36
He felt light headed, like he was floating over a water surface, but his body felt completely numb. He tried to move his fingers but they didn't respond. He heard a soft breeze and then some murmur the leaves created because of the wind. He opened his eyes and a starry sky welcomed him back to a conscious state. Above him, several silvery leaves danced along the breeze, and a few of them fell on his face. He shook his head to brush them off.
With a groan he sat up, momentarily feeling dizzy as he did so, losing a bit of balance when he acquired a straight position. Once he felt his head stopped spinning around, he lifted his gaze and gasped at the sight of several crystalline stairs that led to different small platforms, and kept going up until reaching a bigger, much bigger, one. From there, he could hear water flowing down. Suddenly thirsty, he stood up slowly, helping himself with a nearby tree and walked towards the first trail of stairs, one step at the time to prevent any accident.
From time to time he felt the entire structure shake softly. Since there were no railing to lean on when this happened, Aaron decided to kneel on the floor or over the steps each time there was a shaking. When the shaking ended, he would stand up and keep heading up. He eventually reached the top floor without mayor problems, and the sight before him left him breathless. The place radiated a silvery aura everywhere; the fountain a few meters away from him, the water inside and pouring from the top, the statues around it, the trees all over the places with their falling leaves, the houses in the background. Aaron was delighted with such beauty, but he headed first into the fountain and splashed his face in it, drinking huge gulps of the fresh and cool water from it. When his thirst died out, he took his face out from the water and cleaned the water drops from it with his hands.
He took a better view to the place and reached the statues he gazed when he just came to the platform. Most of them were representations of men and women in long robes with complicated patterns on them, strange, crescent shaped hats and some of them holding books. Others had their hands up, others had their hands over their lap, although all of them had a sparkling dust covering their shoulders, face, hands and head. Aaron stood on his tip-toes and dusted off some of it, seeing how it sparkled before fading away in mid air. He turned around and arched his eyebrows. Just where the hell he was?
Instead of standing there, he decided to take a look around, to see if there was someone who could tell him where he ended up, but he stopped right there when, taking one of the corners, he encountered a rare creature. Well, not so rare because he was familiarized with Skeletons and the other Fencer and Arched Skeletons, but the one patrolling in front of him was pitch black. He was dragging around his sword of the same color as its bones, and a second one turned and spotted the boy. Both creatures quickly run towards Aaron, and the boy instinctively reached out for his solar gun, only to find it missing. Fearing for his life, Aaron turned around and started running away, being followed by both Black Skeletons.
The Skeleton Archer took out its bow and took an arrow from the case behind him and shot, nearly puncturing Aaron's ankle in the process. The boy cursed as he took a corner and kept running straight, only to bump into another Black Skeleton. This one didn't have any weapon but the hit the boy got was strong enough to throw him to the floor. He whined in pain and the Black Skeleton came closer to give him another hit, but it stopped, with its arm high in the air. It closed its mouth, it lowered its arm and it came closer to the boy to inspect it. It reached out a bony hand and touched the boy's head, doing some weird noises when it brushed its teeth together. Aaron thought he heard a laugh when the Black Skeleton wandered off, screeching at the other two that were coming right to get Aaron. The armed ones stopped on their hills, dropped down their weapons, turned around and left.
It was just like when Lucian mated with him, back a few months ago. Aaron had this… power over the hounds and the crows going around the Hunting Mansion. They sniffed him but didn't do anything. They walked with him, stick to his feet, to protect him. Where these strange creatures Immortal's servants? Was that why they didn't do anything to him? Aaron didn't repair in those questions as he stood up, rubbing the place where he was hit by the Black Skeleton and kept walking.
Talking about Lucian, where the hell he was? The last thing he remembered was that his vampire took him from Toasty's group and forced him to take off the magic bullet that was restricting his powers and sealed them from Vanargandr's reach. He remembered having discussed and fought with him because of it, but since Aaron's Dark Matter belonged to Lucian still, the vampire simple took control of his body and the boy was forced to take the bullet off even if he didn't want to. Then, he blacked out and the next thing he knows is that he woke up in this strange world.
