If you are reading this, you will have noticed that the rating for this story has been upgraded. That is because this chapter is dark. Truly, properly fucked up. Read at your own discretion. More notes at the end.
WHAT WOULD IT TAKE FOR YOU TO NOTICE?
THAT I AM A HEART ON FIRE, AND ALL THE WORLD'S A FUSE, SO DON'T LET GO
TROUBLE AND THE WORTH,
AM I BETTER OFF ON MY OWN?
To say Lexa was angry would be an understatement.
When Aerrow told her who had shot him, her eye twitched. When he told her Kane had lost the election, her jaw clenched. By the time he had finished recounting the terrible events in their entirety, she was positively shaking with anger.
Eyes hard and dark with rage, she immediately called for her guards to assemble the clan ambassadors, before turning to leave herself.
"Lexa- I… I'm sorry I couldn't-" Aerrow stammered quickly. He was still burning up with guilt at his role in those events.
She halted him immediately when she held up her hand. "It's okay." She told him, voice hard, "At least you tried. That's more than anyone else did."
"But-"
"I have to go." She interrupted, "We will speak more when I return."
Aerrow could say no more as she departed the arena, guards in tow, while he and the other nightbloods were quickly ushered back to their room.
The next morning, peering out of the one window in their room high up in the tower, he saw her depart on horseback with a small entourage. The flash of blonde hair beside her told him that Clarke had gone with them.
That had been three days ago.
The time since then had been an anxious wait for Aerrow, he hated not knowing what was happening, and his unease grew with each passing day that Clarke and Lexa did not return. What if they had been-
God… What if Octavia had tried something… That didn't even bear thinking about.
What worried him was the new Chancellor, Pike. The man had made his intentions very clear. He was ruthless, and clearly a skilled tactician if his team of ten had been able to defeat three hundred warriors – even with the advantage of guns. Lexa had no idea what she was riding into. If Pike was ready… If he had Snipers in position…
The thought brought bile to his throat. He didn't exactly care much for the Commander, but she had proven herself to be a good leader, and if she fell to Skaikru, there would only be one outcome:
War.
It disgusted him, and he wanted no part to play in the inevitable fight. The guilt he felt at not being able to stop the attack continued to eat him up, and nothing Aden or any of the other nightbloods tried did anything to break him out of his state. He spent his days in silence, and his nights leaning against the headboard of his bed, his knees pulled up to his chest, silently brooding as he stared at the moon above him.
In Lexa's absence, the lessons with the nightbloods continued, this time under the tutelage of the Fleimkepa, the bald man named Titus, and he could not have been more different to Lexa.
The man was a hard teacher, and gave no room for error to anyone, frequently dishing out slaps to the back of the head to anyone who answered him incorrectly, or behaved in a way he deemed inappropriate.
Still knowing hardly anything about what was being taught, Aerrow received many of these blows.
In fact, the man went out of his way to punish him. He made his hatred of the teenager clear right from the start, and showed no signs of changing his opinion any time soon. Aerrow didn't like him one bit, but he endured every insult, every slap without biting back. On more than one occasion, he noticed some of the others looking at him in shock, like they expected him to retaliate, but Aerrow didn't give in. He simply glared at Titus, daring him to continue, retreating further and further into himself the whole time.
By the third day, he had stopped speaking altogether.
He didn't know how else to act. He was in a totally unfamiliar situation, living with kids, and getting taught how to be a Commander by a man who hated him. In the past, he would have escaped in the blink of an eye, probably slicing and dicing the bastard Flamekeeper in the process, but now, after everything that had happened, he simply lacked the will.
Mercifully, there were no lessons today, and the rest of the nightbloods had gone to the training arena to get a bit of extra practise, leaving Aerrow lost in his thoughts, alone in their room.
His misery was broken however, when he felt his mattress shift as two figures sat down in front of him. He flicked his eyes up to see Aden and Rubika looking at him curiously.
"Get up you big sook, you're coming with us." Rubika told him good-naturedly, but her tone left no room for argument.
