Power surged through every fiber of his being, picking up in a torrent of swirling ebony energy that flowed violently around him. Like black flames the energy licked upwards, sliding across his flesh seductively in its bind. A true specimen of power stood within the ruins, eyes of blood red that would pierce through the dark sunken eyes of the mask that bore no features of his face to sight. Flesh of ebony, hair of black, and chains were the only things that really dignified him the appearance of the demon he had become, but other than that there was no vast change other than in his collection of energy and the way he looked. Rolling his head backwards, the blood red glowing hues would slide closed, but his arms would open up spanning outwardly in great expanse to come parallel to the ground bellow. No jacket, no clothing other than the simple blackened slacks adorned his body, leaving his physique to the judging eyes of whoever wished to take him on.

Slowly the chains drifted downwards from the exit wounds of his flesh as they slithered through the length of his arm beneath the flesh and downwards towards the ground, clanking all the while in the process. It was a sickening sight to behold, because with each movement of the chains more blood wound pour out from the wounds, only to escape down to the earth bellow tainting the gray shaded blocks beneath his feet. Soon they came to a rest as the first link made contact with the ground, only to be followed by a loud sadistic laughter. Shaking with the new found laughter, Manic’s head would slowly roll forward and refocus his intent gaze upon the ruins in front of him, “Manic, you have become mine, granted me the power I’ve craved and surrendered completely. Such a delicious victory…And with this body the world will crumble…”

Drawing in a deep breath, it would slowly issue out through the nostrils of the bone like mask in the form of smoke, “Cordelia Brooks, Fehade, and anyone else who stands in my way will be crush—“ Faltering with his words, the demon would turn his head from left to right, eyes scanning intently across his surroundings. The scent of another was strong in the air, lingering just at his nostrils, “One of them will join the fray and submit to the abyss! Come, meet your fate, you can’t run, you can’t hide! Or perhaps you’ve come to terms that you won’t be able to run for long, hmm…That you’ve come to accept the fate I offer instead of wondering when it will come. Admirable at best, so come…Come face the real devil of the night.”

Sucking in another deep breath of air, his eyes would slide shut and his teeth would gnash together as a spell swept over his body. Quickly each of his muscles would tense and expand slightly, only to quickly shrink back down to their original size, signaling the increase of strength that raked its way through his body. On top of that another spell would pick up, one that Cordelia had become all too familiar with in their last couple of meetings, but it still wouldn’t help her in the least. In a slow elegant movement, Manic’s body would rock forward to even out his stance, before leaning forward slightly, neck craning as he again absorbed his surroundings, “You have exactly ten seconds before I start blowing this place apart to find you and drag you out here.” Taking a couple of steps forward, Manic’s feet would proceed to dance cautiously over the limbs and bodies of the fallen group that laid around him in mutilated fashion. The blood that had been pooled around the bodies was the only thing that signaled his movement as the light squish of it passing between his toes echoed through the silence.

Originally it had been the scent of blood that had drawn her to the ruins. It was something so enticing that Cordelia found herself unable to resist the need to go and see what had happened, both because of her sadistic streak and her flaw of curiosity. She crept closer and closer to the scene in silence, a swirling feeling of excitement and slight fear in her stomach. The vague sound of laughter reached her ears, causing her eyebrows to furrow. She knew that laugh; the very sound had been etched into her memory for months now. After everything that had occurred between the two, it was a wonder that she hadn’t remembered who the owner of the voice was immediately. Recognition hit her within moments, however, ending the perplexity and causing her eyes to widen and her to gasp involuntarily.

A hand flew over her mouth and she crouched down near to the ground, ducking behind a few pieces of rubble. Panic began to course through her, adrenalin almost causing her to begin shaking. Cordelia clenched her eyes shut and drew in a deep breath, but she was completely unable to develop any thoughts or ideas on what to do. She had crossed paths with the very man she had recently been trying so desperately to avoid and while he was never truly in the right state of mind, he sounded worse than ever before now and it was entirely her fault.

“Manic, you have become mine, granted me the power I’ve craved and surrendered completely. Such a delicious victory…And with this body the world will crumble…”

Oh, God, as if things weren’t worse enough already. Raising a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose, Cordelia exhaled a soft, shaky breath in attempt to keep herself calm. Against Manic as himself she might have stood some sort of a chance to at least reason with him, but with the demon having complete control, what was she supposed to do? He’d gone off the deep end, he’d allowed the demon to take over; but after what she had done it wasn’t like he had even had any more reason to fight it.

As his voice picked up again her hand lowered to the ground at her side and tightened into a fist, trying to decide what to do. Fear shot through her as soon as he seemed to have noticed her and she froze, paralyzed and rational thought becoming impossible once again. Couldn’t run, couldn’t hide… like hell she couldn’t! That was always an option… but… there really wasn’t a point to doing so when it all came down to it. It would only prolong this and he would probably come after her at a time when she wasn’t ready. There was no doubt in her mind that with the demon in control Manic wouldn’t hesitate to just completely blow up Balefire if that was what he had to do to annihilate her.

Besides, too many people were counting on her and if she ran then not only would her life still be in danger, but she was putting Kaiden and Alaina at risk as well. It wasn’t good for anyone for Manic to be like this and she wasn’t about to let those children suffer simply because of her own cowardice, and as Alaina had said, fear would only bring her to an early grave. She had too much respect for him to turn and run, anyway, and she wasn’t about to let that demon control him. If what Shagarez had said was true then she was his only hope.

“… ten seconds…”

With the decision made to stay, no matter how wise or foolish it might have been, Cordelia took another deep breath to gather up her strength. There was no point in being afraid; she knew most of the tricks he had up his sleeve and she had faced him before. The only way to go from now on was forward, having past the point of no return a very long time ago. Cordelia pushed herself off of the ground and brushed herself off, coming into the open finally and forcing herself to act nonchalant at least for the time being. There wasn’t an option to turn away now.

“Oh, don’t tell me so we’re playing this game again,” she said with a sigh, acting as collected as she possibly could. “Haven’t we done this enough? You’re getting so carried away with the whole ‘they’ll be crushed’ stuff. It wasn’t supposed to go this far; you and I both know that. I’m just really sorry you surrendered to the demon… I always thought you were a lot stronger than to submit to that thing.” Cordelia’s voice and eyes softened at the end of her little speech. She lifted an index finger to tap against her chin, feigning contemplation before shrugging her shoulders. “It’s a shame that you’re so desperate to kill me. I really do wish you’d think this through a bit more… but… so be it, go ahead and try. I’d prefer to just get this nonsense over with so I can talk some sense into you before you really hurt yourself.” With that Cordelia opened her arms so that they were mostly parallel to the ground, bent somewhat at the elbow and wrist with her palms turned upward. All right, so maybe she wasn’t approaching this in the smartest way possible, but she hadn’t exactly had time to plan this any other way and there wasn’t much she could do when she would mostly be playing defense. And besides, she wasn’t about to play all her cards at once.

A prominent grinned spread the entire length of his lips, upcurling the corner in sick sadistic fashion; the sheer sight of her sending him to an ecstatic state as his body began to grow antsy in its wait. Finally, it was time to put this wretched woman into the dark sleep that would forever claim her, cast her to the abyss, feed upon her corpse like a fine dined meal, but of course the latter could always change. She didn’t appear too delectable in taste from the build of her body, no less the fact that she was vampiric, but it was always worth a shot he supposed. Slow methodical steps continued to carry his body forward as his blood red eyes set themselves upon her, “Game…Dear, this is reality, this is no longer a game. It was a game long ago, it was a game the last time we met, and it was a game every time I met your sorry ass. Now…Now you’ve brought it to another level, you brought his family into the mix. He openly surrendered to the burning inside of him, the quiet release that I would end his pain. It was you who brought this, you who drove him to bringing forth a true monster and you will face it. So I will grant you the request of an early end, painful it will be.”

Graceful in his movements, Manic’s right arm would lift upwards from his side, spanning out before waving in across the front of his body, the chain trailing precariously behind it, weapons barred to her sight, “On top of you, the girl Alaina had up and disappeared without a trace or a sign of leaving. Not one single time did she return to the forest since we last ran into you, leading him to believe that you also had something to do with that; that or the freak, Moriel. You both have your time coming and it’s very very limited…But enough talk.” It took no more than the end of those words to bring his left arm up and across his slowly, bringing it to the opposite side that the right had set itself in poise. Once he had done that, both of his arms snapped outwards in arc to bring the chains connected to the arms out in wide arc in hopes to wrap and bind her body with the both of them, or one depending on how she moved. The only possible option for her to avoid the attack would to more the less step backwards and hope that she escaped their range. Even with that option she could still come to get hit with them in whip like fashion, but of course she wasn’t the same person he had fought not long ago. Which is why he had a plan should she take the only option she had available to her.

There was no hope of reasoning with him, no hope of freeing the man trapped inside, and no hope of ever righting what she had done to wrong him. Her beliefs, her hopes would be shattered into millions of pieces if that was her only hope of escaping him. Who could reason with an animal, a freak, and a monster of a man? Whether she would avoid the hit or no a deep throated laugh would seethe forth from just beyond the mask, signaling his psychotic state of mind as the blood red lustful eyes set themselves fully upon Cordelia, intent to devour her….

((OoC: hope it's all right ^^ going shopping soonish and I wanted to get it up before we left....))

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Cordelia remained still as Manic began to walk closer to her, a small part of her screaming at her to run until it was silenced just moments later. It was too late now for her to try and run anyway, and even if it wasn’t she had no intentions of leaving him. Gently she bit on her lower lip, doing her best to keep her face stoic when he began to speak. She knew it wasn’t a game; but the whole cat and mouse thing was getting old. “End his pain…?” she repeated in quiet shock. Surely Manic wasn’t stupid enough to believe something like that. “End his pain… right… of course! You’re going to end his pain while crushing anyone who gets in the way? How the hell is that going to help him?! If anything it’s going to make things worse. Perhaps you should leave the helping to the people who actually want to.” Her eyes narrowed. It was doubtful that any of this would matter to this creature, but it mattered to her and the only chance she had was to try and get through to him. The least she could do was try; it was far too early to give up.

