LEGALITIES: I DO NOT OWN DARKSTALKERS NOR ANY CHARACTERS THEREOF.
[]-Indicates thought.
Hello, fellow fanfiction.net readers! Here's Chapter Seventeen, wherein much Morritri results. This should please one of my fans (you know who you are). For those of you reading my Soul Caliber fanfics, I finished "Falling through Nightmare" and I've got the first chapter of the prequel up. Hope you enjoy it.
To the reviewers:
True Earth Rune- Thanks for the kudos. Dimitri fics are rare, which is weird. He's a much better character than any of the other Darkstalkers. In terms of sheer potential, only Morrigan and Lilith come close to the possibilites. Is Dimitri a power-hungry madman, a noble warrior trying to save his world, what? (My own take: man trying to save his world from Morrigan's rule- she would be a BAD ruler.)
Galandria- Thanks for the continuing reviews. Read my other stuff please- even if you haven't read the book/played the game/watched the series my fanfiction centers on, most of my stuff is AU. You won't be confused (much). Love your reviews!
Enough of that. It's...
"SHOWTIME!"
Chapter 17
Dreams in the Dark
After Jon's comment about a place to rest, Dimitri looked into the sky. It was still dark out, but his inner sense of time said that the dawn- and the sun it brought- wasn't very far off, two hours at most. The party took up rooms in the main castle, spreading out for privacy. Jon and Felicia took up a bed near one of the large banquet tables, spreading their bedrolls and laying down side by side. Felicia wrapped her arms around Jon, and he wrapped his about her. Dimitri, who always felt vaguely embarassed by the casual intimacy of the two (when they bedded down at night, he usually slept turned away from them- he felt ashamed to see them like that), went into a side wing to try and find a nice, dark place to rest. He searched a couple rooms in the hallway before finding one that suited him perfectly.
The room was small and mostly bare. A fireplace, long empty, lay in the far wall. A single window, done in ornate stained-glass with a cross and a rose design upon it, was set high on the right wall. The left was bare, save for spaces where hooks were set. The hooks, probably for hanging weapons, were old and rusted. He went to the corner next to the window and put his bed spread down. He would be below the shaft of sunlight coming in. He laid down, thinking.
His mind whirled. Although fighting Donovan had occupied his mind for a while, it now returned to what he'd been shown through the tapestry.
[ My God,] he thought. [ The humans and the Darkstalkers... we're one and the same.]
The enormity of it all weighed on his mind. Vampires were the noble sacrifice that won the Sundering War? Humans that could wield Psi (his mind kept wanting to say magic- he forced himself to use the word Psi instead)? A curse? The hatred between humans and Darkstalkers, mere manipulation by demons?
And he was supposed to fix it?
[Where do I start?] he thought, his mind reeling. There was too much to do. Simply too much. Laying on his back, he put one hand over his eyes. [ Where does a man start? How do you fix something ages in the making?]
He laid there, his mind wheeling. Outside, in the hallway, Morrigan stood. Dimitri's psychic shield wasn't up. The enormity of the problems in his mind was such that he couldn't have raised it if he wanted too; as it was, he had forgotten all about his shield in the past few days.
As such, Morrigan could sense Dimitri's emotions. Many legends of many worlds stated that succubi (and their male counterparts, the incubi) fed off of sex. This was not true. Actually, a succubi fed off emotions. They preferred happier emotions (some succubi's way of inducing those emotions had led to the legends) but could feed off all of them. It was in this way that the succubi and incubi had risen to dominance in the Darkstalker hierarchy. They were excellent statesmen and politicians- being able to sense emotions in others allowed them to know exactly if they should be a jolly companion or a sympathetic ear, the furious friend or the shocked observer. The Felinos even had a saying on the subject: " If you think no one will understand, talk to a succubus."
Morrigan delved into Dimitri's emotion and stopped, wondering. Dimitri's mind was a whirling tornado. She sensed something huge in his mind, an enormous weight. His mind circled and pried and prodded it, but he could not move it from his mind. One part of her mind wondered if it was her he was having trouble dealing with. Morrigan's innate arrogance reasserting itself, she decided she was the problem and strode into the room. Dimitri, lost in thought, didn't even notice her until she cleared her throat with a loud "Hrumph" noise. He snapped his head over to her, startled. Seeing it was Morrigan, he removed his mind from the truths he'd learned long enough to say, " Hello, Morrigan."
