~Chapter 9~
"So Filia do you like my present?" Xelloss purred in her ear. The response he got was just what he was expecting. From the shock of the scene before her and the exhaustion from their earlier encounter, Filia collapsed, fainting in his arms.
Xelloss couldn't be happier than he was now. Everything was going just as he foresaw. Lifting Filia up in his arms, her hair falling like liquid gold, Xelloss walked down the stairs towards the unsuspecting Val.
Val broke off the kiss when he heard someone come down the stairs. Looking up he saw Xelloss with Filia in his arms, the latter unconscious.
Val on instinct stood in front of Ailah shielding her in case Xelloss decided to attack. But Xelloss couldn't have caused more pain than he already did if he blasted down the cottage with them in it, although he did have more in store for the little family.
Now Xelloss stood merely inches away from Val letting out an evil chuckle.
"I'm sorry was I interrupting anything important?"
Val gave a low growl deep in his throat angry that Xelloss would again dare to intrude his home and threaten his family. He became even more outraged when he saw the streak of dried blood on the side of Filia's face. "What are you doing here Xelloss and what did you do to Filia?" he asked.
Xelloss merely smirked in reply causing a shiver to run down Val's spine. Val was about to repeat the question but a small moan broke his thoughts as Filia regained consciousness. Val was relieved to see she only fainted.
Filia looked around the room to regain her bearings but as her gaze locked with Val's a flash of the kiss came before her eyes. She couldn't stand to look at him right then so she turned her head away from him to bury her head in the chest of who was holding her.
"My, my Filia I see you have woke up finally." Xelloss said.
Filia, at the mere sound of his voice, escaped from his arms and ran away quick as she could to get away from both Xelloss and Val.
Val started to go after her but stopped not wanting to leave Ailah alone with Xelloss. He turned around and saw Ailah gazing intently at Xelloss, he doing the same as well. A look of fear appeared in Ailah's eyes and she backed away from Xelloss and ran off upstairs.
"What were you doing to her Xelloss?" Val shouted.
Turning only his head Xelloss gave a simple answer. "We were just talking! That's all!"
With a huff of disgust Val went out the door to retrieve Filia who only made a few steps out of the door collapsing again for a second time that day.
Val was quickly by her side attempting to pick her up and bring her back in the house but was shocked as she slapped his hand away.
"Please go away, I just want to be left alone!" She whispered on the brink of tears. Val just stood there not moving and when he tried to reach out for her again Filia screamed at him to leave her be.
All Val could do was let out a tiny "Why?" as he watched her.
Filia tried her hardest not to cry and it was taking a lot out of her but she would not cry and show Xelloss he had broken her.
She was a strong Golden Dragon, once a priestess of the Fire Dragon King; she would not let a simple kiss get the best of her.
But then why did her heart ache so badly?
This time when Val picked her up she did not argue but she would not look at him at all. In her mind she was screaming and cursing at him and Val picked up the vibes she was giving off realizing that she was angry with him.
"What could have made her so upset with me?" he thought to himself. He assumed at first that it was Xelloss who had her so upset but she was being hostile towards him. It didn't make sense unless…
She SAW them!
When it hit Val everything was placed together.
Xelloss planned for this to happen, he wanted to have Filia catch him and Ailah together.
And it worked.
Inside the house Xelloss was nowhere to be seen but his presence was evident. He was just waiting for the right moment once again before he intervened. But Val had no time to worry about Xelloss with Filia in her condition. She took a lot out of herself and she shouldn't have been moving to begin with. If she kept up like this she could seriously harm herself more than she already was.
Val looked down at the woman in his harms and felt a wave of sadness flow through him. Here was a woman who could do anything she ever put her mind too and had to work hard for the things she had. She was strong with a sense of pride that he didn't know where she had gotten. Not that he knew much of her past to begin with. But she would never let anyone be rude to her or to her loved ones and no one dared to disagree with her and her deadly mace.
