Disclaimer: I don't own 'em. Didn't. Don't. And won't.

Gunsmoke and Black Roses—Chapter Eighteen

A figure in blood-red robes sat upon a throne of dark, red-streaked volcanic rock. A pair of massive torches burnt on either side of him.

The small, dark, chamber he was in had absolutely no light besides those two torches, and would've been pitch black were it not for the ambient, yellow-red glow of the lava pools on either side of the room.

His hooded head was obscured completely from view, but his hands were large, and heavily tanned, covered in the wrinkles and blemishes of age. His long, gnarled fingers jutted from his hands in such a way that they almost resembled the roots of a tree… or perhaps the claws of an animal.

He sat silently, as though meditating, when abruptly, he brought his hands up before him and clapped his hands together twice in quick succession. He waited…

Almost immediately, the huge, spike-studded, wrought iron doors grated open slowly, and a tall, gaunt figure in black armor carrying a stone lance entered… a Black Rider.

"He is near." The robed one spoke in a voice of calm. Yet, it also seemed to hiss slightly, kind of like a snake. "Find him. Do not kill him. Bring him to me."

The armored ash-golem saluted silently, before walking back out the doors, which swung noisily closed behind him. The robed figure sat there still, never having moved this entire time.

He suddenly did move, though… he outstretched his long hand, and held it open with heavily wrinkled palms facing up. "Show me… the one." He whispered hoarsely.

Instantly, it was as though someone had lit a fire on his palm. It flared up, maybe a couple feet, and then spat out a floating red sphere.

The glowing orb levitated there, as the fires on his hand went back out. It blinked a couple times, letting off black smoke… and then, it shot off a shower of orange sparks, right before changing shape.

The glowing fire orb now resembled a mirror. In it's crimson reflection; there was a group of three, fighting armored figures.

A young man… a girl… and the one. The one he had waited for so long.

"Time is a factor, young Sub-Zero. Pray you, make haste…" The man chuckled deeply, his bass voice reverberating of the stone walls.

He sat back on his throne, and continued to wait… always waiting… always watching… and always listening.


"We're almost there." Flake-Bane grunted, hacking into a Black Rider with the frozen blades of his axes. "Just one more floor to go."

"Good. I'm getting tired of these things." Zero replied with a sigh. He'd just finished off another Rider with an icy blast of wind.

"Are you sure this is where this guy is?" Jinx asked. "I mean, wouldn't he have come out here by now… tried to stop us?"

"Maybe we've got him hiding scared." Bane snickered in response.

"I doubt it…" Zero said. "… If he was powerful enough to do all this… then I don't think he'd hide from anything."

"Whatever the case is, we should hurry up… before more Black Riders show up." Bane advised.

They nodded and made their way up several flights of stairs. They couldn't help but notice… the higher up in the keep tower they went, the darker it got. It was as though they were entering a place where light could not go… the glow from lava pits in the floors were the only light sources.

The walls of the tower were stone, lined with glimmering cracks that shone a brilliant shade of orange-red, as though burning on the inside.

Large bowl-shaped torches were scattered around, burning with tall flames, and stained glass windows of reds, yellows, oranges, and blacks were built into the stone, making this place look like some kind of Hellish cathedral.

"I hate this…" Sub-Zero muttered. "… This isn't right…"

He felt a pair of arms around his neck. He looked back and saw Jinx leaning up to hug him. "It's going to be all right, Sub-Zero. We'll make him change it back."

"And then, we can go home." He agreed with a faint smile.

"Yes…"

Bane watched the two of them silently. He didn't say anything, but… he felt a little depressed. He knew that his friend, Sub-Zero, loved this girl. He understood that. But… this place… this island… it had always been home for him before. Now, he was at home somewhere else. It saddened him.

Swallowing his reluctance, he mumbled something softly.

Zero looked away from Jinx and looked at Bane in surprise. "Huh? Did you say something?"

