I am calling upon the awesome Kain from BO2 and the little blue Raziel(post-lake). If you do not appreciate this, I am quite sorry. But it most suited the purpose, and they agreed! Now hopefully they and my brain can prove compatible.
*By the way! This is shounen-ai, KainxRaziel*
Conquest~
Telepathic waves emitted from the solitary figure within the pillars. These had been bombarding the area for some time, been disturbing the thoughts and dreams of the one which heard them the most clearly until he came as he had sworn to. Kain was calling.
Within the Pillars all was silence, nothing was truly as it should have been. The uncorrupted land in which the spires stood to puncture the heavens and impale archangels gleamed with greenery and lushness, yet something was missing from it, something crucial which made the area and the entire land incomplete. He called, and faintly the answer was there, the promise which was spoken and yet unspoken. The promise to come. And the presence of the blue one was drawing nearer, a palpable aura permeating Kain's own with streaks of vibrant azure amid the black. He was arriving even now.
"Raziel," said Kain quite conversationally in his rich tones, "you have taken long to emerge. From whence did you come, I ask?"
"Is it any business of yours?" asked Raziel icily, speaking through his mind. He loathed the being before him with all his stilled heart, complete hatred within the black organ until he felt as if the dark bile would spew from him whenever he set eyes upon Kain, the monstrosity. The one who was undoubtedly at fault for his condition.
"I would say so," answered the white-haired man, turning slightly and walking at an angle, then coming to a halt near the pillar at the far right. Raziel leaned casually against the center one, an almost accustomed spot, but shifted his covered shoulders as if uncomfortable, as if something was different or wrong. "After all, you do remember the vow we made, to appear when summoned. And if you are not accessible when I need you, perhaps something may happen to me."
"What a fixed vow that was," spat Raziel as best as he was able. "I would gladly allow your second death to come if it were possible." Kain nodded as if he had expected that and pondered his next sentence, his next move.
"Raziel," he said, knowing already that the soul-devourer hated these casual pleasantries, "I did call for a reason."
"Which would be?" inquired the opponent, alert as always, and Kain sensed his hunger.
"I see that you have not fed for a while..." he murmured.
"More the reason to hurry," returned Raziel, obviously ready to hold his own in another mental joust.
"Raziel," he said richly, "we are trapped in this endless cycle forever, are we not?" He waited for the blue creature to warily nod, then continued. "I have a proposition for you." There was no answer but another cautious nod. "I know that you loathe me. But do you truly feel this which you display? Do you delude yourself, dear Raziel?" Silence, total silence. No sounds from the forests or the greenery. The Pillars stood tall, still impaling the heavens, supporting the sky.
"You called me to this place to inquire about my feelings toward you?" asked Raziel disdainfully, voice echoing faintly and mentally. "They remain the same. You are the one who brought me into this cycle, Kain. Were it not for you, I would not be present here even now."
"Ah, but you do not see my meaning. We are trapped here together. In this ever-changing constant world, we, Raziel, are the one true constancy. We are one, Raziel, and this is something which even you cannot deny."
"So you called to inform me that we will be here together for eternity? Do you seek to induce suicide?"
"I called, as I said, to make a proposition. It is something I have contemplated occasionally. We are the one true constancy here, so we are the eternal." He began to walk again, toward Raziel who regarded him suspiciously. With one milk-white hand he touched Raziel's dark hair. "This very moment is part of eternity." The hand slid down the shining, thick strands and came to rest upon Raziel's shoulder, covered in the cloth of a shattered clan. "The way this sounds, it would almost be like shaping our own destiny."
"Our destiny, as you have so often said, is out of our hands," retorted Raziel bitterly.
"But within that greater and twisted purpose you must understand are smaller choices we make ourselves," said Kain wisely, hand resting there still. Raziel stared at him and flinched uncomfortably away. He knew something was wrong, but he had no idea what. He felt it, buzzing just outside his perception, a wavelength which was familiar but masked by something which was more powerful than he. The feeling was maddening. "Our lives terminate in our final event, but the events leading up to that also determine our fate in their own way. If we cannot alter the future and past, we can make them more...pleasant."