The only two who ever got away without a severe beating when they disagreed with her were Miss Lina and Xelloss. But although Miss Lina could be scary at times she would never hurt Filia. (to a certain extent ^_~) Xelloss on the other hand would kill her in a second. And it was because of Xelloss that she was a shadow of her former self now, a limp doll in his arms.
Setting her down gently in a chair Val looked at her for a few moments then whirled around at the faint chuckle of a mysterious priest.
"My, my it seems that I might have gone to far!" Xelloss said as he stared at Filia who was quietly looking down at her hands in her lap.
Val lunged at Xelloss but missed him for he phased out only to re-appear next to Filia this time. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders which angered Val only more. Val gave out a low primitive growl warning Xelloss to watch himself. But Val was playing right into Xelloss' hands and now was the time for the ace he had hidden up his sleeve.
"I never did realize just how over-protective you dragons were!"
Val barley noticed Filia stiffen at that comment because he was trying to comprehend it himself. "Did he just say… dragons?"
Xelloss was ecstatic by Val's look of confusion and Filia's mixed feelings of horror and fear.
"Oh you didn't know Val? You mean to tell me that Filia never told you of your heritage?" Xelloss paused for a moment no longer looking at Val but at Filia, "Not to mention her own?"
Val didn't know why Xelloss would say such a thing but he couldn't decide whether to believe him or not. Filia told Val Xelloss never lied, he only told half-truths.
Xelloss wasn't doing either unfortunately. He was telling the ugly bitter truth.
"What do you mean dragons? Filia and I are normal human beings." Val sputtered out.
Xelloss laughed at that. "I'm afraid you and her are far from it. You both are dragons. Enemy races to be exact. She is of the endangered Golden Dragons and you, well let's just say you really are one of a kind."
Val, perfectly still, whispered, "What do you mean by that?"
"Surely you are smarter than that Val, your race the Ancient Dragons have been extinct for centuries."
Val couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Extinct?"
"Yes you know wiped out, exterminated, to say it simply DEAD!"
Val didn't know why but at that his chest tightened almost to the point where he couldn't breathe.
"And you know what else?" Val lifted his head for Xelloss to continue.
Pointing a gloved finger at Filia he said, "Her race is responsible for all of it!"
Val slowly turned his gaze on Filia. He was silent for a moment before he asked, "Tell me he is lying. Tell me we aren't dragons, that we are normal humans. Tell me it's not true. Please?"
Filia could only look at Val but her eyes spoke the words she couldn't.
"Oh but Val it doesn't stop there you know! Ask her about Valgarv!" Xelloss was not done with his torments. When neither of them continued Xelloss decided to just tell him himself.
"See Val, you are Valgarv! Well were Valgarv at least." Val tore his gaze from Filia to look at Xelloss wondering what he was talking about.
"Let me start from the beginning. When Filia's kind murdered yours, you were the only one to survive. You became a wanted fugitive to them but they left you to your death in the desert. You would have surely died if not for Garv. You remember him don't you?"
For some reason the name Garv struck something inside Val but he couldn't determine what it was. He didn't have time to dwell on it because Xelloss started to continue.
"Garv took pity on you and decided to make you his servant. But in order to do that you had to die and become like him… a mazoku."
Val froze. He used to be a mazoku? Like Xelloss?
"At that time you wanted nothing more than to have revenge on the Golden Dragons for their crimes and agreed. You died by Garv's sword only to be reborn again as Valgarv, a mazoku servant to Garv the Chaos-Dragon King. But your story did not end there, no, Garv was killed and you wanted revenge on his death as well. But you ended up almost destroying the entire world but guess who stopped you?"
When Val said nothing Xelloss just went on. "It was Miss Lina and her friends. Which included me, and one other. Would you like to guess who?"
Val said nothing but Xelloss tried to goad him on. "Oh come on guess! You know her very well. One could say she is like a mother to you!"
"Xelloss please stop this! You've done enough!" Both men turned to look at Filia who was now standing and obviously angry that Xelloss would do this to Val.
"Filia…" Xelloss began but was interrupted by Val who moved to stand in front of Filia with a hurt look in his eyes. He would ask her one more time.
