Chapter 7 Summit of Anticipation

Emperor's P.O.V.

I sighed when I heard that I had to go to a meeting; especially when HE was going to be there. I detested NightShade. He was out of shape, ate too much, did not give others much regard to their being, and he was WAY to cocky to be powerful.

If NightShade was more like Venom, I would be kinder to him.

I thought to myself as I knocked on the chamber room door of NightShade. Before this, I was reluctant to even go anywhere near where he was. There was no answer from the other side of the door. I had been sent from the order of Halcyon to get him.

Why does it have to be me that gets NightShade. Why can't it be anyone else?

I complained to myself as I prepared to knock again. Before I could knock again, the door opened. NightShade stood in the the doorway chewing something.

"What do you want?"

He asked me when he saw me. It took everything that I had to make sure that I didn't hurt him. I looked him straight in the eye.

"I've been sent by Halcyon to tell you that we have an important meeting today."

I said with the most professional voice I could. NightShade spit something at my feet and walked right through me, almost causing me fall onto the ground. I gave a low growl to myself as I set a brisk walking pace to catch up to NightShade. When I caught up with him, he looked at me with a smug look in his face.

"I would watch your luck NightShade; yours is running thin with me."

I told him.

"You really think that you can hurt me? You must still have head injuries,"

He said with a laugh.

Just take the Reborn and impale him along with the it in the wall. You want him gone anyways right?

A sinister, cold voice said in my head. I looked around nervously trying to see who spoke to me, but all that was happening was that NightShade was whistling a tune. Again, this was a tune that I did not recognise, but that wasn't my primary focus.

"Did you hear anyone speaking?"

I asked NightShade as we neared the stairs that led to the Revelation Room. he stopped walking and looked at me with a confused look.

"I didn't. All I could hear was your little whiny voice."

He replied with a sneer.

"Ok, thanks f-"

I started, however, I was cut off by NightShade once again.

"Your voice just sticks in my head all the time. It's quite annoying coming from you especially."

He said to me. I was about ready to pummel him. The way that he was acting towards me was uncalled for.

"As I was saying; thanks for letting me know that you didn't hear anything. I now can continue with my process of elimination."

I thanked him with the professional voice I used so much with this individual. I did not know why he was so cocky and arrogant, but much like my mother said, it would be his downfall. We walked down the stairs together, turned to the left so that we could walk out of the Revelation Room. NightShade looked at me, then to the door when we had reached it.

"Open the door."

He commanded me. Now I was upset.

"I'm not your servant! Don't tell me what to do!"

I shouted at NightShade. He smiled and chuckled to himself.

""I think that you will."

He said softly. I took the Reborn off of my back.

"And why's that NightShade?"

I asked with mock incredulity. NightShade looked at me with a strong stare that burned into my head.

"Because I said that you would."

He stated flatly. I growled to myself and put the Reborn back on my back. I opened the door and NightShade once again pushed through me to walk down the pathway to the CourtHouse. when he was gone from my sight, I closed the Revelation Room's doors behind me. I waited for the spears and walked down the hallway seething with rage.

This is a good thing young King. this is the way that you should feel. Anger and hated will allow you to do so much more than being kind and caring.

The same voice said to me. I looked at my right upper arm. The symbol that was on my shoulder was glowing a very soft Purple color. The next thing that I saw shocked me. There were sparks coming from the symbol. I did not feel pain, but the voice in my head was becoming louder and more defined. As I walked down to the Ivory doors that led into the hallway that led into the real Revelation Room, I thought about what Abyss did to me.

That move…..Pain split.

I thought to myself. I was walking quickly and with haste for some reason.

It's a great thing that you will listen to me.

The voice said to me.

"Who are you? What do you want?!"

I asked fearfully to the doors that were in front of me.