"Yes, more predestined wounds to look forward to treating in my own special way," Raziel muttered, voice dripping with sarcasm. That fine hand again traversed his strands of hair, but he did nothing about it. Kain's presence and touch filled him with revulsion and a strange sort of longing. This time the hand went below his shoulder to touch his dead blue flesh, touch the hardened sinews and muscles of his arm. He felt it acutely, twitched those same muscles in response to either a poke or pat near the shoulder, but did not flinch away, had a strange feeling that that very action was secretly what Kain wanted him to do.
"That, and other things," murmured Kain. "You are uncomfortable, feel that something is wrong, and you cannot quite place it. I am the cause of that. You see, we are in an illusion."
"What?" asked Raziel sharply, looking around with piercing white eyes ablaze. Kain let a spell drop and all at once the Pillars were shown to be destroyed, shattered and broken.
"Raziel," he boomed, "this is your fate." He raised another hand which began to glow, shattering utterly the mirrored and vague tranquility.
"What?" cried Raziel again, sounding oddly helpless in a maelstrom of wind that began abruptly and would not cease. Such abrupt endings, while not unusual, were still unsettling to him for obvious reasons. He felt something solid and grasped it with all his power, felt one perfectly steady limb go around him, holding him tightly.
"Raziel, lost, corrupted," whispered Kain in a voice that could not only carry over the howling of the wind but also the wailing that was torn from Raziel's throat. "I offer you not myself, but the opportunity for you to offer yourself to me."
"What is this?" mentally shrieked Raziel into the wailing air, and it subsided. He released Kain and fell to the platform.
"I mean what I said," answered Kain. Raziel sat before him, eyes wide and burning with something which he could not discern. "And no more."
"But what do you mean?" asked Raziel, wary again and nervous. "Why bring me here falsely to this corrupted place? Why create force like that wind?"
"I plan, Raziel, to conquer you. I overpower everything through tactics, you realize, and I consider mere power to be so blunt in these cases..." He reached down and helped the blue creature to his feet, where for a moment he swayed unsteadily upon his four claws out of sheer dizziness.
"To conquer me? I think not, Kain," retorted Raziel coldly, although he had to admit something inside him was stirred by Kain's voice, despite the fact that part of him did indeed cringe away.
"Remove that cowl," ordered Kain. Raziel stared at him for a moment and his bony hands twitched. They began to move upward but halted and would not rise anymore. He stood there uncertainly, no Pillar to lean on and no more remarks to make. "Reveal your face." The blue hands rose and took the cloth, began to slowly unwind it in the manner of a noblewoman letting long tresses of hair from a net. Raziel stood bare after a moment, face exposed. His throat was thin and delicate in the light, his head childishly unbalanced without the lower jaw. The eyes were wide and expressive, unsure and as vulnerable as that slender throat. The fragile hand relaxed unconsciously and let slip the flag, where it landed upon the stone in a heap, removing the appearance of wholeness utterly. Kain stared, transfixed and filled with something he did not comprehend even with all his thought.
"I do hate you," remarked Raziel mentally, and oddly enough Kain smiled, began to laugh softly.
"Such an endless source of entertainment," murmured the elder one, gazing upon Raziel's strangely fragile body with interest. "Such wit, truly." Raziel glared at him through expressive eyes.
"No. I do not jest. I honestly hate you, loathe you with every fiber of my being."
"Except for the fiber that just removed this covering for me," answered Kain, lifting the flag from the ground. "The one which so shamelessly exposed you to my eyes." His yellow eyes stared at the spot where once a jaw had rested, the place where now there was visible sinew and muscle, destroyed and mangled by the acidic effects of water. "So, Raziel, have you a retort this time?" There was no answer as Raziel averted his blank eyes. Kain approached several steps and extended his hand toward the stiff animated corpse, wasn't surprised when Raziel lunged in fury, groping outward with sharp claws and seeking more dead flesh. Kain seized his wrists quickly and shifted them to one elegant hand as Raziel fought back valiantly, struggling and raking out with even his upper jaw viciously so that Kain was obliged to withdraw somewhat, but not let go.
