26: One's flesh and blood
I don't own AT and it belongs to its rightful owners, anything else belongs to AENR13. I realized that I haven't posted in a while, and I'm so sorry! Just got busy but I had time today so enjoy!
Fionna steps outside her bathroom, drying her hair with her towel, she tosses it over to her bed; She goes over to check on Ben who's asleep in his crib near her bed, she pulls his blanket that's somehow tangled between his legs, "Ben you don't even know how much I wish your dad was here," her voice drops, she turns around to have a pair of familiar arms around her.
"I'm here, it's okay now." she curls her arms under Marshall's shoulder blades, crying along with him.
"I was so terrified Marshall, that they would kill you." she gasps between her sobs, Marshall lifts her face up, so she can look at him.
"I'm so sorry for making you worry... I'm so sorry Fionna." he kisses her, she kisses him back touching his face, to actually make sure that its him, not that it's Gumball in disguise or something. There's a wail from Ben's crib, making the two to pull away chuckling.
"It looks like someone wants attention from Daddy too." Fionna smiles, pushing Marshall's bangs out of his eyes. He smiles laughing,
"I just can't win with him. He either wants me to leave him alone or spend every minute with him." He picks Ben up, "Isn't that right?" Ben yawns with a sleepy look in his eyes. Grabbing the side of Ben's crib, Fionna sits down. Marshall mentally gasps as he remembers what Madness told him. "Fi," she glances up at him. "We're having another baby aren't we?" she nods
"Your mom made me take a test after hearing Lust's suspicions, it came out positive and it's about a week in. How did you find out?" Marshall sits down next to her,
"Madness' been helping me while I'm stuck with them, I guess she kind of sensed it or something; she's letting me use a small portion of her powers so I can be here with Ben and you." he places a hand of her midsection, directing his attention to Ben "You're going to be an older brother pretty soon," Fionna cuddles with her two loves
"Please stay here with me," she begs, Marshall nods
"For now and forever my love." he kisses her forehead.
Misery follows in step behind Pain, silence grows between them. Misery's eyes dart around, taking in the view of the dead trees that surround them.
"Don't step in the rotting corpses around here," Pain warns, Misery cringes as he notices the corpses lining the area around them. "The Linch's near, stay on your toes." Pain stops, Misery does the same, they both look out into the open field in the middle of the forest, a large figure lurks around, as if it's looking for something. Misery fumbles in his backpack, pulling out a large net. Pain silently goes out to play as bait, (he lost their round of rock-paper-scissors on who'd act as bait.)
Pain tries staying in the Linch's blind spot, so that way he won't have to confront him directly; Pain readies himself, about to pounce on the Linch, when the Linch turns around, catching him off guard. He reaches out for Pain's ankle, throwing him into the ground. There's a loud crunch from Pain's rib cage, "You sneaky little devil... trying to capture me eh?" The Linch hovers over Pain, "You might as well call out to your brother if you came here accompanied. You yourself don't stand a chance against me." Misery tenses, if he goes out there to help even the odds, he risks injury to himself and Pain, but if he stays hidden, who knows what'll happen. Pain's Midaregami flares, the Linch laughs
"Ah, so I see, you're a Nightmare then, this should get interesting; you know, Father always warned me about your kind, I really want to know if you're dangerous as the rumors state." Pain rolls away from the Linch's attack, the Linch's body looks as if it's not entirely there, but as if it was in another space than the one that Pain and Misery are on. Pain's eyes scan around, trying to find the Linch, he barely avoids the Linch's attack a mere split of a second before his fist comes into contact with his rib. Misery's breathing hitches in his throat, the speed of the Linch's faster than his and his parents combined, at this rate, it won't take long before Pain gets into some serious trouble. Misery gets desperate, he runs out into the open, bites down on his hand causing blood to drip from it. The Linch smells it, he turns his attention towards him. "So I was right, there's more than one of you Nightmares here. That facial tattoo... I've seen it before, I can't just place it where though." The Linch scratches his horn on the side of his head.
"It's the Sigil of Deliora, also known as the Black Blood Brothers tattoo." Misery's blood solidifies into two Terror of the Skies. Pain stands next to his younger brother, they both glare at the Linch, trying to intimidate him. The Linch chuckles,
"Trying to buff me huh? If you two really are the Black Blood Brothers, where's the other one? Last time I was aware, there's 3 Black Blood Brothers, not two. From what I'm assuming, you with the facial tattoo, you're Misery, and the other with the strange hair's Pain, so tell me, where's Hatred?" they don't respond. "I'll play with you in the mean time, until you decide to plead for mercy..." The Linch lunges out for Misery's face, he gets him, lifting him off the ground. Misery struggles, squirming around, desperately trying to land a kick at his chest. Pain lunges out for the Linch's arm, he jerks it, letting Misery to escape. Blood drips down from his brow, he shakes it off, Pain falls back.