"I said…" He started softly. "That… well… this is home. For you… isn't it…?"

Sub-Zero gazed guiltily at the ground. "Well… yes. I mean, it is, but…" He couldn't finish.

"This is still his home." Jinx said. "It's just that… well, Titan's Tower is his home away from home." She said.

Bane looked at them with mild interest. "So… you have two homes. I see…"

"Bane, I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"

"No… it's all right. But I want you to know something Sub-Zero."

Zero tilted his head slightly, blinking with curiosity. "What's that?"

"No matter how long you're away… no matter how much time you spend at your other home…" Bane's red eyes softened somewhat. "… You will always have a place to call home here. Please… Don't ever forget that."

"And you, too." Bane added, looking at Jinx. "Because any friend of Lord Zero's… is most definitely a friend of ours."

Sub-Zero leaned against a wall and smiled genuinely for the first time in a while. "Bane… I…" he couldn't really put what he was feeling into words. "… thanks. Thanks a lot…"

"Yeah. It means a lot to us… I mean…" Jinx paused hesitantly. "Zero… he did kind of make a lot of people unhappy, didn't he… When he left with me?"

"Well, not unhappy in an angry sense. Sure, we were all sad to see him go. But no one was ever angry. What he felt for you… was more important than what we wanted. We all understood that."

Jinx blushed. "I… thank you all so much."

"S'no problem. Just remember…" Flake-Bane joked. "… You better treat Zero right, or I'll be knockin' on your door soon enough."

Jinx blushed even more heavily and Sub-Zero actually laughed.

Bane, feeling a bit better now, and actually glad he could cheer his companions up, smiled.

"So… shall we press on?"


The same robed man still sat in the very same position we left him in. The only movement came from his gnarly fingers, which were tapping the rough, stone arms of the throne impatiently.

"He… should… be here." He said slowly. "Why is he taking so long…?"

As if on cue, the doors to the throne room flew open, and a Black Rider came soaring through the air, landing with a crash and bursting apart.

He looked at the remains of the minion interestedly. "So… now, it begins."

"No! Now, it ENDS!" Someone yelled angrily from the doorway.

It was Sub-Zero, with Flake-Bane on his left and Jinx on his right.

"Lord Von Hellwing, I presume?" Zero said, walking in the doorway.

The robed man remained silent.

"What's the matter…? Cat got your tongue?" Jinx demanded venomously, her own feline eyes blazing with a bright-pink shine.

Still, the old wizard was motionless.

Flake-Bane, despite his former courage, was beginning to become nervous, but he still managed to talk. "Don't just sit there! Say something! Explain yourself!"

The figure was still unfazed.

But then, he reached up, and removed his hood… and the trio of heroes gasped.

His head was completely bald, but a pair of long, jet-black horns protruded from his forehead and ended in sharp, hook-like points.

His eyes were yellow. Not the pupils, the eye itself was yellow… he had no visible pupils, just those unblinking yellow orbs.

His wrinkly skin was dark and tanned, as though it had been exposed to large amounts of heat and sunlight in it's day.

"So… the famed Sub-Zero has arrived. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance at last."

Sub-Zero's crimson eyes were wide with confusion. That had hardly been the welcome he'd expected… but that didn't matter. Shaking his head, his gaze turned icy and vengeful again.

"You try to destroy my island, and then you greet me like a friend?" He growled. "What the Hell is wrong with you?"

"Oh… you don't like the island? Why, my troops thought it was marvelous." His voice retained a tone of polite conversation. "And I daresay none of the natives complained."

Flake-Bane yanked out an axe and began stomping angrily forward, but Jinx grabbed him and held him back.

"Don't be stupid!" She hissed in his ear. "Wait until Zero gives us the signal…"

"If you're so upset at the island… here." The man upheld his hands.

Instantly, Hellwing's hands glowed jet-black and deep purple, shadowy energy collecting in his palms.

