Running.
He was running.
Running to avoid his inevitable pain.
Running because he hoped he could get away from it.
Running despite the fact that he couldn't possibly escape.
The young dragon gasped in pain and faltered, stumbling and nearly losing his balance. He had to get out of there, he had to run. Before-
"Come back here, boy!"
"No, no, nononono!" He whimpered, instinctively cringing. This couldn't be happening! Please, Ancestors please, make this not be happening!
"Where do you think you're going?" A massive shape dropped down in front of him, its dark nature hidden behind pristine white scales. "Did I give you permission to go out of the house?"
"No, please dad! I just-," He stuttered.
"Just what, Apex?" Dolus snarled, his larger than life shape looming over him. "Just trying to ruin the family name? Trying to be as much of a freak as that worthless lizard you call a friend?"
"N-no! I-I didn't-,"
"Didn't what?" Dolus leaned down, his eyes boring holes into Apex's soul. "Didn't mean what you said? Because that would be awfully convenient, wouldn't it. Just renounce what you've said, and stop following that lizard around like a lost puppy." Dolus's head reared back, staring at Apex in disdain. "Maybe then you'll be worth something."
Dolus seemed to grow even more towering, his scales darkening in color until he was nothing more than a pair of luminous eyes glowing in the darkness. "But then, you're just a fool."
The shadow dragon slashed at Apex, sending him tumbling across the ground. The world around him melted into nothingness, leaving Apex standing in an empty void with the shadow dragon. "Wh-what do you want from me?!"
"I want you to see the truth." The shadow dragon laughed, its luminous blue eyes cutting through the shadow of the empty void like a blade through butter. "You follow Null around, worshipping the ground that worthless creature walks upon. You're an idiot."
"Null is not worthless," Apex growled. "And I'm not an idiot."
"Really? Then let me illustrate why exactly you are an idiot. You think you're Null's friend? That he values you?"
"Of course I do! We're like brothers!" Apex protested.
"You're like brothers now, but before?" An image appeared, one of a much younger Apex searching for Null. The dark green dragon was hiding, and it wasn't for the sake of a game. "He never wanted to be near you after that! What's made you think he's changed his mind?
"Even now, you're the one putting in the work while he cowers in fear." Images of the scene in the village appeared, of Null incapacitated while Apex took out the grublins. Images of Apex telling off Althus and Amp, while again Null lay there unable to act. "You've given him everything you have, and he's given you nothing in return."
"No!" Apex snarled, slashing at the images. "That isn't how that happened! I help Null because he's accepting and kind! He needs someone to lean on just as often as I do!"
The shadowy dragon was silent for a while. "You speak truth."
"Of course I do! Null is like a brother to me, and I'm not going to let anything turn me against him!" Apex dropped into a combat stance. "Now whatever you are, get out of my head!"
"Oh, if it were that simple." The shadowy dragon vanished into wisps of darkness, its form becoming nothing.
"What?!" Apex blinked, backing up in surprise.
"It isn't as simple as that for me to leave. Believe me, my leaving is what both of us want, but it is simply impossible" The formless voice came from everywhere and nowhere at once. "You can at least count yourself lucky that I am no stronger than you."
"What are you talking about?" Apex asked, looking around to try and locate the shadow creature. "If that's the case, how are you in my head?"
"Let me tell you something." The voice seemed mildly irritated. "There are many things in this world that we don't understand, my origin being one of them. In fact, I know nothing more than you do, and cannot grow stronger than you. We are equal, and we share power and knowledge."
"We? Why do you keep saying we?" Apex asked. "What are you?!"
"Oh, Apex. I'd have thought you'd figured that out by now." The shadows began to collect, creating a dragonlike caricature exactly the same height and size as Apex. It had luminous blue eyes, with two sleek horns poking out of the back of its skull. The wings seemed disproportionately large for its body size, until one took into account the flexible fins on the tail that easily classified this dragon as a wind dragon, despite its dark grey color.
The dark grey dragon tilted its head and grinned. "Don't you recognize me, Apex?
"I'm you."
xXx
Apex woke with a start, his entire body aching and his head hurting. The part that hurt the worst was his stomach: it felt as though something had sliced him open. He almost didn't want to move a muscle, but he knew he had to. He slowly looked down at himself, and his eyes widened in shock.
Right across his belly, starting right at the bottom of his ribs and ending at his right hip, was a massive wound. The entire wound was clean and straight, but it was deep enough for Apex to see his own innards. That sight alone made him almost vomit. At any moment Apex expected the injury to begin bleeding profusely, but to his surprise and immense relief, it did not.