Cursing his beloved for what it seemed the hundred time since he went to Acuna with the others, Aaron sighed and followed one of the Black Skeletons around. After some walking, he reached what it seemed to be the centre of the place. There was a hole on the ground with stairs going down into it. The boy walked to the edge, and gulped when he saw how dark it was. Holding his breath, he started to walk down the stairs and the moment he reached the first break, he felt how the air around him became denser. The interior of the chamber was also decorated with complicated figures and patterns all over the wall, but the more he reached the bottom, the walls started to twist around and skulls of any size but all of them crimson, gray or purple started to pop out from them. When Aaron reached the bottom of the chamber he gasped at the sight of the floor being covered with skulls too. There was a path left intact as he walked on it, hearing bobbling noises coming from the translucent oozes that were just coming out from where he just walked.
At the sides of the huge door there were two white statues, both of them were females, both with their hands up like if they were praying. The door was white like the statues, with a strange symbol craved on it. Aaron could feel an intense energy coming from the other side, and his blood reacted wildly at it. He put his hands on the door and pushed softly, seeing how little strength he needed to open one of the halves. The long corridor was plagued with the same crimson skulls from the chamber he just left, and the energy was even stronger when he crossed the door. He saw small round balls of Dark Matter floating around, like energy balls of a light, silvery color as well. He couldn't decipher what kind of energy it was. Shrugging off the feeling inside him, he rushed up to the end of the corridor, finding another set of stairs that lead to a second chamber.
With shaking legs, the boy took a first step down. Seeing that his body wasn't going to calm down at all, Aaron sighed deeply and started to walk down the stairs at quick pace, reaching the bottom floor sooner than he thought of. The chamber was nothing he had seen before. The entire room was covered with skulls, bright crimson colored skulls. The floor, the walls, the roof, they were everywhere, but the most imposing thing in the chamber was that bony creature in front of a huge glass. When Aaron walked closer, he not only saw his planet from there, but he also spotted Perrault's figure laying on the floor before this strange creature. Worried, the boy kneeled next to the Terrennial and holds her in his arms, shaking her shoulders a bit and managing to wake her up.
"…Aaron?", asked confused as she sat up. "What are you doing here?"
"Here where, I might ask.", came his reply.
Perrault looked around. She knew where they were, but she couldn't understand how Aaron ended up with her in the same place. Wasn't the boy with the others when the Dark Clouds started to spread?
"As far I can tell we are in Mahoroba, the Paradise of the Lunar Children.", explained the Terrennial. "Right now we are in the chamber where Vanargnadr had been seal by that same tribe but…"
Aaron arched an eyebrow.
"But…?"
"It should be impossible. Mahoroba is located on the Moon."
"We are on the Moon? Wait… the Moon?", Perrault nodded and sighed in annoyance at Aaron's thick skull.
"You're not in Mahoroba.", came a female voice from inside the chamber. Perrault jumped on her spot and Aaron stood up, just to remember he didn't have his gun with him. "You're inside Sabata's mind right now. What you see here are only his memories."
From between the skulls, both saw some green snakes slider on them. Seconds later, the head of a woman came into view as her body came from the ground, revealing a snake type body below her hips. The snake body had brown, copper scales and a big rattle at the end of her tail, while her skin was the usual blue from her vampire race. She was wearing a simple red dress, way too tight to her figure and Aaron could mostly see through it. She had soft features and a beauty spot just below her right eye. The snakes on her head slither around, sticking their tongues out, testing the air.
