Fragmented Afterthoughts Chapter Eight:
When Darkness Ensues

Chapter Eight:
When Darkness Ensues

The Master once again roamed the halls, aware of very little in his tremulous mood. His
thoughts were scattered after being informed one of his children had gone
missing again, presumably to the headquarters. Without permission.

There was no way into the keep without going through the main doors, the inhabitants were well
aware. Any other way of getting in was dangerous to one's health.
Electrocution and fire were The Great One's specialties. And he was very, very good with them.
However, he would have been slightly amused had his child chosen to
take that way in, supposing he forgot the restrictions on the keeps' towers an battlements.

The main doors creaked slightly, then burst open with a force hidden behind them. Zae came
striding quickly towards his father, who turne with a hidden, amused
expression on his face. The vampire marched straight up the steps to him, stopped barely an inch
from his face, and swung out huge claws to grasp his fathers' front.

"You bastard," he spat, hissing. "You sent me in to a place wheh' they've got little ta no
protection against us. I don' CARE if tha's the place we're supposed to be goin'
and gettin' rid of, I don' think it's fair!" He shook his Master to emphasize his thoughts, but The
Dark Lord simply remained calm, and sent his son backwards with a flick
of his wrist. Zae toppled backwards over the steps, not having good enough balance to support
him on the narrow ledges. His wings sprung out from his back in surprise,
and when he did regain balance, he glared at his father from under a lowered brow.

"If anyone should be mad," he started, hands behind his back and starting down one step at a
time, "it should be me. You contumaciously went there again, just to kill."
Step. "You realize you could have been caught." Step. "Again." Step. "And in doing so, you also
endangered Mazaki, Columbine, and Darake." Step. "You also could
have killed someone, arousing suspicion once more, when firm suspicion is in your favour to
begin with." Step. "You are not as inconspicuous as you think yourself to
be." Step. "You are not an invincible being, however much you think THAT to be true."

He had reached the bottom, close to his child. Zae stood tall, claws extending further to protect
himself. He realized the small mistake of upsetting his father, which
shouldn't have bothered him as much as it did, yet The Shadowed King came closer to him,
black robes draping over to consume any flesh that should have shown.
Leaning close, he put his face next to his son's, whispering;

"I'm... about... to prove that."

Zae's eyes widened as he took a step back, claws defensively rising against his father. But The
Great One simply turned back around. There was not one good feeling
about this.

"Not very loyal, are you? You certainly haven't proven yourself to be," he said, not moving. The
vampire cocked his head slightly, stepping back into a defenseless
position.

"I am," he retorted somewhat haughtily. "I have been loyal to you, 'Da'. I've followed orders
before. Will you really let one ickle mistake get in the way?" His voice was
now taking a somewhat frightened edge, as he was well aware of what his father could do.

"What ONE?!?" The Hooded Being shrieked, and whirled, his arm reaching out with a psychic
force that once again sent the younger of the two beings reeling
backwards. "ONE mistake I could have forgiven," he started, walking briskly towards where his
son was somewhat dazed from the power. "This You're stupid enough
to get caught, and ONCE is all it takes!" He sent another attack, which the vampire was slightly
prepared to take this time. He braced against it, claws covering his face
in a crossed pattern. Wave after wave of the attacks continued, until the being finally lowered his
arm. Thankful, Zae sighed and dropped to his knees, shaking his head
to clear it. His wings suffered little to no damage, though slightly tattered now, the silken web of
material hurt by the attacks.

"You think I'm through?" The Master questioned innocently, his voice so soothing that Zae was
sure it was a hoax. He thinly smiled, unseen, and further walked to his
child, leaning down and smiling. "I'll tell you this, my child. Vampires are meant to live twice.
You've lived once. This was your last chance. Am I not correct?"

Zae's eyes were shocked. He shuffled backwards, standing in time with his father and looking
horrified. "What are.. "

The Great One tilted his head quizzically, almost comically, and looked at his son. "'What are'
what?"

Zae shook his head firmly, and stood up tall, wings drawn closely to his back. "What are you
trying to say?" he hissed furiously through clenched teeth. The Master's
surprise came not from his sons' boldness to stand, or even the fact that he was still obstinately
defiant, but from the fact that the power within his own child was
growing moreso with each moment.

"What I'm trying to say," he said lazily, "is that if you plan to continue like this, then I do not
wish to keep you."

"You sound as if I'm your pet," Zae spat angrily, literally doing so, at the floor near his father's
feet.

"... Which you are," The Great One said calmly. Obviously, his torrent of rage had passed
quickly. He was now cooling down, and apparently waiting for the rejection of
this calm side from his son. The vampire just shrugged, and started walking the opposite
direction.

