Owari no Seraph / Seraph of the End: Protectorate
Chapter 7: Answers. And Questions.
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Don't own, you know. Onward.
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Chapter 7: Answers. And Questions.
The vampire known as Eustace Crowley was doing seventy miles per hour as he sprinted up to the angel, stopping only a microsecond to take in the awful wounds about its shoulders and sides. The creature was on the verge of death, if that condition existed for its kind; wounds or no, he had to act now.
He slammed his hands down on the great head, and focused every last erg of his mind and will into one single command: Show me!
Show me, damn you!
He didn't even feel his world exploding into light.
He came to looking up at the ceiling of the jetcopter. "*-hell did that idiot think he was doing, anyway?" Yu's voice was loud enough to echo.
"He's awake, Yu," said Asuramaru's calm voice, over to one side. He found he couldn't turn his head to see any of them except Yu's contorted face, above his own. "He can hear every word you say."
"Oh." Yu's angry gaze turned to him. "Why'n the hell did you go'n do something that stupid, idiot?"
Crowley tried to speak: Why, Prince, I didn't know you cared. He couldn't. He could move his mouth, but he couldn't seem to draw a breath to speak. He tried to fill his lungs, just out of reflex—vampires don't have to breathe, but old habits die hard—and found he couldn't. Then he realized why.
He was only a head. A head, lying in Yuichiro's lap. "If we can get enough of him together," Asuramaru was saying, "we can put him back together. I think he'll regenerate, though I confess, I've never seen any vampire undergo such...complete destruction and come back."
"I wonder if we ought to bother," sizzled Captain Hyakuya's voice.
"We have to, Yu," said Prince Asuramaru's calm voice. "We have to find out why he did what he did.
"We have to find out what he knows."
…
Under his direction, Guren's team managed to scrape together as much as they could of Crowley's exploded body off the surrounding rocks to stuff into burlap sacks. Out of the corner of his eye—evidently, they'd left his head in the copter with the Prince and his husband—he could see them returning to the aft holds of the ship. His own supernaturally sharp hearing—unaffected by his decapitated state—could pick up some snippets of conversation: "...thing's gone now, it just disintegrated,"... "...probably couldn't have moved it anyway, too big…" … "...wish we'd have gotten a cell sample...that is, assumin' it had cells…"
…..
It took Crowley a long time to get to the point where he was even able to converse coherently. They had put him in a private hospital room (with, although he didn't know it and couldn't have cared less if he had, a double guard outside) and on a continuous blood, plasma, and saline drip. The influx of tissue and nutrients aided in his regeneration.
He had to tell them. They had to know. Somebody had to know.
Then, Krul Tepes, flanked by Mika and Guren, came into his room. He was still nowhere near having a proper body, but his lungs and the muscles that worked them were attached loosely to his torso, as was his head, so he could draw breath enough to speak. "Alright," said Krul, "I think explanations are in order." To her side, General Guren fingered his sword. He was fully prepared to finish what the high angel had started.
Crowley drew in some experimental breaths. He had to tell them. He coughed, his respiratory system still not fully repaired. Then, he said, in barely more than a wheezing whisper, "They won't stop. Th-they can't stop."
"What?" said Krul. This wasn't what she was expecting.
"It's growing. They won't stop."
She leaned forward. Even her hearing was having a hard time picking up his words. "What's growing? The dome? Who won't stop?"
"They…" a spasm of coughing so violent, Krul was afraid it would tear him apart. "They...may be...our only hope."
More breaths, more coughs. Then, "D-Dama Kan. The-" (cough) Destroyer God. He's coming."
"Only hope...in the dome…"
….
Crowley had been taken to the medical center at Sanctuary Prime. Krul still hadn't decided if he had betrayed them, or simply acted impulsively. But whatever the case, he had definitely disobeyed orders. She needed to know why.
The patrol had, of course, immediately returned to base. There was no longer any high angel to investigate, and they were too close to the dome, and its black border. Yu hadn't complained; something about being that close to the thing made him itch.
And something else was making him itch, too. Something he kept to himself.
For now.
"Why do you think he did it?" asked Yu. Maru and Yu had retired for the night, and were currently in bed.
"Truth?" Maru thought. He'd had the opportunity to scan, to what degree he could, Eustace Crowley's mind. However, his empathic powers did not mean he could read minds, not in the traditional sense. Rather, he could detect thoughts that were on the "surface," thoughts associated with strong emotions, and the stronger, more clear the emotions, the better he was able to "read" them.