"Both of you had been absorbed by Vanargandr, and your mind was absorbed by Sabata's one.", the vampire woman explained. She put her hands on her lap as she rested on her snake body, coiling her tail below her to create a comfortable seat. "Right now, he is behind both of you, resting in that fake body Vanargandr created to seal Sabata's mind.", Aaron looked back and the woman chanted something in an ancient language and the bony beast groaned, moving and revealing the unconscious form of the purple haired man he always knew.
"But… I don't get it, how this happened?", asked Aaron as he tried to get closer to him, but a bunch of snakes created a barrier between him and Lucian. Aaron stepped back.
"Someone had taken the needle that controls Vanargandr and made him stay away from Sabata's mind.", explained the woman. "Once Vanargandr awoke, he sealed Sabata's soul within this seal to control his body accordingly to his wishes."
Perrault laughed.
"It was just a matter of time before Lucian lost his will to the Beast.", she laughed again, and Aaron frowned and glared at the Terrennial. "After all, the Immortals were right! Humans did destroy the planet at least!"
"As far as I know it was Ratatosk, a vampire, who had the marvelous idea of awaking such beast like Vanargnadr!!", shouted Aaron back. "It was a matter of time since someone like Dumas came and took his power because of his greediness!"
"Shut up, you worthless bug! You don't know him at all to judge his actions!"
"I know enough to say that if he had acted way before he killed Ratatosk he could have been able to control the situation better instead of just leaving it everything to the Immortals! Immortals might be a strong race but they even feared the power of the Ancestrals like Vanargandr and Jormungandr.", replied the boy. The woman stood still, eyeing the boy carefully. "Why do you think they helped the Solar Children and the Lunar Children to seal Jormungandr underneath Spiral Tower? That Ancestral alone had three seals, one of each corresponding to each power; sol, luna and dark."
"So what? Lucian fled the Vambery even when he knew he had such powerful Beast inside! He knew the danger and even then he decided to run away with it.", the Terrennial counterattacked.
"Dumas could have pursued him instead of just ignoring my father's sabotage to the Vambery. Dumas knew what happened, but he choose to not tell Ratatosk a thing since he knew the body Vanargandr had would soon fade away, and Ratatosk would lose his powers, making it easier to kill and him to occupy the throne.", he frowned again. "And you followed him all the way!"
"Because humans are the root of the planet's decadency!"
"Vampires are not that different from humans!", shouted the boy back, and the woman was surprised with this comeback. "They had damaged the planet too in their blindness rage against humans! Stop the cycle of life? Who the fuck they think they are to stop something so important like that! God, Dark itself? What? Think again!", Aaron sighed angry. "The foil, the earth itself is being corrupted thanks to the Undeading roaming everywhere. It kills the plants, it kills the ecosystem this planet so hard created within years and years and years of evolution. This ecosystem, tell me, what had against the vampires? What did this ecosystem do to the vampires that so mindlessly killed with their Dark Matter being spread around the planet? I will not deny that we humans did our things, but in the beginning we only did it to survive, just like vampires did too."
"If it was that way then why Dark sent Ancestrals like Jormungandr and Vanargandr?", Perrault smirked. "They came for a reason, and that reason is the human race."
"Well, we don't know. Vampires could have told anything to Dark in order to conquer the planet and slave humans just for fun and for feeding. Who knows if Dark really knows what happens here? He only has the version from the vampires."
The woman smiled softly, but Perrault growled in irritation.
"The only way you have to momentarily gain control of Vanargandr would be if you manage to bring Sabata's mind back.", said the woman, cutting the discussion between the Terrennial and the boy, gaining his attention. "He was supposed to be sealed along with Sabata back thirty years ago, when I tried to put them back to sleep with my petrifying ability, but I failed, and my soul got bonded to Sabata's mind in the process, and I had been looking over it since then, but lately I had troubles to keep it in control.", the woman slithered next to Aaron. "I'm no longer desired here, so my powers don't have any effect on him anymore. If you love him as much as you say you do, then you will have to take the responsibility of guarding his mind and his will like I had been doing all these time. Part of your soul will be bonded and will be sealed in this chamber if something like this ever happens again, but you have to be completely sure about it. Otherwise, I will ask you to kindly leave his mind and return to your world."
