Chapter 1

It was a strong dream. One he has had time and time again before he even met Bad. Garou would get these vivid visions but it felt like a memory. The dream always had him on the outside looking in.

It happened thousands of years ago, he watched everything from a massive King's court, and there was a man brought before the King, bounded in chains as he was forced to face the ruler of the land for punishment. But, what was his crime? Each and every time he gets this dream, more details are given. Before it was all a blur but he managed to figure out it was a court hosted by the king. Then the man brought before him began to appear clear, but there was another who took his interest.

He sat at the right hand of the King, a powerful mystic of sorts. Garou got a chill just looking at him, but decided he would focus on the man who was to face his punishment.

"You show no remorse for your actions, you bare no guilt for it and you have done this more than once! Tell me, peasant, why do you believe you have the right to take what isn't yours!" the King demanded.

The man peered up, Garou for the first time saw his eyes and his face. Yet he froze at the sight of it.

"Father?" he whispered.

Garou never really saw how much he and his father looked alike, but as a human being, he was a dead ringer for his old man! He must have aged a little and gained his more defined and mature features later in life.

He was defiant before the King, there was no look of apology in his eyes, let alone a tone that requested mercy. "Water isn't to be owned by the King, it belongs to all who drink and are in need of it for survival. How is it fair that you and the rich are able to keep more than enough of the precious water to sustain yourselves yet the village I live in must suffer? Women have gone bare in giving milk to their babies, they wail all day and night in hopes for a mere drink! Our animals are dying, our crops fail from lack of water and yet, I am the criminal?" he asked.

"HOLD YOUR TONGUE!" the king ordered.

"Father… FATHER!" Garou shouted, but found he couldn't move, he could only watch on. It was then. The mystic stepped forward.

"My King, permit me to punish this low life!"

He was given the nod of approval, his father began to quake in fear of him, this powerful man with magic beyond any in the known world. He raised a wooden staff as dark mist began to spew from it and onto the floor. It drifted along until it came to his father and surrounded, engulfing him into the mist. "You believe water is for all to drink, so be it. However from this day forth, it isn't water you shall seek to quench your thirst, nor will it ever be enough. Suffer for all times, live in pain and regret for your actions against the king!" Garou froze as the mist was taken into his father's body, then he saw the mystic cut into his own hand, and them he forced his father to drink the blood from it. "Live forever never knowing a quenched thirst again. Live forever and suffer always!"

He never heard such pains of agony before, a hellish scream ripped through the court until his father collapsed then and there, unable to move. He was dragged out as the King smiled and toasted his right hand man.

But there was something fowl afoot, peering down to this mystic's shadow, Garou froze as he swore he saw the reminisce of the old Shadow King lingering within. "He had an agreement with him…" Garou whispered.

He never got far in this dream until now. He watched the world blur until he stood within the bowels of the castle. There he found his father curled up in a ball, whimpering in pain as he tried to contain himself. His cellmates were strong, brutes however, they were slumped against the walls. Their throats ripped out and his father was covered in their blood. "No… no this is how he got curse! That… that asshole cursed him!" Garou whispered.

"It's not enough… I need more… it's not enough…" his father whispered.

The guards soon came by to patrol, when they saw the four men dead and his father on the floor, they froze. "What the hell happened here?" they reached to unlock the gate, in which his father screamed.

"DON'T OPEN THAT!"

The soldiers smirked. "You got lucky with those oafs, but you are dealing with the King's guards!"

The door opened, like a strike of lighting, two were pinned to the wall, two were knocked down as Garou watched his father tear into them without effort. He killed them with ease and learned he merely needed to nick the flesh to draw out the blood effortlessly through his own will.

Despite draining the four men, he continued to search for more, he needed more. How unfortunate for those who were trapped in their cells.

He learned of his power quickly, he could merely look at someone as their body somehow got lashed open, then, like a demonic dance, the blood flowed out and into him. He cleared the prisons, before he went after the guards, the royal court and then, all within the King's kingdom. In a single night, he watched his father drain a kingdom dry.

"That's how it started… but why am I seeing this? Why now?" he wondered. He thought the dream ended when his father flew off into the night, but he was wrong.

Hidden in the shadows was the mage, he looked over the streets and saw every person dead. Emerging behind him was the shadow king at the time. "Such carnage, I do believe this will appease you for some time?"

The Shadow King laughed. "I have no need for mere mortals, however, their deaths are needed for the potion. Have you finished it?"

"I just need to collect the bodies. Just a moment."

The ground began to glow. Garou was horrified as the bodies of the dead fell into the seal and then there was a bright flash! When everything returned to normal. Garou saw the mage hand the shadow king a single vile. "The death of thousands, this is the ingredient needed for your assassination of the Shadow King, is it not councilman?"

"No… this is how he became the king…" Garou whispered.

"Indeed, and with that, I will take over. And you Adus, will learn what true power is! I will teach you the ways of harvesting the souls of the fallen, and making you unstoppable in this world. HOWEVER, you are under my power, my influence. Understood?"

The druid Adus bowed. "Of course my King!"

He woke up in a cold sweat shortly after.

His sudden snap up out of bed woke Bad up as well who was in a dead sleep. "Huh, what? Garou?" he said in a sleepy tone. "What's wrong? You look scared shitless."

He took deep cleansing breaths, trying to settle himself down until he finally managed to do so. "Sorry… just… something is haunting me here. I don't know what." He said.

Bad sat up in bed, this all happened the day before the celebration at the Heroes Association for the anniversary of the vampire war ending. "Hey man, you can tell me… GAH!" Bad froze as his stomach pain returned. "Shit, what the hell is going on now?!"

"Are you okay?" Garou asked with worry. "You keep getting pains in your gut…"

"Fine, I'm fine… it's nothing." Bad insisted. He managed to rub some relief into his sides yet it appeared to be losing it's magic to settle his stomach. "I ain't eating vampire souls again for a long time, bastards are hard to digest!"

Garou smirked.

Yet the dream, continued to haunt him. "I think I am seeing what happened to my father… how he became the Crimson Plague." Garou confessed. "But, I don't understand is why I am seeing these visions."

Bad laid there are Garou explained the dream, a druid named Adus was the one who cursed his father, and he also helped kill the Shadow King before the last one. Yet, he still wonders why these dreams are occurring. "We killed the last Shadow King, but… are the dreams telling me this asshole druid is still alive? My father was over 10,000 years old, at least, from what I have been told…"

Bad appeared a little lost in the conversation. "We'll talk to Snek about it at the party, just relax and go back to sleep." Bad said as he gently coxed Garou back down into bed, he braced him a little tighter to keep him safe. Garou smiled as he nestled into Bad.

"My fat Bat…"

"Shut up."