It suddenly came to Apex's attention that there was something hard pressing against his back, and he turned his head to look. A colorless spirit gem, almost as large as he was, was laying there next to him.
Only now did Apex look at his surroundings, realizing that this was not anywhere he had ever seen before. It was a small cave, although it was easily large enough that it wasn't cramped. The only entrance was a single hole that was big enough for Apex to easily slip through. Roots poked through the ceiling all over the place, as well as poking through the floor and walls. It seemed like the roots were the only thing holding the cave roof together.
Apex turned his attention to the opening, and to his surprise there was snow there. The light reflecting off of the snow hurt his eyes to look at, forcing him to look away.
Where was Null? The dark green dragon couldn't be far, could he? Not if Apex was wounded this badly. Null wouldn't leave him to this fate.
Speaking of, what had done this to him? The last thing he remembered-
A scrabbling sound was audible outside the cave, and a cascade of snow tumbled in. It was immediately followed by a dark green shape. Apex perked up at the sight of Null, but immediately turned to fear and worry.
Null was covered in injuries, many of them dire. There was a hole in his chest, probably all the way through to the lungs. His left wing was sliced off at the joint, the membrane shredded to tatters. Null's tail was cut off entirely, leaving nothing but a bleeding stump. The smaller dragon was limping on three legs because his front right paw was gone, and his left foreleg was flayed open to the bone. The worst injury by far, however, was on his head. His left horn was missing entirely, along with a sizable chunk of scales and skull.
The dark green dragon dragged himself into the cave, wheezing with the effort. He turned his red gaze on Apex, his eyes wide. "A-Apex, y-you're awake."
"Null! What happened?!" Apex tried to rise, only to cringe back in pain. The injury on his stomach wasn't allowing him to move quickly, or much at all for that matter.
"Th-the Boread." Null coughed, causing blood to hit the cave floor. "It, it wasn't alone. Th-there were-," Null took a shuddering breath. "There were more."
"Boread…?" Apex muttered in confusion. His eyes widened as his memory returned.
The Boread raised one bladed limb and sent it whistling through the air towards Null's back.
"No!" Apex roared, an unexplained energy surging through him.
Like with the goliath at the village, Apex unleashed an incredibly powerful blast of wind energy. Tendrils of elementally charged wind writhed through the air, wrapping around the elemental's arm and stopping it dead in its tracks. It wasn't going to kill Null, not on his watch.
With a wrenching movement, Apex ripped the arm off of the elemental's body and sent it soaring into the trees. It embedded itself in one tree, before turning into snow.
Apex raised his claws and channeled air into blades, enhancing his own natural weapons beyond anything nature could cause. He drew back and slashed at the Boread's arms, lopping off three of them in quick succession. Soon the ice elemental was left with only two limbs, and one of them was already nearly destroyed.
He raised his claws to slice the elemental in two-
Then it whirled with a speed that should have been impossible, and its two remaining arms sliced through his stomach.
He was unconscious before he hit the ground.
"Oh, Ancestors, please no." Apex dragged himself over to Null, the memories of the horrible elemental running through his head. "Don't die on me Null, please don't die on me!"
"Y-you're-," Null coughed up more blood, his eyes closing. "You're the b-best friend… I could have hoped for…"
With that, the small dragon lay still.
"No, no, no, no! NO! NO!" Apex screamed shaking Null's body.
But it was for naught.
Apex bent his head down, tears streaming down his face. Null was dead. He was dead. Just like Jaya. The two he thought of as family were dead. Because of elementals. Because of creatures that didn't have emotion or thought.
The wind dragon sat there for hours, crying about his lost friend.
The last thing he heard before falling asleep once more was a familiar voice.
"Apex?"
xXx
Pain. Everything was pain.
His stomach was sliced open, his bones felt as though they were under incredible tension, and his head was simultaneously on fire and too cold to think. He felt hot and cold, the sure signs of a fever, and the few times he opened his eyes everything was mashed into a blur of grey.
Apex cringed at the pain, pulling his legs closer to his body to curl up into a ball. It hurt to move, hurt to breathe. He wanted the pain to end.
"I can end the pain for you"
Apex froze. No, please no. Not that thing. The thing from his nightmare.
"I am not your enemy, Apex. I am a part of you. And I can make the pain end."
No, not like that. He wasn't willing to end himself to end the pain.
The voice of the dark entity sighed. "I just told you that we are one and the same. If you die, I die. That isn't worthwhile for anyone, least of all Null."