"Release me," snapped Raziel, angry and humiliated.
"And if I refuse?" asked Kain lazily.
"I...I will..." There was, again, no suitable answer. The fury inside the blank whiteness was startlingly evident.
"I told you, Raziel, that I would conquer you. You refuse to cooperate with me?" He reached out with his free hand and behind the open throat to the back of Raziel's neck, where he stroked it repeatedly. "...I can understand," he said. "If you must refuse me, than I shall leave you in peace. Yet this is something which has bearing upon the present and future."
"I will warn you once more before I attack, let me go," threatened Raziel pointlessly, and Kain pulled his arms, jerking him closer unexpectedly.
"What will you attack me with?" asked Kain in a curiously gentle tone. Raziel lashed out with one clawed foot and hit Kain's leg. The white-haired man felt cold blood trickle down his pale skin, but showed no hint of pain.
"I hate you!" cried Raziel in the helpless voice he used sometimes when he was trying to sound normal and had no idea how pathetic he truly was. The elder one felt something toward Raziel that was not a family love. It was a fascination of sorts, one that did not allow him to ignore or forget the blue creature which he could call neither a man nor a vampire. He felt as if the removal of the cowl would answer a question, but it did not. It only intensified the feeling as he saw the softness and obvious frailty of his throat and shattered mouth which could send forth no angry words or cruel remarks, all that physically loud hatred having been stifled and cut short forever by Kain. "I hate you!" cried Raziel again mentally, kicking repeatedly and opening more wounds on Kain's porcelain-white skin, sending more icy blood forth.
"You seek to fight destiny?" asked Kain, voice nearly dangerous but not quite. The wounds closed almost as soon as they were created. "Do not rebel against your master, for I master you still and you are perfectly aware of it."
"No," protested Raziel once more, but the protest was feeble and weak this time, and his struggles ceased as they stood there next to the central pillar. His wide eyes stared with an inscrutable expression into Kain's yellow ones, staring back with equal intensity. Raziel found his match. "I hate you," he managed to say, quickly, before Kain backed him into the central corrupted pillar.
"I know it," murmured Kain before leaning in, conquering his prey.
*By the way! This is shounen-ai, KainxRaziel*
Conquest~
Telepathic waves emitted from the solitary figure within the pillars. These had been bombarding the area for some time, been disturbing the thoughts and dreams of the one which heard them the most clearly until he came as he had sworn to. Kain was calling.
Within the Pillars all was silence, nothing was truly as it should have been. The uncorrupted land in which the spires stood to puncture the heavens and impale archangels gleamed with greenery and lushness, yet something was missing from it, something crucial which made the area and the entire land incomplete. He called, and faintly the answer was there, the promise which was spoken and yet unspoken. The promise to come. And the presence of the blue one was drawing nearer, a palpable aura permeating Kain's own with streaks of vibrant azure amid the black. He was arriving even now.
"Raziel," said Kain quite conversationally in his rich tones, "you have taken long to emerge. From whence did you come, I ask?"
"Is it any business of yours?" asked Raziel icily, speaking through his mind. He loathed the being before him with all his stilled heart, complete hatred within the black organ until he felt as if the dark bile would spew from him whenever he set eyes upon Kain, the monstrosity. The one who was undoubtedly at fault for his condition.
"I would say so," answered the white-haired man, turning slightly and walking at an angle, then coming to a halt near the pillar at the far right. Raziel leaned casually against the center one, an almost accustomed spot, but shifted his covered shoulders as if uncomfortable, as if something was different or wrong. "After all, you do remember the vow we made, to appear when summoned. And if you are not accessible when I need you, perhaps something may happen to me."
"What a fixed vow that was," spat Raziel as best as he was able. "I would gladly allow your second death to come if it were possible." Kain nodded as if he had expected that and pondered his next sentence, his next move.
"Raziel," he said, knowing already that the soul-devourer hated these casual pleasantries, "I did call for a reason."
"Which would be?" inquired the opponent, alert as always, and Kain sensed his hunger.
"I see that you have not fed for a while..." he murmured.