Morrigan looked at him haughtily. She was still mad over his outburst three days ago. She meant to give him what for.
" Hello? Is that all I get? How about "Thank you?" Think you could manage that?"
Dimitri had enough on his mind to worry about. He turned on his side, propped up on his elbow, and looked at her. " Morrigan, can't we do this some other time? I've got a lot--"
Morrigan interrupted him. " No, we do this now. You had no right to yell at me out there. You ought to be on your knees, begging me for forgiveness."
Dimitri's temper flared. Here he was, trying to figure out how to save the whole damn world, and this stuck-up, bratty-ass princess was pissed because he'd yelled at her. Well, tough luck.
" Damn it, Morrigan, grow up. I probably shouldn't have yelled at you, but I spoke the truth then and I speak the truth now. You shouldn't be here."
Morrigan, who'd expected something like this, found it still stung. Her anger flared, and the wings on her head raised up indignantly. If the look of anger hadn't been so clear, it would have been funny.
" I just saved Jon's life back there! If it hadn't been for me, he'd be dead! And I helped kill that thing! If you can't remember, it was I who had him! If it hadn't been for me grabbing him, you wouldn't have been able to stab him!"
Dimitri sighed. He'd hoped to end this quickly, but apparently those hopes had just been dashed. He sat up, groaning with effort. His ribs hurt like hell where Donovan had thrown him against the wall.
" Okay, okay. You did help. I'll admit that. But Morrigan..."
" What? Huh? Am I just not good enough?" She was madder than ever, and hurt inside too. She didn't know why she hurt inside- which made her feel worse than ever.
" No, it's not that, it's just..."
" That's what it is, isn't it? I'm just not good enough for you." Morrigan felt the tears in her eyes and hated herself for it. She hated Dimitri even worse for making her feel like this.
" Morrigan, no! Listen to me!" Morrigan tried to interrupt again and he cut her off. " No, listen. I don't want to see you hurt." There. He'd said it. And against his better judgement. He waited for her reaction. Morrigan would probably break loose laughing. It was the corniest damn thing he'd ever said, but the only one that expressed his feelings in words. Feelings he didn't understand and hence, didn't like, to boot.
She stared at him. She'd expected him to say that yes, she was too weak, not quite good enough ( the voice in her mind, the mocking-sweet voice, whispered these things over and over to her). She expected him to blow up again, to rage at her.
She hadn't expected the rather tender thing he had said.
She sat down on the floor, not quite collapsing but close to it. She looked at him, cocking her head to the side. " What?"
Dimitri sighed. Great. He'd stunned her with the magnificent stupidity of his words. " I said I don't want you getting hurt, Morrigan." Soon the laughter would start.
Morrigan had been stunned, but not by the corniness of his phrase; she'd been stunned by the care in it. " That's rather sweet of you," she said, still holding her head in that cocked, quizzical look. Her bat wings had sunk to the sides of her head, almost as if they were dumbfounded too.
Dimitri, not knowing quite what to say after that, only scratched his head awkwardly. He had no idea how to proceed after a comment like that. In all his years of existence, he had never had much experience in situations like this. Those few female Darkstalkers who showed an interest in him were always either trying to kill him or take his power.
Morrigan looked at him, and her face softened. " Why do you want to protect me at all?"
Dimitri shrugged. " I honestly don't know. I just do."
Morrigan shook her head. " That's one of the nicest things anyone's said to me," she said. " That was honest, I mean. When you grow up in Castle Aensland, you hear people say sweet things all the time. Sweet things that are no more real or substantial than a dream. Sweet things that are forgotten as soon as they are spoken." Her tone had a bitter edge to it. Dimitri wondered if someone had whispered such things to Morrigan, once. Judging by her tone and face, he thought they had. More than once. Probably more times than he could count.
" People were constantly lying," she continued, her head drooping until she was looking downward. " I don't think a single honest person lived there. Everyone was selling something, and no one stopped to think about what they were doing. Everyone lived for the moment... no one cared what a broken promise might cost them later, so long as it was convenient at the time." The wings on her head drooped downward. She was holding back tears. She was thinking of all the times Berial had lied to her, that court members had lied to her...
The time her first love had lied to her, laying on the other side of the bed.
Her whole life was one big betrayal.
" Not everyone's like that."
