A/N: Hey, guys. Been a while, huh?
Ed: Snooooooooorrreee...
Roy: ... (pokes Ed's face)
Ed: Snort...what? What'd I missed?
Link: Absolutely nothing.
Ed: Well, that's boring!
Yeah, I found a website to post up my art, so I've been busy with that. Plus, I've been playing Fire Emblem a lot!
Eliwood: -.-; Of course.
FME: FE is awesome! (snuggles Eli)
Eliwood: GACK!
HEY! ...Ah, you can have him for this chappie only.
FME: YAY!
Eliwood: Help... me...
Roy: XD
Okay, chappie time!
Dragon Blood: Chapter 5: Final Test
The battle between Roy and Vanuto was practically the only thing that was discussed at the different dinner tables. But unlike usually, the rookie was not the subject on hand.
"I wonder how Roy was able to summon a great inferno like that..."
"And here I thought it was his sword that did all the pyrotechnics!"
"Huh... He must've always had that power, but only used it with his sword..." Fox mused. "It must've lost it sustenance when it traveled through the alloy, buffer-like fibers of the blade, therefore lowering the initial surge of the flames."
"Say what now?"
He sweatdropped. "Never mind."
When dinner was done, the three swordsmen found themselves in the dorm hallways, coming up to Roy's door as he yawned tiredly.
"Oh, man, I'm beat," he groaned, hand gripping the doorknob.
"Gee, wonder why," Link grinned, getting a playful scowl in return.
"If you're tired, go ahead and rest, Roy," Marth assured. "We'll leave you be."
"Alright." He yawned again. "See you guys in the morning." He entered his room and closed the door behind him to welcome slumber.
The blonde and cobalt slowly strolled down the halls, Link idly looking around and Marth staring at the floor in thought. The Hylian's gaze soon fell on the Alteanian, a grin coming to his face. "...That was incredible, wasn't it?"
"Yeah..." Marth replied unenthusiastically.
Link's face fell. "What's the matter?"
"Ah, nothing, I'm just thinking..." He sighed. "I never knew Roy to unleash that much power... I mean, we all used to think his sword flame attacks were strong, but after seeing that..."
"Yeah... But then again, it might've been a reaction to his outburst..."
"True... And Vanuto... It was like he was trying to reveal that power, taking his sword and egging him on... It's almost as if he knew..."
Link didn't respond to this.
"And the connection between the fires and Vanuto's association with dragons isn't just coincidence..."
"Dragons...?" The elf considered this, and his eyes widened. "You don't think..."
"Maybe... But this is just me assuming things... Oh, I don't know..." He brought a hand to his forehead. "My brain hurts..."
Link smiled. "Hey, how 'bout we head to my dorm and play some Soul Caliber 2? That usually clears your mind up."
"Sure." Marth smiled in gratitude of his Hylian friend's generosity, even though he wasn't so sure he could be so easily distracted this time. He couldn't help but worry for Roy's safety, especially with a shady Vanuto on the prowl. But maybe he was worrying too much. Roy wasn't afraid of the sorcerer anymore, so why should Marth? But that nagging feeling was still there and wouldn't go away.
If Vanuto tries anything, heads will roll.
----------
Yet he was doing just that.
All other evidence had proved his assumptions correct, but he still needed to make sure. He had come too far to fall to error. This last test would prove it for good. But he needed a sample.
The door to Roy's dorm opened slowly and creakily, exposing the darkness to the light of the hallways. Vanuto entered and closed the door behind him quickly but carefully, then shook his staff slightly, and the gem gave off a slow glow like a torch. He glanced at the bed, and sure enough, there was Roy, sound asleep, rolled on his side and accompanied by a slight snore. Most of his body was covered by the warm blankets, but a white tank top exposed his bare arms, his left hand grasping the covers close. He slept peacefully, unaware of the potential danger he was in.
Vanuto leaned the staff against the wall, then reached down and pulled out a concealed dagger from a hidden sheath within his huge-cuffed boot. He held it tightly in his hand as he approached the bedside, holding the weapon as he prepared to strike...
