This is dedicated to Scandal Mistress since I promised her an update...sorry for the lack of posting on this story- my new story has completely changed my mind set but I'm back and so is this story.
Until Next Time...
Muse
X
The next morning appeared faster than what they had hoped for. Olivia watches Fitz with the greatest concern as he rides back toward their hell.
His face is hard. Deep in concentration as he tries to navigate the woods while thinking of the imminent day of reckoning that will forever shake his core.
She feels his distance after only finding him last night. Her arms grip tightens around his waist as a subtle reminder to him and herself that wherever he may go she will most certainly follow.
He rubs her hand soothingly as he awakens from his daze.
The ride back to the village came quicker than expected.
"Stay with me" Olivia pleads as she catches sight of the wild orchids leading them back to their cell.
"I'll always be with you." He murmurs in the crevice of her ear.
"No matter what happens today or the days to come; in my heart lays only you inside."
Gently, her hands cups his face, taking a moment to run her fingers across his cheeks, before placing a gentle kiss to his lips.
/
She lost him.
He dropped Olivia off and without a word took off into the woods. Olivia ran after him but she was no match for a horse. A burning sensation erupted through her eyes as she watched his figurate disappear into the woods.
A high pitch scream shoots through the sky, her gut was telling her to run away but she couldn't.
Glowing embers leaped and danced in the crimson sky, twinkling in a fiery dance. The village is turmoil, the deafening screams leaves her frozen at the sight.
The crackling of the fire drowned out the victims.
Adrenaline was pumping through her veins, the rush of epinephrine coarse through her heart as she runs to save them from whatever it is that is holding them hostage.
In the corner of her, Olivia sees demons rising from behind the fire. Shadowy figures moving closer towards her friends, her family, herself.
Her eyes scatter across the land hoping to see her father rise from the ashes and take control of the chaos that has erupted in their village.
Somehow Olivia can't recall the last time she wished her father's powerful presence would manifest and remove whatever leeches that have come her way.
But her stomach quivers into a knot.
Whatever treachery that has come to her village, she was a part of it.
/
His eyes glow sinisterly, his wrath festering to new heights at the sight of such destruction. It is intoxicating.
He closes his eyes swiftly as he walks inside the desolate room. "Would like to hear a story- it is the most interesting tale." Grey Horse asked song like as he walks around talking to himself
"A child was plucked from his home and thrown to wolves; little did anyone know that the child rose from the pack and became the leader."
"You're not special." A voice bellows calmly
Grey Horse walks around the room as though he never heard him. "The child was kidnapped and forced into a life that would only be peaceful in death. The child died." He pauses for a moment "but the monster lived."
He looks outside and watches the black smoke rise from the ground.
"You stole my life."
"I gave you life! You ungrateful child" Rowan screeches with gritted teeth
"No"
Rowan laughs as he looks at Grey Horse pitifully "you have no idea, do?"
He gives a questioning look that causes Rowan to laugh gleefully at his expense.
"Your mother did not die by accident Grey Horse."
He shakes his head disapprovingly "I don't believe you." He whispers though sadly he does believe him. Many things Rowan is but a liar is not one of them.
"Your father grew tired of your mother and had her killed during childbirth."
"Liar!" Fitz yells with anger
"So many stories were told about your origin, and your mother did not silence the gossip only amplifying a king's worse fear."
Fist tightens as he struggles to remain calm. The rage burning inside him began to fester with every word that was etched from his lips.
"Your mother dotted on you, but ignored her king; she had sworn that you were the king that the world had been waiting for…her truest love. Her son."
His eyes began to burn as smoke traveled inside the room, hidden from all others.
"Your father killed her and in fear of you rising he gave me you." Rowan says simply "you were pathetic and weak." Rowan hisses with disdain at the memory of a young Fitz coming to him coddled and puny.
"I created you" Rowan says proudly "you are who you are today because of me" Rowan hisses as he moves slightly from his chair though bound.
"You destroyed me." Fitz retorts deeply as he moves to sit across from Rowan
"I gave life to you. Your family abandoned and left you for dead but I took you in."
"You beated me. You scarred me. You didn't take me in, you kept me hidden in a cell training me to become your weapon of destruction.
"I taught you how to survive."
Fitz nods in agreeance "you did and how perfect that your two creations found one another." Fitz says subtly managing to open the door to the subject that is Olivia.
