Disclaimer – I do not own Legacy of Kain and I am making no money at all from any part of this fanfiction (sigh).

Acknowledgement – I need to thank Biohazard big time for this fic, and anyone who likes it needs to as well. He suggested it, so I wrote it. Cheers dude!

Chapter Two: Present, Future and Past

"Thinking great thoughts, Maddrell?" An approaching familiar female voice asked me.

I listened to Calisra's claws scuff in front of me as she came to halt. I didn't move, didn't look up, I just remained motionless while watching strange patterns of colour and light play out behind my closed eyelids. "Not really." I replied, voice muffled…somehow I had become exhausted, even though there was no way I could have exerted myself. I suppose that thinking and worrying too much can do that to you.

"Then what brings you so far from the fun and all by yourself? If you hurry, you may still have time to help mop up the last few survivors."

I shook my head. "No, I'm not in the mood."

"How can you not be?" She queried. I heard her shift, indicating that she had crouched down and this was confirmed when she gently took my head in her claws and made me look up at her before she continued. "Is something troubling you, hmm?"

I considered telling her everything I was so scared of at that moment, but decided that it would be better to try to make my own internal dialogue and reasoning a little more coherent before I attempted to express them to anyone else. So I lied. "No, I am fine, just…not in the mood at the moment. I thought it would be best to keep out of everyone's way. You go ahead."

"Daft creature." She said with a smile and released my head. "There is enough blood here to set off anyone. You should at least be a little excited."

I shrugged my shoulders; my thoughts were shot to hell...what was the point in keeping it from her? "I was excited. I was running to get here but I used a shortcut, tripped and fell. I came across master Raziel."

Her facial expression turned from cheerful to surprise. "Awake!"

"Indeed, his Change is complete. He had me help him to his main chamber."

Calisra stood up sharply, face awash with some kind of excited joy. "I must go to him immediately."

"No, no, no, no, no!" I told her, grabbing the hem of her dress to prevent her rushing away. The sudden jolt of having unexpected weight attached to her caused her to trip, which in turn pulled me over so that I was sprawled over the floor for the second time that day.

"What was that for, Maddrell?" She demanded, slapping my hands away somewhat viciously with a distinct undertone of rising anger in her words. Though it wasn't too difficult for me to annoy her it was a rare occurrence when shebecame angry with me and it was something that I tried desperately hard to avoid.

"Master Raziel explicitly said that he had no desire to be disturbed and gave me strict instructions to carry out while he rested." I informed her, crawling back onto my knees and patting dust out of my hair.

"Is that right?" she asked a little sceptically.

"I have never lied to you yet and I have no intention of beginning to do so now."

The revelation seemed to have quelled her bloodlust, now she was genuinely curious. "How is he? His Change…is he well?"

"He is very weak, but he seems certain that he will have fully recuperated by tomorrow."

As I looked over at her, sitting on the ground beside me, I realised that there was no point in keeping any information or my worries from her. I could try all I wanted but in the end she would see through me. "His change is a physical, outward one."

Her eyes widened a little at that. "Go on. Is it solely appearance based?"

"Of course not; it affects ability as well…or at least it aught to eventually. Calisra…he has developed wings. Vespertilian wings."

To say she was dumbstruck would be a terrible understatement. The expression on her face was one to be noted in the annals of history as the sheer embodiment of shock and surprise. Her lips slowly mouthed the words "Oh my…"

"I thought that too." I commented.

She took a minute to think things through properly…I prayed fervently that she might come to the same conclusion as I had, but it appeared that my usually prompt luck had finally abandoned me and she did not share in my worry.

Mores the pity.

She climbed back to her feet and offered me a hand up which I gratefully accepted. My legs didn't seem to want to obey, but this time not because of a polished floor, so I was glad for the aid she provided. For a moment we watched our fellow Razielim brutally finish off those humans who still remained and then listened to their vague voices as they joked about the whole ordeal. From windows around the courtyard could be seen the saddened and sickened expressions of the human servants we keep to perform the menial duties. As I gazed away I was aware that I had just been spoken to.

"I'm sorry…pardon?"

Calisra sighed. "Good grief, man, clean out your ears. I asked you what your orders were, the ones that you received from master Raziel. I assume he had more to say than 'do not disturb', am I correct in assuming that there is a message for the rest of us?"

"Uh…not really…guard detail is no longer necessary, obviously, and I must send runners to the other clan masters and to Lord Kain with a specific notification saying that master Raziel will reveal his evolution tomorrow at the Sanctuary of the Clans. That is all."

