(Fixed some mistakes, Re-Upload.)
I'm sorry!! Xx I completely forgot to upload it. School has being a pain in the ass, and I have been tired as hell. I want to thank you guys for the reviews you put in this story! I'm very glad you like it so far!
12
It was too good to be truth. He suspected that he wasn't going to discover anything new by following them, but this feeling in his stomach would not fade away. Therefore, he decided against it, following them, hiding in the shadows of the night, to the tree. When he heard the story, he was about to faint of joy. It was what he needed! Since the first time that Oyan came to the east cities and from the first time he asked to follow those vampires that run away from the cottage, he had this feeling that he had known Lucian from time before, but couldn't remember where. Now, he was damn sure that it was that person, the one who was long ago in the same side before everything went down.
He found Oyan lying on his bed, resting after a hard day at work. He woke him up, knocking on the window, and Oyan let him in. The spy entered the room and sat on the chair, giving a triumph sigh.
"You look happy.", said the gunslinger, lying on his bed again. "What did you discover this time?"
"Something really interesting. Remember Trinity's son?", Oyan nodded. "Looks like he is very fond of the dark swordsman."
"It doesn't surprise me, seeing how young the boy is."
"Not that way. I think they have a certain intimate relationship."
"It's absurd!", yelled the man. "He was raised by Trinity and lived inside the Guild. Why he would have an affair with a dhampir who is relative close to transforming into a vampire?"
"Who knows?", answered the boy, fixing his glasses. "They have been together for four years now. Maybe in that time, they friendship developed in something more deep, like love.", he laughed at Oyan's skeptic expression. "Love can change the way we see things. Maybe it's what happened to Trinity's son.", he was deliberately omitting Toasty's story. After all, Oyan only wanted to know about the dark swordsman's life to see if he was a potential enemy. But the information about Aaron being a possible mate of him, would made a twist in this problem, as Oyan called it. "You can use this to your advantage."
"Kidnapping him? It's a good idea, but Ernest is a man to fear."
"You have me. I can think of something."
"What do you suggest, then?"
"Trinity's son is now in the old oak in the mountains, with the dark and light Terrennials. I assume it's because he doesn't want to share his blood with the dark swordsman for obvious reasons.", said the spy. "If we capture him while he is in the tree, we might be able to tame the dhampir's wild nature and make him do what you want."
"...It's too risky.", the boy was surprised to hear him say that. Normally, Oyan would not mind taking high risks.
"Why do you hesitate? You are not like this."
"I have fought against vampires alone, not using their mates to lure them. I agree it's a good idea, but if we can't control Trinity's son or not be able to calm down the dhampir either, it would be like if we haven't done anything."
"Trust me, it will work out."
The spy left the room. Oyan made himself comfortable on the bed, looking at the ceiling. It didn't pass a minute that the gunslinger was out of the room and following the boy, telling him to put the plan in action.
Oyan decided to move at midnight. Aaron would be awake by then but that wasn't the worst of all. The gunslinger feared the Terrennials accompanying him up in the tree. Oyan knew about all of them, but didn't know their full potential, specially the dark Terrennial. They could work with Toasty, since they had shields that reflected the light... That's it! The shields! They could use them to reflect the light directly to the dark Terrennial and defeat it faster. When he is down, Aaron and Toasty would likely stop and surrender to help their friend rather than keep fighting. Oyan smiled, while choosing the weapon for today's hunt. That's why Trinity didn't succeed the first's years when he joined the Guild. He had emotions, and emotions in war mean weakness. Weakness means failure, and failure means death. His soldiers were superior because they didn't have emotions, they didn't have weakness. No family, no friends, nothing but themselves.
The main room, at last in the section that Ernest left at Oyan's orders, was full with his men, all of them waiting for new orders, ready to go out and hunt vampires and undead. But they weren't prepared for what their leader suggested. He wanted to bring a human mate to lure the real vampire to kill. They were unsure. They never did that type of mission before. Would it be a success like the previous ones or they would end up all dead? Ending dead wasn't what they feared the most, but the failure of the mission. Besides, the target was with two of the seven Terrennials, both of them very powerful. But Oyan calmed them down saying that the best way to do the mission was to take down the dark Terrennial first. The target and the second Terrennial would surrender after it. The soldiers grew confident of themselves. They were dismissed from the room and each one, a total of fifty, went directly to their shared rooms to take their weapons. And when the clock on the wall announced midnight, they were heading out of the Guild, with Oyan leading them.