"Don't touch her." Rowan warns
"Are you not surprised that I am Grey Horse?" Grey Horse asked with feign hurt
"I always had a feeling you were him…I smelled a dog the minute you walked into my village."
"Then you should have invited me in…dogs are such loyal companions after all." Grey Horse retorts getting comfortable on the chair.
"I am the ruler. The judge. The jury. And the punisher. Revenge is a dish best served cold. There will be no mercy or stillness in the night. The screams you hear today will forever ring in your ears. The deafening cries for help…here is the place where are differences will be no more."
He turns to his left and catches sight of the crimson fire, spreading across the land.
"You are my greatest foe but because you have trained me, I know your moves…" he eyes Rowan clearly as though seeing through him "I know your strength as I do your weakness."
Rowan remains still as he listens to Grey Horse talk.
"I have planned revenge on you for years but then by chance I found your daughter in the woods alone. Her beauty left me momentarily frozen but her innocence…" Grey Horse shakes his head at the memory.
"She was young and pure and I wanted her badly that I could easily taste her on my tongue but she was a child and I would never touch her and there was a part of me that never wanted to touch her. If I touched her then she would be tarnished."
"I took her home though she wanted to run away with me, and now it makes since."
Rowan lifts his head in slight interest.
"She wanted to run away with the monster because she lived with an even worse monster." Grey Horse nods his head in understanding of Olivia's actions "had I known I would have taken her far away."
"Let me tell you of my original plan that had many vicissitudes and detours along this journey. I came to your camp knowing that you would use me to your selfish gain because a man as boring as you is forever predictable. I was going to infiltrate your army- gain your trust and then sleep with your daughter and wife. But then I heard her voice and she would sneak into my cell regularly, striking my heart and body with such ferocity that even I was left panting from the visceral anguish that came with her presences."
He pauses for a moment at the raw emotion that manifested with only memories echoing throughout the room.
"I had no idea that I had fallen in love with my enemy's daughter until yesterday. Thanks to you. At this time I have been planning on how to save her when in truth her life was never in jeopardy."
"Her life is in jeopardy now than ever before thanks to you." Rowan bellows
"I'll protect her." Fitz vows more to himself than to Rowan
"You are her downfall, why do you think I kept her from you…your fates are entwined but if you find what I have down to be evil , then you do not want to even imagine what will lie ahead of you."
Proudly gloating on knowing something that Grey Horse does not. Rowan chuckles deeply "you think my daughter can save you from your own destiny- how sadly mistaken you are."
Grey Horse throws his helmet off in anger "enough." He yells "Olivia is mine and she will have me."
"Nobody can have you. Everyone you love dies, you will walk this world and the next one alone for the years to come."
"No." Grey Horse shakes his head in protest "No, you see. I am already one with Olivia. My seed is already inside of her."
He gets up from his chair and walks around the room "I take Olivia, every chance I get... I taught her how to take me inside her mouth, how to clean my dry…" He licks his lips at the recent memories "I place her on the bed and voluntarily she opens her legs for me to join her in our own world. I make sure to cum inside her every chance I get so that even with my death my spirit, my child will live on."
He watches the look of horror on Rowan's transparent face.
"Olivia will carry my legacy. Our child will be the greatest symbolism of our love."
"You will never be a father." Rowan hisses
"As if you were a father to begin with." Grey Horse replies coolly
"I was not a doting father but I love her more than any man ever will. Every man that meets her wants her for their own selfish reasons- I want her to have the best and you most certainly are not that!"
"If you loved her then you would want her to be happy….I know I've changed her." Grey Horse stops talking as he thinks back on the Olivia he met years ago to the one he is with now. "Olivia is losing the light in her eyes…. her innocence….and once this is over I will take her away and we will try to repair ourselves, but you killed her Rowan."
Rowan looks and does not see Grey Horse anymore but the young boy he found when he was only eight. He is right. When Olivia's mother died instead of taking care of her, he avoided her for every reason but the right one.
The door opens.
"You brought her here!" Rowan condemns
"Fitz and I don't keep secrets from each other." Olivia says as she watches Fitz rise from his chair so she could sit in front of her dad.
"You don't know him." Rowan warns
"I do" Olivia nods "and I know you."
"This was my plan." Olivia acknowledges "You were busy looking at him that you never saw me."
A moment of shock flashes across Rowan's face.
