Noes! Reviewers! Where have you all gone? Please come back! Last chapter had my lowest review count since Chapter 15… And we're so close too… O.o
Agh, Author Idol. I'm still in, battling away – we're now on Round 5, and boy, I thought Round 4 was nasty! This time we have to write a 500-700 word piece describing a landscape, using… wait for it… the sense of taste. Yeah. WTF. My thoughts exactly…
Anyone interested, my Round 4 entry has been posted on here. The fandom is Buffy the Vampire Slayer (my first ever fic!), and is called Alien vs Predator. And speaking of Buffy, the title of this chapter, Prophecy Girl, is taken from a Buffy Season One episode. :D
Oh, yes, and thankyou to all who read and reviewed my Round 3 entry! Much appreciated!
And speaking of thankyous: YamiTai (noooooo… this isn't what I promised you, my dear… But soon, okay? Hope you're a Levels went well, BTW! Mine are in a few weeks…); LoopyLouise123 (well, at least now I know you like beads! And don't worry about Robin… much); Someone (ugh, another of you who refuses to share your true pen-name… and don't forget the baby!); Quinn and His Quill (wait, you think this is funny? O.o And gee, thanks for the contractions rant – so now I have you and Simon picking on me? And yes, Lawrence is a bum not worthy of being less blasé than this…); Guardian of Azarath (yes, that would have been much funnier… although I guess maybe Marcus isn't very interested in being humorous right now, as you will see…); TheFallenAngel67 (aww, well, I am glad you think so!); Athena's Wings (yes, this fic isn't exactly true RobinxRaven, but… there's a whole lot of interaction between them, so… it's almost there… and don't worry about hurrying the poster, I just wanna see what you do!); Me (yes, bah humbug! I agree! Bah humbug that you won't tell me your name!); CrazyInsomniac (I'm a madam, not a sir, sir/madam! Seth stole Slade's soul and right now the poor sucker still doesn't have it back…); Simmie (I hope your Drama exam went well! Eh, don't feel too sorry for Roy – he's a playa…); and Poison's Ivy (who hasn't been reviewing lately, but I know you're around here somewhere. I was hoping you'd been reading, BTW, since Raven is now back!).
And now, a spotlight on Raven, the one and only:
Prophecy Girl
"Where are they?"
Still he was in the manifested form of the dead Jonathon Vaughan; still he spoke in Azarathian – Seth Elliott was very angry, his jade eyes flaring and filled with a murderous lust as he straddled Marcus Vandiver, pinning him to the floor.
And choked the life out of him with hands that clutched with a steel grip around his throat.
The Head Senator's "army" was dealt with; Seth enjoyed playing with them too much to simply kill them, and so they were merely incarcerated, unconscious, but useless to their leader all the same.
Marcus struggled and gasped beneath him, unable to utter words in any kind of tongue; his own convulsing fingers attempting vainly to pry Seth's from his neck. He couldn't summon a spell to get him away; and he couldn't tell him what he wanted to hear. The lack of air was sending him dizzy, making his mind whirl and blur and flash black and blinding white.
"I'm sick to death of you, Marcus!" Seth hissed. "Your death will bring me great pleasure, but… there is time enough for that. Right now, you're not my main priority. Now I'll ask you again. My bride. My child. That boy. Where. Are. They?"
He loosened his grip a little as Marcus opened his mouth in a way that showed he was trying desperately to speak.
"Well?" He asked; and smirked with Jonathon's mouth.
But he was disappointed and angered only further still when Marcus said, threaded together in a single breathless gasp;
"Azarathmetrionzinthos…"
A blade of black energy, identical to that unleashed by Raven herself, made a fleeting appearance; but Marcus had no control over it, and it was gone again, only doing enough to knock Seth right off him.
Grimacing in agony, he rolled over, struggling to his knees. A few feet away, Seth, ever in Jonathon's stolen form, got up again; he was laughing.
"Oho, Marcus, I didn't think you had it in you!" He crowed. "Aura Imprinting. My, my. I'm impressed."
"She'll… kill you…" Marcus panted. "Even an imprint of her power was enough to get you off me…"
"She has the power," Seth agreed cheerfully, "but not the strength. She fears Trigon too much to… well, evil is a realm she is already half in, so she knows the consequences. No, Marcus, Raven will not kill me, although she most certainly could…"
He kicked Marcus in the ribs; one or two cracked, and Marcus hacked up a mouthful of blood as he collapsed again onto his back.
