Title: The Pitfalls of Madness
Chapter 4: The Madness
Author: Alicia "Kamitose" Guy
Summary: After receiving a message from another swords girl to beware of Raphael, Cassandra seeks him out to settle the score once and for all, but is she truly prepared for what she is about to face?
Rating: R, for strong language, violence, and possible sexual situations.
Disclaimer: None of the characters in this piece of fiction belong to me. They belong to Namco. Dronia Fairborough belongs to me (don't worry, she is but a very bit part, I don't even pair her up with anyone. She is not a Mary Sue.)
Distribution: As long as I am credited, and as long as you ask (and let me know once it's posted) then I don't care where it's distributed. BUT you have to ask.
Author's Note: This is my first ever Soul Calibur fanfiction. This site is severely lacking in Cassandra/Raphael fanfiction and I would like to help remedy that.
SPECIAL THANKS TO ANYSIA FOR BEING AN AMAZING BETA READER!
Raphael walked into the dining hall and poured himself a glass of wine, swishing the red liquid around in his glass before taking a sip. The sound of footsteps resounded in the empty halls behind him, stopping as they reached the dining hall. "My dearest girl, what brings you downstairs? I have no food prepared at this time," Raphael said nonchalantly, not turning around.
"I've been having dreams..." Cassandra began slowly, attempting to maintain her composure. Yet images from the dreams continued to flash before her eyes, and confusion and frustration tore through her. She found herself balling up her fists, her arms beginning to shake. "I don't know what they mean!"
"Nightmares, Cassandra?" he asked knowingly, glancing at her over his shoulder before turning to grant her his full attention. "Go on, then."
Cassandra seated herself shakily at the broad dining table and put her head in her hands. "The last two nights," she said, voice wavering slightly, "I've started having dreams filled with blood and death. I've never had dreams like this before. Not even close."
Raphael leaned closer, intrigued and possibly amused by what the younger girl had to say. "Blood and death, you say? Do tell."
Cassandra looked up from her hands long enough to shoot him an angry glare. "Are you mocking me?"
"No, I'm honestly curious. The workings of the mind are quite a fascinating thing, don't you think?" His tone was disarmingly light and open as he moved to sit beside the troubled Athenian woman.
She looked up at Raphael with weary, red-rimmed eyes that had been dulled from a night of troubled sleep. He noted with detached interest that they had grown darker and dimmer since she had entered the castle. "I dreamt that I was a monster..." Cassandra continued, fighting back the tremor in her voice, "that I had red eyes and sharp fangs that tear flesh..."
"Like mine?" Raphael asked, flashing his fangs briefly.
Cassandra jolted upright and pressed her back against the chair. She had felt those very fangs in her throat that first night she had arrived at the castle gates, and yet she had never truly seen them before. Her heart seemed to jump up to her throat as fear rushed through her veins. "Yes…like yours," she said, keeping her words even and steady as she tried to mask her fear. She would not let him see her in a moment of weakness, even as she realized it was likely far too late for that.
"And what did you do with those fangs in your dreams?" Raphael asked her in a low voice, leaning closer until she shuddered at his proximity.
"I…" Cassandra bowed her head in shame, voice cracking as she spoke softly. "I killed. I killed people with them... People I loved…" She failed to bite back the sob building at the back of her throat.
Raphael watched as she struggled to keep her emotions in check, a small smile creeping onto his face as he savored her pain.
"I killed my family," Cassandra continued, her voice trembling. She hated showing weakness, especially in the presence of her enemy, but the visions had taken such a terrible toll on her that it was all she could do to keep from breaking down. "My parents, my niece and nephew, my sister…I tore them apart, and I didn't care."
Raphael wordlessly rose from his chair and began to walk the parameter of the table, eyes never moving from Cassandra's visibly distressed form. "Does that make you a killer, then?" he wondered aloud. "Do you feel a desire to inflict pain and suffering on others, especially those you love?"
"It was only a dream!" Cassandra said sharply, eyes snapping up to meet his. "I'm not a monster like you!"
"So certain, are you?" He turned away from her and gazed at the full moon shining through the large glass windows. "There are many types of monsters, pet—you may very well be one of them."
Anger and denial rushing hotly through her blood, Cassandra pushed the chair out from behind her and grabbed a knife off the table. "I am not a monster!" she shouted as she rushed at Raphael.
Not quickly enough, as Raphael turned swiftly towards her, catching her wrist before she could plunge the blade into him. "There's hope for you yet, wretch," he observed with a wicked smile. "Would you kill me if you had the chance?" He lowered his head to her neck, mouth resting above the wound he had inflicted. "You dream of being a monster... to be expected, pet—after all..." He quickly and forcefully wrapped his free arm around her back, pulling her close to him. "...you're becoming one."
