Ghostly World

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Victorious now and never will

A/N:

Chapter 38 (Camaraderie of Fire)

Andre's eyes opened and he found himself lying on a soft bed with silky red covers. He moaned lightly and closed his hand along them, attempting to find any sort of recognition. He moved his other hand to his forehead and sighed as his muscles ached. His vision began returning to him and he saw eight people surrounding him. Panic shot through him and he sat up, a bit too quickly, and immediately let out a terrible groan as he recalled the events that had taken place moments prior to his loss of consciousness.

"Don't move, it'd probably cause you some more pain, your body's still healing even though the physical wounds are gone." He looked up at the familiar voice, it was the woman who appeared just before Vulcan nearly killed him. His eyebrows rose as he spotted the man next to her, it was Freddie, the guy who had tried to off him in New York. Today just wasn't his day. The woman looked at Freddie and smiled slightly, then glanced back to Andre. "Don't worry about him, he's good now." Freddie slowly nodded his head as the woman gave a small smile.

Andre stared at Freddie and his lips parted as confusion struck him. Since when was Freddie good? What had he missed? "What do you mean?"

"Love and all that stuff, it really is powerful. That's a story for another time, though. Let's get started on why you're here…" He swallowed and nodded his head as Ashley folded her arms and closed her eyes. "My name is Ashley, I'm half Flame and half Angel. I am also the General of the Royal Guard for the Flame Dominion, but I tend to keep it under wraps. What is King Vulcan to do if he suspects his head protector is actually against him?" Andre's eyes widened as Ashley motioned to the other people in the room, one of which was Melanie. "Now, minus Melanie here, Sam's twin sister…you've met Sam…"

"Yeah, not quite friendly when she's tainted…"

"Not at all. Anyway, Melanie is the Angel that's been helping to clean up Freddie's heart as well, he's a part of the Royal Guard. The others here are some of the Guard's higher ups who are not with your uncle."

His blood ran cold and his hands slowly closed up, he hated that man with a burning passion. He realized now that he couldn't take him on alone, so it was best to listen to Ashley, considering she was likely the one who was going to be able to help him take down Vulcan. He lifted his eyes to Ashley's and felt his muscles tense with rage. "You'll help me cut my uncle to size? He slaughtered my family…" Ashley nodded her head and moved her eyes to the side.

"Yes, I saw what he had done to your grandmother. I'm sorry about that." Her words were of little comfort to him, but he could see they were well meaning. He wouldn't feel any sense of comfort until Vulcan was either dead or banished from the Flame Dominion. "I'd been out of here for a while now, when I returned, I couldn't believe what my Royal Guard was being forced to do. My father had been killed and I had to take over in his stead. Vulcan has thoroughly pissed me off, so I managed to gather a few people who were against him, but it isn't much…as you can see." Andre looked around the room and felt a searing pain inside. Most of the Royal Guard was either with Vulcan or too scared to stand up against him. "Some of the cowards will not stand, for fear of death. Some of the Guard that is for him will not hesitate to kill all of us. That's why we need you. The Flame Dominion has been awaiting your return for many years, but Vulcan has often been afraid of this. He knows what your return means, he knows that it could mean his death or abdication of the throne, so naturally…he would want to kill you."

He swallowed and narrowed his eyes. The fire of his malice flashed in his eyes as he fought back his frightened thoughts. "That's not going to happen." If he took this stance, could he manage to be the one that killed Vulcan? His uncle was a lot stronger, it seemed, and more vicious and cunning than he could possibly imagine. If he tried to fight him, would he actually die? Ashley tapped her fingers on her arm and tilted her head to the side as Andre moved his eyes to the bed.

"Are you scared?" His eyes shot up to hers defensively, what was he supposed to say to that? How could he say yes, but if he said no, would they even believe that? Ashley closed her eyes and gestured to someone, they nodded and Andre let out a yelp as they lifted him off the bed and to his feet. "It's okay to be afraid, it's a normal human reaction. Now, let me show you something…" She turned and walked towards the door, Andre followed her and the others silently and stepped out the door with them. They remained stoic, as they'd seen the sight, but once Andre's eyes fell upon the land, he wanted to faint on the spot.

