Disclaimer: The usual blah goes here. I don’t own anything, didn’t make a cent off of any of this. I create cause I like to ‘n give people more stuff to read here cause I love ‘em ^^ Anywhos, enjoy and R&R to let me know if it’s worth continuing. This is my version of why Janos must stay dead.
Author’s notes: I came up with this after drawing a piccy for Nemi, and she fed more ideas forthe fic, so give her some credit too. I’ll also warn people once now, and again later. This fic is a dark one that will include things that may squik people IE Yaoi and D/S. So don’t sayI didn’t warn anyone.
Raziel climbed back to the entrance of the mountain
aire and looked about. Janos’ home wascaved in by many tons of rock and
debris, most of it still fresh from it’s recent collapse. He had hoped
he could find a way back in despite this, and that Janos’ body was not
so destroyed by the fallen rock of his own home that his revival and recovery
would have been easy. Getting
back in though proved to be harder than it had
before. Far harder. He gave up this route and opted for the other one,
the one he could enter through the spectral realm.
He jumped into the murky water and swam to the stone column where the entrance lie and shifted. He walked through the hole and shifted back when he came to where he could and swam his way deeper into the mountain. He gave a sigh of relief as he found this entrance not blocked although surrounded by more fallen rock.
The lower chambers looked like a great storm had
swept through and collapsed everything. The puzzles he had to defeat before
were destroyed along with much of the high galleries and towers. He also
seen that this mess was also to his advantage and proved stable enough
for him to climb to his goal. The heavy wooden door that once separated
the rest inner retreat
from it’s main chamber was still broken, more
so now, so he had to break it out of his way before he could enter the
room.
Beyond, the main chamber was more of a wreck than the rest of the retreat. Great stone slabs had fallen, the massive bookshelves broken like so much twigs and ancient books strewn everywhere. The stench of death was in the room as well. It was too cold here for anything to rot, but never the less, the smell of it was present.
He was glad his unique resurrection had lent him
more strength than he ever had for he had to call upon every once of it
to pull the stone out of his way. He pulled the last slab that stood in
his way aside and squeezed through. He found Janos where he had died, his
broken body was still on the table, the table haven collapsed under the
rock as well, his wings as smashed a
mess as the rest of him.
Raziel looked at him in pity, giving a silent
prayer of thanks that he had not felt any of this while still alive. He
pulled the other’s heart out of a satchel still throbbing and beating as
if still freshly torn from it’s moorings. He held it over the other’s chest
and gently pushed it back into place, and hoped this would work. An explosion
occurred, sending Raziel flying into a stone slab
behind him and falling to the ground unconscious.
When he had awoken, the room had magically reassembled
itself, literally. He propped himself up on his arms from his twisted position
to look around. He could see no sign of the ancient vampire anywhere. In
the distance however, he could hear laughter. Not just any mind you, cackling
evil laughter in the voice of the ancient vampire’s. Raziel shuddered at
this realization.
The elder vampire had been gentle, kind and wise
to him and he imagined everyone else with the exception of his food. This...was
this what his sire, Kain, tried to warn him about and he so blindly disobeyed?
Raziel pulled himself up to a standing position
and started off in the direction of the laughter. He did not get far for
the elder teleported himself in front of him. Raziel jumped back in shock,
in absolute fear of the sight before him. He looked the elder vampire over,
seeing no trace of the kind gentle winged man he had met before. He had
changed his clothing to an extent, donning leather pants and boot like
things he had worn himself in his unlife. The white rose he wore before
had turned as dark as his raven’s wings. He continued to look up at the
other, seeing that somehow it had reversed the process of aging as well,
youthful skin lie over taunt powerful muscles. He looked into the face
of the elder and stopped in utter fear. How one
dressed often belittled their personality, but
this here, was the proof he didn’t want of this transformation. Janos’
eyes looked feral, a darkness behind then so black, Raziel could swear
they could consume everything.
Dark laughter came from the elder vampire, the
sound of which horrible to Raziel’s ruined ears. “What is wrong child?
Why the sudden fear? Do you not like what you have brought upon Nosgoth?”
Outside the Sariphan keep, Kain stood watching in the distance where Raziel had run off to. The young wraith had knocked him out cold and taken the heart from him. He feared the worst may happen anytime now. His head hurt, but he kept searching. Vorador had to take one of these exits and hopefully soon. he hoped he wouldn’t have missed him while he was out. He knew where Vorador lived, but did not want to track him down.
It hit him, the rumbling shifting of the time stream. He braced himself against it, hearing distant sounds of panic from the humans inside the stronghold. It faded as quickly as it came and he was terrified. Kain looked around, panicked, mind reeling with the possible terrors he had seen, and the new memories that flooded into his mind.