His arm lifted and her eyes fixed themselves upon it, her jaw tightening at the sight, muscles working themselves as her teeth grinded against each other. Her legs shook somewhat from how tense the muscles were, getting ready to bolt out of the way should he cast some sort of spell. That wasn’t what he did, however, which caused her to become heavily suspicious and almost relax. A pang of guilt shot at her heart at the mention of Alaina. The girl could have been dead by now, all because she hadn’t gone after her. Terrible scenarios began to play in great detail in her mind’s eye, distracting her until she just barely saw a chain coming at her from the corner of her eye. At that point the ability to think left her and she jumped back, cursing under her breath. Finally she understood what Moriel’s warning of the Kyton and its chains meant, and a part of her wished she had taken it a bit more seriously, even though it probably wouldn’t have helped much anyway against this man. The chain was too fast for her to avoid and slammed against her, nearly knocking her over from its strength. A shout came from her, both from shock and the sudden pain that ran up her side and into her ribs from being hit. She could either continue to back up out of their range and potentially get backed into a corner, or she could try to get away from them entirely.

Deciding to go with the latter option, Cordelia focused on a point behind Manic, casting the spell ‘blink’ to get there. Once there she turned around so that she was facing him, not trusting him at all to keep her back turned. “First of all, whether you’re in the right state of mind or not, you should sure as hell know that I’d never do a thing to hurt that girl.” Her voice trembled as she spoke, doing her best to suppress the pain. She paused, shaking her head. This wasn’t really the time to defend herself. “Second… Manic, really, this isn’t necessary! I don’t want to fight you, not again, not after everything else. Are you even sure this is what you really want? I know it wasn’t your fault last time, and I should have listened, and I’m sorry, for pushing you, for everything! Can’t… can’t we just stop this and be civilized about all of this?” Somewhere deep down she was certain of what his response would be, but regardless she was hoping for the best. She stood no chance against him if she fought, so this was the only thing she could possibly do.

The rattling repercussion of the chain making contact and falling lifelessly to the ground seemed to draw his attention away from his prey for a brief movement. However, it would be all the time it would take for her to vanish from his sight when his eyes returned to stare at the vacant spot where she once stood. So…It seemed she picked up a few new tricks since their last meeting, but he should have guessed that because just like her Manic was growing stronger with the passing of time. With an annoyed heave of a sigh Manic’s form would rise back to an erect stance again, head turning as he had to cast a piercing gaze over his shoulder, “Blink…Teleports the subject to areas of visible space in short moments of time. If you plan to use that against me, you’ll be in for a rude awakening.”

There was a certain lethargy in his movements following the strike against Cordelia, but it was only a façade to more the less distract her. Taking a couple of small steps he would turn to face her fully, his eyes keeping their hold to her own, “You’re naivety amazes me. The last thing I want to do is to help him, I want to drive him deeper and lock him away. I want a life to call my own, a second chance to take this world and crush it. I won’t let you stand in the way, but…Your statement has poised my interest. People who actually want to help, are you suggesting yourself? If I last recalled you’re the cause of this, you’re the reason you’re facing me instead of Manic. You’re paying for that insolence as we stand here face to face; because there’s no way you’re going to escape me. So shut that pretty little mouth of yours before I shut it for you.” A malicious grin up curled the corner of his lips at the mentioning of his statement.

She was only wasting her time…Trying to speak to him was futile; there was nothing that would get him to listen to her, not now not ever. Again his body pushed forward in a slow methodical and jeering walk, chains clanging behind them as they bounced their way along the broken ground bellow him, “Beg, plead, and cry there’s nothing you can do. Even if you got on your hands and knees there would be no hope for you to override what you’ve done. Manic is lost, I am in control here and you will lay your grave with the others. I even have a plot planned out for you in that cemetery for you, considering there’s anything left when I finish with you.” There was a faint chuckle that would issue from behind the mask, “Fool me once…” Just as the words would usher from his lips, Manic would proceed to make his movement by drawing both of his arms off to his right flank prepping them for an upswing with the chains again, “Shame on me. Fool me twice.”

And with the last utterance of a word he would vanish from sight only to reappear off behind her and a bit off to her right flank. Without wasting a moment of time he would throw himself into a clockwise spin which would bring the chains hovering up from the ground forcefully and move out in an arc to the body of Cordelia, intent to cause further damage to the woman, “Shame on you…” Were the only words to utter forth from his mouth just before the chains would reach their target.

Her eyes narrowed in return at the glare he was giving her, listening to his words but casting them aside. “Unfortunately for you, this isn’t about me or any rude awakening I may be in for,” she snapped back. This was about Manic and this demon, and if all went as she hoped, getting rid of that thing for good. She didn’t see a point in continuing with that statement, since it was only the two of them there and if it wasn’t her then it would have to be him. He was smart enough to figure it out, she was sure; and if he wasn’t… well then she wasn’t going to explain.

His voice picked up again once he turned to her, causing her hands to clench into fists. Maybe she was naïve, maybe she wasn’t, but honestly she didn’t really care. If wanting to stop him from locking Manic away as he intended to do was naïve, then dammit, it seemed that she was. “Of course I’m referring to myself, you won’t and it’s not like there’s anyone else here,” she said. Being catty probably wasn’t going to help much, but it was part of her personality and it wasn’t something she could help, especially when she got upset. “I know it’s my fault, I’ve owned up to that and I’m trying to make things right, which is more than you’re doing… at least I’m not the delusional one. What sort of life do you expect to have by taking over someone else’s? You’re nothing more than a parasite when it all comes down to it that’s never going to have its own life, if you can even call ‘crushing the world’ a life. I really doubt you’re strong enough to keep him subdued forever anyway.” She paused for a moment, eyes narrowed before she finally made the choice to say it. “Go ahead, feel free, shut it for me – I’d like to see you try.”

She remained still as he walked toward her, ignoring her instinct to take about three steps backward for every single one he took. Cordelia’s eyes slid to the chains as they clattered against the ground, trying to think of a way that she could use them against him. As hard as she tried however it seemed that she was coming up with nothing… and to top it all off her thoughts were interrupted by him speaking again. Cordelia laughed softly, eyebrows lifted in the slight amusement that statement brought. “You’re awfully cocky for someone who just now, after however many years you’ve been in him, got control. Bit too early to be planning funeral arrangements, don’t you think?” Considering Manic himself was over two hundred she figured the demon had to have been with him for a while before that.

She prepared herself as he lifted his arms, this time ready for whenever he would bring the chains out upon her again. Cordelia stiffened for a moment, completely ready until he disappeared from sight. For a moment she stood there, staring blankly at the spot where he had once been until she figured it out. Of course he wasn’t going to fight fair or even bother to hear her out… she should have seen this coming. Cordelia looked around, catching sight of him behind her but having almost no time to get out of the way.

The chains hit her with a great force, binding around her midsection and keeping her arms strapped down against her sides. She grunted, trying to hold back another shout. Immediately she began to wriggle, trying to get herself out of the chains, despite how utterly futile that was. “Is it really necessary for you to be this difficult?! I said I was sorry, what else am I supposed to do?!” Cordelia stared at him defiantly, not sure what he expected from her. She refused to believe that it was too late… right now; it was just a matter of saying or doing the right thing.

i“Is it really necessary for you to be this difficult?! I said I was sorry, what else am I supposed to do?!”

“You’re supposed to DIE!” The voice hissed in anger while his eyes carefully studied the chains that bound her, that constrained her. Vivid images flashed through his head causing him to falter for a moment into stillness. An image of Manic would appear, chains bound at the wrists and ankles to only come to one single point at the wall behind him. Large thick bars lined the surroundings in front of him, constraining him further in that dark darmned hole of a place and despite his fight the only thing he could do was bleed. Because of the struggling during those times, blood was a constant on his arms and body, bleeding down from the wrists as he continued to grind them against the shackles in valiant effort to escape. It was a rather morbid piece of time and an ever gruesome sight to behold for his family.

Quickly snapping from the reverie, all attention delved back to Cordelia, “There’s no hope, there’s no purpose, there’s nothing I can do! You’ve bound my hands to this fate Cordelia, goddamn you! Let’s just hope the God’s are on your side, because I can’t take this anymore, goddamnit….I CAN’T!” His voice mocked the exact tone of Manic throughout the entirety of his speech, reciting each and every word as I was said earlier in the night. With a grin now prominent upon his face the creature that was Manic slowly began to move forward closing in the distance between the two of them, “And then…” He jeered, “And then he rammed his fist through that wall over there a numerous of times, finally shattering its structure, which I mended when he finally dropped to his knees. All of those words, all of those actions, and this was all your cause. All your fault…Cordelia. Now the man will never realize who his daughter is, will never know the glory of his power, or try and reform his life at least a little bit. I must commemorate you…”

Slowly his head would tilt off to the side when he closed the distance between them to a foot, the chains growing slack with their excess only to pool at the space that separated them. Leaning in towards the woman, he would bring his face down near the side of her neck, before lifting it enough so his mouth was next to her ear. The only thing separating their flesh was the mask that covered his features and then his voice would come in a hiss, “The last words he spoke was that he wouldn’t show mercy on you now. Face it you’ve lost him, you’ve lost this fight, and you’ll lose your life. He won’t be here to pick up the pieces when I shatter you to the point beyond repair. But I will do you one thing since you made it that much easier for me to gain control of him, I will assure you that I will care for your child.” The sick sadistic laughter eked its way through the mask, lingering heavily next to the ear of Cord, taunting her. Rearing back a couple of steps his eyes would resituate upon Cordelia, knowing full well that she wouldn’t take kindly to that.

