Chapter 52:
White soldiers flooded the old fort, half collapsing and half on fire. He moved like mist through the halls, fully aware of what he was looking for. As his officers were busy rounding up unconscious men and making their way through the labyrinth Unaven had hastily put together, he stepped easily. The door in question, he noticed, barely sat on twisted hinges clattered to the ground at the slightest touch. He narrowed his eyes as he stepped through the threshold.
Someone had already been here.
He stood in the middle of the room, eyes sweeping over monitors that displayed empty rooms and dark halls. Every so often he caught a flash of white as his men moved like ghosts through the place. He scrunched his nose at one monitor in particular. Mages were swarming across an arena; three figures were taking out a horde of wizards baring the Phantom Riser's insignia. Between shifting bodies, he could just barely make out words. Welcome Back, Kurogane.His fears abaited slightly.
How useful.
He reached for the controls, flipping through different channels until a flash of motion caught his eyes. The building rocked and he tossed his head back, watching as dust filtered from the ceiling and cracks spidered across the walls. Turning eyes back to the screen he saw a dark figure strangling another, throwing him against a wall before falling back into the fight. He couldn't help it, he grinned. Two men fighting for their lives… it was passionateand caused something like anticipation to coil in the pit of his spine.
"Lieutenant Bishop," the words dragged him back down, "We're ready to advance."
"Please do," the lieutenant responded coldly, never glancing back at his subordinate. He heard footsteps recede and reached under the panel, fingers trying for the device he knew should be there. He furrowed his brow, anger spiking in his chest.
The lacrima was gone?
His plan unraveled and he clenched his fists, scowling as he glanced under the panel. It wasn't just gone, nothing else was touched. Someone knew exactly what they needed to do to keep from being caught. Someone who was trained by Phantom Lord to not miss small details.
"Kurogane…" he growled under his breath, rising slowly and casting his eyes about once to see if anything else was amiss. He rested his gaze on the bookcase, "What were you after?"
He stepped to it, eyes picking at spines. Nothing was amiss yet he could smellthe man had been here. He glanced at the door, watching to make sure no one was there to disturb him, and without looking away he flicked out a long black tongue. An explosion of information shifted his focus when he rubbed his tongue against the top of his mouth. Eyes slanted to each book the man had touched before landing on one that stood out from the others. A dictionary, maybe? The man was certainly lacking enough in vocabulary to need one, relying more on four letter words than anything of actual wit.
He narrowed his eyes.
He slipped it from the shelf and immediately recognized what it was, "Out for revenge are we?" he breathed as the pages fell to the last place that was left open. He arched a brow and glanced back at the screen. Unaven.
"…Exciting…" his black tongue lashed against his sharp teeth.
He slipped through halls soundlessly. Mage's and officers alike rushed past him as if he were no more than a shadow, and truly he could have been. Like a wisp of smoke he made his way up the stories to a balcony alight with red lightning and orange fire. Venomous words slithered through the heavy atmosphere and as he approached two figures in the smog he stopped, eyes wide as the dark shadow of his target loomed over Unaven's broken body. His pulse quickened in his chest.
"…I'm through with you."
"No… no no no! You don't get to decide when it's over!"
Unaven was insane. He lunged like an animal after Kurogane's throat and Davian clenched his fists, ready to spring forward if the need arose. But the raven was indeed a trained fighter, gripping Unaven with those deft, unrelenting, and utterly violenthands and forcing him back into submission. Green lit the room, threatening to blow his cover and he recoiled into the smoke to remain hidden.
"You can't dothis! You fucking coward! You weak bastard! If you have any balls you'd just fucking kill me!"
For just a moment, a breath, there was a hint at desire in those bloody eyes before it was immediately drowned in the vibrant red rage of Unaven's lightning and screams. A shadow moved just to his left and he stiffened as a blonde beast of a man stepped forward towards the raven. Davian narrowed his eyes at Laxus, an almost pained expression on his face as he looked on. Yellow sparks flared from his fists and it amazed him that the man didn't seem to notice. How much raw energy did one need to not even realize when it was being utilized? Or maybe he was just too moved emotionally to care. Either way, he marveled at the heir to the Dreyar legacy. What a formidable man… a man he needed to do more research on.
"Ready to go, delinquent?"
Delinquent? He almost scoffed.
"Yeah… I am,"
"Spineless pussy! You're nothingyou disgusting fag! You're not half the man you used to be! You're a disgrace against Phantom and everything we stood for!"
"It's a shame the bastard doesn't fight as well as he throws insults," Laxus growled, and it was a threat, enough so that Davian was sure the stoutest man would be silenced by that kind of power, "But then, Phantom Lord mages always were more of a show than actually any good in a fight."