Morrigan looked up at Dimitri. He was so different from him... the man who'd promised to marry her. Instead, he'd disappeared soon afterward. She heard he'd moved to a far outlying duchy somewhere. She had been beyond caring at that point- her heart was numb. It was after that, after being betrayed so deeply, that Morrigan had changed. She had become superficial, turning into just another liar in a world full of them, making promises and breaking them, wrecking the hearts of many a suitor. All because of one man and a broken promise.
She gazed at Dimitri, wondering if anybody could really keep their promises in this world.
" Really? Isn't everyone just another liar at heart? The soldier who promises to come home, the young couple proclaiming their love... all liars. Nothing's real and true in this world." She shook her head. Dimitri lowered his head, looking at the floor to think, and felt emotions warring in him. The truths he had learned were forgotten for the moment. Love for this sad woman before him warred with shock that Morrigan, who he had dismissed as a superficial, materialistic girl with a woman's body, could have such deep feelings. No wonder she was so seemingly callous. It was her only defense against the world. A line from one of his favorite poems came to him then.
[ What tears of scarlet you have bled,] he thought.
He looked up at her. " Morrigan." She looked up at him, that sadness in her eyes. " It isn't always like that. There is truth in this world. Truth and honor are really all we have." He reached out his hand to her. She took it. " Old wounds always hurt. But there's always a chance for a better tomorrow." He held her hand tightly in his own. " We can change things. Your suffering doesn't have to be repeated."
She looked at him, and her eyes had a sparkle of sad laughter in them. " Do you really think you can change anything, Dimitri? What can anyone do against something so much a part of who we are?"
Dimitri shook his head. " Evil is a part of us, but not a part you have to give in to. It's a part of the soul that you can stand against." He glanced at Ebonrule as he said this. " The evil in us doesn't have to become us."
Morrigan leaned in closer to him, then embraced him. Her hands encircled his neck, and she pressed herself against him. " Dimitri," she said, holding him.
" Yes?" he said, enjoying the feel of her next to him, the heat of her body. He held her tight, his arms wrapped around her.
" Show me," she whispered, placing her face next to his ear. " Show me what is real in this world..."
Dimitri made no reply to her, just pulled her close.
- And there you go. (Silverlocke980 shakes head and laughs.) Damn. Didn't know I had it in me. I wrote a serious love scene. I'm about ready to cry reading it. (Sniffle.) Oh well. Send me reviews- maybe you guys can cheer me up. (goes off hunting for Kleenexes).
[]-Indicates thought.
Hello, fellow fanfiction.net readers! Here's Chapter Seventeen, wherein much Morritri results. This should please one of my fans (you know who you are). For those of you reading my Soul Caliber fanfics, I finished "Falling through Nightmare" and I've got the first chapter of the prequel up. Hope you enjoy it.
To the reviewers:
True Earth Rune- Thanks for the kudos. Dimitri fics are rare, which is weird. He's a much better character than any of the other Darkstalkers. In terms of sheer potential, only Morrigan and Lilith come close to the possibilites. Is Dimitri a power-hungry madman, a noble warrior trying to save his world, what? (My own take: man trying to save his world from Morrigan's rule- she would be a BAD ruler.)
Galandria- Thanks for the continuing reviews. Read my other stuff please- even if you haven't read the book/played the game/watched the series my fanfiction centers on, most of my stuff is AU. You won't be confused (much). Love your reviews!
Enough of that. It's...
"SHOWTIME!"
Chapter 17
Dreams in the Dark
After Jon's comment about a place to rest, Dimitri looked into the sky. It was still dark out, but his inner sense of time said that the dawn- and the sun it brought- wasn't very far off, two hours at most. The party took up rooms in the main castle, spreading out for privacy. Jon and Felicia took up a bed near one of the large banquet tables, spreading their bedrolls and laying down side by side. Felicia wrapped her arms around Jon, and he wrapped his about her. Dimitri, who always felt vaguely embarassed by the casual intimacy of the two (when they bedded down at night, he usually slept turned away from them- he felt ashamed to see them like that), went into a side wing to try and find a nice, dark place to rest. He searched a couple rooms in the hallway before finding one that suited him perfectly.
The room was small and mostly bare. A fireplace, long empty, lay in the far wall. A single window, done in ornate stained-glass with a cross and a rose design upon it, was set high on the right wall. The left was bare, save for spaces where hooks were set. The hooks, probably for hanging weapons, were old and rusted. He went to the corner next to the window and put his bed spread down. He would be below the shaft of sunlight coming in. He laid down, thinking.
His mind whirled. Although fighting Donovan had occupied his mind for a while, it now returned to what he'd been shown through the tapestry.
