Chapter 10 : Wild Riders
Little Pigeon River of TN
Chris opened his eyes after scanning for Raven .
" I can ' t sense her . Where is Sunrise ? " Chris asked .
" What do you mean you can ' t sense her ? " Storm asked fearful .
" Meaning she could be passed out . " Chris said not wanting to state the worst . If he lost her because of his anger and not listening to her , Chris would never forgive himself .
" Sunrise is here Chris . " Aaron said looking in the sky .
" Sunrise , I need your help . " Chris said and the phoenix came to him merging into his spirit . He called his Fallen Armor merged with the Phoenix spirit to him .
" You guys go ahead . I will find her and bring her to you . I promise I won ' t stop looking . " Chris said .
" Chris , find her , I couldn ' t bare to lose her . " Storm looked at him .
" I ' ll find her Storm . " Chris said and took off looking for Raven in the river .
" He ' ll find her Storm . Chris has never let Raven down by his own hands , it was always Asmodai that caused the problems . " Roode looked at his Beer Money partner .
" Yeah , but for some reason I think there are still things they need to work out before Chris goes back to the other side . There are things that they both need to let go of before either of them can move on . Come we need sleep . " Storm said as they walked back to camp .
River Path
Chris was racing as fast as he could to keep up with current of the river . He had to find Raven before something worse happened . This was his fault , so , it was up to him to fix the problem . Why did he have to push ? Why did he have to say those things to her ? Why did he get upset at what she and Storm did ? It was their choice now to do what they felt was right between them . Sure he had asked Storm and Raven to look out for each other and they were doing what he had asked them . So , wasn ' t that enough or was he still feeling the pain of the thought that he would never be the one to satisfy her needs . He would never be able to give her that family that she desired or hold her when she need his strength to guide her through the rough years . He would never be the one to sit back and watch her turn grey .
" I ' ll find you . I promise I ' ll find you and make it right . " Chris said as a tear fell from his face . He wasn ' t suppose to let his emotions get the best of him , but being on Earth and walking around with the living was doing that to him .
Chris realized that there was so much that he and Raven needed to work out before they parted one last time until the end or both her and Storm ' s life or until the end of the world .
Harris stopped and sensed the area around him . He used both the Fallen energy and the energy from Sunrise to feel for her . He felt a glimmer of hope close by , but there was another energy source he had never felt . He followed the source to an encampment where he saw the Wild Riders of the Pit . Evil men with no remorse released to do Lucifer ' s bidding , mercenaries with no love for living humans . They brutally tortured their victims until they begged for mercy , but was given none . Then the torture would continue until the fiends got tired of the screaming and made you go through a very painful death .
" Please tell me you are not in there Raven . " Chris whispered to himself . He thought of a way to get through without being seen or heard and remember the cloak and boots he had received from Zacharai . He pulled them out and put the boots on his feet and the cloak around his body , pulling the hood up over his head . No one could see or hear him now .
Chris began walking around the encampment , searching for Raven by following her energy source . He searched for a while before he came to an up right building that was about the size of the Impact Zone . The energy reading from Raven was strongest here .
" Time to go in . " Chris said going to the door and entering the building . He kept quiet and followed the energy source as he heard a terrifying and horrible scream . He knew at once whose scream that was , he had heard it before : Raven .
Chris swallowed to compose himself and followed the screams until he saw a room marked as torture and interrogation room . Then another scream came from inside of the room . He carefully opened the door making sure no one saw him or the door open and went inside .
He had to stop for a moment because right infront of him was the head of the Wild Riders tormenting Raven . His Angel was being tortured by one of the evil , vile men . Her back was ripped and bleeding because of the whip biting into her skin and there was bruises all over her from being used as a punching bag .
" You are almost done my dear . " The leader said to Raven and went to reach for the button on Ravens pants when out of no where a knife was flung at him and pierced his neck . He dropped to the ground dead .
" Who did that ? " One of the other men asked .
" Here . " Chris said as he threw the cloak off . He pulled both katanas out from their sheathes and began a slaughter right there .
He slew the foul men one by one until they were all dead . Then turned to look at Raven . He cleaned off his blades on one of the dead guys shirts and returned them to their sheaths . Then taking the Dagger of the Fallen he stuck it into the keyhole and unlocked the shackles . He caught Raven before she could crumble to the ground and put up the Dagger .
" Raven , " He held her for a few minutes and then picked up the cloak . He then teleported them away from the encampment right to an old hideout he had used when he first came back as the Fallen Warrior . He layed her on a pile of clothes that he had stuck in the hideout for comfortable sitting .
Chris then began looking over her wounds . They weren ' t as bad as they looked , but they were still pretty bad for a human ' s prespective . Most people break when introduced to certain levels of pain and those Riders not having the ability to feel compassion for hurting people could push those boundaries to the breaking point without feeling any remorse or guilt .
" I need to get you cleaned up . " Chris said . He teleported to the closest water source with a container to get water . Then teleported back with the water .
Chris set the water on the fire he had going to heat and moved back to Raven checking all of the wounds again . He looked at the whip marks and bruises . He then looked at her right leg and realized that it was swollen . He pulled the pants leg up to her knee cap and began checking her leg . He felt of the area that was swollen .
" Ow , ah , " Raven cried out .
" Easy Angel , I ' m sorry I didn ' t mean for it to hurt . " He said brushing her long hair out of her eyes . He then went back to her leg and realized it was broke .
" Hmm , I am going have to deal with the marks and bruises , then deal with trying to set a broken leg . " Chris said .
Chris looked at the water that was now heated and pulled it from the fire and closer to them . He took one of the clothes and began washing Raven off .
" Ow , ow , ahh , " Raven didn ' t like the hot water being introduced to the bruises and marks on her body .
