WE'RE BACK! DID YOU MISS US? I told you this story wasn't dead!
WARNING: This chapter contains rape! It's not until the end though, so if you're squeamish about that, just be aware. It's pretty obvious when it's going to happen, but yeah. This chapter is angsty as hell... and it was posted on Father's Day! Coincidence? I THINK NOT!
The large dragon landed gracefully at the foot of the stairs that lead into the old castle; by now, the police tape had been cleared. N followed his father closely as he kept his eyes at his feet. Small plants and sprigs of grass grew out of the cracks of the once proud and towering staircase. Nature had slowly begun consuming the building and created an eerie feel to the once noble testament to Team Plasma's rule.
As they walked through the hallway, it was apparent to N that the castle was being cleaned inside. He recalled months ago when Black and he set foot down the same hallway, where cobwebs and tattered furniture littered the space. While not of the same caliber as it once was, things were certainly cleaner. He briefly wondered if Ghetsis's followers had returned to assist him in whatever he was planning.
"Don't expect me to roll over and take your mistreatment again, Ghetsis," N scorned as he flashed his father a defiant glare. The older man chuckled, oddly humored by the boy's sudden haughty tone.
"Quite the rebellious statement coming from a timid child," he replied. "What ever has gotten into you, hmm?"
"I know what you did to me was wrong. Team Plasma wasn't the only thing you lied about." The boy's eyes focused downwards as he recalled what Black had told him. Just the thought of the conversation gave him a sick feeling in his stomach.
"I simply did what was necessary. You were my subordinate before you were crowned." Ghetsis sighed before placing a hand under the former prince's chin, diverting his gaze from the floor. "What use you were to me was little of your con-"
"Don't touch me!" N screeched before smacking his father's hand away. "You-"
The boy's sentence was cut short when the Ghetsis's hand returned, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and throwing him into the table that sat closeby. Before N was able to collect himself from his daze, he was grasped tightly by his scalp, his cheek shoved harshly onto the wooden surface. Suddenly the boy felt trapped, and his mind began to race as he struggled to fight his urge to run or plead.
"You seem to have forgotten what your role is, N," the man seethed, enraged by the threatening gesture. "I created you, I sculpted you into perfection, and you made the foolish mistake of ruining my meticulous and carefully-executed plans."
"Get off me!" The child's voice was strained and fierce, but Ghetsis could detect the hint of terror in his voice. He had become well-learned of such things.
"Silence!" The sage grinded his face once more into the table and N felt his skin bruise against his cheekbone. "Your only purpose in life was to obey me, how could you possibly fail even that?"
"That is not my only purpose!" N protested.
"Then what is it? Nothing! You would be nothing were it not for me. And you were never meant for anything else!"
"That's not true..."
Ghetsis snorted. "Still lost in fairytales? How could such little time in the outside world ruin you so? I wonder how long it will take to correct this." N shuddered as the man's words turned icy.
"Let's get started, shall we?" Ghetsis grinned and reached into his robes, pulling out a riding crop. Sliding it briefly between N's thighs, he chuckled at how quickly the boy whimpered in recognition. "There's so much to catch up on."
"N-No, don't touch me!" the boy's voice stammered as he struggled to remain stoic. But he could only hold up his brave front for so long.
Sliding up N's shirt a bit, Ghetsis admired the pale skin of his son's bony back before bringing the leather and metal down sharply, striking a violent red line across spine and ribs.
N yelped and tried to curl into himself as much as possible, but was otherwise too frozen to defend himself.
"That's right, just hold still," Ghetsis snarled, crisscrossing more and more long bruises until N was sobbing and shaking and having to hold onto the wood beneath him just to keep off the floor. The sage stepped back for a moment and admired the sight before him.
"Yes, you put up quite the front, didn't you?" he commented as he watched a trickle of blood slowly stain one of the legs of his pants. "Acting so defiant and proud, yet you lay and take your punishments like you always did. It's because you know deserve them, isn't it?"
