Chapter 36 : Living Dead Girl
As if in a surreal nightmare, Dumbledore dashed out onto the lawn as fast as his old legs could carry him, exiting through a side door so that he would avoid detection until he assessed the situation. McGonagall, Sprout and Flitwick were close behind, all looking just as stunned as the Headmaster. Snape and Slughorn, who was once again out of breath from all this hurrying around, sneaked out behind them and crept closer to where Nyx was standing, leaning against a tree, looking a little tired. If worst came to worst, they wanted to be on her side.
As their teachers raced out of their classrooms, students left inside began wondering what was happening. Once someone looked out a window, the news spread like wildfire, and within a few short minutes, every window overlooking the lakeside area of the school ground was filled with curious and frightened faces. Some were bold enough to follow their instructors outside, where they were immediately yelled at and sent back where they came from.
Once they realized what was going on, the group that had been present at Nyx's trial that morning left Snape's depressing classroom and headed out to join the show, picking up Luna and Neville on the way. Every one of them was prepared to fight whoever was going to attack, which wasn't exactly clear yet. Voldemort's five-thousand-plus Death Eaters were surely not there just to look pretty, but Nyx seemed to be in a very aggressive mood and may have returned to the school only to try to destroy it. She had already destroyed the Ministry that day, so what stopped her from doing the same thing here?
Dumbledore had been carefully sizing up the intruders when he noticed how many people were waiting behind him. "Where did all of you come from?"
"It's a long story, Professor, so let's save it for another day," Lupin said uneasily.
"Potter! And-and Weasley!" McGonagall gasped. "And – Miss Granger! What in heaven's name are you doing out here?"
"We're here to help, Professor," Hermione explained, pulling out her wand and eyeing the black mass of Death Eaters surrounding them.
"You shall do no such thing," Dumbledore interjected. "All students will return to the school immediately." His tone clearly showed that he would not be argued with.
"But we can't! Don't you see how outnumbered we are?" Harry asked, almost pleading. "We need everyone we can get right now!"
Nyx watched the young Gryffindor's desperation, becoming more amused by the second. Her pale green eyes roved up the side of the castle and glinted with delight when she saw how much attention she had drawn already.
Jack was much less pleased with the situation. They were by far the most outnumbered, despite the fact that Nyx was extremely powerful and Jack himself was nothing to sneeze at either. He couldn't help but glue himself to the tree, as if it would protect him at least on one side, standing right beside Nyx and waiting on pins and needles for someone to do something.
Voldemort did the honors. "I hear that you have killed one of my Death Eaters."
"That I did," Nyx replied proudly, breathing with some difficulty due to the sharp piece of silver wedged into her lung.
"In that case, I suppose I shall have to avenge her," the snake-like man said in his high, cold voice, not sounding overly enthusiastic about it.
"Sounds like fun, " she replied, grinning.
"I will not allow that," a different voice interrupted. Dumbledore had stepped forward and was now standing at one point in a triangle, the other two points being Nyx and Voldemort. "I must insist that you take your quarrel elsewhere. I will not have you endangering the lives of my faculty and students." His calm voice couldn't hide his anger at the nerve these two Dark Lords had.
"I suppose this area is a bit smaller than I would like," Voldemort muttered, glancing around at the sprawling patch of green the size of three Quidditch fields, capped off at both ends by dense trees, and bordered by Hogwarts on one side and the darkly glittering lake on the other.
Nyx did not consider his comment. "Make me."
Dumbledore stared, feeling his dislike for this young woman grow exponentially.
"You're going to have to kill me and toss my body elsewhere if you want to make me leave," she said nastily. "And personally, I don't believe you have the guts to kill a woman, so I see nothing for me to worry about."
"If I must kill you to protect this school, and you will not listen to a reasonable request," the Headmaster replied very honestly. "Then I will do it, even though you are not even of age yet."
Voldemort's sudden outburst of laughter startled everyone but Nyx and the two Slytherins hiding behind her, snickering. The raven-haired Overlord chuckled quietly, smirking at the Headmaster. "You know, looks can be deceiving. I'm far older than I seem, as well as far older than you. If my apparent age was all that made you hesitate, then now you shouldn't have to."
"In that case," Dumbledore said slowly. "I will gladly let you leave peacefully. It is common courtesy to respect one's elders – " Nyx frowned noticeably "- but I will still fight you, loath as I am to do so, if you insist upon causing trouble here."
Nyx cackled tauntingly. "He's afraid to fight me because he knows I'll tear him apart! HA!"
The silver-haired wizard's expression turned momentarily stony, but relaxed back into calm neutrality. "I would greatly prefer not to fight anyone if it is unnecessary. But if your apparently hostile intentions are not directed elsewhere, I will not hesitate to defend this school and myself. I fear neither death nor you."
"Oh you don't, eh? I'll soon change that," Nyx hissed, highly incensed by Dumbledore's defiance. Stepping away form the tree, still limping slightly, she conjured the magnificent sword Jack had given to her for Christmas, which even now seemed years ago. The blade, thin but sturdy, ended in a deadly pin-like tip, with saw-toothed sections on both edges for extra pain. Intricate lines of that glowing red substance traced along the blade and down to the hilt, which was clutched tightly in its owner's hand.
"You are not going to use your wand?" Dumbledore asked, very surprised.
"If I don't want a bloody wand, I'm not using a bloody wand," she snapped. "I couldn't care less whether you use one or not, but I would recommend at least a sword of your own. I want this to be a fair fight." No one was convinced.
Dumbledore turned to look in the direction of his office and everyone saw the brilliantly red Fawkes flying out of a window, carrying a ruby-encrusted sword in his talons. Nyx and Snape instinctively shrank backwards when they saw the phoenix drop Gryffindor's sword into his owner's open hands; they had not forgotten that a phoenix's cry, while it sounded beautiful to others, it was a free ride to insanity for any SM that heard it. They silently rejoiced when the bird returned to the Headmaster's office without making a sound, but their attention was returned to Dumbledore as he produced his wand and watched his opponent carefully.