Aerrow furrowed his eyebrows. "Where are we going?"
Aden shrugged. "We're going to show you the city. Sure beats moping around in here."
Aerrow sighed. He didn't really want to go, but even he couldn't resist their pleading eyes. Besides, Cleo needed some exercise, and he was actually curious about the surrounding cityscape, and how their unfamiliar culture functioned beyond the confines of the tower, or the isolation of the forest.
"Fine…" he grumbled, reluctantly getting to his feet, "But how are we going to get out without Titus noticing?"
Aden and Rubika grinned at each other. "Leave that to us." They said together.
…
And so Aerrow found himself crawling through a dusty ventilation shaft at the base of the tower. Well, maybe crawling wasn't the right word… more like squeezing.
The tunnel was fine for Aden and Rubika, and they scurried along happily on their hands and knees, but Aerrow, being taller and broader, had to shimmy his way through on his belly, like some sort of weird, uncoordinated snake. That was probably why Cleo was looking at him so strangely.
Eventually though, they popped out the other side, to find themselves standing a side alley of the Polis marketplace.
Aerrow stood up and dusted himself off, and found Aden and Rubika struggling to hold their laughter in. Muttering to himself about how he should have stayed in his cell on the Ark, he allowed the two children to lead him through the market.
He was immediately assaulted by a plethora of exotic sights and smells. Everywhere he looked there were stalls of people, some selling clothes and armour, others with trays of dried meat, nuts and fruits on display. He even spied a few Horses here and there.
It was a beautifully simplistic system, unpolluted by the greed and corruption associated with money. Items were instead exchanged by way of simple trade, tools for food, animals for weapons and so on.
Aden and Rubika pulled him down the main alley, grinning broadly the entire time. Aerrow got the impression that this was something they did often, judging by the number of people they stopped and greeted.
They made a point of introducing him to everyone they met, and he did his best to smile and respond politely.
In truth he was actually enjoying the experience. It was such a relief to be able to walk around in a place where no one knew him, where people smiled and shook his hand and offered him food – as opposed to looks of horror and disgust.
His altered appearance was perhaps the one thing he was happy to have as a result of Oblivion's splicing. A few people made double takes at his curious facial tattoos, and questioned his 'Nou Kru' title, but by and large he was nothing more than just another person.
His two juvenile guides knew their way around extremely well, and darted between stalls with ease. Aden in particular was very good at snaffling free sweets when he had the chance. It seemed like something of a game between the two: who could swindle some unfortunate stall tender out of the most sweetcakes.
Cleo too seemed enthralled by her new surroundings, if her incessant tongue flicking was anything to go by, though Aerrow was quick to tap her on the side of her head gently if she tried to grab any nearby meat.
She was already noticeably heavier around his shoulders. Despite her initial frostiness, she had quickly accepted the nightbloods, and now had them all wrapped her around her finger – or tail, as it were. They simply adored her, and the Lace Monitor soaked up the attention like a princess. Gabbi in particular took great pride in fattening the Lizard up as much as possible. Aerrow was surprised she was even able to climb up his body anymore.
"How often do you guys sneak out like this?" he asked as they moved down to the far end of the market.
"We do this all the time." Aden said nonchalantly, "We take it in turns. How else do you think Kaida gets so many daggers?"
It was true… The white-haired girl kept many, many knifes in her personal trunk, and she guarded them zealously.
"And Titus lets you?"
"Of course he doesn't!" Rubika grinned cheekily, "That's what makes it fun!"
"Right…" Aerrow drawled as they walked.
He didn't want to think of what would happen if Titus caught them, but they seemed to know what they were doing, so he decided to trust them and enjoy himself. "What about Lexa?"
Aden laughed. "Lexa knows everything…"
"And she's ok with this?"
"She encourages it." Aden answered, "She says interacting with our people is the best way we can learn to lead, for it is these people we will one day take command over."