She placed her hands on her hips, though it was a relaxed pose with her head tilted to one side. "But nothing for us?"

"No, nothing, but I suppose it must be announced or something similar." I had never before seen an evolution nor the process that followed and so I left my favourite elder to fill in the blanks that the master had been too angry with me to deal with.

"That is what has always happened in the past." She clapped one hand to my shoulder. "Do not fret, I shall deal with the masses and you go locate those runners…and wear a smile for goodness sake; this is a time to be joyful!"

But I did not feel joyful in the slightest; I doubted most sincerely that there was anything in existence that could lift my sunken spirit. Sunken? No, it was far beyond that now, it felt as though my spirit had been drowned and then delivered into the crushing dark heart of the ocean itself. "I wish I could share in your enthusiasm." Now I was passing on the information I found that the sickening feeling only grew more intense, a cold hand gripping my stomach tightly and forcing vomit to the back of my throat that I had to choke back.

"Maddrell?" my hacking motion obviously had her concerned. "Are you feeling alright? I cannot say that, in my opinion, you look well at all."

"It is a foolish thing." I said, waving my hand dismissively…I still wasn't ready to tell her, I suppose I just predicted that she would respond in the same manner as master Raziel; with scorn.

"Foolish or no, if it is enough to make you physically sick then I shall not take it lightly. Speak to me Maddrell, remember that I am your friend as well as your elder. Let me help you or at least permit me enough knowledge to try."

"Alright." I said, finally giving in. if she did dismiss my thoughts I had nothing to loose from it but had everything to gain should she agree. "I…have a problem with all of this; a fear that I cannot shake. I do not see this development as a gift for the master; I have a growing sense that this will be the execution order for all of us. I can feel it, deep inside. Call me crazy if you will, god knows how many times you have done in the past for matters far more minor than this."

Calisra blinked and wore a confused expression. "What do you mean?" then the expression melted into a warm smile. "Oh…I see…Maddrell there is no need to fear the change. I know that seeing master Raziel so off sorts because of it is not the most reassuring of sights to behold, especially with the prospect of it one day happing to you, but it is natural and natural evolutions will not kill you. They would not happen if they did."

"I didn't mean it like that. It has nothing to do with the change itself, it is what Lord Kain will do when he sees it! He is cruel and vindictive…this 'gift' is not his…he'll tear the master to pieces! And us!" I could not help but begin to raise my voice to place emphasis on the issue. I couldn't care less whether the rest of the clan could hear me or not, maybe it would be better if they had. I wanted it said and done.

I was not expecting what Calisra did next. She wrapped one arm around my waist, drawing me against her and then placed her hand on the back of my head to rest it on her shoulder…effectively holding me in a position most often seen to comfort a distressed child. And in some ways, I supposed that was exactly how she saw me…a little fledgling. "Shhh," she cooed, "there is no need to get yourself so worked up. Lord Kain is indeed a man to be feared but your reasoning is irrational. He can be harsh but he is as just a ruler as any who have come before him. Have we not prospered under his guidance? You should not think such thoughts; he would never punish any for what they have no control of."

"He will not see it so." I mumbled by her right ear. I did not return the hold and I probably couldn't have even if I had wanted to. My arms were limp by my sides as I just hadn't the physical or mental energy to do anything but stew over my fear. "Please listen…the master wouldn't"

She sighed and began to stroke my hair. It was both soothing and highly annoying as it meant that she was most certainly not taking me seriously. "You should go to your bed and rest."

"I doubt I could find sleep even if you knocked me out cold. Calsira, please, just consider the possibility…see it from my point of view…"

She said nothing more, all she did was coo and comfort as if I had told her I was afraid of the dark or something equally immature. In the end I just couldn't take it anymore and without thinking I pushed her away hard enough to make her stumble back a good few paces but not enough to drop her to the ground.

I ran as if wild dogs were snapping at my heels, unable to even bare the prospect of glancing back at her because I knew the look that would be marring her pretty face; a mix of amusement and tragic pity for the insane little fledgling she now watched fleeing to the relative emotional safety of his room.

And that was exactly where I went and huddled in one corner, burying myself in my bed sheet and hugging the pillow like it was my only friend. I could only imagine how ridiculous I looked; a large lump of grey material with two nervous eyes peering out of one small gap. I had no concept of time while I was sitting there on the floor, though I later surmised it had been about an hour, but eventually I discarded the woollen cocoon and decided that the best thing to do was busy myself in a task; I had completely forgotten about the duty master Raziel had given me.