The sound of feet distracted him and he stepped back into the stairwell. He moved swiftly down, catching his underlings as they made their way up to the third story.
"Sir," they stopped as they regarded him. Cadet Serrill was the battalion leader and like the good soldier he was he awaited Davian's orders before proceeding.
"I think you may find the grand entrance to be a good place to start," he hummed and the man immediately turned, leading his division back the direction they came. Davian waited a few heartbeats before ascending again, this time sure he would be alone.
He was uncharacteristically smug as he moved towards Unaven's trapped and defeated figure. He wasn't surprised in the slightest when the man startled at his presence, never for a moment realizing he was approaching until he was right in front of the man. Brown eyes danced dangerously, sanity barely restrained and a strange mix of brokenness and defeat played across his features.
"Not one of your more elegant disputes, hm, Unaven?" he cooed up at him, eyes traveling down each of the iron coils twisting about his body.
"Come to make good on that deal?" Unaven's voice cracked and Davian sneered with disgust at the noise.
"I had planned to but… it seems I'm missing a certain component or two…" he sighed, rocking back on his heels as he thought aloud, "You see I had hoped to catch Kurogane here reigniting the fire in his old mercenary guild and… well… I think you may have gotten a little too greedy for that to work."
"I built this place…" he seethed, blood dribbling down his lips, "…I'm not giving it up."
Davian sucked in a breath through his teeth, breaking the mirage he kept so expertly long enough for him to know Unaven saw his razor-like teeth, "See... thisis why I hate working with criminals. You never get the bigger picture."
Unaven's glare faultered.
"You see, unlike you, I keep my word, Unaven. You were to lead Kurogane here, keep him busy long enough for the raid, and Iwould handle planting the evidence to prove he's a danger to society and you're a victim in all of this. You go free to build your empire and I turn a blind eye for a few years until someone on the Council forces my hand…" he sighed, honestly fed up with the whole situation, "Instead, you fight him for some pointless title and don't even make sure to keep your security in tact enough for me to salvage any evidence…"
"And now we have anotherissue, Unaven," he met those pained brown eyes again. Doe eyes, was it? Because that was certainly how they looked to Davian in his current helpless state. He surely was quite the damsel in distress, "You didn't tell me you'd worked with Bianca."
"You didn't ask," he fired back harshly, but not without a twist of fear in his voice. Davian cleared his throat.
"Of course… how silly of me," he scratched at the back of his head in a feign of distress, "Father won't like knowing you got away, Unaven… I don't know what he'll do about it. I'm sorry but with this failure I simply can'tguarantee your safety."
"Heh… you honestly think that scares me?" he spat and red droplets splashed across Davian's face. The scent of copper made him wrinkle his nose and slowly, deliberately, he let that obscenely long, black tongue snake out to catch what had landed on his cheek. Unaven's bravado faltered and Davian sighed again, stepping away to gaze down at his men as they fought. Most of the mages were already down, there wasn't a whole lot left to clean up. Whatever group that monster of an Iron Dragon Slayer was running with was far more formidable than what he was used to. He supposed it made his job easier… well… the legal part, anyway.
"I have a question, Unaven, and please answer truthfully this time. Your life, or at least your freedom, depends on it," he turned back to the trapped man who regarded him with clear revulsion on his face. He nodded slowly, mutely, like a good little pawn should, and although Unaven knew he certainly wasn't the game master in this scenario that didn't stop the quick flutter in his chest at knowing he was currently this poor man's puppeteer, "How is it that you survived Kurogane? I was under the impression he'd slain allof the men who aided Bianca?"
Unaven opened his mouth and closed it again not unlike a fish out of water.
"Truthfully, Unaven. And I do mean the entiretruth."
"He attacked me a few days prior," he tilted his head back slightly, the evidence proudly marring the flesh of his neck and Davian's eyes widened at the thought of the kind of pain that would incite, "I was in a hospital when everything happened."
"Really? And how, pray tell, did he get his hands on you?"
"I was in his cell."
The stifled his annoyance, "Doing what, exactly?"
At that Unaven lapsed into silence and Davian's lip quirked nastily, "I assure you whatever you have to say won't reach a court of law."
"I was going to rape him," the words fell from his mouth in a sort of there-I-said-it fashion and Davian's grin quickly turned into a malicious smile.
"You tormented him? After all that talk of him being a man you admired? Revered, even?" Davian snorted and watched as the color drained slowly from Unaven's face, "My mother did once tell me that there was a fine line between love and hate but certainly that is quite bizarre. You really are disturbed."
