Izo slept, for how long he did not know. Last he could recall was riding his ice dragon with the hungry woman so close, yet so far from home. Hunger and fatigue gnawing away at him as he strove to get south to Sister. He heard voices around him, even thought one was Mother's. At one point he thought he thought he saw Mother standing over him in an iced over room. He called out to her, but the dream fell away as quickly as it had sprung up, making way for other dreams, wintery dreams, it felt like, to take their place.
Father's voice echoed in his mind, not matching his dreams. 'Get up, we need you,' the voice urge.
Izo stirred, reluctantly pushing the dream world's beckoning away. Izo lay on cold, hard ground. Hunger hit him unexpected as he pushed himself up. 'I can't,' he thought to the voice. It felt like lead was tying down to his body.
'Get up!' Father's voice shouted at him within his head. Izo shook his head against the onslaught. 'Get up or your mother will die.' Izo gasped, seeing the unexpected image of Mother being held by her hair over the front hall, sword against her neck. Her legs kicked with desperation.
"Mother!" Izo gasped, pulling himself up to a standing position. He looked over at his elvish grandmother on his old bed in his old room. The hungry woman on it as well, panting. Both women stared at him.
'If you don't want her to die, get down here!' Father cut himself off after that.
"Go!" Elvish Grandmother instructed him, pointing toward the door of his bedroom.
Izo shook his head, feeling disoriented. He stumbled on his feet, tripping over... he looked down. Over the frozen body of Wind Master. His eyes went wide. How long had he been asleep? He kept moving, stumbling over a broken chair by the open door.
He made it a few paces down the hall before he felt too weak to move anymore. He leaned against the wall, slumping down to his hands and knees. The image of Mother suspended over the front hall flashed in his mind once more. An ice maiden had her. A huntress. This had to be a dream. None of it made sense. Father's voice had sounded so real in his mind though. He screwed his eyes shut, trying to focus.
An ice maiden had Mother, ready to kill her. A demon had Mother. A demon had an angel, about to kill her. Izo felt a dark fury dwell up inside of him, a fury he taught himself to push back down and buried when he sensed it. He pushed his shoulder on the wall, trying to pull himself up. The dark fury was rising in waves inside of him. He stumbled forward, feeling able to move faster now. A demon was going to kill an angel. He pushed off the wall, shuffling quicker. A demon was going to kill a fellow angel. The darkness was there, demanding to be released after such a long exposure to demons. An angel would die if he did not save her. He embraced the darkness, harnessing it. That demon would die, and so would all those connected to her.
He was sprinting now, down the hall without a struggle towards that demoness. He felt two intense spasms of pressure form in his back, fabric rip, and two releases. When he saw that wretched demoness standing in front of the railing that look over the front hall of this castle, he did not slow down. If anything, he ran faster, the wings released on his back spurring him on at a dangerous pace. He ran straight into the demoness, knocking her over the railing and tumbling to the ground with her and the fellow angel she had almost killed.
Another demon ran towards the three of them, catching the angel and rolling away with her. The demoness's sword locating his thigh and plunging itself in there in the process. The demoness landed, tucked and rolled towards two other demonesses who looked just like her. One of them threw her another sword, likely taken from the body of the dead sister on the ground. Her sisters. They could die with her. She was evil. They were evil. All demons were evil.
Izo slowed his fall to the ground with his wings flourishing out of it his back. He felt the joints pop, never having been used before. He landed before the three demonesses, eyes trained on the one who tried to kill his fellow angel. One of the other two had other ideas though. She cut in front of her sister, spurring him on to combat. He summoned his angelic weapon, icy in nature, around his neck and down in his hands in a large, bastard sword that would require a weaker angel wield it two handedly. He met blade for blade with the demoness's sister. He charged at her again and again. The other two had pulled away, but this main one kept getting in his way. He wanted the demoness first. He drove the one in his way down to her knees, and then cut her head off in one fell swoop.
