Dark seemed to jolt out of his doze. He had been catching up on some sleep after roaming museums and the night in general for the past weeks with Daisuke. Dark might be a magical being, but he did need down time.
Daisuke stumbled a little as Dark rose abruptly to the forefront, short of taking over his host body, and panic flooded through him.
:Dark: he yelled.
:Krad..: the kaitou breathed. Something's wrong!
Worry immediately replaced the annoyance Daisuke had experienced. If there was trouble with Krad, it also meant Satoshi.
:What's wrong?':
:I... don't know. Something touched the shared realm... something flooded it briefly... I think he used a larger amount of magic...:
Daisuke was running without even thinking about it. He felt another jolt and Dark gave a cry of denial.
:Yours: he just said and moved back, surrendering his body for Dark to take over.
It was painless, smooth, and they were airborne no five seconds later, midnight black wings beating the air. Daisuke was a backseat rider, feeling carefully along their connection to Dark's mind.
:Dark?': he queried.
:I don't know: the kaitou whispered. :I just don't know. Something is wrong... I can't reach him:
Which was very bad, Daisuke translated for himself. Very, very bad.
They were home not much later since Dark had been flying as if all the hounds of Hell were chasing after him. Their home lay in silence, barely any lights on, and Dark touched down on the terrace, skidding as momentum carried him forward. The wings flapped a few times, then disappeared, and Daisuke staggered a little as his symbiote separated abruptly. He fumbled for the back door keys and then Dark was running into the house. Daisuke followed.
The kitchen was a mess.
It was the first thing they noticed when entering and Daisuke stared at the ruins, stunned.
"What the..." he murmured.
Nothing had been left whole or standing. Even the kitchen fronts were slashed, burned or looked cracked. Glass and porcelain shards crunched under his feet and there were pools of liquids of all kinds everywhere.
Dark gave a little gasp and Daisuke followed his line of sight, and paled. There was blood among the debris. Larger or smaller puddles, cast-off, droplets... blood.
Blood...
"Oh my god... oh my god..." he whispered. "Satoshi!"
Daisuke rushed out of the kitchen, panic rising inside him.
"Satoshi!"
There was no one in the office or the living room, so he barreled into the bedroom and stopped. There, on the bed, curled up and with his back to the door, lay Satoshi. Blond hair spilled over his shoulders and the pillow, and there was, thankfully, no sign of blood that Daisuke could see.
"Satoshi?" he breathed, hurrying over to the bed. He fell to his knees, reaching out to touch his lover. "Sato?"
There was a soft groan, then a startled yell as Satoshi was touched, and the slender body bolted away. He collided with the wall behind the bed, eyes wide open, face ghastly pale, and panting in terror.
"Sato! It's me, Daisuke!"
Blue eyes blinked and for a moment there was no recognition, then Satoshi whispered hoarsely, "Dai?"
"Yes, it's me. It's okay. Everything's okay..."
Satoshi shook his head. "No, nothing is okay," he whispered. "Nothing."
"What happened?"
"Where is Krad?" Dark asked almost simultaneously, stepping into the room.
Satoshi visibly pulled himself together, trying for some of his old, habitual cool, but Daisuke saw through the pretense. His partner was severely shaken up.
"He... he lost it. I don't know why... He... did you see the kitchen?"
Daisuke nodded, crawling onto the bed to hold his lover, who had started to tremble.
"I woke to the noise and then his emotions... he was... aggressive... he... I'm not sure he really knew me there for a moment. It was like looking at... the Krad from before."
Satoshi tried to stop the tremors, but the memories were too vivid and he raked his fingers through his hair.
"Shit... shitshitshit. He left... He scared me to death and he left... I'm not sure where he is."
Daisuke exchanged a lost look with Dark, then the kaitou just nodded. "I'll find him," he promised softly. "And I'll find out what's going on."
Daisuke gave him a little humorless smile. "Good luck."
And then Dark was gone, leaving his host to deal with the fallout of Krad's aggression.
Daisuke stroked over his lover's body and smiled as Satoshi grew limp against him, as all the tension drained. He pressed a little kiss onto the dark blond hair.
"Want some tea?" he offered.
"The kitchen's battle field," came the wry reply.
"Still got your office coffee machine. It makes hot water."
"True."
"So?"
"Later. Right now... I just want to be here with you."
And that was all Daisuke needed to hear.
° ° °
Dark hadn't really needed to think of a place where Krad might have gone to. He had known. For some reason his blond counterpart sought out the rather depressive catacombs where the Black Wings had met its end. He had been here twice before, and twice before Dark had come after him. The whole place made the kaitou feel like he was about to be crushed, even though it was a cavernous room that had a high enough ceiling. There was no more magic left either; it was just a room. A dark, damp and depressive room.
