Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal
Title: The Worst Poison: Chapter 3: Cleansing
Characters: Durbe, Vector, Mach, Nasch
Word Count: chapter: 4,095||story: 12,334
Genre: Drama, Friendship||Rated: PG-13
Notes: This series takes place in their past life.
Challenges: Written for the 2014 Advent Calendar, Day #19; Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section I, #6, a threeshot
Summary: [3/3 chapters, Advent Challenge Day #19; Diversity Writing; Challenge; Durbe, Vector, Mach, Nasch; a little Tomoshipping, not-quite-Leadshipping] During the war against Vector, Durbe finds himself in a very bad situation, involving the mad prince and a truth he does not want to hear.
Nasch! Durbe thought he'd struggled against the ropes binding him to the pole in that tiny cell, until he heard a howl of rage that could belong to only one person. He couldn't see or speak at the moment, but that didn't stop him from fighting his bonds a thousand times harder than he already had.
The chains that bound him now couldn't be broken any more than the ropes earlier. Whoever it was that held the chain connected to the collar yanked on it hard, but Durbe paid no heed, just straining with every ounce of effort he could put into it.
Perhaps if he'd been better fed and less exhausted from hardly being allowed to move for weeks on end, he would've had better chances of at least pulling away from his captors. Durbe didn't know. What he knew was that he could hear the clash of weapons against one another, the shouts of warriors as they attempted to surround and finish off Nasch, and Nasch's own grunts and snarls of rage as he fought, each one as familiar to him as his own heartbeat.
He held onto the memory of the sound he'd heard before Vector left, when word of the attack came. Another sound he knew down to the core of his bones, a whinny that he'd heard a thousand times. Perhaps it had only been an ordinary horse and he was only convincing himself of what he wanted to hear. Mach had been injured, he knew that very well. He'd seen the blood with his own eyes, and experienced the crash that sent them both to the ground.
But it had been Vector who told him Mach was dead, and Durbe wasn't in the habit of believing anything that Vector told him without a great deal more evidence than he currently found himself in possession of.
Vector hadn't been gone all that long when other warriors entered the cell, carrying chains and shackles with them. Durbe ached still for a chance to flee at that moment, but they'd taken no chances. The steel collar had been fastened around his neck, complete with the chain being held by the burliest one there, before they'd undone the rope bonds. He'd been forced to his knees with a couple of hard yanks, his arms held tightly behind his back as they shackled his wrists together.
They'd left his feet unbound for the moment, finishing off the bindings with a tightly wrapped blindfold and gag. Then he'd been pulled out of the cell and through what he guessed were corridors or hallways. He still hadn't had a single glimpse of where he'd been imprisoned. Vector liked to keep him confused, he guessed, and it was working very well indeed.
He'd stumbled here and there, unable to see where to put his feet, and that won him blows and snarls from the ones dragging him along. If he'd been able to, he would've told them they could hardly expect someone who couldn't see where he was going to walk smoothly. But if that had occurred to them, they never said a word about it.
Warm sun touched his skin at last and they were no longer inside of a building. He breathed in the sharp scent of grass and trees, even as the soldiers pulled him over somewhere else. He didn't guess at first what it was, until he found himself picked up and thrown bodily onto what he realized a moment later was a cart or wagon of some kind. Now his feet were chained together, making it all but impossible for him to move on his own.
Vector, he realized, had no intentions of letting Nasch rescue him, not without a great deal more effort than the good king might be ready or even able to give.
Durbe breathed a trifle heavily at that, his head spinning with a thousand confused notions. Why would Nasch put in that much effort anyway? They were friends, yes, but this would get more of his warriors killed, and might not even provide a good way to get to Vector. Was it worth it? Would Nasch try?
The knight wasn't certain how much of what he thought was because it was true or because of what Vector's sweetly poisoned words slipped into his mind. He wanted, he needed time away from all of this to get himself into order, and he knew he wasn't going to get it any time soon. Perhaps not at all, if Vector had any say in the matter.
But now, with Nasch's battle cries ringing sharply in his ears, Durbe didn't wonder why the good king had come for him. He knew that Nasch had, and that was all that he needed to know.
Quiet murmurs from the guards still around him filled Durbe's ears, just before weight moved on the wagon, and for a brief moment, Durbe dared to hope that Nasch had made it there. The hope shriveled and died when a far too familiar hand touched the side of his face, then brushed through his hair.
"I really didn't think he'd get this far," Vector mused. "But I can't be that surprised. You three...excuse me, two, would do anything for each other, wouldn't you?"
Durbe did what he could to pull away from Vector's touch, as he always had. Vector, as he always had, paid no attention to that, but continued what he was doing.
"Have you quite finished killing my soldiers, Nasch?" Vector raised his voice. "I think we have a settlement to make."
