A/N: Just a nice little chapter for you :)

Chapter 3: Something Takes A Part of Me

The air was heavy around Sivah. A forest of lamentations lay in front of them, scouring the ground with disgusting roots of darkness infested with a sickly decay. The owl, burdened with grief and stricken with failure and bruises, stepped slowly into the sickness of trees. They walked for what appeared to them an eternity, and finally gazed their eyes upon a dead end. His breath became colder, and the frost escaping their lips almost turned to snowflakes. At this dead end was a ball, perfectly shaped in contrast to the asymmetrical environment. It lay sterilized, broken off, and resting on a familiar collection of stones near by a familiar grove. Sivah outstretched his hand to the sphere before hesitating at the sudden warmth, and quickly pulled themselves in.

The world outside was cold, and Sivah took great pleasure in the weightless interior of the darkness, effortlessly lifting and pushing whatever it desires. Despite the small space, the owl was more than happy to share with his preserved victim. Roselle laid dormant in the suspended floating plane, eyes closed in a trance-like state. A single hand trailed down his cheek, and Sivah relieved themselves of a great and melancholic sigh.

"The path of the righteous is the road most traveled, though it's ending point is the least achieved." Sivah said coldly before switching to a friendlier tone. "My wonderful Roselle - You understand this, yet you continue to wrack my body with pain so great that I cannot help but loathe our bond in the greatest ways possible. My love is strong, my tolerance just as strong, but I am not in the mood for grievances. Our task must be completed."

The demon turned from their lost love, closing their eyes in a cathartic state. "What dreams must you be having? Visions of my cruel nature, I imagine. There is no man or woman alive who can conquer me but yourself, and you were only able to pull it off once... for a short time. I found them immediately after, my dear Rose."

Sivah released a pitiful laugh at the situation. He continued to watch his partner in admiration rather than aggression. In truth, the disgraced demigod felt regret poking away at his sides as he desperately clashed and yelled at the feelings to stop when no one was looking. The same hand as before took Roselle's own, their fingers intertwined for the first time in a long time.

"I will admit, I severely underestimated them." The owl stayed hesitantly. "Though I suspect that you had something to do with that, yes? You always had a secretive nature to yourself; Staying away from me to test the limits of our bond, as well as testing if I would notice your absence in the middle of the night. I found your notes, my dear. You write of me so positively, yet you wish to run away. Why?"

Sivah could feel Roselle's disappointment. It stabbed what remained of their heart and twisted itself in the wound before pulling out and releasing a wave of blood and tears covering the owl's cowardice to entrap their own love. It was selfish, premeditated greed, and Sivah frowned towards themselves for indulging such pleasures.

"Is it freedom?" He asked his dormant partner. "The insatiable urge to go where one cannot be followed? A reasonable trait, for sure, but not one of weilders of darkness. We always know where our most prized possessions lie, my dear. If you wanted freedom, all you had to do was ask."

Sivah felt the overwhelming sensations as their throat began to tighten. A desperation flooded him as he clamored his way out before suddenly being grabbed by an unknown hand. The owl turned, and before him was the open eyes of his partner. Sivah's eyes widened immensely, their mouth agape in pure terror.

"Y-You... are a-awake?" Sivah stuttered.

Roselle nodded, continuing to hold the owl's arm. "I was never asleep. Well, that's a lie. I did fall asleep a few times, but you never had a hold on me."

"What made you decide to admit this so frivolously?" Sivah asked. "Now I could easily find a stronger method of holding you."

"You won't." Roselle said.

The owl almost winced at the display of confidence. A festering scent of the old wounds begin to tear open, and love faltered quicker than it could be manifested. Sivah could feel it; The idea in their mind, the perfect harmony of two partners at their most powerful, was spinning rapidly out of frame for the past moments, and the two prisoners of different subjugation returned to reality. They had been staring at each other in silence.

"You are right." Sivah choked. "Perhaps I am but a pawn being sent to my doom out of sheer confidence. The powers that be have never truly revealed themselves to me, yet I willingly embrace them more than my own mother. All of the lost souls I have dispersed in the name of fruition..."

"Now you understand." Roselle said. "You must release me and end this madness. Those two are nothing compared to -"

The sphere burst into a collection of dust. Roselle broke from their prison and stood quickly, only to find himself alone. The sky of the nightmare realm darkened into a storm.

"Those two are the reason I am fucked!" Sivah's disembodied voice shouted before they materialized in a whisper of pure energy, eyes glowing in a frightful daze with darkness twirling around their fingertips. "This is your fault! Centuries of work ruined by feeble emotions, and wanting to be the hero!"

Roselle parodied the stance of the owl, hands outstretched in powers of light and dark spiraling around his arms. The Dream Weaver stood their ground in defiance of the Ruler of Nightmares, forever staring down the barrel of the guns pointed at each other.

"Being the hero is what I should have done a long time ago." Roselle declared, his voice rising to match the owl.

Sivah laughed maniacally before snapping back to reality. Their darkened feathers swayed in the winds of demise. "You wish to prove that? By all means, challenge me to a duel, my dear. We will see who has the biggest dick!"

Roselle took a step back, looking upwards at their eternal rival. Sivah produced an orb in each hand and strung them together with a weave of white strands intertwined together. After a moment, he clasped both orbs together and spun his hands as the energy of the orb absorbed itself into the body of the owl.

Roselle smiled. "I think we already know who wins that."