And nobody doubted but that Crowley had been driven by some pretty powerful emotions. He had to have known that physical contact with a high angel could not possibly result in any mild outcome, any more than sticking one's tongue into a live electrical socket could prove beneficial. So why had he done it? "I don't know. From what I was able to scan of his mind, he was looking for something. Not something physical, like a dropped ring or something. Something like answers, only, somehow...more than just answers." He shrugged, his slim shoulders lifting above the covers. "But more than that, I couldn't say. I really didn't think to scan him before he did what he did, and afterwards, there was too much wild energy flying around to get anything like an accurate reading. But what he said, about some destroyer god...Yu, he believed that. That information was right there on the top of his mind. He was quite serious."
"A destroyer god," mused Yu, lying on his back, hands behind his head. "Sure he wasn't babbling?"
"He could have been." Maru was lying on his side, his finger tracing a pattern on Yu's chest. "Like I said, too much wild energy. Plus Crowley was in no shape to really think coherent thoughts. And certainly no shape to come up with a lie. He still isn't."
"I'd like to know why he did that. And what he meant by 'they are our only hope, in the dome.'"
"He was motivated, as far as I could tell, by a need beyond powerful. He wanted something badly enough that he'd risk complete destruction to obtain it. You know," He propped his head up on his elbow, looking at Yu, "people think of vampires as being immortal. But that's not true; you've seen for yourself, we can die. And anything that can die, is mortal by definition. And for us, the end of life...it means...quite a lot. A human who risks his life knows he won't live but a few years, anyway. But a vampire? I'm over a thousand years old, Yu. And I'm not the oldest. For us, giving up life, literally means giving up eternity, everything.
"Crowley was ready to do just that, if he could just get answers.
"Or an answer."
Yu shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I can't fault him his courage, then. Or determination." He frowned. "I still think his head looked a lot better when it wasn't attached to his body."
Maru put his hand on his lover's chest, moving downward. "Well, all that can wait until we know more. But he was right about one thing: we barely made it out of there before the Easterners came." Several gunships had appeared, over the horizon, and the Westerners had retreated. There was no longer anything to recover, anyway. The angel—whatever form of life it may have been—had completely disintegrated upon Crowley's touch, just like Crowley himself had nearly done. There weren't even any ashes left.
But Guren's people had taken extensive photos and measurements of the creature. The wounds on its back…whatever had made them, Yu still didn't like to think about it.
"Yu? I could use some blood tonight. Would you mind?"
He turned to him, his own musings cut off. "Sure, Maru." He got up. "You get out the bandages, and I'll go turn the shower on." Maru preferred getting his blood the old fashioned way, by biting into someone's neck and drinking their blood. And, ever since his marriage to Yu, that had been his primary means of getting blood. And that "someone" was Yu.
But, given such preference, the only way to go about doing it without making a hideous mess was for them both to undress and lie down in the bathtub, with the shower running. There, Maru would bite Yu, and, once he was done, clean them both off, since the contact narcotic in vampire saliva always rendered Yu unconscious. The excess blood, of course, would be washed down the drain. Needless to say, it saved a lot on cleaning bills.
Maru had been concerned about Yu and Yu's feelings on the matter, but Yu had reassured him. "But you're sure? I mean, if it's a problem, I can always go get blood from the blood bank." As was the standard in all Western State cities, vampires had established a mutually beneficial economy, buying and selling blood. Buying from the humans, and selling to the vampires.
"No, Maru," he'd said firmly. "This is part of what it's like, being married to you. And it's not, like, it's some hideous task that I just have to put up with. I knew this going in, and it's part of the whole thing." He'd taken his little demon in his arms. "It's...well, it's a labor of love. I do it because I love you. And," and here, his face took on an odd look, "to be honest, I prefer it this way. I'd really rather you got blood from me. I mean, you having to go get blood from a total stranger...it's almost like, if you wanted sex, you having to go to a prostitute to get it."
"Oh!" Maru had exclaimed, putting his fingers over his mouth. "I, I never thought about it like that! But you're absolutely right! Oh, Yu!" And he'd flung his arms around his lover. What did I ever do to get this lucky? Not only married to a man who loves me, but who understands and freely and willingly gives me his delicious blood, simply because he loves me? No other human male on the planet would have done what Yuichiro routinely did, of that he was sure. How did I ever get this lucky?
Later, they were in the bathroom, lying down in the bathtub with the water running warm around their feet. Both of them were naked, and Maru had made sure he had plenty of the double-stitch, self-adhering 2X bandages, bandages specifically designed for those vampires, who, like Maru, preferred getting their blood direct from the source. The 2X's were larger, actually double coverage bandages, as they had to cover two holes rather than the one produced by the syringes most used. "Yu, I have to ask," said Maru, lying atop Yu, the feel of his lover's naked body turning him on, as it always did. "Does this...hurt?"