The din of battle eased and faded, and Durbe could hear footsteps moving through grass. "No. No settlements, no deals. You release Durbe, that's it."
Vector's hand trailed down the side of Durbe's cheek once more. Durbe lifted his head and smashed against the mad prince's side with all of his gathered strength, hissing unintelligibly through his gag. He would put up with a great deal, but Vector had long since reached the limits of his tolerance.
That won him a harsh smack, but Durbe thought it well worth the trouble. Vector shifted somewhat away from him, but didn't get up.
"What will you give me for him?"
"Nothing. He's worth far more than anything you could afford even if I were going to bargain with you." Durbe could envision perfectly the stern, unrelenting look on Nasch's face.
Vector didn't appear to appreciate it as much as the knight did, however. "Do you think I'll just back off and let you have him back? You've always been foolish, Nasch, but are you genuinely stupid? What can you do to stop me from killing him if that's what I want to do?"
One hand lifted Durbe's chin and what could only be the blade of a knife touched his bared throat, just above the collar. "I could finish it in a moment. And it would be your fault. Every drop of his blood on your hands."
If Durbe could've done so without the sharp edge slicing into him, he would've shaken his head. As it was, he tried to convey to Nasch that he wasn't afraid to die, that Nasch shouldn't do anything that Vector wanted, with what body language he could manage as restrained as he was.
"He is a wiggler, isn't he?" Vector chuckled, a dark amusement coating his words. "But I'm certain you knew that already."
"Your time is running out, Vector. Either release Durbe or pay a price too high even for someone as insane as you." Nasch spoke without a shred of doubt in his words. Durbe wondered what gave him such conviction. He didn't know what the king had in mind, but it had to be something, something he didn't think Vector could counter.
All of Durbe's attention remained focused on what was going on between the two kings. The guards weren't that far off, but he guessed at least some of them had moved back when Vector joined them on the wagon. He didn't know how many of them there had been, so he couldn't be certain beyond a vague guess of how many might still be there. He didn't doubt Nasch could take them all if he had to. He certainly could have if he'd been unbound.
"And what price might that be?" Vector sounded only mildly intrigued by the question as he kept the knife on Durbe's throat. "What could you possibly do to save him, Nasch? He is mine. His life is mine, to give or take."
Durbe's attention hadn't wavered at all, so he might well be forgiven for not completely realizing what the faint sound he heard in the distance really was. Some part of him dismissed it as little more than wind in the trees. Another part knew what it was and dismissed it because he couldn't see it for himself, and to get up too much hope when even if it were true he might not live to see it would be far too painful.
But for the rest of his life, he always wished that he'd been able to get the blindfold off of his eyes in time to see Mach barrel down from the sky and knock Vector off the wagon with one strike of his hooves.
Wild whinnies and snorts sounded, the guards sent flying after their master, and Durbe threw himself even harder into trying to get out of his bonds, no matter how useless his struggles were. A familiar hand, one that inspired him to lean into the touch instead of away from it, rested on his forehead for a moment, calming him.
"Just a second. I'll get you out of this," Nasch told him, and Durbe let himself relax completely for the first time since he'd awoken in the cell. He could hear Mach still fighting, the sound of steel-shod hooves clashing against what bits of armor Vector's warriors wore, and jerked his shoulders, hoping to get Nasch to realize he wanted the blindfold off first.
Apparently Nasch got the message, since he unworked the thick fabric binding Durbe off, tossing them to the side. Durbe winced at the brilliant sunlight pouring down from above, then wriggled around until he could see Mach.
Just in time; Vector stalked toward his beloved pegasus with sword out, the desire to kill burning bright in his eyes. Mach whirled and struck out with his hind hooves, and Vector only just managed to get one arm up in time to intercept the blow. He still ended up flying backwards, slamming into a tree, and started to try to get up. Mach stalked over to him and stared down. While the pegasus couldn't speak in any human tongue, the look of don't even try it didn't need to be uttered to be clear.
Vector stayed where he was, though Durbe found himself a trifle grateful that even the mad prince couldn't slay with his eyes. If he could, then every one of them would've fallen where they were.
"Mach," Durbe breathed the name out, and Mach bobbed his head and swished his tail in greeting. The knight's heart swelled in joy, and he ached to actually feel his long-time friend in his arms.
It didn't take Nasch long to get the rest of the bonds off of him, since a few death-filled glares of his own at the guards produced the key to Durbe's shackles. As soon as the knight was on his feet again, he stumbled right over to Mach and wrapped his arms around him.
"Mach." He thought it would take him a while to be able to say much else. But there Mach was, warm and strong and alive in his arms, nuzzling against him as he always had whenever they'd been apart for more than a short while. Durbe ran one hand over Mach's shoulder, noticing a faint scar on the powerful muscle where he remembered an arrow landing, and glanced toward Nasch.