But before she would be able to act against him both of his hands would move and grasp the chain firmly. And at the sheer moment that he did a red energy would begin to trail down the length of his arms only to then disperse out across the expanse of his hands where he would simply circulate the energy into and out of the metallic chain, heating it. After a short time the metal would grow a searing red hot and it would only begin to spread its way across the length of the chain and soon to the portion that hugged tightly to Cordelia’s body. Just like the flame whip it would burn and sear her flesh and hopefully cause her some excruciating pain unless she had some form of hope to escape it. But her time was running out…She would need to make a move quick to spare herself the torture.

“You’re supposed to DIE!”

Once again she should have expected that response, but even so that didn’t make it sting less. There was no way she was going to allow herself to die, no matter how much he thought that was what he wanted. How could he trust himself when he was like this, when he was in this sort of state? How could he trust himself when this demon was in control? A low, rumbling growl came up from her throat, accompanying the remaining look of defiance, but other than that she said nothing.

The next words stung even more, causing her to swallow a mouthful of guilt only to land in a stomach twisting with anxiety. Cordelia averted her eyes, but as he came closer she had to look down, unable to even face him. This wasn’t normal for her at all and she didn’t want to appear this weak, but what else could she do when every word he said was true? It was all her fault – if she hadn’t found joy in tearing him apart and pushing him away then this never would have happened. Things would have turned out so different had she not found the need to be a complete wretch of a woman and treat him the way she had; even if she had continued to treat him that way there was a line not to cross and she had stomped over that line over and over until she could no longer see it.

“Never…” she repeated, her voice low as the fact began to sink in. It was rejected soon enough however and Cordelia looked up, her eyes dark with rage. “It’s not my fault that he’ll never have any of that! Yes, it’s my fault that this happened and that he was pushed to this now, you don’t have to keep telling me what I already know and rubbing it in my face – but it’s your fault that he’s never going to have the life he should have had! If it wasn’t for you he wouldn’t be the way he was in the first place! You could have tried to help, but no, you didn’t, because you’re a pompous, selfish jerk and you’re an idiot, too! I took responsibility for my part, so when are you going to take yours?! Face it, you’re nothing without him as a host – you’re not as great as you seem to think you are!”

She tensed once the distance was finally closed, stiff to the point where she couldn’t move. Every time he opened his mouth a flood of unnecessarily cruel words came pouring out, but really there was nothing she could do to make him stop. At his last words her eyes widened, a numb feeling coursing throughout her chest. “No…” She hadn’t wanted Kaiden involved in this, she didn’t want this thing around her son, and if anything happened to her there was no one to protect him… no… no, no…!

By the time she was taken out of her thoughts the chains were beginning to heat up. Her eyes fixed themselves upon the chains and again she began to struggle against them, her breathing beginning to become uneven out of fear. Cordelia whimpered until finally the scorching temperature of the chains reached the part that was around her, causing a high pitched scream to come from her throat, her head snapping back as she fell to her knees. Against her better judgment Cordelia continued to try and struggle, the searing bindings tearing deeper into her flesh and making a sickening sizzling sound as she did so. Her skin began to redden and blister, only for those blisters to pop and ooze within moments to be replaced with darker, less healthy skin that was on its way to turning black.

“YOU…!” she screamed out, her head snapping forward now so that she was staring at the ground through a coating of red tears. “You sick son of a… who do you think you are?! Dammit, I did everything I could and I never meant for this, you know I never did! And you still… still… AHHH!” Each intake of air was beginning to hurt too much, the flesh covering her ribs having already been burned into, bones becoming weaker and almost snapping when her lungs expanded the last time she screamed.

Whimpering again, a few tears broke past her eyelids and cascaded down her cheeks, despite how hard she tried to hold them back. “I don’t care… what the hell you do to me…” she said, literally having to force the words out. They came out far more strained than she would have liked, but in her current condition there wasn’t a lot she could do. “… But don’t… you ever DARE go near Kaiden!” She lifted her head just enough to glare at him, as if daring him to say one more word about it. Cordelia couldn’t hold it for very long however until her gaze dropped back to the ground. In another futile attempt Cordelia tried to pull her arms free, only for the skin and part of the muscle to peal back against the chains and get caught between the links; she knew that that had been a possibility but she wasn’t about to let herself sit here and burn to death.

All of her words would fall on deaf ears all except the ones that called him sick. Those were the ones that turned a sick and sadistic grin upon his stoic countenance. “You don’t care…YOU don’t care…?” A reign of laughter followed the statement, thick and heavy in its nature, “Oh I’m aware you don’t care, if you cared you would have avoided this.” And then all emotion faded, all noise and all action would fall silent at her next words. Shades of Antoinette played through his head during his days of bondage, during that horrid day and for that brief moment the red eyes that bore through the darkness of the mask would fade. Shivering in a jerk of motion, the chains would grow limp and slowly retract themselves from around Cordelia only to drop to the ground in haphazard manner, “Cordelia…” The voice was soft and faint. Slowly his head would lower, “Cordelia…” The voice seemed to grow a bit more gusto to it as his head would once again rise, the eyes still shrouded in the blackness of the mask, “You idiot, I told you to stay the hell away from me! Get lost, leave me, run…” Changing in octaves his voice would go from strong and deep to the faint and soft it was once it started up and then…Then the blood red eyes would flare up again.

“You’re finished…A sitting duck waiting to be plucked, there’s no running, no fleeing, no mercy…” The words were like venom, sharp to the tongue and even sharper to the ears that beheld them, “Besides if you run…I’ll find you and your child too, your best bet is to stay and accept your punishment.” In a slow sickening fashion the chains would slither back to their owner only to suck themselves into the gaping wound in the flesh of his forearm, the sweet sickening sound of the blood ridden flesh and muscle running against the links echoed out into the night air. Completely helpless was the woman Cordelia, utterly at the mercy of the devil that stood before her. Time was at his side now, there was no bit of offense that she could offer, not with her arms in the state they were.

Deciding to play this out a bit and enjoy it, Manic would pick up in a slow methodical pace as he moved towards her. It was only a matter of a couple of steps before he closed the distance to a matter of three feet and it was at that point when movement sparked up in sharp precise fashion. Violently his right leg jerked up, bending at the knee to bring it out in an upwards and outer arc to the jawline of Cordelia. But the second he had even begun the movement and action, a spell known as Stoneskin would spread a thick layer of rock across the knee to harden the blow. With the culmination of the spell and the Draconic Might, the damage that would be done would be insurmountable if she couldn’t get out of the path in time, but giving her kneeling nature the odds were slim.

By the time he started speaking Cordelia could barely hear the words, partly because she wasn’t listening but mostly because she was in too much pain to pay attention to anything else. The feel of the chains loosening around her caused her gaze to shift to them, trying to concentrate on the metal and not on her burned flesh. As they slipped to the ground and away from her, her eyes widened somewhat; what was the sudden change of heart about? Cordelia tried to lift her head to look at him again, only to find herself completely unable to do so. It wasn’t her neck that had been injured, but even so the pain from the burning resonated throughout her entire body and refused to let up.

Hope was restored to her, at least for the moment, when he began to speak again. Had this situation not been so dire, and had the words he said not been ones telling her to get out of there, then she might have actually smiled. Leave, run… how could he expect her to do that when she was already in this state? Even if she was capable of leaving she wouldn’t have, not now that she knew that he was still there deep down. No matter what the demon said about it being impossible it had just been disproven and now that she was completely sure of that there was no way she was going to abandon him and allow him to be controlled. “I can’t ju–”

But he was gone just as soon as he had appeared, causing her words to falter. The demon was back, spewing more and more words of malice. Perhaps from the demon there would be none of that, but it seemed that things were a little bit different with the actual Manic, no matter how angry with her he may or may not have been. Again he mentioned Kaiden, causing a deep, growling sound to emit forth from her throat. “I’m not running… but I’m sure as hell not going to let you hurt him, take anymore punishment as you put it, or let you do this any longer either. Don’t worry, I won’t be leaving until you’re good and finished with….” Perhaps it was foolish to be saying that sort of thing since she couldn’t do anything with the immensely painful, detrimental burns she had just received, but she would figure out something… hopefully.

His footsteps drew closer and Cordelia quite literally forced herself to look up a couple of inches, not wanting to be caught off guard with whatever he did. Catching sight of his leg moving toward her, her mind scrambled for a way to protect herself, acting before she even realized that she had done so. Despite the shooting pain that the action caused, her arms shot up to take the hit, right arm crossed behind the left. His knee collided with her forearm, knocking her a foot or two back and falling onto her side with a groan, the wind knocked out of her as well. From the second she hit the ground there her left arm felt numb, to the point where it almost felt like it wasn’t there and her right arm was quite the same. Cordelia’s eyes clenched shut for a few moments until she worked up the courage to actually look, glad to see that her arms were actually still there after all they had just been through in such a short time. Trying to move then however was impossible, as was trying to get herself into a sitting position. She whimpered softly, lifting her head just enough to look at him.

“Are you satisfied yet?” she said, her voice weak and breaking, but she had felt the need to at least say something.

Gently lowering his leg back to the ground, a malicious grin grossed his slender lips as he peered down at her helpless body, admiring his handy work first hand, “I’ll never be satisfied; blood, glory, and salvation will be my calling before the night is through. I will redeem Manic’s honor by eliminating the only flaw he has, you.” The eyes narrowed at the mention of her before they quickly shot off to his right flank but before he could act against the new appearance of Alaina, the child would be at his arm pinning it against his side the best she could. “What the hell do you think you’re doing you little wretch, be gone with you!” And with that Manic thrust his arm up and against the child easily tossing her to the side and upon the ground. Adverting his gaze quickly back to Cordelia, one of the thick chains would emerge again this time pouring out through the hole in his right arm and snaking down to the ground.

