Thank you for all the reviews last chapter!
As I said last time, I am taking a few chapters to slow down and explain things a little more. I forgot to add a few things earlier so that's why everything was going too fast, but oh well...I'm going to fix it.
I'm saying this again because someone...as always...didn't read my notes last chapter.
So anyway...I'm not sure how this chapter will turn out. It was one of the first chapters I wrote when I started this fic...
Here's the next chapter...enjoy if possible!
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Chapter 6 - Dreams of the Past
"What are we going to do!" Kenny wailed hopelessly. "We don't know anything about this!"
The three teens had managed to drag the wounded phoenix inside and laid him down on a futon on his stomach.
Kai continued to hiss in pain, his wings twitching wildly as if he were trying to fly away.
Hilary ran her fingers through his hair, hoping to calm him down. "He'll heal himself...so we just have to wait. It looks like a pretty nasty wound though...so it will probably take some time..." Suddenly, she grabbed her heart in apparent pain.
"Hilary!" Tyson and Kenny rushed to her side.
"Are you sure you weren't hurt?"
"I'm fine...it's just...he's having some sort of nightmare...I...I can feel his pain, his anger, and his fright!"
Everyone's eyes turned on the unconscious phoenix, whose claws were digging their way through a pillow.
His brow was knotted and his eyes clenched shut as tight as possible.
"Kai..." Hilary whispered, placed her hand on his. "It's alright...I'm here with you..."
:
"Lady Keira!"
A young woman walked outside, her long blue hair flowing in the wind behind her. She looked around for who had called her, and found her answer in the sky.
A large man with bulging muscles floated down onto the ground gracefully, a small bundle of crimson feathers in his arms.
"What happened to him?" Keira demanded, taking the small form out of his arms.
"I found him just outside the city walls. I think he was trying to fly out into the human world."
Keira sighed. "Thank you Cyrus."
The man bowed. "My pleasure my lady." With that, he flew back off.
She carried the small child inside and set him on a bed.
"Owww!" The boy cried out in pain as Keira forced his crimson wings to spread out.
"My son..." The woman sighed. "You must stop this! This is the fifth time this week! Why do you keep this up!"
"I want to go outside of the village!"
"To where the humans live!"
"Yeah!" A smile came to the boy's face. "I want to know what they act like!"
Keira sighed. "How many times do I have to tell you...you shouldn't fly! You're too young!"
"But why can't I!" The young phoenix demanded. "Why can't I fly like everyone else!"
"You have to realize...that..."
"That I'm blind? Yeah...I'm sure I already knew that..." Crimson eyes narrowed at his mother.
"You'll be able to fly once you get more used to your surroundings here..."
The boy sighed. "Yeah right...I'm going to be an outcast for the rest of my life!"
"You have something special inside of you! You have a great power...and power from the great god Dranzer!"
"If I'm so great...why does everyone treat me weird?"
"Heh..." Keira smiled sadly and ruffled her son's blue hair. "What are you talking about?"
The child glared in his mother's direction. "I know they look at me weird...everyone acts different around me..." His gaze dropped to the floor. "And since you won't let me fly..."
His mother started to reply, but was cut off by a shrill cry outside.
"Humans!"
"Quick! Hide the boy!" A man ran in, a look of panic on his face.
The young boy soon found himself being rushed into a small room hidden beneath the floor boards.
"What's going on?" He asked, confused.
"It's alright my son...don't come out of here until I come to get you...alright?"
He nodded slowly, still not understanding why he had to hide, but obeyed nonetheless.
He heard his mother rush out of the house and join a couple others from the village.
"What are you doing here!" Someone in the small crowd demanded as the humans stopped in front of them.
"Where is he?" One of the men demanded.
"How dare you come to our land and demand things of us!" One of the phoenixes growled.
"Leave now!" Keira's voice came from behind the crowd.
The crowd parted slightly, and a young woman walked forward.
"Ah...so you are the legendary queen of the phoenix tribe." One of the men started.
"Humans are no longer welcome here. Leave now before we are forced to remove you."
"I would say you're in no position to do anything with us." With that, the second man drew a strange looking weapon, causing the phoenixes to gasp and retreat a few steps. It was similar to a normal gun, but something was definitely strange about it, and the phoenixs could sense it.
Keira only glared.
"Now...give us the boy."
"What boy?"
"Don't play stupid woman! There is only one phoenix every thousand years that is born with the power of Dranzer...and this phoenix is here among you!" The elder man roared.
Keira growled. "What would a human know of our god Dranzer?"
"We know plenty!" The second man butted in. He had purple hair with a large nose and appeared to be at least ten years younger than his companion. "Every thousand years, a phoenix is born with the power of Dranzer...but this power comes with one great price...I think you know what I mean."
The woman's feathers ruffled in anger.