Nyx suddenly smiled and declared, "Now that I've had a moment to think, I suppose I ought to even the scales as much as possible since it makes no difference anyway, and I want this to be a good show for our lovely audience." With that said, she snapped her fingers and all eyes became locked on the aged wizard, whose wrinkles began to stretch out, his silvery hair to darken, and his blackened arm to heal. In a minute's time, Dumbledore was back in his 20-year-old body. His hair had returned to auburn, and his beard had shrunk significantly, though his half-moon glasses remained on his crooked nose.
The much younger Dumbledore took a few moments to realize why everyone was gawking at him, and when he saw the changes she had made to him, he was speechless. It was more out of worry than amazement, though, because he suspected that Nyx had somehow made him weaker without his knowing. But Dumbledore decided not to question her, in case the Dark Lord thought he was being ungrateful and made him old and crusty again.
As he positioned himself with Gryffindor's sword in one hand and his trusty wand in the other, Harry suddenly yelled, "No, Professor, don't fight her! She has –"
"- far too much experience in battle, and it would be a dreadful shame for her to kill you when I would really prefer to do it myself," Voldemort said smoothly. He threw Nyx a subtle glance, which she returned, to Jack's bewilderment. He had kept his mouth shut so far to avoid any foolish verbal blunders on his part, hoping that he wouldn't spoil the good luck he was having today with Nyx. But if she kept de-aging people like that, he would simply have to annoy her until she explained how she did it.
"I am sorry, Harry, but I must," Dumbledore said kindly. "Please do not interfe-"
Nyx silenced him with a lunging strike, but he blocked her and quickly slid out of her way. Dumbledore sent a body-binding charm and a sword swing at her, but she leapt out of the way of both and tried to stab him in the leg. The auburn-haired wizard repelled her with a shield charm and she backed away, glaring at him.
Jack stared at the fighters with his mouth hanging open a little, wondering, Why the hell hasn't she killed him yet? He had no particular wish to see Dumbledore die, but Nyx had already been given at least ten chances to deliver a fatal blow. Being a master fencer with over 15 years of experience, Jack could not understand how an excellent swordsman like Nyx could have missed those opportunities. …unless she's toying with him. That was the only explanation Jack could settle for, and from the way Nyx was attacking recklessly and defending lazily, it was very clear that she was not being serious.
While sealed off in his own head, Jack did not see someone toss Nyx's wand to her. His head whipped around, but no one appeared to have moved. An SM's reflexes, vastly superior to a human's, allowed Snape to move quickly enough not to be spotted; Nyx didn't want anyone to know that she had entrusted her original wand to him because she didn't want to hear certain people bitch about "why don't you trust me enough." Jack's attention was wrenched back to his master as she kicked Dumbledore back and, pointing her wand and sword at his head, she bellowed, "Sectumsempra!"
The wizard's legs crumpled and dropped him to the grass as the magnified curse sailed over his head, slicing his pointed hat in two. A ground-shaking crash followed as nearly ten trees behind him were separated from their roots, all from the force of that one spell.
"Did you like that?" Nyx laughed. "That's what happens when you use your wand and an enchanted sword at the same time. Isn't that wonderful? No one's used this technique since that sword was in the hands of its original owner. It was Gryffindor's specialty, or so I'm told."
Dumbledore released said sword to examine his head. When he found nothing missing, he faced his opponent once again with a look of furious determination. "You could have killed someone with that."
"That's the idea, you simple fool!" she replied, grinning. "Did you think this was just exercise?"
The Headmaster was nearing his breaking point. Dumbledore was slow to anger and very patient, but this woman… Everything she did and said rubbed him the wrong way. He didn't want to kill her, truly he didn't…but, then again, he did. He hadn't felt like this about anyone in ages. Not even Voldemort made him want to commit murder; at least Dumbledore could believe that maybe, just maybe, there was some bit of humanity left in him. But this woman… She seemed as if she had been born without humanity, without a soul, and without a heart. That frightened him, and that was nearly impossible.
What's worse, he got the feeling that she was trying to anger him. The woman must be insane to do that, he thought as she grinned at him tauntingly. "I will warn you one final time, Miss. I do not wish to hurt you. All I will ask of you is to leave us in peace. I care not whether you harm me, but I will not allow you to risk the lives of innocent people. That last curse would have killed everyone standing behind me."
Nyx chuckled. "Didn't I make myself clear the first time? I thought I did." She paused for a moment to twirl her wand in her fingers. "…all right. I'll humor you and your silly pacifism. If you can disarm me to the point where I can no longer fight, I will leave quietly. But keep in mind that just getting rid of my wand and sword won't be enough."
"Thank you for your cooperation, and the tip," Dumbledore replied dryly, raising his weapons again.
This time, he was the one to strike first, and this time, Nyx did not block him. And as a result, she lost her left arm at the shoulder.
Snape cringed as the blade made a clean slice straight through the bone. Only a silver, goblin-made sword could cut through an SM like that, leaving her with nothing but a blackened stump. Knowing that she was fine, the DADA professor gave a small sigh for his beloved black robes that were now ruined because of her.
Nyx's dismembered arm flopped to the ground, letting her wand roll into the grass harmlessly, and she stared at it with great curiosity. She nudged it with her foot to hide the identification number, most of which she had scratched out of her skin, leaving only the intricately carved zero. She looked back up at Dumbledore and declared loudly, "'Tis but a scratch!"
"A scratch?" he repeated, dumbfounded. "Your arm's off!"
"No it isn't!"
"What's that, then?" He pointed at the twitching limb.