Perrault snorted behind them, and the woman turned around, facing the Terrennial with her expression twisting in anger.
"I just don't believe he will do it.", said Perrault in reply to he woman's face. "Or that he will manage to do it, he is just a weak human that had a whim on a vampire, that's all."
"Then as long as he tries to bring him back, I will ask you to fucking shut your fucking mouth, ex-Terrennial of the Luna Element."
Aaron arches his eyebrows in surprise, and Perrault stood in silence.
"Ex-Terrennial? The hell are you talking about?", said the boy.
"She no longer has her Luna powers, as they had been absorbed by Vanargandr when she was captured by him."
"…What?! WHAT?!", Perrault screamed, spreading her wings and taking her claws out. "Stop fucking around you bitch!"
The woman hissed angrily, her snakes on her head hissing likewise. With a swift movement of her tail, she hit Perrault on her right side and sent her flying, but the Terrennial, being a feline, had quick reflexes and managed to land on her feet. She growled, whipping her tail behind her.
"I will entertain her for a while.", said the woman as she slithered away from Aaron. "I will transfer my powers to you, so you can keep him under control if he tries anything on you or to this chamber, and to prevent his mind from crashing because of Vanargandr's powers.", Aaron nodded at her, and he quickly kneeled before Lucian. He took off his red gloves and touched the sides of Lucian's head, nodding again at the woman, indicating he was ready. "Good."
The lady vampire introduced her body in the ground, as her snakes came in front of Aaron and started to bit him everywhere. The boy gasped in pain but he screamed at himself while the small but sharp and painful fangs sank in his arms, legs, neck and torso, pouring the woman's powers into his body. His Dark Matter seemed to welcome them greatly, as he didn't have any side effects from them. Perrault tried to stop them, seeing it was the opportunity her master had been waiting for so long, but she couldn't fly or levitate. Soon realizing that her powers were indeed stolen, she launched towards the boy, but the woman hit her big rattle on the ground, shaking it and making Perrault trip over.
"I'm Carmilla of the Wind, the Deathbringer Banshee, the lady vampire.", she introduced herself, waving her tail with her rattle, treating to hit Perrault again with it. "And I will not give you a chance to get any closer to my master Sabata."
Perrault ignored the advice as she launched herself at her again, only to be thrown back once more with the rattle.
Meanwhile, Aaron sighed in relief when the snakes stopped biting him. What he didn't notice was that his eyes turned yellow and his pupils turned into thin lines, much like the ones reptiles has. He didn't feel any different but when Lucian lifted his head to lock his empty gaze on him, Aaron felt a strong push inside, something that craved onto the other male. Lucian growled, showing his fangs to the boy, not recognizing him at all. The beast that held him enslaved also awoke, and the floating hands at its sides tried to get under the skull body to rip Aaron from Lucian's side.
"Hey, hey…", he softly called when the vampire tried to bit him. The boy cradled Lucian's head on his hands and smiled. "It's me, don't worry.", he caressed his cheeks, but the vampire didn't stop growling at him. "Come on now, look at me.", he tried to force Lucian to lift his head, but the man twisted and break free from Aaron's grasp, forcing him to step back to prevent another bite.
Lucian moved his shoulders and freed both of his arms. He growled again and the beast lifted his torso, exposing Aaron to the hands that turned into fists. The boy could dodge the attack by lying down on the floor, but the second time wasn't too lucky, and one of the hands threw him to the left side of the beast.
He winced, standing up. He watched how Carmilla prevented Perrault from stopping Aaron, and the boy gasped as he rolled to the side to dodge one of the floating hands.
