilith was silent for a moment, her eyes glassy.

"I…I thought you hated me…for lying…"

"Lilith…I could never hate you…" he held her at arm's length then, so that he could look her in the eye. Her gaze was a strange mixture of sadness and joy.

"Why?" she asked, and his gaze became gentle, gentler than she was aware he could be. Usually he was so pensive, he almost looked angry most of the time. However, with his next words, she was swept off of her feet.

"Because Lilith…I love you. And not like a brother might love a sister, or a child might love his mother. I love you…really." Then, he acted on impulse and pressed his lips to hers, and he was surprised when she kissed him back. She couldn't help but kiss him back. She knew it would happen eventually, and she couldn't deny that she had looked forward to it.

"Maybe this won't be so bad…if only for a little while," she thought, letting herself get taken away in the moment. It was the start of something that, to anyone who would have seen them at that moment, could easily be called a beautiful relationship. However, it was also the start of something darker within Erik…it was the start of obsession. It was the start of Madness.