I will be the voice of reason to you. I can dictate your actions and I can give you power that no one will be able to rival

The voice continued. I opened the door to see that it was sunset already. I ran down the side of the road to the CourtHouse, up the steps, blasted through the door and looked at the room. I did not have much time to survey the room because I saw that one of the doors had closed. I ran to the door and pulled the door open. I almost fainted at what I saw. There, in the room, was all the members of the High Council, All of my acquaintances, and a new individual that I had never seen before.

"Emperor!"

The new individual called happily to me. I just stared blankly at the figure.

"Don't just stand there like a tree; come sit with us!"

The new individual said to me. It was just then that I noticed the color of this individual. He was a very deep Gold colored yoshi. He stood up from his chair and extended his arm to me. I received the handshake and the Gold yoshi sat back down.

"I should tell you who I am, right?"

He asked me. He pointed to a chair that was unfortunately right next to Nightshade. he winked at me and continued chewing on a tweed leaf.

"Are you sure that this is the only seat left at the table?"

I asked politely. The Gold yoshi looked at me funny while the other council members exchanged worried glances.

"I'm afraid that there are no more to be found Emperor. You'll have to sit next to NightShade for now."

The Gold one said with exasperation. I walked slowly over to the chair. I moved to sit down in the chair, but as I was getting ready to position myself in the chair, NightShade quickly took the chair from where I was going to sit and I fell to the ground hard. NightShade burst out in laughter. I just looked up from where I was seated in disgust.

"Oh you have no idea how funny that was!"

He said to me while trying to keep a straight face. I got up from the ground and brushed myself off.

Why not take that chair right there and see if he can take a chair to the head?

The voice asked me. I stopped for a moment to decide my next action. I really wanted to give NightShade what was coming to him, but I knew that fighting him would solve nothing. With this in mind, I took the chair from NightShade and sat down at the table. The High Council Members were looking at NightShade in disgust. NightShade was relaxing in his chair with his boots on the table. He stretched and looked back at me once again. He spit another ball of tweed at me. I dodged the ball and the ball traveled past me to the wall where it stuck to the wall with a faint squishing sound. The Gold yoshi spoke again.

"You may address me by the name Halcyon. It's a pleasure to be in your midst Emperor"

Halcyon said with a hint of excitement in his voice. Then his attention turned to NightShade, who looked like he was asleep. Halcyon shook his head slowly. Then he leaned forward like he was about to tell the others something.

"I have no idea how he has lasted this long. I thought someone would have killed him by now!"

Halcyon told the High Council Members. To this, the others laughed. This caused NightShade to take his boots off of the table and sit up straight in his chair. Rose chuckled to herself and I just stared at Halcyon. I felt that I had seen him before.

Maybe it's because of the Gold color that I feel like he's my father.

I thought to myself as Halcyon produced a large stack of papers from the ground that was next to him. He lifted the papers off of the ground and dropped them onto the table. The papers thudded onto the table when he had dropped them unceremoniously onto the table, which made A dull thumping sound as the papers impacted the tabletop. I looked at the papers from where I was sitting. NightShade rolled his eyes.

"Are we just going to sit around and make small talk, or are we going to do something productive here?"

He asked with that annoying entitlement attitude of his. I felt for the Reborn on my back, but It wasn't there. I looked all around the room nervously trying to find the Reborn without getting up from my chair.

"These are the subjects that we need to touch on in this meeting."

Halcyon declared. All of the others in the room looked at him incredulously.

"You really think that we're going to get through all of this today!?"

Lime burst. Halcyon did not look impressed at all.

"I agree with Lime on this one Halcyon."

NightShade started. Without warning or wanting to, I stood up from my chair and grabbed NightShade by the neck and held him in the air. Rose jumped up from her chair.

"What in the world are you doing Emperor!?"

She exclaimed. I smiled without wanting to.

"I'm doing just what anyone else would have done by now."

