Chapter Six: The Black Monster
"Oh gods, she's alive."
"She doesn't look it. I'll go get more salve."
She groaned. Everything hurt. –Am I finally dead?- She opened her eyes a slit and looked. Darius was kneeling next to her bedside. "Oh great, I'm stuck in hell with you for all eternity?" She muttered, sitting up, scowling at the pain that protested.
"Nope. You're stuck with me, but you're not in hell yet." Darius smiled widely, and before she knew it, he was hugging her tightly. She tensed, her eyes widening. But his embrace felt so soft. "Gods, you looked dead when we found you."
"Actually, Darius found you." Kristoff corrected. "How's your head?"
"As good as it can get under the circumstances." She replied. This was the nicest that Kristoff had ever been to her.
"I'll grab an ice pack." He disappeared out the door and she was left with Darius, who would be honest with her. He smiled again, and she thought his grin would split his face. But he seemed so sincerely joyous to see her well, and it was impossible not to smile back. But then she remembered what happened and her smile quickly faded. She grabbed his shirtfront, pulling him off his knees and up to her face. It was reflex, to be menacing when she was agitated.
"Quick, tell me, did they see anything?" She hissed.
"No. They saw shadows but you were flying too fast for them to even suspect anything. However, I found you, and you were…not Human. You were wearing the strangest armor, and you had wings. Your sword was a few feet away from you, and I made sure to put it back in your sheath. I knew how upset you would be if you didn't have your sword. But the wings…they weren't fake or props. They were seriously attached. I could actually see them coming out of your shoulder blades."
"My Dragoon form." She groaned. "So you saw."
"Just me. And I won't tell anyone." He promised. "The moment I tried to pick you up, your body started to shimmer and the armor and wings disappeared. By the time I got back, it just looked like you got caught in the recoil. That's what I told my brother and sister. The villagers think you're crazy for what you did to the Dragon, so I suggest that you don't go outside."
"I won't." She muttered again. "Michael?"
Darius shook his head. "Nope. Couldn't find him anywhere."
"Damn it to the nine hells and back." Rose snarled, downing the water that he gave her. She would have preferred something stronger.
"Rose…"
She glared at him. "What?"
"Nothing." He quickly said.
She slid her legs out of bed. "I need to go for a walk. Don't stop me, and don't follow me."
o
The boulder exploded.
The power moving from her hand blasted the boulder into thousands of little pebbles that scattered hollowly across the clearing.
She screamed out her anger, howls of animal rage.
-He fired the black laser at me! Me!-
She felt anger, fury, pain, sadness, betrayal. Michael was her only friend and he tried to kill her! Her only link to the past and he tried to destroy her! She didn't know what to do with the sadness welling up in her, so she converted it to anger and let it out with Dragoon magic.
-Michael, how could you? I'm your friend!- She frowned deeper. -I trusted you with my life and my loyalty and my friendship and this is what I get in return? Why did you let your bloodlust take control of you?-
She screamed again, lashing out with her powerful legs at non-physical demons that she could never possible hit.
-Screw self-control- She thought, and let out her anger. She tossed aside all the barriers of self-control she had built up to keep the demon under control. The energy came out like a dam breaking apart and all the water just pouring out forcefully.
Black energy, like Michael's, but stronger. Black smoke crawling up and down her arms and legs, streaming across her torso and enveloping her face. She breathed it in and sighed. Respiration would have nothing to do with it. It wasn't a physical thing. It covered her externally and internally until she was nothing more than a hovering black mist of raw sheer power.
The Black Monster.
With the limitless energy flowing around her as she drained on Spirit, the Black Monster took over her mind, shooting black fire around her to let out anger. Even Michael would be terrified, that's how powerful it was. Compelling too. It demanded to be in control. Every 108 years she called on it, but she had always managed to keep it under control. She never called on it unless she needed to, like to kill the Moon Child. And now she was calling it to let out anger? What the hell was wrong with her?
The Black Monster took control, pushing her out of the consciousness. It thrust its "arms" open wide and tilted its "face" up to the sky. The black mist poured off it, and everything it touched seemed to be covered in a dark karma, as if a shadow was resting on it. It continued letting off anger as it compressed its hate into a solid thing and fired it, destroying more of the scenery. No trees fell over. Instead, they vaporized.
A small part of her was still in control, but hiding away. –Leave it. I want to rest- It shrunk into a tiny little sphere and hid in the furthest part of consciousness, where it stayed and cowered, trying to cry or scream or sob or anything. This was the essential Rose. Rose, the Dragoon. Rose, the Human female. Rose, the lost little girl who had lost her fiancé and is losing her only friend.
And that part of her suddenly snapped into full consciousness as the Black Monster registered something living.
Rose valued life. Though she killed often, she valued life and never took it without good reason. For the Moon Child, it was to save the world. For the villagers, it was to save them from becoming slaves of the divine evil. For monsters it was to feed or defend herself. She thought of life as a precious treasure because she had seen too much death and she decided that life was definitely better.
She forced her way into control, pushing through the clouded darkness of the Black Monster's mind so that she could see through its eyes. It pushed back, and the clouds became a dense heavy solid thing so that she couldn't get through.
-It's my mind. Give it back.- She thought furiously.
Forming her thoughts together, she shoved again. It bent, like rubber, but didn't give. This time she materialized a mental knife with her mind and jabbed out. The Black Monster howled in psychic pain and recoiled. Rose took this opportunity to shove her way into full consciousness and control, regaining the power to her own body and will. The Black Monster retreated into the deepest part of her unconsciousness, where it would be if she let it out again. And she knew that she would.
The black mist disappeared, gliding effortlessly back to her body, which soaked it up and regained its beautiful human form. Rose stretched, getting used to being back into a confined shape. But her eyes focused and she noticed the living thing that the Black Monster would have destroyed.
The living thing that was now staring at her out of shocked amber eyes.
Darius.