Chapter 13

Starfire sighed and combed her fingers through her hair. The fire sparked and crackled before her, embers floating up through the tree branches and into the dark night beyond. Alien insects chirp and cricked in the night, each trying to outdo the other's tiny voice. Gentle winds ruffled the thick foliage above them, showering fragmented moonlight down on the campers' heads.

"The river opens up at the beach here," muttered Bruce, clad in ragged looking trekking clothes, a thick jacket keeping the encroaching dank and chill of a mountain's night off of his back. A wide map spread over his knees displayed all known charted areas. Satellites can't get everything, after all. "But there are rapids all the way through. It's very likely he hit one and drowned."

The young alien girl glanced at the map, and squinted her eyes, trying to make out the squiggly landmass in the dim firelight. "He made it, you should not worry of that."

A local guide, Tom something or other, snorted from his place around the fire. "I've been up and down those rapids in a boat and barely survived. The chances of someone making it through there are slim to none."

Bruce gave the guide a warning glance. "I'd appreciate it if you just shut up and stuck with the job I'm paying you for." Folding the map, he stuffed it into his knapsack.

Reaching a hand towards the fire, Starfire sighed again. "No, I am sure he survived. His will is strong, his body stronger, and his mind strongest." Emerald eyes flickered to Bruce, strong and determined. "This I know and this I believe."

The millionaire slowly, carefully, allowed a smile to stretch across his face. A true one. "I…see." Crossing his arms over his chest, he nodded once. "I, unfortunately, know that humans are not as hardy as your people. We are so much more fragile. And as such, we have to force our bodies into something resembling strength. Something of power." He glanced at the guide swiftly, and found him scowling and listening to music. "Nightwing's that way. He tries to become powerful, with all that he is capable of. But he is still human." Bruce motioned at the tent behind her. "Get to sleep, and don't forget what I said. If we find him dead, don't act like you weren't warned."

Clenching her jaw, Starfire stood and marched angrily to the tent. "He has not perished," she growled softly before she disappeared behind the flap.

---

"Ngghhh!"

Thwack! Crunch!

"Hyahhh!"

Grunt.

Nightwing stepped back as the enormous carnivore took the blows and gave some of his own right back. The assassin's body was covered in long streaks of blood and torn flesh. The animal didn't seem too happy about a broken rib and a slash across its leather like hide. Rearing on four of its back legs, the alligator-like snout snapped and clashed together in a flurry of teeth and black mouth flesh. Bird talons worked the sand in an angry fury. Black eyes stared unblinking at the man in front of it. Leathery black wings flapped a bit, then once more, kicking up some sand. A chimera.

"I need to eat to, you know," murmured Nightwing, his bladed pole working a tight circle in his right hand. "You'll die."

The chimera simply opened and closed its snout in an infuriated gesture. The wings flapped again, lifting him clumsily into the air. Sand flew in a blinding wind. Shielding his eyes, Nightwing had no chance to see the lizard tail slam into his chest.

Wham!

A tree shuddered as Nightwing slammed into it in a groaning heap. Just his luck to slam into the only copse of trees on the beach. Standing up shakily, using his pole for support, the assassin glared at the animal with cold blue eyes. "All right, ugly, have it you're way." Adrenaline finally kicked in as he sprang towards the chimera, pole outstretched. A taloned claw moved to knock him away. The claws found nothing to hit at as Nightwing twisted almost impossibly sideways in mid-air. Grabbing the beast's jaw, he swiftly rammed his pole into his throat.

Nothing. Not even a squeal of pain. Nightwing stared at the throat blankly. "What the-Ugh!" The chimera batted him away, forepaw talons clicking in anticipation of a meal. The dark man rolled in the sand for a moment or two before sliding to a stop in a flurry of sand, only to find the chimera's jaws shooting down at.

Snap!

The chimera grunted furiously as Nightwing held the jaws closed an inch from his nose, saliva dribbling from the beast's lips and onto his face. "Good…ngh….you share the alligator's weak point." Muscles bulging, Nightwing did a back roll, flipping the chimera over his shoulder, no small feat considering it was nearly twelve feet long and as heavy as average men. Deftly following through with the back roll, he managed to keep his grip on the snout. Landing on the chimera's stomach, he delivered a swift punch just beneath the sternum at what he hoped was the beast's solar plexus. A pained snort told him he was right. With the beast winded, Nightwing tightened his grip on the snout and heaved powerfully sideways.

Crack!

---

The fire popped and fizzed as chimera fat dribbled into the fire. A healthy section of the hindquarters, skinned and cleaned, sat above the flames, skewered on a sharpened stick. Nightwing carefully tended to his wounds under the trees he had decided would be his camp for the time being. Sticks secured to four trees by twisted leave filaments formed a sort of roof with palm leaves packed together on top. It would have to do for now. Scraps of bones and charred plants lay littered around in a messy reminder of past meals. The chimera, its neck twisted grotesquely to the side, lay a little further away, large pieces of its body carved away. It would last a while if Nightwing smoked the meat.

He sighed, rubbing carefully over the bandages made from his overcoat, feeling the sticky blood soaking through the cloth. And he found his eyes drawn to the fire again. Night after night, when there was nothing to do but wait for the food to cook, his mind would wander. He hated that. Forcing his mind back to the thoughts he wanted to think of only made matters worse. Nightwing grunted in frustration as plans for rescue by fire led to thoughts of flickering flames, to thoughts of flaming red hair. He swore softly. "What has she done to me?" he mumbled to thin air. Slamming a fist into a tree, he gritted his teeth, grinding them. "That stupid girl won't stay out." He cursed her, cursed Bruce, cursed himself, his lifestyle. Everything that came to mind.