Sub-Zero tensed up, shield at the ready… he was expecting an attack…

But none came.

Instead, the dark energy began spreading. The obsidian orb that Von Hellwing had created began immediately enlarging… eventually; it covered him like a cloud, and began spreading across the walls, the floor, the ceiling… the entire room.

Sub-Zero, Jinx, and Flake-Bane immediately began backing up, wary of the shadowy magic crawling steadily towards them.

Suddenly, it lunged out, like a massive shockwave and the force of it knocked them to the ground. All was suddenly shadow; the world around them turned obsidian.

Jinx immediately realized she wasn't actually hurt, and looked up through this dark haze to make sure Zero and Bane were unharmed. Fortunately, they were also unscathed.

"What's he doing?" Bane asked, his voice panicked.

"I… I don't know!" Jinx cried. "I've never seen magic like this…"

Sub-Zero looked around, at the progressively darkening world around him, and began getting nervous… what was Hellwing up to…?

And then, as suddenly as there had been darkness… there was now light. A blazing brightness caused them to cover their eyes, and strain against the blinding lights all around.

After a few moments, the light faded, and Sub-Zero was the first to open his eyes. After they once again became adjusted to the light, he looked around… and cried out hoarsely.

He was home.

The massive stone cathedral they'd been in before was now back to its original state; Castle Norblitz was now intact once more.

The frozen walls of ice, the elegant silver-framed windows that were frosted over and adorned with icicles and draped with silken blue curtains, the torches now burning with familiar blue-flames instead of the Hellish red ones from before.

Stumbling to his feet, Sub-Zero forgot about Hellwing entirely.

He dashed to a massive, ornate window that looked out over the island. The keep tower was the tallest part of the castle; almost the entire island was visible.

Yanking back it's blue curtains and wiping off a layer of frost, he looked out and gasped.

Mountains. Snow-peaked mountains. And glaciers, they were back too. The coastline off to the west was now back to it's original splendor, covered in snow with frozen waters.

Even the woods were now back. Where Zero and Jinx had traversed a field of stone spires, there were now the ancient, gnarled, leafless trees that Sub-Zero was so used to.

But most of all, Zero saw the snow. It was falling down even now, from the heavens like a blessing. Every single snowflake he saw seemed like a miracle compared to the wasteland it had been when they'd arrived.

Stumbling back, Sub-Zero fell to his knees and stared out the window. He was silent…

Jinx and Bane were also shocked and speechless.

Jinx was the first one to regain her composure enough to talk. She looked at Hellwing quizzically. "You… you changed it back. Just like that." It was almost a question; her voice was confused.

"My dear… this was never about this island. I didn't come here just to obliterate a nation. Why, that would be irrational… not to mention, wasteful."

"I don't get it." Bane grunted. "You show up, place everyone under house arrest, fill the city with those… those…. Monstrosities… and… change our lands into a no-man's-land. And then… you change it back? For no reason?"

At this point, Hellwing was silent. Then, he chuckled. It was loud, rumbling, and malicious… despite his fiery nature, his laugh sent chills down the spines of everyone present.

"My… you poor, poor primitives. You honestly don't understand the situation here, do you…?"

His eerie, pupil-less eyes stared at them without so much as a twitch or a blink. And then, he smiled… displaying a full mouth of sharpened fang-teeth.

"This was never about the island. This is not about your people." He paused. Then, he looked over to Zero, who was still gazing wistfully out the window. "… This is about You, Sub-Zero. You."

Zero turned around, shifting uncomfortably and eying Von Hellwing warily. "… Me?"

"Yes…" He hissed, the 's' sound in his word long and drawn out. "… You."

"You were comfortable in that Tower, with your friends… weren't you?" He asked icily. "There was no way you would've come back here. But, I wanted you to come, so I came… I saw…. And I conquered." He sneered.

"But still, you would not come. I waited here, for the day that you would return, for only you would do for what I have in mind. You are… the one."