This would be the end; this would be the last card that would bring his hand to a full house against this woman. The chips were down and the woman had moved all in with what little remained and he would take it all, ever last bit…With complete fluidity in his movements, Manic would bring his arm sharply off to his flank, before bringing it sharply forward the chain setting a course in aim at Cordelia’s neck; downward in its arc from the right.

There wasn’t a point trying to reason with him, there was absolutely no point! Rising up to her feet she would proceed to dust herself off a deep scowl set upon her face. Why the hell did he have to be like this, why did he have to do this…It wasn’t needed it just wasn’t needed and it was honestly beginning to piss her off. The blatant way he pushed her aside, the disregard he held towards her, and the way he was hurting Cordelia. It was just too much, she wasn’t about to lose him again and she would do everything she needed to prevent that. Everything…The sheer thought of the word darkened her demeanor to one of anger as her head tilted forward. Waves of platinum hair cascaded down over her shoulders, sliding in place to create a veil that would shroud her features. How could he…How could THAT do this to her…She would get her father back…

Releasing a deep throated growl, Alaina’s head would rock backwards and her hair would slide back to its original position to expose her newly altered features and the same blood red eyes that her Father wielded. The only thing that separated the two of them was the fact that she had control; she could manipulate and maintain her same rational thought where Manic simply succumbed…It wasn’t that he was weaker, just more so that he was so literally phucked in the mind.

Drawing in a deep breath of air, Alaina would slowly push forward towards the gap that separated both Cordelia and Manic, intent to put herself back in the fray of this all. A new determination bound her to this choice and with the new inspired strength that rose up within her, there was nothing but complete focus, fear wasn’t an option now. And…Then her chance presented itself. The sheer second that Manic withdrew the chain and went to whip it again; Alaina would pick up in a swift run that threw herself right in front of Cordelia. Turning the second she was in front of the woman, her arm would snake up to bring itself to vertical position in front of herself, bent at the elbow. Curling her digits into a tightly woven fist, she made certain that all the muscles in her arm were brought to taut positioning before dropping the rest her body back and low to avoid the oncoming chain. With only the arm in the path of the chain, it would sling itself around it, starting near the wrist and continuing till it fell loosely by her elbow.

Once the chain faltered its movements, Alaina would rock back up to an erect stance where she would then move her arm to grasp the thick chain that bound to her arm. Holding onto it tightly, she would make sure that Manic wouldn’t be able to pull it back without a fight, but before that would happen her eyes would set squarely to his, “Andros Kiety is my Father. Antoinette Kiety is my Mother. My name is Alaina Kiety their only child, proposed dead the day you know all too well. I’m not dead, I’m far from it…But I doubt you’ll believe that so…” Slowly she would begin to move in a counter clockwise fashion, circling around that of Manic hoping to use the chains against him if he would allow it or perhaps spark a bit of action out of him, “I have a couple things that I can do…The first is…” As she continued her movements, her eyes watched Manic cautiously, surprised to find no resistance as she circled around the back of him, the chain already making contact across his torso as she had. At least one stage of her plan was working, but in order to keep it going she needed to make sure there was very little breaks between words and actions. So in one deep intake of breath she started to hum a lullaby that held high and low pitches with a smooth and steady soothing melody.

It took a couple of moments, but Manic finally sparked into a form of movement as his head tilted forward and his muscles tensed to their full expanse, but there was no movement to stop Alaina from continuing, but after a time she would draw to a close on the lullaby. And once she did, the soft tone of her voice would pick up, “Whenever you tucked me to bed, you told me to never be afraid that you would always be there. I remember I said that there was a bad thing in my closet and you told me there wasn’t and if there was there’d be no way you would let it touch me. On top of that…” She would soon falter to a stop as she rounded again around to the front of Manic, the chain having been wrapped one full time around him without resistance. Taking in a deep breath she would position her shoulders squarely to Manic where she would lift a hand up to her neck, unearthing a necklace from beneath the folds of clothing that overlapped it. It was a small locket in the shape of a heart with brightly colored gems lining the outside of it and in one smooth move she would part it into two halves, where she would turn it to his view. A picture of Andros and Antoinette lay on the inner walls of the locket, displaying to Manic that she was truly not lying.

All the while she continued her charade his mind laid into the abyss of utter chaos, thoughts strewn about in disarray and confusion. No longer were the eyes glowing red, but they were no longer visible in the dark holes of the mask that shielded them from sight. Each muscle tensed and untensed in spasmodic fashion the longer he thought about what she said and what he had witnessed through sight and sound. It was too much for him, through all the years he thought he had legitimately killed her but she was here the entire time beneath his very nose and he didn’t know. The thought irritated him, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it because his concerns laid upon the demon that was now dominating his body without repercussion. There was the rising urge to hug her to hold her and comfort her, but there wasn’t anything he could do with the limited control he held. So the best he could do was to simply delay himself from doing something drastic that could hurt her.

“….She loves you…And you’ve hurt her too. LOOK AT HER! She’s a mess and it’s all because of you. She acts the way she does is because she’s afraid like you, afraid to let emotion run her.” She didn’t specify who she was talking about, knowing full well that he would have to know that without the explanation, “I apologize Cordelia, but it needs to be done. Hate me if you will, I don’t care.” In shades of her Father, she would push forward in a slow methodical manner, jeering in nature as she toted the chain along her arm still. Glancing down to it briefly, she would hold it up enough for him to see, “You’ve hurt me. See the blood…Because of your inability to maintain yourself, you’ve hurt me. You’re letting yourself become a monster; you’re hurting people you don’t mean to. You can stop this. What happened in the past is erased by my existence, I’ve proved it false and I will do it until I’m blue in the face. None of what happened is your fault; don’t make it your fault this time! End this now!”

Within the duration of her speech she would find herself standing face to face now with Manic, eyes meeting his own as they stood separated by a mere couple inches. Slow and delicately both of her hands would lift up to his face, where they would slip slightly into the opening of the mask, before pulling it up and off of his head to expose his face to her. Lightly she would place the mask aside, before returning all attention back to her pain stricken Father who for one of the few times of his life found himself upon his knees. The groans of pain and agony echoed through her ears, but to help quell them she would step forward to press her body to his and wrap her arms around him tightly, squeezing him with all the might she could muster with her small frame, “Please…I want this to end.”

Her eyes clenched shut at the sound of the chain exiting through his flesh, knowing what was coming next and most certainly not wanting to see it. There was no chance of being able to get out of this now… she should have tried to get away the moment the chains had bound her, but even so doing that only would have agitated him further. It would have proved to hurt more than help and the game of cat and mouse had to come to an end sometime. She drew in as deep of a breath as she possibly could and waited, but the chain never made contact with her body.

Slowly her eyes fluttered open, fixing themselves upon the form of Alaina, now standing between her and Manic. What did she think she was doing…? It wasn’t safe for her to be anywhere near here! Surely she knew that; surely she wasn’t suicidal enough to try! This was for Cordelia to settle – she couldn’t let Alaina get hurt because she had brought out the inner demon. Panic ran through her as soon as she saw the chain that was wrapped around her arm. She had taken the hit for her… while it was a courageous, honorable, and kind thing to do; it was so incredibly stupid that Cordelia almost wanted to scream. What the hell was she thinking?! Manic wasn’t the man Alaina knew right now – hell, Manic wasn’t Manic right now. She was going to get hurt here and after everything Cordelia had learned, she couldn’t let that happen again. She couldn’t allow either of them face that, not again, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to let Alaina get hurt for another person’s mistakes. Cordelia grunted softly and attempted to bend her arms, wanting to try and stand or at least get herself into a sitting position so that she could get Alaina out of there even though she knew from the last try no such thing would happen. Nevertheless she tried, only again to find it all for naught. There was nothing she could do; there was really nothing she could do but lay there and watch the events unfold and hope that they would be in her favor.

“…My name is Alaina Kiety their only child…”

And finally the truth was out. Finally, finally she had said it and she hadn’t hesitated either! Shocking as it was it was equally relieving and Cordelia allowed her eyes to close, blocking them out at that point. It was probably better that Alaina be the one to deal with him – she was the levelheaded one and knew how to handle him better than Cordelia did. Besides, she firmly believed that Alaina wouldn’t hesitate to do whatever she had to do to get him back, and that was where Cordelia’s main issue laid. She hadn’t tried as hard as she could have, she knew… but even if she had been told before what she had to do, how was she supposed to have really known what was going to happen? She just hoped that Alaina didn’t somehow say the wrong thing and then end up getting them both into more trouble… but that was hardly likely. Things were far from over, but at least with Alaina taking care of this he was less likely to explode and kill anything in his path.

Cordelia remained like that, their words and actions not touching her. She was out of their conversation and hoped to remain that way, at least for a little while. At the mention of the word ‘love’ however she shot back to life, a sort of electricity running from her stomach into her legs and into her shoulders. How could Alaina have said that?! How could she deliberately go against her wish to keep this a secret between the two of them? For a moment she was hurt, especially when Alaina mentioned hating her, but with a sigh she exhaled those feelings. Cordelia waited until Alaina seemed completely finished speaking before she twisted her neck to look at them again, not going to bother with trying to get herself sitting up again.

“I want this to end too…” she said finally, her voice hushed due to weakness. She was silent for a few moments, not sure how to continue or what she was supposed to say. “I’ve wanted this to end for a while now and this had better be the last time. I’m so sick of having to constantly fight you! I don’t want to face that demon again… I don’t want to push you that and I don’t want to be your ‘flaw’, and I don’t want Alaina getting hurt because of me. Don’t think I enjoyed the last meeting, either; it didn’t just hurt you. Oh and by the way, your daughter isn’t very good at keeping secrets. You may want to have a little chat with her about that. But I suppose I should be thanking her, since I never would have told you myself. And I suppose you should be glad she doesn’t seem to be a liar.”