Yu shook his head. Maru had asked that about a hundred times, both during the course of their marriage, and before, but Yu could see why he would. Were their roles reversed... "I can never remember." A vampire's saliva was not only an anticoagulant, but also a powerful—and completely safe—anesthetic. One bite put the human all the way under, like a deep surgical procedure. This was an evolutionary development that enabled the human to survive the attack, since food that thrashes around is more likely to harm itself, and waste a great deal of the blood. "It may sting a bit, I don't know. But I can never remember." If the vampire was careful enough—and Maru was—there wasn't nearly the damage as when the vampire violently attacked a human. It was the difference between tender sex and violent rape. The latter had been the case with Yoichi's sister, and Yoichi had never recovered from the sight of it. Yu wondered how Yoichi had ever dealt with that, or even if he had. He hadn't had the time, over in the black dome, to inquire, and anyway, he'd had other concerns.
Privately, Maru was concerned that Yu would build up a tolerance to the narcotic, for his once-a-month needed "blood transfusion." If so, he'd go to the bottled stuff, rather than hurt Yu.
But this had become a special time to them both. They'd found that something about it made it easier for them to just talk, more freely and intimately, about the day's events, and their feelings about things that otherwise they might not. Maru, especially, treasured these times, right before the bite, and tended to stretch them out simply for the increased intimacy. Sometimes they made love before the act, as afterward, even once he woke up, Yu's reduced blood pressure usually meant he wasn't able to get it up. The male erection was dependent, among other things, on blood pressure.
So, basically, their little ritual resulted in nothing more harmful or violent than Yu getting a good night's dreamless sleep. It had actually come in handy on those nights when he'd been too wound up to sleep naturally.
But right now, Maru was stretched out, lying atop Yu, both of them luxuriating in the feel of each other's naked body. "So. Learn anything today? I haven't had the opportunity to check with Krul, to see if Crowley has reconstituted enough to answer any questions. I expect when he is, they'll call on me."
Yu shook his head. "Nothing. Though for some reason, I've a strong hunch it involved what he had to say in the copter, about the Easterners torturing humans. He wasn't faking that, was he?"
"No…but he also wasn't telling the whole story. Like I said, the best lies contain some measure of the truth."
"Does he really have a problem with torturing humans?"
Maru frowned, his head propped up on his elbow, over Yu's face. "Yes and no. I get the impression he tolerated it—to please his superiors—but whether or not he actually enjoyed it—*" Here he shook his head—"Were I have to guess, I would say, not really. But I don't think he hated it, either, like he'd have us believe.
"But, Yu? From what I was able to gather, it seems like there was a certain point in his life where it did become intolerable. Maybe...maybe he just had a gutful of it by then. Or maybe—and this is more likely—he'd had a gutful of those over him, for whatever reason, and focused his feelings on their...entertainment. Vampires have been known to rebel against higher progenitors, though it isn't very common, and they usually need a strong reason to do so. I couldn't really tell without a deep scan. Or entering his dreams, and I'm not sure I could do that, unbonded."
"Well," said Yu, his hands moving over Maru's body, "I guess we'll just have to wait until he's reconstituted." Maru did have the cutest little butt, so soft and pleasingly round... "Say, could you determine anything about that angel? I know you said there was a bunch of energy being thrown about, but…"
But Maru just shook his head. "I couldn't sense anything. Well, that's not totally true. I could sense pain, both physical and emotional, but what led to the emotional aspect, I don't know. The physical part is, I guess, sorta self-explanatory."
"Yeah. I'd love to know how it got those wounds. From what you've said—from what everybody's said—high angels are the closest things to gods anyone's ever come across."
"Hmmm," mused Maru, "And Crowley did say something about a 'destroyer god.' Dama Kan, he called it."
"Yes, and he said something about 'they won't stop.' But also that the dome is...our only hope? That's not very reassuring."
"He could have been delirious, Yu. In fact, he probably was. It would take a lot, but vampires aren't immune to such, especially after such a huge shock as he got. Frankly, I wonder he was still alive at all. I mean, I've never heard of a vampire coming back from being, from being exploded, like that."
"It was like a bomb went off inside him, wasn't it?" Yu chuckled. "I'm just glad I was there to witness it."