I said. My voice had changed from my normal one. Halcyon was standing close to his chair. Everyone had worried looks on their faces. NightShade was trying to weasel out of my grasp, but his efforts were futile. I did not know where these thoughts of evil and hate came from, but it was starting to scare me. I also noticed that my vision had turned mostly red.

This is the power you seek. Let the hatred course through your veins and seize the power that is rightfully yours.

The evil voice said to me. I could not resist the evil that was controlling me. I was forced to look at NightShade who had gone limp.

"Emperor!"

A voice shouted to me. I wanted to see who was shouting at me, but I could not move my head. Instead, I spoke by the power of the evil voice that was controlling me.

"It' s too late to save him. NightShade is close to death. After which, I will absorb his Fighting Spirit and gain his power to fuel my own."

I said looking directly at Halcyon. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Lime now had me to gunpoint, Rose had Dart ready to shoot death-bringing darts, Rojo who had just entered the room, Mercury who had a fireball of Blue color in his hand, and a very faint outline of a yoshi in the corner of the room behind the door that Rojo had entered from. I could feel the pulse of NightShade growing weaker. I knew that there was not a lot of time left before he could suffocate, but I could not stop choking for some reason.

"Let him go"

Lime said with a low, intimidating voice. I could not let him go, but I could use my voice now.

"I'm not doing this by my own free will! I need you guys to listen!"

I said with a pained, strained voice. Rojo studied my face. He nodded to himself after he saw my eyes.

"Emperor is speaking the truth."

Rojo declared. Halcyon spoke next.

"If he's indeed telling the truth, why has he not let NightShade go yet?"

He asked nervously. Lime pushed the tip of Tempest( his gun) into my back. I dropped NightShade and whipped around to maneuver Lime and his gun so that I was choking him. I had the blade of Tempest to Lime's throat. Lime was shuddering all over.

"Why are you doing this Emperor!?"

A new voice exclaimed. This time, it was Cynder that was speaking. I narrowed my eyes in hatred, when in reality, I wanted to be relieved. She materialized A DeathBringer with her left hand and A fireball with her right hand.

"Drop him Emperor."

Cynder commanded. I was able to move myself now, so I let Lime go. He dropped to the floor and he scrabbled across the floor to the opposite side of the table to join Marine, Halcyon, Mercury, Rose, Northwind, Frostbite and Rojo on the other side of the table. The others watched intently as Cynder edged over to me slowly. She was whispering to me softly when she was near me. She snapped her right fingers and the DeathBringer and fireball disappeared. She put both of her hands on my shoulders and put her head on my right shoulder.

"I know what you're going though. I'll do my best to help you."

She said softly as I felt a tear fall onto my shoulder. She returned to standing in front of me. I noticed that she was sobbing softly and was looking at the floor. I collapsed to the floor in grief.

"What's going to happen now?"

I asked with fearful eyes as I felt the evil leave my thoughts for now. Cynder smiled weakly.

"I have no Idea to be honest."

She told me quietly. She turned around and grabbed Rojo by the shoulder. She said something to him and the two walked briskly out of the room. Halcyon walked around the table to look at me once more. When he got close to me, he sat down with his legs crossed and with a strong stare.

"What have you failed to tell us about your state of being Emperor?"

He asked me with contempt in his voice. I saw that the others in the room were standing behind Halcyon with their respective weapons drawn.

"Do I really need to tell you Halcyon? I don't think that everyone here should hear what happened to me."

I started to protest. Halcyon did not take any notice to my protests, but instead asked me more questions.

"What is that on your upper arm?"

He asked. I fearfully looked at my upper arm expecting to see something terrible, but there was nothing ridiculous when I studied the symbol. I looked behind Halcyon to see if the outline was still there. The outline of the individual walked out of the room, causing me shake my head vigorously. After that I looked back at Halcyon, who had gotten up from where he was sitting. He was obviously done trying to get anything from me. I sighed in relief.

"Can we resume from where we left off?"