[ My God,] he thought. [ The humans and the Darkstalkers... we're one and the same.]
The enormity of it all weighed on his mind. Vampires were the noble sacrifice that won the Sundering War? Humans that could wield Psi (his mind kept wanting to say magic- he forced himself to use the word Psi instead)? A curse? The hatred between humans and Darkstalkers, mere manipulation by demons?
And he was supposed to fix it?
[Where do I start?] he thought, his mind reeling. There was too much to do. Simply too much. Laying on his back, he put one hand over his eyes. [ Where does a man start? How do you fix something ages in the making?]
He laid there, his mind wheeling. Outside, in the hallway, Morrigan stood. Dimitri's psychic shield wasn't up. The enormity of the problems in his mind was such that he couldn't have raised it if he wanted too; as it was, he had forgotten all about his shield in the past few days.
As such, Morrigan could sense Dimitri's emotions. Many legends of many worlds stated that succubi (and their male counterparts, the incubi) fed off of sex. This was not true. Actually, a succubi fed off emotions. They preferred happier emotions (some succubi's way of inducing those emotions had led to the legends) but could feed off all of them. It was in this way that the succubi and incubi had risen to dominance in the Darkstalker hierarchy. They were excellent statesmen and politicians- being able to sense emotions in others allowed them to know exactly if they should be a jolly companion or a sympathetic ear, the furious friend or the shocked observer. The Felinos even had a saying on the subject: " If you think no one will understand, talk to a succubus."
Morrigan delved into Dimitri's emotion and stopped, wondering. Dimitri's mind was a whirling tornado. She sensed something huge in his mind, an enormous weight. His mind circled and pried and prodded it, but he could not move it from his mind. One part of her mind wondered if it was her he was having trouble dealing with. Morrigan's innate arrogance reasserting itself, she decided she was the problem and strode into the room. Dimitri, lost in thought, didn't even notice her until she cleared her throat with a loud "Hrumph" noise. He snapped his head over to her, startled. Seeing it was Morrigan, he removed his mind from the truths he'd learned long enough to say, " Hello, Morrigan."
Morrigan looked at him haughtily. She was still mad over his outburst three days ago. She meant to give him what for.
" Hello? Is that all I get? How about "Thank you?" Think you could manage that?"
Dimitri had enough on his mind to worry about. He turned on his side, propped up on his elbow, and looked at her. " Morrigan, can't we do this some other time? I've got a lot--"
Morrigan interrupted him. " No, we do this now. You had no right to yell at me out there. You ought to be on your knees, begging me for forgiveness."
Dimitri's temper flared. Here he was, trying to figure out how to save the whole damn world, and this stuck-up, bratty-ass princess was pissed because he'd yelled at her. Well, tough luck.
" Damn it, Morrigan, grow up. I probably shouldn't have yelled at you, but I spoke the truth then and I speak the truth now. You shouldn't be here."
Morrigan, who'd expected something like this, found it still stung. Her anger flared, and the wings on her head raised up indignantly. If the look of anger hadn't been so clear, it would have been funny.
" I just saved Jon's life back there! If it hadn't been for me, he'd be dead! And I helped kill that thing! If you can't remember, it was I who had him! If it hadn't been for me grabbing him, you wouldn't have been able to stab him!"
Dimitri sighed. He'd hoped to end this quickly, but apparently those hopes had just been dashed. He sat up, groaning with effort. His ribs hurt like hell where Donovan had thrown him against the wall.
" Okay, okay. You did help. I'll admit that. But Morrigan..."
" What? Huh? Am I just not good enough?" She was madder than ever, and hurt inside too. She didn't know why she hurt inside- which made her feel worse than ever.
" No, it's not that, it's just..."
" That's what it is, isn't it? I'm just not good enough for you." Morrigan felt the tears in her eyes and hated herself for it. She hated Dimitri even worse for making her feel like this.
" Morrigan, no! Listen to me!" Morrigan tried to interrupt again and he cut her off. " No, listen. I don't want to see you hurt." There. He'd said it. And against his better judgement. He waited for her reaction. Morrigan would probably break loose laughing. It was the corniest damn thing he'd ever said, but the only one that expressed his feelings in words. Feelings he didn't understand and hence, didn't like, to boot.
She stared at him. She'd expected him to say that yes, she was too weak, not quite good enough ( the voice in her mind, the mocking-sweet voice, whispered these things over and over to her). She expected him to blow up again, to rage at her.