She forced a brief, nervous laugh. “But none of that is important right now; that can all be discussed later when there’s more time. Manic, that demon… that thing has to go and I’m sure you know that just as much as I do and, obviously, you’re the only person who can even do that. I don’t know how you will but dammit I never want to see you like that again, it’s scary as hell. And if you manage do that… well we’re just going to have to handle it one step at a time from there, I’d rather not get into it all right now.” She wasn’t going to get ahead of herself; if he couldn’t even cast it out of him then there was no point in telling him the rest of what she had to do. She wasn’t even sure she would be able to turn him into a vampire with her body burned and broken the way it was, but she was going to have to find a way if he held up his end of the deal.

Every word, every action, and every scent was amplified as he sat in the limbo’d state of suspended animation. No action took upon his body, no movement, no breath; absolutely nothing struck his form to signs of false life that it was seemingly devoid of at the current time. No eyes were seen within the deep sunken darkness that cascaded across them from nearby shadows, no less through the thralls of raven black hair that drifted down over his face due to the bowed nature of his head. And then in one torrent of movement his head would lurch backwards as every muscle flexed and expanded to their full extent, straining against the constraints of the chain. The action would instantly cause Alaina to move backwards wearily as she would watch on as her Father tried over and over again to break the chains that bound his arms by retracting them and then slamming his forearms against them in order to jar them apart.

There visibly appeared to be no give to the chains that bound him, but it didn’t stop him as he slammed his arms against them one last time before rising up from his knees to stand at his full height. Blood red eyes pooled to the surface and would shift themselves down to Alaina before a sick laughter sounded forth, “Valid attempt, but I’m afraid it’s all for naught. So…I think it’s about time to end your misery girl. Now close your eyes. I will grant you the sweet release of death you so richly seek.” Twisting his head to the side in a crazed manner, the chains that had once bound his arms slowly uncoiled themselves and retracted back into his arms where they would remain. Lifting a hand in a slow methodical manner, the palm would flick up to expose itself towards the girl and a red energy would begin to formulate itself into a ball, “Say goodbye Manic.”

A cold dead chill ran through her body at the sight of the hand and the words that would precede it. What could she possibly do against him if he had so richly wished her death? She had no spells, no weapons, absolutely nothing, the best she could do was hope that someone else could help her or that Manic would overcome this. Besides, even if there was something she could do, there was no way she could. Because try as she might, she couldn’t will her legs to move, she couldn’t will herself to run as the fear drove deep down inside of her. Perhaps this was her fate, perhaps this was the way things were meant to be…Brushing the thought from her head she would arch her back and stick out her chest, only to then raise her chin to show him her defiance, that she wasn’t afraid. “Well I guess it looks like Manic Deathstorm, King of King’s and Lord of Lord’s is nothing but a sham. To be controlled by such a weak demon who was never a factor in his life before now. So you plan to kill me..? Do you realize how weak you really are, hiding behind a face that is not yours? Using a power you never gained. Fine…Kill me then, I will accept my death so my Father will awake and take back what’s his.” Lifting her arms off to her sides, she would bring them to a parallel position to the ground before proceeding to hum the lullaby her Mother always had.

Throughout the entirety of her speech the hand would steadily drop to his side, the energy dispersing in a puff of smoke before the hand would clench into a tightly woven fist. What the hell was he doing…There was an enemy here and it wasn’t Cordelia this time, it was himself…Once again the glow of his eyes had left him and they would dance their way down to his hands as they ushered themselves into the line of his sight. Clenching on unclenching his hands, he would turn them slightly in one direction and then the other, studying them intently. They were his hands…His hands that hurt Cordelia, his hands that almost hurt his daughter that almost robbed him of the only things he cared about. They clenched tightly in uprising anger and his head would rock backwards, a deep throated growl escaping his lips. Blood red eyes replaced the once metallic ones and each of his muscles would tense to their full extent. Suddenly a red energy would pick up from around his feet, spiraling upwards around his torso in flame like fashion as each tendril of energy licked across his exposed ebony colored flesh.

Another growl escaped his throat, before turning into a sudden cry of agony. Each of his features twisted, contorted and lengthened when his mouth went agape with cries. The energy grew more violent as it swirled and spiraled around him, reaching a good couple of feet above him before dissipating into the nothingness around him. Out of sheer instinct each of his arms would lift, folding criss-cross over his chest, each hand grasping the opposite shoulder as tightly as it could. Forcing his arms downwards with all the force they could muster, his hands would proceed to grip tighter to their positioning as pain continued to escalate through his body. With the hopes that the pressure of his arms against his chest would help matters, it would only proceed to do nothing more than add strain to his shoulders. Releasing another cry he would drop to his knees finally, body rocking forward merely out of instinct.

Watching carefully, she would wait until he finally dropped back to his knees before deciding to take up any form of action. Taking a couple steps forward, she would position herself straight in between Cordelia and Manic. Just in case anything should happen that was out of the ordinary, but before she could think on the matter any further she had to take a couple of steps back as the energy proceeded to force out of Manic more violently. On top of that, her flesh was greeted with a sudden intense heat that seemed to resonate from that of Manic. Blinking a couple of times, a puzzled look would escape across her face as she continued to pedal backwards in her steps trying to keep herself out of the line of heat so to say.

Again his body rocked backwards, arms parting from his body as they shot off to his sides as one last torrent of energy escaped him and lurched forth towards that of Alaina. In a sigh of exertion Manic would rock forwards again, hands moving out to the ground to catch himself from falling flat on his face. Beads of sweat idly rolled and dripped from the many portions of his body, but what would steal most of the attention was the fact that his skin was changing in appearance. Instead of the charred black nature it had once been, it was soon picking up a color of life to it, but that color would soon darken as countless scars and burn marks littered itself across every inch of his flesh. Labored in his breath, Manic could do nothing more than simply remain as he was as his chest rose and fell heavily, his body shuddering occasionally. It had felt like his entire body rebuilt itself, like it was wiped clean and restructured all over again. It was a pain he had never felt in his life and one he hoped to never feel again.

When the last bit of energy escaped him and came in her direction her body would brace itself as it had hit her and simply disappeared. Opening her eyes in a couple of blinks, she would glance around her for a moment before shrugging it off. Whatever it was, she wasn’t entirely sure and she wasn’t about to care if they were both fine, since that was all that mattered right now. Moving forward she would reach a hand out to touch Manic, only to stop as her hand neared his flesh, feeling the immense heat that still escaped his body. What the hell was wrong with him…? Stepping back her eyes studied him and the markings on his flesh, but her attention would part momentarily and to the rising steam that lifted from his body, “Are you….Okay?” When there was no response from him, she would turn to face Cordelia, “What’s wrong with him, Cordie!? He’s…Something’s wrong!” Her face scrunched up in a frown at the thought.

There was that pounding in her head; it didn’t often come so strongly or without her noticing, but while she had been preoccupied with her thoughts and speaking it had snuck inside and began to take hold. Upon realizing its presence Cordelia tried to quell it; now was not the time and even if it was she was too weak to even get up. She had tried before and found that it failed, and she wasn’t about to waste anymore of what precious little strength she had left. The pounding drowned out their voices and it was eventually the sudden heat that caused her eyes to flutter open. For a moment her vision was blurred, only to refocus moments later on the two of them. Energy rose up around Manic, groans turned into cries and in time he fell to his knees. That uncomfortable warmth emanated from him, reaching beyond Alaina and enveloping Cordelia. It was at that point that she realized entirely that something was off, though as of now she wasn’t quite sure what it was. Her first thought was that it had something to do with the demon; the idea was solidified when the blackness began to disappear from his skin.

Cordelia’s teeth began to grind fervently against each other to the point where her jaw ached. Her eyes closed and she took in a deep breath, pulling the air in forcefully and drawing up what remained of her strength. She wanted more than anything to just lie there and let herself begin to heal, but there was so much more at stake here than her own health. Forcing back a soft cry of pain, Cordelia’s right arm reached out and due to involuntary forces her breathing became ragged. She pressed down against the ground and brought up her knees, wincing and whimpering. Her right arm was broken but it was at least useable despite how much it hurt, unlike her left arm which currently hung limply. Struggling, Cordelia rose to her feet and hunched over somewhat, bent at the midsection with her shoulders bent inward.

It wasn’t good for her to be standing. She shouldn’t have been moving at all, but she had no other choice. Paying no mind to the multiple locks of hair that had fallen across her visage, Cordelia turned to look at Alaina, her eyebrows furrowing somewhat at the child’s words. It took a moment for her to fully hear her and separate the words from the constant, rhythmic beating that persisted in her head. Although she had managed earlier to soften the sound, it was still just as much of a nuisance. Cordelia looked down and hissed, forcing her head to become empty so she could come up with an appropriate response.

“Wrong…?” she began, her voice barely audible and losing most of the force it usually had behind it. Again her eyebrows knit, not fully liking the idea. Her gaze shifted to Manic, eyes fixing upon him and examining him to see if anything was truly wrong. The heat and the fact that he was upon his knees were definitely bad, but would pass in time she was sure. The only thing that was truly different was the fact that the demonic presence was missing; she could feel its absence, predatory instinct telling her that he had returned to a mortal state and he could be fed upon. The plan was working, then….

A faint smile tugged at a single corner of her mouth, only to fade as quickly as it had come. “I don’t think anything’s wrong… aside from the sudden mortality, but that’s a minor, temporary condition that I’ll take care of in a moment. This will ultimately be good for him… he’s better off without that damned demon. Don’t worry, Alaina.” Cordelia met Alaina’s gaze before once again turning her attention to Manic. Taking slow, easy steps, Cordelia made her way over to him, almost stopping as the heat began to intensify and she finally caught sight of the steam rising from his body. The sight caused her to swallow roughly and she was tentative about going any further, but for his sake she pushed forward. He didn’t seem hot enough to burn her, and if he was, well, a few more burns tonight wouldn’t make a difference.