"Lover," Maru ran a finger over Yu's chest, resting his head on his propped-up elbow, "You really ought to let the old hatreds go. I mean, yeah, if Crowley turns double traitor, he needs to die by the slowest means possible, but so far, everything I've sensed about him checks out, mostly." At Yu's expression, he hurriedly added, "It's just, I've seen how old hatreds, old desires for revenge, can warp a person. I should know; I warped quite a few lives back in my bad old days, before I met you. I don't want to see that happen to you." He laid his head on Yu's shoulder, his body touching Yu's at every point. "I'm not saying, let bygones be bygones, 'cause I know they never will. Nor am I saying let your guard down around him—I certainly won't. But you and I both know there's a lot of pain in your past. I'd hate to see that change you." He looked at Yu, full in the face, their lips only centimeters apart. "I don't wanna lose you, lover."
Something inside Yu melted. Maru could always do this to him. "Okay. I'll try. But considering what I've seen him do, to my friends, my family, Maru, it's not gonna be easy."
Maru kissed him, and moved against him in a very sensual way, arousing them both. "That's all I can ask, Yu." He paused, both in movements and talk. "I know I didn't help matters much, years ago, when you were fighting him, and called upon my power. I amplified your desire for revenge to the max, to the point where you practically became a demon yourself. Such a thing has to leave its mark."
"Now, don't go blaming yourself. You were doing exactly what I wanted you to do: providing me with your power in exchange for my desires. It was my choice to want to kill him so badly that I let myself go like that. Any fault in the matter was mine and mine alone."
Another kiss. "Now don't you go blaming yourself." Kiss. More incredibly sensual movements against him. Their sexual organs were together, rubbing against each other. Each of them enjoyed feeling the other's arousal. "Sure you don't wanna do it, before you go under?"
He shook his head. "Much as I'd love to, morning will be here before we know it. And I've gotta report in to Guren, to see what he's got in store for Mika and me. And you." Though not in the military, Asuramaru held a rank of his own, in military and civilian intelligence, due to his empathic abilities. Technically, he was co-equal with Guren, just under Krul herself, but in practice, he took—or perhaps accepted, would be a better word—orders, assignments, from Krul's general.
"Yu? Can I tell you something?"
"Huh? Of course."
Maru laid his head down on Yu's chest. "Sometimes I get...afraid."
"Afraid? Of what?"
"Perhaps afraid isn't the right word. I...begin to think what might have happened, had you not brought me over from the astral plane. I know it was an accident, and I bitched about it forever, it seemed like...but Yu, it was almost like you rescued me from some dungeon, somewhere. Like in one of those old fairy tales. Had you not done so, I'd still be there, still angry, still hating, still thinking of humans as the scum of the Earth...still all alone.
"But by sheer accident, you brought me over and...changed me just by loving me.
"Sometimes...sometimes I get afraid of what would have happened if you hadn't done that. I mean, it was...so close. An accident, really. But an accident I'm glad happened, now.
"You know, I think I always was in love with you, at least a little."
"Huh?" This was unexpected.
"Yeah." He rested his chin on Yu's chest. "When we first bonded, you promised to be my friend. And yeah, I could tell you didn't mean it, but...part of me wanted to believe it. I could tell you meant it about not wanting to hurt me, and I could tell you meant it about you wanting me to help you save Mika. And that, that emotion you had, wanting, needing, willing to do anything for your friend...I wanted that. I just didn't know how to go about getting it. That was one reason I bonded with you.
"So, yeah, a part of me wanted to believe you when you said you'd love me. I'd never really known love before, Yu, not the love of a friend. I wondered what it was like. I...I wanted to experience that, even though demons are supposed to despise positive emotions, I wanted to have that, anyway. And...you offered it. So I wanted to believe you.
"That was why I was so hurt when you left. I felt abandoned, betrayed by the one person who'd ever offered me friendship.
"And then you came back.
"So, yeah...in a real sense, you...it was like you rescued me from the high tower of the astral plane, and brought me into your world. Yeah, I hated it at first—you remember all our fights, how I was such a bitch. But...if it hadn't been for you...if you'd done what I ordered you to do, there when you contacted me that second time, there, in my realm, if you'd shrugged your shoulders and said, 'oh, well,' ...I don't know what I would have done.
"That was why it was unbearable to me when I thought I'd lost you.
"Sometimes, sometimes... I dream about what...what it would have been like, had, had things gone differently. They aren't pleasant dreams, Yu. In a way, they're worse than nightmares. I can actually see me, that version of me, in love with you, and so, so desperate for your love, but unable to express the need.
"In one of those dreams, that version of me thought he'd killed you, and went out into a snowstorm to die."
Yu held Maru close. "Oh, Maru. Don't talk like that. I don't even want to have that mental picture.