Cassandra's eyes widened, horror dawning at his words. She twisted fiercely in his embrace, finally smashing her forehead roughly against his. At the impact, she felt Raphael's hold loosen, and she rushed towards the doors to the dining hall. "Wretched slattern!" Raphael's enraged voice echoed behind her. "You will know your place!"
Cassandra ran as fast as her tired legs would allow. Her breath was ragged, caught in her chest as she turned the corner into a hallway she had not yet explored. A wide set of doors came into her field of vision, and she quickly ran through them, slamming them shut behind her. Resting her back against the smooth oak paneling, she closed her eyes and tried to catch her breath. After a moment, with her heartbeat once again even and her breath no longer coming in short pants, she felt it safe enough to take in her surroundings.
The room was somewhat small and less opulent than other rooms in the castle. The walls were adorned with maps and paths marked in red leading to various places where she assumed Raphael thought Soul Edge might be. In the center of the room, a fragment of the cursed sword lay quiet and unassuming upon a low table. Cassandra noted the shape and size of the shard, the roughly serrated edges, and with a slight start she recognized it as the very same piece she had stolen from her sister when she had first set out in her place. As she drew nearer to it, the shard appeared to react to her presence, emitting a dim, faintly red light; the glow was faint, just barely visible, but it reacted all the same to her presence. Strange, she thought, eyeing the shard warily. It never did that before…
A dull throb of pain lanced through the wound upon her neck as she drew even closer to the cursed shard, the light growing ever brighter as she approached it. Cassandra heard a faint whisper at the back of her mind, teasing, taunting, compelling her to reach out her hand and run her fingers over the fragment. She closed her eyes, a strange feeling within her beginning to stir at the power in the shard. She reached out her fingertips, wanting nothing more than to touch it, when she felt a firm hand upon her shoulder.
"You're not ready for that yet, I'm afraid," Raphael stated in a low voice as he picked up the shard and coolly examined it. "The darkness growing in your heart could not handle the power of even the smallest of shards."
He turned to Cassandra and narrowed his eyes. "This room is strictly forbidden. Do not let me find you in here again." Raphael stared intently into her eyes until she looked away in apparent defeat. Satisfied with her response, his steely gaze softened a fraction. "You should go down to the dining hall," he said. "I'll have the chef make something up for you."
Raphael reached out to comfortingly touch Cassandra's face and was surprised when she did not flinch at his touch. Her eyes almost seemed to look past him. He frowned slightly—the shard was having a strange effect on her mind. It must be the infection working its way through her, he thought, dismayed. She's not yet ready. Frown deepening, he returned the shard to the table. "All right now, be off with you," he said irritably, ushering Cassandra out the room.
He followed her out of the forbidden room, closing and locking the door behind him. Cassandra faltered slightly once she stood within the fresh air of the hallway, placing a hand to her head and peering around in an apparent daze. "What…" she started, eyes unfocused. "…what happened?"
Raphael ignored her unsteady query, merely turning her to face the room they had just exited. "It is of no importance. All you need remember is that if you go in this room…" He gestured to the doors before them. "…there will be severe repercussions."
He turned and started off towards the dining hall. "Dinner will be ready soon. I suggest you eat something," he said coldly as he made his way down the hallway, leaving a slightly bewildered Cassandra staring from him to the doors before her.
Purpose and determination fueling his strides, Raphael reached the dining hall some time before Cassandra. Sparing only the briefest glance around the spacious room, he retrieved a bottle of his finest wine from a nearby cabinet, pouring the thick, red liquid into a nearby chalice for his lovely guest. He held it up before him for a moment, half-full, watching the moonlight slant over the glass, before pulling back the sleeve on his left arm.
Just a little bit... he thought. Just enough to feed the sickness. Lifting his wrist up to his mouth, he sliced through the flesh with one sharp incisor, watching blood begin to pool against the surface. Raphael's eyes were inscrutable as he held his bleeding wrist over the wine glass, every so often clenching his fist to increase the blood flow. Just enough to make true her horrifying dreams.
When the glass had finally filled, he covered his wound and pulled his sleeve back down. This was not the first time he had mixed his own blood with the wine he provided for Cassandra; he had done so for the past few nights. Tonight, however, he had slipped just a bit more than usual, as an experiment. Just to see…
He settled into his seat at the head of the table and waited for her arrival.