Alexander, who was hiding behind a wall, decided to follow them, not liking the number of gunslingers going in patrol that night. Since he was an owl, his wings did no sound when he flew behind them. This made the task easier and since no one, besides Oyan, could feel they were being watch or followed Alexander could get close to the group without problems. It was strange that so suddenly Oyan went out with all the gunslingers that he brought from the north. Something must have caught his attention or a very important prey was out. It was odd because besides the former Duke, there was no other out there that important to catch. Unless they found out the Duke's hideout, which was the mansion, and decided to take him down for once. Or Oyan have decided that it was too risky to leave Lucian alive, even if he in the past was a gunslinger or killed vampires. When a human lost its humanity, they become a monster that must be killed to prevent other humans to be killed or to the planet be unbalanced between the dead and the alive. But Alexander wasn't convinced from those thoughts. There was something else in this, but what?
He knew what Oyan hates, what is his dream, how he moves, with who he moves. Could it be that the spy told him something? It must be, otherwise he wouldn't have moved in the middle of the night with all his men. What, he didn't know. Alexander kept following them until he noticed that the soldiers started to split apart in groups of five. Oyan kept leading them alone, whispering in the dark the orders to them, walking closer and closer to the old Oak, which Alexander recognized immediately. The wind Terrennial started to suspects about the original plan when he remembered that Aaron, Nero and Toasty were staying up there. What would Oyan do if he captures them? It will only make Lucian furious...
"Oh no!", he whispered, taking his human form and slashing down the first closest soldier to him when he saw them move. "Toasty!!", he yelled from behind, making not Oyan but the other forty-eight men turn around. "Toasty! Get the hell out of here!", he screamed again.
"Silence him!", ordered Oyan.
Alexander stood in place, ready to strike with his sword. The soldiers, about twenty of them, were in place to strike too. The wind Terrennial smiled as he dashed at sound speed, slashing them all with a single swing of the sword. The soldiers didn't have any chance with him. He was far too fast for them to react. But Oyan didn't care for them; he kept walking forwards, noticing movement at the top of the tree. He cursed. The two Terrennials up there must have heard the samurai yell at them. Now what? It seemed now very difficult to take them down, unless...
Oyan started screaming orders at his men, which took five shields that were carrying. Using a special weapon that fired sunlight as a ray, they reflected it on the five shields, concentrating it in a single point and shooting it towards the old oak tree. The gunslinger smiled with joy when he heard a yell in pain, and a figure trying to hide in the leaves. It was useless. The ray was too concentrated and powerful, as much as the sun...
"Shit!", cursed Oyan when several and deadly shots killed three of the five men holding the shields. "That fucking brat! Come one! Help me with the shields!", he screamed. Some soldiers took them and hid behind trees, where Aaron couldn't spot them.
The shields were put in a different way to let the sunlight be reflected in them and hit the same target again. Nero hid behind the human form of Toasty, big enough to cover his small, cat body form. The dark Terrennial was took in the other Terrennial's arms, protecting him while he helped Aaron in getting down of the tree, to hide in a hole that was used by bees. The insects were asleep and the human could hide with Toasty without disturbing them. They heard a slash cut the air and they knew Alexander was out there but when the sound was suffocated by a high scream, they knew that the mighty samurai was took down by the north gunslingers. Aaron wanted to go out and help, but Toasty didn't let him. It was a trap and the last thing Alexander would want was the human fell for it. Angry, the boy sat besides him and waited.
Alexander moaned in pain. His clothes were burnt thanks to an explosive that they throw against him. Several soldiers hold him down on the ground while tied him up with ropes. The Terrennial could only watch how they lifted and carried him back. He didn't know where they would go, or what they will do to him. But he was not going to talk; he was not going to betray his friends. Oyan might do whatever with his body, but his soul and mind will stay in place.