Dark walked down the numerous stairs and found Krad sitting next to the broken seal. He was playing with shards of the stone skull. His wings weren't even out, which was a first indication as to how bad he was. Krad never dematerialized his wings if he was on the defensive; the wings gave him size.
"Hey," Dark said softly as he climbed up the altar-like contraption.
His eyes fell on the dead seal and he shuddered. He tore his gaze away, refusing to let memories of this moment flood him.
Krad didn't acknowledge his presence, just twirled the shard between his fingers.
"I'm monster," he said after a while. "A killer."
Dark's brows dipped and he felt his hackles rise.
Not again! We just had that discussion!
But the nightmare that had been Hel was still spreading its evil. Krad had been catapulted back into his past, had been forced to kill the jaded work of art, the soulless creature that had delighted in inflicting pain. This was Hel all over again, the aftermath that was ongoing.
"No, you're not," Dark only said.
Golden eyes lifted to meet his own and Dark saw nothing but despair there. Whatever had launched the destruction of the kitchen and had frightened Satoshi, it had to be connected to Hel.
"Nothing will ever heal the damage I've done. I can't blame anyone but myself. I was a tool, but I learned to like the power I had over him, Dark. I loved to torture him with the knowledge that one day... one day he would be mine alone."
Satoshi. They were talking about Satoshi.
"It's the past!" Dark insisted.
"It'll never be the past. I've to live with it forever. I'm bound to him. He can never get rid of me."
"And he doesn't want to!" the kaitou argued, not really sure what they were discussing now. Satoshi? Krad? Hel? The past? The present? Krad seemed to be jumping around, his mind flashing from A to Z to A again.
"He fears me," Krad whispered in despair. "And I need him. I feed on his soul, I inflict pain, I will always torture him. I'm his worst nightmare."
"Damnit, Krad! Stop that already, will you? If you're a monster, so am I. We both rely on their souls! I leech as much on Daisuke's as you do on Satoshi's."
Dark felt desperation wriggle into his voice, watching his lover getting swamped by his own feelings, blind and deaf to the rest of the world.
"Krad, you can't overcome what you did, but you can learn to live with it. I know I said so before and I will say so again! We're neither angels nor demons. Okay, so we are demons in a way, but... neither one of us is solely good or evil. I hurt Daisuke as much as you did Satoshi, just in a different way. Will you... oh for goodness sake!"
The kaitou snarled in frustration as Krad continued to ignore him and grabbed his lover's arms. Krad was too surprised to react when he was slammed onto the ground for a second, then he hissed at him, feline eyes glowing with something near madness.
Straddling the furious blond, Dark shuddered. Yes, he could understand Satoshi -- this Krad was nearly the demon that had tried to kill him. Dark cursed inwardly -- and crushed their lips together in a mind blowing kiss, feeling the body grow rigid under his fingers.
For a second Dark feared Krad would fight him off -- but then the tension slowly left the other man, the body started to melt against his as his lover recognized him, responded to the kiss hesitantly. Dark sighed in relief and pulled back a little, giving them both a little breathing space.
"Dark?"
"Yes."
"Get off?" Krad requested softly.
He did so, sliding off the slender form. Krad sat up, rubbing dusty hands on his jeans.
"Krad? Love?" Dark prodded gently. "What happened? What's wrong? Why did you destroy the kitchen?"
"Dark, I... oh gods..." Krad stammered, suddenly losing all color as if he just now remembered the whole incident.
Dark touched him gently, pulled him close. "I'm here, everything is all right."
"I'm a killer... I... how could I let that happen? How could I've been that stupid... that naïve... Sato... I would have killed him... and myself..."
Oh not again...
Dark almost rolled his eyes. He thought he knew what Krad was referring to, and he knew they had to talk that over once more, but right now his lover was threatened to be overwhelmed by his depression -- so not good. These wounds would take long to heal. Again and again they were opened, by a memory, by a word, by a gesture, by art work tearing into their souls and trying to kill them.
Dark shuddered at the memory of Hel. She had been one crazy piece of work.
"Maybe I shouldn't be here... maybe he should've just killed me... I was insane... obsessed... cruel..."
Dark shivered at the lost tone of voice. "Krad, no... No, you weren't. And killing one of us would kill us all."
"That was the plan..."
The blond wasn't making any sense. Who had wanted to kill them? Hel? Sure, she had wanted to feed on Dark's pain, kill him after she was done or had grown tired of him. That had been her plan. But Krad was saying 'he', not 'she'. Maybe...
Dark felt his blood run cold.
tbc...