Still a bit shaken, Cassandra pushed open the heavy oak doors and entered the dining hall. A fog had entrapped her mind; something had happened in that room, something horrible, but she couldn't be sure what it was. The last thing she remembered was a metal shard of some kind that reacted strongly to her presence…and then Raphael standing before her, clearly irritated, and commanding her to never enter the room again. But what had happened in between?
As she approached the table, she saw Raphael waiting for her, her place already made.
"Have a seat," he said, motioning to what had become her usual place at the table. "We need to talk."
Cassandra's eyes held a note of disgust as she observed Raphael's cool demeanor; she still remembered the previous night's events. "About what?" she asked coldly.
"About you—about what you can and cannot do. About the future, my dear," Raphael stated calmly.
"That's quite a bit of talking you want to do. Too bad I'm not really in the mood to be lectured."
Everything about her spoke of defiance—her tone, the hard look in her eyes, the stubborn cross of her arms across her chest as she stood before the table. Raphael felt heated anger and frustration rising up within him; he'd played the elegant, noble host for her, and she thought to speak to him in such a manner?
A wicked scowl appeared upon Raphael's features, and he strode swiftly towards her, eyes narrowed and fierce. "You will sit down, and you will listen," he began in a dark voice. "You do not have the luxury of choice here. You are still alive by my good graces, you breathe because I allow it, you eat because I permit it, and if you die, it is because I will it!" His voice reached a crescendo as he reached her side and stood above her, eyes radiating malice. "Now sit down!"
Cassandra met Raphael's eyes for a long moment before finally, and with the slightest tremor of her shoulders, sitting down. Raphael circled around Cassandra's chair like a predator assessing his prey, coming to a stop behind her.
"Much better. Now, I did not feel the need to express rules before, but you, my dear, you have proven most difficult. I do not want you entering that room under any circumstances. That one rule stands above all others. You are to listen to me and do as I say. Failure to do so will result in severe punishment...understood?" Raphael said in a low voice, leaning closer to the girl's ear. He could sense the overwhelming fear and hatred rolling off her in waves, and realized with a small smile that he had begun to break her.
Raphael put his hands on her delicate shoulders, running his thumbs over the soft skin. "I can be a most gracious host... or I can be your worst nightmare. It is your decision as to which you would prefer."
Cassandra regarded him for a long moment before picking up the glass of wine before her and swiftly downing its contents. "In all honesty," she said flatly, "you're a terrible host. In fact, you're..." Cassandra allowed her words to trail off as she felt a strange stirring within her. Something's wrong…
Raphael smiled wickedly as he recognized the beginning of her symptoms. "I'm what, foolish child?" he baited her.
Cassandra found herself unable to answer as innumerable voices suddenly ripped through her mind, overlapping and drowning one another out, deafening and indiscernible, whispers, shouts, desperate wails, strange foreign tongues. "Stop!" she cried desperately, roughly shrugging Raphael off as she stood, a dizziness taking over her.
"Cassandra," Raphael said with feigned concern, "what's wrong, child?"
"Make them stop!" she cried, collapsing against Raphael as she shut her eyes tightly and grasped her head. "Make them stop... please, just make them stop…" She buried her face in his chest, body going limp as she broke into a series of hard, wracking sobs.
Raphael observed her curiously as Cassandra wept against him—this was not quite what he had expected. He slowly put his arms around her trembling form. "Shh," he attempted in a comforting tone. "That's just the darkness making its way through your body. It will be over shortly, I promise." He ran his fingers through her hair and held her tightly as she continued to cry.
After what seemed an eternity, Cassandra's tears began to subside, and she stood with eyes wide open as she trembled in fear. She didn't know what was happening, couldn't imagine what had caused such a thing, and cold terror ran through her. Unable to do otherwise, she stayed in her enemy's arms until the voices finally ceased in her mind. The sudden silence seemed nearly tangible, and even though stark relief washed over her, Cassandra felt exhausted, unable to move. Raphael continued to hold her, let her stay in his arms until she was steady enough to stand on her own. "Better now?" he asked quietly.
Cassandra remained silent. Her eyes seemed vacant as she stared off into the distance.
Frowning slightly at the lack of response, Raphael leaned down and swept her up into his arms. "I suppose we should get you off to bed," he said dryly. He walked the length of the fortress to her quarters and laid her down within the soft linens of her spacious bed. "Rest now," he murmured, brushing a stray hair from her face. "Tomorrow night we will be making a trip to the village." He spared her the briefest glance as he made his way to the door and left, closing it behind him and leaving the girl to her nightmares.
A/N: So, I was stuck for a short bit on this chapter, I knew where I was going but I didn't know how to get there (I lost mah map?) So anyway I hope y'all liked chapter 4.