Carmilla said she was 'the one of the Wind', and Aaron implied she had Wind powers, then. He tried to remember the things that he learned from Alexander and his Wind magic, so when both hands prepared to attack, the boy held out both of his hands. When the bony hands were just centimeters away from him, Aaron shot a strong wind from his palms that threw back Vanargandr's hands back, smashing them into pieces when they hit the walls made from bone. Quickly taking advantage of it, Aaron rushed back to Lucian's side, which wasn't too happy to see that the hands were ripped apart.
"Lu…", he called again, forcing the man to look at his eyes once more. "I know you are… somewhere.", he sighed and took off his red scarf and tied it around Lucian's neck. The man hissed when the boy did so as his arms twisted within the mass of skulls, trying to get away from the boy's reach, but the piece of fabric was tightly wrapped around his neck, and the scent that came from it made Lucian look down to it, giving Aaron some hopes. "Does it seems familiar?", he asked, coming closer to the man.
Lucian frowned. Something indeed was familiar about it, but he quiet didn't remember the object at all but that… that scent that came from it. He lowered his head and sniffed, shooting up his head when the scent penetrated his nosetrills. Confused, he looked down on Aaron and hissed again, showing his fangs as he growled and twisted his arms, creating a second pair of bony hands from within the beast's body.
Aaron hugged the man's waist when the hands passed way too close to him. The man growled in discomfort and, this time, he managed to bit down on Aaron's neck due to the closeness, but the boy didn't flinch at all, he let the man drink his blood as he pleased.
"What do you think you are doing?!", came Carmilla's angry voice from behind. He heard Perrault laugh at this.
"Do you still believe in humans, Lady Vampire? Why don't you think it twice now?"
Aaron ignored their complains as he sighed deeply, tightening his arms around the man's waist. When Lucian stopped drinking the boy's blood, he moaned as he licked his lips, finding the blood's taste quiet… delicious. Aaron heard Lucian chuckle as the man lowered his head again to give a tentative lick at his neck to see his reaction. He arched his eyebrows in surprise when he heard a faint moan escape from Aaron's throat, and when he bit down again, the boy gasped as he dug his nails on the man's back.
Lucian hissed at the pain and pushed Aaron back as he arched his back, angry. The hands started to move again and the boy moved fast, coming close to him and digging his nails again on his back. Lucian hissed in pain again, but afterwards he arched his back in pleasure… The white hand slapped Aaron against the ground as the vampire's mouth opened in a silent moan, sighing at the feeling. He lowered his gaze at the boy lying on the ground, expecting more from him. Something deep inside started to crave that type of pain, and he wanted to experiment it again. Battling with Vanargandr's will, Lucian forced the beast to lift the hand enough to let Aaron crawl away from it, while the other stayed down, the claws digging into the skulls as it shook with anger.
The vampire lowered his body and made a purring noise that was caught by Aaron's ears. The boy kneeled before the vampire and saw him smirk as he sunk his nose into the boy's hair, making him blush madly. The boy stood up, and he felt the man's mouth travel on his neck, giving short licks to the open wound he just gave him moments ago. He growled again, biting down and pouring more blood from the injury. Aaron winced in pain again, pulling Lucian's bangs down and forcing the vampire to stop drinking.
The hands moved on their own again, but Aaron managed to keep them away with another shot of wind that threw them a few meters away.
"Lucian…", whispered the boy, cradling his face in his hands again. "Can't you really see me?", he shyly kissed the man, circling his arms around his shoulders. The vampire purred again, nuzzling the boy's neck.
That scent kept running around in his mind. It belonged to someone, someone the vampire knew too well, but Vanargandr's power was blocking his memories and he couldn't identify to whom that scent belonged, but it made him feel good. The scent brings him back certain feelings, certain emotions that were resurfacing now that he was awake. The way the human in front of him was snuggling on his body, the way his blood tasted… the pain. That pain, that pain he so desperately tried to forget. He didn't want to feel pain again, he disliked pain, he hated pain. He had been in pain all his life, he wanted a break…
Lucian roared and pushed Aaron away, hitting him with the purple hand and opening a deep wound in his leg. The blood started to pour, slipping on the crimson skulls and from out of the sudden, the hands dropped on the ground, lifeless. The Beast roared and locked its single eye on the bleeding Aaron, as Lucian's eye widened. The boy wined in pain as he pressed down on the injury with his hands, trying to ease the bleeding, but not having too much luck with it. Lucian forced the beast to move, and the skull body of Vanargandr moved with the man's will, covering Aaron's body with it as his face stayed a few inches again from the boy's one.