Aerrow nodded his agreeance. Lexa, it seemed, was an incredibly insightful leader, and she had done a good job of passing on her sentiments to her students. As mature as they were though, they still looked upon the world with innocent eyes, and while they walked the streets with broad smiles on their faces, Aerrow could pick out some less than innocent things taking place. Threats being made, trades being forced under knifepoint. As with all aspects of life, there were many dark corners lurking at the fringes of the bright and swarming market. He frowned. No wonder Titus wasn't keen on the children sneaking out. It would be easy to disappear into one of these corners and never come back.
They stopped at a stall near the end of the market, owned by an old, wrinkled lady who appeared to be selling some sort of fish, grilled over the fire.
"Aerrow, you have to try this!" They told him excitedly.
"Alright… alright." He said, reserved, if for no reason other than to calm them down.
The lady smiled knowingly, and passed him a piece of something she called 'squid'.
"Mochof." He told her politely, though he eyed the food apprehensively. In all his time on the ground, he had never tried such a meal before, and he had no idea what it would taste like.
Cleo shifting restlessly on his shoulder made him act though, and he quickly shoved the squid in his mouth before the greedy Lizard beat him to it.
He chewed slowly, then his eyes widened.
Aden and Rubika were right, it was amazing!
A tangy blend of salt and spices, cooked to perfection. He smiled his thanks at the lady, who returned his smile, then turned to Aden and Rubika.
"You two haven't seen my darling grandchild today have you?" she asked them.
Aden and Rubika looked at each other, then back at the lady. They both shook their heads.
She sighed. "I sent her off an hour ago to trade for some more firewood. Usually she would have returned by now."
"Sorry, we've not seen her." Rubika said quietly, "But if we find her, we'll bring her back, I promise."
The lady smiled again, and clasped the redhead's hands affectionately, before letting them go and sending the trio on their way.
"What was that about?" Aerrow asked as they walked away.
"Talia's granddaughter is a friend of ours." Aden explained, "Her mother died in childbirth, her father-" he paused, "Her father died in your ring of fire…"
Aerrow winced at the memory of that fateful battle at the dropship. The battle where he had lost Sienna…
"It's okay." Rubika grabbed his hand gently, "They have each other at least. We help them gather food sometimes…"
She trailed off as Aerrow stopped suddenly, his enhanced sense picking up on something.
A faint muffled scream, coming from far to his left.
"What is it?" Aden asked.
"Do you hear that?" Aerrow responded.
Both nightbloods strained their ears. "No?"
There it was again… small and shrill. Scared. Desperate.
"Come with me!" Aerrow said firmly, moving towards the source of the noise. Aden and Rubika exchanged a confused glance, but followed him all the same.
As they got closer, Aerrow could hear rapid scuffling, like some sort of fight was going on, dispersed by panicked whimpers of fear.
Soon, the other two were able to hear the sounds as well. "What's happening?" Aden questioned.
"I don't know…" Aerrow said distantly. He had an idea… he just prayed he was wrong.
The noises were much closer now, but their path was blocked by a brick wall at the end of the side alley they had been following.
Aerrow tugged on Aden's sleeve, beckoning he and Rubika to follow him as he clambered up the side of the building.
They quickly joined him on the roof, and they peered over the small wall encircling it, down into the alley below.
And Aerrow immediately wished they hadn't.
A young girl stood at the end of the alley, dark and dank and cut off from the rest of the market. She had ratty black hair and was dressed in tattered clothes. She was sobbing, terrified and surrounded by men in dark green robes. They were members, Aerrow realised shockingly, of the Order of Flamekeepers.
Rubika's eyes flew open. "Mad-" She gasped, only to be silenced by Aerrow quickly slamming his palm over her open mouth.
She glared at him in confusion, but he held his finger up to his lips. "Quiet!" he whispered harshly, "If they hear you, they'll come for you."
He looked back down at the girl, who had been pushed to the ground, and was scuttling backwards rapidly, desperate to escape her attackers.