"I've had worse."
"You liar!"
"Come on, ya pansy!"
Jack gaped at her in utter disbelief, laughing very weakly. Of all the times to start reciting Monty Python… She does make a good Black Knight, though…
She and Dumbledore had begun to fight again. Nyx was being even more reckless now, barely bothering to block his attacks, but rather just jumping out of the way. But without both arms, she lost her balance and the tip of Gryffindor's sword pierced her left eye, effectively making it burst open from the force of the burning silver. Nyx yelped and fell back out of surprise. She quickly picked herself back up and glowered at her opponent with the only eye she had left.
"I'm going to have to take back what I said about disarming me," she said. "You're taking much too long, and I'm feeling impatient today. Let's see if you can get in a fatal hit."
"Did you happen to notice your eye is missing?" he asked, becoming ever more alarmed at Nyx's behavior.
"Oh, that? It's just a flesh wound."
Jack put his head in his hands as he slid to the ground, groaning. If she keeps this up, there won't be anything left of her for me to hug! I'd rather kiss Snape than see that happen! John Cleese would love her right now, though.
"Very well," Dumbledore said uneasily. He wondered which way would be more humane for her to die, by wand or by sword. He would not Avada Kedavra her, though, because it was too Voldemort. Any other fatal curse would be painful and drawn-out. Sword it shall be, then.
Energized by his returned youth, the once-elderly wizard attacked Nyx with a surprising amount of force, nearly knocking her own blade out of her hands. Taking the opportunity her exposed abdomen presented, Gryffindor's sword slashed through her, spilling her intestines and a river of blood. The searing pain momentarily stunned Nyx, but the Headmaster once again took his chance like a blessing and ran the ruby-encrusted sword through her heart, knocking her back and pinning her to a tree.
Nyx froze, moving only to tilt her head downward to see where the weapon had struck. She did not lift her eyes after that.
Dumbledore looked at the blood-soaked blade with regret. Tucking his wand into his robes, he turned away from her and said in a low voice, "I am sincerely sorry that there was no other way to end this."
Jack felt like his soul had left him. He had seen Nyx "die" once before at Voldemort's hands, when he came to the citadel right after Black Monday. A hundred Avada Kedavra's hadn't done the trick, but she was wearing that special armor then, too. Perhaps the armor had defended her from the spells. Either way, not even the armor would have protected her from a pierced heart.
As his fury mounted, he rose to his feet, brandished his wand, and prepared to curse Dumbledore into the next galaxy. Suddenly, a hand on his shoulder stopped him. The fingers on the hand were long, thin, and pale, almost spider-like.
Voldemort said quietly, "I would not act so rashly if I were you. Nyx would be very upset if you interfered with her fun."
Jack stared at him in horror as he dropped his wand, hoping to hell that what he thought was not true.
The deathly silence was split by laughter totally inappropriate for the situation. Dumbledore knew where it was coming from, and slowly turned to face Nyx, who was shaking with mirth, still pinned to the tree. It looked grotesque for her to be laughing with blood drenching her face from her gaping eye socket, a sword in her chest, an arm missing, and her guts spilling out.
The Headmaster staggered back as Nyx taunted him, "I can't believe you thought that would kill me! Didn't you realize from all those other wounds that I'm invincible?" She laughed harder than ever at her final impression of the Black Knight.
"B-but…how?" Dumbledore breathed. "Not even someone as powerful as you could survive a wounded heart!"
She shrieked with laughter and would have collapsed if the sword wasn't forcing her to stand up. Grinning from ear to ear, she yanked it out of her chest and tossed it to the grass. And to the disgust of all, she pulled the wound open with her remaining hand and said cruelly, "How would an idiot like you expect to hit a target that isn't even there?" And, lo and behold, she really was telling the truth this time.
While she had everyone's attention, she disintegrated the black robes to reveal her restraining device. "Now you understand why my pain threshold is so high," she said in a matter-of-fact tone. "And because I myself can withstand an incredible amount of pain, I can stand to witness an incredible amount of pain, too."
To hundreds of screams, Nyx's sword sent itself flying into Dumbledore's back, severing his spine and tearing a massive hole in one lung. The newly reddened blade quickly pulled itself out, allowing him to fall to the ground, gasping and shuddering. It floated back to Nyx's waiting hand as her detached arm crawled back to her. After commanding the sword to levitate along behind her, she picked up her poor arm and strode over to the dying Headmaster. A small group had already formed around him; three teachers were trying their best to heal him, but they became more and more frustrated as the proper spells had no effect on the bleeding.
"Move," Nyx said clearly. McGonagall looked up at her with a white, tear-streaked face. She couldn't believe that the girl she once prized as a Transfiguration Prodigy had just mortally wounded the revered Dumbledore. Only out of fear that there was nothing they could do for their Headmaster, and Nyx, who could very well kill them all without warning, she quietly asked everyone to obey her.
When his body was out in the open, Nyx looked down at the once-mighty Headmaster and laughed again. Without warning, she placed her dismembered hand on the wound and with a small flash of red light, it closed as if it had never been there at all. Dumbledore stared up at her in obvious shock.
"By the way," she said quietly. "Don't think I saved your life because I'm a nice person or I like you. Both are lies. As you so kindly informed me, you have no fear of death, so there's no fun in it for me if I kill you. I just needed to show you how very wrong you were about daring to underestimate me. Don't ever do it again."
Dumbledore found himself saying, "I am truly sorry for mistreating you." He meant it, but he couldn't believe he had said it aloud.
"Whatever," she replied dismissively, wiping the sword off on her clothes. AB negative was nowhere near as tasty as AB positive, so she didn't feel guilty about wasting it. "I don't give two shits about you personally, so I don't care whether you're sorry or not. Not worth my time." He stood and walked quickly back to his comrades, mistakenly thinking that he was outside the "Death Zone."