N shut his eyes tightly, trying to ignore the taunts of his father. The pain along his back was so familiar, bringing those memories of the torture he had endured during his life. Had he really willingly come back to this?
It's... for Black's sake... he weakly assured himself. If he could convince himself of this, perhaps he could grow numb to the abuse once more. The logical side of him knew this was the best way to deal with things.
Another side of him hated the thought of returning to that helpless shell of a person he once was.
"I don't deserve any of this..." N struggled to say as his trembling arms attempted to push him off the table. The welts opened and oozed. "Black told me... he told me the truth about what you told me was love. You were just using me. That's not how people show that they love each other!"
"Is that what he told you?" Ghetsis cooed as he nonchalantly wiped blood off the end of his crop. "Told you what you wanted to hear so you'd spread your legs wide for him. It worked well enough, it seems. It isn't difficult to manipulate a mind as warped as yours."
"Don't say that about Black!" he screamed, reaching out and grasping the instrument his father held in his hands. Ghetsis's eyes widened at the aggressive gesture, yanking it from him swiftly before swinging the bound leather with all his strength. The crop struck N hard across his face as he felt a burst of blood accompany the pain, a split lip sending a trickle of metallic liquid into his mouth and off his chin. His son toppled to the floor when a foot crashed into his wounded back. The half-clothed body writhed in pain as it hit the floor.
"I've had enough of your insolence." The sage's voice was venomous, spoken through teeth grit hard enough to crack. "If you want to continue to act like a defiant child, I would be more than happy to treat you like one. But I will not tolerate such disrespect. Unless you want to have the life choked out of you, I suggest you learn to accept your failure and keep your mouth shut."
N whimpered deep in his throat as he tenderly felt his face, his fingers coming away bloody. A part of him was screaming, shocked and horrified by his own behavior, that he would act out against his father in such a way. Another part felt a brief satisfaction, to gain even that much footing, bolstered by the intense emotions Black's name ignited in him. Laying limp on the floor, N clenched his aching jaw against the tears in his eyes and wondered why he was fighting. There was no one there for him to be strong for anymore.
"You asked me to come back to the only placed where I belonged," he said softly after wiping his mouth. "That was... when I was surrounded by my friends, in my room, away from the rest of the world and you and your sick lies. Unless you take me there... I'll never submit to you."
Ghetsis stared blankly at his son, doubting his own ears. How could it be that so quickly all his years of effort had been unraveled like string? His perfect puppet, every nuance of the child's character carefully crafted by his own hands, undone in the arms of a simple brat. It was unimaginable. It was... infuriating.
"'Sick lies?'" the man mimicked as he grasped onto the back of the boy's head, weaving his fingers through unruly hair. As he pulled him to his feet, N struggled wildly as he clawed and kicked to little avail. Ghetsis began dragging the resisting boy towards the door, down a tattered and ruined hallway. "As if that little fantasy world wasn't a lie, you insolent wretch. How dare you think you can put up this miserable stoic front and think that I will bend to your whims."
N's new-found apathy was quickly diminished when he heard a weight make contact with a creaking door and his body was thrown onto a dirtied carpet. A quick glance was all that was needed to notice the soft clouds faintly visible against dull blue. It was the room Black and he had broken into months before.
It was his bedroom.
"Do you see, N?" his father bellowed, his voice sounding so harsh and grating in the otherwise silent room. "You see what is left of the place you so fondly belong?"
The young man struggled to sit up as he examined his childhood bedroom. He vaguely recalled causing disarray that time he visited with Black, but... the previously bright walls were now defaced with slanderous graffiti and torn paper, the floors dirty with dust. A crumpled pile of tinder was all that remained of his halfpipe, charred from what he could only suspect was arson. His toys were gone, sans one lone plastic train cracked in the corner.
"But..." N's voice was soft, concerned, nearly choked out as he felt emotion swell in him. "But why would someone do this...?"
"People flocked here just because they knew it was a testament to your so-called 'legacy.' They flocked here to desecrate the very symbol of what you stood for... no, the symbol of your pitiful existence."