"Where do you go when something like this happens?" The Master called after him, laughingly.
The boy was foolish. He would go to the headquarters, as The Shadowed
Being had planned all along, join them, eventually get caught, and die in a foolish manner. It had
all been known from the start.

The vampire hunched his shoulders, turning back around with a wide smile that caused The
Dark Lord to frown instantaneously. He wasn't the child that was so easily
persuaded after death, now, not so grateful for the life that had been renewed, and not as gullible
as before. His grin was razor sharp, and The Great One saw fangs
protrude over his sons' lower lip.

"Where do I go? Oh, I don' know, but I'll tell you this much; I'll be back to kill you some day.
Count on it."

Zae then started a slow walk out the hall, moving slowly with his head facing upwards, towards
the large, luminescant moon. The Master was infuriated, just as he knew
the bo was seeking to make him be. "Zaerenz! Come back here, NOW!" he yelled, not thinking
of anything more impressive to say on such a short notice. This was one
of his most powerful, just getting up and walking out the door after being subtlely humiliated.

Zae continued to walk, boots sounding on the cobblestones long after he had moved out of the
sight of the castle's doors. The Shadowed Being growled within his thin
throat, then roared, throwing himself upon the throne of stone and ripping into it with his
powers. It sliced to one side, then the other, falling to rubble at his feet. He was
immediately calm once more, and briskly strode to one of the side doors leading to a different
chamber.

Upon opening one of the main doors, he heard a rattling of bones and the clatter of them upon
the cobblestones. He became slightly vexed with this discovery; most
likely one of his minions had been listening in on him. He only needed to find the right child at
this point. Mayhap he could appoint whomever was behind the door to go
find the child for him.

He scooted in past the doorway, only to find that Garag was bowed on skeletal hands and
kneecaps on the floor right in back of the door. He helped the skeleton up,
sighing at the light body of the magical creature. The skeleton made no attempt to brush itself
off, but simply stood, staring at his master expectantly.

"Did you listen in on me?" he asked his skeleton minion, who shook it's head, loose dust in the
back of his skull falling to the floor in dissent. Sighing, or making an effort
to do so, The Heart Of Midnight strode past with his skeleton following.

"Uhhhrrrr..." Garag groaned, sounding even more creaky than normal.

"My son just disobeyed me and left," The Master mused, half to himself, half to the responsive
undead. "He's going to get himself killed, the stupid fool." He smirked,
drawn lips pursing then in distaste as he swept through corridors.

Polsara and Kiri suddenly loomed out of the darkness, their scales glittering ominously in the
torchlight. The Great One stopped, paused, looking at them. They were in
their enlarged form, but shrank when they saw him. Slithering out of his way, they hissed and
bowed,one hand crossing to envelop the opposite shoulder.

"Sssire," Polsara began, but stopped short when The Sire stretched out a hand. On it was the
same brown-blue scales belonging to Nahiri, yet the scales were formed
and linked as a glove around his hand, moving all the way up to cover the elbow area as well.
Polsara choked out a strangled cry, backing up so far that his entire body
was nearly flat against the wall. His eyes were wide and terrified, yet Kiri nodded slightly and
slithered to collect his brother and move the opposite way that The Master
was going.

The Shadowed Being nodded with a respectable amount of pleasure at the numb reaction he had
received from one of them. It would be no trouble to replace them if
they did nothing but gape at him, and did not gain required information. He wold simply have to
go to another means of direct spying.

He was now fast approaching the one tower he knew belonged to one specific of his children;
Sehnsucht. The child was a highly trained German vampire, having been
so even before he had gotten to the dead body. The vampire's master had been long since
defeated, and amazingly, the child did not go with him in his death, so instead
came to The Supreme Being. He gladly took the child in as one of his own.

He took the small flight of stairs up to the child, smiling as he did so. Sehnsucht would most
likely be reading now, like a studious child. That was one of the best traits;
the child either was reading and gaining more information on tactics and other such, or was out
and about, helping The Great One. Truly a loyal servant.

The chamber loomed ahead; like most of the seperate rooms' doors, the inscription on the room
read "Morte", or "death". It was a feature he rather liked, and he didn't
bother to knock on the door before clicking down the lock on the gargoyle handle. He was
allowed whenever and wherever he wished.

Sehnsucht was crouching next to a lantern, reading a book and curled up carefully, so as to not
be burned by the spitting liquid. Licking a thumb, she turned a page
before noticing her father stood in the doorway. Snapping to attention and onto her feet, she
saluted. "Yes, Sire."

The Great One smiled. "I need you to go out after Zae. He needs a bit of convincing to stay here
with his father. He doesn't seem to want to, and it's unfair of him to do
so." He put a childlike quality to his tone, which made the young-seeming girl frown in worry.

