He chuckled to himself as he got out of bed, today was the day. Lisanna was still asleep as he stared at the clock. It was early, the sun wasn't even out yet.
He had gotten home late last night and the two them had an argument again. She wanted him around more, but he just couldn't do that. Not now, when they had so much to lose.
She wouldn't be pleased about tonight either. His meetings ended early today and while she had said something about it, he had more important things to be doing at the moment.
Learning how to control that side of himself, would turn the tides of the oncoming war. It was the same with the other weapons as well, they all needed to take the next step or be crushed by the enemy.
He chuckled to himself over the news that he received yesterday concerning his brother. He would have to tease the other later.
Heading downstairs quietly, as not to disturb his wife and child, he got himself a cup of coffee for the road and was out the door before anyone could stop him.
A deep fog was covering the city, making it so that you couldn't see down the winding streets. The town was normally dead at this time anyway. So he wouldn't be disturbed.
As he walked, he thought over everything that was at stake. His family may not like what he was doing, but he was doing it all for them.
'Are you really?' Cetus said in the back of his mind.
He rolled his eyes, part of him had hoped that the demon had slept a little longer before waking up. 'Yes, really.' He thought back, not wanting to argue with himself this early. It would only give him a headache later.
Cetus only laughed. 'Try telling yourself that, if it makes you feel better. I know the truth.'
He snarled, but didn't respond. There more important things he could be doing and talking with the demon wasn't on the top of his list.
'How are we going to go after Modd? Do you have a plan for that?'
After all of the arguing last night, he had forgotten about the delegate's demise. How could he have forgotten about the man that was trying to stand in his way?
'I thought that we were going to wait until we got closer to our goal?' He asked the demon.
It laughed in the back of his mind. 'Well, we don't need him getting too much support. If we wait too long, he will have body guards and the media will be all over him. We must strike soon, it will be easier to frame Fiore for the attack.'
He found himself agreeing with the monster. 'I don't think I can trust anyone from Raven Tail to do this for us.' He said, not realizing how he was speaking to the demon.
'Us?' It chuckled.
He scoffed. "The guild, my family." He didn't mean to say it out loud, but no one walked the streets, so no one could hear him anyway.
'What about them? We were talking about the power we would get from this move. You and I.' The demon said twisting his words.
'That doesn't matter.' He almost yelled inside of his head.
The demon only cackled. 'Doesn't it?'
About mid-day he got a knock on his office door, which was odd. Magnus wasn't scheduled to come by, nor did he have an appointments with guild members.
He heard the door code punch in and door opened only for him to find his father on the other side of the door. Noting the grave look on his face. This wouldn't be good.
"Hey old man. What are you doing here?" He asked, trying to at least start this conversation off on the right foot.
His father continued to glare at him. "I just came for a visit." The man said walking in and taking a seat in one of the chairs lose to his desk.
He watched as his father crossed his arm before speaking again. "Um…okay. Did you and dad get into a fight or something?"
His father gave him a scowl. "No, Ivan and I are fine. But you wouldn't know that. You haven't been around to see anything, have you?"
Now it was his turn to glare at his father. "You know that I'm busy." He started but was interrupted.
"What about Lisanna and Xenia?" His father almost hissed.
"Like I said, I've been busy. Organizing a war isn't easy old man, I would think that you of all people would know that." He smarted back, irritated.
Looking down at his desk, he filed one of the papers he was working on, before grabbing another, just as his father slammed his fist on the desk. "Have you learned nothing?"
"What are you going on about? I have a job to do." He said, 'Who does he thing he is?' He thought to himself.
"Ivan and I would give anything to go back and watch the two of you grow up. Don't push your family away when they are so close to you." His father said, his voice straining from trying to hold back his anger.
"Yeah and what were you doing for those 20 some years?! Ever since I took over, we have been getting closer to our goal!" He snapped.
He watched as his father looked at him stunned. "Do you really think that Ivan and I did nothing? We gave you up for your safety."
The chuckle that came out felt foreign to his lips. "And look how far you got. The two of you should have been doing what I've been doing for years. Then you could have stopped Fiore faster. Instead of waiting all of that time, you could have been on the attack from the start!"
His father looked like he had been stung. "Where is this coming from?"
"You can either sit there and ask dumb questions or leave. I have a lot to finish up today." He said, standing up and grabbing a file that had just appeared in his inbox.
His father stood up, giving him a sad look. "When you get your priorities right, come and find me."
He watched his father leave without a word.
His phone rang and he couldn't help but smirk. He could go for some acknowledgement right now.
"Code name and what do you have for me?" He said into the receiver, waiting patiently for her response.
"You've never been this happy to talk to me, Master." She said on the other line, giggling to herself.
"If you don't have a code name then I can't answer your call." He said trying to be stern with her, but found that he couldn't, so it came out almost as if he was playfully teasing her. At least someone was happy to talk with him.
She giggled again. "Crimson locks, Master."
He smiled into the receiver. "Okay, Crimson. What do you got for me?"
"How about the entire schedule of all of Fiore's events. I was able to get into their databases and extract what times the King will be out of the country."
Now this was interesting. They could easily form a plan of attack from that. "Does anyone suspect you?" He asked, wanting to make sure that the information was correct and secure.
She giggled. "No, no one suspects me of anything. They either see me as the crazy girl from the grand magic games or a poor soul that Raven Tail threw away. If only they knew the truth."
He laughed into the phone. "Give it time. They will know everything and more."
She seemed satisfied with his answer. "How much more do you need?"