Null. Null was dead. Null had been killed by that Boread.
"For some reason I doubt that. There is no body nearby, we would sense it with our wind element."
What? Apex opened his eyes and looked around, but all he could see was a blur. Apex pushed through the pain, focusing enough to sense the air currents in the cave. As the voice said, there was nothing else in there besides himself and a crystalline shape just smaller than he was. He opened his mouth and spoke, his voice hoarse from disuse. "How did you know that?"
"Because I am you, Apex." The voice was exasperated.
"Alright then, me." Apex whispered. "How are you supposed to be able to help me?"
"Because unlike you, I have a direct link to the elemental energy within us. I can use that to heal us."
"What are you?" Apex asked quietly. "Where did you come from? And why, if you are a part of me, are you only talking now?"
"I…" The voice trailed off into silence for a moment. "I don't know. My knowledge is limited to what you know. All we know is that I manifested soon after you used that fury on the goliath."
"…Alright. How do you plan to help me?" Apex murmured.
"By utilizing the elemental energy you have stored within you, and transforming it into life energy to restore your wound and empower your physical body."
"Um… common, please?"
"I'll drain your magic to heal you." The voice explained slowly. "And then I'll make you stronger."
"I…" Apex hesitated. Something felt off. Felt… wrong. "I don't know."
"Oh, to the hells with this. I'm doing it anyways."
"What? But I thought you were part of me! I thought you had to do as I wanted!" Apex protested weakly.
"Just because I am part of you does not mean I obey you." The voice retorted.
Apex could feel his consciousness fading rapidly. He laid his head on the floor, unable to keep his head up any longer.
"Just sleep. We'll be better when you wake."
xXx
"By the Ancestors, I didn't think this was possible…"
Apex felt something gently prodding him in the side. He shuddered as a paw traced down his stomach from his ribcage to his hip. As it reached the end of the scarred area, the paw lifted.
"Red gems didn't heal it, but apparently you can heal it on your own. That's… amazing."
Apex stirred and opened his eyes, unable to make out anything beyond the blurred mess that he always saw. When he spoke, it was weak and nearly silent. "What's going on?"
"Hey bud, how're you doing?" A shape moved past his vision, settling down directly in front of him.
Apex blinked a few times, clearing his vision somewhat. He could barely make out a dark green shape in front of him. "Null?"
"Who else would it be?" Null's voice lacked the harsh edge that he usually used when speaking to others. But then, he had rarely used that voice with Apex. The dark green dragon chuckled. "I thought you were going to die."
"Null…" Apex felt tears building up in his eyes. He turned, rolling over onto his front. Apex dug his claws into the ground and tried to stand, only to find that he couldn't. He was entirely drained.
"Woah! Don't get up yet. You still need to recover." Null rushed over to his side, pressing him back to the ground.
"I-I thought-," Apex choked on his words. "I thought you were d-dead, Null."
Null glanced sidelong at the wind dragon. "Whatever would give you that idea?"
"I saw- I saw you. You, you were dying. Something tore you up and-," Apex sobbed, closing his eyes as tears ran down his face. "I c-couldn't do a-anything."
"It's fine now, it was just a dream," Null soothed.
Apex lay there sobbing for a while, taking comfort in the presence of his best friend. They were safe. Both of them were safe.
After an indeterminate amount of time, the wind dragon wiped his tears from his eyes. "What… what happened?"
"How far do you remember?" Null asked.
"I remember… the Boread. When it sliced me open," Apex answered, wincing in remembered pain.
"Ah, right." Null looked at the ground. "Well, after that I managed to kill the elemental."
"How?" Apex asked, raising an eyeridge.
"What, you have no faith in me?" Null teased.
"I'm just wondering how you broke through its armor without getting sliced," Apex muttered.
"Eh, fair enough." Null nodded. He seemed to remember something. "Oh, right. Be right back."
Without saying a word more, the small dragon shot up and rocketed through the cave entrance. After a few moments, there was the sound of something scraping against the ground, and Null returned through the hole, backwards. He was dragging something much larger than he was, a fully grown deer.
"How in the world did you manage to take that down?!" Apex's jaw dropped in surprise.
The dark green dragon grinned, raising his tailblade. "Watch."
With that, Null flicked his tail down into the deer, causing his tailblade to whip through the air and bury its curved length into the dead creature's flesh.
"What in the world…" Apex's eyes widened.