"You can count on me, " she said smartly, taking up a weapon and growling as she fit it onto her
hand. The iron knuckles did add a nice compliment to her outfit, and she
looked almost normal; a small trenchcoat covered her pale skin, dark grey in colour, nearing
black, while a short shirt rode up on her midsection and baggy pants gave
compliment to her choker.

Ah, yes. Her choker. One of the most deadly weapons; it was a cheap, black, plastic thing, with a
white platic cross on the front. A small Jewish star lay inside of that,
and inside that was a small, indefinitely small needle. The needle held a poinon which was far
more deadly than any others known to the human race, and the girl had
somehow gained enough to restock her supply when she ran out.

The Great Being pointed out the window to her room, smiling under his hood. "He went East,"
he told her, and Sehnsucht obligingly faced her window and clambered out
it, hopping down onto the ledge and looking out into a tree-laden countryside. Her hair blew
softly across her face with the night wind, and she then sprouted wings
rather carelessly, not heeding the pain that The Master knew was always there with
transformation and warping of the body. He smiled after her.

"Bring him back," he said, and shew jumped from the ledge flying out into the night.

Garag shifted beside him, assuring The Shadowed Being that he was still there. He turned,
looking at the skeleton, and said nothing, only nodded, and moved back out the
door. Sehnsucht would find the boy for him. After all, she had found how many others that had
escaped? He had lost count. But never, never had she lost a single one.

* * *

Sensucht stared out into the night after landing. She brushed a small strand of hair from her face,
where it otherwise would have gotten in her eyes. She remembered all
too well cutting that very same hair, so that one side was cropped to her head, with only a few
dozen hanging from that side of the head, while the other side grew long
and reached somewhere on her shoulderblade length. She had done it to prove she would always
be true to her Master; she was completely enthralled with all the
vampires that resided within the stronghold, but most of all Hiyoki, a young man who seemed
too wrapped up in his studies to pay notice to her.

The main reason she was so enthralled was the overwhelming desire to be just like them; what
her Master did not know of her was that she was hardly vampire, more a
succbus than anything, but blood was good enough to satiate her hunger in the night. She needn't
ever tell him. He would still go along prasing her for jobs well done, and
would most definitely never find out, unless one of her good friends lied and told him.

The particular friend of hers who she loved more than anything else and treasured was
Columbine; she wasn't a vampire like the rest, but instead had been given another
chance to lie. The girl was injected with a serum that allowed her to remain an anthropomorphic
what-were-they-again... oh yes. Pokemon. She was able to stay a
rat-like one of them, and the Rocket headquarters had taken her in as just another innocent
denizen, no problems, and no questions asked.

"Zae," she hissed, her accent having mostly dissapeared over all the years she had worked for the
Master; if her count was right, it was somewhere nearing the
twenty-three-twenty-fours. That wasn't bad at all, considering this new domination idea of his
was solely based on the past four or so years.

Rubbing a tense back muscle, she let her wings drop to her sides as she paused over one space in
the forest, where she heard a faint sound of light wind. It was
unnatural, and carried the stench of death on it. She was sure it had to be Zaerenz.

Wasting no time, she followed the downdraft and slunk closer to where she knew he must be,
fanning his wings slightly to keep him under the cover of the trees, yet high
enough to not disturb the brush and therefore lead anyone to him. But Sehnsucht was a bit too
clever to fall for something so easily, especially after reading those
books...

She picked herself up with the strength of her own wings and followed Zae. He was no doubt
close. At once, she found him, beating his wings slowly to keep himself
aloft. He cast slightly nervous glances over his shoulder every so often, but did nothing more. He
seemed relaxed enough.

Sehnsucht picked a time when he had just looked ove rhis shoulder, moving between the
intervals he set and landing with a soft thud onto the sodden earth. At this noise
Zae spun, knocking her against a tree and pinning her there with his large claws.

"Sehn," he muttered, eyes glaring red. "'Da' sent you out, din' he."

Sehnsucht glared back at him, having no need for air, yet still finding it inconvinient to be
pinned to the trunk of a massive tree. She reached up, then slammed down on
his claw with her iron knuckles, continuing to do so until he let her drop wordlessly.

"Yeah, he did," the demoness scowled, tenderly rubbing her pale neck. "He wants you to come
back, and if you don't, I'll have to bring you back by force."

Zae snorted, crossing the hands that were now vaguely human-like over his chest. "I doubt it," he
snarled, sneering so that his sharp teeth shone in the moonlight.
"Nobody kin get ME t'go back there. That bastard's crazier than you."