" Sshh , its okay Raven . " Chris trying to keep her calm .
He continued to wash her wounds .
" Ow , ahg , " Raven cried out .
" I know it hurts Angel , but you got to let me finish . " He said . Chris then began singing her song to her . She quit trying to fight Chris and let him finish cleaning her off .
Chris then found some medicine cream to put on her wounds and then bandaged them up to keep air from getting to the wounds and causing infection to set in . Once Chris was finished he looked for a shirt in his hideout and found one .
" This might be a little big on you , but at least it will keep you covered . " Chris said helping her slide the shirt on over her head and helped her get her arms in pulling it down to cover her up .
" There my Angel . Now lets focus on the leg . I wish you would wake up and talk to me . " Chris said looking for something to make a splint . He found wood strips and shoelaces , then came back to Raven .
" Okay Raven this may hurt . " He said as he set the wound .
" Ahhhh ! Shit ! " Raven cried out when she felt Chris set her broken leg .
" Easy , lord I needed to record that for Storm to hear . " Chris surprised at the sudden outburst .
" Shut up , Cat . " Raven said opening her eyes .
" If that was all it took to wake you up I would have done it a while back . Hold on and don ' t move your leg . " He said as he stripped the bark from the wood pieces to keep the bark from cutting up her leg . He made sure one side of both wood pieces was flat to sit along the bone of the leg . Finally he used the wood pieces and shoelaces to immobilize her leg .
" There that should do it for now . At least until we can get back to Aaron and he can do a better job at fixing you up . You okay ? " Chris asked her .
" Yeah , but where are those vile men ? " Raven asked looking around as she sat up .
" Gone , they are from the Layers of the Pit , the Wild Riders that patrol the walk ways of Hell . So , I sent them back to where they came from . " Chris said .
" So , there are evil men from Hell walking around up here . Thats not comforting by any means . Do the others know where we are and what happened ? " Raven asked .
" Yes they do . Not all of what happened , but where we are . I sent Sunrise back to them , he helped me find you . Raven , what happened after you left me ? " Chris asked .
" I stopped for a moment to calm myself and when I turned to go back to the others my foot slipped off of the ledge and I fell into the river . I drifted for a while until I came to some of the rocks further down the river and pulled myself up on one to prevent myself from going further down river . Once I had regain my strength I moved back to the bank of the river . Where I fell from the broken leg , I didn ' t realize it was broken before , I guess my adrenaline was up where I wouldn ' t feel the pain . " Raven said looking at her leg now in a splint .
" How did the Riders get you ? " Chris asked .
" I don ' t know . I passed out after reaching the bank from the pain and physical drain . I never felt that much energy pulled from me at once along with the pain . The ring doesn ' t even compare to the strain of trying to get out of a raging river . But , when I came to , I was chained to the ceiling with thoughs creeps watching me and they had a gag around my mouth . They only undid the gag when they tortured me , so , I couldn ' t scream out , call Sunrise , or summon my armor to me . I don ' t remember anymore than that , except for feeling pain every now and then . I guess I passed out from the pain and emotional toll it had on me . " Raven said .
" You ' re alright now . You ' re safe Angel . " Chris looked at her .
" We need to get back to the others , but I ' m not sure if I am going to be able to move right now . My body aches all over and I ' m exhausted . " Raven said looking around again .
" Then sleep , I will watch over you . Nothing will get you with me nearby . " Chris said softly to her .
" I know , but what is this place Cat ? " Raven asked .
" When I first came back as the Fallen Warrior this was one of my hideouts . I stocked the place with what I needed or might need in an emergency situation like this . " Harris said .
" So , I am an emergency situation now ? " Raven asked glaring at him .
" No , that is not what I ment . Do remember that I don ' t need to eat , sleep , or have medical treatment , but you guys do ? I didn ' t want my hideouts empty if we ever had an emergency situation like with your broken leg . " Chris said .
" Yeah sure , " Raven rolled her eyes .
" Why are we fighting right now ? " Chris asked curiously .
" Oh , what you don ' t remember ? Don ' t think I forgot what you said to me . I broke my leg when I fell , but I didn ' t hit my head . " Raven glared at him again .
" Raven , you are very stubborn . " Chris said .
" Good , my stubborness has helped my survive and deattach from certain people . I would prefer if you didn ' t bring it up anymore . Oh , and when did you start having a say in my sex life ? " Raven asked .
" You are my ex . " Chris said .
" Yeah , your ex , meaning we are no longer together . What happened to us to get like this Chris ? " Raven asked looking at the ground after she thought about what she just said . She was to exhausted to fight with the Wildcat and she wasn ' t even sure why she was still fighting with him . She never really liked being in conflict with him while they were dating and she still didn ' t .
" I have no clue . " Chris said softer .
" There were times when we never fought about anything . When we thought the world was funny because of the constant conflict between relationships . Those days when I could rest peacefully in your arms and lock out all of the pain and stress that could harm us . Now it seems all like a fading memory or a dream that you forget about in the morning light . I don ' t want those days to completely fade . I don ' t want those moments to be completely erased . But , I know sooner or later I will have to let go of you and all of the memories we ' ve made together . I don ' t mind letting go of the bad stuff . But , all of the good times , I don ' t want those thoughts to fade away forever to never be thought of again . " Raven said looking at Chris as a small tear fell down her face .
Chris looked at her for a moment . He hated seeing her cry , it always pained him to see his Angel cry , especially when he caused her to cry . Chris got up and came closer to her . He pulled her into his arms and held her . He let her cry herself to sleep in his arms , but he never let her go . His Angel was here in his arms for the moment and he knew she need his strength to get through the days ahead . Just like he need her faith in him to get through those same days .