"What are they doing?" Aden whispered beside him, "Are they trying to catch her? Is she a nightblood too?"
Aerrow clenched his jaw grimly. He very much doubted that.
It was at that moment that one of the men pulled the girl to her feet, span her around and shoved her hard up again the wall.
Then he yanked her leggings down and Aerrow felt vomit rising in his throat.
"You two, turn away!" he hissed grimly.
"But-"
"Now!"
Aden and Rubika ducked their heads below the railing just in time, as the man hoisted his own robes up and shoved roughly forward.
Aerrow squeezed his eyes shut and joined the other two as the poor girl screamed horrifically.
She couldn't have been older than eight or nine!
Aerrow felt tears rolling down his cheeks at the sounds of revulsion taking place below him.
There were ten of the bastards!
The other two gasped at the look of abstract abhorrence on his face. It was like he had just seen the Devil himself.
"We have to do something!" Rubika hissed, "She's our friend! Talia's granddaughter!"
Aerrow sighed, and clamped his palm over his eyes. The situation had just become twice as torturous. He took a shaky breath. "We can't... There's too many of them. We have no weapons. It'd be suicide…"
"We can't just do nothing!"
"Things like this happen every day." He bowed his head in defeat. "Sometimes you just have to accept that you can't save everyone…"
He looked away, wanting to get as far away from this place as possible. Unseen by him, Rubika's eyes hardened into a fierce glare. He was stunned when she slapped him, hard.
"You hypocrite!" she accused in a harsh whisper, "You say we can't save our friend, but you've been locked in our room for days because you couldn't save yours!"
Aerrow could only stare at fiery redhead, gobsmacked.
"You may not give a damn but I do! We're nightbloods for heaven's sake! If we can't take care of our people then why are we training to rule them. You were a Qinta!"
Aerrow said nothing, he just looked down guiltily.
"Go then! Run back to your bed and curl up! Cry yourself into eternity for all I care! Aden and I are going to help her. We may die, but at least we'll die doing the right thing!"
Her shoulders heaved in anger and breathlessness by the time she finished, but Aerrow made no movement. He winced when he heard yet another scream from the tortured girl. It cut him to shreds, and reminded him of a similar scream he had heard not long after landing.
Octavia…
That memory brought with it the vision of his closest friend in that alley below him, instead of an innocent child.
He looked back up at them, eyes now hard, focussed and deadly. "Stay close to me." He growled.
Then he leapt over the edge.
The rapists never saw them coming. Three were taken down immediately, used by the nightblood trio to cushion their landing.
Aerrow rolled forward onto his feet, and dropped the next man instantly with a brutal punch to the head – and a violent kick to the groin for good measure.
The rest of the Flamekeepers had by now realised they were being attacked, and rushed over to engage Aerrow, furious that their fun had been interrupted.
They were no match for the enhanced warrior though, and he met them head on with a flurry of kicks and punches.
At the same time, Aden paused to grab a couple of daggers from the robes of the felled men. He called out to Aerrow, tossed him a knife and together, the two of them went to work.
One by one, the vile men were cut down by the two, working side by side.
Blood flew everywhere, splattering the walls, their clothes, and their faces, while rivers of red liquid flowed down the gutters on either side of the street.
None of it was black though. Aerrow and Aden were simply too good.
They showed no remorse, severing arteries, stabbing armpits and slashing throats. One man in particular screamed in agony when Aden used his shorter height to swipe his knife across the man's still-naked groin, removing his testicles with a single swipe.
Aerrow meanwhile stabbed his dagger right into the last one's eye, ignoring the hideous scream that followed, and the accompanying spray of blood. He didn't let up though. He grabbed the man's head and slammed it forcibly into the brick wall over and over again, only stopping when it had been reduced to nothing but a bloody, pulpy mess.
"Enjoy your trip to hell!" he growled, as he let the body drop, when another scream rang out.
Aden and Aerrow both turned around, fearing that one had somehow survived, only to gasp in shock.
