Seras walked through the corridors; she had heard what happened the night before. Oh, how great? She had been feeling better, finally getting the bloodlust under control this morning. She had been feeling better, like nothing was ever wrong. But her thoughts worried her. Demoni's action's spoke louder than her words. She was dangerous, of course, everyone here was… but… She was different for one reason only: she wasn't human, but she wasn't a vampire. No one knew what she really was, maybe except Oni and she knew he wouldn't tell them. She wouldn't go sifting through his mind either trying to grab information. Too much of that could get her into trouble and if Demoni wanted her to know… she'd tell her.
Demoni had been awake for a very, very long time. She just sat in her bed, looking at the shadows, seeing faces that no one else could see. A childish voice fell into her ears as a vision of a small child appeared before her. "I talked to that man..." The child said, stepping closer to Demoni.
"I know…" Demoni said her voice full of a little bit less than NO enthusiasm.
"He seemed really nice. He told me to help you..."
"I am you, you are me. If you want to help me, you have to help yourself first. You're a ghost from the passed, a figment of my imagination. I never really understood why you wouldn't just GO AWAY!"
The younger version of herself, otherwise known as Cat, slowly disappeared. Demoni was left and she sighed. She wondered what would happen now. She was sure she wouldn't be able to walk away scot-free. No way.
Oni stood as night fell and walked through the wall into Demoni's room and sat down he wore grey robes that looked old, a book and a candle, he set the book and the candle upon the table, he lit the candle with a wave of his hand, he then sat down, and waited for her to begin.
Demoni opened her eyes slowly which were a bright red. She looked to Oni with a bit of surprise and curiousness. "What are you doing?" She asked. Her voice was a lot softer and A LOT calmer than the night before. But she didn't regret a damn thing from last night. Not one damn thing. They all deserved it, and she would never regret it... They turned her into a freak, they should have left her dead, and then they wouldn't have had so many problems. She looked into Oni's eyes, to the candle, back to Oni.
Oni looked to her and back to the candle, "I wish to teach you the way, the way beyond fear, beyond hate, beyond revenge and sadness." he opened the book and began reading silently.
She looked down to the book and cocked a brow. Was he just going to sit there? She sighed and looked towards the candle, looking into the flame. She blinked, hearing what that damn doctor had said before she snapped his neck. There is no balance for her, shadows run through her veins. She blinked out of it and turned back to him. It was strange, probably the only two things she had ever feared was... 1 -- Herself, and her past... and 2 -- Oni. It was a bit ironic, but... Hatred was her fuel, as was revenge and sadness. He had named the only four things she had ever had in her life, the only things that hadn't EVER betrayed her. She looked away from him and back to the darkness that lurked around the corners of her bedroom. "If you aren't here to teach me, why are you here?" She stood and walked over towards the table that was holding most of her weapons.
Oni looked to her, "perhaps I am here to teach you but I know you are not ready to learn, your mind is closed, unable to accept a lot of things you do not know, because your survival for so long has depended upon knowing what you need to and nothing else, I believe you are truly a very sad and scared person that I do, and I will try to help you but first you must be ready to hear."
"I only trust who I need to, I only want to know what I need to know... Nothing else." She sighed heavily and looked back to the katana, slowly pulling it out of the sheath partly." There was a very long pause. "I've been hunting for… I don't know how many years," she turned. "And I haven't met another vampire such as yourself, especially one that would save my life by facing a Priest and killing him no less. Even if he was a Judas... Out of everyone I've met, out of every single person... You're unique, not only because of what I've just said… but because I've learned to trust you. Seras, Sir Integra, that... Walter, yes, that's his name, I don't trust anyone else on this godforsaken Earth more than you. I'm surprised you can't read my mind to find that out." She turned back around and sheathed the katana once more.
"There are only two things I fear, and… One, its on human instinct. and I cannot help it. The other, I ended last night and I have no regrets and Sorrow is a double-edged sword..."
Oni looked to her, "I have, I merely am giving you time to acknowledge it to yourself, then if you trust me trust this, your time for fear anger and hate, are over, I can help you find a way to a better place, if you will allow me to do so, I can only show you the door you must open it."
She turned her head to look into his eyes. She stared for just a moment. She had dreams of when she was a child, when she looked like the apparition which appeared to her almost every day. She knew things wouldn't be able to be like they were before she died when she was a child, but... could things be close to it...? Pfft, probably not even close. She sighed and stepped towards him. "If my body shall allow it; if the shadows in my veins will allow me to do so..." That doctors words still bounced through her ears.