"That's not even the strangest part," Null said. He placed the now-unadorned end of his tail near the blade's spiked end. Null quickly thrust the end of his tail onto the point of the spike, and there was an almost inaudible click. Just like that, Null raised his tail with the blade attached. "That's how I killed the Boread. I didn't even realize it was my tailblade until after I had drained its energy."
"Wow, so you're like some sort of… I dunno, stealth attack dragon." Apex laughed weakly at his joke. "So, uh, what happened then?"
"After the Boread collapsed, I went over to investigate your wound." Null hesitated. "If I'm honest… you should have died. It almost barely didn't slice your stomach apart, and you didn't bleed to death because the edges of the cut were frozen. I had to move you, so I managed to get you on my back and made my way back to the treant. Speaking of, it's thawed out by now, but it's dead. Anyways, this cave was right under the treant, so I dug away the snow and brought you down here. I couldn't bring you a red spirit gem, so I had to get creative there. I broke off that crystal," Null gestured at the colorless crystal that was laying next to Apex. "Using a rock, and dragged it down here with rope. My tailblade grew back a couple days after that, probably because of the red gem shards that went everywhere when I broke the crystal."
Apex could only sit in silent amazement that Null had managed to accomplish all this. Something about the conversation caught his attention. "How long was I out?"
"A week? Maybe a week and a half?" Null shrugged. "I wasn't counting. I had to bring you water and food. Occasionally you would wake up, but you were never lucid because of your fever. In fact, the first time I came back, you were halfway across the cave, crying your eyes out." Null's eyes met Apex's cerulean orbs. "I'm guessing that's when you had that bad dream."
"I… maybe?" Apex shook his head. He honestly couldn't remember anything that had happened, not clearly enough to say anything. "Where did you get drinkable water?"
"Something I remembered about the Ancient Grove is that the poisons don't react well to ice." Null chuckled. "Or rather, they completely dissipate. A huge section of the Grove is completely pure, none of the normally toxic creatures can live there. It's also got many clean ponds, which makes life far easier."
"Gotcha." Apex placed his paws on the ground, ready to push himself off the ground. "Are we ready to go?"
"Not quite yet. I have a question for you." Null walked over to the empty spirit gem and tapped a claw against it. "How did this not work, but then you healed on your own?"
Apex mulled it over for a few moments. "I… really don't know. I don't remember anything from when I was sick, apart from the constant pain. It just… happened."
"That's odd," Null noted, shrugging. "Yeah, I guess we'll get on the move then. You seem to have recovered remarkably quickly, considering that you were mortally wounded."
Apex pushed himself to his feet with a grunt, finding that he could stand now. He was still shaky, but not to the point where standing was an immense effort of willpower. He glanced down at Null, who was staring up at him in surprise. Apex tilted his head. "What?"
"You've gotten taller," Null observed.
"I have?" Apex looked down at himself, finding that the ground was surprisingly far away. "That's weird."
"Hopefully it's just a growth spurt enhanced by exposure to the life energy that red gems use to heal dragons," Null muttered to himself.
"Erm, what?" Apex asked.
"Nothing. Just thinking aloud." Null shook his head, grinning up at Apex. "I'm just glad you're alright."
"Well, it's thanks to you that I am." Apex happily replied. He went to walk out of the cave, only to find his legs slipping out from under him.
Null was there in an instant, holding him up. The smaller dragon seemed to be having difficulty doing so, but that was probably because Apex had grown in the week he had been recovering. But… Null had been fending for himself during that time, no doubt getting stronger, and he hadn't grown at all. Weird.
Both of the young dragons exited the small cave, and Apex looked up at the dead treant that towered over it. He shuddered at the thought of that thing moving, then turned his gaze back to ground level. The wind dragon slowly hobbled over to the green crystals that grew around the treant's feet and broke some off, feeling rejuvenated and energized by the energy flowing into him.
"Ready?" Null asked, stretching his legs.
"As I'll ever be," Apex replied.
"Let's go."
The two friends set off once more through the thawing forest, both taking note of the changed atmosphere. No longer was it gloomy, as it was when overtaken by poison. Neither was it stark and sterile, like when it was frozen. No, the Ancient grove for once was like a normal forest.
Yet there was something nagging at the back of Apex's mind. Something that just… wasn't right. But it wasn't important. His fever had broken, and those strange images were gone. Hopefully forever.
"I'll be there again, when you need me."
A/N:
Ooh, spooky. Seems like something's not right in Apex's head.
Still, he's healed up now, and he's grown during the time he was out. Might not be normal, but who would complain about being better able to defend their friends?
Who am I kidding, you all know this is going to end badly.
Anyways, please review to let me know what you think!
Now read on!