"Get the net ready, I'll go out for his legs." Pain practically throws himself at the Linch's legs, Misery along with the help of the Terror of the Skies from earlier, they bring down the net on the Linch. The Nightmares fall back, watching the Linch struggle against the net.
"What is this?! Why can't I break out of it?!" the Linch demands pissed.
"It's raw Celestial magic, something that you won't break out of, if you answer us this simple question, we'll let you go on your way." The Linch stays motionless, watching his enemies, Misery tenses just a bit, a bit on alert from the Linch's sudden lack of movement. "Where's your parents?" The Linch grows sour
"Why would I know? I haven't seen them in eons, either way, it shouldn't concern you." he hisses out, Pain narrows his eyes.
"You want to play it that way then?" Pain grabs a bone from the ground, throwing it into the Linch's shoulder, he howls and snarls. "Where are they?! The more pain I inflict on you, the stronger I'll get. Answer me!" The Linch snarls
"If you think that you have the upper hand here, there's a whole lot in store for you. I'll give you a hint, you'll have to go where the ends of the elements meet, where terrors once seemed as dreams, that's where you'll find them." Pain rubs his chin, thinking.
"That's the Origin isn't it?" The Linch nods
"Yes, but where is it? That's something that you'll have to find out on your own, I don't even know where that is." Pain throws his head towards Misery.
"Well, we got what we needed, let's go." Misery carefully peels the net away from the Linch. The Linch rubs his wrists, Misery glances away about to dismember the Terror of the Skies, there's a sudden jerk as something clamps down on his forearm. Misery screeches as he tries ripping the Linch's mouth off him. Pain jumps on the Linch and with a jerk, he manages to pry him off.
The Linch wipes his mouth with his sleeve, "That's what you get you imbecile, trying to capture me, I know that you had plans on me taking you to them. If you plan on keeping that arm, you have less than ten minutes to save it;" the Linch in a swirl of air, vanishes. Misery drops to his knees, clenching his jaw to subdue the pain. His brother picks him up, placing him on his shoulder.
"Just bare with it, I'll get Ashley to heal you." Pain opens a portal stepping inside.
Ashley studies a crystal in the shape of a lotus, she touches one of its petals, causing it to glow a dark scarlet. The door's thrown open to the room she's in, she rises scowling at the intruder, "What the hell's going on?!" Pain doesn't respond, he lays his now unconscious brother on the floor.
"He got bit by the Linch," Pain replies, Ashley frantically gets to Misery. She pulls up his sleeve where his flesh's slowly dissolves, leaving his bones exposed. Madness smells the stench from the other side of the door, she walks in gasping. "Mom!" Pain cries out, she goes over to them. She grabs Misery's face in her hands,
"Stay with me Misery, please." She pleads, his eyes barely look back at her. "CHAOS!" She screeches, he comes immediately dropping to his knees next to them. Chaos keeps Misery's attention on him while Madness starts sucking out the Linch's venom from his arm. She spits it out, and once when it comes into contact with the air, it solidifies into onyx colored rocks. After two agonizing minutes, she manages to suck out the last of it. She coughs wiping her mouth with her hand as Chaos picks up Misery in his arms,
"Thank you my dear," he pecks Madness' forehead "I'll take your brother to his room, so that way he can recover in peace." once when they leave, Pain glances over towards his mother.
"Mom, why? He's not your flesh or blood," Madness shrugs
"I raised him, I'm not just going to abandon him like his mother." with a pivot, she makes her way out the room. Ashley leers at her while she walks away. Ashley throws one of the onyx colored rocks at Madness. It hits her on the back of her head, she turns away with venom of her own dripping from her fangs. "How dare you!" she tackles Ashley against the floor.
"You don't understand why some people do abandon their children! So shut the hell up!" she throws Madness off her, Madness lunges out for her again; Pain quickly scoops Ashley up out-of-the-way.
"Knock it off!" Madness relaxes, Pain drops Ashley from his arms making her to land hard against the floor. "If you're going to slaughter each other, you're both idiots." he slams the door behind him, Madness snarls but follows after him.