"You're obviously not going to help me, you fool," Seth hissed down at him, placing a foot at his aching throat. "So how about I send you to Hell with your beloved Jonathon…?"
He raised his arms, as though conducting a murderous symphony, and twelve long, flat, glittering blades manifested themselves out of thin air; pointing straight downwards as they floated where they had been borne.
"S-Seth…" Marcus groaned, beyond throwing him off a second time; he knew there those blades were going…
"Ah, and in this form…" Seth ignored him, gesturing at himself, wearing Jonathon's visage, "I can't tell you, Marcus, how much sweeter this will be…"
His stolen smile twisted further still; and the blades dropped.
TT
"Robin, this is pointless…"
Ignoring her, Robin braced himself, spreading his weight, and kicked in yet another door. It toppled with the force of the blow and Robin ushered Raven through into yet another corridor.
One that looked the same as all the others they had just fled through.
"Robin, are you listening to me?" Raven snapped, turning angrily to him.
"Nope."
Robin grabbed her wrist and pulled at her again, making her run with him. They couldn't go very fast, not with Raven in the condition she was in, but he was desperately hurrying her, half-dragging her behind him.
"Robin, we can't escape him," Raven said for the fifth time, one hand at her stomach as she obediently ran as fast as she could alongside him.
"Not listening to you…" Robin didn't even look at her. There was another door up ahead, this one made of wood. As they neared it he released her and threw himself at it, taking the entire blow down his right side, his elbow tucked into his side. The lock broke and the door swung backwards, giving access to a rickety stairway that faded into total darkness.
Leading down.
How far down does this place go?...
It didn't make sense to him; they were already underground.
Leaving her in the corridor, Robin went a little way down the steps, groping for a banister. He found one, but it shook when he put weight on it.
"Is it safe?" Raven hissed, coming to the doorway.
Looking up at her – highlighted in the lit doorframe – Robin frowned.
"I don't think so. But safety's not an issue anymore. It can be crawling with rats for all I care…"
He heard Raven utter a tiny squeak as he mentioned rats – in truth, the idea that it was swarming with rats did not appeal to him either – and reached up, offering her his hand. She gingerly accepted it and he led her down the steps to where he was.
The door swung shut behind her. They were not locked in – how could they be, when he had busted the lock – but he felt Raven huddle closer to him as any light at all was suddenly snuffed out.
"I'll go down, make sure it's safe," Robin told her, prising her off from where she was clutching grim death around his thin neck.
"Don't leave me here!" Raven squealed, grabbing at him again.
Robin sighed as she clutched at him again, tighter than before.
"Raven, I can't… if you won't…"
"Please don't leave me here," Raven whimpered.
"Okay, okay… we'll go down together, alright?"
An effect of her pregnancy, he guessed; profuse clinginess. Heightened emotions, even though she was supposed to feel nothing at all.
It was like she had morphed into another Starfire.
Before melancholy could envelop him, he pushed all thoughts of Star and Cy and BB from his mind, slipping an arm around Raven's waist to give her some support. He reached for the rickety banister with his other hand, gripping it, feeling it shaking.
"Okay, I've got you," he whispered through the darkness. "Hold on to me, okay? I don't want you to fall…"
One of her arms slid around his back beneath his cape, while her other hand gripped at his glove.
"Ready?"
She nodded, although he couldn't see it. Taking her answer to be "Yes", he led her down the steps, feeling them quiver beneath their combined weight with every step.
On the very last couple of steps he accidentally trod on the hem of her dress; it caught, she stumbled, tripped and fell into him, knocking them both over. They landed in a dazed, tangled heap at the foot of the steps.
"Ouch…" Robin attempted to disentangle himself, pushing her cloak out of his face. "Not good… Remember what happened last time we got all tangled up like this?..."
He felt Raven stiffen… beneath him, or on top of him, or wherever she was.
"Yes," she replied finally. "You got me pregnant."
He felt her bump push against his chest as she spoke, as she tried to move.
"So I noticed," he replied dryly. He rolled off her, realising that he was the one on top, and got to his feet.
Raven too struggled to her feet – balancing was beginning to become difficult for her. She reached for him but her fingers came into contact with only musty air.
"Robin?" She backed up, her hands clasped together.
"Just looking for a light-switch," he called back.