"Filia, please. Tell me it's not true. All this Xelloss said about Ancient and Golden dragons, Garv, the mazoku, all of it. Tell me and I'll believe you. You just have to say one word and this can all be over and we can go back to living like the normal humans we are. You just have to say the word."
As much as she would have liked to believe it would be over, Filia knew that her guilt would never end. She had to tell him the truth for her own solace.
Filia took Val's hands in hers and after a deep breath whispered slowly, "My people took your life and Garv gave you another one, only for it to be taken away again from a Golden Dragon, from me. What Xelloss said is true... all of it."
Filia opened her eyes and her heart completely shattered at the look on Val's face.
"I must say I am disappointed in you Filia. You kept the most important parts of his life from him, his past, his heritage, who he is and you are supposed to be his mother!"
"All this time she lied to me?" Val whispered mostly to himself.
Filia felt like crying but not while Xelloss was still there. He must have sensed this because he came up next to her and with a brush against her face said, "It's ok to cry you know! Because you deserve all of this." And with that Xelloss phased out.
Filia didn't dare move yet. Val just stood there and he looked like his whole world was destroyed. Ironically though it had.
"What can I say to him? What can I possibly say that would erase all this? What can I do for him?"
When Filia went to hold him it was his turn to brush her away. Filia knew she deserved it and much worse but she couldn't let Val shut himself out after something like this.
"Val?" Filia tried to get his attention.
"……"
When he didn't say anything she tried again.
"Val… I…"
"How could you keep something like this from me?" Val screamed at the top of his lungs. Filia flinched at the harshness. He was severely angry with Filia from finding out the truth about himself and his past history with her. So many thoughts were going through his mind, but they all led back to his anger at Filia. He couldn't believe she would keep something so important from him. His whole life she lied to him. There was no excuse she could give him that would calm him down. Although she did try…
"Please Val listen to me! I didn't want you to find out this way, I was trying to protect you!" Filia was trying her hardest to make him listen to her but the more she talked the angrier Val got.
"Protect me from what Filia? You know good and well that I can take care of myself, I don't need you to baby me anymore."
Filia was taken aback from his remark but she tried in vain to erase the horrible wrong she had done.
"Val if there was one thing in my life that I could redo…" but Val wouldn't let her finish, he just couldn't take being around her anymore.
He stormed towards the door but Filia sprang to it before he could open it. With a scowl on his face he about near growled at her to move away from the door.
Filia wouldn't budge until he heard her out but he kept refusing, his anger growing more by the minute. Now Filia was becoming angry and in her most stern voice she told him, "I forbid you to go anywhere without us resolving this."
That was the last straw for him. With a look that could kill, Val told her in an eerily calm voice, "You… forbid? You can't forbid me to do anything anymore! You are not my mother. YOU NEVER WERE!!!"
With that Val pushed Filia from the door and left but not without shutting the door with an earth-shattering slam.
At first Filia just stared at the door as if she never saw it before. Then she looked at it as if she thought Val would come through the door. With the same goofy smile he always wore and he would give her a big bear hug, telling her how much he loved her and that he forgave her. But he didn't, and after a few moments what he said finally hit her full force. With no hope left in her, Filia let all the anguish inside her out with a never-ending stream of tears that she could finally release.
To be continued...
A/N: Well... whaddya think??? I hope you liked this chapter because I worked really hard on it and took a lot of time on it. I've decided that I'm going to try to have a new chapter out every Saturday starting next week. I think I will be able to now because I know where my fic is going and I know how I am going to end it yada yada, etc. But if I can't get the new chapter out every Saturday I apologize but it will most likely be because of something I have no control over. I recently made an outline of the story and if you're curious to see it then please feel free to e-mail me. I am not going to post it here so those who want to see a tiny spec of what is coming up you are going to have to e-mail me. The way it is figured out there will be 20 chapters, 21 total for the lemon version of the ending. That is only going to be optional to read, you don't need to read it to see how it ends. Well please r/r because it really motivates me and makes me happy that people want to read my work. ^_^
"So Filia do you like my present?" Xelloss purred in her ear. The response he got was just what he was expecting. From the shock of the scene before her and the exhaustion from their earlier encounter, Filia collapsed, fainting in his arms.
