LEGAL DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN DARKSTALKERS OR ANY CHARACTERS THEREOF.
[]- Indicates thought.
Hey people. Silverlocke980 here (as if you didn't know by now :). This is Chapter 18 of "Deeping Dream". For the reviewers:
Galandria- Yeah, Silver has a soft side (Sniffle.). And Thanksgiving was great- I managed to get fat and happy, all at once! I haven't had much of a chance to read Johnathon Tailban's fanfic yet, but will as soon as I can. Probably while you yourself are reading this.
However, you're misspelling my name- it's SILVER, not SLIVER. Common mistake. Just switch the I and L, and you've got it.
Johnathon Tailban- Hey! A new reviewer! Welcome to the paths of my madness. Galandria alerted me to your fanfic, and I'll try to read it when I can. Judging from your name, Jon is probably going to be the main character... but that's fine by me.
True Earth Rune- Hey man. It's good to have a new recurring reviewer. For this fanfic, Tiger5913 used to review regularly, but she's been MIA for some time now. Galandria now reviews almost every chapter, and that makes me feel loved, but it's always good to have another regular fan. Try reading my other stuff if you have a chance.
Enough with that. It's...
"SHOWTIME!"
Chapter 18
Madness
Pyron's Encampment. Sunset.
Pyron sat, in his enormous black throne in a room no light pierced, and thought of the night before. Donovan had been slain. Incredible. Donovan had been one of the most powerful fragments he'd ever created. Of all the thousands who had submitted to Pyron's will and their own dark desires over the years, Donovan was one of the few who willingly submitted to his darkness. Most drowned in the flood tide of their own evil; Donovan drank of it, loved it. His hate had been food and drink to the insane Dhampir.
And yet, last night, a few hours before dawn, Donovan's soul had came to him, carried as ever by the imps whose sole purpose was to drag the souls of the damned back to their demon masters. Pyron had stared at Donovan, shocked. He hadn't bothered to check on Donovan's progress; he was sure the Dhampir's power would be enough. Dimitri had the Ebonrule, yes ( the right side of Pyron's face throbbed as he thought of the holy spear; Pyron had never suffered such agony before) but Donovan could drive anyone mad with hate. All Donovan had to do was infect Dimitri, and it was over. And Donovan knew that- he was not a fool.
But he had been slain. Pyron had absorbed Donovan's soul into himself, Donovan screaming all the way, and he had privately worried. How? What could possibly allow them to deny his strength? He had worked for centuries untold for this moment; he would not be undone by mere children.
But to slay them, he must see them. Pyron opened the blazing eye in his mind, closing his real eyes. And suddenly, as if he were a disembodied spirit, he saw the world in hues of black and white through a single great eye. In his mind he traveled to Moongrace, speeding over the landscape, watching the trees and grass and the last rays of the sun rush past him in a blur. He reached the castle, and gazed through the windows (he could not enter; the building had crosses upon it). Jon and Felicia were just getting up in the main hall; Dimitri and Morrigan were laying side by side down a hallway nearby. Pyron watched them, noting that Jon and Felicia were both white in his mind's eye, the color of good souls; Morrigan's soul was both white and black. She was torn between good and evil. Dimitri himself appeared gray; while holding the Ebonrule, nothing of Dimitri's character shown through, and he had the same hue as stone.
Pyron nodded, miles away, in his chair. So that's why Donovan couldn't kill them. Dimitri was impervious to magic. Pyron wondered at this, then thought of Ebonrule. Damn that spear! It must be protecting Dimitri, blocking Pyron's power! Far away, Pyron growled. How dare it make a mockery of him! He would break it under his burning heel. But how to kill Dimitri? The others were nothing to him, but that spear...
As a demon, Pyron's purpose was the damnation of souls. He could whisper in their minds, drive them mad... but which of them to infect? Which to assault? Dimitri himself was immune, so which of the others could kill him?
He laid back, closing his mind's eye, forcing himself to calm down. He concentrated on nothing, letting the answer simply flow through him as it always did. He had an instinct for evil, and it never led him wrong. Sometimes he wondered where it came from... but that was a question he never pondered long.
[ Morrigan.]
He snapped his eyes open. Morrigan. She was the key. The weakest of them. The one closest to the dark.