He looked over to where the demoness and her remaining sister stood over the dead body of another demon. One less for him to slaughter. He hated the demoness most of all, but other demons would feel his wrath soon enough. All were evil. The demoness most of all. He shouted in rage at the sight of her still living and breathing. He ran towards her.
The other damned sister was in his way now, trying to get between him and the demoness, both of them fighting him now at least. Foolish demonesses were too slow, to weak for an angel. He wanted to kill them both, but the demoness who harmed the other angel first. She needed to die. He shoved her sister away from him, and in a graceful move, knocked the sword from the demoness's hand. The demoness cried out. He reached down, snatching her up by a handful of her hair to show her what that felt like. He held her up, allowing her own legs to dangle and kick in the air. She had held a sword against the angel's neck, so it made for a fitting way for her to die. He enjoyed the sight of his blade sinking into the back of neck and through the other end. When he felt her die, he pulled his sword out and dropped her. Two down, several more to go.
His next target was the last remaining ice maiden in the room. No, last remaining full ice maiden in the room. The other demon, the one who caught the angel, was half a one as well. There was another one further up in the castle. He looked over at the sister. Her first. She was the bigger threat. She wanted to run though, which was no fun. Evil would not get away from him. He cut at her, watching her slow down slowly but surely.
"What kind of man are you?" she panted.
He smiled down at her. "An avenging angel of death," he told her. "Your sisters here have died. You will die soon. And then I'll go after your sisters on your floating island. I'll kill them all! And everyone connected to them! Then I'll kill every last demon I can find! I'll wipe them from the face of the world!" The joy in fulfilling that mission filled him to the brim with purpose. He jumped up, feeling the joints in his new wings crackle as they supported his weight.
The sister beneath him shook her head and pleaded, "No! My other sisters, please, spar them."
He shook his head and laughed at her, almost pitying her in her weakness. He dropped, bringing his sword down on her neck. The demoness, her sister, had tried to kill another angel. She had been punished for that. The other two sisters of her were punished for that. All the other ice maidens, and then all the other demons in the world would be punished for that as well.
Izo straightened his spine, relaxing his wings on his back. Their weight would take some getting used to. His... someone, he could not recall who... had told him the weight had hurt her back at first, but she grew strong enough to hold them aloft, even to fly with them. He looked around the room. One demon, not an ice maiden lay dead. Two ice demon males were alive, thawing out, but unconscious. An ocean demon lay shivering and unconscious, but still alive. These unconscious demons were no risk yet. Would be easy to dispatch with one stroke of his sword.
He looked over at the male fire demon, sensing correctly he was the son of an ice maiden. He was wounded, mortally so in the leg if he was not taken to a healer within the hour. The angel he had caught earlier was next to him. Izo felt a bellowing of rage dwell up in him when he saw burns on her neck and hands from this demon. Blood stained her front and down her hands. He harmed her, too. He harmed an angel. He would die for that. Izo snapped his sword and stepped purposefully towards them.
The demon went wide eyed, trying to get up and away, but his leg hindered him. Minimal threat, yet the biggest threat in the room. The demon tore off his headband, a third eye glowing with a blinding light. He pushed his way into Izo's mind, demanding he stop advancing, come back, and heal him. He wanted Izo to heal him. He was an avenging angel, not a healing angel. His purpose was to kill demons, not heal them. He pushed harder on Izo's mind, slowing him down, sending nonsensical images in his mind of this demon with him, as if Izo grew up with him in his life. Being trained to fight, being loved, two other raven haired demons that had crimson eyes and sky blue eyes, the angel who was burned caring for him.
"Run, now, I can't move. But I can hold him off," the demon told the angel.
Izo growled, "get out of my head, demon!" He pushed mentally, shoving him out of his mind. Even badly wounded, this demon was still a threat, both to him and the angel next to him. "I'll end you next. You're spawn of one of those ice maidens. Like the ones who tried to kill-" he could not find the word. An image of a younger version of the other angel in the room flashed in his mind. What was she to him? "Like those I've sworn to kill," he landed on.