"Seems you are with the brat.", he heard Oyan say. "I wonder what are you gonna tell us...", he smiled and looked at the closest gunslinger. "Bring him to the Guild."
"What about Ernest, sir?"
"He will not know about this. The basements are empty and they are not using them anymore.", answered Oyan, starting to walk away.
They reached the Guild in a few minutes. They carefully sneaked inside and to the basements. Oyan choose the farthest one and in there, he tossed Alexander. The Terrennial moaned in pain again, trying to sit on the cold floor. Oyan grabbed his hair and pulled him up.
"So, I guess you will have to answer some questions..."
"It-It will depend on what kind of questions...", managed to say. He was roughly tossed on the floor again. Oyan put his foot on Alexander's head, pressing on it.
But Alexander only whined.
"Tough one...", he kicked his face and broke his nose. "This is going to be fun. I haven't had this type of prisoner since a long time. Now, let's start over...", he put his feet again on the man's head. "I will do the questions and you will answer like a good boy, alright?", only silence answered Oyan. "Alright?!", said again, hitting the wind Terrennial a second time. "Heavens...", a loud sigh escaped his mouth. "Undress him.", he ordered.
Oyan was surprised that the man didn't struggle when his soldiers took off the clothes, leaving him naked on the cold floor, with a bleeding nose. His body was muscled, like a warrior, and there were several scars across his white skin, probably scars of past battles. But what amused Oyan was the make up he was wearing. Why would such masculine man put on him stuff that only women do? He had to admit that the eye make up made him look more serious and even fierce, but still.
"Why do you put make up on your face?", asked the gunslinger. He whispered something to one of his men and said one disappeared from the basement.
"I believe in beauty.", was the only thing Alexander said.
"Beauty? There are many beauties out there. Are you using it because you find yourself attractive?"
"Probably."
Oyan sighed again.
"Who are you?"
"I."
He hoped that the soldier returned soon. The man was giving him a headache already.
"What are you to Trinity's son?"
"A friend."
"Good, that's good.", Oyan walked closed to him. "Were you right behind us because you suspected from us the first day we came here?"
"No."
"Then?"
"After I found out you had a spy and wanted to kill some of Aaron's friends, which came to be my friends too."
Oyan feasted his fists behind his back. If the man knew about the spy, there were high chances that Ernest and the others knew about it too. That screwed up a lot of things.
"Does Ernest know about it too?"
"I don't know.", Oyan was surprised of how calm the man was. He never saw anyone behave like that.
"What are you?", he was about to ask the same question he did, but knew that it wasn't going to work.
"A creature like you."
Oyan kicked Alexander again. The Terrennial fall on the floor and was hit on the stomach several times before the man decided to stop. Oyan needed more than those useless answers. He needed to know if he was with the brat or Lucian, or Ernest. He had to move silently, without suspecting. Right after he heard the rumor of the almighty dark swordsman finally transforming into a vampire, he knew that the east city was becoming a paradise for vampires. The local Guild lacked in trained members after the last war they attended and seemed that no one wanted to become a hunter to eradicate the undead living there. He had seen phenomenon like that in small towns; humans and vampires living together. Oyan growled. Vampires will be always monsters that only like to play mind games before eating up their prey. There was no friendship between them. It was all an illusion. And he knew it too damn well.
He was the only one that could see the evil of the vampires, such as the Duke and the Immortals. He was the only one that told everyone that they needed to be killed before they enslaved them to who knows what purposes. Everyone in the city agreed and decided to create a local Guild, to train their own soldiers and create their own weapons. After two years being trained, Oyan and the leader decided to go into hunting. That night the gunslingers killed around three hundred and fifty five vampires in total. The remaining ones escaped from the city to a better place and soon, it was free from undead for ten years.
Ratatosk knew about the city and tried to destroy it, but failed miserably when he noticed the weapons the gunslingers used. He retreated, but used his powers of the Beast of Destruction to enclose the city in a non ending wave of undead. Even now, when he is dead, the magic upon the north is still working and Oyan doesn't know how to get rid of it. Not even the alchemist living there had a clue and they all said that Sheridan must now, but he was a captive in the Vambery Tower, working under vampire's orders.