Xelloss couldn't be happier than he was now. Everything was going just as he foresaw. Lifting Filia up in his arms, her hair falling like liquid gold, Xelloss walked down the stairs towards the unsuspecting Val.
Val broke off the kiss when he heard someone come down the stairs. Looking up he saw Xelloss with Filia in his arms, the latter unconscious.
Val on instinct stood in front of Ailah shielding her in case Xelloss decided to attack. But Xelloss couldn't have caused more pain than he already did if he blasted down the cottage with them in it, although he did have more in store for the little family.
Now Xelloss stood merely inches away from Val letting out an evil chuckle.
"I'm sorry was I interrupting anything important?"
Val gave a low growl deep in his throat angry that Xelloss would again dare to intrude his home and threaten his family. He became even more outraged when he saw the streak of dried blood on the side of Filia's face. "What are you doing here Xelloss and what did you do to Filia?" he asked.
Xelloss merely smirked in reply causing a shiver to run down Val's spine. Val was about to repeat the question but a small moan broke his thoughts as Filia regained consciousness. Val was relieved to see she only fainted.
Filia looked around the room to regain her bearings but as her gaze locked with Val's a flash of the kiss came before her eyes. She couldn't stand to look at him right then so she turned her head away from him to bury her head in the chest of who was holding her.
"My, my Filia I see you have woke up finally." Xelloss said.
Filia, at the mere sound of his voice, escaped from his arms and ran away quick as she could to get away from both Xelloss and Val.
Val started to go after her but stopped not wanting to leave Ailah alone with Xelloss. He turned around and saw Ailah gazing intently at Xelloss, he doing the same as well. A look of fear appeared in Ailah's eyes and she backed away from Xelloss and ran off upstairs.
"What were you doing to her Xelloss?" Val shouted.
Turning only his head Xelloss gave a simple answer. "We were just talking! That's all!"
With a huff of disgust Val went out the door to retrieve Filia who only made a few steps out of the door collapsing again for a second time that day.
Val was quickly by her side attempting to pick her up and bring her back in the house but was shocked as she slapped his hand away.
"Please go away, I just want to be left alone!" She whispered on the brink of tears. Val just stood there not moving and when he tried to reach out for her again Filia screamed at him to leave her be.
All Val could do was let out a tiny "Why?" as he watched her.
Filia tried her hardest not to cry and it was taking a lot out of her but she would not cry and show Xelloss he had broken her.
She was a strong Golden Dragon, once a priestess of the Fire Dragon King; she would not let a simple kiss get the best of her.
But then why did her heart ache so badly?
This time when Val picked her up she did not argue but she would not look at him at all. In her mind she was screaming and cursing at him and Val picked up the vibes she was giving off realizing that she was angry with him.
"What could have made her so upset with me?" he thought to himself. He assumed at first that it was Xelloss who had her so upset but she was being hostile towards him. It didn't make sense unless…
She SAW them!
When it hit Val everything was placed together.
Xelloss planned for this to happen, he wanted to have Filia catch him and Ailah together.
And it worked.
Inside the house Xelloss was nowhere to be seen but his presence was evident. He was just waiting for the right moment once again before he intervened. But Val had no time to worry about Xelloss with Filia in her condition. She took a lot out of herself and she shouldn't have been moving to begin with. If she kept up like this she could seriously harm herself more than she already was.
Val looked down at the woman in his harms and felt a wave of sadness flow through him. Here was a woman who could do anything she ever put her mind too and had to work hard for the things she had. She was strong with a sense of pride that he didn't know where she had gotten. Not that he knew much of her past to begin with. But she would never let anyone be rude to her or to her loved ones and no one dared to disagree with her and her deadly mace.