And in the perfect darkness, Pyron laughed.
************************************************************************
Moongrace. Half an hour later. Night.
Dimitri and Morrigan woke up, dressed, and went back to the meeting hall. Both were silent, lost in their own thoughts.
Dimitri was still trying to figure out how he was going to save the world (always a distracting thought), but was also busy thinking about the new woman in his life. Part of him also found this funny.
[ Great timing, genius,] it told him.
[ Shut up,] he told it back.
Still, he got the point. This was probably very bad timing on both their parts. Morrigan was now officially the Ruler of Makai ([Although,] Dimitri thought, [ if Pyron has his way, there won't be anything left to rule,]), and Dimitri was now the only one who knew the truth about Makai. Still, he felt the way he felt, and now he thought he understood the poets he had once ridiculed. He didn't know if love conquered all, but it was doing a fine job kicking his ass.
Morrigan, for her part, was wondering about what Dimitri had said last night. Truth... love... could it be real? Could anything be real?
Morrigan self-hate, although it had disappeared last night, came back. She heard it, a whispering, mocking-sweet voice that threatened madness, in the back of her mind and beyond conscious control. She thought something sounded wrong in that voice, something that seemed out of place... but she couldn't place her finger on it. The only thing she could think of was that it seemed louder, somehow, more there in her mind.
[ Oh, poor, poor little Morrigan. Do you honestly think Dimitri loves you? (and as if from far away, almost an echo, Morrigan heard laughter.) Pathetic little girl. Why would he love you? There's nothing to you, nothing real- just like this world! Why, everything falls through in the end, nothing holds! The same with Dimitri. Maybe he was just lonely last night. A one-night stand doesn't constitute love, girl! (more laughter, far away in her mind.)]
[ Shut up!] she screamed at it. [ Leave me alone!]
[ Oh, I will... for a little while,] it spoke back, and now Morrigan thought that it sounded deeper, somehow. Also, it seemed so LOUD...
The voice gone, Morrigan shook her head to clear it. Dimitri, lost in his own thoughts, saw but did not ask about it, nor the troubled look on her face.
If he had, he might have saved himself a great deal of trouble later, but he was too absorbed in his own problems.
Far away, Pyron laughed. Ah, yes. Things were off to a wonderful start. He was going to enjoy this. Outside the stone walls of his room, the human soldiers gathered about the camp shivered and wrapped themselves up in warm blankets. The night had suddenly gotten cold.
************************************************************************
Dimitri and Morrigan stepped into the Great Hall of Moongrace. Dimitri noted with sadness the condition of the room. It had been perfect and beautiful when he'd entered, but the subsequent fight with Donovan had wrecked a large portion of it. Half the tables on this side were broken up, and Donovan's dead corpse lay on one of them. Just looking at it gave Dimitri the shivers. His ribs still smarted. Getting thrown into stone walls was not one of Dimitri's favorite things in life. Things usually broke, and it wasn't the walls.
Jon and Felicia had finished packing up their supplies, and now Jon was going around the room, looking for things that might be useful. Noting the almost hungry way Jon was looking at things, Dimitri smiled. He hadn't been kidding about being a thief and wanting to steal; even though the masters were long gone, this had once been someone else's stuff, and Jon was more than delighted to take it. A free chance to give in to temptation and not feel bad about it.
Felicia, for her part, was watching as Jon spied a large ruby, glittering in a shield on one of the walls. Jon, his lupine mouth grinning, began trying to climb up the wall. Using his claws to dig in to any cracks in the wall, Jon clambered up and reached the shield. Latching his feet in more-or-less securely, Jon grabbed the ruby and pulled. It held fast.
Felicia, watching him with the weary air only long-time companions develop, said up to him, " Jon, you're going to get yourself killed."
Jon, busy pulling on the ruby, said back, " No I won't. Have you seen the size of this thing? I could get rich off of it!" He tugged harder.
Felicia sighed. " Don't you think that riches are the last thing we should worry about?"
Jon, stopping to pant for a minute, said, " Hey, once this is over, I plan on retiring to a nice castle somewhere. And to do that," he tugged again, grunting with effort, " I need- aah!"