The other teachers and students felt their hopes sinking into oblivion. They finally realized that if Dumbledore couldn't beat her, there was simply no way to prevent her from doing whatever she pleased. The "witnesses" from her trial prayed that she wouldn't honor them with a reenactment of what happened to the Ministry that morning.
Jack felt a great deal happier to know that Nyx had survived, despite the near heart failure it had given him. He was equally shocked, though, at Voldemort's actions and words. How could he have known that Nyx would survive? And why did he stop him from attacking Dumbledore? The 24-year-old could only come up with one explanation, and it made sense in theory, but he simply couldn't imagine it in reality.
His master began to speak again, loudly to make sure she was heard. "Now, I bet you're all wondering how I managed to survive all this dreadful abuse… As I said, I've had worse. And you can believe that because I can heal myself from practically nothing, which is another way of saying that I'm basically impervious to all kinds of damage since none of it is permanent, and it's almost impossible to hit me with anything that can incapacitate me for any period of time."
Just as the words left her lips, something sliced through the air and planted itself in the side of Nyx's neck. Dropping her other arm, her attached hand clamped onto it instantly and yanked it out. Her face fell as she read the label on a small tranquilizer dart: "Blood Type B Negative, 15 mL."
Before she could move, though it would have done her little good because the restraining device was slowing her down so much, three more darts appeared out of thin air and lodged themselves in her arm, leg and stomach. Frantically, Nyx pulled them out, sensing that they had been protected against any magical attempt to avoid or destroy them, and hoping that none of that disgusting blood was getting inside her. Fifteen milliliters was enough to send her into a Blood Rebound. More and more darts were flying at her, and before she was able to pull them all out, it happened.
With a violent shudder, Nyx threw up a torrent of blood, gasping and choking as she tried in vain to breathe. She would have been crying form the pain, but there were already streams of blood leaking from her eyes (both the damaged one and the good one), ears and nose. Her disemboweled abdomen, too, was pouring blood. Even the stump where her arm had once been was oozing blood at a disturbing rate. Before long, she had collapsed to the ground, making a horrible gurgling noise as she struggled to breathe, still coughing and vomiting blood violently.
Jack was horrified at what he was seeing, even more so than everyone else, many of which were on the brink of being sick themselves. He didn't understand what was happening to Nyx, but every part of him was screaming at him to protect her. He stopped to listen to Snape say something to Slughorn; "Oh, no… That must be B negative in those darts. At this rate, she won't have any blood left in about a minute…"
"Didn't you say you liked that kind, Severus?" the Potions Master asked hopefully, confusing Jack to no end. "Shouldn't you be over there helping the poor woman? I mean, it can't hurt you, right, old boy?"
"I'd be over there now if I knew that I wasn't going to get hit with AB positive!" Snape hissed angrily. "If that happens, I'll be in the same state as she is!"
Jack made up his mind in a matter of three seconds. Before anyone could stop him, he ran out onto the open lawn, just in time to catch four darts in his hand and arm. He plucked them out of his skin and tossed them to the ground casually, eyeing the trees at both ends of the lawn for the fools that dared to hurt his beloved Nyx. He said loudly, "Go ahead, keep firing if it'll amuse you. B negative is my blood type so I don't care how many darts I have to take. I can guarantee you that not one of them is going to hit her, though."
Nyx tried to look up at him as she lay twitching in a pool of blood, whimpering form the pain of having her blood forced out of her veins through every available opening. She wanted so badly to thank him, but all she could do was try to breathe and keep an eye out for any stray darts coming towards her. As she thought of ways she could thank him properly, dark figures began creeping out from beyond the tree line. There were only about a hundred of them, but Nyx began to worry a little as she faintly made out a white, intricately stitched "B.D." on the fronts of their black uniforms. It seems that I didn't kill everyone in Black Dawn after all…
Snape squirmed uncomfortably at the sight, but kept quiet and hidden amongst the evergreens. He felt disgust rise in him like bile when he saw the pretty, golden-haired, gray-eyed Sophia Luca – who did not look so nice with her hair unkempt, face deathly pale, and eyes with a wild look to them. She, along with her employees, carried a revolver-like contraption that, evidently, shot B-negative-filled darts.
As Sophia approached Nyx, Jack conjured a thin rapier and as he wielded it threateningly, stepped between this newcomer and his master. "You come any closer and I'll cut you in two without a second thought," he said in a deadly voice.
"You fool," the Head of Black Dawn whispered. "Don't you realize what we're doing? That thing needs to be killed. We have to kill it. We are the only ones who can."
"Then kill me first," Jack demanded. "And don't use those stupid darts. You're wasting my time."
Sophia laughed a high, shrill laugh, staring at him. "Why would we want to kill you?"
"Because that's the only way you're going to get to Nyx," he growled. Nyx felt herself grin as Jack revealed his badass side. "I've been fencing for over 15 years of my life. I won a national tournament against adults when I was only 16. Don't think I'll go easy on you because you're a woman, either. You look like a giant bitch and you probably are, so I doubt anyone would miss you."
The blonde woman stood there, gawking at him curiously. She asked softly, "Don't you know what that thing is?"
"That 'thing' is my boss and my friend, and if you continue to have a problem with it, I'll gladly beat the shit out of you while she heals, at which point I'll let her do as she pleases with you," Jack snarled, giving her his best death glare. Sophia actually shivered and stepped back a few paces.
"That's enough, Jack," Nyx said gently. "But I'm extremely grateful for your help. Thank you."
"No problem," he replied, smiling. He watched her slowly push herself up off the bloody grass, and wince as the final little spurt of blood left through her arm. "Do you need help with anything else?"