"You wanna know something? That time when we were separated...I had this enormous, godforsaken emptiness in me, in, in my soul, that was worse than any pain I'd ever felt. I didn't know what it was—I thought it was all sorts of things, I blamed it on the war, on the vampires, on this, on that—but what it was, all along, was me being away from you. That time in my life, after you came over...even with all that happened, that was the beginning of the best time in my life, leading right up to now. Just...being with you again, even with all the fights and fusses. I guess I didn't realize it then, but I was in love with you even then.
"I'm glad I found you, Maru. I'm glad I found you. And I'll never let you go, no matter what."
I found you just in time, Maru.
And I'll never let you go.
Maru snuggled deeper, smiling. "Likewise, lover. Now. As you say, morning'll be here before we know it. Sure you don't wanna quickie?"
Yu hesitated. He did "wanna quickie,"but the narcotic would keep him out for at least an hour… "Better not," he sighed in resignation. "Next time. Or, better still, tomorrow night. But not a 'quickie.' A 'longie.'"
"'Longie'? Is that even a word?"
Yu kissed him. "It is now. Now, I guess we'd best get going." And he bared his neck. "Morning isn't that far away."
"Yeah. I guess we had better get on with it. Okay, lover. Here we go." He positioned himself over Yu's throat. "Big stick."
But, at the exact moment, just before he went under, something flashed through Yu's mind: Wait. What was that, back there, about kids and dads?
Afterwards, Maru was holding Yu upright, in a sitting position, both of them covered in blood. He'd already applied the bandages, but was just holding his unconscious lover in a passionate embrace, shivering with post-blood feast ecstasy. "Ohh, Yu, I wish you could know how good you are!" He shivered some more. "Ohhh, Yu…OH!" His eyes widened as he felt himself climax, sexually, up against Yu, his seed squirting between their pressed-together bodies. Their closeness and the aftermath of Maru's feast was always an incredible turn-on to him, but this was not usually the result. He smiled, rocking the unconscious Yu back and forth, a hand behind his head, kissing him fervently. "A little extra, huh, darling? I'll owe you double, then."
He picked Yu up, hardly exerting his vampire strength, and washed them both off in the running shower water. Then, he took him out of the shower, dried them both off, and carried Yu, bridal style (well, of course, he thought), into the bedroom. Placed him in bed and got in beside him, positioning his head so he could breathe. Then he thought: why not? He turned Yu over on his side, and nestled in behind him, sort of like that version of him had in his dream, where he'd killed Yu, and went out into the snows to die. He shivered when he thought about that dream, that horrible dream; he truly pitied that Asuramaru, who would never know this or any love. But he comforted himself: it was only a dream; it hadn't actually happened.
Thank the gods.
He felt so much better now. The influx of blood—especially Yu's blood—always both invigorated him and relaxed him to such an enormous degree.
He spooned in behind Yu, his arms around him, his head just behind Yu's ear. "Get some sleep, love. As you say, morning'll be here before we know it." And he laid his head down, against the pillow, but as close to Yu as he could be. To think: one time he'd felt the need to sneak this. He now knew that Yu would have given it to him—that and more—even back before they realized their true feelings for each other.
He still couldn't believe the change in him, in them both. So this was love? Gods above, below, and sideways, had he ever been after the wrong thing, all these years!
Somewhere in the back of his skull, the thought crossed his mind that maybe...just maybe there was some sort of, of "spring" or, or pendulum effect. That all those thousand years of hating, always hating, always angry, always greedy for emotions or blood or both, feasting on negative emotions...maybe now all that was reversed, somehow, and he was experiencing some sort of, of...backlash, maybe? After all, there were metaphysical laws to the universe, as well as physical ones. Could this be some sort of reversal of the effect? A flood of positive emotions?
He laid his head down, and began to still his mind, preparing for sleep. The narcotic in his saliva should keep Yu out for at least an hour; after that, he'd sleep normally. Krul's metaphysicians had assured him that humans didn't develop a tolerance for the narcotic, but Maru was still uneasy. He didn't want this closeness, this intimacy, to end. It was the best thing he'd ever known, aside from actual sex with his lover. In some ways, it was even better. And when they combined the two…
Well. As Yu said, time for some sleep. On the verge of sleep, Asuramaru opened his mind a bit, sensing the thoughts and feelings of those around him, those outside the apartment. It was like white noise to him; restful and soothing.
But suddenly, his eyes opened wide at a stray thought he'd picked up. All of a sudden, sleep was forgotten.
Somebody, in the palace, was thinking about assassinating the queen.