The 'sparks' of the Flame Dominion still fell from the sky, but they landed on dry ground. It seemed like it should be that way, but Andre was aware the Flame Dominion's planet make up was much different than earth, and the sparks were supposed to be able to replenish and help everything grow. The skies were bleak and the fire grass that should have surrounded the plains was either dead or gone. The lakes of fire were almost completely dried up and the fire trees were dying. Hell, the entire realm was crying for a savior. His heart broke and his body trembled, something just wasn't right.

"He calls himself emperor." The snide in her voice touched him and pulled his attention to her. She was glaring across the fields with her arms crossed and her lips in a frown. "The people here are treated as slaves to worship him and the Royal Guard is forced to do things that weaken their morals. It isn't their fault, though. If they don't obey, they will surely be violently slaughtered." Anger roared up inside him as Ashley turned her back to the dry fields and walked back inside. "My father, the prior leader of the Royal Guard, made the mistake of standing up to him…about a month ago." Andre lifted his eyebrows and looked back over his shoulder. "That's when I had to step up to take over the Royal Guard, because by then…my father had been killed. Destroyed from the inside out…Vulcan is not quite aware I've taken over leadership, though."

"So he didn't recognize you when you showed up at the house?"

"No, he didn't." Andre leaned against the doorway and peered out at the dying world once more. What happened to those beautiful paintings that his grandmother had? They'd always shown a proud, strong, warrior world that was made beautiful by its fire. She never once saw the Flame Dominion for herself, but even she had known the place was beautiful. Ashley looked over with sadness in her eyes and let out a slow sigh. "Seventeen years can cause a lot of destruction at the hands of a madman."

"Yeah…"

"Your uncle envied your father's power, that's what I grew up with my father telling me. For my protection, he sent me to live with my mother in the Light Dominion for a while, then we moved to Earth. I was informed about a month ago of my father's death, so I knew I needed to come back here and take over the reins."

"We're not so different then…" He tore his eyes away from the broken lands and closed them, a heaviness begun to descend upon him as sickness threatened to rise up. "How did you…How'd you know to come looking for me?" His throat tightened and he met her eyes, fully aware that he may owe her his life. "If not for you, I'd be dead."

"Right…Every realm has a Royal Guard that serves to protect the lands, the General of the Guard must protect the king. Well, you're the proper king, and I'm doing what's right by protecting you." Andre nodded his head and watched in silence as Ashley took a seat in a nearby chair and brought her hand to her temple. "Plus, the Guard Leaders have this thing that detects the Royal bloodlines and their immediate family, as well as when their lives are in danger and the general vicinity of their location. I'll explain it in more detail later. We have a more important task at hand."

"I hear that…" He returned his gaze once more to the world outside the house and felt a shiver run down his spine, he simply could not get over how horrible it all turned out. He wanted to revive this world, to bring it back to where it should be. "H-How did you manage to beat him? I mean, he's got all that power and I couldn't take him alone."

"No one can take him alone." Andre raised his eyebrow and looked over as Ashley brought her hand down and straightened her back. "I was just the first person that made it through that portal. Freddie, Melanie, and all these people came in after me. Once he saw Melanie, that was just about it…even a sadistic emperor knows better than to take on an Angel." Andre turned his eyes to Melanie and saw her smirk and spread her wings, sending out a powerful gust of wind. "She is to become the Light Dominion's Royal Guard Leader pretty soon."

"Wow." He was overcome with the shock of seeing her dazzling wings, they were almost as beautiful as Tori's wings, as David's and the Archangel's. It wasn't all that surprising, considering the Head of the Royal Guard was typically the next in line of power and strength. Ashley smirked and stood from her chair.

"I hear you're dating the Angel Princess?"

"Yes I am, I love her very much." Though he had difficulty saying that to Tori, he was certain she knew it as she was pretty intuitive.

"Good, I suppose you know then who her father is?" Andre saw where this was going and chuckled nervously, he did indeed know better than to piss off Mr. Vega and risk his wrath.