Jon's tugging had resulted in him inadvertantly breaking the steel hooks that held the shield to the wall. The poor, overstrained hooks had held on as long as they could, but Jon's tugging had finally broken them. The round buckler let go of the wall, and Jon, still holding on to it, went with it. He yelped as he fell. He flipped over, and the shield hit the ground first. The shield and floor met with a clang. Jon was left sitting on it, rattled around a bit but otherwise okay. Felicia, who hadn't been very worried about him to start with, walked over to the dazed werewolf. The comical expression of surprise on Jon's face caused both Dimitri and Morrigan to forget their problems and erupt with laughter. Felicia crouched to his level, looked him in the eye, and sighed.
" You are incorrigible."
" But you love me anyway," he said, smiling.
" Yes, unfortunately I do." She shook her head, then stood up and headed back to their supplies. She grabbed some, and turning around saw Jon lugging the shield around on his back. Staring at him, she asked, " What are you doing?"
Jon, looking at her as if offended, said, " What, do you think I'm just going to leave this here?"
" Actually, yeah."
" But I want it." He put on a "puppy-dog" face; since he was a werewolf, it was amazingly effective.
" Fine, keep it. But don't you dare complain when you get tired." She turned around, and started handing packs to Dimitri and Morrigan, both of whom were still chuckling. Jon, delighted that he was going to be able to keep his new-found treasure, trundled over and began gathering packs. Hooking the shield to his back with a leather strap (another thing he'd managed to take from Moongrace), he picked up several of the little pouches that held their food and water. They left, walking out the great doors of Moongrace into the night. Dimitri turned to look back, and saw Moongrace as the full moon rose up behind it's obsidian towers. He gazed at it, silver in the moonlight, and a thought rose up, unbidden.
[ This will be my home.]
He turned, not exactly comforted by the thought (he was still rather certain he was going to die on this trip) but buoyed by it nonetheless, and followed the others. Behind him, empty again, Moongrace waited. Waited, as it had throughout the endless waltz of centuries, for life to fill it once again, as it had so long ago.
- And there you go. This is probably the last chapter till after Christmas, so wait for me till then! Merry Christmas to all of you, and may God bless you!
-Silverlocke980
This was written on December 13, 2003.
[]- Indicates thought.
Hey people. Silverlocke980 here (as if you didn't know by now :). This is Chapter 18 of "Deeping Dream". For the reviewers:
Galandria- Yeah, Silver has a soft side (Sniffle.). And Thanksgiving was great- I managed to get fat and happy, all at once! I haven't had much of a chance to read Johnathon Tailban's fanfic yet, but will as soon as I can. Probably while you yourself are reading this.
However, you're misspelling my name- it's SILVER, not SLIVER. Common mistake. Just switch the I and L, and you've got it.
Johnathon Tailban- Hey! A new reviewer! Welcome to the paths of my madness. Galandria alerted me to your fanfic, and I'll try to read it when I can. Judging from your name, Jon is probably going to be the main character... but that's fine by me.
True Earth Rune- Hey man. It's good to have a new recurring reviewer. For this fanfic, Tiger5913 used to review regularly, but she's been MIA for some time now. Galandria now reviews almost every chapter, and that makes me feel loved, but it's always good to have another regular fan. Try reading my other stuff if you have a chance.
Enough with that. It's...
"SHOWTIME!"
Chapter 18
Madness
Pyron's Encampment. Sunset.
Pyron sat, in his enormous black throne in a room no light pierced, and thought of the night before. Donovan had been slain. Incredible. Donovan had been one of the most powerful fragments he'd ever created. Of all the thousands who had submitted to Pyron's will and their own dark desires over the years, Donovan was one of the few who willingly submitted to his darkness. Most drowned in the flood tide of their own evil; Donovan drank of it, loved it. His hate had been food and drink to the insane Dhampir.
And yet, last night, a few hours before dawn, Donovan's soul had came to him, carried as ever by the imps whose sole purpose was to drag the souls of the damned back to their demon masters. Pyron had stared at Donovan, shocked. He hadn't bothered to check on Donovan's progress; he was sure the Dhampir's power would be enough. Dimitri had the Ebonrule, yes ( the right side of Pyron's face throbbed as he thought of the holy spear; Pyron had never suffered such agony before) but Donovan could drive anyone mad with hate. All Donovan had to do was infect Dimitri, and it was over. And Donovan knew that- he was not a fool.