By the time I gathered the five runners required I discovered that Calisra had already made the announcement and I had to repeat the details of the message to them repeatedly before they ceased their elated jittering and understood that all mentions of the master's wings were out of bounds.

With them on their way I returned to my room to continue with my favourite pastime, but not even in the broken panes that I adored could I find the solace and comfort I craved. I just wanted re-assurance. Calisra told me that there was no reason for my worries yet she could give me no hard proof of that fact.

Every time I picked up a shard I found the edges cutting deep slits into the sensitive pads of my fingertips no matter how careful I tried to be. The whirls that made up my prints were left lacerated and torn as I focused on the pain to escape the more disturbing thoughts that haunted me. My own dark crimson blood stained the edges of the glass I touched and left spatters over the surfaces. But even with that I couldn't completely shake the fear and it began to seep in again as older cuts healed without a mark to make way for new and deliberately inflicted ones. In a desperate act to think and feel anything other than numbing sorrow and terror I grasped a handful of shards in my fist and crushed them into my palm.

And that was how Calisra found me, staring at the blood slick fragments embedded in one uncontrollably shaking hand while reaching blindly for more with the other. She ran over and kicked them away before grabbing both of my hands.

"Have you gone completely insane!" she yelled directly at me.

"No!" I screeched back, my voice rising and falling quite randomly in pitch as I continued…my throat felt impossibly tight and my vocal chords unwilling. "Just because I am paranoid it doesn't mean that I am wrong."

Light reflecting on the glass left dashes of vivid red across the walls, almost like a visual representation of the hellish prophecies in my minds eye.

She began to pull the shattered glass from the flesh I had forced them into to send pain shooting through my hand and wrist to bury my mind in primal thoughtless anguish. "You fool, you utter idiot." She scolded.

I pushed her away again and stumbled to my feet, leaving smeared bloody handprints on her shoulders and the floor as well as myself and the shards. "I am not! Don't treat me like a frightened mortal brat!"

"I've never known a fledgling to have such an extreme reaction to an evolution before." she said, seemingly to herself and sounding for all the world like she was taking notes for a psychiatric evaluation.

I ran away again, with no clue or care as to where I was headed. I ran for the sake of running, anywhere I could reach and beyond until every muscle in my body screamed in broken agony for me to stop. Every inch of me inside and out felt as though it was on fire and even when I knew that I was on the brink of ripping myself apart I could not stop…I wanted the pain, needed the pain. The unending physical hurt could occupy me in a way that nothing else could. I knew there was no way to outrun my fear and neither did I want to kill myself…but still…as my feet pounded on the hard ground below, sending jolts of pain through me all I wanted was to be lost, to even briefly be able to forget what had been and what I prophesised soon would be. And if that meant breaking myself then so be it.

As the sun began to fade on the horizon, my body simply gave up and shut down all in one go, refusing to continue with the torture I was forcing it to comply with. I could take no more and with a desperate wail I collapsed to the ground as I simply ceased to function…each joint giving out and letting gravity take its toll.

Paralysed with exhaustion I lay face down by a river, the name of which I did now know, surrounded by twisted trees in a place I was unable to recognise.

I thanked whatever god listened to and took pity on frightened fledgling vampires' prayers for the gift of sweet dreamless unconsciousness that soon stole over me.

-o-

I awoke to world of hurt, unsure whether it was a curse or blessing or if I was even alive. Every fibre of my being down to the last insignificant cell shrieked from the unbearable cramp and exhaustion that sill kept me motionless. When I was finally able to gather my thoughts I realised that somehow I was on my bed in my chamber…which I didn't want to be. I never slept in my bed; I always slept sitting in a corner of the room with my back jammed against the wall. Some habits are hard to get out of, and lying prone just makes me feel far too unsafe to rest.

The glaring red sprays of light on the walls were gone, as were my clothes. Whomever had brought me here, however, had been kind enough to preserve my modesty using a thin sheet that I usually reserved for the height of summer…which suited well as every one of my nerves were still burning.

"Why choose such a slow death?" I heard Calisra's voice say in the void around me that I was far too weak to turn my head in order to see. "Suicide is supposed to be a release, not a punishment."

"I don't want to die." I murmured.

"Then why do that to yourself?"

"I just…felt like running. Not dying."

"What? Do you think that you collapsed because you were tired? Maddrell, your body had begun to devour itself for lack of any other energy to use. And not only that, but have you even the faintest of ideas where we found you in the end? In human territory directly in the middle of a patrol route by a river that is notorious for bursting its banks. You were lucky we discovered you at all, let alone before you were seen by humans and executed while still in your self-induced coma."