He continued to grope along the wall, feeling with his fingertips for the distinctive shape of a switch. Eventually he came into contact with one and flipped it on, praying that it didn't blow out. A bare bulb came on, flickering several times before settling down to a dull glow. Dusty cobwebs hung from it like old party streamers.
"And there was light," he quipped, turning back to Raven.
Her mouth twitched a little, but she did not smile. He went back over to her, looking around as he did so. They were in a tiny cellar, deep underneath Wayne Enterprises. It was thick with dust and cobwebs, and piles of dusty cardboard boxes were stacked all over the room. The walls and floor were cement, damp patches spreading across the uneven grey surfaces, and the ceiling was simple white paint, cracked and yellowed with age and neglect. It looked about ready to cave in.
"Robin, I'm scared," Raven whispered, embracing him.
"I know…" He put his arms around her in return. "Me too. More than I've ever been. More than even the time I first saw Bruce in full Batman gear looming over me…"
"That had to be pretty scary…"
"It was, believe me."
Raven buried her face in his chest.
"I don't want him to hurt you," she murmured. "And I don't want to marry him. I don't want to give birth to his child."
He did not answer. What answer was there to give? He might have been able to make great French toast, but he didn't have the answer to everything…
Least of all this.
He wanted to say it would be okay. That the Titans would pull through the way they always did.
But there were no Titans now. Not anymore. He and Raven were the only ones left.
And I don't even have any powers…
He felt frustration at that revelation now more than he ever had before. He knew that Raven was weak – projecting her Soul Self took a lot of her energy, and then she had taxed herself by protecting them both from the orb's explosion. If she had even been any kind of match for Seth before, she certainly wasn't now. And being pregnant didn't help either; that much he was sure of…
She was weakened, defenceless and afraid.
And he knew that he could not protect her.
"I never should have brought you to Azarath," Raven murmured into his chest. "That's when all this started…"
"No." Robin shook his head. "No, Raven, this all started… what, seven hundred years ago? When Arella locked Seth's powers away instead of killing him…"
Raven sniffed.
"He's wrong…"
"Sorry?"
"Seth. He's wrong." Raven looked up at Robin, tears in her eyes. "Her name isn't Arella. Well, not really. It's Azar. Sometimes she is referred to as "Arella", because it means "Messenger Angel" in Azarathian. But our founding goddess is Azar. That's why Azarath is called what it is. My mother… her name is Arella. Named after Azar, in effect. But Seth is wrong all the same, even when his real name means "Prophet of Azar"."
Robin snorted.
"He doesn't even know his mortal enemy's real name…"
"You don't know Slade's true identity," Raven pointed out.
"I…" Robin stared at her with his mouth open for a few moments, knowing he had contradicted himself.
"You're defending him?" He asked stiffly after a while, composing himself again.
"No. Just putting you back in your place."
"I'm in my place, Raven." He released her and turned away, looking at the floor. "I know who I am. I'm the powerless one, the useless one… I couldn't stop all this from happening, I couldn't save the others, and I can't save you."
"I didn't ask you to. This is as much my fault as it is yours. If anything, Robin… I should have saved you."
Robin wasn't listening. Still with his back to her, he buried his face in his gloved hands, shaking his head.
"I was stupid," he whispered. "I have this… thing about Slade; I hate him so much it's an obsession, one spawned from the very fact that… that I'm so like him. And Seth played on it, used Slade as a pawn long before he revealed himself as the "seer" to him, all to reel me in…"
He turned back to Raven in despair.
"This is all my fault," he said softly. "All of it. This all happened because I'm so… selfish. If I wasn't so obsessed about taking Slade down I wouldn't have gone to Arkham Asylum when he summoned me, and he wouldn't have raped me, and then… well, none of this would have happened!"
"Robin, don't do this," Raven whispered, reaching for him. "Please don't do this to yourself. To me…"
He shrank back from her.
"Look at you!" He burst out. "I've already done enough to you! I've impregnated you with a monster! And it only happened because I was so easily possessed because… he raped me because I went to Arkham Asylum when I shouldn't have and I knew it was stupid but hey! when do I ever do anything sensible, least of all when it involves Slade?!"
He stood facing her, his chest heaving, his fists clenched, his cowlicks stuck to his sweaty forehead.
"Why don't you ever stop me?!" He yelled at her. "Why don't any of you ever tell me that I'm stupid, that I'm arrogant?! Why don't you ever threaten to lock me up in the basement?!"
Raven gazed at him sadly, her eyes brimming.
"Robin," she whispered, "we do. And you never listen."