Rose asked impatiently. She looked at me with narrowed eyes as she made her DeathBringers disintegrate.

"Will you have any more outbursts Emperor?"

She asked me sternly. I took my gaze from Halcyon and looked at the fierce gaze of Rose.

"I have no idea!"

I shouted back at her. She winced and sat down in her chair. The others looked at each other and put their respective weapons away and sat in their respective chairs as I got up from the floor.

I wonder why she winced like that

I wondered as I found the chair that I had been sitting in before. I looked around at my surroundings once more. Miraculously, almost nothing had changed when I was taken over by that voice. Everyone that was in the room had also returned to their seats except for Rojo, Northwind, Frostbite, Cynder and NightShade. I was worried for him for some reason.

Even though I do not care for him, that does not allow me to not care for his health.

I mentally scolded myself. Halcyon's speech broke through my thoughts.

"Is everyone ready to continue?"

He asked impatiently, stacking the papers once again. Everyone turned their attention to Halcyon, who took the top paper off of the stack.

"The first thing that we need to address is the damages that happened from the war."

Halcyon declared. Lime leaned forward in his chair.

"What exactly is the total amount in damages Halcyon?"

He asked anxiously. Halcyon closed his eyes and sighed heavily.

"We've taken at least 500,000 Watermelons in damage."

He said slowly, quietly and with heavy stress in his voice. Lime, Rose, and I just stared openmouthed in awe at the damage that Halcyon had described.

Fruits and Vegetables on the united Islands are the currency that the yoshi kind uses to give a value to an object. Small fruits such as Apples, Oranges, Bananas, Pears, Lemons, strawberries and a vine of Grapes are 1 in value. Larger fruits such as Pineapples, Grapefruits, Large pumpkins/Squash and Dragon Fruit were counted as 10 in value. There is only one fruit that is counted as 50 in value, and that is Peppers of any kind. Watermelons are by far one of the most sought items of currency; these are 100 in value. Then there's only three things that are better than a Watermelon. These are the Bread Loafs that have a value of 500, the Golden Loaf that has a value of 1000 and last, but certainly not least, there's the Diamond. These are extremely rare to find on the United Islands, but can bring great fortune to those who find them. They have been valued at 10,000 to 100,000 by size.

This was the train of thought that I had going through my mind as Halcyon read through the papers of the table. He had gotten through most of them by the time that I had finished my thought. I must have been staring off into space because Lime was staring at me. I shook my head.

"Why is everyone staring at me?"

I asked nervously. Lime shook his head slowly.

"Do you have any idea how much pressure that you put on us?"

He asked me slowly. I was confused. I thought I was the only one that had so much to deal with. Keeping this in mind, I stared out the nearest window. The sky was once again filling with clouds that flashed periodically with Blue lightning.

"Hello?"

Lime called to me. I looked back at him,

"This is what i'm talking about Halcyon!"

He cried in desperation. Halcyon sighed.

"You're only upset because you don't want to be here anymore. You're young and active and I understand that. However, you need to learn how to control your restlessness."

He said evenly. Halcyon took the last paper off of the table. He read the the paper quickly and quietly to himself. He set the paper on the stack of papers that were next to him.

"This pertains only to Emperor at the moment."

Halcyon declared. The others jumped from their chairs and ran quickly out of the room. I was astounded by how fast they left the room. It was as if they did not want to be in this meeting or something and it bothered me for some reason. Halcyon sighed again.

"They never put their chairs back under the table."

He said annoyed to the room as he got up from his chair and put the chairs back under the table I was sitting at. When he sat back down again, he looked me straight in the eyes. I noticed that his left eye had turned a faint Orange color.

"Why don't you tell me what just happened here not too long ago?"

He told me seriously. I noticed by glancing at both sides of the room that there was a DeathBringer on each side of the room. I started to get nervous. I didn't have the Reborn, Halcyon was acting weird, there was a storm outside and I had no idea what was going on.