"We found him near where the two of you were brought down. We probably missed Vector taking you by only a few minutes," Nasch told him, a frown settling over his lips at the thought. "It took a couple of weeks for our healers to get him taken care of, but as soon as he could fly again, he started looking for you with the rest of us."
Durbe nodded; as hell-bent as Vector seemed to have been on catching him, there was no way they could've found him before he'd been carried off. He certainly hadn't been in any condition to fight at the time.
Mach snorted, rubbing his nose against Durbe's chest. He looked in good shape, not a feather or a hair out of place.
"You were wonderful," Durbe murmured, turning to check on Vector. They'd had their eyes off him for only a few seconds, but...
But that seemed more than enough for the slippery devil to vanish into thin air, as there was nothing remaining to show he'd been there but a vague shape in the dirt. His warriors remained, and from the look on their faces, Durbe doubted they would know where he'd vanished off to.
"Let's get you back to camp," Nasch said, still supporting him. Durbe didn't argue about either the destination or the support. It would take a while before he was back in the skies fighting, and he would need all of the help that he could get.
Vector rubbed his arm, grateful as he seldom was that his enchanted armor, little though it was by the standards of other countries, could protect him from nearly anything. As it was, the feathered beast's blow had put a solid dent in the gauntlet, and he wouldn't be able to use his arm properly for at least a week or two.
This wasn't the end. He swore that. He had plans for Nasch, and the whispered words of poison he'd dripped into Durbe's ears would not vanish all that easily.
A mere setback, that was all this was, and not a very important one.
Durbe remained quiet as the three of them headed back through the village, now very firmly in Nasch's control, with Vector's warriors either defeated and disarmed or dead. There wasn't any sign of Vector himself, but no one expected any. If anyone could hide himself in the smallest shadow to live and fight another day, it was Vector.
But his words still whispered through Durbe's mind, the more so as Nasch helped him into a wagon that carried other injured warriors. Why should Nasch do this? A childhood friendship wasn't enough, was it? When he'd given his vows and oaths elsewhere?
Nasch stayed beside him, as did Mach, one on each side. Mach watched over him with wise, worried eyes, and frequently Durbe found himself wishing his old friend could talk. If he could, then maybe he could purge Vector's poisonous words and figure a way to deal with all of this.
It took days to get back to where the bulk of the army remained, and as soon as they arrived, Iris came running out, eyes sparkling and happy to see them again.
"You're all right!" She chirped at Durbe as he slid off the wagon. He'd walked a little each day in order to help start getting his strength back, but he still wavered a little when she wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged. "I was worried about you!"
He leaned down to hug her, dredging a smile up as he did. Iris had a way of making anyone feel good, just by being there. He'd seen her visiting the injured and sick soldiers, and all of them looked happier after she arrived. Her full affection remained reserved for Nasch, of course, with Durbe coming in second along with Mach.
Durbe often wondered what Merag would've thought of her. They would've never found her if Vector hadn't attacked in the first place, however, and sometimes he wondered what her life would've been like then.
"Glad to see you again, too." Though if all truth were to be told, he wasn't entirely certain of the 'all right' part just yet.
Nasch moved in closer, resting a hand on Durbe's shoulder. "He needs to see the healers, Iris. You two can play later."
Iris nodded quickly, but fell in beside the two of them on the way to the healers' tents. She remained quiet, sneaking long blades of grass to Mach as they walked along, and Durbe pretended that he didn't see that.
His armor and sword had been recovered from wherever Vector's soldiers had stored them; he didn't know for certain if they'd diced for his possessions, but he had them back, and that mattered more right now. He'd spent most of his evenings on the way back looking it over, polishing what he could, and checking for damages that he couldn't repair, usually with Nasch only a short distance away.
They'd lain close to one another at night, watching the stars glimmer overheard, but nothing more. Vector's words did not fade with time, as Durbe had half-hoped they would. They did nothing more than rest near each other, partly because of how weary Durbe found himself still, and partly because those foul insinuations still burned trails in his thoughts.
He wanted to get rid of them. He wanted to fight with a clear conscience and to feel Nasch's arms around him without the burning coals of guilt eating into him.
The only problem was that he didn't know how.
Something was wrong with Durbe. He spoke seldom of what actually happened to him during the weeks he'd spent as Vector's prisoner. No one quite had the nerve to ask him for more than the barest details, and all he said about that was that Vector wanted him to work for him, and nothing more.
Nasch knew Durbe was lying. Or perhaps lying wasn't the proper word. He wasn't telling everything. Durbe didn't lie very well, after all.
What Vector had teased Nasch himself with went a long way towards telling Nasch something of what Vector must have tried on Durbe as well. The thought of repeating those to Durbe, of hearing what Vector had to have said to him in the privacy of prison...it nauseated Nasch just to think about.
