Disclaimer: I do not own Magic: The Gathering, only my own characters.

Happy 50th Chapter!

CHAPTER 50-Let Sleeping Demons Lie

A dozen emotions coursed through Eva all at the same time as Charles kissed her. The most prominent was shock. She was caught completely by surprise. She knew Charles liked her, but she had always thought of it as more of a brotherly love, nothing romantic. As her befuddled brain started extracting itself from the mess of emotions, guilt kicked in. She felt guilty for enjoying the kiss, even if it was only a subconscious enjoyment. Charles had been her comfort since Arrathir's death so she did harbor some feelings for him, but nowhere near what she felt for Arrathir. A bit of anger was also present. Charles knew how she felt about Arrathir, so why was he doing this? Arrathir was his friend! Why was he betraying their friendship by going after her?

All these emotions flashed through her in a nanosecond, only to be replaced by pain. A searing, burning pain in her right shoulder, right at the spot where the demon had bitten her. She cried out in pain, breaking away from Charles and clasping her left hand to her aching shoulder.

As Eva broke away, Charles immediately regretted his action. How could be betray Eva's trust like that? He knew she loved Arrathir and that the feeling was reciprocal.

;You idiot! I warned you that something like this would happen! Now look what you've done!;

;Why is she in pain?;

;She's marked, baka! Arrathir's demon had claimed her as his mate, meaning no other male may approach her in an affectionate way! The mark is calling to the demon, telling him his mate is in trouble;

;So if Arrathir was alive…;

;I'd start running and prey for mercy;

As Arrathir got up, stretching his limbs, he suddenly felt an odd sensation, like an aching pain in his skull. At the same time, he caught the scent of Eva's blood on the air.

Something's happened to Eva!

Following the scent, he bolted across the rocky terrain, heading straight for the flickering light of what looked like a campfire. He screeched to a halt by the fire, seeing Eva clutching her shoulder in pain and Charles looking mortified. Both of them did a triple-take when they saw Arrathir, their jaws hanging open in astonishment.

"What is going on here?" demanded Arrathir, but his nose told him all he needed to know. Charles' scent on Eva and hers on Charles; He quickly made the connection. His anxiety was quickly replaced by a burning rage. Before he knew it, the demon had taken over and was advancing menacingly towards Charles.

"You dare," roared the demon "Touch my mate?"

Before Charles could react, the demon threw himself at him, claws extended. As the demon was about to tear through the Keeper, Charles disappeared in a blue flash, reappearing on the opposite side of the campfire, the symbol of blue mana glowing on his forehead.

"Where is Arrathir, demon?" Chiburuu demanded.

"Stay out of this, Keeper," said the demon "My beef is with your host!"

"Unfortunately for you," said Chiburuu "My host does not take lightly to people trying to tear him to shreds. If you are going to fight anyone, fight me."

"With pleasure," said the demon, flexing his claws. He ran at Chiburuu, who shot a Dream's Grip (B, Instant, Tap or untap target permanent. Entwine (2)) at the demon. As the spell reached him, the demon leapt high into the air, avoiding the spell. As he flew over Chiburuu, he unleashed a barrage of raw mana at the Keeper, who quickly enchanted himself with Alexi's Cloak (1B, Enchant Creature, Target creature can't be the target of spells or abilities), the enchantment absorbing or deflecting the mana.

"Heh," laughed the demon as he landed "Think you're so smart with your enchantments, eh? Well, you can't defend yourself if you don't know where I am!" From the demon spread a dark cloud that quickly covered the area around the campfire. Chiburuu sighed as he cast a Counterspell to get rid of the darkness. A blue beam shot through the obscurity, tearing it apart and dispelling it. As the darkness cleared, Chiburuu found the demon had vanished.

"Behind you!" yelled Eva, but her warning came too late. The demon smashed his fist into the back of the Keeper's head with violence, sending him down to the ground.

"I will tear out your innards and feed the to the dogs!" yelled the demon as he bashed Chiburuu's face against the ground. Blood spurted all over as the Keeper's nose broke. Chiburuu was too dazed to react and could do nothing as the demon continued beating him.

Eva watched in horror as the demon continued beating Charles. She knew if she didn't intervene, the demon would kill Charles.

"Stop it!" she yelled, trying to pull the demon off Chiburuu "It's not what you think!"

