The Dragon's Blood; Part 2

Time continued to swiftly pass them by. At last the journey came to an end. Spades steps off the black disk onto the roof top of Titans North and immediately walks toward the service entry down into the building.

Raven follows him down until they are intercepted by Zero, who had been wandering through the hallways.

"Dude! Where've ya been?!" he smiles broadly before seeing Raven, "Oh, why'd you bring the b*tch with you?"

Raven frowns sharply at Zero, though does not reply.

Spades quickly pushes the focus elsewhere, "Zero, where are the others?"

"Triard's sleeping again, and Leyla is in her room on the computer waiting for you."

"Ah, alright." Spades decides he should check in with Leyla to let her know he's back.

Zero turns back toward Raven, "So, what's up with you? Still hate me?" he laughs.

"More than you care to know," Raven sneers.

Spades tells Zero, "Dimitri, leave her be…"

Zero rolls his eyes, "Whatever." He turns away and walks off.

Raven unclenches her fist and sighs deeply. A few light bulbs overhead suddenly burst.

Spades winces and shields himself beneath his cape as the shards fall. "I take it you don't like him?" He illuminates a fireball in his hand as a backup light source.

"Like I said, more than he cares to know…" She continues on past Spades.

Spades picks up his pace and leads the way down a few more floors until the halls were lit again. Soon, they arrive in the living quarters of the tower.

They can hear music coming from Leyla's room. Spades smiles a bit and tells Raven, "You go ahead and feel free to pick out any guest room you like. I'm going to see Leyla. If you desire entertainment, there is a library on the floor below us."

Raven thought about visiting the library, "Alright… If you need me, you know where to find me…" Raven leaves for the stairs at the end of the corridor.

Meanwhile, Spades quietly and carefully opens the bedroom door where he saw Leyla sitting at her computer. She had been and browsing MySpace while playing music through the speakers. The noise was enough to prevent Leyla from hearing Spades enter.

Spades sneaks up behind her, and then wraps his arms tightly around her to kiss her cheek.

Leyla gasps and jumps a little until she realizes who it was. She then smiles. "When did you get back?" She happily returns the kiss.

"A bit later than I expected… Things didn't go according to plan, but I got into the graveyard, and I completed the mission. Raven was with me too."

"Ohhh… Wait, why was Raven there?"

"I was wondering the same thing, but she claims that cultists attacked her home a few days prior to the assault on our own tower. She came back with me after the fight."

"Fight?" Leyla's smile disappears, "I thought you told us you weren't going to be in any fights!"

Spades stops smiling as well. He knew he was in trouble, "Well, I—I mean, we weren't expecting to get into a battle."

"I don't care, Jer. You have a team for a reason!"

"I know, I know, but you guys could have gotten hurt…"

Leyla grabs his wrist, "And you didn't?" She held out his hand, exposing a large burn in his palm.

Spades double-glances at the burn, "What the—? I didn't even notice…"

"You're just saying that!" Leyla scolds him, "Jer! I know we're superheroes and stuff, but we're also a team. Dude, look at your hand!"

"I know! Ok? Look, I said, I just don't want you getting hurt!"

"So what? You're gonna go off fighting alone instead?!"

"I wasn't alone, I had Raven!" Spades protests to Leyla.

"Only Raven, which wasn't very helpful anyway, and you didn't even expect her to be there! What if something worse happened? What if she wasn't there?! … Look, I'm sorry if I sound like a nag, but seriously…"

Spades falls silent and looks down at the burn in his palm. It wasn't bad, but it was the same hand he was holding the book with when that cultist tried to stab him and stuck the book instead. His heart sank as he thought to himself: What if Raven wasn't there? Spades remains quiet, looking toward his feet in shame. Perhaps it would be best if he did not tell Leyla everything.

Leyla calms down after a minute and hugs Spades, "I'm sorry I'm yelling at you, but you know why…"

"Understandable," he replies in a relaxed tone.

"You're not going alone next time. I don't care how much you say no!" she smiles faintly, brightening her tone as well in an attempt to cheer him up.

Spades put on a convincing smile as well, though it was difficult. "Fair enough. Just be careful."

"You worry too much, Jer…"

"I always do," he chuckles lightly. "But so do you."

"Shut up…" Leyla playfully shoves him.

Spades lets himself smile for real now, seeing Leyla happy. "Anyway, I'm going to head back to the living room, maybe see if Raven wants something to eat along the way. What would you like?"

"Hmm, doesn't matter to me."

"Suit yourself."

Leyla follows him back downstairs where they'd meet with Raven and the others to start making dinner.

Hours more would pass, and the rest of the evening would glide by without much disturbance. It wasn't until midnight, as Spades slumbered, that he began to suffer again.

It was the usual nightmare, the one about his home burning to the ground. Yet, something was different this time. The house was not yet aflame. The police officer wasn't there, blocking Spades from entering the house. The fire department hadn't arrived either. Spades finally enters the household only to witness a phantom of his former self yelling at his parents as it stormed out the door in its black leather jacket. "This is why I hate the holidays!!" Spades heard echoing through the air. "They can f—king burn!"

Spades watches his doppelganger leave, but as he turns back around and walks quietly into the kitchen, he notices a single black candle sitting at the center of the dining table. Spades already knew this was going somewhere bad… He tries to remain conscious of the fact that this was just a dream. Still, everything felt so vivid, so detailed, to the point where he could even hear his own soft breathing, his heart pounding, and the footsteps underneath him as he started pacing around the table, his eyes fixated on the black candle.

A strand of melting wax drips down its side, cooling and fusing its self to the table. The flames intensify somehow. Spades quickly steps back and puts his hand out to try and control the fire with his powers, but instead of soothing the flame, it only brightens and flares upward to scorch his hand.