"Lucian?", called so low the boy that he thought he only articulated his lips. He reached out a bloody hand towards his face and caressed the man's right cheek, watching him lid his eyes, enjoying the touch. "I'm here…", said the boy with a smile. He crawled closer to him as his leg let him, kissing him again. "I'm here, you don't have to worry about anything…", he told him as he kissed the man again. Lucian sighed, pulling his arms off from the mass of skulls to hug the boy against his chest, inhaling his scent deeply. "I love you Lucian.", whispered Aaron as he hide his face on the man's neck.
The vampire didn't reply, he simply stayed like that, holding the boy in his arms. He later realized Carmilla's and Perrault's presence and, standing up and leaving Aaron's side, he walked to them. The Terrennial's tail stood upstraight as she hissed at the man, and Carmilla stayed where she was, seeing the man kneel next to her and look at her face closely, frowning when the face was familiar for him but couldn't determinate to whom it belonged. When he turned to Perrault, his face twisted in anger. He recognized the scent of someone he just hated with all his guts, and the beast behind him started to move again. Aaron called out the vampire's name, but he didn't respond to it.
"Fuck, Lucian…", cursed the boy as he tried to stand up but failing miserably. Groaning, he bit all his fingers, pouring blood and activating his Dark Matter, which started to leak out, mixing with the blood.
The treads shot towards the vampire, tying up his hands behind his back and forcing him to kneel as Aaron pulled the treads to drag him back under the beast. While Lucian was restricted, the hands weren't, and one of them trashed around, hitting Carmilla in its way and smashing Perrault against one of the walls. The vampire roared, arching his back, letting that buried grudge arise again.
"Share your memories with him!", cried out Carmilla when one of the hands hit her a second time.
"And how do I do that?!", asked the boy while trying to keep a hold in Lucian's struggle.
"You and he share the same Dark Matter, it should be easy with it to connect your mind with his!"
Aaron remembered how he forced Lucian in a state of complete submission when they were captured by Oyan, how he could use his Dark Matter to control Lucian's answers, how he used it to control the vampire's memories. Keeping it in mind, the boy kept pulling the treads until Lucian was close enough for him to crawl and grab his head, forcing him to lay on the ground as he circled his shoulders with his legs, even when one of them cried in pain.
"Will you give yourself completely to me?", asked the boy to Lucian, who kept struggling, seeming to not hear the boy talk. "Lucian, will you surrender to me?"
"No!", shouted the vampire, showing his fangs and trying to bite Aaron as he twisted around. He pushed his wrists, but the more he moved, the tighter they got. "I'm not going to submit to you!"
"Yes you will.", Aaron changed the tone of his voice, concentrating his Dark Matter as he tried to remember at the same time what exactly he did when Oyan asked him to dig into Lucian's brain. "Keep in mind I'm not Vanargandr…", Lucian roared when the boy mentioned the name, but he soon calmed down when Aaron put one of his bloody hands over his mouth. The vampire moaned at the scent and licked the blood covering the boy's hands. "I'm not Vanargandr.", Lucian growled again, this time biting down on Aaron's hand. "Auch! Damn, I have to teach you to not bite the hand that feeds you!"
To his surprise, the vampire chuckled and smirked at him, licking his lips. It seemed that the way Aaron said his last sentences trigged something inside Lucian's mind, possibly from the way both of them treated each other when they were in private, but the boy still needed him to surrender at his will to be able to dig into his brain, because in that state, his own mind would crash under Lucian's Dark Matter if he dared to do it now.