"Shame isn't it?" The older man started. "Just think what such a power could be like...if only the user could see!"
"GET OUT!" With a flick of her wrist, Keira sent a golden fireball toward the two humans, causing them to jump out of the way.
"You little..." The purple haired man re-aimed his weapon and fired.
"Lady Keira!" Cyrus threw himself in front of the woman, taking the hit.
With a loud grunt, he sunk down to his knees in pain.
"Cyrus!" Everyone gasped at the power of this strange weapon.
A golden bullet had hit Cyrus in the back of the neck, and he could feel his life fading quickly.
"Be careful...my lady...they could defeat us all!" With that, Cyrus disintegrated into a cloud of ash.
"What did you do to him?" Keira yelled, tears in her eyes.
"This is something I whipped up to get what I want..." The man replied, smirking as he blew the smoke from the end of the gun. "What you don't realize is that if you are hit with anything containing a magical power, you will perish!"
"Did you hear that? If you don't show yourself, you'll have the blood of your people on your hands!" The older man yelled into the wind, hoping to drag out his target.
Something caught Keira's eye inside the open house. The floor board that her son was hiding under was quivering slightly, as though he was trying to come out.
She hissed in an attempt to stop him, but the man heard her.
"Heh heh...so...trying to protect your child, aren't you?"
With a growl, the blue haired woman lashed her claws at the man, only to be back handed with the butt of the gun and pinned to the ground, her wings flapping wildly.
The others prepared to attack, but were stopped when the purple haired man held the gun to the back of her neck.
"Back off now or your queen will become ash!"
That was enough to stop the small crowd as the older man poked around the floor boards of the house.
Suddenly, he found what he was looking for.
With a sickening laugh, he kicked open the loose floor board and reached in to pull out a struggling young phoenix.
"Please! Spare him!" Keira cried out.
The young crimson phoenix didn't like the panic in his mother's voice...but he couldn't figure out was going on.
"Well well well...who knew that such a young child could have such a strong power!"
The blue haired boy growled, showing his pearly white fangs. "Release me!"
He managed to squirm around enough to sink his fangs into the man's hand, blood quickly seeping out.
"AHHH!" The man recoiled in pain, dropping him onto the ground.
But before the young phoenix could run, the man had grabbed him again, this time with a small knife in his hand.
Kai suddenly felt the cold steel in his arm, cutting through his flesh.
"You monster! He's just a child!" Keira called from outside, still fighting the other man's dead weight.
"This is exactly what I've been waiting for!" The older man smirked, his hand dripping with blood.
The phoenix hissed, the crimson feathers on his wings ruffling and glowing with ember.
"Come here!" The man seized the boy's injured arm with his bloody hand and lifted him into the air. "Finally! I'll control the greatest power in the universe!"
A glowing aura appeared around the two.
"I, Voltaire Hiwatari claim this power as mine!"
"No!" Keira's voice cried out, tears in her eyes. Using her wings, she managed to hit the man off of her and get to her feet.
She jumped out for her son, but collapsed in pain as something hit her leg.
The man had shot her, but for some reason, he wasn't going to kill her just yet.
"What...what do you want! Why did you hurt my mother?" The young phoenix demanded to know as the aura faded and he was dropped to the ground again.
The man only laughed, his eyes wide and dilated with madness.
"You're mine now!"
With that, the child was thrown outside, where he instantly knew something was terribly wrong.
Sniffing the air, the blue haired phoenix could tell that something had been burnt, but it had a familiar smell to it.
Glancing around, he could see someone holding his mother down, the man that threw him out of the house, and the three other phoenixs from the small village.
He reached out to touch the ground in front of him, and instead of feeling the coarse grass and dirt, he felt something soft and slightly warm.
After a moment, he realized what it was, and in a scream of terror, scurried backward until he ran into the wall of his house.
"Cy...Cyrus!"
"Run away my son! Fly away!"
The child gasped, fear etched in his face. That was his mother's voice, and the panic he could hear in her voice, and the rapid pace her heart was beating told him that something bad was going to happen.
There was a sickening cackle next to him, diverting his eyes upward to the man who declared himself as Voltaire. He placed his hand on top of the blue hair. "I shall call you Kai...you will become great under me!"
Kai shook his hand off of him and growled.
"We'll be able to conquer the world!" Voltaire roared. "And we shall start here..."
The little phoenix gazed up at the man as if he were crazy.
"No! Don't look at him! You must resist what he tells you!" His mother cried again.
She was crawling, trying desperately to get to her son, but the man's voice interfered.
"Kill them all!"
Kai's eyes snapped open, fire quickly beginning to build up around him. He tried to hold it in, but it was as if he couldn't disobey what this man had told him.
"No...NO!" The young boy cried, tears flowing from his blind eyes.