But he had been slain. Pyron had absorbed Donovan's soul into himself, Donovan screaming all the way, and he had privately worried. How? What could possibly allow them to deny his strength? He had worked for centuries untold for this moment; he would not be undone by mere children.
But to slay them, he must see them. Pyron opened the blazing eye in his mind, closing his real eyes. And suddenly, as if he were a disembodied spirit, he saw the world in hues of black and white through a single great eye. In his mind he traveled to Moongrace, speeding over the landscape, watching the trees and grass and the last rays of the sun rush past him in a blur. He reached the castle, and gazed through the windows (he could not enter; the building had crosses upon it). Jon and Felicia were just getting up in the main hall; Dimitri and Morrigan were laying side by side down a hallway nearby. Pyron watched them, noting that Jon and Felicia were both white in his mind's eye, the color of good souls; Morrigan's soul was both white and black. She was torn between good and evil. Dimitri himself appeared gray; while holding the Ebonrule, nothing of Dimitri's character shown through, and he had the same hue as stone.
Pyron nodded, miles away, in his chair. So that's why Donovan couldn't kill them. Dimitri was impervious to magic. Pyron wondered at this, then thought of Ebonrule. Damn that spear! It must be protecting Dimitri, blocking Pyron's power! Far away, Pyron growled. How dare it make a mockery of him! He would break it under his burning heel. But how to kill Dimitri? The others were nothing to him, but that spear...
As a demon, Pyron's purpose was the damnation of souls. He could whisper in their minds, drive them mad... but which of them to infect? Which to assault? Dimitri himself was immune, so which of the others could kill him?
He laid back, closing his mind's eye, forcing himself to calm down. He concentrated on nothing, letting the answer simply flow through him as it always did. He had an instinct for evil, and it never led him wrong. Sometimes he wondered where it came from... but that was a question he never pondered long.
[ Morrigan.]
He snapped his eyes open. Morrigan. She was the key. The weakest of them. The one closest to the dark.
And in the perfect darkness, Pyron laughed.
************************************************************************
Moongrace. Half an hour later. Night.
Dimitri and Morrigan woke up, dressed, and went back to the meeting hall. Both were silent, lost in their own thoughts.
Dimitri was still trying to figure out how he was going to save the world (always a distracting thought), but was also busy thinking about the new woman in his life. Part of him also found this funny.
[ Great timing, genius,] it told him.
[ Shut up,] he told it back.
Still, he got the point. This was probably very bad timing on both their parts. Morrigan was now officially the Ruler of Makai ([Although,] Dimitri thought, [ if Pyron has his way, there won't be anything left to rule,]), and Dimitri was now the only one who knew the truth about Makai. Still, he felt the way he felt, and now he thought he understood the poets he had once ridiculed. He didn't know if love conquered all, but it was doing a fine job kicking his ass.
Morrigan, for her part, was wondering about what Dimitri had said last night. Truth... love... could it be real? Could anything be real?
Morrigan self-hate, although it had disappeared last night, came back. She heard it, a whispering, mocking-sweet voice that threatened madness, in the back of her mind and beyond conscious control. She thought something sounded wrong in that voice, something that seemed out of place... but she couldn't place her finger on it. The only thing she could think of was that it seemed louder, somehow, more there in her mind.
[ Oh, poor, poor little Morrigan. Do you honestly think Dimitri loves you? (and as if from far away, almost an echo, Morrigan heard laughter.) Pathetic little girl. Why would he love you? There's nothing to you, nothing real- just like this world! Why, everything falls through in the end, nothing holds! The same with Dimitri. Maybe he was just lonely last night. A one-night stand doesn't constitute love, girl! (more laughter, far away in her mind.)]
[ Shut up!] she screamed at it. [ Leave me alone!]
[ Oh, I will... for a little while,] it spoke back, and now Morrigan thought that it sounded deeper, somehow. Also, it seemed so LOUD...
The voice gone, Morrigan shook her head to clear it. Dimitri, lost in his own thoughts, saw but did not ask about it, nor the troubled look on her face.
If he had, he might have saved himself a great deal of trouble later, but he was too absorbed in his own problems.