Rubika knelt astride the body of the final rapist – the one who had at the time been violating the young girl, stabbing him relentlessly with a dagger of her own.
The man beneath her did not move a muscle. He had died long ago.
Rubika didn't seem to care. Her normally calm disposition and caring nature had completely vanished, and she let out scream after deranged scream as she dropped her dagger and picked up a dislodged brick, slamming it into his face repeatedly, unrelentingly until finally, his skull shattered like a watermelon, and a gory mess of grey and red splattered across the ground.
Staring at the gruesome sight beneath her, Rubika tossed the brick to the side and sat up straight, sobbing violently. Aden walked silently over and embraced her, and she clung to him desperately, her tears mixing with the blood on his shirt.
Aerrow could only watch in silence and let them grieve, before reality caught up to them.
"Guys…" he said quietly as he walked over, "We need to leave… People will have heard…"
Neither made any movement.
"Rubika." The girl finally looked up at the mention of her name. "Go and help her." Aerrow said gently, gesturing towards the younger girl, huddled in the shadows at the back of the wall, still crying. Even in the shade, Aerrow could see blood dripping from between her legs.
On seeing the state of her friend, Rubika nodded numbly, and made her way over, wrapping her arm around the girl in comfort, whispering into her ear.
Aerrow shifted his gaze back to Aden, who was stuck looking at the death and gore around him.
"How could they assault her like that?" Aden's haunted voice was barely discernible. "They were keepers of the Flame…"
Aerrow sighed, and placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. "No… They were men…" He rasped. "If there is one thing you must learn, is that men will commit the cruellest, most sinful acts, and quite often there's nothing-" He choked over his words as he said it, "Nothing you can do about it. This is the truth of mankind…"
"I never knew…" Aden told him miserably, before squaring his shoulders as he attempted to push his emotions down. "If I become Commander, I will make sure nothing like this ever happens again. I swear it."
Aerrow could only squeeze the distressed boy's shoulder comfortingly. It was a nice sentiment, but he knew firsthand that reality was vastly different to belief. "We need to get back." He said quietly, "We don't want Titus to-"
"What is going on here?" A stern voice said behind him, and Aerrow immediately deflated. He knew who owned that voice.
-discover we're gone…
He turned around slowly, to come face to face with the Flamekeeper himself. The man took in the bloody sight, the bodies that lay dead around the three. The robes of the Order of the Flame…
Titus's face twisted with rage. "You've murdered my scouts…" he growled. "Snuck out of the tower, put your lives at risk as heirs to the Flame. Killed your teachers!"
He began advancing towards them menacingly. "You will all be punished!"
Aden and Rubika backed away in fear as he approached.
"Wait!" Aerrow called out, stepping forward, halting Titus in his tracks. The bald man glared down at him, but Aerrow held his ground. "It's my fault." He said evenly.
"Aerrow what are you-" Aden started behind him, only to be cut off.
"It's my fault." Aerrow continued, refusing to break eye contact with the glowering Flamekeeper. "I wanted to escape, these two followed to bring me back. We ran into the scouts and-"
"And you killed them." Titus said lowly, voice dripping with malice.
Aerrow glared up at him. "Yes." He said, not even flinching. It couldn't have been further from the truth, but there was no way he was going to let the other two get punished for stopping such an atrocious act. He had a feeling that even if Titus somehow believed them, the man would still punish them for sneaking out. This was the only option. "So if you're going to blame someone, blame me!" he hissed. "But they're innocent. They were just doing the right thing."
Titus stared at him, long and hard.
Aerrow never saw his fist coming.
The blow connected, and Aerrow dropped like a stone. Aden and Rubika both screamed in protest, but to no avail. Titus ordered them back to the tower, before saying he'd deal with Aerrow himself.
The little girl meanwhile scurried off down the alleyway, never to be seen again…
…
Aerrow awoke groggily, his head pounding from the brutal punch Titus had struck him with.