He stopped, shocked, his gaze wide-eyed.
Knowing that she was right.
He was stupid.
He was arrogant.
He never did listen.
"A failure," he whispered. "I'm an utter failure…"
"Stop it." Raven grasped his shoulders and shook him. "Stop it now, Robin."
"What difference does it make?" Robin asked her softly. "He's going to kill both of us."
"You." Raven squeezed his shoulders. "He won't kill his queen…"
Robin laughed wildly and grasped her wrist.
"You're not his queen, Raven!" He spat. "You're his goddamn whore. He'll kill you as well as soon as he's done with you."
Raven wrenched her wrist from his grasp, staring at him.
"What did you call me?"
She was shocked, not least because his outfit made him look so much younger than he really was.
"I…" Calmer now, he ran a hand through his hair.
The way he always did when he got himself into these corners.
"I didn't mean that you are," he murmured. "How can you be? I'm the only one you've ever… What I mean is that that's all he sees you as. The vessel carrying his flesh and blood."
"Then that's all my mother was to Trigon," Raven replied stiffly. "A whore."
Robin gazed at her wearily.
"You believe he saw her as anything else?"
"I…" Now it was Raven's turn to be rendered speechless.
She too knowing that he was right.
She reached for him again and he allowed her back into his arms. She clung to him desperately.
"What do you do when there's no hope?" She whispered against his neck.
"Pray that Batman comes to rescue me."
"And when he doesn't?" She leaned back from him so that she could see his face.
Robin paused.
"Keep fighting. Keep hoping…"
She could feel it stirring within him again. The sense of leadership. The fighting spirit. The determination. The drive to win.
The Teen Titan truly within him.
"Robin, you're the leader of the Teen Titans," she pushed. "If you give up…"
"…Then all is lost," Robin finished jadedly. "And what if all is lost? What if there is no hope?"
"Then you keep fighting. You keep hoping, just like you said."
"I read that off the back of a cereal box."
"Cheerios?"
"Bad joke, Raven. You sure you're feeling okay?"
"Better than you, it would seem. And Beast Boy swears by cereal boxes for all of his information."
"I can't fight him." Robin sighed heavily. "Don't you get it? I'm only… a mortal. I can't beat him; he'll kill me, Raven. Effortlessly."
"I'm not telling you to fight him," Raven sighed. "I'm telling you… not to give up…"
"You think he won't kill me if I act all "Mr Happy-Smiley Sidekick"?" Robin laughed bitterly.
Raven released him and turned away from him.
"You're hopeless, Robin," she said, folding her arms. "And I mean that literally."
"I don't understand what it is that you want me to do," Robin replied quietly.
She turned to him, silenced.
Leaning against him, she began to cry softly once again.
"Neither do I," she whispered.
"My, there's precious…"
Raven froze in Robin's grip. Whipping around, the Boy Wonder barely stifled his gasp of horror as he saw Seth Elliott standing halfway down the rickety steps, a cigarette dangling from his mouth.
Back in his true form; and utterly immaculate.
"Robin…" Raven squeaked his name under her breath, clinging to him, as Seth began to languidly descend the stairs.
Robin pushed Raven behind him, stepping backwards as he did so.
Seth laughed.
"You think you can protect her, boy?" He sneered. "Still, it isn't her I'm after. It isn't her I'm going to kill…"
He swept towards them, his hands in the pockets of his shining black leather pants.
"The senators…" Raven whispered, floundering. "Marcus, he…"
"Dealt with, I'm afraid," Seth replied lazily. "Your little friends and all. And Marcus… don't get me started."
He snapped his fingers.
"Come here, Raven, my dear," he ordered.
Raven shook her head, twisting Robin's yellow cape in her fingers.
"Now, Raven!" Seth snapped, growing impatient.
Again Raven declined her head, half hiding behind Robin.
Angered, Seth started for her, only to have Robin block his path.
"She doesn't want to go with you," he said firmly, forcing himself to stop shaking as he spoke.
"I don't see anyone around to stop me from taking her," Seth replied nastily.
Robin looked at the cigarette dangling from the corner of Seth's mouth.
"You shouldn't smoke, Seth," he said softly, stepping back slightly, shifting his weight…
Seth laughed.
"This again?" He laughed. "Go ahead, Boy Blunder; lecture me on the evils of smoking. Why shouldn't I do it?"