The other angel moved, Izo hoped she would joined him. He felt his temper flare at the sight of blood and burns on her. The demoness had cut her. The demon behind her had burned her. How dare they touch an angel?
The angel stood in his path, arms spread out in front of the demon on the ground. "No, I won't let you kill your father," she shuttered out.
Father... He shook his head. The word did not make sense, so he shoved it away. That and the flash of an image of the demon challenging him to summon his ice serpent and split it across his body. He shoved that away, too. The ice dragon had always been an ice dragon. That made sense. Just as he had always been an avenging angel.
"Move angel," Izo ordered her, stopping right in front of her. He looked down at her, wondering where her wings were. His mind summoned up an image of her with semi transparent dragon wings. Those did not fit the image of a proper angel. He shoved that thought away with the others.
She shook her head, "no." A wind whipped up around her. She was challenging him. "Izo, you can't do this, you can't. You've fallen. You have to resist it. I've done it before, and so have you. Don't give in. It will consume you."
He saw a memory of a black haired, older man laying beneath him. His face was bloodied. His mind's eye went from the man to the angel before him. "Mother," he stated softly. He put his left hand on his forehead and stepped back from her. Those images could not be real. The mission was far too important for that. "Angel, move, or I will kill you along with him. I have my mission."
She shook her head. "Your mission? Your mission from who? Please, you need to snap out of this. We need healed. Your father first."
The angel before him was speaking nonsense. "I'm not a healer! I'm an avenging angel!" He shouted down at her. "All demons are evil and need removed from the world. And those who would protect them," he threatened. He raised his sword up. She insisted to be in his way to protect this demon, so she could die with him.
Somehow she managed to stop his sword, grabbing it in her hand, without rendering any injury to herself. She threw her head back, white over taking all of her eyes and hair. He sensed from her a sudden, holy, awe inspiring power wafting from her. He felt an overwhelming desire to bow down before her. He saw a flash of a large hawk like creature. "Great Mother," he realized.
She grabbed him, wrapping her arms around him. He went stock still, not knowing now what to do in the presence of his goddess from another realm. She placed her hand on the back of his neck, at the base of his skull. He could feel her power emanating through the fragile mortal body she was sheathed in. "My son, this is not you," she soothed. "This is not your purpose. This is not your destiny. All I've ever called you to be was my messenger from time to time." Her voice carried a hint of woundedness. "Release yourself from this darkness overwhelming you."
He saw flashes of a... a sister. A sister running along side him. A twin. She teased him jovially. The temptation to rise up was there, but would require sacrificing his vengeance for it. He could not do that. "I can't, they would have killed..." The angel holding him when he was a young child, crying over nonsense. "They would have killed..." The angel, a wind dragon around her neck, explaining how to use the angelic both to him and the twin sister next to him. "Someone." He pushed the memories away. He tried to push the Great Hawk Spirit away. She held him tight, her grip was like steel. The more he struggled, the firmer she grew. The back of his head and neck where her hand rested burned.
The Great Hawk Spirit kept speaking through the angel. "The huntresses would have killed you, your mother, and everyone remaining in the castle, yes. You were right to stop them, but now you must escape this darkness or it will consume you," she warned him. The pressure of her hand on his head was growing more painful with every heartbeat. "I cannot allow one of my children to rampage like that again on this world. I promised myself a long time ago to interfere should that ever occur again." Izo saw memories of reading about an angel who fell once, centuries ago. It took a team of over thirty demons and elves to kill him. "I nearly had to with your mother once, but your father stopped her first."
His head. He could hardly follow her words. His skull pounded. "Mother, you're hurting me." He struggled against her, trying to fly away. It was impossible that the mortal body she possessed would hold him back so easily. He was an avenging angel. He was stronger than that.