Once finally before him she stared down at him for a few moments. She had caused this all to happen to him… it had been her words and her actions that had pushed him to this point, that had broken, beaten and finally scarred and burned him. She had never once, not even when he fell unconscious the last time, seen him this weak and a part of her truly pitied him. The only good thing she had ever done was help him dispel that demon, but after everything else she had done she wasn’t quite sure that alone atoned; saving his life a second time might not even make up for it. But it was worth a shot….

Dropping to her knees, Cordelia wasted no time. He might have been weak, but she wasn’t quite sure how long that would last. “This may or may not hurt… but it needs to be done,” she said. “I’m not going to allow you to die, not now.” The pounding in her head that she had succeeded for the most part in silencing returned with a vengeance and she buried her head in his neck, her right hand flying up to grab his shoulder to keep him steady as she sunk her fangs into his flesh. Warm blood pooled into her mouth, flowed down to her core and gradually began to mend some of the wounds she had received. Once her strength started to return she pulled away from him, closing her eyes and licking any remnant blood from her lips. Cordelia pulled her arm away from him, grimacing as she did so, and sliced her skin open alone the vein with her fangs.

Her own somewhat darker blood began to seep out of the wound and Cordelia lifted her wrist, holding it out close enough for him to take on his own. “You’re going to have to drink it,” she urged, hoping she wasn’t going to have to force it down his throat.

Mortality…The word echoed through her head like a siren. If he was mortal…Then that meant the demon no longer remained, which posed the question of where it had gone to..? Did it go back to where it belonged or did it go elsewhere? And then it hit her like a freight train, the energy and the odd tingling feeling she felt after she had gotten hit with it. So…Did that mean the demon found its home inside of her…? Absentmindedly her hand would move up to her chest where it would place itself flat there while she watched Cordelia carefully. Now wasn’t the time to worry about what may or may have not taken place, now was the time to worry about the more important people.

“So…” The voice was completely labored as his chest continued to heave between each pause of his words, “You will…Damn me.” Faltering again, his head would lift upwards enough to allow himself to gaze at the approaching form of Cordelia, “Do…Do as you want….” And before he knew it, she was at his neck drawing his blood, weakening him further than he had been only moments prior, but he remained steadfast in his position. When she drew back and offered her wound to him, his eyes trailed to it and then to Alaina weakly, “I don’t…Pick this hell….Not for me…For…For…Her.” With that his eyes would slide shut, only to then lean forward slightly to lower his lips across her stained and torn flesh, licking what he could from her before drawing back.

There wasn’t much time that would separate the current from his next fit of pain, but in the mean time his eyes would drift to Alaina, “Alaina!” Sucking in a deep breath and exhaling heavily, he would try to continue in his tone, getting winded as he progressed, “Go gather your things from the woods and wait here in the church. Don’t approach anyone and don’t hesitate to attack when provoked, you possess your father’s strength now, I shouldn’t have to worry, go now!” Sputtering into a fit of coughs, his hand would lift to his chest, rubbing it in an annoyed fashion, “Cordelia…If she doesn’t leave, remove her…” And with that all of his focus shifted towards trying to get himself back to his feet, which would be a task that would take him a matter of moments. Staggering slightly, Manic would push up to an erect state, back arching every once in a while to try and maintain his balance, before his eyes would move again to Alaina, “Three seconds little girl…”
Alaina blinked at Manic, before glancing over to Cordelia. Was he serious and would she really try to remove her if she didn’t listen to Manic…? This totally wasn’t fair, she had just gotten to see him and revealed who she was only to be cast aside again. She wasn’t quite sure what was more frustrating, the fact that Manic was trying to get her to leave, or the fact that he didn’t even say a damned word about what she had told him. In a huff of breath she folded her arms, “FINE! Whatever, I’ll leave; I might or might not be back too!” And with that her arms flailed up into the hair and she was gone in a swift turn and a good couple of strides, disappearing off into the shrouds of the ruins.

Issuing an irritated shrug at Alaina’s little huff, his eyes would slide over to Cordelia, “I must look so pathetic…So disgusting…I don’t want her looking at me like this, let alone you.” Bowing his head, his eyes would slide behind the shifting veil of hair that would cascade around to shield his face from her. Idly each of his hands would lift to his face, fingertips dancing lightly across his singed and burnt features, cringing at every bump and line that his fingers came across, “Absolutely hideous…” Lowering his hands in shaking fashion, his eyes would stare down at them, noticing every burn that lingered across their flesh as well, “A King reduced from glory is no King at all. I’m no longer the God I envisioned…I really hate you for bringing this to my realization, I hope you get your sick satisfaction out of it.”

Continuing his blank gaze down at his hands, they would tighten and ball up into fists and a look of irritation would slip across his features, “I hate this! I hate being like this, I don’t want to look like this. I want to be the way I was…If I have to live like this then I would rather the abyss. I want you to take care of Alaina for me if that choice has to come, because I absolutely refuse to remain this hideous thing I’ve become…” No more than he finished speaking his chest would rise in a big intake of air, while the rest of his body would freeze solid and his eyes would widen. Pain resonated throughout the entirety of his body and it was starting to feel like he was suffocating, due to the refusal of his muscles to release the air from his lungs. Involuntarily his head would jerk backwards in spasmodic fashion as he tried to concentrate himself on quelling the pain and exhaling the breath from his lungs.

For the second time in the night he would fall to his knees, before dropping forward, hands finally moving at the last seconds to the ground in order to catch himself, but it wouldn’t last long as his body crumpled from the sudden weakness. Out of sheer luck he was able to prevent himself from falling completely flat upon his face as left arm had extended in outstretched fashion, his other moving to grasp at his throat, the elbow of that arm the only thing keeping his face from touching the ground. And then stillness took itself upon his body where he would remain for a good period of time until movement instilled itself into him again. Shifting his body in a light groan, both of his hands would move to grasp the loose tiled ground beneath him, before trying to pull himself up onto his elbows and knees.

Pausing in the position, his breath would pick up again, exhaling in ragged and broken fashion. Every muscle in his body ached right down to his very core, but it wasn’t just that had contributed to his current state, but the absence of the blood she had taken and the expulsion of the demon only a matter of time earlier. Groaning, both of his arms would push themselves up and onto his hands where he would remain for the time being. In a broken and shattered string of words he would talk between breaths, “Man…That royally sucks…I’ll have to make sure that never happens again. I was unconscious the last time I had to go through that sort of thing.” Sucking in a deep breath, all of his concentration would reside on using what strength he had in an attempt to push himself up and to his feet. Once there, his steps would fall staggered in the attempt to maintain a balanced state of equilibrium upon his feet, “So…You can officially say you’ve killed Manic Deathstorm. But in doing so…You probably signed the death warrant for anyone and everyone that crosses my path.”

No emotion played upon his face at the end of his comment, more the less the sheer sign of his fatigue and exhaustion, but even despite that he would proceed to take a couple of steps forward, swaying in his steps as he moved towards Cordelia, “I bet you expect a thank you…I bet you expect me to forgive you, I bet you expect a new start between us…Those are expectations I cannot grant, but…” Upon nearing her, both of his hands would move out to grasp her at the shoulders lightly, his eyes sliding shut as he had. Concentrating his energy, it would begin to flow from him and into her, hopefully mending the bones and the severe burns that laid across her flesh, perhaps not completely but it was a lot better than simply leaving them heal on their own. Sure, it probably wasn’t the wisest choice to make given the current state he was in, but then again he hadn’t made a lot of good decisions as of late and that much was apparent. Once the energy finished flowing from his hands, his head would lean forward to place a kiss to her lips before drawing back with a smug grin, “Thanks…So…How do I look?” Taking a step back, his arms would lift off to his sides as if to present himself to her. The sheer feeling of his skin was well enough to tell him that the scars from his burns had left with his changing, but there was much more that was accomplished than merely just that. Each of his features were amplified and honed in with the now paleish white skin that coated his body,

So fragile… Cordelia frowned somewhat at the weakness of his words, their forcedness and how much it seemed to hurt him to speak. After what had happened tonight she couldn’t blame him. Being taken over, only then to force the demon from his body and return to a mortal state, and then to be turned into an immortal being once again…? It was a lot to go through and a lot to ask of him, but it was all completely necessary and perhaps in time he would understand that. Damning him or not, damnation was better than death and if he failed to see that then he was utterly blind.

Manic rose to his feet but Cordelia remained on her knees, turning to look at Alaina. That couldn’t have been the response she wanted, being told to leave, and she almost wanted to yell at him for saying that. She had just told him she was his daughter and he told her to go back to the forest? Cordelia would never understand him, why he did the things he did… hadn’t he longed for his family again? Then why did he shun her…?

The questions that had posed themselves in her mind were given little attention once Alaina walked off in a huff and Manic began to speak again. Cordelia looked up at him from her position on the ground, a frown pulling at her lips at the thought. To look up at people made her feel weak, like she was less than them, and it was that motivation that forced her up off of the ground. She pressed down on the ground with the palm of her right hand and grimaced at the pain that shot up her arm from the action, pausing before quickly bringing herself up to her feet so the pain wouldn’t last as long. Her legs trembled even once she was standing and she exhaled from the effort.

“You’re incredibly vain,” she said once he began to look at his flesh and react that way. “She’s your daughter, if anything she only wants to help and I highly doubt she’d think less of you by seeing you like this. It’s only a few burns. It will heal; don’t obsess, don’t worry. I’ve looked worse in the past and you didn’t hear me complaining… how you look really shouldn’t be your main concern right now though, now should it?” For all the times he had burned her, she had survived and the wounds had mended, even her blindness. The mention of sick satisfaction caused her jaw to tighten and her eyes to avert. “I deserve that, but dammit, surely you realize that wasn’t my purpose here tonight.” There had been a point in time when she had wanted nothing more than for him to just die, and more importantly for him to die at her hand. But he had to have understood that things weren’t the same anymore….

