The path out of Brennenberg was arduous and Daniel would have had no hope of ever finding his way through it if the baron hadn't stirred himself out of his stupor and taken the lead. He still would not talk to Daniel or even look at him. It was worrying and Daniel wondered if he should be uneasy, if he should be worried that he finally had pushed Alexander beyond his affections to the point where he would harm Daniel for thwarting him. But he found he didn't have the energy in him to care anymore. He had fully expected to die this night and to find himself still alive was a bit bewildering. He couldn't seem to wrap his mind around the fact, let alone start contemplating what he was to do next.

After what seemed like a small eternity, they turned a corner and Daniel found himself exiting from a half concealed cave into a wood. The cool night wind against his face was a very welcome thing. He closed his eyes and threw his arms up to it, spun around under the stars, trying not to laugh like a lunatic and failing. Then it finally sunk in. I'm alive. I'm alive I'm alive I'm alive. He stopped his twirling and wrapped his arms around himself. He looked back at his companion. Alexander was leaning against the entrance of the cave, arms crossed, expression inscrutable.

"We lived to tell the tale, Alexander." He still could not wipe the stupid grin off his face, knew it might seem in bad taste in light of Alexander's loss, but he could not help himself. He hadn't known how much he hadn't wanted to die until he was safe, the danger defeated once and for all.

"So it would seem." Alexander's voice was soft; Daniel had to strain to hear it over the slight breeze. Alexander pushed himself from the wall he had rested against and moved towards Daniel, his step slow and measured, as if walking were a thing he had studied but never put into practice.

There was a small twitch in his mind, like a spasm of something dying, which begged for him to run, but he didn't heed it, too flushed with his victory.

Alexander stopped with a lurch a few feet from Daniel. He pointed into the gloom. "There is a settlement, abandoned now, that lies not far from us. We can rest there and then-"He paused. "I don't know what then." He hid his face behind a hand.

"We will work on that later. A place to shelter seems like a bully plan for the moment." Daniel coaxed the baron's arm through his and surreptitiously led the man through the trees.

It wasn't much of a settlement, more a small house and a shack of a barn. The fence seemed to have collapsed and there were a good deal of stray pigs in the yard, studying them distrustfully as they neared.

"Are you sure it is abandoned?" Daniel asked.

"Recently so, yes. Let me go." He shook free of Daniel and went through the door. Daniel paused on the threshold. It seemed as if the door had been broken down, it hung from one hinge. When he put his hand upon it, it fell with a bone shattering crash.

"Do you destroy everything you touch?" The baron's voice was acidic. Daniel wondered if he was feeling better. He propped the door up, a crude attempt to keep the pigs out, and entered the main room. Alexander was crouched before the fireplace trying to coax flame from the dried twigs and leaves that seemed to have been gathered as kindling. Daniel looked around. This main room seemed to have acted as a bedroom as well. There were a few small beds shoved against the walls. A big table in the center of the room also gave the impression that it had been the dining room as well.

There was one door off of the room and Daniel poked his head into it. The master bedroom he presumed. There was a big bed and a wardrobe that had seen better days. He put his hand on the dark wood, fully expecting a memory to leap at him from the depths of his mind. Things remained blessedly silent though. Maybe his mind was at last willing to leave him in peace, his former self well and truly dead. He opened the wardrobe. The whole family had kept their clothes in it, he noted as he flicked through the garments. He selected a shirt and some breeches that looked as if they would fit him and tossed them on the bed. He turned, struggling to untie the silly cravat he had been sporting when he happened to catch glimpse of a mirror.

It was a full length affair and Daniel guessed it must have been some sort of treasured heirloom. There was no way that this family which seemed to have been so humble could have afforded its like. He stood before it and undressed. He watched in amazement as more of his body was revealed in its glass; it was the first time he had seen himself besides brief flashes from windowpanes and pools of dark water. He flung his soiled shirt to the floor, stripped off his pants which seemed to cling to him with the filth they had accumulated.

There he was, there was Daniel. Their first meeting. He turned one way and then the other, trying to commit to memory every injury, every scar and mole. He twisted around, looking over his shoulder to study his back and grimaced. There was a wealth of scars decorating it. "Not so pretty after all, am I?" He murmured.

"I would beg to differ." Daniel started, embarrassed to be caught admiring himself. "I have always found you quite appealing." Alexander was in the doorway, arms crossed, expression almost dour.

"I was just- I haven't had a chance to-"

Alexander, annoyed at his stuttering, stepped in. "You don't even remember what you look like. What a terrible thing you have done to yourself."

"I rather like to think it wasn't me, per say. It was another man. A very unhappy and sad man."

"And is that man dead now? Is he truly laid to rest?" Something stirred in those amber eyes and Daniel began to feel uneasy.

"I would like to think he found his peace."

"And yourself, what manner of creature do you take yourself for? Some sort of revenant?"

"I am…" He struggled for the words. "Alive." He smiled. "I'm alive. I think that is all that matters."

Alexander took a strand of his hair and began to twirl it around one long finger. "Perhaps you are right." He smiled. It was the first time Daniel had seen the man smile; It looked wicked. "You live and the evil lord has been well and truly defeated." He gave a mocking bow.