Now, he was in the east city. He was going to see Sheridan, but he had urgent things to attend. He looked at the beaten up Alexander and suddenly, he got angry at him.
"Why the fuck you help that fucking vampire?!", he kicked the Terrennial on his stomach again. "Why do you protect him?! Why?! They deserve to die, they are monsters!! And monsters don't deserve to live!"
"I don't care!", yelled Alexander. "I don't care if they are monsters, if they are vampires, damphires, humans!", he bit down on Oyan's leg, hard and deep, and tossed him to the ground. With his inhuman strength, he cut the ropes and hit the gunslinger on the face. "They are my friends, and as such, I will protect them from assholes and ignorant people like you! People that doesn't deserve to live because they can't accept that someone is different from them!", Alexander was taken away from Oyan's side by five or seven soldiers that hold him down on the cold floor. "You will not succeed! Lucian is going to kill you if you ever lay a finger on Aaron!"
"How he will? Will he risk the life of his mate?"
The confident look that Alexander gave didn't like Oyan at all. He left the basement and told his soldiers to give the Terrennial a good beat after hitting him.
He returned to the common room and there he found the spy, sitting quietly on the chair, covered up except for his eyes. The spy fixed his glasses again and smiled under the mask when he heard Alexander scream in pain.
"You are doing a wonderful job, and I guess you are enjoying it.", he said.
Oyan sat besides him.
"He is very strange. His answers, his attitude. He is too calm about being kidnapped and tortured... Why is he like that?"
"Perhaps it's part of his way to see life. It's a samurai, right?", Oyan nodded. "It's possible that he thinks that suffering is part of life, too, wherever is from a beating like this to become stronger or to protect certain information about close persons to him."
"Do you know who is he?"
"No, I have never seen him before. I just know the human form of three of the seven Terrennials; Toasty, Nero and Ezra."
"Would you be able to see through him?"
"It's going to be very hard and near impossible, but I can try."
For the prisoner, it was going to be a very long and endless night.
The spy grabbed a medical box with several bottles and syringes. When he went down besides Oyan and Alexander noticed it, he knew that they were going to use drugs to get the information, and the Terrennial didn't know at what point he could fight the drugs. He hoped that he could endure them as long as he could or as long as Ernest and the others came to him. Alexander was dragged from the corner of the basement by his hair and tossed at the spy's feet. He was holding a syringe filled with a transparent liquid and his smile made the Terrennial shiver in fear.
After the spy injected the liquid, they waited three hours, but the drug wasn't doing anything to the Terrennial. It only made him sleepy, while the drug used had to put him in an alert state, in where he wouldn't know who his enemies was. Said drug was commonly used to retrieve information about certain spots that could be used as hideouts. He tried several others, all of them inside the same syringe. The effect was the same. Alexander only was sleepy. The spy started to suspect that the man wasn't really a human, and if he was a human it was the first time he saw someone that was immune to those type of drugs. Could it be that this samurai has been captured before and injected the same drugs in his body a lot of time that now said drugs were useless on him now? It was possible. The spy didn't know what to do. He looked at Oyan and he shrugged. He yelled to his men to leave the basement and they all took their weapons and left, leaving their leader with the spy alone.
"I can't do anything else.", said the boy to Oyan. "It's the fist time I saw someone like him."
"Leave him, then.", answered the leader. "We will come up with something, eventually."
"What we are going to do now? The kid knows that we were the ones that attacked him and kidnapped his friend."
"Even like that, we still have an advantage; this mysterious man.", he grinned. "Didn't he say they were his friends? Knowing the kid or Ernest, they will not risk his life, and we can move freely."
"But Lucian doesn't think the same as them, nor do the former Duke or his partner.", said the spy, fixing his glasses again. "What are you going to do about them? Remember that Lucian is just a step away from becoming a true vampire, and we don't know yet what are his abilities."
"I don't really care about that. A vampire is still a vampire and all of them have the same weakness; sunlight. The Casket Armor can resist the shoots, but it also has a limit.", they walked up the stairs and entered the main room dedicated to the north gunslingers. Both of them sat on the table to keep talking. "Lucian or the Duke will not have a chance if we disable their defense; even if that means that half of my men have to die."