Far away, Pyron laughed. Ah, yes. Things were off to a wonderful start. He was going to enjoy this. Outside the stone walls of his room, the human soldiers gathered about the camp shivered and wrapped themselves up in warm blankets. The night had suddenly gotten cold.
************************************************************************
Dimitri and Morrigan stepped into the Great Hall of Moongrace. Dimitri noted with sadness the condition of the room. It had been perfect and beautiful when he'd entered, but the subsequent fight with Donovan had wrecked a large portion of it. Half the tables on this side were broken up, and Donovan's dead corpse lay on one of them. Just looking at it gave Dimitri the shivers. His ribs still smarted. Getting thrown into stone walls was not one of Dimitri's favorite things in life. Things usually broke, and it wasn't the walls.
Jon and Felicia had finished packing up their supplies, and now Jon was going around the room, looking for things that might be useful. Noting the almost hungry way Jon was looking at things, Dimitri smiled. He hadn't been kidding about being a thief and wanting to steal; even though the masters were long gone, this had once been someone else's stuff, and Jon was more than delighted to take it. A free chance to give in to temptation and not feel bad about it.
Felicia, for her part, was watching as Jon spied a large ruby, glittering in a shield on one of the walls. Jon, his lupine mouth grinning, began trying to climb up the wall. Using his claws to dig in to any cracks in the wall, Jon clambered up and reached the shield. Latching his feet in more-or-less securely, Jon grabbed the ruby and pulled. It held fast.
Felicia, watching him with the weary air only long-time companions develop, said up to him, " Jon, you're going to get yourself killed."
Jon, busy pulling on the ruby, said back, " No I won't. Have you seen the size of this thing? I could get rich off of it!" He tugged harder.
Felicia sighed. " Don't you think that riches are the last thing we should worry about?"
Jon, stopping to pant for a minute, said, " Hey, once this is over, I plan on retiring to a nice castle somewhere. And to do that," he tugged again, grunting with effort, " I need- aah!"
Jon's tugging had resulted in him inadvertantly breaking the steel hooks that held the shield to the wall. The poor, overstrained hooks had held on as long as they could, but Jon's tugging had finally broken them. The round buckler let go of the wall, and Jon, still holding on to it, went with it. He yelped as he fell. He flipped over, and the shield hit the ground first. The shield and floor met with a clang. Jon was left sitting on it, rattled around a bit but otherwise okay. Felicia, who hadn't been very worried about him to start with, walked over to the dazed werewolf. The comical expression of surprise on Jon's face caused both Dimitri and Morrigan to forget their problems and erupt with laughter. Felicia crouched to his level, looked him in the eye, and sighed.
" You are incorrigible."
" But you love me anyway," he said, smiling.
" Yes, unfortunately I do." She shook her head, then stood up and headed back to their supplies. She grabbed some, and turning around saw Jon lugging the shield around on his back. Staring at him, she asked, " What are you doing?"
Jon, looking at her as if offended, said, " What, do you think I'm just going to leave this here?"
" Actually, yeah."
" But I want it." He put on a "puppy-dog" face; since he was a werewolf, it was amazingly effective.
" Fine, keep it. But don't you dare complain when you get tired." She turned around, and started handing packs to Dimitri and Morrigan, both of whom were still chuckling. Jon, delighted that he was going to be able to keep his new-found treasure, trundled over and began gathering packs. Hooking the shield to his back with a leather strap (another thing he'd managed to take from Moongrace), he picked up several of the little pouches that held their food and water. They left, walking out the great doors of Moongrace into the night. Dimitri turned to look back, and saw Moongrace as the full moon rose up behind it's obsidian towers. He gazed at it, silver in the moonlight, and a thought rose up, unbidden.
[ This will be my home.]
He turned, not exactly comforted by the thought (he was still rather certain he was going to die on this trip) but buoyed by it nonetheless, and followed the others. Behind him, empty again, Moongrace waited. Waited, as it had throughout the endless waltz of centuries, for life to fill it once again, as it had so long ago.
- And there you go. This is probably the last chapter till after Christmas, so wait for me till then! Merry Christmas to all of you, and may God bless you!
-Silverlocke980
This was written on December 13, 2003.