But he knew he had to do it. Durbe hadn't been the same since then, and he wanted to see that sparkle of life back in his lover's eyes.
"Durbe?" Nasch found the knight seated in the woods a short distance from camp. Mach grazed not that far from him, ears tilted upward, nose turned toward the direction of the breeze. Hoofprints in some of the clearer portions of the clearing revealed that he'd roamed around, keeping an eye out for any kind of danger.
"Nasch." Durbe glanced up toward him, a light smile finding his lips. Within Nasch's chest, the knot of worry eased a small fraction. If Durbe could at least still smile, then not all was lost. "Is there something you need?"
Nasch wished he'd been better at talking to people. He could lead warriors into battle without a problem, but this was not entirely his forte. But he would try, for Durbe's sake.
So he moved a little closer and settled down next to Durbe. "I believe it's more of what you need." He struggled to find the right words and decided simply to be direct. "What did Vector try to tell you? The full truth, Durbe, please. I know what he tried to tell me. He insisted that you would become his knight, and there were …other comments." Other comments and the way that Vector said things, and it all added together.
Durbe tensed the moment he spoke, dropping his gaze to the ground. Nasch had seen him reluctant to speak before, and wanted nothing more than to take the other's hand in his. He held back for now, though. He wanted to give Durbe all the time he needed, but some progress had to be made. They would move out soon, and while Durbe wasn't totally recovered, he would be needed once more in the skies eventually. Any wound would be something Vector would attempt to use again.
Durbe twiddled a long blade of grass in between his fingers. When he spoke, he didn't look at Nasch at all, but down at the ground. "He told me that...I've betrayed my vows to my king to fight by your side, Nasch. That was why he insisted to you, and me, that I would be his. Because he said that what happens once would happen again."
Nasch tilted his head back, something that wasn't humor and yet was a smile all the same flickering on his lips. "And you believed that?"
Durbe blinked a few times, large gray eyes confused at first. "Nasch, he could declare war on my kingdom because of what I've done here. It would be my fault."
"No." Nasch's voice rang firm and true. "It would only be Vector's fault, as it's his fault for all of this." He waved one hand back toward his own army. "And if anything, by helping me fight him, you're making certain he won't attack your kingdom, because he won't be around to do so in the first place."
The knight's mouth worked a few times and his shoulders slumped the tiniest bit. "You're certain?"
"I am." Now Nasch reached to take Durbe's hand, squeezing the warm fingers. "You treasure your vows, Durbe, and he knows that. You'd overthink it." Vector had a thousand flaws, at the lowest count, but one of them wasn't being amazingly stupid. He knew how to play with people's minds.
Durbe's fingers tightened around Nasch's. "I don't know what I'd do without you."
With all of his heart, Nasch hoped that neither of them would ever have to find out.
Late at night, arms wrapped around Nasch and Nasch's around him, Durbe gazed up at the stars, his heart and mind far more at rest than they'd been for some time. He didn't think he'd be completely at rest until Vector was no longer in a position to do anything to either the United Lands of Poseidon or his own kingdom. Only then would he completely believe everything Nasch told him. Only then could he.
I should go home. If only for a visit. He trusted the three brother knights he'd left to guard almost as much as he trusted Nasch. But there was nothing quite like keeping an eye on matters for oneself.
He couldn't go just yet, though. Once the army moved forward again, he would have to take to the skies. He'd recovered enough for watching from above, even if he wasn't as ready for battle as he wanted.
He could hear Mach's familiar breathing not that far away, and knew that his beloved partner watched over him even now. He did the same when he was awake. It would be a long time before either of them truly wished to be out of the other's sight for any reason, if at all.
Durbe glanced down to where moonlight filtered through the trees arching overheard to caress across Nasch's sleeping features. He knew the slightest untoward sound would wake him up, so did what he could not to make any. Nasch would need all of his sleep.
And he needed his own, he reminded himself, stifling a yawn, and closing his eyes. Perhaps for once he could rest without hearing Vector's taunting voice telling him how horrible of a knight he was, how his vows meant nothing to him, and how he would bring down anything that he touched.
He would not believe Vector. Nasch had said it in other times, and it hadn't changed: any truth that Vector spoke was only meant to help him and hurt others.
Vector's words would not poison him. Durbe rejected them now with every scrap of his being, something he knew he should've done to begin with. He curled up tighter against Nasch, smiling when the king curled closer to him as well, fingers brushing across Durbe's bare skin. For the first time since his return they'd indulged their passions with one another, and Durbe hadn't even imagined how much he'd missed that until afterward.
His home kingdom lay far away across the ocean, but Durbe knew that he would always count Nasch as where his heart belonged.
The End