As he blinked back to reality, he found himself in what was fast becoming a familiar position: he was sat on a stool in the centre of a dark, candle lit room, with his wrists tied to the arm rests at his sides.
Biting back a groan, he looked around him. The room was filled with junk, collected over decades by the looks of it. The walls were what caught his attention though. They were covered in incredibly exquisite drawings and paintings, all displaying different scenes. The centrepiece was an enormous mushroom cloud – clearly depicting the end of the world, while next to it was a large silhouette of a woman, surrounded by smaller figures.
Aerrow narrowed his eyes in confusion. Where the hell was he?
"I was right about you." Titus said lowly, stepping into his field of view. "I told Lexa, over and over again, but she did not listen."
"I can't imagine why…" Aerrow drawled sarcastically.
Titus had his hand around his neck in an instant. "You are a stain upon our culture." His growled, "Unworthy to even sit in our most holy room."
He let go of the teenager's neck, and took a few steps back, before circling around him, like a shark. "You are a monster, a murderer." Titus hissed in his ear. "You murdered ten of my scouts today. Seventeen innocents three months ago, and a week ago, three hundred of my warriors died at the hands of your people." He paused, and leant down, bringing his face within inches of Aerrow's. "There will be atonement, mark my words. You will learn submission. And you will never be Commander. This I promise."
Aerrow glared up at him, and spat in his face. "Do your fucking worst!"
Titus was momentarily still, before he pulled from behind him a coil of leather. Aerrow recognised it instantly, and he had to force himself to refrain from scoffing. That was the worst Titus could do? He'd been tortured with scrap metal for crying out loud! What was a whip going to-
He froze when Titus moved to the back of the room and retrieved something. He gasped when the man returned, gripping a hissing and struggling Lace Monitor by its neck. Cleo.
Aerrow inhaled sharply. "If you hurt her… I swear to god I'll kill you…" he whispered savagely.
Titus chuckled darkly. "I doubt it." He said, "You'll be too busy screaming."
He pinned the Lizard to the floor. Cleo opened her mouth to try and defend herself, but Titus held firm, and the moment her jaws parted, he reached in and coated the tip of the whip with her venom laced saliva.
Aerrow felt his blood turn to ice. A whip he could handle. A whip coated with Monitor Lizard venom was another thing entirely…
He struggled as Titus moved behind him and cut his shirt off with a knife.
Aerrow clenched his hands.
He was about to look a lot more like Sienna…
He already shared her eyes and her hair, he was about to share her scars too…
Titus brought the whip down.
CRACK!
The noise of the leather against his bare back echoed shockingly around the room. Aerrow jerked against the sudden pain, but made no noise.
Titus whipped him again, with the same result.
Aerrow was able to weather first few minutes without making a sound, but then, when the venom soaked into his bloodstream…
The pain hit him like a freight train. It felt like his entire body was being dipped in lava. Monitor Lizard venom was not deadly, but the pain it caused was beyond anything he had ever experienced. His every muscle tensed in an instant, and he clenched his jaw tightly, fighting with everything he had not to remain silent.
CRACK!
In between hits, Titus taunted him.
"You are unworthy!"
CRACK!
"Murderer!"
CRACK!
"Monster!"
CRACK!
Aerrow could take no more, the pain was too much.
He screamed, wailing hideously as the venom burned through him, and the whip sliced like a razor into his skin.
And then it happened.
His vision faded, his head slumped, and he was pulled once more into another world.
Another shouting voice…
Fists…
Tears…
The unfurling of another whip…
CRACK!
Aerrow's voice was hoarse, desperate. His veins threatened to burst through his arms. He felt blood dripping down his back.
Tearful pleas… to no avail…
CRACK!
Screams…
CRACK!
Screams.
It was like he was in two worlds at once, both of them equally horrific. The pain was all he knew. He didn't even have the voice to plead or beg for it to stop. He could only scream. His eyesight was blurry, all he caught was flashes.
CRACK!
Candles.
CRACK!
Metal.
CRACK!
Wait… Metal?