She kept speaking, no strain in her voice. "Not all demons are evil." Izo saw a flash of the demon on the ground looking upon the angel lovingly. A teal haired demoness, yet another ice maiden, but with red eyes, explaining to him how to heal. A red haired part demon passing him a book from an overflowing library bookshelf, telling him he might enjoy this one. "They are not the source of evil in this world. Rise up from your desire to kill them all. Rise up, or die."
The image of another ice maiden came to his mind. A frightened, skinny, pregnant one, accepting an apple from his hand. The hungry woman. She was a demon, but she was not evil. He was helping her, was going to take her to safety in the capital. Was going to take her to his twin sister. He could not abandon her, feeling an overwhelming desire to protect her, to care for her, to cherish her, to love her. She needed him.
He felt the dark fury draw back as his feeling for the hungry woman swam to the forefront. The dark fury started rising up again, the feelings for the hungry woman washing away. He did not want to let them go. "I can't," he choked out, trying to hold fast to the image of the hungry woman in his mind. "But I don't want to die!"
Mother's hand on his neck felt like it would be death of him. "You can and you must chose. If you chose to die, your mother will die. Her body cannot handle my presence much longer." He saw an image of Mother again. "Your father will die without a healer's intervention." A flash of Father. "Your friend on the ground behind you will die from her own wounds as well." Ocean Master's cocky smile came to the forefront of his mind. "Rise from your fall, my son," she demanded.
Her hand... his head... Death would have been preferable at this point. He leaned his head down on her shoulder, but could not escape the pain. "How?" he rattled out.
"Give it to me. Give it all up to me," she advised.
"You'll fall," he said. The dark fury kept trying to rise up again and again, but the pain in his mind was forcing it to crash back down.
"I'll not," she promised him.
The pain burrowing in his skull... The darkness demanding more and more death. He could not take them anymore. "Take it, take all. I don't want to die," he hissed through his teeth. He shut his eyes tightly.
The darkness washed away, but everyone corner of his mind flashed with pain. He screamed hoarsely, feeling an overwhelming amount of memories return to him. His eyes stayed closed, but he saw from beneath his eyelids a blinding flash of light. The pain went with it.
Izo gasped loudly, feeling the weight holding him up slump. "Mother!" he exclaimed, grabbing her before she could fall to the ground. He felt his own knees buckle, an unknown weight pressing down against his upper back. He brought himself down to the ground, holding Mother in his arms. He reached over to her neck, feeling her pulse beat strongly. Her breathing was deep, steady, and rhythmic. Her neck showed no signs of injury, even if her shirt was still bloody in the front. "Mother, please wake up," he said, wanting to know if she was okay. He could feel Father's eyes on her. He could not bring himself to look at him, recalling so recently how much he had wanted to kill him only a few minutes ago. "She's still breathing, her heartbeat is strong," he said numbly. Father shifted, trying to roll over to them, but then hissed through his teeth and grabbed his upper leg. Izo watched him, recalling, "your leg." Gingerly, he sat Mother down on the ground, moving towards Father.
His hands were shaking and he would not look at Father's face. He pulled at the fabric of Father's pants, trying to get better at the injury. He was annoyed the wound was burned by hellfire. It take longer to heal. He had to focus on that now, even as his eyes pricked from shame.
Father grunted next to him, shoving his hands away and ripping the fabric as far as it will go. "Focus on this wound," he insisted.
Izo nodded, blinking fast. He tried to go numb, tried not think about what he nearly did... Knit blood vessels. How much he wanted to kill. Knit bone. Who he wanted to kill... Knit muscle and sinew. How close he came to killing... Knit flesh. How easy it would have been to kill without the Great Hawk Spirit's intervention.
The wound was healed, but now that he was done, his hands were still shaking. His upper backed ached. The memories of the overwhelming desire to kill Father and even Mother for getting in his way, came back to the forefront of his mind. He felt a sob wretch from his throat, setting him off to cry. He brought his hands over his face, trying to get control of himself.