Kain sat amongst the grass, feeling weak all the sudden. Why was he even bothering ot defy his master? Master? He was a slave to no one, or at least he thought so at one time. It couldn't possible be right for he had six vampire sons, why would a non vampire lord posses those?
He shook his head to clear it, pushing aside those
odd memories. He knew what was happening from what he had seen before.
One of the worst effects of their tampering had been loosed upon the land
and now he would have to fight to fix it and get back on track. He stumbled
and decided he had waited long enough. He would go to Vorador’s mansion
and hoped that the old vampire would be there. As he walked, he had a difficult
time trying to overcome these feelings of weakness and dread that kept
swarming at the back of his mind.
Raziel stumbled back, he touched cold stone and knew he could run no further. “Please...stay back....I did not know...”
Janos came closer, another horrible laugh coming from him. “Ask me again, child. Do I hate humans?” He paused, watching the reaction of the vampire wraith. “No? Let me answer it any ways. Yes. Yes I hate them. It’s about time I stopped watching the world pass me by while waiting for your sorry ass and do something about this scourge. They will feel my wrath for what they have done to me. Look at me. Look at me. ” He gestured to himself, to his change in clothes, his appearance, his manor. Raziel stared in fear. “See what they have done? Thanks to them, and them having manipulated I am now corrupted, unpure and a holy terror brought to this ailing land. This is how my kind died. Corrupted and evil. Drained of life and the instrument of our own destruction. Now I will soon fall as well to this madness, to find my rest perhaps nailed to something and murdered again slowly, painfully. As if the first time wasn’t enough.”
Raziel closed his lambent eyes, regretting now his actions. He felt the urge to apologize but didn’t dare to, for fear of bringing up a bout of rage from the elder. Instead, Raziel started to slide along the wall, trying to inch away. “Why...? Why let it take you and swallow you whole?”
Janos laughed again. “There is no cure except for death. Once one of us strayed, they forfeited their life. We abandoned our kind one by one and watched simply as they dropped like flies. Those who remained pure, were severally weakened. A living being cannot live on blood alone, and yet, any attempts to eat something else resulted in making oneself even more ill.” He closed his eyes, looking downcast, memories of friends and loved ones horrible deaths coming back anew, renewed rage taking it’s place swiftly.
Janos looked back up at Raziel. “You see what death has done to me, and to yourself. You know as well as I, that no vampire can resist his or her own nature for very long, that is consumes us eventually and forces us to do what the human’s horror tales are made of. I was a living vampire, so unlike the rest of the vampires of Nosgoth. Alive and able to resist corruption so long as my mind remained pure. But your attempt at kindness to save me from oblivion has brought back by far more than my life.”
This time Raziel spoke, “I’m...sorry...I did not mean to bring this upon you....”
Janos' voice was sincere, honest, his expression turning back to resemble his old self. “Of course you did not mean it. I should have fought better, delayed my own fate and explained everything to you the first time. The one who turned you, even he does not know everything.” Raziel looked up at him, a small spark of hope breeding in his mind, then Janos went back to this consuming darkness and chuckled darkly. “Of course, it is too late for any of that. The prophets predicted a number of destinies to come, all depending on different factors, each ending in a similar manor. For Nosgoth to be saved, it first must be brought down and built back up again anew and peace will thrive once again. I had hoped to not be around when that war came, much less be the cause of it.”
Raziel backed off again, he braced himself as Janos approached him again. “Don’t fear me Raziel. One way or another you will save Nosgoth, help or none. There’s enough of my old self left in me to assure this. Sleep well young one, and when you awaken again, you will be better prepared this time for your destiny.”
Raziel stared at him, wondering what he ment, dropping his guard only slightly. Janos’ arm swung back, his clawed hand balled in a fist, and struck Raziel hard. Raziel fell to the ground, unconscious, but did not fade to the spectral realm. Janos stared at the fallen form of the young wraith.
“I am terribly sorry young one, but this is how it was apparently meant to be.” He pulled from a pocket a bloody red gem, with a silver chain. He had spent his entire time while Raziel was knocked out before preparing it., locking away knowledge in i and magically sealing it in. He held it over Raziel’s fallen blue form, mumbled a few words, and Raziel was sucked into the gem. He then placed the gem around his neck. “When you awaken young one, I promise you’ll you will be ready,” his voice became gentle, fatherly to the gem, “and then finally, there will be peace.”
Janos stared out over land, his expression grim. Fate had something nasty in store for him and he knew it. Something he would have otherwise never have thought once on doing no matter how terrible stories made him out to be. Now, he knew, he was going to make those stories come true, and even top them. Deep inside his former self screamed in pain and agony, knowing what was to come and unable to do anything about it. He closed his eyes, sadly, and stood there for a few minutes. He shook off many of the thoughts that spun though his mind then stalked off. He had his destiny to meet, and he was not going to be unprepared or late.