"How long? How long was I out?"

"I have no idea how long you were unconscious for before we found you, but since then you've spent around six hours or so dead to the world. I find it utterly amazing that you are awake, I would expect a person in your position to be comatose for twenty four hours at the very least."

Against everything that my body wished and even my common sense I forced protesting muscles to move again, awkwardly dragging myself bit by bit into a sitting position…shaking uncontrollably and having to bite down on my tongue to prevent the scream that had welled in the back of my mouth. That one act had sucked the energy right back out of me and I was left feeling like I had climbed a mountain.

"Stop that." Calisra snapped. "Lie back down this instant."

Now that I was relatively upright I could see Calisra rise from the chair positioned near the door from which I assumed she had been watching me. She stood by my bedside and glared into my pained eyes. It was plain to see that she was furious, but behind that she also had a look of concerned protectiveness. She was actually worried about me…

"Lie down, Maddrell." She demanded.

"No." I grunted and attempted to clamber out of bed even though the strain sent fresh blade of pain shooting through me, setting my nerves alight.

My progress was sharply halted as she roughly slammed her palm against my chest and pushed me back down. "Are you trying to make this more difficult for yourself? I will tie you to the bed if need be."

My head flopped back against the pillow and I grimaced as the pain crawled around me again. I wanted to cry…not just from what had just been happening. This situation I was presently in brought back bad memories.

She sighed. "What has happened to you?"

"Nothing…I saw sense…and am I the only one!" I growled through gritted teeth.

She slowly shook her head, in a manner that mean she was either disappointed or more worried than I had initially observed. Did she truly believe that I was gripped with some kind of madness? "I am going to leave you now," she said slowly and deliberately in a hushed tone, "and if there is enough of you left in that skull to know what is good for you, you shall stay put and lie still until you are well. I can only hope that this sickness will depart. I will return shortly, but there is business to which I must attend."

And with that she was gone, leaving nothing more than empty, disturbed air in her stead.

Stay put and lay still…those words brought a cold chill to me for all the wrong reasons…but that was beside the point.

I'm sorry, Calisra, but that is something I just cannot do. There must be others; I refuse to believe that I am the only one who can understand the danger. I doubted that there was any way to stop the master, so what could I do? I supposed that I could just run again, but this time pace myself and actually have a destination in mind. It was possible to outrun my fear, or at least the cause and consequence of it; I could find a safe place and stay there…and bring the others. There had to be others who were not so blinded by their devotion.

I had an overwhelming urge to laugh at myself. What was I planning? A mass migration? An exodus? To where? All of Nosgoth was Kain's and a clan of nomadic Razielim were not going to go unnoticed.

Maybe I had gone mad.

Mad Maddrell.

And yet…

It did seem plausible. It was a plan with, ultimately, few drawbacks. If my assumptions were terribly correct and Lord Kain did fly into a fit of uncontrolled rage then we would be far beyond his fury when it was vented…and on the other hand, if everything proved to be a fevered delusion and passed without event we could venture home while I pleaded insanity as the cause of my actions.

All right, so let us plan this properly. I would need a place to go and a route to take, as well as having to be able to make travelling as inconspicuous as possible to deflect unwanted attention. Belongings would need to be taken and stopping points planned for rest and feeding, as it would be impractical to drag humans around with us.

But there would need to be us first. I was going to have to move. Even the thought of moving hurt, yet it was going to have happen no matter what my body wanted.

It took every ounce of self-control I had to call upon to roll myself out of the bed, only to find that my legs just weren't quite ready and buckled beneath me. Yet again I was kissing the ground with my limbs tangled in the bed sheet. I know that at that point I screamed something, but I hurt too much to recall exactly what…I just know that the cry of frustration and panic left my throat raw.

Panting, for no reason except it made me feel better, I dragged myself back up again bit by bit using the bed to support my weight when my body could not until I was vertical again. Doing all I could to ignore the pain and the debilitating ache I forced myself to dress…hissing as I did so. If there was anyone in the hall outside they would be having some rather strange thoughts as to what I was doing due to all the sound effects.

Fully clothed and with the most stoic expression I could muster to cover my agony I slowly inched my way out of my room and down the hall, determined to do all that I could.