Seeing that Lucian didn't want to bite him for the moment, the boy dragged his index fingers along his face, ignoring completely the chaos around him. He focused only in the vampire, not really caring if the hands that trashed around were destroying the place slowly. The boy smiled warmly and kissed the man's forehead, feeling him struggle when this happened. He drew random patterns over Lucian's mouth with the blood and the vampire stick out his tongue tying to get as much as he could, but whined when he couldn't.
"Now, now…", whispered the boy, tracing Lucian's face with his fingers. The slow motion and soft caress seemed to gradually calm down the man, but Aaron felt that his mind was a total mess still. "You like my blood, don't you?", said as he drew one of his fingers over Lucian's mouth, feeling the latter kiss it. "You like my scent too, right?", and he put his scarf over the man's nose.
The vampire trashed around when he sniffed that perfume, widening his eyes and growling under his breath. Aaron shushed him and whispered some memories he and Lucian shared.
"You used to like my scarf.", said the boy, rubbing Lucian's temples. From the tip of his fingers came out small treads of Dark Matter that started to dance around. "Well, you actually like it, because you would hold it close when I was gone, when I had to go into mission for a long time, like I used your coat when you were gone, and I missed you so much…", with his left hand, Aaron rubbed the fabric of the scarf on Lucian's cheek, and the vampire groaned softly. "You would wear it everywhere you went because you liked to feel my presence with it… Can't you remember that?", asked as he dug his fingers into Lucian's temples, but Lucian's power repelled Aaron's try into getting in.
The vampire calmed down a bit more, at last enough for the hands to stop trashing around and let Perrault and Carmilla have a rest from them. The Terrennial was badly wounded and one of her wings was broken but the snake lady, being almost buried in the skulls, didn't come out too hurt from them.
Aaron continued, and started to relate quickly what summed the last four years with Lucian, and Lucian was getting a bit confused with those memories since in his state of mind, he only remembered the bad time he spent with Ratatosk and some of the years after Dumas acquired the throne afterwards. He did remember someone in between… he remembered a person that, annoying him at first, he quickly let that person stick to his side as they fought against Dumas, and latter that person supported while he went away to somewhere… and then when he was fighting with the Dark Matter…
Lucian stretched out, blinking as he groaned, closing his eyes afterwards at the sudden headache. Aaron managed to stick his fingers in and his Dark Matter started to roam around his mind, trying to find the memories of Lucian's life to see if he could use them to bring him back, although the first ones Aaron found out were from thirty years ago, and some of them made Lucian trash around and roar in anger and pain, awaking the hands once again and put in danger the stability of the chamber. He had to fill his body with the Dark Matter to control Lucian's anger, and that made his eyes turn red. He felt his fangs grow but he didn't repair in that as he cradle Lucian's head with his arms, trying to keep him still with his legs.
"I'm sorry about that…", he whispered, kissing Lucian's lips and then his forehead, when he had run into the memory of when he lost Ella against Dumas. "But I'm here still, I'm still alive, I'm still at your side to guide you…", said as he started to cry. He was getting frustrated for not being able to do what he was supposed to do and, at the same time, he was crying because of the time spent with Lucian and how he loved each of it, and being able to sense Lucian's feelings from those moments made his heart jump in joy. "I'm not going to leave you, I'm here…", he whispered again.
Lucian moaned in pain, twisting between the boy's legs and arms upon one of the memories he had, one where Aaron almost lost his life in one of the missions that Ernest sent him with his group. The vampire had stayed at the boy's side day and night, not eating, not drinking, and not sleeping only watching over Aaron's vital signs until he woke up. After that, Lucian brings him everything he needed and stayed when the boy needed it, helping him go to the bathroom and to eat. Until the doctor didn't say he was all recovered, Lucian didn't rest.