He couldn't stop it, no matter how hard he tried. Even in his young age, he could figure out what this man was trying to do...and he was going to be used to annihilate his own race!
But his strength was quickly failing, and soon fire erupted in a giant blaze, engulfing everything in sight.
Silence...Kai could hear nothing but the hideous laughter of the man that forced him to do such a terrible act.
The boy fell on his knees, tears flowing freely now.
"Mother! Mother where are you!" He crawled along the scorched earth, pawing the ground in feeble attempt to find his parent. "Where are you mother! I...I can't see you!"
Panic was quickly invading his senses. He had always been able to find his mother's heart beat...to see her body heat, just like everyone else...but this time he was left in a sea of darkness, with only a few remaining flames burning off in the distance.
"...My son..." He heard someone croak out.
Whipping his head to the side, he was able to make out a faint outline of a person, and outline that was fading fast.
The young child scrambled over and embraced his mother, unable to hold back any emotion.
"Shhh...my son..." She started, her voice barely above a whisper.
"I did this...didn't I!" He sobbed, clenching the burnt fabric of his mother's shirt. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I'm sorry..." He continued to say those words as if they were the only ones he knew.
The boy became quiet as he felt a hand on his tear stained cheek. "This is not your fault...that man...he is of the evil kind."
Kai's watery crimson eyes trailed back over to the Voltaire, who was still laughing mad at the display of sheer power.
"Because of that bond...you won't be able to resist him, but you...you must find the strength in your heart...to do so..." The woman coughed, her whole body lurching upward.
"Mother!" The young boy cried as her body disintegrated into a light grey ash. Kai could only stare at the place she had been with wide eyes, his tears falling down and mingling with the ash as the wind began to blow it away.
"NOOOOOO!" A huge fire erupted around the small child, growing in intensity and brightness as it reached high into the air.
He got to his feet, fangs glistening and a darkened aura around him. "You...you took my mother away! Why did you make me kill everyone!" The young phoenix demanded, shooting fireballs at the elder man, who didn't seem threatened at all.
Voltaire only laughed more. "Foolish child! Your fire can't hurt your master!"
Kai fell to his knees in shock, the fire around him dissipating. He had been told on the blood bond before...and right now he was bound by it.
Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head, and he was sent face first into the charred earth.
He could only hear the sadistic cackles of Voltaire and Boris as he drifted off into unconsciousness.
With a startled cry, Kai jerked out of his dream and sat up straight, his hands wiping sweat from his face.
"Kai?" He heard someone call him, but he didn't move. "Kai?" The voice came again.
Slowly, he glanced over to his left, only to be greeted with Hilary's worried face.
Kai let out a shaky breath, still rattled by his flashback. "..Hil..."
"Shh..." The brunette wrapped her arms around the phoenix, trying to hold back her tears. "It's alright...you're not alone..." She could feel his terror at the memory of what happened so long ago. She found herself stroking the dark navy hair around his neck.
Kai closed his eyes, his body still trembling slightly. His arms snaked their way around Hilary's waist as he rested his head against her shoulder.
They held each other for a few more minutes when Kai suddenly gasped, remembering what had happened in the city.
"Hilary!" He pulled her away from him, his blind eyes surveying her body. "Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine Kai." She smiled weakly.
He sighed with relief, and rested his face in his hand as another wave of pain ran through his back. "Wha...what happened to me?"
"You were hit by Boris' attack...and you fell unconscious shortly after we crashed in Tyson's backyard. We were getting worried about you...we thought you'd never wake up!"
"How long was I asleep for?"
"Almost three days."
Kai froze for a moment, trying to force his mind to think. Suddenly, he reached back and ran his fingers across the base of his wings, the burns no longer there, but as his fingers brushed against the flesh close by, he could feel the scars, still healing.
"It's taking longer than it should..." He winced, withdrawing his hand. "Boris will be back once he figures out how to regrow his wings..."
"I thought Boris died! There's no way he could possibly live for..."
"He somehow became a phoenix during the time I was entombed. I don't know how he did it...but he's managed to gain all my powers!" Kai snarled, his feathers ruffling again. "But his wings...they were black! He has tainted the power he has gained...it shouldn't be possible!"
"Kai..." Hilary placed a comforting hand on his bare shoulder. "Let's not worry about him now...just concentrate on recovering."
The blue haired phoenix's eyes fell to his lap again. "Did you...stay with me...all this time?"
The brunette nodded with a small smile.
"Please...go and get some rest...I'll be fine now." Kai withdrew his wings and laid back down with a sigh.
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Hopefully this chapter came out all right... :hides: I was going to make that dream scene shorter, but decided against it...
BTW: The next chapter will answer a lot more questions you probably have.
I won't be able to update for a while (probably) because school starts up again in less than a week...and I have a bunch of work to finish before then.
So...please review!