N felt a sinking coldness inside him. "Have I really... wronged people so much? Did my honest intentions mean anything to anyone?"
When his father did not reply, the boy felt frustration swell in him, and tears started falling from his eyes as he shook. That secure feeling that Black's reassurance and care helped build up so meticulously felt as though it was crumbling, like he was being thrown back into the familiar void of helplessness.
But where else could he turn to now?
"That's not fair!" he screamed, unable to accept the pain of reality. N clamped his eyes shut in a vain attempt to keep himself from sobbing as he bent down and laid his forehead against the dirtied carpet. "I can't help who I am! I tried really hard to understand people, I really did...! Doesn't that mean anything?"
Suddenly, N felt a heavy weight against the back of his head as he was pressed firmly into the floor. His body was frozen in fear as his mind panicked, the commonplace feelings from his childhood rushing back full-force.
"You wanted to return to what was so familiar to you," his father reflected. "So tell me... did you truly miss this feeling that much?"
The only response the boy could muster was panic.
It was happening again, just like it did hundreds of times over the years in his sleep, the nightmares that kept him awake for days. He felt his limbs freeze in terror as Ghetsis sneered with triumph, seeing plainly the effect his words had.
As though trapped in mud, his movements were slow as he shook his head in meek denial. He cringed back when the man reached for him, but the fingers latching onto his hair were faster, and the next moment he was shoved face-down onto the floor, feeling another hand begin to tug at his clothes.
"No..." he whimpered, trying to get his legs beneath him. "No..!"
"Be quiet," Ghetsis commanded shortly. "I've had enough of your childish petulance."
Just give up, said a voice in his head. There's no point in fighting when you know you can't win. Give in like all the times before. It would be so much easier to just lay there and take it like he always had, to lock away his feelings. But the tiny flame of defiance would not be put out.
"NO!" With a sudden shout, he heaved his whole body up and rolled away when Ghetsis was unbalanced. N climbed to his feet and was about to make a run for the door when a sharp pain across the backs of his legs sent him crashing down again.
Tossing aside the crop he had grabbed, Ghetsis knelt down beside his son and pinned him down with a heavy knee on the center of his back. "You continue to try my patience," he growled. "Now accept the fate you have chosen for yourself. You belong to me once more."
"I don't want to belong to you," N hissed, the weight against his back tearing at the wounds that intersected his back. The man's knee ground into him in response to the snide comment, and the boy could only writhe and cry out.
"You always belonged to me," N heard above him as his pants were yanked off him, the chilled air biting at his skin. The words struck him deep enough to paralyze him. For a brief moment, he felt nothing.
"You always have, and you always will."
N was given no time to prepare as his father moved into him, tearing through resistant muscle with violent force. A sharp scream escaped from his mouth but was quickly silenced by a large hand, cupping him so tight he could not breathe.
"No," Ghetsis condemned as he began to thrust into him. "Your defiance does not warrant you even a gasp of breath. Now take what you deserve, fallen king."
A roar of white noise filled N's mind as it was starved of sufficient oxygen and accosted by the agony shooting up his spine. The weight of his father trapped him completely, helpless panic raced through his blood. Just as he felt the sweet release of unconsciousness begin to drag him down, the hand over his face vanished, and his frantic lungs dragged in enough air to pull him right back.
Gasping raggedly, N pressed his face to the cool surface of the floor and gritted his teeth against the pain, the humiliation, the anger. He did not want to be a tool, an object meant to be used and discarded like a pokemon in the hands of a wicked trainer. But still the guilt gnawed at him, telling him Ghetsis was right. He did deserve this, but not because of his disobedience.
You deserve this because you came back to it.
Digging his fingernails into the palms of his hands until they broke the skin, N wept and hoped that Black never forgave him for leaving. Somehow, thinking he was no longer wanted made this fate he had chosen for himself more bearable.
Even if his father's love was driven by cruelty and hatred... it was all he ever fully understood. And N feared what he did not understand more than anything else in the world.