"… The… one?"

"And yet, lo and behold, the witch girl fulfilled my wishes for me!" He continued, the tone of his voice beginning to rise gradually. "… She brought you to me, Sub-Zero. Not intentionally, of course, but I almost feel guilty about carrying out the plan now, considering what it would mean…"

"What are you talking about…?" Jinx demanded.

"It would mean, my dear… that you have just delivered the one you love to his dark fate."

And without warning, Hellwing opened his toothy mouth. It began… widening, opening up like a snake that is about to swallow it's prey whole. A malevolent glow seemed to come from the back of his throat, and a moment later, fire spewed forth.

Jinx screamed and Bane gasped as the dark sorcerer's fiery breath rushed through the air, taking on the shape of a serpentine, Chinese dragon as it flew. The fiery dragon slithered forth from Von Hellwing's mouth, and wrapped itself around Sub-Zero before he could react, binding him like a massive, demonic snake. It's hot breath caused the knight to shudder and groan…

The dragon, it's back end still protruding from Hellwing's grotesquely stretched, fanged mouth, began to speak… in a warbling, distorted, demonic version of Lord Von Hellwing's own voice.

"It is time, Sub-Zero! I WILL rule all! But to accomplish this, the elements of old must be rejoined in one!"

Then, the flame dragon reared it's head back and opened it's jaws, displaying glowing, red-hot teeth and a tongue of flames. With a hideous, predatory screech, it lashed out… and plunged its fangs into Sub-Zero's throat.

"NO!" Jinx shrieked in horror. Reflexively, she charged up a pink hex in her hands, and fired it out in a wave of dark magic, emitting a whirring sound as it soared through the air towards the fire beast that was attacking Sub-Zero.

The hex hit it's burning, scaly body dead on… but the creature just laughed and continued to push it's teeth deeper into Zero's neck.

Zero groaned weakly in pain… it felt like… something was being drained out of him. He suddenly felt hollow, somehow… incomplete…

The monstrosity finished it's ghastly work, and yanked it's razor-sharp fangs out of his neck, causing him to cry out in pain. It dropped him, and he landed on the castle's snowy floor with a clang of armor against ground. He managed to moan weakly.

Jinx immediately scrambled over towards him, sobbing, while Bane stood there, rooted to the spot with fear.

The burning abomination cackled wildly and slithered backwards, writhing back into Hellwing's mouth, which promptly closed and resumed it's normal appearance. He licked his lips with a long, forked tongue that hissed and quivered like the tail of a rattlesnake.

"Mmm… Intriguing."

"Zero!" Jinx knelt down, and stared in horror. "Zero… Oh God, Zero say something, please!"

He groaned and opened his eyes. "Jinx…" He raised a gloved hand and felt his neck. Despite that creature biting him, there were no marks on him whatsoever. It was as though the damage done hadn't been physical, but… something else…

"You… You're going… to pay for that." Zero said through gritted teeth. Sitting up, he held out his hands and prepared to launch an ice beam.

… Nothing happened.

Baffled, Zero tried again, but… still no effect at all.

"My powers…" Zero groaned.

"No, little fool. MY powers." Lord Von Hellwing sneered, baring his fangs. Then, he held up his right hand and shot a pillar of flames into the air. With his left hand, he did the same… except, not with fire. With ice.

It looks like things have gone from bad to worse for both the Titans and Blackfire, as well as Sub-Zero and Jinx. They're going to have to get rolling if they plan to beat either Dr. Myntull or Lord Von Hellwing.

In the meantime, don't forget to review, and maybe check out my other fic, Moonlight Maelstrom, if you're interested.

P.S. As you might have noticed, I changed my name from 'Madphantom' to 'Count Le Madphantom'. So if I review your fic, don't get confused by this new name… I just felt like a change, and this one just seemed cool.

Later…

--Count Le Madphantom