I spoke to everyone I came across without exception and told them what I felt they desperately needed to know…but it did not matter in the slightest who listened for none agreed. I always received the same response, they all called me paranoid, some called me a fool, others questioned my sanity and some even went as far as to mention that I was not looking too well. There were a couple who even felt sorry for me and offered to help me to my room or to find someone to eat but that was all…they all dismissed me in some way or another. I felt the last of my hope dissolve in my misery. Was that it? Is that how it was to end?

Exhausted yet again from merely walking around, I leant against the nearest wall I could find to gather some energy back…though I can't say it really did me any good, it made me feel better for trying. There was nothing else I could do. In an hour, or so I had now been told, master Raziel would head for the Sanctuary of the Clans and confront his sire and brothers…and he would die…I could feel it.

Hang it all, I didn't care if he punished me for insolence; I had to at least try one more time to make him see sense.

His chamber was not too far from where I had ended up and so I made my way there as casually as I could, so as not to attract attention. Hopefully no-one would think that I would be doing anything more than going for a stroll. I didn't want it to be easy for Calisra to find me when she discovered what I had already been up to; let alone what I now planned to do.

The master's main chamber was not guarded but the heavy doors were closed. Leaning against the thick wood I could hear him shuffling about inside…thank goodness. He sounded alone.

I knocked hesitantly.

"Who disturbs me?" I heard his voice filter through the wood, harsh and demanding.

"Maddrell, master." I called back.

There was a pause before he spoke again. "Enter."

And I did so, opening one door by a fraction before slinking inside and closing it behind me. I quickly surveyed the room for any other presences but found it to be as empty as I had hoped; just the master and myself. He stood dressed only from the waist down on the other side of the room, flexing his wings; seemingly still orienting himself with his new appendages. I watched in fascination as a slow ripple of muscle under the skin of his back caused the wings to furl and unfurl in a most dramatic manner. I could not help but be awed, even in the face of my fear. They were not the fragile scraps of skin and softened bones they had been before, though they did still have the look of things that could be broken quite easily should someone set their mind to it.

"Have you come to apologise?" he asked off-handly, more interested in the strange new sensations than the fledgling who had entered looking and sounding ready to collapse at the slightest touch. And indeed I felt a light breeze would have bowled me over.

"No, master. I've come to beg you to listen to what I said before. Please don't go."

That got his attention. He span around.

"Maddrell," he said in a warning tone, "leave it there. Turn around and walk away and speak no more on the subject before I loose my patience with you."

"I can't. I won't. I have to make you see reason. If you go you shall die, and we shall fall swiftly after. I know I can give you no evidence, I am no sage or soothsayer, but this I feel with all my soul. I am begging you to listen to me-"

I didn't have time to utter another word, in a split second he had crossed the room and struck my face, leaving my thoughts reeling and my body again on the floor. Perhaps I should consider staying on the floor; I seem to spend a lot of time down there.

"Now will you be silent, boy?"

I cringed at the named he called me. He knew I hated to be addressed in such a manner. But little did he know that his outburst had only given me more ammunition.

"You see; even you are willing to assault one of your children for merely saying something that displeases you. Now imagine how Lord Kain will be, with his frayed temper, when you approach looking like that. You know I'm right!"

"Calisra told me that you had grown worse since last we spoke but I did not dare to believe you would be like this. What madness drives you to near suicide and these fatalistic hallucinations?"

"I am not sick. This is no disease of the mind. This is a gut feeling based on all I have seen and known. Please don't go…please." I felt my throat tighten and eyes begin to sting…god no…I can't cry…not now… "Please!"

Master Raziel crouched beside me where I still lay. "Why are you so persistent?" He asked, his tone softened.

"Master…you saved me…I must do what I can to protect you in return."

"I saved all my children." He told me. "All were rescued from the bonds of mortality and their fragile human shells to become something greater."

I shook my head. "You know what I mean…"

He drew in a breath and then sighed. "Yes, I know. It was far more to you, and I realise you must feel indebted."

