Whoo! Oh my goodness, summer is here. That means tons of time for writing for you guys! Sorry for being a little late on this chapter. I'm working on this, I promise!
Summary:Raph is sure he can't take Leo's almighty attitude any longer. He channels his rage through the Nightwatcher, a mask he puts on to beat down criminals of all kinds. However, when Raph (as the Nightwatcher) is captured by desperate criminals, he begins to realize how much he really needs a leader. He also might have found love in the process. RaphxOC, M/M SLASH! Don't like, don't read.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Flame was never one to deny himself a long rest, when it came upon him. However, this sleep was different, forced.. He wanted nothing more than to wake up. The thrumming in his head started again, and he knew the nightmares were near. That probably had something to do with the soothing touch that had left his shoulder.
He seemed to have risen from the black of unconsciousness to a sort of grey area-sort of awake (aware, even), yet still sleeping. The horrors could still catch him, that way, but he couldn't wake up. No matter how his inner-self thrashed, fought, died, he couldn't make himself wake up.
Flame was standing near the bank of a quaint creek, mud squishing between his toes. It had been so long since he had felt true mud, the earthy kind that one simply can't find in the polluted world of the urban. No, this was real mud, cool beneath his touch, and Flame cringed. He knew what came after.
A bruising hold on his arm got his attention. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Flame knew he was only dreaming this, but the grip felt so solid, so real. Calluses rubbed in just the right places, and Flame could have sworn the fingers that held him so tightly belonged to the one he remembered.
"Marius."
The intruder didn't reply at first, the only sign he remained was a hot breath on the back of Flame's neck. Despite this, Flame didn't have to wait long. True to his impatient nature, Marius spun Flame around to snarl in his face.
The glinting yellow eyes of royalty, a staple that Flame had always found a bit sick and hated even upon himself, glared back as Flame scowled. Still, his predecessor gave no other outward sign of emotion, and Flame could handle the anger. Marius absently licked his lips, and Flame noticed the dried blood on them, but schooled his expression before Marius could catch him looking.
Finally, Flame's elder spoke. His voice was rough and guttural, with an edge to it that suggested long periods of disuse.
"The irony of the afterlife, my student," Marius rasped, gripping Flame harder, "is that while you were the one to push me to the gates of hell, I must in return shove you away from them."
"Hell..?" Flame wondered aloud, and for the first time looked around. He was in a clearing of contrasts; the side with the creek, which Flame had been near, seemed nice enough. A wide, clear path led up to the sparkling water. Cordial flower blossoms and the songs of birds permeated the natural scene, popping up in all the right places. A sturdy, neat wooden bridge allowed for walking across the sweet little brook.
Looking over Marius' shoulder now, Flame could see what he meant. They were mere steps away from falling into a huge pit, something that one would not have noticed for all the sunshine and blue skies and funny looking clouds scattered about. No sound came from it, no blazing fire or screams. Instead, hell was a vast nothingness, a condemnation to silence and separation forever.
Marius, who had obviously been busy reading Flame's emotions as they flickered across his visage, raised an eyebrow. "Surely you don't believe one such as I would have gone to the other place?"
"I assumed you wouldn't, but I don't dwell so much on that," Flame replied smoothly and with confidence, though the presence of his old king was beginning to affect him. Already his shoulders drooped, his eyes lowered instinctively in some blind need to seem more docile. Flame noticed these changes in his demeanor and sought to alter them, but to no avail. He couldn't look Marius in the eyes.
"I hate you, Flame," Marius began, as Flame knew in his heart he would. "And I believe what I have gone through gives new meaning to hatred with a FIERY passion."
"I can't imagine why you do," Flame tried for sarcasm, though he couldn't keep a slight quiver out of his voice as Marius' scowl deepened. Marius had always been quick to snap, and Flame wondered if he had better not push him too far. Just as Flame was about to cower, Marius seemed to cool down a bit. He finally released Flame's arm, smirking as Flame tried to rub some circulation back into it.
"I heard whispers that you have been having some trouble controlling your subordinates after you cut my reign short, dear one," Marius said loftily, as if he didn't care for the matter he was discussing. Flame knew better than to believe the act; his mentor had entertained much too avid an interest in killing for Flame's tastes. After some thought, Marius lightheartedly added to himself, "It seems I wasn't the only one with a less than loyal second-in-command."
"This is different, and you know it," Flame spat, daring to look in his king's eyes for the first time since their meeting. He would NOT be compared to Nathan. Never.
"Is it really?" Marius mused, lifting a finger to his own lips when Flame tried to protest again. "Look where we're standing."
Marius gripped him again, and suddenly, the scenery changed. They were surrounded on all sides by dank concrete walls, in a room with little light. Blood stains, some old and some new, littered the ground, the walls, even the ceiling. There were no doors, no windows, nothing but the occasional jagged marks where something had attempted to claw its' way out.
Flame wrinkled his nose as a horrible stench assaulted his nostrils. It was as if someone had been burning corpses nearby, yet Flame couldn't see where the smell could be coming from.
He turned to Marius, one eyebrow raised.
"This is where criminals like you come to die, student of mine. Congratulations, you are set to follow my path. Here is where it leads."
Flame flinched at the use of the word 'criminal.' Raphael had called him that. "I think I made it pretty clear I didn't want to be like you," Flame snapped. His patience was wearing thin and he just wanted to get this stupid vision over with already.