Sehn made a little exclamation of surprise and annoyance. Here was one of her step-brothers
calling her crazy. She sighed, mocking turning her back in defeat, and
whipped out her weapon. The chain scythe whistled through the air only inches from his face,
and he grunte din surprise, stepping back, arms uncrossing. Sehnsucht
grabbed the wodden handle and let the blade come to rest in her hand comfortably. Glaring at
him, she snarled.

"Take that back. I'm not crazy."

"Like hell you're not!" he exclaimed, looking at the sharp blade of the scythe that had come mere
moments from coming in contact with his face. "You are to own
something like that," he continued, eyeing her weapon with satisfaction, "and I really don' want
'a have to hurt you. You're not th only one with toys."

Sehnsucht smiled nastily, showing off her own razor sharp teeth. "Well then, I suppose you'll just
have to come back, now won't you?"

Zae shook his head in mock pity. "I din' want it t'ever come t'this," he said slowly. "But if I got
t'kill you t'get away, I'll do that. After all. You're dead already, what good
would it do t'hurt you more?" He smiled at her, showing one fang over his lower lip.

Sehnsucht released her frozen position of anger and stood straight, blinking in surprise. She
paused for a moment, then swung at him with the scythe again. "Shut up!"
she raged, glaringly mad at him. He simply dodged this time, making no show of effort as he
stuck his hand sinto his pockets and tilted his head at her. "And stop doing
that!" she hissed, now seething with rage. He was simply avoiding her attacks, not being serious
with her in any way.

He dodged her latest blow with a quick sidestep, and finally shook his head. "Oh, stop," he
murmured, and smacked the scythe out of her hand with a blow from one of
his claws. "I don' know where I'm goin', but I don' want YOU hangin' on my every step." He
smiled once more, and with a little bow, hands back in pockets, turned and
walked in the direction he was already facing.

Sehn was left speechless behind him. She picked up her scythe, looked down at it, then back up
at him. With a growl in the back of her throat, she turned it into a
scream instantly, charging him with the scythe. He turned slightly, then moved to a side and
casually tossed her with a flick of his wrist. She screamed again, diving at
him and hacking.

"DIE, YOU BASTARD!" she screamed. "I'LL BRING YOUR DEAD BODY WITH ME TO
HELL!"

Zae shook his head, and with a cluck of admiration and sympathy, swatted out with his huge
claws and hit her upside the head. She flew back, landing against a tree, and
the bones brittle with death inside her crunched on impact. The back of her skull felt the imprint
of the trunk, and she glared at him as she came to a rest on the forest
floor. Loathing swept through her as she looked for her scythe, not finding it anywhere as Zae
turned once more.

Calmly getting up from her position, she followed him long enough to wait for him to turn
around and smirk, then punched his face with her iron knuckles. His head flew
backwards, and he fell slightly. Triumphantly, she laughed... only to then be swept from her
knees down onto the floor. She landed with a shocked exclamation, and felt
a foot crush her into the soil.

"Stay down there. You belong there."

The foot in her back ground her in solidly, and she felt her upper body go tense with pain. It
suddenly released, and she heard soft crunches to assure the elder vampire
was moving away.

Bastard, she thought silently, clenching the soil with both hands. I'll get you, you bastard...

* * *

The Cold Heart looked to Garag, who peered back at him silently. The Master shrugged
nonchalantly, and stepped back from the window. "Not a bad display of power,"
he mused to his skeletal advisor, who simply followed him.

"Sehnsucht obviously must have failed. I'll have to send another out after that foolish son of
mine." He pursed his lips in distaste. "Malkavia?"

A mist coalesced behind him, the slight figure's head bent down. "Ai."

"Follow Zaerenz. See you bring him back to me without hurting him... too much."

Malkavia stood straight up; her long, gangly features were accented by her jester's outfit, and the
dark eyeshadow around her eyes. The arms twined together, placing
one at her chin and the other wrapped around it, her frown counterbalanced by the dark lipstick
that fell on her pouting coutenance. "Count on me, Boss," she said, and
with a roll of her head, she disappeared back into the mist.

The Dark One had slight more faith in this particular childe; she had never been out and about,
but just her power alone should be enough to overcome the stubborn
vampire-boy.

"Come now," The Great One said to the skeleton, and the rattling, bony body shuffled slowly
after his Master's bidding.

The skeleton had no brain; he thought of hardly anything, and when he did, the effort was so
great that it took him longer than he cared to think for. He had suffered
many years at The Great One's side, serving him as a loyal guard and a careful advisor. It was his
Master who had first removed his lower jawbone, keeping him silent
for the thousands of years he had lived for. However, it took hardly any thought on one thing
though; he wanted revenge...

And it would be against his Master.

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