The smile slipped from Daniel's face. "I do not mean to seem to gloat. I take no pleasure in your plight. I have nothing but sympathy, but-"

"There is always a but isn't there." He was still sporting that half crazed look and Daniel felt vulnerable. He picked up the shirt from the bed and began to put it on, the fastening of buttons a welcome distraction.

"But your methods were inexcusable."

"They were only humans." His voice was a whisper, but Daniel shuddered at the rage it contained. "Little more than base animals, they are. The only things they strive for are the feeding of their petty desires and base instincts. Who in the vast multiverse would mind, would even notice, if they were wiped from existence."

"And you were beyond trying to feed your petty desires and baser instincts, my lord?"

The former baron of Brennenberg bared his teeth and Daniel was reminded that no matter how defeated he appeared, he was not human, not even close.

Daniel took a breath and plunged on. "The man you claim to have loved was one of these base and petty creatures you do despised. If that is your true opinion of my race, that we are no more than beasts, I must confess to worry about what our relationship would have been like."

Alexander laughed. "And you think yourself human, now, little new born? You proclaim yourself a man? How amusing." His face showed him to be anything but.

"Of course I am!" Daniel raised his arms. "Look at me!"

"I am always looking at you. You need never worry about that. But look at me." He raised his arms, a mirror of Daniel. "Am I not also a man, by your criteria? I have the seeming of one. I could go into any marketplace, any great theater in the world and be thought such, but am I?"

"No, but-"

"Then what sets me apart?" It's the same thing that now sets you apart now. Daniel recoiled from the voice in his mind.

"You are being ridiculous. You're trying to trick me! I am human! I have to be!"

"Can a mere human speak with his mind, can he read the memories of a place with a touch? Can a human, petty and insignificant, be able to manipulate fire, not to mention reconstruct an Orb?"

"I- Stop. Just please, stop a moment."

"You have changed. Whatever was mortal in you died with that part of you that was…" Alexander looked away. "that I had broken. You are of me now." He met Daniel's eyes.

"I am nothing like you." Daniel almost spat it out.

Alexander chuckled and reached out to gently take his face in his hands. "I made you, little one, as surely as your Adam made his Eve out of his very essence." His perfect mate.

"Why, then?" Daniel asked, knocking the hand from his face. "Why would you do that to me?"

"I fell in love."

The only sound for a long time was Daniel's ragged breaths.

"Did you ever love me?" He asked and Daniel closed his eyes, tried to shut out the raw pain, the bereavement he could feel in those words.

"I said I did. That Daniel did, at least. I must admit to not being very fond of you at the moment."

"You knew that I loved you."

"I knew your feelings for me. I would have had to be blind to not see your heart in the way you looked at me, in the way you still look at me, but I think I thought it would forever remain a thing unrealized, a thing unspoken, between us."

Alexander shook his head. "My darling little idiot." He moved forward and Daniel soon had his back pressed against the mirror, trying to edge away from him. "You hardly remember a thing, of our time together, our courting."

"Our what?"

Alexander ran his hand through Daniel's hair, watched with disturbing intensity as the strands fell through his fingers. "It was so hard, the winning of you. You have no idea how many times I despaired of it, that black, ache inside of myself whenever I thought of never having you." His hand clenched in the fabric of his robe. "I cannot go through it again."

"Do you mean to kill me?"

A scoff was his answer.

"Will you let me go then?"

"That would be the perfect ending you would envision. You, all puffed up and proud, the villain broken at your feet, alone and wretched once more."

"I take no joy in this, Alexander. I wanted you to go home, but I will not stand by a second time while you-"

"But tell me, Daniel, if I did free you, what then? Where would you wander off to? Can you even remember your name?"

"Daniel."

"Of?"

He frowned.

"Of what family, Daniel? What place? Tell me to whom and to where you belong and I will give up all claim to you." He grinned. "You can't, can you?"

"Let me go, I find no amusement in this." He tried to push past but was shoved back. The mirror cracked behind him.

"If I have to face more centuries in this gods forsaken land, if I must repeat everything once more, I will be damned if I face it all alone." He leaned forward and Daniel thought for a mad moment he meant to kiss him. He veered at the last moment, lips moving against Daniel's ear.

"In light of your transcendence, it seems only proper to court you this time around in a more traditional, more becoming fashion."

"And you think you can have me? Do you honestly think that I will let you reenact this sad, sad series of events again and let you use me as your doxy the whole while? If you truly think so, you have not been paying much attention to me." Daniel shoved him aside and made for the door. Alexander was quicker, grabbing his wrist he twisted and Daniel found himself being pulled off course and thrown against the wall. A strong hand on the back of his neck pushed his face against it.

"It's such a heartening sign to see you enter this courtship so spirited."

"You are mad."

"No, only tired and fed up at your always running from the inevitable."

"If this is my wooing, I am noticing a conspicuous lack of flowers and sweet nothings. How exactly does your kind go about the winning of their mates?"

Alexander released him and backed away. When Daniel turned, the former baron was crouched at the end of the bed like some feral creature. With a smile that bordered on ghoulish he gestured towards the door. "Daniel, run."

X

Um... This will be a tiny bit longer than I had thought...