She hadn't expected the rather tender thing he had said.
She sat down on the floor, not quite collapsing but close to it. She looked at him, cocking her head to the side. " What?"
Dimitri sighed. Great. He'd stunned her with the magnificent stupidity of his words. " I said I don't want you getting hurt, Morrigan." Soon the laughter would start.
Morrigan had been stunned, but not by the corniness of his phrase; she'd been stunned by the care in it. " That's rather sweet of you," she said, still holding her head in that cocked, quizzical look. Her bat wings had sunk to the sides of her head, almost as if they were dumbfounded too.
Dimitri, not knowing quite what to say after that, only scratched his head awkwardly. He had no idea how to proceed after a comment like that. In all his years of existence, he had never had much experience in situations like this. Those few female Darkstalkers who showed an interest in him were always either trying to kill him or take his power.
Morrigan looked at him, and her face softened. " Why do you want to protect me at all?"
Dimitri shrugged. " I honestly don't know. I just do."
Morrigan shook her head. " That's one of the nicest things anyone's said to me," she said. " That was honest, I mean. When you grow up in Castle Aensland, you hear people say sweet things all the time. Sweet things that are no more real or substantial than a dream. Sweet things that are forgotten as soon as they are spoken." Her tone had a bitter edge to it. Dimitri wondered if someone had whispered such things to Morrigan, once. Judging by her tone and face, he thought they had. More than once. Probably more times than he could count.
" People were constantly lying," she continued, her head drooping until she was looking downward. " I don't think a single honest person lived there. Everyone was selling something, and no one stopped to think about what they were doing. Everyone lived for the moment... no one cared what a broken promise might cost them later, so long as it was convenient at the time." The wings on her head drooped downward. She was holding back tears. She was thinking of all the times Berial had lied to her, that court members had lied to her...
The time her first love had lied to her, laying on the other side of the bed.
Her whole life was one big betrayal.
" Not everyone's like that."
Morrigan looked up at Dimitri. He was so different from him... the man who'd promised to marry her. Instead, he'd disappeared soon afterward. She heard he'd moved to a far outlying duchy somewhere. She had been beyond caring at that point- her heart was numb. It was after that, after being betrayed so deeply, that Morrigan had changed. She had become superficial, turning into just another liar in a world full of them, making promises and breaking them, wrecking the hearts of many a suitor. All because of one man and a broken promise.
She gazed at Dimitri, wondering if anybody could really keep their promises in this world.
" Really? Isn't everyone just another liar at heart? The soldier who promises to come home, the young couple proclaiming their love... all liars. Nothing's real and true in this world." She shook her head. Dimitri lowered his head, looking at the floor to think, and felt emotions warring in him. The truths he had learned were forgotten for the moment. Love for this sad woman before him warred with shock that Morrigan, who he had dismissed as a superficial, materialistic girl with a woman's body, could have such deep feelings. No wonder she was so seemingly callous. It was her only defense against the world. A line from one of his favorite poems came to him then.
[ What tears of scarlet you have bled,] he thought.
He looked up at her. " Morrigan." She looked up at him, that sadness in her eyes. " It isn't always like that. There is truth in this world. Truth and honor are really all we have." He reached out his hand to her. She took it. " Old wounds always hurt. But there's always a chance for a better tomorrow." He held her hand tightly in his own. " We can change things. Your suffering doesn't have to be repeated."
She looked at him, and her eyes had a sparkle of sad laughter in them. " Do you really think you can change anything, Dimitri? What can anyone do against something so much a part of who we are?"
Dimitri shook his head. " Evil is a part of us, but not a part you have to give in to. It's a part of the soul that you can stand against." He glanced at Ebonrule as he said this. " The evil in us doesn't have to become us."
Morrigan leaned in closer to him, then embraced him. Her hands encircled his neck, and she pressed herself against him. " Dimitri," she said, holding him.
" Yes?" he said, enjoying the feel of her next to him, the heat of her body. He held her tight, his arms wrapped around her.
" Show me," she whispered, placing her face next to his ear. " Show me what is real in this world..."
Dimitri made no reply to her, just pulled her close.
- And there you go. (Silverlocke980 shakes head and laughs.) Damn. Didn't know I had it in me. I wrote a serious love scene. I'm about ready to cry reading it. (Sniffle.) Oh well. Send me reviews- maybe you guys can cheer me up. (goes off hunting for Kleenexes).