Spades yells slightly and jerks his hand away, and then inspects the wound. Upon the center of his palm, was a disturbingly familiar brand, a bloody crimson "S" was seared into his flesh. He heard a deep, yet quiet voice, "Scath…"

The walls around him begin to melt like the candle wax, and then they burn until nothing was around him but a barren, foreign wasteland filled with lava and ash. He hears a growl, and as Spades turns in the direction of the voice, he saw Avro standing there in his full dragon form. His long, twisting body is sprawled against the jagged obsidian terrain. That crimson "S" was emblazoned upon his forehead.

"SCATH!!" Avro roars this time, blood dripping from his mouth. When Spades approaches him, he realizes how horribly mutilated Avro's body is. He had been gashed open in several places, his tail crippled and broken, and his left eye bleeding and blind.

Spades's heart sinks into his stomach, and then twists nauseatingly. The only thing that stops him from vomiting is the acknowledgement that his friend desperately needs help. He runs toward Avro.

However, when he comes too close, Avro's eyes roll back into his head as he lets out this animalistic snarl. Avro lunges out with his jaws to snap down on Spades's right arm. He bites down on it and forces Spades to his knees. The hand with the "S" in its palm is pinned inside.

Spades starts tugging at his arm at first, and then starts beating frantically at Avro's muzzle.

Avro only continues to snarl, increasing the pressure.

Spades feels his arm bending, spraining, and nearly snapping. Then an overwhelming rage begins to consume him. Spades grits his teeth before yelling with all his breath, "Release me!!" and let a fireball appear in his hand caught in Avro's maw, detonating inside.

Avro doubles back, releasing Spades, while the marking on his hand starts throbbing and burning. Spades breathes hard as he stomps toward Avro now. "Avro!!" he yells, "Stand down!!"

"I chose this life…" Avro grins, "You were doomed since your birth… Your family was doomed because of you… Soon, your friends will be doomed to eternity as well!" he snarls.

"Avro, what the hell has gotten into you!?"

Avro only laughs deeply, and then roars out, "Power!" He lifts into the skies and disappears into the black clouds above.

Spades watches him take off, but amidst the clouds were four red eyes staring back down at him. Horns stuck through the smoke, and a grin appears. A new voice, deeper than Avro's, spoke down at him… "I've found you at last…"

Spades loses it. He screams out with all his rage and launches a larger fireball at the skies, which went black as the flames explode just above him. Spades was on his backside now. He jumps up and charges through the darkness, wildly hurling fireballs in all directions, causing explosions left and right. He was blind with hatred. "Where are you?!" Had Avro betray him? Was this new figure controlling him?

He was in a hallway now, somewhere. Another fireball whirles down through the darkness, illuminating doorways along its path until it smashes through a large window at the end.

Suddenly, he hears a frightened, female voice, "Spades!!"

Spades turns with flames ready in both his fists to see Raven in a fighting stance behind him. Dark energy thrust outward from her and grabs both his wrists. Orbs of energy contained the fireball to prevent him from attacking.

Spades thrashes about for a moment until he realizes what's happening. He snaps out of it at last. He wasn't asleep anymore. The fireballs in his hands disappear.

Raven releases him. Spades stumbles back against the wall, bewildered, and panting hard. His eyes are wide with shock. His right arm was illuminated in strange red markings. When this caught his attention, he slumps back against the wall and slides himself down to the floor, staring at his arm. "W-What is happening to me..?" he mutters to himself before closing his eyes and trying to calm down. Though he was shaking violently, Spades takes back control of his emotion. Anger, he could suppress. The fear, however, would last a while.

It didn't take long for the others to be disturbed from their slumber either. The first one out of her room was Leyla, who dashes to Spades and slides on her knees to his side. "Jer! What just happened?!"

"Just a nightmare…"

"Just a nightma—dude, you blew a hole in the side of the tower!!"

Spades attempts to trivialize the event, though he even felt silly for trying, "I just… kinda… thought it was a little more real than it was."

Triard and Zero were peering out their doorways just down the hall. Zero is the first one to attempt to come outside, "Dude! That was badass!"

Raven glares at him. "You, go to sleep."

Zero argues, "Why should I listen to—"

Triard exits his room and grabs Zero, "Come on Dimitri…" he sighs.

Zero flails, "Hey! I was just trying to help!"

Leyla helps Spades up by his shoulder. Raven tries to assist, but Leyla growls at her like a wolf, even baring her teeth.

Raven gently pulls her hand away and frowns at Leyla, "What was that for?"

Leyla doesn't reply. Deep down, she felt that part of this was Raven's fault. Still, consciously, Leyla tries to remember that it's really not. The growling subsides. "Sorry…"

Raven now makes a second attempt to approach them. Leyla wouldn't interfere this time and instead helps Raven lift Spades. They carry him down the hall, back to Raven's bedroom.

Leyla asks, "Why did we come here?"

"Because Spades and I need to talk…" she states firmly.

Leyla wants to argue, but she stays silent for now. Instead, she sets Spades down on the bed and seats herself beside him.

Raven interjects, "Alone."

Leyla frowns at that. "Why can't I hear?"

"Because there are certain things you either can't comprehend, or will not accept, and neither will Spades if you're here to cloud his judgment."

Spades turns to Leyla, "Its ok… I'll explain everything afterwards. You know how Raven is. No offense, Raven."

Raven shrugs, "None taken…"

Leyla reluctantly complies with the request. "Ok… Just tell me about it afterwards."

Spades nods and kisses Leyla. "We need to out sometime… like normal teenagers."

Leyla smiles slightly, "That would be nice…" She finally leaves.

Spades sighs deeply as soon as the door closes. He had a feeling whatever Raven was about to explain was not going to be enjoyable to hear.