But he froze as Roy stirred, mumbling something under his breath as he turned over onto his left side, facing Vanuto, with his right arm now exposed. He let out a sleepy sigh, then fell silent.
Vanuto sneered in annoyance, but continued with his plan. He took his blade and slashed a large gash into his lower arm. Roy cried out in pain, but Vanuto quickly placed his free hand on the youth's forehead, and with this magic touch, Roy fell back asleep.
The sorcerer trained his attention on the bloody gash, the red nectar dripping gently onto the blankets. Vanuto put the dagger away and reached into his tunic to produce a clear vial, popping it open. He then took two fingers and dabbed into the fresh wound, caressing muscle tissue to draw what he desired. He held the drenched fingertips above the vial and allowed the crimson fluid to drip into the container. He quickly closed it up and snatched his staff, leaving Roy to bleed in his peaceful slumber. He had what he needed.
----------
All he had to do was wait.
And he did so for hours, allowing the blood to soak in the multiple chemical indicators he had added. After that was done, he waited even longer for the dense substance to boil and produce the results. In the late hours of the night, he sat there reading one of his many dragonology books as the flask containing the liquid bubbled and boiled above a mild flame.
At last there came a tiny pop that drew his attention up from the text. Tossing it aside, he hopped to his feet and eyed the burning flask tensely. Come on...
It fizzled. It sparked.
...It turned green.
Vanuto couldn't help it as a wide grin came to his face. Green! It was green! His suspicions were correct! Roy was the person with the very special blood, now he knew it for sure. And he even had his gifts cultivated! Vanuto smirked. Now he just had to take what was his.
----------
Marth awoke to the morning drearily, tired eyes of azure glancing across the carpeted ground where he slept. His hand had been limply grasping a Gamecube controller, and he realized what happened.
Man... I fell asleep in front of a video game? How uncool...
Yet he noticed the console and TV had been turned off, and a blanket was spread out over him. The prince smiled to himself as he sat up and spied the tranquil figure of the Hero of Time resting in his bed. He could've woken up Marth whenever he had fallen asleep and kicked him out of his private dorm, but the elf wasn't the sort of person to do that. That's one thing he liked about Link: despite his flamboyant nature, he always had a benevolent side of him to offer whenever he could to help.
But according to the sun, it was time to awaken. He climbed onto the bed and glanced over Link, his hat missing as his long hair curled over his shoulders. His face looked so tranquil...
Too bad. Marth shook him awake. "Wakey, wakey, sleeping beauty."
Link groaned in protest, yet gently opened his eyes of ocean blue to look up at his friend groggily. "Mmm," he mumbled a greeting.
Marth nodded in acknowledgement. "Thanks for the free lodgings."
Link gave him a tired, yet knowing smile. "...You owe me breakfast."
Both lightly laughed as Link heaved himself into a sitting position, stretching and yawning to the extreme n sheer fatigue.
Marth cocked his head. "Hey, you alright? You don't look so hot."
A snort came from the elf as he contained his laughter. "Neither do you."
That was most likely the case. As Marth had settled in last night, he remembered removing his tiara and misplacing it somewhere. His sapphire locks were probably in a huge mess right now. Oh well, it's not like he was worried about his appearance when it was only Link.
"Well, bad looks aside, you look kinda tired."
"Yeah..." Link yawned again. "Took me a while to get to sleep... I was thinking..."
"Oh my god. The moral fibers of reality have been breeched! You actually had a thought!"
"Shut up!" The two laughed in a good-natured way, then he continued. "Seriously, though, I was thinking about what you said last night, and..."
"And...?"
Link grinned sheepishly. "...I dunno, I fell asleep while I was thinking."
Marth broke into laughter. "Why does that not surprise me?"
The elf laughed as well. "Hehe... I'm funny, aren't I?"
"Funny looking." More laughing between the two.
They would've gone on to insult each other some more, but something made their friendly quarrel stop short. It was a terrible scream, one of surprise and horror, from just a few doors down. The blonde and cobalt straightened up tensely.