"As a matter of fact…yes," she said slowly, eyeing the Black Dawn soldiers as they pointed their dart guns at her, hoping to look menacing. "That man with the glasses and brown hair. Bring him over here. And get rid of his toy."
Jack did as he was told, knocking the gun out of the man's hands and cursing it into 500 pieces. He forced the frightened man to walk over to Nyx, and stopped when she ordered him to. "Now," she continued. "I can't stand quite yet, so I want you to come down here, sir. You look familiar…"
The man bent down near her bloodied face, quaking on the spot. "Oh, yes… Now I know who you look like: someone who's going to make up for all the blood I just lost."
The man's scream was cut short as Nyx's two-inch fangs sank into his throat, the force of which snapped his neck, paralyzing him so that he couldn't flail about. As she began draining him of his glorious AB positive blood rapidly, Jack had to look away because the sight made him feel nauseous. After seeing his sister's corpse, with the Dark Mark violently carved into her wrist, he had never been able to keep his stomach calm when watching someone bleed excessively. However, whenever he killed someone with his sword, he was able to move quickly enough to not look at the sight for long, so it wasn't a problem.
She was soon done, however, and said apologetically, "Sorry. This is probably a bit of a shock to you. It was my best intention to tell you rather than show you, but that didn't work out too well."
"Actually I can't say I'm that surprised," Jack replied, watching the man's corpse land on the ground with a thud. "I've suspected it for quite a few years now. I guess that explains why you don't look your age and you like Bloody Mary's so much."
Nyx laughed quietly as she picked up her severed arm and held it to the bloody wound, waiting for it to begin re-attaching itself. "Being a vampire, I can re-grow and re-attach my limbs as long as I have enough blood in me to start the healing process. It comes in very handy. But sometimes it just isn't worth doing repairs when it would be wiser to just get everything new, you know? Like a car. A car is supposed to last for so many years, and during that time you get replacement parts and repairs, but after it's past its prime, it's usually cheaper and smarter to just get a new one altogether."
Jack really wasn't sure what she was talking about since he knew next to nothing about cars, but he decided not to interrupt her while she was enjoying her explanation. He was especially glad that he didn't say anything when Nyx suddenly became very irate and yelled, "damn it all to hell!" and chucked her arm at the ground.
"What's wrong?" Jack asked.
"It won't repair itself, and I know I have enough blood to do it," she growled, glaring that the arm like everything was its fault. She paused to take a few deep breaths and release a few deep sighs. Standing up with some difficulty, she announced, "It seems this body has just about had it. To put it in layman's terms, I think I'm starting to rot. That's wonderful. I'm not surprised, knowing what the poor old thing's been through. I just wish I could put it out of its misery…"
The words had barely left her when Voldemort raised his wand and fired a deadly curse at her. It connected with her chest and exploded into a flash of blinding white, fiery light.
Sophia screamed. "NO!"
But it was too late. When the light faded, all that was left of Nyx was a pile of gray ashes, with a huge pile of silver odds and ends mixed in. A breeze blew the dust into the air and over the lake until it was invisible against the perfect, cloudless blue sky.
A bolt of green light exploded form the tip of Jack's wand and connected with a Death Eater, killing him instantly. Said Death Eater had been hit only because Snape had levitated him in front of Voldemort, whom Jack would have hit dead-on. The latter was now running madly at the Dark Lord, fully intent on killing him to avenge Nyx. He had no idea what that spell was, but perhaps this one was specially designed to kill vampires by destroying their bodies. After all, Nyx said she could regenerate limbs, not her whole body. And Jack knew for a fact that when one's body is separated form their soul, that means that they are dead.
Snape hit him with a body freezing charm first, though. Jack was left in a mid-running stance, looking and feeling foolish, but he was too furious to care. The ex-Potions Master walked over to him briskly and snapped, "For god sakes, will you get a grip?"
"He killed her, you fucking idiot!" Jack screamed.
"No, you're the idiot," Snape replied rather calmly. "Answer me this; if the Dark Lord didn't kill her by ordering a hundred Death Eaters to Avada Kedavra her at the same time, and if Dumbledore didn't kill her by stabbing her, and if she can live without a heart in the first place, and if having nearly all of her blood removed didn't kill her, then what the hell makes you think being burnt to a crisp could have?"
Before Jack could try to say anything, the attention of all was drawn to the sky. It was still early afternoon, and yet the sky was turning dark with ominous, black storm clouds materializing as far as the eye can see. A sudden, icy wind picked up and made the air feel ten degrees colder. The dark water of the lake began to churn, drawing a few merfolk to the surface to see what was going on.
A bolt of lightening fell from the sky and landed behind the school, silhouetting a figure perched on the roof nearest to the lawn. A flash above the lake illuminated the front of the figure, revealing a fully regenerated and incredibly angry Nyx. She wore a peculiar outfit of skin-tight black with several narrow straps holding the pieces together. Her top had a wide sash-like section hanging off her shoulders, below which the fabric ended in an upside-down V, exposing her pale midriff. Two thin straps held the top up, connecting to a choker-like black ring around her neck. Two long, fingerless black gloves adorned her arms, nearly the exact same design of her "leg gloves" without fabric covering her heels or toes. A knee-length-or-thereabouts flowy skirt resting her hips was the strangest piece of clothing; where the hem ought to have been, the black fabric faded into a shadowy, smoky-ness that curled and waved in the breeze.
The dark fabric, however, did not conceal the dark, grayish-red scar on her chest where her heart had once been. The huge mark seemed to be there only to remind her that something was missing, because in any other case, Nyx would not have developed a scar no matter how bad the damage.
But the most unusual thing of all, even more so than her new outfit, was Nyx's hair. It was still long, a bit unruly, and wavy, but was no longer black. Instead, it was milk white. Almost everyone wondered if they were seeing things because she was not in fact a pile of ashes. But they saw that she was real as can be when she leapt off the roof and landed nimbly on the grass. Ignoring the stunned look Jack was giving her as Snape undid the freezing charm, Nyx stalked over to Sophia, who was literally shitting herself in terror.