Master Raziel was the only one who new the truth about me. He knew why I slept with my back to the wall, why the thought of nakedness repulsed and sometimes even frightened me, why I sometimes barricaded my door at night… It wasn't that I had a dirty little secret; I was the dirty little secret. But not any more…he changed that. If angels existed, he had to be one of them and if not then he was still my rescuer regardless. I owed him far more than my mere life…

My human past was one long nightmare. My mother died giving birth to me and my father was completely inept at childrearing, I was brought up mainly by a neighbour who had two sons of her own. Eventually my father and I moved to a smaller village as vampires had begun to show interest in our previous home. But the move left us penniless, homeless and hungry. At the age of six my father was confronted by two men who offered to take me off his hands and he was given a large sum of money for his co-operation. He was vaguely reluctant to let me go, he may have been a useless father but he was my father all the same. The men assured him I would be looked after and that their sister, who was incapable of bearing her own children, wanted to care for me after seeing me suffering on the street with my old man. And off I went with them. They kept a roof over my head, clothes on my back and food in my belly…what more could a child want? That question is easily answered. A child would not want this arrangement at the price of sharing the bed they gave him in a back room of a sordid brothel with any man who came to call whether he wanted to or not. Night after night I was torn apart and there was barely a day when I could walk straight or not cry. I ended most weeks with internal trauma that would be fixed by a local healer so I could go about my 'duty'. And that was my life; I quickly learned to forget that I might ever have had any dignity because if I tried to pretend I did it only made my visitors harder to come to terms with. I learn to shut down and let them do as they pleased as the more I struggled and cried the worse they were. The more obedient I was the less likely they were to tie me down, but half of the time the sick bastards enjoyed it when I begged them to stop. I saved my tears for when I was alone. I tolerated that existence for fourteen years because I was too afraid of them all to try and get away, but in the end I did fight back. At twenty years old I bit down hard when I shouldn't have and then spent the next hour being beaten senseless, dragged out into the woods nearby and forced into a small crate, the lid of which they nailed shut. Then they buried me and left me, whether it was a punishment or to kill me I do not know…all I do know is that I screamed and pleaded for them to let me out, yelled out into the night that I would be good, that I would never do what I did again, that I would comply to everything that was demanded off me if only they would let me out. I begged like a child down there in the dark, slowly running out of air with every shout and movement but it was not they who dug me up again. When the soil was scraped away and the lid torn from the crate it was a pale, elegant face, with black lips and hair that stared down at me. He hauled me out of there, my naked body covered in sweat, blood, dirt and streaming tears. He asked me why I had been buried alive, I told him, and he wrapped me in his cloak and led me away. That same night I was reborn a vampire and I have never regretted it.

He saved me and so I could not just let him throw his life away. If there was any way I could stop this; I would.

"Master…please…"

"Get up, Maddrell. Go back to your chamber and sleep; you are not well. When I return later today you will see that your fears are misplaced. Go sleep and have your nightmares if you must, and when you wake all will be well; you will see." He helped me to my feet.

"Master…" I whimpered one last time.

"Go, Maddrell." He told me kindly as he led me to the door and encouraged me back into the hall.

"Yes, master." I mumbled.

As the door closed, I was sure I saw a small smile of pity on his face, that face which was once outlined by the moon as I watched him free me through tear stung eyes and muddy locks of hair. Man…vampire…angel…master…he was going off to die and would unwittingly take us with him.

And I could not stop him.

To be continued –

Author's Note – There, see, I told you it wasn't too graphic. Hope I haven't put anyone off. Oh, what to say, what to say, I always get stuck doing these bits…so why do I? I ask myself, to which I reply; because it's only polite to thank the people who suffer through my recorded madness. Hmm…perhaps I should stop talking to myself…

Replies!

BiOhAzArD – Calm thyself. I wasn't expecting this to do all that well anyway; it's almost purely OCs. I'm just glad I can still make out a few old faces following through.

The Twisted Sister – Welcome back! Thank you for the review and thank you for following through! Have cookie!

Smoke – Yay, you came back! Huzzah! Maddrell is just a very paranoid little thing. After what he went through he craves safety. When something happens to make changes to his little world or threaten its hub (ie beloved master Raziel) he automatically assumes the worst and blows it all out of proportion with an overactive and somewhat skewed imagination. All in all he's simply extremely scared and the years of abuse have made his thoughts irrational when it comes to things that might be even slightly bad for him. But he'll go through changes as the fic progresses and the Maddrell of BtE will emerge.

Chicken-Chan – Yeah, I stuck with the title…dunno why…makes it sound like it's about a seriously cheesy superhero or something…o.o

Varyssa – You came too! Thank you so much! Cookies, cookies, cookies! Wish I had something more interesting to say but hey-ho, never mind. Glad you liked that line. I'm trying t get a bit of the personality of the BtE Maddrell into this one.

Hawk6 – A new face! Welcome, welcome, sit down and enjoy. Me so happy to see you're excited as there's no point in carrying on posting if there isn't anyone waiting to read. Thankee muchly!

Well, I'm done for this update. Hope to see you again.

Bye bye for now.