"...My Goddesses, that sounds like Roy!" Link shot up from his bed and on his feet, and Marth followed him as he sprinted through the hallway to find their distressed friend. They threw his dorm door open to glance inside hastily.
There was Roy (who had apparently just woken up, due to his more-than-usual sloppy hair), sitting upon his bed, body shivering while sweat dripped off his face, frozen with horror. His eyes were glued to his right arm, coated with dry blood leaving their mark from the huge wound. Even the bed sheets where his arm had rested were drenched in the crimson fluid.
At the sound of the door, Roy's eyes of crystal blue glanced at them, silently begging for help. It was obvious he did not know what had caused the open wound.
Marth left to retrieve medical assistance. He ran down the halls, fueled by both worry and anger. He knew who must've done this, and after Roy was taken care of, that damn sorcerer was going to pay in spades.
---------
"Huh, that's weird..."
"I know..." Roy frowned down at his bandaged arm, sitting upon his bed (without his sheet, they were being cleaned). "I have no idea how it happened..."
Marth snorted from his tense spot on the floor, arms crossed. "Betcha I can guess who."
"Hey, Marth, we can't just point fingers," Link stated, his better judgment ruling out. "We need proof first!"
"And how the hell are we supposed to get proof? He was attacked in the middle of the night!"
Link thought about this for a moment, then stood from his chair and approached a puzzled Roy. "Can I look at your wound for a sec, Roy?"
The Pherean blinked. "Uh, sure..." He glanced at his bedside clock. "I gotta change my bandages anyway." With that, he unwrapped the adhesive bandages with an audible stretching noise. Soon enough, the sensitive injury was exposed to the harmful elements in the air. "Hurry up, I gotta replace them before it gets infected."
Link's angular eyes analyzed the gash carefully, grasping Roy's wrist to take a close look. He opened it carefully with his thumb and index finger, to which Roy winced, but did not protest. The elf studied the broken tissues, noting extreme details, as well as the obvious.
"Well..." he started. "It's a thin cut, but it's not proportionally deep as well..."
"...So?" Roy wondered what that meant.
"A very rare impression, made by a very rare handheld blade," he stated confidently, withdrawing his hands. "A Series 8 Dagger, nothing less."
"So what does that prove?" asked Marth, becoming annoyed.
"Well, it had to be a Smasher, since the Mansion locks up pretty tightly at night." He hesitated. "...Also, I... looked through the different Smasher registrations..."
"Whoa, hold the phone," Marth interrupted, his brows furrowed. "You're telling us you hacked into the main system computer records?"
"Well...!... yeah... But I was just looking! I didn't mess with anything!"
Marth groaned, but decided not to lecture Link on the policies of social security and respect, so the subject was dropped.
"Keep going," Roy nonchalantly spoke, using a new roll of bandages to wrap up his arm.
"Well, you know how we had to register all our weapons, for technical and safety purposes?" They nodded. "Well, guess who's got a Series 8 knife?" He didn't have to tell them who.
Roy froze in mid-action, his eyes widening a little. Marth fell deeper into his agitated position, a scowl crossing his face. "Damn Vanuto..." he growled. "Now he's trying to kill you..."
"Not necessarily," Link butted in. "I also noticed there were some wipe marks around his muscle tissues."
Roy tensed, his sapphire orbs now trained on the Hylian, a look of fear written all over his face. "Which means...?"
"For some reason, Vanuto was trying to extract your blood."
Silence filled the dorm as Roy grimaced and clutched his arm. "But...why...?"
"God only knows, Roy..." Marth growled, and he would've continued on with his angry and less than proper rants, but then the door opened all of the sudden, and all three turned their attention that way to find Vanuto standing in the doorway calmly.
"Greetings," he greeted as if nothing fishy was going on. "I came to speak with Roy alone, if you two wouldn't mind..."
"You!" Marth shot up from his spot, his fists clenched tightly as he glared dangerously at the sorcerer. "Like hell we'll let you be alone with Roy after what you did to him!"