"By killing, lying, and stealing? Oh yes, not like me at all," Marius quipped right back, rolling his eyes. "After all, I didn't lie or steal."
"I don't kill the way you did," Flame argued, growing desperate. "Only those who deserve death. I did the world a service by removing you, and you know it."
"What gave you the right to decide my fate for me? To murder me? Go ahead and try to justify it, Flame. Was I really so cruel when I conquered in battle? Took what I could from the world's resources, for our people? Eliminated threats?"
Marius' eyes bored into Flame, like hardening lumps of gold waiting to be smelted into idols. They sought to crush Flame's defiance, his resolve, with a mad rush of imperfect chaos that threatened to drown his voice and his mind into a never-ending insanity should he chance one more look into the abyss.
A blood-curdling cry from the corner of the room caused Flame to tear his eyes away from Marius, and even though he knew it was only an illusion, he choked. Raph was slumped against one wall, his head lolled to the side, a steady stream of red running from his mouth. Unfocused eyes widened in agony as the turtle let out another cry that promptly turned into a coughing fit. Flame didn't dare to look at the rest of his body; instead, his stomach rose to his throat and he felt as if he might throw up bile all over the place.
He pushed against Marius, tried to reach Raph's side, but the man's iron grip held him back. Flame was forced to remain stationary as Raph choked once more, gurgled. More blood was coming out, now.
"Answer me, Flame," Marius warned sternly, but Flame could hardly focus on that right now. He twisted, attempting to get free so he could help one of the only people he had ever brought himself to care about, a fact that Flame himself hardly understood. His life hadn't left much room for affection, and if asked to define it he doubted he could provide an accurate description.
"Answer me!" Marius roared now. Flame closed his eyes.
"Fine!" Flame roared in his king's face, determined to get to Raph. "Here's the difference between my sins and yours: while mine were out of necessity, yours were for sport."
Marius let go of his arm, shaking with laughter. Flame refused to look back at him, bolting at once to Raphael's side. He reached out to stroke the strange, yet beautiful, skin and perhaps stop the bleeding. His fingertips had almost made contact when Raph's broken form shivered, then vanished before his very eyes with a moan of anguish. Flame blinked.
In a flash, he whipped around to accost Marius, who was still giggling like a mad man. Rage flooded through Flame's arteries as he advanced on his former tormenter.
"Where did you send him?" Flame demanded, even as he slammed his king against a chilling wall with enough force to snap his spine, had he only been alive. This attempt on his life only made Marius laugh all the more. "I will repeat this only once, Marius: Where is my Raphael?"
"So he belongs to you now, does he?"
"He is under my protection."
"That isn't what you meant.." Marius smirked, and Flame's blood boiled all the more.
"If you have harmed him, I swear-"
"You'll do what?" Marius shouted back in his face. "What will you do? I'm already dead and in hell, you fool!"
At the blank look on Flame's face, Marius shook his head. "Even if I cared to, I have not the power to harm that one. He is protected by two very strong spiritual fields, and I never knew him in life."
Without warning, Marius shoved Flame away from him with enough force to send him flying across the room. Flame felt himself collide with the wall, but was numb to any pain he may have still have had the capacity to feel. He observed his former master's worn brown boots marching toward him.
Flame shut his eyes as he was lifted bodily into the air. There was nothing he could do; in the world of the dead, Marius was stronger than he.
"I do, however, possess the power to haunt you," Marius growled into Flame's ear, then threw his body into another wall. Flame slumped to the ground, not bothering to open his eyes again until Marius had not picked him up for a decent stretch of time. He looked up at Marius, who shook his head sadly.
"Alas, that is not what I came to do," Marius quipped as he reached down and pulled Flame to his feet. Suddenly, they were back on the banks of the creek. "I was ordered by one more powerful than I to deliver this prophecy to you: You will kill your love trying to save it."
"That is supposed to push me back from the pit of hell?" Flame wondered aloud, incredulous. "If I am to be the cause of the death of my love, I would rather just leap in now."
Marius smiled-a process that involved an unusual stretching of his blood-stained lips that twisted the gesture into something gruesome. "I'm afraid that isn't allowed. You will return to the land of the living, my student."
"No!" Flame reached for Marius, who deftly avoided his grasp. "No, please, you can have my soul. Just don't let me hurt-"
"Stop that, you blubbering idiot. There's nothing I can do for you."
"Marius, surely you can stop this. Take back your words!" Flame rose, now commanding his will be done. He glared at the old dead king with narrowed eyes.
"Ah, so perhaps you will be more miserable than I after all," Marius breathed to himself, though Flame caught the words. Slowly, the king backed away toward the pit. "What a pleasant dream this is."
"Dream.." Flame mumbled. Yes, it was only a dream. HIS dream. If it was so, then why did he feel such a strong premonition that the prophecy would pass?
Shaking himself, Flame turned away from Marius and walked back over the bridge. He took steady, careful steps away from the pit of hell, backtracking across the well-worn road where sweet birds chirped and the flowers smelled nice, to find his way to a place where the bush was wilder, the animals more exotic and the path more dangerous.
Then he woke up.
Yes, I know, I really should include some exclusive RaphxFlame time soon. I'll get right to that. In the mean time, enjoy whatever I deem fit to throw at you! Oh, and please review. :)
-DauntlessAdrenaline (weird, I've seen so many people on this site spell "adrenaline" like "adrenalin." That is NOT the correct spelling, dudes and dudettes..).