Not moving her eyes, Nyx said clearly, "Thanks for burning off that deadweight, Tom. I knew I wouldn't quite be able to get it done myself."
"Yes, yes, just stop calling me that and we'll be even," Voldemort replied, looking disgusted. "Not that you need to thank me, since I am not allowed to disobey orders and would have done it whether I received recognition or not…"
"What?" Jack squeaked, gaping at Nyx, then at Voldemort, then back to Nyx.
"WHAT?" came the collective gasp from everyone else as they began to comprehend what was going on here.
His master turned around to give him a quizzical look, ignoring the rest, and suddenly realized what was wrong. "Oh, yes, about that… There's no gentle way to put this, so I'll be blunt. He works for me too. He has for, oh, about 52 years…"
Jack didn't hear the rest. His mind stopped on the fact that Voldemort was his coworker, not his enemy. His brain repeated it over and over again yet he could not grasp it. It was too far-fetched to be real, so his mind refused to believe it. The last thing he heard Nyx say was, "So, is that okay with you?"
"NO! It is NOT okay with me!" he screamed, practically having a conniption as he flailed around to emphasize his explanation. "He can't be an ally! He's your bloody arch-nemesis! Ally is not the same as arch-nemesis! He can't be my coworker because he's supposed to be the enemy and that just doesn't make sense because you hate his guts and you told us to hate his guts, and you fought him before and you were trying to kill each other and that's how it's supposed to be and HIS PEOPLE KILLED MY SISTER! HE is responsible for the deaths of the friends and families of EVERYONE working for you! How the FUCK are you going to explain that to them, huh?"
For the way that Jack took the news, Nyx seemed very calm. She paused with her arms folded and asked, "Are you done?"
Panting from all the yelling he had just done, he replied, "…for now."
"Okay. Since I know that you stop listening once someone pisses you off enough, I'll repeat what I just said," she explained. "I said that Mr. Voldymuffin does indeed work for me, and he has for the last 52 years, and that means that all five thousand of his Death Eaters work for me as well, and that also means that, yes, all that animosity between us was staged (because I am just that good of an actress), and the whole thing with me accidentally killing Narcissa Malfoy is okay because I plan to resurrect her as an apology to her and her family, and I assumed that you would be okay with all of this because he is 3rd-in-command. You, sir, have not been demoted in any way."
Jack stared at her dumbly. "…oh."
"Yeah," Nyx muttered. "You need to do something about all of this impulsive behavior of yours. If I didn't know that you'd ignore half of what I said, I'd be very upset with you right now."
"Um…I think…I'm…sorry?"
"You should be," Voldemort sneered.
"Shut up, you," their master snapped. "Since when was anyone allowed to mouth off to a superior?"
The snake-like man's lips pursed together, feeling very shameful as Jack laughed at him and stuck his tongue out. "However," he added, turning to Nyx. "This does not mean that I have to excuse him for murdering Anna, OR that I think it's okay that you made everyone look like complete idiots for 15-or-so years."
"Be glad I'm the one that told you instead of someone else, or you might have heard about this sooner, which would have been a very bad thing. Knowing you in particular, you would have taken this news far worse from anyone else, at any time prior to today, for a number of reasons. Either way, I know how my being a pathological liar incenses you to no end, so think of the truth I tell you as my apologies for the lies I've told you and the things I didn't bother to mention at all," she replied, to Jack's (and Voldemort's) astonishment. "Ah, yes, that reminds me of another thing I've been meaning to talk to you about. A Death Eater did not kill Anna. I know of all the people he's put to death, and she was not one of them. I have a feeling that I might know who did it, but whoever did do it only carved the Dark Mark into her wrist to make it look like a Death Eater did it. Pinning the blame on a Death Eater would have been easy enough since no one would question it. Until I'm completely sure, I won't say anything more about the murderer, so don't ask me."
Jack fought back the urge to yell at her, "You've been talking to my bloody relatives, haven't you?"
Voldemort interrupted his thought to say, "I have no interest in being nice to you, superior or not, so do not waste my time by being nice to me."
"Don't worry. I never would have thought of such a thing," he replied.
Seeming to ignore him, he continued, "You probably would have accidentally found out about all this back in November, or whenever it was, when Nyx and I were supposed to meet and talk about some important business. But no, you had to be the party crasher and ruin everything. She was very displeased with you, if I remember correctly."
Jack recalled the time he followed Nyx to that creepy graveyard and 'saved' her from the Death Eaters there, after which he found out that Nyx left him at the citadel for a reason. He still felt embarrassed about that. He didn't have time to dwell on it, though, because Nyx had addressed the masses again.
"As I'm sure most of you have figured out by now, I happen to be gifted with many talents," she said. "One that I am particularly proud of is my ability to sense what a person fears most. My second-in-command, for example, is deathly afraid of drowning and sharks."
A few bystanders snickered, to which Jack snapped, "You try seeing JAWS when you're seven years old, and then have the idiotic uncle who took you to see it traumatize you by sneaking up behind you in a pool and dragging you underwater… I never forgave that man… It's all his fault that I can't go near water over three feet deep without going completely berserk…"
Voldemort laughed to himself and made a mental note in case he ever needed to blackmail his superior.
"So, if he ever made me angry enough, I could easily use that fear to torment him as punishment," Nyx went on. "With that said… I think I'll give you all a demonstration of exactly what I mean."