"More the reason to hurry," returned Raziel, obviously ready to hold his own in another mental joust.
"Raziel," he said richly, "we are trapped in this endless cycle forever, are we not?" He waited for the blue creature to warily nod, then continued. "I have a proposition for you." There was no answer but another cautious nod. "I know that you loathe me. But do you truly feel this which you display? Do you delude yourself, dear Raziel?" Silence, total silence. No sounds from the forests or the greenery. The Pillars stood tall, still impaling the heavens, supporting the sky.
"You called me to this place to inquire about my feelings toward you?" asked Raziel disdainfully, voice echoing faintly and mentally. "They remain the same. You are the one who brought me into this cycle, Kain. Were it not for you, I would not be present here even now."
"Ah, but you do not see my meaning. We are trapped here together. In this ever-changing constant world, we, Raziel, are the one true constancy. We are one, Raziel, and this is something which even you cannot deny."
"So you called to inform me that we will be here together for eternity? Do you seek to induce suicide?"
"I called, as I said, to make a proposition. It is something I have contemplated occasionally. We are the one true constancy here, so we are the eternal." He began to walk again, toward Raziel who regarded him suspiciously. With one milk-white hand he touched Raziel's dark hair. "This very moment is part of eternity." The hand slid down the shining, thick strands and came to rest upon Raziel's shoulder, covered in the cloth of a shattered clan. "The way this sounds, it would almost be like shaping our own destiny."
"Our destiny, as you have so often said, is out of our hands," retorted Raziel bitterly.
"But within that greater and twisted purpose you must understand are smaller choices we make ourselves," said Kain wisely, hand resting there still. Raziel stared at him and flinched uncomfortably away. He knew something was wrong, but he had no idea what. He felt it, buzzing just outside his perception, a wavelength which was familiar but masked by something which was more powerful than he. The feeling was maddening. "Our lives terminate in our final event, but the events leading up to that also determine our fate in their own way. If we cannot alter the future and past, we can make them more...pleasant."
"Yes, more predestined wounds to look forward to treating in my own special way," Raziel muttered, voice dripping with sarcasm. That fine hand again traversed his strands of hair, but he did nothing about it. Kain's presence and touch filled him with revulsion and a strange sort of longing. This time the hand went below his shoulder to touch his dead blue flesh, touch the hardened sinews and muscles of his arm. He felt it acutely, twitched those same muscles in response to either a poke or pat near the shoulder, but did not flinch away, had a strange feeling that that very action was secretly what Kain wanted him to do.
"That, and other things," murmured Kain. "You are uncomfortable, feel that something is wrong, and you cannot quite place it. I am the cause of that. You see, we are in an illusion."
"What?" asked Raziel sharply, looking around with piercing white eyes ablaze. Kain let a spell drop and all at once the Pillars were shown to be destroyed, shattered and broken.
"Raziel," he boomed, "this is your fate." He raised another hand which began to glow, shattering utterly the mirrored and vague tranquility.
"What?" cried Raziel again, sounding oddly helpless in a maelstrom of wind that began abruptly and would not cease. Such abrupt endings, while not unusual, were still unsettling to him for obvious reasons. He felt something solid and grasped it with all his power, felt one perfectly steady limb go around him, holding him tightly.
"Raziel, lost, corrupted," whispered Kain in a voice that could not only carry over the howling of the wind but also the wailing that was torn from Raziel's throat. "I offer you not myself, but the opportunity for you to offer yourself to me."
"What is this?" mentally shrieked Raziel into the wailing air, and it subsided. He released Kain and fell to the platform.
"I mean what I said," answered Kain. Raziel sat before him, eyes wide and burning with something which he could not discern. "And no more."
"But what do you mean?" asked Raziel, wary again and nervous. "Why bring me here falsely to this corrupted place? Why create force like that wind?"
"I plan, Raziel, to conquer you. I overpower everything through tactics, you realize, and I consider mere power to be so blunt in these cases..." He reached down and helped the blue creature to his feet, where for a moment he swayed unsteadily upon his four claws out of sheer dizziness.
