Usual disclaimers.
Chapter 11. Yes, I know it's taken a while. I've had writer's block, the kind that specifically attacks the muse. I know where I'm going, but at the moment I'm having trouble getting there. Short chapter, too--only a 1,000 words. And I know this is taking a tremendously long time to actually get to the meat of the story. All will be well. The action is coming (er, I know I've said that for the past ten chapters, but...it IS!).
Those who think that this is turning into a torture fic are wrong. This is not a torture fic. It looks like a torture fic, but it's not. All of this has a purpose...major subliminal messages going on here. Reread Chapter 10 before reading this chapter, or you won't get some of them.
Akito is getting more time in this fic than I thought he would. Didn't expect that. He was supposed to sit quietly in his little corner and only come out when wanted, but no, he had to have a bigger part. You'd think these guys would pay attention to me, but no. They're all fame hungry. I tell them to do this, or that, or the other thing, but they disagree (and loudly!) and do what they want to do, when they want to do it!
Er...almost forgot the warning. This chapter is extremely dark and disturbing. Nothing graphic, but heavily implied. Just so you know. So if you're utterly freaked out by such things, please, go read some fluff. PLEASE REVIEW!
"Akito, Akito." The Cat clicked its tongue. "What shall I do with you?"
Akito whimpered, covering his eyes with his hands. This couldn't be happening. He had expressly forbidden it, protected himself against it. Those cursed charms were supposed to guard him against this! Why hadn't the charms guarded him? He was dead now, dead dead dead.
The Cat kicked him brutally in the ribs. Akito shrieked as he heard the muffled crunch of snapped bone. The Cat smiled.
"Like it?"
It kicked Akito again, harder this time. Akito screamed, curling in on himself in defense, shuddering horribly.
The Cat snickered. "Don't you like it, 'God'?" It kicked him again. "Doesn't it feel good?"
Akito began to relax, feeling himself slip away into unconsciousness. The pain would be gone soon. He would survive this. Somehow. He would kill that Cat, revenge himself…
"Ah, ah, ah!" The Cat shook his head at Akito. "No sleeping!"
A burning shot of awareness stabbed Akito, forcefully rousing him and making unconsciousness impossible. He felt every sliver of pain, knowing it should be driving him into unconsciousness, but some alien device was keeping perfectly sensible.
"That's better." The Cat purred. "I don't want you to miss this."
Akito closed in deeper on himself, curling up as tightly possible. He shut his eyes and wrapped his arms over his ears and skull. If he didn't see it, if he didn't hear it, then perhaps he could convince himself it wasn't happening. Perhaps then he could drive himself to that dark protective place at the back of his brain, that sweetly soothing place that was cool and dark, just for him, safe from pain…
"No." The Cat nudged him with its foot, not kicking this time. The movement was light, yet it shot arrows of pain up Akito's body. He shuddered violently. The Cat laughed. "Open your eyes."
Akito screwed them shut. The Cat nudged him again.
"Open your eyes."
Akito flattened the lids tighter than most would think humanly possible. He wouldn't let himself see. He couldn't. It would kill him to see the Cat gloating. He wouldn't do it. He wouldn't.
His mind erupted in flame. Akito screamed, feeling the fire sear his nerves and melt his veins. It rushed through him, incinerating everything in its path, and ending behind his eyes. The fire burned his eyes from within. He screamed, clawing at the pain. His eyes opened. The pain receded to a more bearable level.
The first thing he saw was the Cat, grinning down at him. It licked its lips, its fangs glinting in the sunlight. Akito began to shake uncontrollably. The Jyuunishi near the Cat smiled. Their eyes—the eyes which he knew so well—the eyes of the children, of the Mabaduchi Trio, of Kureno…were dark. Savage. Powerful. Those eyes no longer held the fear that the children had had for him; they held no emotion at all. Only flame. He could see the fire in their eyes; it was leaping out and burning him. The Cat bared his teeth in a hideous smile.
"Break him."
Akito felt blows rain down on him from all directions; punches, kicks, scratches, spit, they all came down him. He felt his blood intermingle with his sweat, drip down into his eyes, but he couldn't wipe it away. He was too agonized to move. Distantly he heard himself scream and tried to disappear into the darkness, but as soon as he could almost touch its velvet pressure, he felt himself jerked back into reality. He screamed in frustration and agony, and heard the Jyuunishi laugh. The Cat was snickering again.
"You thought you could control us. You thought you could control me. It didn't work, did it?"
The fire reentered Akito's bloodstream, and he found himself unable to scream. It hurt too much to scream. It hurt too much not to scream. It hurt so bad he knew he should be dying, but he couldn't die. Something was forcing him to life, keeping him from the sweetness of death. Die…he had to die.
Not yet, sweetling.
Akito began to shake through the blows. Get out! Get out of me!
No. The voice was taking him over, merging with the fire to become one with the pain, branding itself into his consciousness. I'm not leaving. It laughed. You let me into this world. Allow me to introduce you to mine.
Akito ran from the thing in his mind, stumbling over the rivers of agony scattered throughout him, no longer aware of any pain save that which ran within him. He could no longer feel the blows. But he felt the fire. And he felt that voice, chasing him effortlessly throughout his own being… it was invasive. It was violating him. He could feel himself being raped. It was no mere physical rape, but rape of his very self, of something more than his body… Everything but his body was no longer his own. He was no longer his own. Akito no longer existed. Akito had been shattered into pieces too small to ever be reunited.
That's right. It whispered through the torment of the rape. You don't matter anymore. I have you now, and you're not escaping me. No one will escape me. No one. Not you, not any being. No one can. It caressed him, leaving venomous bruises on his soul. No one will.
Kill me. Let me die. Kill me. Please. I beg you. I'll do anything…just kill me.
The Cat purred. No, my sweet. You mustn't die. I love you too much.
Kill me! He was starting to panic now. Was he to be denied death?
I love you too much. You shall live, until you die of old age and a broken body. No dying for you. You shall live to see me reign on the scorched remains of your ambitions.
The Cat withdrew from him, and the blows stopped. One by one, the Jyuunishi vanished from his presence.
Blackness took him.