Unaven stuttered a response but Davian didn't quite hear. A novel idea began to form in his head and as much as he hated the implications he knew that at this point it was a necessity. Slowly, he pulled the white gloves from his hands and pocketed them. Next, he began rolling up his sleeves. Gently at first, he tested the iron. The restraints that curled across the redhead's chest were nearly three inches thick but he presumed he'd have the strength for it.
"I'll have to take back what I said before, Unaven, this didn't seem to be such the lost cause after all."
Unaven fell still and Davian rapped his knuckled gently against the iron.
"I needed a way to get Kurogane in jail and here you are, ripe for the picking… although, I do hate getting my hands dirty."
"What… what do you mean? I thought you said I wouldn't have to testify?" the fear was obvious in his voice and Davian immediately dismissed it.
"Of course not. Didn't I say I always keep my word? I won't ask you to stand in court… no… it'll be much better if you're in a body bag, for several reasons, actually."
"What…?! What the hell do you mean?!" Unaven writhed against his restraints but he was thoroughly trapped. Kurogane was indeed a master at his craft.
Davian clicked his teeth in disapproval. As silence began to fall he knew that the man's screeches would be enough to attract unwanted attention. Pushing down his own revulsion, he pressed the flat of his hand against the man's chest and focused on the feeling he needed to convey. There was no difference at first but very quickly his anger seemed to abate. Well, maybe not completely, but it was more he couldn't respond in the way he wanted even if he tried. It was a simple trick, one he came by naturally as most of his kind did, and as his wide yellow eyes kept Unaven's feral brown he quickly began to see horror flood where only lunacy had thrived before. He dropped his voice, speaking softly and slickly, the way one might to a spooked animal as it was led to its imminent doom.
"Father thought everyone who worked with Bianca was dead," his voice altered slightly, losing a bit its usual smooth tone for something a little truer, more reptilian. It was sort of a hiss that snuck up from the bottom of his throat and eased into his normal speech, just enough to make his victim extremely aware of how inhuman he really was, "He's quite strict about that sort of thing, unfortunately, which means you have to die. But, the good out of all of this is I needed something to land your old idol in jail and… well… revenge on the man that attempted to ravage him while he was defenseless? That's simply too easy, too simple, to pass up. Any judge will believe it enough to give me a warrant andthe man was nice enough to give me all the materials I needed."
Without releasing Unaven's eyes or moving the hand from his chest, he gripped a hold of the iron and pulled. The metal groaned wearily and it took more force than he'd originally anticipated to rend it into a point. He pushed his makeshift knife into Unaven's flesh and for just a moment tore his eyes away to accomplish his task. The man didn't scream, or rather, couldn't scream, not with Davian's bare flesh pressed against his. The whole process was far slower than he would have liked. He had to endure every sick crunch of ribs and sternum, feel the slick of hot blood run across his exposed hand.
"You… fucking… bast… ard…" Unaven was choking on his own blood, his voice not more than a pained whimper. Davian took a step back and admired his work. The man hung loosely, chest crushed and run through, blood trickling down him like a crimson robe. In his last act of defiance, those brown eyes bore into him, refusing to show fear in his last few breaths.
"Bastard I may very well be," he hummed, running his tongue down his hand and catching the savory scarlet, "but you're dead so… honestly… who's the one at loss here?"
He left before those brown eyes were cold and dead, a little tickled with himself at how cruel he could be when he truly wanted to. As he turned, though, he found himself face to face with cadet Serrill and for a split second panic raced up his spine. The man's eyes were wide and his hand was clasped tightly to his sabre.
"L-Lieutenant Bishop…"
"Please, call me Davian," he placed a hand on the man's shoulder, eyes still wide and very much not human, "We're going to be working a lot closer with each other, after all."
Serrill's eyes dilated and his gaze was immediately distant as Davian's concentration bore into the poor man's mind like some sort of worm, "Yes… sir…"
"Good boy," he hummed and went to step past him, "You're being promoted."
"I… I am?" his voice held clear confusion, "May I ask why, sir?"
Davian stopped and turned to look at him, his mirage firmly back in place, voice smooth and filled with concern as he crooked a slight grin at the man, "Why… for finding the evidence we needed to finally put that bastard Kurogane behind bars. I'm very proud of you, cadet, but… are you alright?"
"I…" he looked to the ground, through the smoke, still fighting whatever Davian had done to his mind, "I'm not sure."
"Well, you were hit fairly hard on the head by one of those mages, cadet. Why don't we get you down stairs? You don't look your best… maybe some water?"
"Right… yes… thank you, Sir."