"To conquer me? I think not, Kain," retorted Raziel coldly, although he had to admit something inside him was stirred by Kain's voice, despite the fact that part of him did indeed cringe away.
"Remove that cowl," ordered Kain. Raziel stared at him for a moment and his bony hands twitched. They began to move upward but halted and would not rise anymore. He stood there uncertainly, no Pillar to lean on and no more remarks to make. "Reveal your face." The blue hands rose and took the cloth, began to slowly unwind it in the manner of a noblewoman letting long tresses of hair from a net. Raziel stood bare after a moment, face exposed. His throat was thin and delicate in the light, his head childishly unbalanced without the lower jaw. The eyes were wide and expressive, unsure and as vulnerable as that slender throat. The fragile hand relaxed unconsciously and let slip the flag, where it landed upon the stone in a heap, removing the appearance of wholeness utterly. Kain stared, transfixed and filled with something he did not comprehend even with all his thought.
"I do hate you," remarked Raziel mentally, and oddly enough Kain smiled, began to laugh softly.
"Such an endless source of entertainment," murmured the elder one, gazing upon Raziel's strangely fragile body with interest. "Such wit, truly." Raziel glared at him through expressive eyes.
"No. I do not jest. I honestly hate you, loathe you with every fiber of my being."
"Except for the fiber that just removed this covering for me," answered Kain, lifting the flag from the ground. "The one which so shamelessly exposed you to my eyes." His yellow eyes stared at the spot where once a jaw had rested, the place where now there was visible sinew and muscle, destroyed and mangled by the acidic effects of water. "So, Raziel, have you a retort this time?" There was no answer as Raziel averted his blank eyes. Kain approached several steps and extended his hand toward the stiff animated corpse, wasn't surprised when Raziel lunged in fury, groping outward with sharp claws and seeking more dead flesh. Kain seized his wrists quickly and shifted them to one elegant hand as Raziel fought back valiantly, struggling and raking out with even his upper jaw viciously so that Kain was obliged to withdraw somewhat, but not let go.
"Release me," snapped Raziel, angry and humiliated.
"And if I refuse?" asked Kain lazily.
"I...I will..." There was, again, no suitable answer. The fury inside the blank whiteness was startlingly evident.
"I told you, Raziel, that I would conquer you. You refuse to cooperate with me?" He reached out with his free hand and behind the open throat to the back of Raziel's neck, where he stroked it repeatedly. "...I can understand," he said. "If you must refuse me, than I shall leave you in peace. Yet this is something which has bearing upon the present and future."
"I will warn you once more before I attack, let me go," threatened Raziel pointlessly, and Kain pulled his arms, jerking him closer unexpectedly.
"What will you attack me with?" asked Kain in a curiously gentle tone. Raziel lashed out with one clawed foot and hit Kain's leg. The white-haired man felt cold blood trickle down his pale skin, but showed no hint of pain.
"I hate you!" cried Raziel in the helpless voice he used sometimes when he was trying to sound normal and had no idea how pathetic he truly was. The elder one felt something toward Raziel that was not a family love. It was a fascination of sorts, one that did not allow him to ignore or forget the blue creature which he could call neither a man nor a vampire. He felt as if the removal of the cowl would answer a question, but it did not. It only intensified the feeling as he saw the softness and obvious frailty of his throat and shattered mouth which could send forth no angry words or cruel remarks, all that physically loud hatred having been stifled and cut short forever by Kain. "I hate you!" cried Raziel again mentally, kicking repeatedly and opening more wounds on Kain's porcelain-white skin, sending more icy blood forth.
"You seek to fight destiny?" asked Kain, voice nearly dangerous but not quite. The wounds closed almost as soon as they were created. "Do not rebel against your master, for I master you still and you are perfectly aware of it."
"No," protested Raziel once more, but the protest was feeble and weak this time, and his struggles ceased as they stood there next to the central pillar. His wide eyes stared with an inscrutable expression into Kain's yellow ones, staring back with equal intensity. Raziel found his match. "I hate you," he managed to say, quickly, before Kain backed him into the central corrupted pillar.
"I know it," murmured Kain before leaning in, conquering his prey.