The demon ignored her, grinning sadistically as he continued to beat Charles' face into a blood red pulp. In desperation, she tried the only thing she could think of to calm him down: she began stroking his ears.

At first, nothing seemed to happen, but eventually, the demon's haggard breathing slowed and became regular. He also ceased bashing Charles' head against the ground. After a few more seconds, he blinked, as if coming out of a dream.

"Holy fuck!" yelled Arrathir when he saw the bloody red mess his friend's face had become. "What the Hell happened?" He got up, panicking and checked Charles' pulse.

"Your demon took over," said Eva "He freaked and attacked Charles."

"He's not breathing and I don't have a pulse!" yelled Arrathir "I killed him!" He dashed over to the sleeping Keeper and shook Erik violently.

"The Hell?" asked Erik, waking up "Quinn?" he said, recognizing Arrathir "I thought you were dead."

"Erik! I killed him! I fucking killed Charles! Get your ass up!"

"Wait, you killed Wainscot?" asked Erik.

"No time to explain!" yelled Arrathir, half-dragging the Keeper towards Charles' body "If he's not dead, he will be if you don't heal him!"

"Oh fuck!" said Erik when he saw Charles "You gotta get some anger management classes, Quinn. OK, I'll see what I can do. Eva, you take him somewhere. Poor guy's hyperventilating."

As Eva led a babbling Arrathir away from the campfire, Khell woke up. Seeing Arrathir alive, he bolted upright, a look of astonishment on his face.

"Arrathir? How in Gaea…?"

"Khell, give me a hand," said Eva "He's freaking out because the demon attacked Charles."

"Watch it!" said Khell, as Arrathir broke loose and began violently banging his head against a rock, wailing, "I killed him! I killed him!" over and over. Even as his blood started staining the rock a deep red, Arrathir continued.

"Grab him!" said Eva. As the Keeper of Green Mana did so, Eva faced Arrathir and began stroking his ears once again. Arrathir's wailing stopped and he eventually stopped his self-mutilation. As Eva continued, Arrathir collapsed into Eva's lap and began gently snoring as he fell asleep.

"That's a useful trick," Khell commented, casting a Nourish to heal Arrathir's wounds "Now, what happened?" he asked Eva "How did Arrathir come back to life?"

"I have a hypothesis," said Eva "I had these visions from Arrathir's memories and just a while ago, I had another nightmare about the demon, only this time, Arrathir spoke to me in the dream, urging me to fight back. The way I see it, when Arrathir's life essence left his body, it come to me because of our connection. When I kissed Arrathir, it must have transferred the life essence back to his body."

"That is a plausible explanation," said Khell "Love is a mysterious power, possibly the greatest of them all, but why did the demon attack Charles?"

"Charles kissed me," said Eva, blushing "And when he did, the demon's mark started burning me."

"That explains it," said Khell "When a demon's mate is in danger, the mark will begin to bleed, carrying the mate's scent to the demon, who will pick up the scent and quickly fly to her rescue. However, in your case, the mark acted as a defense mechanism when Charles kissed you. The mark shows other males that the female is promised to a demon, but if a male ignores this and attempts to approach the female anyways, the mark warns the demon."

"When the demon saw us, Charles and me, he just went crazy," said Eva.

"So it he all right?"

"The demon beat him up pretty bad," said Eva "It was horrible. The demon really wanted to kill him. After I calmed him down, Arrathir work Erik and asked him to heal Charles, so he should be all right. I mean if Erik was able to revive me, healing Charles shouldn't be a problem. Come to think of it, Erik didn't refuse or show any reluctance when Arrathir asked him to heal Charles. He almost seemed concerned about him. That's not like Erik. He hates Charles."

"Could it be he's finally shedding his asshole personality?" said Khell "I thought it was strange when he summoned transports for all of us without hesitation."

"Yeah, I was wondering about that," said Eva "Notice how he gave me a Healing Salve without me asking?"

"Well, let's hope Erik has turned over a new leaf," said Khell "Where'd you learn that little trick with the ears?"

"Pure dumb luck," said Eva "When the demon started attacking Charles, I knew I had to calm it down somehow. I'd noticed that when I stroked Arrathir's ears once, he got a sleepy look on his face, so I figured maybe it would calm the demon down."