"You remember it?", said Aaron with a smile on his face, rubbing his nose on Lucian's. "Do you? Your face was the first thing I saw when I regained consciousness… and I was so glad, so happy I could see you again.", he felt warm tears leave Lucian's eyes as he smiled widely now, snuggling on him.
"…Aaron…", said in such low tone that if Aaron hadn't been that close to Lucian, he wouldn't be able to hear it.
"And do you remember the times when you went into training, how I visited you everyday and how we used to hang out before the sunset?", the boy dug his fingers deeper into Lucian's head, searching for those memories. "You were so angry to find out Dumas was alive---H-Hey!", the boy tried to calm Lucian down as soon as he said the horned man's name, something that obviously the vampire hated to hear in those moments. "That you swore to finally master your weapons, but you had to depart from Acuna, far off the mountains where you could summon your Dark Matter freely and not harm anyone, not harm me…!", the boy gasped in pain when he felt the pressure of the Beast trying to push him outside Lucian's mind. "Then you cursed yourself when you found out you were turning a vampire, you fled because you were worried you would hurt me, but I missed you so much those two weeks you fled, I was so worried about you, thinking someone had hurt you.", Aaron started to cry again, hugging Lucian closer. "Why couldn't you see I didn't care about that? I love you the way you are… Vampire or not, you are my Lucian…"
Lucian remembered, he remembered the time he fled from the Inn when he found out his powers were reacting to the Moon, scared he would lose control, scared he would do something to his precious person. The vampire's eye recovered bits of their glow, but Aaron knew he wasn't back yet. He kept digging and reviving those locked memories about them, and Lucian seemed to slowly recover his conscious.
"…I need you Lucian…", whispered the boy, nuzzling his neck as he heard him sigh deeply. "I need you so badly…"
"…my child…", answered the man, twisting around when Vanargandr's bony body roared in anger and the hands tried to, once more, try to rip Aaron from Lucian's side but, this time, the hands couldn't even reach the boy. "My loving child…", repeated.
The locks were loose, and the memories and emotions started to flow into his mind, and Lucian started to revive each moment as it passed before him. He remembered his childhood along Hel, he remembered the first time he saw Carmilla and how both of them developed a close relationship, he remembered when she died and when he fought along his younger brother, when they returned to San Miguel, when they beat Jormungandr, when Ratatosk kidnapped him, when he fused with Vannargandr, the pain he felt and the relieve he felt when he finally met Aaron, when both of them started to hang out more and more, to know about each other and how Lucian felt complete when being with him, how he felt so good with him.
Carmilla smiled, and her body turned into stone before it turned into dust. In the place where she once stood, a bright, yellow energy sphere was seen. It dashed quickly towards Aaron and it penetrated into his chest, barely feeling it. Lucian, on the contrary, whined in pain and twisted in Aaron's arms. The boy saw how a same yellow energy sphere came from him before turning grey and return to the man's body. When it did, Aaron felt Lucian's being inside him, a very weird feeling but the boy now felt… complete. The man had been trembling while this lasted, but now he had calmed down and was resting in the boy's arms.
Aaron's eye recovered their usual warm grey color, but the pupils remained like thin lines. The fangs returned to their usual length, but they were sharper that normal ones, and the Dark Matter retreated when Lucian's energy filled Aaron's body slowly. The bony creature behind them stood still, turning into stone as the hands fell on the bony ground.
The boy smiled when he saw Lucian's eyes, his normal red eyes, open and lock their gaze in Aaron's one. The man widened them in surprise then, he returned the smile the boy gave him and, shooting his arms up, he hugged his mate closer, sighing.
"I love you.", whispered Lucian while he sat between the boy's legs to held him close to his chest.
Aaron didn't reply, he simply smiled. He felt now too tired to move or talk, so he just rested on his mate's chest, letting the darkness around him, when the chamber disappeared, slowly pull him and Perrault towards unconsciousness