Yep. Another update. I also have to admit that last chapter was a little lacking on my part. Lately I've been hampered in EVERYTHING by a headache that refuses to leave. I'm going to try to make this chapter more up to my usual performance, headache or no headache.
-Divide-
Tears of Pain
The clawed hand reached slowly to Rose, still unconscious, still unaware of the living world. A talon ran gently along her cheek, so the claw wouldn't cut her. Jake sighed sadly.
"Rose...Why did that maniac have to drag you into this?"
Jake felt tears form in his eyes, and cried softly. He couldn't help worry, afraid he might lose her. He felt this before, also due to Victor. Then, he was afraid Rose would reject him because he was a dragon. She hadn't, and that helped them grow closer, but this...
"Victor...there's no holding back this time."
"I didn't expect you to."
Jake growled, turning to the window he had come in from. His growl changed into a confused expression. It sounded like Victor, but something was different. For one, he had a shroud around him, which was blowing gently in the draft from the window. The shroud obscured his form from Jake.
"What the..."
Victor remained silent for the moment, watching Jake. Jake recovered from the odd feeling, then narrowed his eyes.
"I'm not letting you hurt Rose!"
"Bah, the only reason I've come was the fact I predicted your concern for her. It's wasted right now you know."
"How dare you say that?"
Victor sighed, gliding over to the side of Rose's bed. Jake was furious, and this close to frying Victor with his breath, except that would also fry Rose...
"Despite what you're likely thinking, I have honor. I'd get no satisfaction in enacting vengeance as she is. I'll wait for her time...yours, however..."
"Like I'll let you have a chance at her. I wish you'd died like I thought you did before..."
"As I wish I'd crushed you, as I did come close to death. The armor took the brunt of the landing."
"What are you up to this time? I got that robot of yours to talk about-"
"Your accent."
"Huh?" Jake exclaimed, both caught off guard, and confused, "What about it?"
"It's gone. I just noticed that. It also proves to me you're more pathetic than I thought."
Jake growled in annoyance.
"You intentionally speak that way to try to fit into the community here, don't you? To seek acceptance. Have you no pride in your history?"
Jake stepped back, still somewhat tense. Now he was having trouble retaining his hate of Victor, despite the fact he was insulting him.
"Whoa, what are you talking about, of course I do!"
"Then why are you hiding your heritage from others? Are you ashamed of it?"
"NO!"
"Then stop being a coward and stop hiding who you really are behind a shroud."
"You first, G."
Victor growled in annoyance at Jake using his accent again. A growl Jake recognized all too easily...
"Whoa, you're the look-alike?"
Victor growled again, pulling the hood of the shroud back, revealing he, indeed, was the metallic Jake double. However, he still retained his scar on the side of his face, and his mane-like area was brown.
"What kind of whacked plan is that? Whose the one ditching their heritage now?"
"Shut up! No matter what I did, my culture was doomed to extinction! You have NO right to criticize me for this, doubly so since this wasn't the intended outcome!"
"I dunno, it made you less ugly..."
"Grrr, for your information, from your blood I found a particular trait you shouldn't hide. Your family apparently has quite a gift that goes down it's tree."
"Huh?"
"My studies have before found that as with the physical nature of living creatures, the magical essence too is hereditary. You must have noticed too, how among dragons, different elemental affinities emerged. What's relevant is the gene for the potential of magic. Yours."
"What's that got to do with you looking like me?"
"I've spent a great deal of effort to learn about the history of dragons. Do you know why it is, that the Dark Dragon fears you and your grandfather?"
Jake was silent. This was getting strange fast. Victor turned away from Jake, looking out the window, head raised to look to the sky.
"The link between you and the fabric of magical existence itself is extraordinary. The gene in your DNA that dictates your limits for the use of magic can be considered the pinnacle of evolution."
"You're saying.."
"You haven't awakened to that potential yet, but you are the most powerful entity on the planet...however..."
Victor faced Jake again, throwing back the shroud wrapping him, revealing his body. It was a bizarre fusion of living matter and metal, looking like a creature composed of metal. Victor lacked a tail or wings, but his body was otherwise much like Jake's.
"To use that against you, I used gene therapy to place that gene in myself."
"Heh, well, looks like your science project got away from you.."
Victor growled, pulling the shroud back around himself.
"It hurts you know...the fact I've been wrapped from my bloodline. I was the last of my kind, but I intended to impact history, so when the last of us vanished, we would not be forgotten...only now...bah, I can still have that. With the aid of Panderas, a ritual will be conducted to reign control over the power."
Now Jake was beginning to understand what was happening. Also Victor's motives more. Jake knew he'd have been pretty angry if he lost his parents to murder too...
"So you can't control the power you took, huh? Sounds like you all right. You think you're high and mighty, but this ought to knock you off your high chair."
Victor was angry for a moment, then calmed, and headed to the window.
"Say what you will. When the ritual is finished, I'll have my body back, as well as more than enough power to eradicate you. You might have the potential for this power too, but you haven't learned how to access it yet, and you never will when I'm through with you."
Jake headed at Victor, too late, as he leapt out the window. Jake watched him as Victor glowed brightly, then blasted off, riding alongside a lightning bolt, off into the city...
"...Okay, that's not a good sign..."
"Uuuuhhh...Jake..."
"Rose?"
Jake turned to face Rose. She was having a restless sleep, but was still not awake yet. Jake nodded to himself, then left, to find and put an end to Victor's madness...once, and for all...
-Divide-
"Why should I help with this ritual?"
Panderas was trying to stand up against Victor, having some magic ready to fight with. Victor stared him down, eyes sparking off lightning...
"If you don't, I'll experiment with using my electrical control to make every single nerve in your body cause you horrendous agony...I am not in any mood to tolerate a hindrance to returning back to my original heritage..."
"...Right, I'll start my part of the spell whenever you're ready..." Panderas stuttered, backing down, and holding his wound from before.
Victor then strode towards the center of a large spell seal on top of a large skyscraper. The same one he fought Jake on before...
"This is a pretty horrid choice of locations..." Panderas pointed out.
"I want him to find me...by the time he does, I should be more than capable of destroying him..."
"Oh...right...can I hear the reason I should help you-"
Panderas then got an answer in the form of a lightning blast striking the ground next to him, and a sparking arm aimed in his direction.
"Never mind..."
Victor growled, then returned to what he was thinking about before. The icy darkness, within a deep forest...The night his father was condemned unjustly...the night superstitious and prejudice men destroyed the last of his family. His father was the only part of his family he knew for even a brief period. He never even knew his mother...She had been shot down by a soldier...humanity...how much he hated it...felt like a burning rage in his chest. A physical pain, tightness, tension...he pondered keeping the form he had now...to abandon humanity in earnest. It was tempting, and he wouldn't be alone anymore...
'...No. I cannot...My history, my body, my life as a human being, are all I have of my mother's memory. I will not forsake that...and I will not forgive him, for stopping me from knowing her...'
Victor closed his eyes, a tear coming from them.
"Panderas...start the ritual...I have personal demons to bury."