"Don't resist your feelings. Let them out," he heard Father's voice advise him.
Izo shook his head, pulling his hands down. "I need to finish healing you," he choked out. He blinked, eyes spilling over. He selfishly wished Mother was awake.
Father clicked his teeth. Izo saw him look over at Mother out of the corner of his eyes. He grabbed Izo by the back of the neck and pulled him over to him. He leaned his head down to his chest stiffly. Izo let himself cry freely, hating how much he wanted to kill, who he wanted to kill. The hatred, the desire for vengeance, the viciousness, the coldness...
He felt spent after who knew how many minutes. His sense of duty driving him to heal the others and to check on the hungry woman spurring him to end his emotional state. He straightened himself up, wiping at his eyes. "I'll never do that again," he vowed. "I'll never desire to kill like that again." He promised himself that more than anything else. He reached back up to Father, healing the rest of his wounds in a morose silence.
He then rose up to his feet, looking over at the shinobi in the front hall with them. Mother was fine. It was if the Great Hawk Spirit healed her burns and cuts when she was possessed. Rock Master was dead, frozen to death. Stocky Master and Ice Master were stirring, having also been frozen, but survived it being ice demons. Ocean Master lay on the ground, unconscious and shivering. He went over to her first. She was lucky she was sparred from being frozen herself. He bent down to her, healing her, wondering how he could ever hate her some much that he would want to kill her.
Once she was healed, he worried about how cold she was. "Father," Izo called over. Father was holding Mother in his arms, looking her over. His hand brushed stray white hairs from her forehead. Father looked up at him. "Airi's too cold. Can you warm her up?" he requested. "Mother's fine. I don't sense anything wrong with her."
Father twitched his nose, setting Mother down reluctantly. He stepped over to Ocean Master, sitting himself down on the floor beside her. He pulled the Ocean Master into his arms, face looking like she was the most undesirable thing he could ever hold. Izo felt him flare his temperature up, warming her. Izo went to Stocky Master and Ice Master next, feeling almost drained as he healed the two of them. They were stirring. Izo turned from them, feeling sick about how he would have killed them when he fell if he had the chance. They were his brothers...
He turned away from them before they woke up completely. He made his way towards the stairs, wanting to go check on the hungry woman, and his elvish grandmother. He would have killed her too...
"Take your mother with you," Father called over to him.
Izo looked over at him, blinking, and then nodding. He went over to Mother, scooping her up in his arms. He could sense nothing wrong with her, even though her energy level and heartbeat were strong and steady. Maybe the possession drove her to exhaustion, but healed her from within all the same. He carried her up the stairs, upper back feeling so stiff. He jostled his upper back, feeling two... wings... ruffle against himself unexpectedly. His mind could hardly comprehend how he managed to keep those... Perhaps a gift from the Great Hawk Spirit...
Izo reached his room, carefully stepping past the broken chair. He looked up to see his elvish grandmother sitting slumped on the bed. The hungry woman held her newborn son in her arms, tear gems rolling down her face.
His elvish grandmother sat up straighter, exhausted herself. Her eyes were locked on Mother. "What happened to her? Is she okay?" She struggled to get to her feet. Izo carried Mother over to the couch, laying her down on it gently. His elvish grandmother ran her hands over Mother. "She's okay... but why is her hair ghostly white?"
Izo felt his throat go tight, not sure how to explain, or if he wanted to explain. "I fell..." Elvish Grandmother gasped. "Mother was possessed by the Great Hawk Spirit. She stopped me. Made me rise again."
"Oh Great Mother," his elvish grandmother sighed. She sat down unceremoniously next to the couch, slumping her head against it.
Izo turned from her, looking over at the hungry woman with her son. She was alive. He was alive. He stepped over to her next to the bed, looking down at boy she held. He bent down, hand coming to cup her face. He brought his mouth to hers, kissing her. She leaned her mouth against his, kissing him back. Then she pulled away, but leaned her head against him.
