Note:
Dunamis/Dynamis- Greek name meaning '(miraculous) power, might, or strength'
Astraia- Greek name meaning 'starry one', Dunamis's mother, OC
Aphesis- Greek name meaning 'forgiveness, release', Dunamis's father, OC
...~*~...~*~...~*~...
Titi could not help but let out a terrified scream as the mass of swirling purple miasma and black flame roared towards him. The boy tried to run, but he tripped as a strand of inky shadow wrapped around his ankle and tugged. Titi hit the ground hard, the back of his head slamming against the pavement and his elbows scraping painfully across the ground.
A cry of desperation bubbled up at the back of his throat as he tore at shadow that held his ankle in an iron grip. He braced himself as the wave of darkness and fire loomed over him, threatening to crash over him.
The shadows stopped, and the flames froze.
And just as quickly as they had materialized, they disappeared.
"T-Titi?" Dunamis was staring at him with wide, dazed eyes, swaying on his feet.
Titi stared at him, disbelief and fear warring across his face as hope began to swell up inside of him. "Dunamis?"
Dunamis's eyes were a warm, familiar blue, softened from their earlier cold flintiness.
And Titi knew that his brother was back.
...~*~...~*~...~*~...
The world was overlaid with a sheen of crystalline red, cracked and dusty. He blinked, and the tint disappeared. Suddenly everything tilted sickeningly, a wave of vertigo swooping in his stomach. His head pounded, and his bare feet were, strangely, numb with cold.
But he ignored all this, focusing on the boy who he called brother.
Titi was sprawled on his back on the ground, staring at him in shock. The boy quickly scrambled up, and ran towards Dunamis, face alight with happiness. "Dunamis, you're back!"
But as the pink-haired blader neared him, Dunamis hastily staggered backwards, his hands held out in a warding gesture. "No! Don't come near me."
Titi froze, his brows furrowing in confusion, and he said plaintively. "Dunamis?"
"Titi!" Gingka and Kenta sprinted over, worry evident on their faces. Tsubasa, Yuu, and Madoka followed close behind.
The Eagle blader was on his phone, talking urgently with someone. Tsubasa ended his call and turned towards the rest of the bladers. "That was Ryo-san. He's taken care of the authorities and had them clear the area of bystanders."
Tsubasa turned his sharp gaze onto Dunamis. His eyes softened. "There hasn't been any reported injuries or deaths. You didn't hurt anyone."
Dunamis let out a sigh of relief, sending a tiny grateful smile towards the Eagle blader.
Titi started forward again, craving reassurance that his brother was finally okay again.
But Dunamis retreated, not stopping until his back hit the hospital wall.
"Don't come any closer!" Dunamis said pleadingly, his voice holding a note of panic. "I don't want to hurt any of you."
"You won't harm us." Titi said with a reassuring smile. His eyes were bright and trusting. The young boy put a hand to his throat, where the faint imprints of healing bruises remained. "I know you can't control it fully, but you can stop yourself, like just now when you saved me."
Gingka stepped forward, disregarding the guardian's previous warnings. "Dunamis, you can't fight this alone. Let us help, in any way that we can. So please don't shut us out." The rest of Dunamis's friends all nodded, agreeing with Gingka's words.
Dunamis seemed to waver between maintaining what he felt to be a safe distance from his friends and accepting his friends' offers of support. But a glance at Titi's pleading eyes melted the last of his resolve. He hesitated before nodding, stepping forward to meet Titi's embrace.
Tit wrapped his arms tightly around his brother, never wanting to let go.
Titi's wide smile was the last thing Dunamis saw before darkness swamped his vision and he lost consciousness.
The curse crooned in his ear. Sleep and dream. Dream of your sins, of the deaths that you've caused.
...~*~...~*~...~*~...
Dunamis, a newborn baby, slept in the arms of his mother.
His mother smiled down at him, her face frozen in its waxy expression. Her blue eyes were blank and unseeing.