Oni looked into her eyes, "you are like me in that shadows also flow through my veins, which was the gift and the curse of my master, all those years ago." He pulled out a chair and had her sit and began the lesson, "we are more alike than you know, my life was also taken not by time or by an accident, but by a brutal person that killed my entire family, and then took my life as well but he gave me something I didn't want, it wasn't my choice, I served her for a long time, doing things, because of what she commanded, because of what flowed through my veins." he began to tell her of the years that he tormented him, and twisted him, "I stood then in front of her and I could have killed her, taken the satisfaction of it, but I chose not to because someone had shown me a way, a better way to live.
I have spent the rest of my life trying to make up for those years where I did horrible things, including teaching others what I was taught. to find the balance between the light and the darkness, to know both sides and stand between, you've known the darkness and you think you've known the light because you kill those that do evil, but you do it because your darkness demands death carnage, war, and you found a way that is... acceptable, its not a bad thing, but ill try to teach you more."
Demoni looked into his eyes. Almost everything he was saying was right was correct. Almost... "Then, teach me. I'm willing to learn more, though I am sure I do not have a choice. I am sure Sir Integra has instructed you... an Ultimatum, if you will." She gave a small smile. "I don't blame her… and I don't blame you either." She looked down for a moment. "Even if what happened last night hadn't happened, and you asked me this... I still would have said yes, teach me. But things change, and I hope you know, I am a very stubborn student." She gave another smile, trying to at least make things.. feel different. She hated tense atmospheres, tense situations... They made her go insane. She sighed. "I am willing to learn whatever you teach me, even if my body does not allow me to.. I am sure I will. I don't give up easily."
Oni smiled and couldn't help but laugh, "It all starts with choice Demoni, everything in this world starts with choice, and it may not end in choice but... well that's the way the universe rolls I suppose." he was surprised this was going as well as it did so he sat on the floor moving the candle between them, "please sit across from me this will be a simple meditation exercise nothing more, Now focus on your breathing, focus on the rhythm how it goes around never stopping, in and out, such is the flow of the world, such is how the circle of life begins, now I want you to forget everything outside this room, just think of it as gone, nothingness, that means the physicality and your thoughts and feelings outside this room." his voice was measured and even as he started to guide her.
Demoni sat down and slowly closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, listening to the sound of her own breathing.. listening closely, closely... Closely! Imagining nothing was around them was pretty hard since she was aware of almost everything that was around them, but she tried... She let her head drop to her chest, suddenly feeling as if she were floating. She smiled softly, listening to Oni's voice closely, as if it was her only anchor to the world around them.
Oni watched as she fell into meditation, "good, very good. Now find a place within yourself, a place of no hate, nor fear, nor anger nor regret, a place of happiness within you, find it, and live it for the moment, only for the moment, think of nothing more than the moment." he watched as she fell deeper into meditation.
Her eyes fluttered, but stayed shut. The tattoo on her arm slowly began to glow, only in throbs though and they were softer than anything. She let out a soft breath as her mind started to trace over the memories in her head, the ones she did have and the ones she had came to realize.
The sky was bright and beautiful; the birds singing playfully along with the heartbeat of the world. Demoni slowly opened her eyes, to see the older world around her. Green grass, bright pink and yellow flowers along the white picket fences, shining light, laughing children... She looked up to see a younger part of her self, one that looked like the apparition in flesh dancing along the confinement of the gate of a huge brick house. She could see her mother and her father walking outside with bright smiles on their faces. She didn't know if this memory was real or a fake memory, one she had implanted, or one they had implanted.. who knew? She didn't care. It was something that made her smile when she thought of it, though rarely. Most of the time, she was thinking about the Church, the Priest.. and whatever else that had the courage to pop into her head.
She blinked... Her eyes narrowing.. Was this the day?
Oni watched and knew what she was thinking, "no this isn't an implanted memory." he smiled as he watched her. This was going well.
Demoni nodded softly and walked towards the gate. She looked up and her Mother and father started to talk to the next door neighbor, her eyes widened.. This was it.. this.. was that day. She looked over to see herself walking from the gate into the middle of the street. "NO GET OUT O--!" It was too late... She watched herself fly at least ten feet into the air and land on the concrete with a wet, limp thlap. Suddenly, she could feel all the pain that she was feeling back then. She watched her mother and father rush over and scream out in emotional agony to see their little girl die in their arms.