"I...I had no Idea Halcyon…...I'm being honest!"

I stammered. He smiled to himself. His left eye was was glowing a deeper Orange that it had been before. The eye was also giving off a strange glimmering dust that sparkled in the air.

"I'll be watching you Heir to the throne"

He told me, stressing the last part of the sentence. He got up from his chair and walked to the left side of the room. He tapped the wall three times and a small portion of the wall opened to reveal the Reborn, which had been in the wall the whole time. I gasped in surprise.

"I knew that you had the Devil's Gene in you."

Halcyon declared to me. This remark made me get out of my chair.

"Since when did you know about this?"

I asked tensely. Instead of answering my question, Halcyon threw me the Reborn. I caught it with my right hand and put it on my back.

"You can leave now Emperor."

Halcyon told me. I left without saying anything. I didn't know why Halcyon was so cryptic, but thinking about it gave me headache. I walked out of the room, opened the door and proceeded to sit on the steps that led up the the CourtHouse. I watched the clouds roll over the island that I knew as my home. The lightning occasionally lit up the landscape, sending flashing lights into my field of vision. I heard footsteps behind me, but I didn't move.

"Are you OK Emperor?"

A figure asked me as the individual sat down beside me. I shifted my eyes without moving my head to see who had sat down beside me.

"Oh, hey…...Cynder."

I said sullenly. She looked at me funny.

"What happened in there?"

She asked me quickly. I looked at her.

"Halcyon hid the Reborn from me."

I stated flatly. Cynder nodded slowly.

"I understand that would make you upset."

She sighed. She looked at the clouds that had rolled over the sky.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

She asked me. I was looking at the clouds that were above me, but I couldn't see what she was marveling at.

"Don't you think the rain is beautiful Emperor?"

She asked me. I saw that it had indeed started raining, but what made the land beautiful I didn't know.

"What exactly are you marveling at?"

I asked trying to look for something beautiful. Cynder pointed to the patch of flowers that lined the staircase that led up to the CourtHouse entrance.

"These are what i'm talking about."

She told me as she got up to get one of them. She walked to the base of the stairs and started studying the flowers as if one of them held something that the others didn't. She returned with a flower of white color and held it out to me.

"This is a white rose; it's very hard to find on the island chains where we live."

She told me. I studied the flower she called a rose. It looked similar to a tulip and had spots of water on it where the rain had fallen on its petals. I sniffed the flower. It had a sweet smell to it that made everything that I had been going through less...stressful. Cynder smiled. She knew that I liked the flower, but I didn't know if I should. I thought that she had gotten the flower to show me what a rose was. While I was debating this in my head, she sat back down next to me.

"Don't you like it Emperor?"

She asked me. I could sense a bit of worry in her voice.

"I wanted to take it, but I didn't know if I should have."

I said without wanting to. This was odd because I had started to say things that were not of my free will. Cynder looked at me funny.

"You've changed recently. What's going on Emperor?"

She asked me. I didn't respond, instead, I kept my gaze fixed to the rain that was falling to the ground along with the occasional lightning flash. I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked at Cynder. I could tell by the way she was sitting that she was nervous.

"Why are you nervous?"

I asked her. She turned away from me to look at the fire that was on the mountain.

"There's a fire up on the mountain. Electrical fires are not easy to put out."

She told me. I narrowed my eyes so that I could see what she was talking about. The rain had stopped momentarily, but the overcast sky had not changed.

"I have to go do something Emperor."

Cynder declared. She took off walking at a brisk pace towards the castle that I came from. She left to me to the overcast sky and the quiet chirping of various insects, birds, and the loneliness of the area. I got up from where I was seated and went back inside the CourtHouse. I didn't know why I felt that I was safe in the CourtHouse, but I went inside anyway. My progress was hindered by the High Council Members that were streaming out of the double doors. When they had left the building, I entered into the room and collapsed into one of the chairs.