She was dead.
The child continued to slumber, held in the arms of a corpse.
His father glared down at him, hissing "Your fault, her death was all your fault! If you hadn't been born...then we would have been happy."
...~*~...~*~...~*~...
His father was writhing on the bed, body shaking with convulsions and wracking coughs. Blood spilled from his lips, dotting the twisted bedsheets.
The curse, wearing Dunamis's face, smirked at him from the shadows beyond the bed, eyes glinting in the dimness. Its hand reached for Dunamis's father's neck, tightening and cutting off his air supply.
The man struggled feebly, hands clawing at the blankets, at thin air, at the hands that were slowly choking him. His eyes stared accusingly at Dunamis.
And finally his father slumped over, dead, his body dissolving into dancing flames and burning ash.
...~*~...~*~...~*~...
The hallways were passing by in a blur as Dunamis ran away from the twisted memories and the wrenching pain that they wrought. Indistinguishable murmurs and flashes of color were briefly visible from the gaping holes in the walls as he raced by, their depths unheeded by the guardian.
He delved deeper into the maze of his own mind, searching for a way to stop the curse, searching for a way to return to his brother. Finally he came to a stop, dizzy with fatigue and undoubtedly lost.
And here the hallway wall was intact, free of any damage but covered in an even thicker coat of dust than the previous hallways. A white door stood before him, the first door he'd seen, other than the black door that led him out of his mind.
Dunamis raised one hand and tentatively laid it upon the door's pristine surface. Instantly, the door began to glow, blinding him briefly with its light. A circle of astrological signs flashed into existence upon its surface, shining a brilliant purple.
His father's voice echoed through the hallway.
Power enshrined within this temple, power of Jupiter, seal these memories within this vessel until the time that the stars have foretold to me.
Release.
There was a sharp, clear sound, like glass breaking.
Dunamis fell forward into his father's memories.
...~*~...~*~...~*~...
"Astraia, you cannot stay after our child's birth." Aphesis said gently.
"I don't care what the stars say! I'm not leaving." Astraia shouted back at him. Her lavender hair was tied in a messy braid and her green eyes were narrowed and dagger-sharp. Her stomach was swollen with pregnancy, looking jarringly huge on her small frame.
"Terrible things happen when one defies the stars." Aphesis murmured. "I have already defied them once for falling in love with you, instead of keeping my emotions out. I fear their punishment will be even more severe if you insist on staying with our child."
Astraia's jade eyes flashed with frustration. Her fists clenched by her sides as she shouted. "You and your stars! I've told you once, and I'll say it again. I don't believe that burning balls of gas, billions of light years away, have any influence over my life!"
"The stars have controlled every aspect of your existence, from your journey to this temple, to your very name. You cannot escape them, starry one." He stared solemnly at her, his heart breaking at the pain in her eyes.
Her voice lost its anger. Now it seemed almost pleading. Pleading him to tell her to stay. "Are you telling me to leave my husband and my baby, the most important people in my heart? Are you telling me to accept a life of sorrow and loneliness?"
"Yes, because I love you. Because I love our yet unborn son. And I do not want to see either of you hurt."
Astraia's shoulders slumped in defeat. "Very well", she whispered.
Her hand went her stomach, laying her fingers lovingly over the swell of her child. She fixed a steady gaze on Asphesis.
"Love him and protect him. Always. No matter what."
"I will."
...~*~...~*~...~*~...
The last ashes from the funeral pyre floated to the ground. The stars watched coldly from the night sky.
Aphesis stood, stone-faced, a crying newborn in his arms. He had gained a son and lost a wife. But as he stared down at the baby, he felt no anger nor resentment.
Only love.
"The stars named me aptly, for I'd sooner forgive than hate", Asphesis whispered as Dunamis finally quieted. "I would never blame you for Astraia's passing."
"So please, never blame yourself for her death, my beloved son."
...~*~...~*~...~*~...