Through the haze of pain that had enveloped him, Aerrow forced himself with every fibre of his being to drown it out, and concentrate on the memories.
Metal walls… Metal ceiling… metal floor…
And beyond it, a single, circular window, looking out into black space.
Space!
He was on the Ark!
Aerrow had no grip on reality any more. Nothing made sense. He had never been whipped on the Ark, that had been-
No. It couldn't be possible. It shouldn't be possible! But somehow, someway it had happened. He was right, he had never been whipped on the Ark. But someone else… Someone else had…
They were indeed memories, but not his own.
They were Sienna's!
Through the tears streaming down his face, Aerrow's eyes shot open, as he finally made the connection.
How the fuck did he have Sienna's memories?
He never got the change to answer the million questions that suddenly attacked his conscience, for it was at that moment that Titus drew another round of saliva form Cleo's mouth, and the torture continued.
Blocked from the outside world, with no one to rescue him, Aerrow's screams could be heard long into the night.
…
The nightbloods were all sat on Rubika's bed, gathered around the red haired girl, who was still affected by the violence of earlier that day, when suddenly the door swung open.
Aerrow staggered in, swaying from side to side and looking like he could collapse at any time.
He was still missing his shirt, and trails of blood could be seen snaking around his sides. His eyes were glassy and unresponsive. He looked positively broken.
"Aerrow!" Aden exclaimed at the sight in front of him. They all got to their feet and raced over to him. "Where have you been? What happened?"
Aerrow gave no answer. "Unworthy…" he murmured distantly, voice hoarse, rough and completely detached as he shuffled mindlessly over towards his bed.
"Murderer… Monster…"
He collapsed onto the mattress and curled up in the foetal position, still occasionally twitching and spasming.
The nightbloods could only stare at him in horror. It was then that Rubika noticed his back.
It was red raw, and completely covered from his neck to his hips in vicious cuts, some still leaking obscene black blood, others already congealed into ugly scabs. "What the hell did Titus do to you?" she breathed.
Aerrow again gave no answer. He simply curled tighter around himself.
"How many times?" Gabbi said quietly, shuffling forward until she was next to his bed. "How many times?"
Aerrow sniffed. "Three hundred…"
They gasped as one, finally recognising the marks. He had been whipped, horrendously so. Once for each warrior that died in a massacre he hadn't committed. A massacre he had tried to stop!
Rubika felt tears build in her eyes. She couldn't help but feel this was all her fault. It had been her idea to sneak out, to bring Aerrow with them. She had persuaded him to save her friend. And now… now he was like this, so broken, so defeated, because he had lied to Titus, and taken the blame so she and Aden didn't share his punishment. What could she ever do to repay an action like that?
She immediately called for hot water and cloth. A guard brought some a few minutes later, though she made sure he didn't know what it was for, and then once they were on their own again, she knelt next to Aerrow's quivering form and gently set about cleaning his ghastly wounds.
He tensed and groaned under her ministrations as the rest of the nightbloods gathered around him in concern. She tried to be as careful as she could, but there were so many cuts on his back it was simply impossible not to inflict further pain. Eventually, after going through three buckets and twice as many cloths, she wrapped his torso in as many bandages as she could find, before finally allowing him to lay back down.
"I… I don't even know what to say." She whispered to him. "I'm so sorry you had to go through this. It's all my fault, if I hadn't-"
She was silenced by his hand coming to a rest gently over hers. "It's in the past." He croaked, "I'd do it again, a thousand times over."
She blinked through tears at him. "Why?"
He squeezed her fingers lightly. "Because you don't deserve this. None of you do."
"And you do?" Kaida said softly from the side.
Aerrow coughed, and chuckled ruefully to himself. "I deserve more…"
The nightbloods could only look at each other, not knowing what to say, before eventually Gabbi moved away, back to her own bed. She surprised them by pulling her mattress off and onto the floor.