"Because it's bad for your health!" Robin yelled, snapping a sudden, lightning-fast split kick at Seth's jaw. His heel hit Seth squarely on the chin, snapping his head back. His cigarette went flying, landing some way away, smouldering.
Recoiling from the blow, Robin pushed Raven back again; his weight was rocked forwards on the balls of his feet, waiting… "Mortal martial arts" may have been nothing in comparison to Seth's power; but martial arts were martial arts.
They still hurt.
"That was my last one," Seth spat, straightening up again.
"Then I did you a favour," Robin replied tartly, sliding into a battle stance.
"Don't make me laugh, circus boy," Seth whispered. "Your knowledge of kung fu won't save you."
Robin slammed a reverse kick into Seth's gut, forcing him backwards a few paces.
"That was Taekwondo, actually," he corrected the ex-Head Senator snippily.
"My bad." Seth straightened up again, smiling. Again he moved towards Raven, and again Robin skittered in front of him.
"Get out of the goddamn way, you little fucker," Seth hissed.
"He's worth ten of you, Seth," Raven cut in from behind Robin.
Seth laughed.
"He's a human!"
"I'm half-human," Raven whispered in reply. "And that's the better half of me."
"No, sweet Raven," Seth answered softly. "As Trigon's daughter you are blessed with a great heritage. You should renounce your mother's side. Your mother who—"
"Was named Arella," Raven finished. She laughed. "You're a fool, Seth. It's gone, all of it. Everything is over. Your precious prophecy, your precious powers… You are nothing now…"
Robin looked briefly at her, looking away again quickly when he saw the four crimson eyes blazing from her beautiful face.
He was caught between two demons, even if one of them was his friend.
"No, empath," Seth whispered. "You are wrong. I still have you as my bride; you still carry my child within your womb…"
"Something which I will be remedying very soon, I assure you," Raven answered coldly.
Seth smiled and shook his head.
"And even if I have nothing else, sweet Raven…" He paused; his face twisted, his eyes glowed with that terrible power… "Even if I can have nothing else… I can still have my sweet vengeance!"
From somewhere buried deep within the very core of his body, pain suddenly erupted, exploding throughout Robin's entire form. For a few seconds he was rigid with it, unable to move, but then he doubled, clutching at himself, his chest, his stomach, his shoulders… It felt as though his blood had suddenly turned to molten metal, coursing through his veins and arteries, scarring them from inside. His mind seemed to collapse, incapable of any thought, just nerve endings screaming with the agony he was enduring. Tears streamed from beneath his mask, he tasted blood in his mouth, and he could hear himself screaming and screaming and screaming, although it sounded so far off it was as though he was completely separated from his voice. It felt as though nine-inch nails were being hammered into each of his temples, he could feel muscles and ligaments physically tearing beneath his flesh, fractures from nothing spreading across his bones, feel his thin ribs cracking… Although he could barely see he looked at his arms and saw that liquid crimson stains were spreading beneath the surface of his pale skin, where blood vessels were rupturing and bursting with the unbearable excruciation. On his knees – though he hadn't realised it – he saw vaguely that his bare legs were the same; decorated, patchy… He was curled right over, his hands tearing at his ebony hair, wet now with sweat…
All that he knew while suspended there in that terrible pain was that Seth was killing him from the inside out. He had done it briefly to Raven, to force Robin into sacrificing his life. He had refrained from doing it once Robin had agreed.
Robin knew that he was going to die by it.
"Seth, stop!" Raven screamed, clawing desperately at Seth's arm. She clutched at him, tears streaming down her face, and Seth smiled at her.
"Please," Raven sobbed, breaking down. "Please, he's dying… you're killing him…"
Seth held her tightly to him, even as he felt her stiffen in his arms
"Finally," he whispered in reply, his emerald eyes glittering. "You know how long I've waited for this? The moment he took his first breath of air I was envisioning this. Watching him dying… Granted, this wasn't how I had anticipated it. He was supposed to die in the portal, but I guess… he's sacrificing himself for you anyway…"
"I love him," Raven whispered, closing her eyes and sobbing uncontrollably.
Seth snorted.
"Love," he repeated, his tone distasteful. "Such a worthless emotion, and yet the most powerful of them all. It was "love" that allowed me to get this far at all; yours and Robin's "love" for one another that allowed my child to be conceived…"
"…And my "love" for him that won't allow you to get away with this," Raven finished, looking up at him again; her eyes had once again expanded to four, glittering more crimson than even her dress. Only pure anger and hatred could ignite Trigon's influence within Raven in this way; and this often in such a short space of time.