The spy didn't say anything else. He wasn't thinking in a way to kill them or how to make the prisoner talk. He was thinking about Lucian... Back when Ratatosk was still the ruler of all there was this child, a child that was fused with the Beast of Destruction that, thanks to him, Ratatosk could control the beast. The spy remembered him since once he was in the same side as the Puppeteer, and remembered also his appearance. It was so similar to Lucian's... How could it be possible? Besides, his scent was somehow familiar, too. And after listening to what Toasty said, he was thinking that it was very possible that the same child that once was fused with Vanargandr was still alive after Ratatosk died at Dumas' hands. The spell broke, the Beast of Destruction was sealed inside a sword and the child was free again from its claws. But Lucian lived in the south since little and then moved, and then joined the Guild. The timeline wasn't correct.
Unless the information was wrong...
It must be, at last the part that he lived in the south but the family... The family could have adopted him! And again, how could it be that he was that someone when Ratatosk was still controlling Vanargandr? Could it be that the same child break free from his puppet spell and escaped from him, hid and started a new life with a different name and appearance? But there was something that wasn't right about the situation, and it was Nero's powers within Lucian. There was no way in hell that he could have survived as a simple dhampir for a few days before finding the black eyepatch that controlled his powers. The curse would have speeded into his body in hours, and he would have transformed into a vampire in less than a day. How he was possible to stand the curse without something to control it? Lucian had to be a dhampir from the beginning or at last have vampire's blood in his body before Nero put his power in him, no doubt about that.
How long had passed since the day that Ratatosk could revive and control Vanargandr? Thirty years? Perhaps more, but the spy remembered his allies; the bird, the count, the puppeteer, the child... He was the only one that managed to survive after the child's brother came and fought all of them but couldn't against Ratatosk's powers and was forced to retreat and then, was exiled against his will by this same person. Raratosk ruled alone for a few years before he hired powerful vampires to work by his side. Dumas was one of them. When the Lord of Destruction died, they accepted being under the new Duke's orders. They were only four at the beginning; Rymer came a short time after.
He remembered the child, but not his name neither the child's brother's name. So long after that... The last war, the last fight made several damaged in his head and most of his memories were lost because of it. The silhouettes were there even the faces, but their names were lost in the darkness. Even his own name couldn't remembered and often called himself with different names, fake names, that he gave to the people that wanted his spy abilities, such as Oyan. For Oyan, he was a mere spy, so "Spy" was this time, although Oyan didn't call him "Spy", but rather "kid" or "child", and sometimes "Saturday", because they meet every Saturday to inform each other about the enemy.
The spy's eyes opened wide open and Oyan noticed it.
"What's up?"
It was that! The name!
"Hey, kid!", raised his voice when the spy didn't reply to his question. "What have you remembered?"
"Saturday... We used to call him Saturday."
"What are you talking about?", Oyan was getting pissed that the spy wasn't paying attention to him at all.
"Saturday is moon's day... Oh Heavens, he is still alive! That's why he was so familiar to me the first time I saw him!", without saying anything to Oyan, he stood up and left the Guild.
He run through the forest, to the city and back to the forest. He stopped on a hill, watching the dark figure of the ruined Dark Castle. His silhouette was so perfect, almost like Spiral Tower, many, many years ago... The spy removed his mask and his hood, and his pale, bluish skin shined with the moon's light. His big, round glasses did the same and his short, brown hair played with the soft breeze. He just remembered his name, and remembered the child's name. Ratatosk wanted him because of his blood, which could revive Vanargandr's sealed soul in the Moon Paradise, Mahoroba. And since the child had dark powers in him the puppeteer could easily manipulate him. The child's brother didn't stand a chance, and he was one of those vampires besides Ratatosk that fought him and managed to survive.
He was Nidhoggr, the one that controlled the Machine King with his same name, the Earth Dragon. He was the one that started to call the child "Saturday" due to his own name, since in an ancient language it means Saturday, the moon's day. And the child was no one but a descendant of the extinct Lunar Tribe.
Sabata was his name, and the child that suffered in the past thanks to Ratatosk's ideas was still alive.