The only two who ever got away without a severe beating when they disagreed with her were Miss Lina and Xelloss. But although Miss Lina could be scary at times she would never hurt Filia. (to a certain extent ^_~) Xelloss on the other hand would kill her in a second. And it was because of Xelloss that she was a shadow of her former self now, a limp doll in his arms.
Setting her down gently in a chair Val looked at her for a few moments then whirled around at the faint chuckle of a mysterious priest.
"My, my it seems that I might have gone to far!" Xelloss said as he stared at Filia who was quietly looking down at her hands in her lap.
Val lunged at Xelloss but missed him for he phased out only to re-appear next to Filia this time. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders which angered Val only more. Val gave out a low primitive growl warning Xelloss to watch himself. But Val was playing right into Xelloss' hands and now was the time for the ace he had hidden up his sleeve.
"I never did realize just how over-protective you dragons were!"
Val barley noticed Filia stiffen at that comment because he was trying to comprehend it himself. "Did he just say… dragons?"
Xelloss was ecstatic by Val's look of confusion and Filia's mixed feelings of horror and fear.
"Oh you didn't know Val? You mean to tell me that Filia never told you of your heritage?" Xelloss paused for a moment no longer looking at Val but at Filia, "Not to mention her own?"
Val didn't know why Xelloss would say such a thing but he couldn't decide whether to believe him or not. Filia told Val Xelloss never lied, he only told half-truths.
Xelloss wasn't doing either unfortunately. He was telling the ugly bitter truth.
"What do you mean dragons? Filia and I are normal human beings." Val sputtered out.
Xelloss laughed at that. "I'm afraid you and her are far from it. You both are dragons. Enemy races to be exact. She is of the endangered Golden Dragons and you, well let's just say you really are one of a kind."
Val, perfectly still, whispered, "What do you mean by that?"
"Surely you are smarter than that Val, your race the Ancient Dragons have been extinct for centuries."
Val couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Extinct?"
"Yes you know wiped out, exterminated, to say it simply DEAD!"
Val didn't know why but at that his chest tightened almost to the point where he couldn't breathe.
"And you know what else?" Val lifted his head for Xelloss to continue.
Pointing a gloved finger at Filia he said, "Her race is responsible for all of it!"
Val slowly turned his gaze on Filia. He was silent for a moment before he asked, "Tell me he is lying. Tell me we aren't dragons, that we are normal humans. Tell me it's not true. Please?"
Filia could only look at Val but her eyes spoke the words she couldn't.
"Oh but Val it doesn't stop there you know! Ask her about Valgarv!" Xelloss was not done with his torments. When neither of them continued Xelloss decided to just tell him himself.
"See Val, you are Valgarv! Well were Valgarv at least." Val tore his gaze from Filia to look at Xelloss wondering what he was talking about.
"Let me start from the beginning. When Filia's kind murdered yours, you were the only one to survive. You became a wanted fugitive to them but they left you to your death in the desert. You would have surely died if not for Garv. You remember him don't you?"
For some reason the name Garv struck something inside Val but he couldn't determine what it was. He didn't have time to dwell on it because Xelloss started to continue.
"Garv took pity on you and decided to make you his servant. But in order to do that you had to die and become like him… a mazoku."
Val froze. He used to be a mazoku? Like Xelloss?
"At that time you wanted nothing more than to have revenge on the Golden Dragons for their crimes and agreed. You died by Garv's sword only to be reborn again as Valgarv, a mazoku servant to Garv the Chaos-Dragon King. But your story did not end there, no, Garv was killed and you wanted revenge on his death as well. But you ended up almost destroying the entire world but guess who stopped you?"
When Val said nothing Xelloss just went on. "It was Miss Lina and her friends. Which included me, and one other. Would you like to guess who?"
Val said nothing but Xelloss tried to goad him on. "Oh come on guess! You know her very well. One could say she is like a mother to you!"
"Xelloss please stop this! You've done enough!" Both men turned to look at Filia who was now standing and obviously angry that Xelloss would do this to Val.
"Filia…" Xelloss began but was interrupted by Val who moved to stand in front of Filia with a hurt look in his eyes. He would ask her one more time.
