Disclaimer. I don't own any of the DK characters.

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Finally Rune made it to the castle. It looked dark, almost as if nobody was home, but Rune knew better. He walked up to the seemingly endless wall and spoke clearly.

"Let me in." A door appeared and Rune crossed into the room.

There stood Manjar. He had disposed of the chair and was leaning against the wall, as if he had nothing to lose. Which most likely he didn't. Rath wasn't very far away. He was chained to the wall. Again, for the briefest moment Rune's eyes flared black, before returning to their normal color.

"Well, well. It's good to see you again, my young drackling. I was hoping that you would come for a visit."

"Shut up. I'm not here for you. I only came to set Rath free."

"Did you now. That is quite interesting. However, as you can see, he is chained to the wall, and I seem to have lost the key. Oh dear, what ever shall I do."

"This isn't a game. Release him."

"Hmm. Tempting but I want to fight you. That won't happen if he is gone. Now let's see. Ah yes. Let us make a deal. If you win both of you go free, and I never trouble you again. But if I win. I kill him in front of you, then you become my loyal servant for the rest of your days."

"No. He goes free either way."

"Oh, alright. You drive a hard bargain. Now lets begin."

Without any more words the fight began. Rune let Manjar attack first, to find out about his attacks. Manjar noticed this, and smirked. He would scare the brat spittless.

Manjar attacked with a head on attack. He knew that if he resorted to magic Rune would be able to defeat him. His strategy was to tire the dragon. Rune had, had many fights over the past days. He was not as strong as he normally would be. Manjar pressed this to his advantage.

Rune managed to doge the first attack, but got sliced on the arm, when Manjar reversed the swing of the sword. He noticed the glint in Manjar's eyes. It made him shutter.

Manjar had thought of a way to start the awakening. His eyes glinted sadistically. This would be fun. Torment was his specialty. He threw a pain spell at Rath, who was helpless to block it.

Rath screamed in agony, as the spell hit him. He writhed in his bonds, unable to do anything else. The pain was almost intolerable. Rath almost lost consciousness. Almost.

Rune was momentarily distracted when Rath screamed. That was all it took for Manjar to slice his stomach. Rune turned his attention back to the fight with a scream of defiance. His eyes were slightly darker.

This continued for over an hour. Sometimes Rune would get lucky and block the magical attacks aimed at Rath. Most of the time though he wasn't able to. Every time Rath screamed, Rune's eyes would darken just a little. Soon they were almost black.

Manjar noticed the difference in Rune's attacks. They were becoming slightly more vicious. He threw another spell at Rath, and when the scream echoed around the room, Rune lost any calmness that he had left.

Rune screeched at the top of his lungs. His eyes darkened completely. He was soon covered in a dark light. The light pulsed, every time that Rune writhed. He lengthened, just a little bit, and his black eyes gained a red pupil. His long blond hair turned black, and his normally pale features paled even more. Black wings erupted from his back, and he screeched again. Then it was over.

He had transformed. The vampire that had been locked inside of him, had been released, by Rune's agony at seeing his friend hurt.

Rune tried to gain control again, but was forced back. The vampire had waited for this chance to be born, and to drink the sweet blood of any living creature. It was hungry, and soon it spotted it's first victim.

Manjar contemplated the being before him. It looked like an evil Rune. He decided that it was time to conquer it. He set his spell weaving a net around it.

The vampire/Rune would have none of that though. It slashed through the network of spells, like a human brushes a spider web away. It came after Manjar who had no hope of defeating it without magic, of which he was completely drained. Soon Manjar was drained of his blood, and the vampire turned to Rath.

Rune had just enough control to persuade his vampiric self not to kill Rath. Instead, to use him as messenger.

"Go. Tell the foolish Dragon Tribe that I will be coming for them." With that, the vampire took off in search of more prey. In it's haste to leave, the items dropped out of his pocket, and clattered to the floor. Rath picked them up, and hurried back to the Dragon Kingdom, to tell the news of Rune's transformation.

Rune on the other hand was searching for more prey, as the dusk descended into night.

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I'm so sorry that the chapters are short. I have major writers block. Ideas would be a great help to me.

Thanks to all my reviewers.

Reviews are appreciated, and Flames are given to Rath.

EF