Star-Crossed Betrayal: Chapter 4
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It had been a moment where the realization of her own stupidity made Chaos want to scream an obscenity and slap herself in the forehead. Somehow, she managed to avoid doing so and instead shot into the air, black-feathered wings manifesting. Once she was in the air and flying as fast as she could, however, she started in on herself.
"She was in the city the whole time!" she snarled. "I could have found her a week ago before any of this happened! Dammit all to hell and back!" Her search had been focused on one demon in particular: Kali. Touched by Starfire and Raven, and torn by long standing guilt, Chaos swore to find Kali and make amends for what had happened nearly three hundred years ago.
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It was mostly by accident that the two demons met four hundred years ago. Chaos, frustrated by the encroaching mechanization in the western world, had traveled to Japan. She enjoyed being in the country for approximately two days before being attacked.
Every so often, lesser demons would challenge Chaos in fights, often ambushing her in large groups in hopes of increasing their chances at victory. These challenges were typically undertakings to find glory. Chaos had been nicknamed "Hell's Heir" for being Lucifer's daughter, and the demons believed that they could take the title if they killed her. While they could never come close to killing her, a large enough group could do considerable damage.
In Japan, it was a group of fifty that ambushed her while she slept on the slopes of Mount Fuji. Though they tore gouges with claws, cut gashes with blades, and broke bones with blows, forty-nine of the demons died at Chaos's hands.
Covered with the blood of her enemies and herself, Chaos looked at the last demon. A gray-haired woman looked back at her, red eyes wide with horror. Chaos blinked, sending bloody black tears streaming from her eyes. She pressed a hand over the offending cut on her forehead, willing it to heal.
"If you want to live, you will stand down," she murmured. She lowered her hand, staring wearily at the woman. The woman stared back, trembling from head to foot.
"I—I don't want to fight you," she said. She turned and tried to run, but Chaos appeared in front of her and grabbed the front of her dark crimson kimono.
"Then why are you here?" When she did not receive an answer, Chaos lifted the woman off the ground as easily as a kitten. "Tell me."
"They wanted me to kill you when you were asleep!" the woman gasped, grabbing at Chaos's hand. When Chaos lifted her even further from the ground, she gave a soft cry.
"How? You can't sneak up on me when I'm sleeping."
"I can—enter your mind! Your dreams! They wanted me to kill you in your dreams!" Chaos stabbed her sword into the ground and wiped the blood from her hand, reaching up to take the woman's chin. She kissed the woman and stared into her wide eyes. After a moment, she broke the kiss and set the woman on her feet.
"Kali." The woman jerked at the sound of her name, and grew confused at Chaos's smile. "It would have been just as easy to read your mind without the kiss, but I can't say I didn't enjoy it." She let go of the kimono and turned, glancing back over her shoulder at Kali. "Come on."
"What?" Kali asked.
"You're coming with me," Chaos said.
"Why would I do that?" She gasped and put her hands over her mouth, fully expecting a painful reprimand to her defiant words. Chaos saw the terror in her eyes, the way she made herself smaller, and frowned.
"I wouldn't treat you like a dog." Kali fixed her with a hard glare, sneering slightly.
"You're probably worse than they were." Chaos chuckled at the remark and offered Kali her hand.
"You'd be surprised at how good I can be," Chaos murmured. She smiled, and Kali felt its warmth. She took Chaos's hand tentatively, and they started down the mountainside together.
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For seventy-six years, things went extraordinarily well. Kali was an adept student, and eager to learn what secrets lay hidden in her demon blood. Pleased with the progress Kali made, Chaos crafted her a broadsword, calling her an exceptional warrior. It was little surprise that they quickly became lovers.
At the end of those years, however, Kali learned the one failing of love: it can cause the greatest pain a heart can know.
She noticed that Chaos was not sleeping, even after days of being awake. What sleep she did have was sporadic, and always interrupted by something Kali knew all too well: nightmares. It went on for weeks on end.
"What's wrong?" Kali asked one day. Chaos had just woken from a fitful nap, and refused to meet Kali's eyes.
"Nothing," she said, her voice breaking. She put a hand—a shaking hand—over her eyes, taking uneven breaths.
"Liar," Kali murmured. They were staying at a small inn on Corsica, and Kali stood at the room's window. She turned away from it and walked to the bed Chaos sat in, sitting down next to her. "Tell me what's wrong. Please?"
"It's nothing." The hardness in Chaos's voice made Kali flinch—something she hadn't done in years. Silence prevailed for a long while.
"If your dreams are the problem, I could—"
"NO!" Kali managed to keep from gasping when Chaos grabbed her shoulders, but only just. The wild-eyed look on Chaos's face was familiar, but completely alien on her. She was terrified. "Please—no! Don't go into my dreams!"
"But—" Kali stopped when Chaos put a hand on her cheek.
"Please," Chaos said. "It'll pass. Just—stay out of my dreams." So desperate was her plea that Kali nodded immediately. She had no intention of doing as she said.
That night, she returned from stealing food to find Chaos again curled on the bed, restlessly sleeping. Kali put the food on the floor and went to the bed, kneeling down and reaching out to lay her fingers on Chaos's forehead. Sweat was beaded on her brow, and the lines beneath her closed eyes were worse than they had been in the morning.
"Sorry," Kali whispered. "I'm a bit of a liar, too." She closed her eyes, slipping easily into Chaos's dreams.
It was red. There were no buildings, open plains, or even a sky. Bodies lay everywhere, the blood from their mutilated corpses coloring the world. Kali swallowed hard, looking around for Chaos.
"Kali?" She turned about, finding Chaos standing a few feet away. Her sword was drawn, and she was dripping with gore. "No! No! Kali, get away!"
"Chaos, let me help you," Kali said gently.
"Get away from me!" Chaos howled. She took a step towards Kali, her body menacing but her eyes wretched. "I'll kill you!" She took another step forward, and Kali took two steps back. "Dammit, Kali! Run! Get away!" Another step was taken, but Kali did not step away. She had tried to let her magic fade—to escape—but she was held in place. The madness that enslaved Chaos's mind had trapped her.
"Chaos, don't," Kali whispered. "Please." The sword fell faster than sight.
Two screams filled the air: one of pain, and one of devastation. Chaos's eyes snapped open, her scream strangled as she gasped for breath. She felt twitching fingers on her forehead and jerked away from them, eyes falling on Kali. Twin slashes that ran from her shoulders to the hips opposite them essentially cut her into four pieces.
What limited healing ability her body could produce was overwhelmed almost instantly, only able to keep her from literally falling apart. Her blood was splashed over everything in the room. Chaos stared as Kali went limp, and her eyes grew dull. She was dead.
Chaos slowly slid off the bed, gathering Kali's body into her arms. She bowed her head and closed her eyes, trying to think. By the time the other patrons of the inn broke down the door, they were gone.
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It was the first and only time Chaos begged. She begged her father to resurrect Kali, pleading as tears ran down her face. Lucifer complied, confused only when Chaos returned a few days later alone. She explained that she did not trust herself to be with Kali, and did not want the death of the woman she loved on her hands again.
But time had passed, and things had changed. As she sped toward Black City, Chaos's mind was clear. Sixteen years ago, her dreams had been stopped, her mind healed through what she sarcastically referred to as divine intervention.
It was something she would never forget, and a favor she felt she could never repay. And it was among the many kind things that Raven had done.
—to be continued—