Quickly lifting a hand, she made Sophia levitate just off the ground, frozen as if paralyzed. Nyx sauntered over to her, grinning, her milky hair flowing behind her. As she stopped less than an arm's length away from the terrified woman, her hair swayed and split into long sections, tightening into thick coils of hair. Suddenly, the coils sprang up, revealing white snake heads at their tips, hissing and bearing their long fangs. Sophia shrieked and sobbed, pleading for her to stop; Nyx refused since torturing those afraid of snakes was always an extra pleasure for her, not to mention that she enjoyed looking like Medusa.
Watching the scene with mild interest, Jack asked no one in particular, "So…aside from the fact that she enjoys it…why is Nyx torturing that woman?"
"Well," she herself replied over the din Sophia was making. "It is because of her and her alone that I was in such a state earlier today."
Any hint of pity he may have felt for the blonde vanished like a puff of smoke. Anyone who hurt Nyx like that deserved to be tortured, maimed and killed in the worst ways possible, in his opinion. He continued while his master paused to ask, "Incidentally, that happened to your hair?"
"You know how stress and age lead to gray hair? It seems that an overload of stress, trauma and other such things causes white hair, even when you're 18," she replied. "By the way, whenever I have to grow myself a new body, everything resets to my normal, unaltered body, and that includes the white hair. I dye it black because I was born with black hair, so it looks acceptable on me. But don't misunderstand me; I don't dye it because I'm displeased or even ashamed of how it looks. I just don't think I'd be believable as a person under 80 years old, which is extremely bad if I'm supposed to look 16.
"Sorry," she added, speaking exclusively to Jack. "I know it irritates you when people hide how they really look…or maybe it was only Ripley that bothered you."
"No, this is a completely different situation," he replied. "I'd be annoyed with you if you couldn't accept how you're supposed to look and had to cover it up to make yourself feel attractive. And for what it's worth, white hair doesn't look bad on you."
Snape caught Voldemort's attention as he kissed his fingers and patted them against his rear. The Dark Lord was also getting tired of Jack's "ass-kissing" and gave the back of his head a foul glare.
"Good, because I don't think I'd be able to stand another one of your outbursts today," Nyx replied, massaging her temple lightly. "At any rate, you see that pile of shiny junk over there?" She gestured to the heap of silver lying where she had been standing a short while ago. "All of that was crammed inside me until I had my body burned off of it. It's pure silver, blessed by a bishop if not the pope himself. That's the only reason I wasn't fighting very well against dear old Dumbles a bit ago; it's terribly painful and it makes moving around a right chore. Having a particularly sharp piece stab you in the lung when someone was feeling a wee bit too huggy doesn't help, either, but I forgive said person because they didn't know any better and meant well by it."
Jack felt himself shrink in embarrassment and offered her a silent apology. Voldemort noticed this and looked distinctly angry, intensifying the death glare he was aiming at the back of his head.
"Seeing as I was in too much pain to remove it all myself in any reasonable length of time, I asked my faithful minion Voldymuffin to come and help me out," Nyx continued, purposely ignoring Jack for both their sakes. "But now that that crap is safe and sound out in the open…" Her hair morphed back into it's usual state, though it was still white, and she began waltzing on over to the silver pile. "…I can put it to much better use."
Nyx waved her hands upward and flung them down violently, instantly forcing her nails to extend several inches beyond any normal length. She laughed and displayed them to her second-in-command, saying, "Look – nine inch nails!" He was very amused, but everyone else was simply wondering if the two of them had smoked anything unusual today because it didn't seem very funny at all.
Ignoring the odd looks, Nyx pulled the shining shrapnel into the air with a jerk of her wrist. Holding her wand in an awkward position thanks to her nails, she murmured a few words and the metal began glowing, heating up until it was a white-hot, molten blob. Using extreme caution, which surprised many people, Nyx dipped her elongated nails into the liquefied silver and quickly pulled them out. She was careful because she didn't want to get any molten silver on her skin, and thereby burn a hole through her brand-new body. Holding her wand in her teeth, Nyx nodded her head and her plated fingernails rapidly cooled and hardened into literal "finger swords."
With a triumphant laugh, Nyx brandished the little blades menacingly, twitching her fingers to experiment with her new weapon's capabilities. A quickly uttered spell made the remaining silver seal itself in a sort of fiery cocoon, in case she wanted to dip something else in it today.
Walking towards Sophia, who was still trapped a few inches off the ground, Nyx said venomously as she clicked her nails, "I also know that you have a particular fear of bleeding to death as a result of a wound made by an extremely sharp object. A kitchen knife would be more practical, but I'm here today to give these fine folks a good show, so work with me, okay? Now…I could simply stab you until you stop moving, but that would be over too quickly…I could cut your limbs off with just my nails, which would certainly be slow and agonizing, but I'm afraid you'd be dead before I finished…I've got it! I'll slice all of your skin off! Oh, that's perfect!"
As Nyx did a little victory dance, Sophia's face took on a peculiar expression. The white-haired woman stopped dancing about when she heard her laughing. Sophia cackled, sounding very much like Bellatrix, "I don't care! I don't care! Kill me whatever way you please! I'd rather die by an animal than an intelligent human being!"
Nyx froze, staring at the foolish woman before her. "…she has a death wish."
Sophia quieted herself so that she could hear Nyx, who was speaking in a soft, deadly voice.
"She has a death wish," she repeated, sounding almost amazed and delighted, but at the same time furious. "Nothing else could make her send me over the edge like this. It isn't the fact that you called me an animal. It's the fact that you fucking morons can't come up with anything better to insult me with. I don't know why…but it pisses me off more than anything right now."
Jack kept his sharp eyes locked on his master. She said she was enraged, but…how could that be? He had always known that her temper was equivalent to a nitro-glycerin plant being tossed into an erupting volcano in the middle of a typhoon. But this…somehow it's…worse
Everything about her had gone cold; she wasn't yelling and she wasn't out of control, but scariest of all was that she hadn't attacked anyone. Jack felt a sense of doom welling up inside him, like the calm before the storm of the century; the worst side of Nyx's temper preparing to unleash itself on Sophia and what was left of Black Dawn.