"Filia, please. Tell me it's not true. All this Xelloss said about Ancient and Golden dragons, Garv, the mazoku, all of it. Tell me and I'll believe you. You just have to say one word and this can all be over and we can go back to living like the normal humans we are. You just have to say the word."
As much as she would have liked to believe it would be over, Filia knew that her guilt would never end. She had to tell him the truth for her own solace.
Filia took Val's hands in hers and after a deep breath whispered slowly, "My people took your life and Garv gave you another one, only for it to be taken away again from a Golden Dragon, from me. What Xelloss said is true... all of it."
Filia opened her eyes and her heart completely shattered at the look on Val's face.
"I must say I am disappointed in you Filia. You kept the most important parts of his life from him, his past, his heritage, who he is and you are supposed to be his mother!"
"All this time she lied to me?" Val whispered mostly to himself.
Filia felt like crying but not while Xelloss was still there. He must have sensed this because he came up next to her and with a brush against her face said, "It's ok to cry you know! Because you deserve all of this." And with that Xelloss phased out.
Filia didn't dare move yet. Val just stood there and he looked like his whole world was destroyed. Ironically though it had.
"What can I say to him? What can I possibly say that would erase all this? What can I do for him?"
When Filia went to hold him it was his turn to brush her away. Filia knew she deserved it and much worse but she couldn't let Val shut himself out after something like this.
"Val?" Filia tried to get his attention.
"……"
When he didn't say anything she tried again.
"Val… I…"
"How could you keep something like this from me?" Val screamed at the top of his lungs. Filia flinched at the harshness. He was severely angry with Filia from finding out the truth about himself and his past history with her. So many thoughts were going through his mind, but they all led back to his anger at Filia. He couldn't believe she would keep something so important from him. His whole life she lied to him. There was no excuse she could give him that would calm him down. Although she did try…
"Please Val listen to me! I didn't want you to find out this way, I was trying to protect you!" Filia was trying her hardest to make him listen to her but the more she talked the angrier Val got.
"Protect me from what Filia? You know good and well that I can take care of myself, I don't need you to baby me anymore."
Filia was taken aback from his remark but she tried in vain to erase the horrible wrong she had done.
"Val if there was one thing in my life that I could redo…" but Val wouldn't let her finish, he just couldn't take being around her anymore.
He stormed towards the door but Filia sprang to it before he could open it. With a scowl on his face he about near growled at her to move away from the door.
Filia wouldn't budge until he heard her out but he kept refusing, his anger growing more by the minute. Now Filia was becoming angry and in her most stern voice she told him, "I forbid you to go anywhere without us resolving this."
That was the last straw for him. With a look that could kill, Val told her in an eerily calm voice, "You… forbid? You can't forbid me to do anything anymore! You are not my mother. YOU NEVER WERE!!!"
With that Val pushed Filia from the door and left but not without shutting the door with an earth-shattering slam.
At first Filia just stared at the door as if she never saw it before. Then she looked at it as if she thought Val would come through the door. With the same goofy smile he always wore and he would give her a big bear hug, telling her how much he loved her and that he forgave her. But he didn't, and after a few moments what he said finally hit her full force. With no hope left in her, Filia let all the anguish inside her out with a never-ending stream of tears that she could finally release.
To be continued...
A/N: Well... whaddya think??? I hope you liked this chapter because I worked really hard on it and took a lot of time on it. I've decided that I'm going to try to have a new chapter out every Saturday starting next week. I think I will be able to now because I know where my fic is going and I know how I am going to end it yada yada, etc. But if I can't get the new chapter out every Saturday I apologize but it will most likely be because of something I have no control over. I recently made an outline of the story and if you're curious to see it then please feel free to e-mail me. I am not going to post it here so those who want to see a tiny spec of what is coming up you are going to have to e-mail me. The way it is figured out there will be 20 chapters, 21 total for the lemon version of the ending. That is only going to be optional to read, you don't need to read it to see how it ends. Well please r/r because it really motivates me and makes me happy that people want to read my work. ^_^