And he was suddenly thinking of big, doe-like emerald eyes and the cute little Tamaranian eyebrows. Soft, flowing….

"NngghaaAAAAH!"

Crack!

The unlucky tree shuddered and cracked, splinters running all over its trunk. "Why…won't….she…stay…OUT?" The tree shuddered again and fell over, its palm-like leaves ruffling in quiet dismay.

The assassin gripped his head. "No, no, no. I'm not in love with her. I hate her. I hate her so very much. I hate her optimism, I hate her strength, her power, her kindness. I hate it all!" He lucked up, blue-eyes staring angrily at the indifferent stars. "No body should be able to have this sort of influence. No one. I'm not some little kid who decided to become infatuated." He swore again. "I'm a killer. A bloodied, tainted, horrible shell of a man. I have no feelings. To have feelings is to lose. To die. To hand yourself hand-cuffed and broken to your enemies. I do not have feelings. Emotions are useless to me, to my profession." The night didn't bother answering the distraught man. "What's wrong with me," he whispered. "I didn't ask for this. I didn't want this. I don't want her. I don't want love. I don't need it."

He barely noticed the meat blackening over the fire, dry and hard. It fell off the stick and into the flames.

"Well, dad, you got it. You've got your wish, you bloody wretch. I hope you're happy, laughing your head off in Hell." Nightwing spat the words out, as if they tasted bad. "You always did love to see pain. Always did love to see me squirm. To see mom squirm. You sick blood-mongerer." He shivered in the humid night air. "And now you see me broken by the most beautiful thing." He swore again. "Failure comes in so many different packages." And his mind returned to her.

Crack!

Another tree shuddered as Nightwing slammed his head into it. Dark red spots fell to the ground. Hedrove his head into it again and again, until darkness took him. The assassin's body thumped into the ground, dreams coming once more.

---

Lighting clashed on the horizon, its crimson lighting igniting the sky. The clouds burst into flames in the yellow sky. The sun hung next to the moon, both dark and cold…dead.

The forest was cold, barren, and endless. His breath fogged and misted before him as he ran, his legs pumping beneath him, leaves crunching and snapping like bones. Then, the leaves were twisted human parts, their hands spreading out like branches, their fingers like leaves. Mouths moaned and groaned in the tree trunks, their pale grey arms reaching out to grab him. Eyes blinked and stared at him from their places. Teeth grew were no teeth should grow. And he pressed on, blinking sweat and tears and blood from his eyes, his mouth moving in incoherent gasps and wheezes. There was someone behind him, chasing him, cold and silent. Deadly.

His flight came to an abrupt stop as the ground dropped away to scarlet seas far below. And his pursuer was upon him. Metal glimmered, sang, danced in the air, clashing and resounding as he fought over the edge of the cliff. He wept. He screamed. He whimpered. The attacker did not care. Did not cease. Lighting flashed again, bloody light washing over the landscape, revealing souls. Weeping, moaning, twisting souls. The trees joined the dirge of the dead, their grotesque mouths working to keep the dead harmony. And the battle raged.

They came to a standoff. He faced…himself. A snarling, blood-drenched, pale doppelganger snarled at him, blood that was not his own dripping off of his nose, down the strands of his hair, from his clothes, from the metal pole. Drip-drip-dripping to the ground, ever falling to the cold, cold earth. "Surprised?" The voice was his own, but not his own. "You really shouldn't. After all, you've been fighting yourself for so long. One of us was going to get stronger. You lost." The other him slammed a fist into his face, knocking him over the cliff's edge. He hung onto the rim desperately, the waves crashing and reaching for him far below.

The doppelganger glared down at him, black hair tainted incarnadine. "I'm taking over again, Dick. You're getting in my way. You and your stupid feelings. I'll make you enjoy slaughter again, just like before." The bloodied assassin stepped on his hand, making him gasp in pain. "Don't act like you didn't expect this, Dick. I've been lurking around in the back of your mind for years. I've decided to stop paying rent. This…is what you might call a hostile takeover."

He sobbed once as his fingers began to loosen and fall away. His other hand clung gamely on. The doppelganger moved to this hand as well. "Come on, Dick. I'm making your life better. You don't need this stupid broad. You don't need these feelings. They are a distraction from your true love." He licked his bloody lips. "Blood. Now…I don't want to see you again." The bloody assassin pushed his hand off the cliff. "You'll soon realize my logic."

The scarlet waters swallowed him, his fingers still outstretched as the world turned red.

And...he lost himself.

---

Nightwing jerked awake, the hot sun glaring down on his head, warming his face. Wiping cold sweat off of his face, he took a great breath. Glancing at his hands, he willed them to stop shaking.

Glancing at the sky, he saw red, unnatural red. And he grinned, grinned, grinned.

Do the hula….TWIST!

Something has come to my attention that I believe I need to address. I've noticed some reviewers cursing in the exultation (fun word!) of my work. Well, please stop. I don't curse and I don't like to read or hear cursing if I can at all help it. Besides that, I greatly, greatly, appreciate reviews. They make me feel all warm and tingly….Not really, but they are very nice. Especially in-depth ones. They give me more information on what to work on than, 'Great Job', or 'Keep Writing'. For those who do, I give you all a great big (friendly) hug. Ahem, yes, well, don't expect any more. I'm rather stingy with those.

Anyway, I believe this new development has just opened more inspiration for me. That means better chapters (I hope). However, seeing as work keeps me so very busy, the updating might take a while. I apologize in advance.

(Wow, I actually made it past my twelve chapter mark. I gave up on the last long fic because I got bored of it. Yay for a riveting storyline!)

Raz