Demoni closed her eyes. "I need to get out of here.. Now.." She said and darkness swooshed over the skies. She turned around to see the fire before her. "I can't control it, get me out of here."
oni extended his abilities and guided her out of her memories, to a place a white space if you will. oni stood there "I am sorry, I truly am for what happened to you, but the past is the past, it cannot harm you, cannot touch you and cannot affect you, not if you don't let it, my past comes to me sometimes, but I remember the same thing I have told you."
She let out a few deep breaths and looked into his eyes. "Thank.. you." She said. "It's alright. I couldn't control my memories.. Sometimes they overtake me as well. It's almost like that darkness." She said.
He looked to her and nodded, and that's the purpose of this training to rise above that darkness." he smiled and sat down on a chair that materialized. "the darkness is part of you just as it is part of me, perhaps even more so because I am a vampire, but if I can do it, find the balance I know you can, all it takes is time and patience, " with that he continued the lesson teaching her other ways to find the balance and other ways of meditating, if her memories troubled her then she could come here to a place of peace no matter what. She could make this place what she wanted it to be. just as he had formed the chair she could form an environment trees grass sun moon sky everything she needed, all from her mind.
She looked down for a moment, hoping this balance would work. If not, she knew she was going to be in some deep shit. She let out a soft sigh. "I am listening to your words, to your advice.. to your teachings, and I only have one question... For you... since you are more like me than anyone or anything else, was it painful to find a balance?"
Oni looked to her and shook his head, "painful ... no difficult yes but I had to deal with not only the shadows but my other nature, it is something I do not like to think back on too much, back then I was... well that's not important. and as for overcoming the shadows within you, that is what the meditation is for, free your higher self from the shadows to be able to learn, if you can do that the rest will start to fall into place, meditation mind control techniques, and more are what you have to learn before I can teach you more, because once you are no longer dictated by your physical self it becomes irrelevant for the most part, there will always be times, just as there are always times for me, but I do not fear them, I do not run from them I know and accept them as part of who I am.
She nodded. "Good. I just have a feeling that it would have been painful, like everything within me is telling me to back away. Even my heart." She sighed and looked up into his eyes. "Thank you... for teaching me." She said. She closed her eyes and the space around them started to fill with things of beauty. They were now sitting on a cold stone rock that looked over a glittering moonlit lake. The breeze was gentle as it blew past them. Flowers, trees, the dark midnight sky floated around them as she slowly opened her eyes with a smile. "This is much better." She said.
Oni looked to her, "that's because your listening to your physical self, the darkness will always try to demand control that's always going to be like that but what ill teach you is to somewhat deafen yourself to its voice, you cannot completely ignore it. because if you do you'll loose yourself, balance is tricky but its what is needed. have you ever seen the light? I'm not talking as in what everyone thinks is good, but what simply is. I know you've seen the darkness I think its time to see the light what do you think?"
She looked into his eyes, a small smile creeping through her. She nodded. "Yes... I'm beginning to grow tired of darkness, show me the light."
Oni smiled and stood, "control arc release to level 1 the Cromwell approval is activated, situation s releasing final control locks." he sent a message explaining to Integra what was going on so she wouldn't worry. he looked to her and a spark of light started from the center of his body and grew outwards into his light form, he looked to her, "as I know the darkness so to do I know the light so to I am the light so to I am the darkness so to I become grey."
Integra looked up for a moment and smiled softly. Go ahead, Oni.. Just don't get yourself into any trouble.
Demoni took a step back as the light flooded her eyes. She held her hand up for a moment, covering her eyes for a moment. It was so bright. After a moment, she let her hand fall to her side and looked to him. It was like he was a pure being of light. If she didn't know any better, she'd think he was an angel. She took a step closer, only one other step. "How can you...? How did... Wow."
"when you know the darkness the light and the balance between much is possible. this is the light, if you can know this you can become that which you aspire to be." he slowly returned to his human form, he sighed and sat back tired from the transformation.
She smiled to him. "Takes a lot out of you, doesn't it?" She took a breath for a moment and looked up to the moon that she had created. "You say it will be difficult, but that only makes me want to do it more.." She looked down. "...when can we start?"
Oni looked to her, "yes, my physical body is a harsh thing, it does not like it when I go to far one way or the other, although it is easier to become the darkness, you saw it in the streets, with Mr. Anderson." he stood, "we start now." Oni spent the rest of the night teaching her the basics of the training just as the one before him had done. That night so long ago.