They could only watch as the little girl dragged it into the centre of the room and deposited it flat on the ground, blankets, pillows and all, before moving onto the next one. "Come on guys!" she said expectantly, dumping Rubika's mattress next to her own.
Though they had no idea what she was doing, they went along with her little game, and one by one dragged each of their mattresses into the middle of the room, creating one massive bed on the floor, before gathering back around Aerrow.
Finally understanding what Gabbi wanted to do, Aden cast a look around at the others, and held three fingers up in a silent countdown, before they all grabbed Aerrow's mattress and lifted it at the same time, carrying it over to the rest of them.
"What- What's going on?" Aerrow asked in surprise, before yelping as they dropped him in the middle of the pile.
They immediately clumped around him tightly, gathering their pillows and their fur blankets and making themselves comfortable.
Aerrow looked around uncomfortably. "What are you doing?"
Beside him, Rubika grabbed his hand and squeezed it like his life depended on it. "You were there for us today, it's our turn now."
Aerrow sighed and looked away. "You're making a mistake… you should stay away from me…"
"Don't even say that!" Aden told him firmly. "Like it or not, you're one of us now. We're a family, all of us, and that means we stick together."
Aerrow looked at him sadly. "Until you have to kill each other…"
Aden looked away briefly, before locking his eyes on Aerrow's blue ones once more, this time burning with conviction. "That is why we savour these days." He said, "So that they may stay with us to help drive away the guilt of felling each other."
Aerrow opened his mouth, but no words came out. A tear dripped from his eyes, rolling down his cheek as he eventually found the words. "I have no idea how to do that…"
"Of course you do." Another voice said.
Aerrow flicked his head to the side, eyes widening when he realised it was Elias of all people who had spoken up.
The boy stared at him from the corners of his eyes. "You just don't allow yourself to." He paused, and looked around at his fellow nightbloods, before pulling Elrik and Kaida closer to him. Not even Kaida had the heart to protest.
"We live these days without fear of loss, so that we can enjoy them while we still can. That is the purpose of living, is it not?" he finished.
Aerrow could only stare at him. He had no response. Everything was still far too fresh… too intense…
"Well I can promise you one thing…" he rasped, "One day… when we meet on opposite sides of a blade… On that day, I will gladly fall before any of you."
He let out a soft 'oof' as he felt a sudden weight on his chest. He looked down his nose to find Gabbi crawling onto him, not a care in the world as she curled up on his chest like an enormous cat, laying her head right where his heart was.
He was stunned silent as the tiny nightblood stared up at him with her huge blue eyes. She had the most adorably content smile on her face. "Don't leave us, Naja, We need you…" She whispered, before burrowing her head into his chest and closing her eyes.
Surprisingly comforted by her warm, soft weight, and not knowing what else to do, he wrapped his arms around the little girl to prevent her from rolling off and hurting herself, closed his eyes and settled back into the bed.
As he felt the burning in his back start to numb away, and the comforting presence of the nightbloods all around him, he began to wonder, for the first time since the Qinta, heck, the first time in two and a half years, if this was what it was what it was like to have a family?
And as Gabbi sighed contentedly on top of him, he began to agree.
Yes… yes it was…
I debated long and hard over if I really wanted to write that scene. Believe it or not, it was originally even more graphic, but I cut right back on the details in fear of this story getting banned as a result. That is by far the most messed up thing I have ever written, and there are definitely other ways I could have written this chapter, but as a writer I'm always challenging myself to writer harder, darker and better chapters, and to force the character development for Aerrow in this chapter, I needed something truly terrible to happen.
Because the seemingly irrational hatred for the Flamekeepers in season 5, episode 1 intrigued me, I dropped tiny hints as to the identity of the victim, but it is up to you whether or not you choose to believe she is a certain character from the new season…
As for the story itself, this chapter is very important in that it answers some questions (like Aerrow's memory flashes), but creates several new, more important ones. These will be answered in time, and are very integral to the direction of this story.
Next chapter deals with the aftermath of the massacre, and Aerrow is reunited with another old friend.