"I'd never do anything to hurt her. Though, there's a pretty interesting fact about the Light Dominion and who her father actually is…"

"Every realm has its complexities. Melanie and Sam are descendents of Simon Peter. One of, and my personal favorite of the disciples of Jesus Christ."

"You're…" He was stunned into silence and turned his eyes upon Melanie in great shock. Melanie grinned and lifted her eyebrows with slight pride. "You're kidding me, Peter?"

"Yes. It shouldn't be a shock though, most of the people in biblical times have many descendants. Some reside on the earth, some in the Light Dominion, some…in the Shadow Realm." He cringed and slowly shook his head, it was horrible to hear of that world. "Anyway, speaking of them…Your uncle has allowed the Shadow Realm to run rampant in this world, how else has this world become so devastated besides Vulcan himself?"

"Yeah. So how are my wounds already gone?"

"You've got two angels in the room. Angels are very capable of healing." Andre nodded and bushed his hand along his arm, he was definitely grateful for that. As he returned his gaze to the window, he saw in the distance, resting upon a hill, the large majestic flaming castle where Vulcan most likely rested. Ashley moved beside him and narrowed her eyes. "He'll be waiting for us. It's likely he's already gathered some of the Royal Guard in his wake and is fully prepared to fight. There's bound to be a few hundred soldiers."

"Just a few?" Her nonchalance stunned him and he slowly looked back to the other seven people in the room. One full angel, one man that had been pulled to the dark side, and five high members of the Royal Guard. Was that all? "Just us…against all of them…"

"Not necessarily, we have at least fifty rebel warriors with us. I'm certain if we tried to get any citizens with us, we would. There's no way we can lose, everything is riding on this."

"Naturally, we have to make a plan, right? I mean, rushing in, we're bound to be killed?"

"Obviously." He winced and put his hand to his stomach, her one word was enough to sink his entire spirit. His fighting spirit told him to rush in, but it was clear now that couldn't happen.

"Great…" Ashley's eyes flickered over to him and she breathed in slowly.

"You'll have to be the one to deal the final blow to him, Andre. You must be the one to kill him."

"No pressure, right?"

"Right." She patted his back and walked over to Freddie. Her lips curled into a smirk and she turned her gaze back to Andre. "I'm thinking of putting him in charge of the Royal Guard in the future, I'm not entirely sure I want to do that though. That's a thought for another day, but I'm sure he's got something to say to you."

"Really?" He turned to Freddie and chuckled nervously. He rubbed his back and swallowed as Freddie stepped forward and held out his hand, a sign of truce. Andre's eyebrows rose as he eyed Freddie's strong posture and firm eyes. "Okay…"

"I'm sorry for before, Andre. Our last meeting, it just wasn't who I was." Andre slowly nodded his head and kept his gaze with Freddie's eyes. "I realize you're part of something that's destined to be greater than just returning to this world. My best friends have all been turned to the dark, their souls contaminated, so please…save them." Andre felt his heart sink as a flash of guilt shot across Freddie's eyes. Freddie wasn't even blinking, his jaw was locked and his muscles tight. "Take down the Angel of Death and save the universe. End this twenty year long war with the Shadow Realm. For my friends, for the realms afflicted by the darkness, and for the entire universe…we're all trusting you and your friends."

"Thank you, and yes…" Andre grasped Freddie's hand firmly and a bubble of fire seemed to circle their hands as they shook them in a truce. It was a sign of camaraderie, a mutual trust and bond of friendship. "I promise to do all that I can, not just to save the Flame Dominion, but to rescue your friends and to defeat the Angel of Death." Freddie smiled lightly and nodded his head, keeping Andre's gaze.

As they separated their handshake, Andre turned to stare out at the castle in the distance. All the others surrounded him, forming somewhat of horseshoe with him in the middle. They moved into strong postures and stared out at the castle with narrow, determined gazes. Vulcan would pay for his crimes and the Shadow Realm would be destroyed.

"We're coming for you, Uncle. So you better be ready for us."

Well Andre's prepped. We've learned some interesting facts about the angels, some interesting facts about the Flame Dominion too. Vulcan better be ready, because Andre's about to bring it.