"At least now we have a sure-fire way of controlling him if he ever goes berserk again," said Khell.

"Think we should wake him up?" asked Eva.

"Yeah, probably," said Khell "But if he starts bashing his brains out again, knock him out for a couple hours."

"Arrathir, wake up," said Eva, gently shaking his head.

Arrathir stirred and awoke, blinking in confusion. As he realized where he was lying, embarrassment replaced the confusion.

"Eva! Ah, what's going…oh shit! Charles!"

"Shh, it's fine," said Eva, reassuringly stroking his ears "Erik is patching him up as we speak. He's going to be fine."

"It's not that," said Arrathir "This is the second time one of my friends has been hurt because of the demon."

"Hey, listen to me, Arrathir," said Eva "It's not your fault your demon is a jackass. Quit blaming yourself for everything he does. I forgave you when he assaulted me, and I'm sure Charles will forgive you as well."

"It's good to have you back, Arrathir," said Khell.

"Well, it's good to be back," said Arrathir.

"So what happened?" asked Eva "How did you recover your life essence?"

"Well, after I died," said Arrathir "I met the spirit of my deck, a Havoc Demon named Demos. He told me the only way to recover my life essence was to join my power to my demonic side's. We ended up spiritually uniting our bloods and then I tried locating my life essence to return in to my body. It was weird though, I was struggling terribly to get a hold on my life essence, but then all of a sudden, it just came to me."

"After you died," said Eva "Your life essence came to me, maybe because it trusted me to be its new host. A bit before you revived, I was talking to you, so I guess because I was close to you it made it easier for you to recover it."

"I thought it was because you ki…" started Khell before Eva hastily interrupted him.

"So, what to hear about what went on during the past days?" she asked, slightly flustered.

"How long was I out?" asked Arrathir.

"About three or four days," said Eva "We got to Shiv the day after you died."

"How did you transport my body around without arousing suspicion?" asked Arrathir.

"Khell put you in an Amber Prison," said Eva "That made transport a lot easier. When we left the boat, we met this viashino, Jas'Khar."

"Great guy," said Khell "He helped us find a guide to get across the desert."

"The morning after we left," said Eva "We got ambushed by some viashino. The demanded we hand over all our possessions, but since we refused, they attacked us. Erik threw up a Circle of Protection: Red, but I wasn't able to enter it, probably because of my red alignment. We drove off the viashino and then Erik summoned a couple of Leonin Skyhunters to fly us to the mountains."

"Wow, looks like I missed out on a lot," said Arrathir "So these are the mountains where the Keeper of Red Mana is?"

"We assume so," said Khell "Tomorrow we'll start searching. Charles will be out mana detector. He's become quite good at mana reading."

"Speaking of Charles," said Arrathir "I want to make sure he's OK. I also need to apologize to him. What did he do anyways?" he asked Eva "I felt this feeling in my head and at the same time I picked up the smell of your blood."

"Well, Charles kissed me," said Eva "And the demon's mark started bleeding."

"Oh," said Arrathir.

Charles kissed Eva? I didn't even know he was interested in her. Are they not telling me something? Did something else happen while I was dead?

I think Charles was probably just infatuated with her. I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt you.

Why? Because he thought I was dead? He thought with me out of the picture he could just scoop Eva up? Take advantage of her grief to seduce her?

Arrathir, you and Charles were friends. Friends don't betray each other like that. You're looking too much into this.

"Well," grumbled Arrathir "I'd still like to know he's all right."

They made their way back to the campfire, but neither Charles nor Erik was in sight.

"They were definitely here," said Arrathir "Their scent is still fresh."

"With Charles in his condition," said Eva "I doubt they went for a stroll in the desert or the mountains."

"So," sighed Arrathir "It looks as though there's only one answer: enemy Planeswalker number four has shown up."

To be continued…

Author's Note: Dun, dun dunnnn! So, for all of you who wanted to see the demon kick Charles' ass, there you go!

A lot of people were complaining about the cheesiness of the last chapter, and I agree completely. Yes, I slightly did rip of the Matrix, but not intentionally, and anyways, it fit with the scene.

News on the progress of the Awakening Manga: We have our comicgenesis account, just need to create the website and upload some strips. Lots of concept art is ready and as soon as it is scanned, I'll upload some to the Academy forums.

Until next time, Debna yisenbëtu!