Her eyes widened at the mention of him preferring the abyss to what he currently was. How could he even say that, after what she had just given him how could he be so stubborn as to be willing to waste it?! “I will do no such thing,” she said when asked that she care for Alaina. “Because it’s your place and you will stay on this plane whether you like it or not. She’s waited for you for long enough, you can’t leave her again… I hope to the gods you’re just saying crap because you’re in pain.” Cordelia was trying to remain patient with him, but those words grated against her nerves. She would have said more, but Manic fell to his knees. For a moment worry plagued her, only for her to brush it aside. His body was merely dying; it happened to them all. Cordelia decided it would be best to look away, since he had said before he hadn’t wanted to be seen like that. If, in the end, things truly did come to that… then and only then would she take care of Alaina, but before that could ever happen she would do everything in her power to prevent him from doing such an outrageous thing.

Her eyes narrowed at the mention of signing a death warrant and a single eyebrow lifted. “Frankly, that death warrant was signed long before I did anything,” she said. “Even if I hadn’t turned you, that demon would have killed everyone that was in your path and you know it. So tell me, Manic, would you rather kill because your body is being used by someone and you have no say in it or would you rather have the capability of controlling your actions? Because control is what I’ve just given you, and for a second time I’ve saved your life. It wasn’t about killing you, my want for that died a long time ago!” She paused and sighed, shaking her head. “Granted maybe control will take a while… but nevertheless it’s there and, damning you or not, you know as well as I do it’s better this way. You’ll get used to it. It’s better than being mortal and dying.” Confident that she was right, she allowed herself to relax, trying her best not to be huffy.

He moved toward her then but Cordelia made no effort to retreat or meet him halfway. There was no reason for her to worry now – if he had any intention of hurting her he would have already gotten that message across. Even if he had wanted to, there wasn’t a single thing he could do to her while he was like this. Cordelia felt his words physically and looked down a bit, a sort of numbness going through her when he said he couldn’t grant those expectations. But… but she had apologized! She had saved him from self-destruction, from hurting Alaina, she had done everything she possibly could have… how had it not been enough?

At his touch she looked back up, her previous disappointment dissipating. The energy flowed into her and she winced somewhat as her bones began to set themselves back into place. Feeling returned to her left arm, intense pain at first before sharing the same dull ache as her right arm. Flesh began to mend itself, muscles repaired themselves and skin grew back halfway over the burns she had received. Cordelia knew that it wouldn’t heal entirely, but this was a start and it was much better than remaining as she was and healing on her own. This whole thing was quite familiar: him hurt yet still healing her, her not fighting in his hold. This time she expected what was coming when he leaned toward her and her insides stilled as his lips brushed against hers. It had happened once before but that didn’t take away the novelty of it. The last time she hadn’t known of his feelings and had still been in the process of admitting to herself what she had struggled with for so long; but now she knew and she felt that it was right. Months ago she never would have imagined it would be Manic, but now she was fully sure that this was what she wanted.

A soft smile turned her lips upwards when he backed away and presented himself like that. Cordelia folded her arms, a bit unsatisfied to find that they were stiff but glad that the action didn’t hurt, and laughed quietly. “It really matters that much to you, hmm? So very vain… But, fine, since it obviously does I won’t toy with you and call you ugly. The burns are healing at least and you look tons better than you did before,” she said. “You’ll be back to your Kingly little self soon and then you can go wreak havoc on whoever the hell you want. I think vampirism fits you quite well.” Now it was her turn to give that smug smile and she nodded once in approval.

The widening grin upon his face was only amplified by her words and the sudden thoughts that crossed his mind. Oh how glorious it felt to be finally rid of that demon, like a giant weight had been lifted from his shoulders and carried by another. Which was kind of how it went, ironically enough. Keeping his hands extended off to his sides, his head would rock backwards, “Manic Deathstorm is reborn…Rebuilt into a creature of perfection. I no longer hold the same flaws as I once did…” His words would falter as his body relaxed itself once again, hands drifting to his sides with the exception of his right, which would lift and extend towards her face. Turning his hand palm upwards throughout the extension of his arm, his digits would come to rest with their tips against the soft under belly of her chin, lifting it slightly, “All…Thanks to you.”

After a moment his hand would retract itself back to his side, before taking a step back to reset his stance, “But, I am still bitter that you refused and betrayed me back in Taras with Gharik. If you would have just heard me out and accepted my offer, you could have been at my side long ago and avoided all of this, as an equal. A rare opportunity I don’t offer frequently. But despite that and despite what has gone on between us, I will make my offer again to you Cordelia Brooks. Will you take my side, not just as my woman, but as my equal, and my partner to rein darkness over these lands?” And with that his hand would extend out for her to take, upturning his palm in graceful offering. Patiently he would wait, his eyes glued to hers, absorbing every action and every movement she would make, all the while the tension would build inside of him of what she would choose.

But before an answer could be reached, an arrow sliced through the air, signaling to his ears in faint whistle but it was already too late as it plunged deep into the flesh just a couple inches inward from his left shoulder. All feeling left his arm on an instant and the blow caused him to stagger back a step or two before his eyes lifted towards the child standing upon a ruined wall just off to Cordelia’s right flank, but yet still behind her. Narrowing his eyes in a growl, his body would rock forward in rebuttal only to be stopped again by another arrow that would plunge into the same spot, but this time near his right shoulder. Taking another step back his eyes would narrow again, but there was little time to do much more than that, because from the opposite side of Cordelia, a massive scythe would come careening just inches from the tip of his nose and past him with a whoosh.

Frustration resounded throughout every fiber of his being, only to become apparent mere seconds later in the form of action. Lifting both of his arms in a groan of discomfort, each of his hands would grasp the opposing arrow, only to then jerk forward with his arms, dislodging the arrowheads from his flesh with a sickening gurgled cry of pain. Tonight was not the night to be dealing with an attack like this, especially with the state his body was in, but it couldn’t be helped. Despite the pain, despite what would be inflicted, those who chose to raise arms against him would come to terms with who their Lord was. Shifting his gaze from that of Kaiden, his eyes would fall upon the darkened form of what appeared to be Gharik. The sheer sight of the man baffled him, after everything that went on between them; he thought for certain that he had beaten some sense into him about who his Master was. Maybe he would need to rethink keeping that idiot around.

Without hesitation, Kaiden would knock another arrow up on the drawn bowstring, this time aiming for the thigh of Manic. His intentions weren’t to kill the man, only disable him, there wasn’t going to be a chance for him to hurt her anymore, not with him around and not with the man he recruited at his side. A wry grin crossed his lips, showing one of the fangs that lined his mouth. This man would know what its like to be on the receiving end of his hatred, anger, and whatever the hell else was wrong with him, even if it meant that he had to do it alone. Cordelia was going no where so long as he was still here, so long as he was still drawing breath, there was absolutely no chance that he would lose her after it took so long for him to gain someone like her. Narrowing his eyes, his vision would focus down the shaft of the arrow, lining the shot with trajectory so his shot would land straight and true to its target. In perfect orchestrated fashion, the arrow would fling itself from the bowstring, zinging along its course to that of Manic…

Toggling his gaze from that of Gharik and over to Kaiden, his eyes would watch the boy’s movements intently before placing a spell in his mind. The second that the arrow would launch itself, Manic’s body would vanish only to appear directly behind Kaiden. Wasting no time with the sudden advantage, Manic would spin on the balls of his heels as another bit of energy formulated in the form of wind. Thrusting his hands outwards in extension towards the back of Kaiden, a sudden rush of air would careen into the child sending him sprawling to his stomach, kicking the bow from his hand in the process. Rising from the action, his gaze would move to Cordelia, “Deal with your son before I end up hurting him.” The words were dark and thick with venom as they slipped from his lips. Lifting his attention again, it would shift to Gharik, who seemed to have taken the time to re-aquire his scythe. Slowly he would turn to face the creature, before stepping over the ruined wall and into the wide expanse of area that separated them, “I’m not in a good state of mind, nor am I in a good bodily state, as I’m sure you’re aware. You may think your chances are high to beat me now, but how many times have you thought that and lost? The only difference about this time is that you’ve now signed your death warrant…”

“I signed my death warrant the second I was branded as your slave.” Taking the scythe in hand, he would give it a couple quick spins before bringing it to a vertical position where he would let the handle slide through his fingertips until the blunt end of it came into contact with the ground. “If death is my fate Manic, I openly accept it, this time helping this child defend a person I had once myself despised. You’ve been a monster throughout your entire life and I am the slayer. When it’ll come down to it, one of us will fall, I will have my freedom from you and your tyranny, either way you look at it.” In a casual flow of movements the man would lift his scythe, only to extend his arm and rotate his hand so the top of the scythe pointed towards the boy, “You carelessly cast me aside countless times Manic. You disregarded me as an ally and treated me like a slave. He found me and begged for me, for my strength, saying I was the only chance he had at taking you down. So, here I am Manic, come and get play…As you say.” The words would leave his lips in a slow and dark manner, as he cocked his head to the side in a style that was only akin to Manic.

The moment his grin widened Cordelia bit her lower lip, trying to suppress her own returning grin. She’d broken him repeatedly and in doing so made him something so much stronger and better than what he used to be. Finally though when he credited and touched her, that grin broke through, too strong to be fought back. “You’re welcome,” she said, a sort of light to her eyes that wasn’t usually there. For all the bad she’d done it had worked out in the end… and that was what she had to be grateful for, because by some stroke of luck they hadn’t killed each other and had actually reached this point.

At the mention of Taras and Gharik she cleared her throat nervously, averting her eyes and shifting her weight between her feet. And here she had thought that they were beyond that now. Well, fine, he could still be bitter about that, because she was still bitter about him blinding her. She remained ruffled until he said he would make the offer again and immediately her neck snapped back to look at him, her eyes locking with his before glancing down at his extended hand and looking back up to meet his eyes. That wasn’t just a casual question; that was… that was a lot more than anything and for a moment she almost felt numb, her face blank and her breath catching in her throat. It didn’t sound like a horrible deal at all – after all, this was truly what she wanted. She had made up her mind some time ago, though it had taken her a while to reach this point. If being with him meant reining darkness over the land, then she wouldn’t refuse it, she wouldn’t refuse him. Everything she wanted was right here in front of her. What more was she supposed to ask for?