"I told you that we would be together and you kept mocking me. I knew that you would never let us be happy and so I wrote a letter to one my suitors requesting that he kidnaps me so that I could be his wife. I overheard you talking to your council about your army securing land and I knew this was my only chance."
"Olivia-" Rowan murmurs in shock
"With your army away, I knew you would send him to find me and I knew that he would…I was planning on staging our death but we both had unfinished business to handle."
"How could?" Rowan shakes his head in pain and worst of all hurt by the level of betrayal.
"I am as cruel as I am kind, father." Olivia remarks using Rowan's own words against him.
Tears burn his eyes as he looks at Olivia with shame.
"You did not break us father, you only made us stronger."
Olivia gets up to kiss her dad on the cheek "goodbye father."
And just like that Olivia was gone.
Fitz had his back as the two conversed not wanting to intrude.
His eyes size Rowan up and he acknowledges that Olivia managed to break him better than he possibly could.
"I will not kill you." Fitz promises "you are her father but …" he walks closer to Rowan drawing out his dagger "blood must have blood."
His knife outlines Rowan's face "You will see my life through your eyes."
/
Branches break. He trips on limb as he runs in the woods looking back at the dark figure slowly catching up to him.
His eyes become enlarged as a creature comes from behind the woods.
The vigorous thumping of his heart causes his hands to shake as he grabs his sword and begins to swing at the black cloud.
"Where is the hero?" the mystical object roars
His grip on his sword tightens as he begins to swing in retaliation of the figure.
"Are you wishing to scare me?" the object asked as it walks around hidden by trees and shrubs.
"Who are you?"
"I am many things- who are you?"
"A hero."
"A hero?" the object asked as it circles around.
"Yes."
"A hero who leaves his people behind in order to save himself."
"A hero who will live to tell another day."
"Until now" the creature responded gently with a lightness to his voice as he walks out of the shadows and into the light with the moon as its only source.
Jake falls back in fear.
"It's you." He murmurs
"Say it." He commands
"Grey Horse…."
"Yes…" he agrees as he walks closer
"Olivia isn't here."
"I know where she is at, but you touched her."
Jake begins to stumble as he finds himself out of options "I did not know she was yours, there is another that has claimed her."
"Nobody can claim what is not there's."
"I …I…I will take you to him."
"You already have."
He removes his helmet showing his long hair glowing with the amber that highlights the sky.
"Menelaus "Jake stutters
"I warned you that the end was near for you and that your days of life was coming to drastic end."
"Olivia…"
"Do not say her name."
Jake lifts his sword in protest, he'll never conceit defeat to him.
"I'm not giving up." Jake promises
"Good" Grey Horse acknowledges "I hate an easy kill."
He watches him die slowly and painfully- a sense of disgust and guilt overcame him as he watched the light disappear from Jake's eyes.
Death itself is not frightening to him, yet the idea of his death causing Olivia to suffer in despair plagues him.
The seeds of destiny have been planted among the stars for centuries yet his attempt to change his fate has only just begun.
/
Mayhem and chaos is everywhere. The fire is catching, the smoke is suffocating. Rowan's people are surrounded by Grey Horse's army; he turns to his left and see's Olivia standing proudly next to his second in command Thanos.
His eyes begin to water as he looks at his people of all background surrounded together.
"I am the man of fire…" Grey Horse says to the quieted crowd "but I am a man."
"I came here not for gain but for freedom. Your commander was a ruthless man even a wickeder man than myself." His head bows in shame
"I was a prisoner , I was chained and beaten and forced into a life of war and destruction…a part of me will forever be in that cell; in those chains." His eyes glass over as he looks at the many faces and the world surrounding him.
"I am no longer fighting for evil but for good." He swallows the lump in his throat as he spots Hector in the mass.
He was free.
"My people will become your people, I will take you to my land where our only chore will be to live."
He watches Hector moves towards him as the people remain frozen. Even with his mask and his armor Hector can see right through him.
"You are free to join my world or exist in the one that you have, but know that I will undone my wrongs and all those that I have enslaved will be freed. I promise you safety and security this my pledge- this my honor."
Commotion ensues as people turn and watch the old lady from the cell chant a sacred mantra and bows on bended knee, slowly the people follow suit.
"What are they saying?" Olivia whispers to herself
"Long live the king." Thanos replies softly as men and women, boy and girl fall to their knees in worship of the king they have been waiting on.
The hero has risen.