Doctor Light had been one thing…
Raven's Soul Self exploded from her form in one final burst of energy; she put every last ounce of her remaining power into it, the raven-shaped soul projection enclosing around Seth, throwing him backwards-
Just as he lost consciousness – coughing up lungfuls of blood – Robin felt the pain within his broken body suddenly ease. He slumped in a heap, not even able to lift his little finger, and drowned in darkness, only vaguely aware that somewhere around him, Raven was coming to his rescue once again…
"You're going where Azar should have sent you seven hundred years ago!" Raven screamed, her voice unnatural; double-toned, both her own and a deeper, gravely, demonic voice beneath it as Trigon's hold over his daughter began to surface in her fury. "To Hell, Sen'th'azar, and I'm going to seal you there!"
The smile was gone from Seth's face now. For the first time, he was showing real discomfort; his confidence was suddenly waning…
For the first time, there was real fear in his green eyes.
"Raven, stop it!" He shouted at her as she advanced upon him, shadows of darkness dancing beneath her feet as she stepped ever closer towards him. Her hood was up, and within the shadow it cast over her beautiful face, those four rubies promised a lot more than simply death… And somehow, the fact that she was heavily pregnant seemed to make her all the more threatening as she still closed in on him, the red material clinging to her immensely-swollen abdomen only accentuating the fact that she was carrying something as inhuman and terrible as herself…
"No, I won't "stop it", Sen'th'azar," Raven hissed in that terrible voice. From within her cloak came tendrils created purely from her own dark energy, and they shot at Seth as though magnetically drawn to him. He pulled and struggled as they wrapped around him, but somehow… even one such as he was no match for Raven's power…
Raven rose a little way into the air, her arms spread, her four eyes blazing with power and anger and hatred. A wind whipped from nowhere, making her cloak and the hem of her dress flap like flags in a gale; and around her, as though summoned from the very abyss of Hell itself, darkness spawned, enshrouding her, and she dragged Seth towards her purely by her terrible will, even as he fought, his own eyes glowing white as her power crushed his…
"Raven, STOP!" Seth screamed as those tendrils of dark energy wrapped around him, binding him more effectively than any steel chain could have.
Raven laughed, and the sound was terrible; it was not even her laughter, but her father's…
She closed her eyes and slipped down her hood, and her eyes had suddenly returned to normal; she opened them and they glowed as white as Seth's as he struggled. She threw her head back, her hair whipping around her face, and arched her spine as she formed her empathic bird-shaped projection one final time; it soared upwards and spiralled over, floating there for a few seconds…
"Go to Hell, you bastard!" Raven screamed, snapping her head back up again, and with the jerky movement her Soul Self streaked downwards, straight into Seth's chest—
His eyes faded back to green, wide with shock, and for a few seconds there was nothing but silence…
Seth screamed as white light suddenly exploded from his form and Raven's Soul Self soared back out of him, arcing upwards and diminishing to nothing but empty air, taking with it the remainder of Seth Elliott's soul-bound power.
And without it…
Still screaming, Seth – real one Sen'th'azar – burst into blue flames, licking higher and higher. And then they twisted into themselves, as though caught in a sudden tornado, vanishing too into nothing. Only a tiny wisp of red-tinged energy remained, and that suddenly streaked off across the room, through the wall…
Back to its flesh.
All that was left of Azarath's most powerful senator was a scorch-mark on the floor and a faint glittering aura where he had been dispatched to a world – perhaps good, perhaps bad – beyond this.
Being reunited with her exhausted Soul Self, Raven collapsed next to Robin and blacked out too.
Seth Elliott was gone.
For now, that was all that mattered.
The above: Proof that you can kill off your main villain halfway through the story and get away with it!
He really is dead this time, BTW. That doesn't mean everything is just going to back normal, all handy dandy, but…
He is dead. Yayz!
Ooh, the knives with Marcus? Inspired by the manga/anime Hellsing. Anyone familiar with it will know there's this crazy Irish catholic priest called Father Alexander Anderson, who works for Vatican Section XIII, Iscariot. He's a regenerator and has a whole bunch of blessed bayonets with which to kill vampires and other beasties. He sticks a whole load of them through both Seras Victoria and Alucard, and that's… kind of where I got the idea… :D
Next chapter: Uh, not telling… ka ka ka…!
RobinRocks xXx