"Animal, you say," Nyx hissed, staring down at her hands as if to see whether they looked human or not. "No…not animal…Monster." She licked her lips and swallowed uncomfortably, as if the word itself tasted foul. Clenching her fists, she growled, again almost to herself, "…no. Not a monster either."
"If you are not an animal…" Dumbledore asked, not sure whether he should speak gently or not. "…and you are not a monster…and you are clearly not a human…then what are you?"
Thousands of eyes sent him a thankful glance for voicing the question they had all wanted to ask, but dared not to. A mere vampire could not attract this much attention from the Ministry. A mere vampire could not be as powerful as she was, unless she was Dracula himself, and that was impossible.
Nyx let loose a bark of laughter, turning her head to the auburn-haired wizard. Her twisted, toothy grin conveyed the rather sick pleasure she got from answering such an innocent question.
"I'm so glad you asked. Now you will see the real reason why even the great and powerful Dark Lord Voldemort would fear me. "
--- to be continued in Chapter 37 : Superfreak---
Disclaimer: Own not, profit not, sue not. (With exception of Nyx, Jack, Louis, SMS, the Beast, and anyone else I forgot.)
A/N: OH SNAP! Nyx works with Voldy after all! -throws prizes to the people that guessed it before now- But believe me, this is just the tip of the iceberg where those two psychopaths are concerned. Next chapter will contain more revelations. Look forward to it. :3
Kudos to my lovely beta, Tiff.
General Notes: The chapter title, for the third time in a row and for nearly every other chapter left to write, came from the song by Rob Zombie. The song fits Nyx for obvious reasons, plus the guy himself looks a little crazy. XD
Just so you all know, I will probably have some minor Deathly Hallows spoilers in the story from here on, but don't worry: I won't reveal anything incredibly major, such as who wins, because I have no idea who has and hasn't read the book yet. The things I will likely reveal are interesting, but not plot-type spoilers (example: the Gray Lady. If you read DH, you know what I mean.). (I personally think all those people who read the online version and then ran around spoling it for everyone are pieces of shit that will probably end up burnin' in hell. I would know because I found out "Everything You'll Ever Need to Know About Deathly Hallows" THE NIGHT BEFORE I GOT THE BOOK. I did not sleep well because I was so angry at everything (I was having a bad day as it was). It was on YouTube for fuck's sakes! On a music video! WHAT DOES THE OFFSPRING HAVE TO DO WITH HARRY POTTER? -spazzes out because she's still incredibly mad about this- )
I like it when Nyx de-ages people. It's fun. She'll go it again and again next chapter.
OH YEAHS, I TOTALLY PLANNED THAT THING WITH THE MONTY PYTHON-NESS IN IT BECAUSE I AM JUST THAT COOL. No actually it was an accident and my fingers were like "omg kewl" and typed it and I was like "woah, man, that's sweet" and the rest is history. :D
I already drew one bigass awesome pic with whitehair!Nyx in it, but it's of a scene that'll happen in chapter 40, and now that I'm thinking about it, I don't want to spoil it (though you can't figure much out from the pic alone, anyway) SO I will probably draw a different whitehair!Nyx pic and put that up on my LJ for y'all. Speaking of it, I did a gag pic of what Nyx really does with her detatched arm a while back, and I redesigned Jack's hair because I'm sick of drawing it the way I did because it looked like crap, such as in that first picture I talked about in this paragraph (but who knows, I might redesign my redesign because I eventually become unhappy with it).
The thing Voldy talks about where Jack was the party crasher was in chapter 7 when Nyx had to go to the old Riddle manor place thing to meet him and Jack was like "OMG YER GUNNA DIE I MUST SAVE YEW" and he ended up ruining everything unintentionally.
Okay, I admit it: Nyx's "finger-swords" came from a combination of X-2 and Fullmetal Alchemist, BOTH of which have a woman who can extend her nails all to hell and do some serious ass-kicking with them. X-2 refers to the Asian woman with the adamantium nails, FMA refers to Lust. Bah. They're still cool.
Preview: Nyx goes into a frenzy of badassness and showoffery! And eats things! ...and people! ...and...gets attacked? ...like, for reals? ...by someone that can actually hurt her? Woah, man. Woah.
Final Words: I really can't say when the next chapter will be up. The outline is finished and I've started to write it, but lately things have been crazy with me, and I've been on a drawing binge so I haven't typed much in a while. I start school again tomorrow, so hopefully I'll still be able to get some solid progress made before classes really get underway. From here on out, I can't think of any chapters that will be a pain in the neck to write, so at least I'll want to do it. ...now, the only problem with that is the fact that wanting to write more makes me write too much, and then I don't want to take things out and then we have a ten-thousand-word chapter again and I'm all pissed off at myself and you're all pissed off at me and life sucks. Buh. Chapters 37 and 38 will be longish but they should be the last ones like that until maybe some of the final chapters. I'll trim them down as much as possible, though.
Incidentally, the things I've been drawing are a big ole character sheet of every OC that has an important role in the fic (which is nearing completion, so yay for that because I'm extremely proud of it), and a correctly-scaled model of the SMS beastie that I scanned in (bless the creator of toothpicks because they're perfect for these sorts of things) and will use to draw the whole thing, because I feel really bad for only doing the bead up until now, and you'll all be needing a reference picture soon. (hint hint)
Also. Concerning reviews. Mega huge thanks to those that have given me some! To the rest of you...I have a feeling that after this chapter, you'll want to say something to me. Yay?
Thanks for reading and have a nice day!
--- kavi - sama ---
This should be the very last long chapter until the final chapters, which could have some longish ones