Dunamis was a young child, cold and shivering in the wake of a nightmare.
Aphesis smiled down at his son, eyes bright with a rarely seen fondness and his embrace secure and warm. His hands cupped Dunamis face, his thumb rubbing in small circles under his child's eyes to wipe away the tears. Gradually, Dunamis was calmed and was lulled back to sleep.
"My son", Aphesis sighed, breathing words into the boy's ears as Dunamis slipped back out of consciousness. "You must understand. I distanced myself because I loved you. I did not wish for the curse to take root so early, to steal away what short time I had left with you."
The child whimpered in his sleep, beginning to thrash, caught in the throes of another terrible dream.
Aphesis stroked Dunamis's messy locks, calming him with his touch. "When I leave this world, you must not bear guilt for my death. Nor the death of your mother. We loved you and would have done everything for you."
Aphesis's deep blue eyes were sad as he stared down at his son. "We would defy the stars for you."
"So no matter what, you must break the curse."
A circle of astrological symbols lit up on the temple floor, circling around the two figures as a breeze kicked up. The bedsheets flared and the Aphesis's robes snapped in the wind, but Dunamis slept on, locked in his nightmares.
"Power enshrined within this temple, power of Jupiter, seal these memories within this vessel until the time that the stars have foretold to me."
...~*~...~*~...~*~...
When Dunamis opened his eyes, he felt as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. The guilt that had been tearing him apart had ebbed, leaving him raw and aching, but stronger than ever before.
The curse stood before him in the dim light of the hallway, its aura unmistakably malicious. Darkness began to creep closer.
Sleep.
"No." The word was spoken quietly, but it rang with firm authority. Instantly the encroaching shadows fell back.
It seems that you've finally learned to fight back. Something like hunger lurked in the curse's gaze.
It shook its head, sighing in slight disappointment. I had hoped to keep this body for longer, but I suppose there's no helping it.
Its lips stretched in a wide grin as its hand began to glow a deep red. I will just have to take over a new body.
The curse thrust its hand into Dunamis's chest, the appendage sinking in him, sliding through him effortlessly. There was a spray of crimson. A choked gasp.
And then there was only pain.
The waves of darkness crashed over him.
He was drowning.
...~*~...~*~...~*~...
A/N:
So, here's a quick explanation of everything, including the subtle sub-plots I worked in:
Asphesis defied the stars by falling in love with Astraia. As a result, she died while giving birth.
Asphesis also went against the stars when he sealed some of his memories into Dunamis. He had foreseen that Dunamis would be devoured by the curse in the future, so he sealed the memories in order to assist Dunamis in conquering the curse. However, Dunamis unknowingly awakened the curse with his close proximity (shown in chapter 1). Aphesis sickened and died as the curse fed increasingly on him.
And finally, Dunamis defied the stars by refusing to teach Titi how to read the stars. Dunamis knew that Titi was supposed to be the next guardian of Mist Mountain, but he did not want that kind of life for Titi. (This is kinda shown in the memory conversations in chapter 10). And then the events of this fic happened.
Terrible things happen when one defies the stars. O.o
The curse has decided to drain Dunamis dry and move on to a new body. And it will probably take over one of Dunamis's friends, since they're nearby.
And that should cover anything confusing in this chapter. But if you have any questions, feel free to drop a review or send me a PM.
The next chapter should be the last one, excluding a possible epilogue. My poll turned out as...50/50. -.-; So I just flipped a coin. I'll try to get an update out soon! ^_^
EDIT: So there's been a bit of confusion. Sorry. I forgot to mention that most of the dreams/memories that Dunamis has been seeing, such as those in the previous chapters and the first two in this chapter, are not real memories. They've been twisted and altered by the curse, but they still hold a grain of truth in them. The curse does this in order to use what Dunamis dreams of as weapons in the real world (i.e. fire, wings) or just to weaken Dunamis so the curse can take over. Only the dream conversations with Titi and his father's memories are completely unaltered.