Vanuto blinked. "Whatever do you mean?" he asked innocently.
"Don't play stupid!" Marth hollered, restraining himself from slugging the smug mage square in the face.
"There's a wound that matches your knife on his arm," Link clarified, not as enraged as Marth, but there was clearly a distrusting leer in his eyes and a deep, incensed tone of voice. "And you're the only one who could've had a motive for doing it."
At this, the surprised look on Vanuto's face melted and became a somewhat small smirk. "Oh, that. So, you figured it out. I was planning to go ahead and tell Roy about it, but it seems you beat me to the punch. I guess I underestimated your intelligence."
"You son of a...!" Marth growled, the could not restrain himself any longer and swung a fist, only to have his wrist caught by Link. "Leggo!"
"Marth, cut it out! You don't know what magic he can use to blow you to pieces!" The furious prince struggled and almost got away, but Link held him back tighter, surprised at how aggressive Marth had suddenly become. Marth never got this mad. Ever.
Vanuto, however, was totally unfazed by the cobalt's outburst, pushing past them as if he had a right to be in Roy's dorm and they didn't. As he got closer and closer to Roy, the redhead slightly trembled as the fear began to rise again. But he hid it behind a scowl. "What do you want?"
"Relax, Roy," Vanuto sighed exasperatedly. "I just wish to talk, that's all. Meet me on the roof in a few minutes. Come alone and unarmed."
Roy flinched, but the glare instantly returned. "And why should I?"
"Because then I'll be able to explain everything to you. Everything- the suspicions, your powers with flame, the wound- all will be told if you're willing to listen." And without even letting Roy respond to this, Vanuto left the dorm to meet him there.
And once again, Roy was left aghast and suddenly afraid, still sitting upon his bed. He didn't even notice his two friends still struggling over each other.
"Let me go!" Marth hollered. "Just give me two minutes with the twerp, I'll kick his...!" His anger fizzled away the moment his eyes found Roy, the young Pherean trembling slightly like a child left out in the cold. As the prince immediately stopped his struggles, he realized how stupid he was to get so outraged when it would do nothing to help his friend in need.
Once Link knew his elder friend had cooled his jets, the blonde elf released his grip on Marth as the cobalt moved back to Roy's side. Link, though still surprised by Marth's outburst, decided to let the matter go and moved to Roy's other side.
"...Roy?" Marth asked softly, unable to see his face fully, for his mess of maroon locks drooped over his eyes. "You okay...?"
It was some time before Roy made any type of response, but the two gave him as much time as he needed. Finally, the redhead dragged his head up to glance upon his friends with that same troubled, fearful look... and yet, he looked a bit uncertain as well, and needed guidance. "...S-should I go...?" he asked in a tiny voice.
"Well..." Marth didn't quite know the answer to that. Is first thought was no, absolutely not, who knows what he's planning to do to you... But then again, this could've been the one and only chance they had to learn the truth behind the damn sorcerer.
"Of course you should!" Link suddenly piped up, surprising both humans. "Go ahead unarmed. We'll cover you."
Marth gave Link an incredulous stare, but it faded when the sly fey gave him a subtle wink. The Alteanian thought, then understood what the Hylian meant, giving him a nod. Roy wasn't facing this freak alone after all.
A/N: Finally! Stupid chapter and its longness!
Link: Not a word.
Ed: And what makes you think she gives a rat's ass whether it's a real word or not?
Link: Dunno. (sounds the alarm)
(kills it) NO THERE WAS NO LINK/MARTH PAIRING! STOP IT!
Link: 8D
Thery're just really good friends, sheesh! And I feel Marth in real life wouldn't care so damn much about his hair like everyone says. Urgh, I HATE it when people decipher him as a sissy-wuss!
Roy: Yeah, I probably wouldn't be his friend if he was a sissy-wuss.
FME: (getting laptime with Eli) Me neither. Marth's a cool guy.
Eliwood: Um... Any chance of you getting off me?
FME: NO:)
Eliwood: No... ;o;
XD Review, please!