"That should be enough. Get back here safely." He stated, smiling to himself. She had proven to be a lot more helpful than he thought she would be.
"Till then, Master." She almost said seductively over the phone.
The receiver went dead and he chuckled to himself.
'She seems to understand what you are doing.' Cetus said in the back of his mind.
He shook his head. "I'm a taken man, Cetus. Flare is just doing her job."
'Yes, you are a taken. But that doesn't mean that you can't appreciate a fine piece of…'
"Enough. She works for me, nothing more." He stated firmly to the demon.
The demon stayed quiet as he walked over to the door. His time here was done. He had to find Vik. They need to train.
He sat there uncomfortable. Kitt and Edvin were headed off to the Capital Building and here he was waiting for his brother to show up.
Part of him felt guilty because he couldn't go with them, as Edvin wanted to get out of that house as soon as possible.
But he couldn't see his boyfriend coming out to his parents anytime soon. It would probably be a couple of years before he did that.
Just as he was about to give up, the town clock let its long and loud chime and his brother materialized in front of him.
"I was just thinking that you wouldn't show." He said.
His brother laughed, he looked to be in a good mood. "Like I would miss something like this. You ready to go?"
He cocked his head to the side. "Speaking of that, where are we going?"
His brother laughed. "You'll see. Do you still get motion sickness from teleporting?"
He shook his head. He had gotten over that a long time ago.
"Good." His brother held out his hand. "Let's get going."
He took his brother's hand and they disappeared in a flash. When they reappeared he looked around. He couldn't believe it. How was this even possible?
"I don't…I don't understand." He said looking around the massive cavern.
Bickslow only chuckled. "It took a lot of work, but Warner and I got this cleared out."
"But it was destroyed. The blast made it implode." He looked around the cave that he once called home. The old guild hall didn't look any different than it did back then. It was like stepping into a dream.
"As I said, Warner and I just couldn't let go of this place. Carma helped out a little bit. We figured that if it's going to sit empty, the least we could do is use it to our advantage." Bickslow bragged, walking down the old stairwell.
"But you got it to look just like it used to." He still couldn't wrap his mind around it.
His brother laughed. "Well I did live here a lot longer than you did. Now we didn't come here to look at the walls. We came here to train."
He nodded as he thought over what he needed to do to enter that state.
"Don't over think it. Don't fear it. Just let it come forward." His brother said.
He took a deep breath, letting his mind go blank. The only thing he couldn't help was the fear. His brother had used his weapon side before, but he had never had it control his life. He never had the monster within fully control him. He had never had to kill innocent people like he had.
Just as that last thought entered his mind, he heard a dripping noise. He opened his eyes, only to find blood dripping from the ceiling. He knew this place. He had been here most of his life.
This was the place of nightmares, the place he hoped that he would never return to. The controlling voice from before was speaking again. It's voice bouncing off the walls.
He placed his hands over his ears, trying his best to block out the noise.
"Stop that!" His brother's voice broke through the barrier and the darkness around him crumbled.
"What did I do?" He asked, blinking at Bickslow as he looked on in disapproval.
"You gave into your fear. You can't let that fear control you." His brother said seriously.
"But…" He tried to argue.
"No buts. If you give into fear, the darkness will control you. You need to learn how to control it." Bickslow stated.
"That's easier said than done. You can't get past it either." He said angrily.
But his brother only laughed. "That is true, but the more I push, the better I become. You can do the same if you practice."
He shook his head. "You don't see what I see. You don't have to look at the damage you've done."
He expected a frown, but no, his brother just stood there, like he was expecting more. "Is that all?"
He looked up at his brother confused. "I see the blood of all of the people that I have killed. It's not easy to walk away from that."
"Those deaths were not yours. You were made to kill those people." His brother said crossing his arms.
"How is that going to be any different from what we will be doing in the war? All of those people that we will be cutting down, while being under Magnus's thumb. It's the same thing Bickslow and don't try and tell me that it's not." His brother looked him over, almost as if he was judging him. "You know you can say what you're thinking out loud. You always spend so much time talking to that demon. You even talk to Cetus more than your own wife." He pushed.
His brother didn't even cringe. "Well I do share a body with him. So of course I would spend more time with him."
"Could you show some emotion? You're missing out on your life."
His brother scowled. "Not you too. Our father already had this talk with me today."
"And it looks like you didn't listen." He argued.
His brother's eyes flashed. "Look, I'm busy. What about that does everyone not understand."
"You had time to clear out this place…"
"Yeah, because we need it for training. It wasn't free time. I put in a lot of hours because someone has to. We won't get an edge over Fiore by doing nothing." His brother said as his eyes switched over.
His brother's eyes were always naturally red, but it was a brighter color. This red…it reminded him of blood. "Bickslow, calm down." He began, as he backed away in fear.
"Unlike you, I have learned how to control myself like this. It may only be for 30 minutes, but it's one step closer to complete control." His eye flashed back to their normal lighter red. "Learn how to control yourself, Vik. It may be our only chance."
He nodded almost fearfully and decided not to say anything to upset his brother again. He would learn how to control himself, but not for his brother's war. It would only be for his own sanity.
To Be Continued….
Author's Note
So the plot is finally moving along again. Looks like Bickslow is in hot water with Remy, Lisanna, and I expect Ivan. Vik doesn't seem to be on his side either. I really missed the cave, so I thought that it would be perfect to bring it back in its fixed state. Bickslow is walking a very narrow path right now.
Another note to the readers, we have an official update day again. It's nice to actually have a normal schedule again. So this story will update on Wednesdays moving forward.