Confident, Cordelia smirked and lifted her hand to take his and accept the offer, but before she could do that or even say anything he had stepped back. It took her a moment to process what had happened, but once she caught sight of the arrow her eyes widened. “What the hell?!” This was becoming all too predictable. Something always happened, someone always interrupted, and nothing ever went according to plan! A loud, angry growl rose up from the depths of her throat. By the time the scythe flew past she knew who it was – there was only one person she knew in all of Imythess that used the weapon and she wasn’t about to let him ruin this.

Cordelia turned her body fully to face the direction the weapons had come from. Her face was hardened into a look of sheer rage before she saw Kaiden’s form, the sight of him softening her emotions to the point where the anger temporarily melted away. She had been about to shout to him to get out of there when she saw the bow in his hand, causing her eyes to widen. How could he have possibly done this to her…? She expected Gharik to betray, fighting back was all he ever did; but her own son was a completely different story. She couldn’t even believe he had had the nerve to shoot Manic after being so opposed to the idea of hurting people. The boy that had sworn to never hurt another living thing stood there now, shooting incessantly at the man she now loved.

“Deal with your son before I end up hurting him.”

Cordelia’s face hardened again, not very pleased with the course of action Manic had decided to take. Quickly she went to Kaiden’s side, her anger returning bit by bit, although she was just as much bewildered. Standing before him she bit her lip, her hands clenching into fists as she tried to suppress how livid she was growing. “Get up,” she said, bending down and extending her hand to take his own and pull him up. “Get up, get out of the way, go home, go somewhere safe. I can’t have you here.” No matter how hard she tried, a few traces of her rage slipped through in the snappiness of her words. “I don’t know what the hell you were trying to accomplish with this! And even more so, what the hell you were thinking bringing him into this?! Do you somehow think that’s funny?!” Hardly any relief came from yelling at him. If anything she felt worse, since after all, he was her son – but what could he have wanted so badly that he had to shoot Manic and involve Gharik? It hadn’t occurred to Cordelia that he didn’t know her history with that man, but it was too late to take the words back now.

At the sound of Gharik’s voice her head shot up in his direction, eyes narrowed into slits and another low growl rumbling from her throat. As he continued, the pit in her stomach began to overflow with fury, threatening to spill out and absolutely consume her. Cordelia’s eyes locked on Kaiden and she drew in a deep breath, trying to keep herself from absolutely exploding. “Bring him down…? Why…?” she repeated, her voice thick and forced, trembling somewhat as she tried to keep herself in check. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt his feelings before she knew what his reasons were, but after what he had done it was going to take more self-control than Cordelia had to accomplish that. “Of all the people in Imythess you could go to for help, WHY HIM?! He just said himself that he hates me! Do you even understand what he’s done to me?! He’s no better than Manic and yet you requested his help? I can’t… I can’t even believe… I can’t even begin to understand…” Cordelia stopped there, most of her anger toward him morphing into such extreme, intense puzzlement that she didn’t think there was a word to fully explain how it felt. “Please, Kaiden, don’t intervene… I don’t want you to get hurt.” Her voice was softer now and cracked once, and she turned away from him, shaking her head before focusing on Gharik now. She took a few steps away from her son, still staying near him though and not close enough to be attacked.

“I should have killed you when I had the chance to. Then you never would have manipulated my son into thinking you would help in whatever the hell he was trying to do, never would have come back to hurt us again… will you never be satisfied?! Who do you think you are?! So consumed in your hate that you have to use our children… you’re pathetic,” she spat. “You’ll never learn, will you? You’ve been given more opportunities than you deserve to take your life into your own hands, and it seems you never did it. If your life, if your freedom, means so damned much to you then why do you repeatedly put it on the line? You’ve had more than enough chances to take control and to get over it – this was the life you were dealt and you should be glad to have it, worthless as it is. No matter how hard you try to prove it to yourself, Manic will always be better than you and you’ll never have the peace of mind of knowing that you defeated the King of Kings. Death will be your fate… and you will die knowing that you’re nothing but a weak excuse of a being. I hope you had fun while it lasted. You’re no one, absolutely no one and instead of being grateful that he spared your life as long as he did, you stand before him and challenge him. It never worked in the past, so what makes you think it will work now?”

Pausing briefly, she turned back to look at Kaiden, only then to return her gaze to Gharik and shift to Manic. For now, this was between the two of them. Manic could handle that cur of a man by himself, even in this state; he had come back from weak points before. It was doubtful that Gharik had improved at all since the last time they met – if anything he was even whinier than he used to be. If, in the rare chance Manic wound up needing help, she was right there and wouldn’t hesitate to step in, even though she certainly wasn’t at her strongest.

Besides, right now she had to take care of her son. Returning her attention to Kaiden, Cordelia heaved a sigh, somewhat disappointed in herself for what she had said earlier. “God, just tell me what the hell you’re thinking right now,” she said. “What you were thinking to do something like that. That’s all I want to know.” Her voice was softer this time. The least she could do for him was try.

“Cordelia’s right, there’s nothing you can do to me at this point. I’m untouchable to you, in fact…I’ll take you down in three moves, which is all it will take and that’s about all I have left in my tank from everything I’ve endured.” Tilting his head off to the side in match to Gharik’s, a malignant grin would slither across his lips, “Yes, I know…I’m telling you everything and it’s something you could use against me, but try it Gharik. I’d love to see you try and hang with me…We’ll start and end this little charade….Now.” Without wasting a moment, a couple spells placed themselves to his mind in mental uttered incantation, causing his body to disperse and launch just in front of Gharik. Lowering in his stance, his body would rock forward while his clasped together, only to then draw both of his arms backwards and bring them rushing back and down, before coming towards Gharik in a clockwise like swing.

As the actions occurred two spells formulated, Draconic Strength and Stone skin that would immediately spread across his arms and body like scaled armor. From sheer glance, it would appear that Gharik would attempt to block with his scythe, but the sheer force of the blow caused it to jar off to the side and expose his chest towards the uprising arms of Manic. And with a solid clank of metal against stone, the metal of the armor would cave from the blow and the man would lurch backwards, only to sail backwards and through the ruined wall not too far behind him. Dust and dirt kicked up in the air, lingering over the fallen body as Manic righted his stance and began his movement forward to the rubble. Stepping over the broken rocks and fallen debris, Manic would plant his boot down upon the dented portion of the man’s armor, aiming to pin him down as he peered down at him.

“1…2…3…I’ve won. Be thankful I’m sparing your pathetic life again, but I will grant you one thing if you stay away from everyone in association with me. Only one thing…” Leaning forward to put the rest of his weight upon the foot at the chest of the man, an arm would swing down to rest its forearm against the top of his knee in support. The other arm would then drift out to the side of Gharik, hand grasping for the scythe the man had once wielded, before rearing back with the scythe now in his hand, “Under absolutely no circumstance do I want you to come into contact with anyone like Cordelia or that child, or even Alain again or I will obliterate your existence once and for all. You still belong to me, but the offer I lend to you is freedom from your prison whenever I can. But you will heed my call when I ask for it, understand? I think that’s fair enough now…Don’t you think so? If not, I can end you now and free you to the abyss.”

Gharik groaned at the discomfort that his arm now weighed on him as he peered up at Manic, “I suppose I have no choice, but that sounds better than what you allowed me before, you don’t understand what it’s like being trapped in there.”

Manic grinned at Gharik, before lifting his foot from the man’s chest and proceeded to make his way towards that of Cordelia, making sure to take care in stepping over the rubble in the process, “I understand a lot more than you know. It makes you feel like an animal, like a beast, but at the same time it makes you feel untouchable, feared, and revered. Like you’re the sole creature that can damn an entire nation at a whim and that’s why you’re bound. Gharik…Like it or not you and I are alike in ways, perhaps that’s why we see differently, but you should leave before I turn around and still see you here. But first things first….” Slowing to a sudden stop at a distance evenly between Cordelia and Gharik, he would turn slightly. Glancing up at the sky, his eyes would trace trajectories and distances before stepping back, his arm would then rise up behind him, holding the scythe high in his hand. In one smooth jerk of motion his body would lurch forward and his arm would shoot into motion violently. Releasing the scythe at a key point in the movement, it would begin a rapid spin the second it would leave his hand and continue through the air until it was nothing more than a mere speck, before finally disappearing into the night.

“You won’t need that.” The words came on an exhale as his body continued the follow through, before instantly moving back in fluid fashion to its original stance, “Now leave Gharik, and don’t make me regret my decision in trusting you with your freedom.” Lifting a hand, he would brush a couple wayward strands of hair from his face, before turning to Cordelia, “Your little thief stole my bow on top of everything else, don’t overlook that.” Just to verify what he was talking about, his hand would lift to point his index finger at the oddly shaped bow. Unlike ordinary bows, this one held the structure of a mortal skull within its build, which allowed it to hold such command over undead legions.

Kaiden frowned as he looked at her from his current position on the ground. Listening to her yell at him wasn’t something he intended to do tonight, but perhaps his judgment was a little off. But it didn’t matter, she was safe and that’s all that really did matter. So in one smooth movement he would push himself up off the ground, before moving to Cordelia, where he would wrap his arms around her, resting his head against her shoulder. Tightening the hug, his head would further press itself into the crook of her shoulder, not wanting to let her go, especially now even despite her yelling. Sucking in a deep breath he would pull himself from her only to take a couple steps backwards. His eyes would immediately shift to Manic at his words, before bowing his head slightly in shame.

Sighing deeply, Kaiden’s attention lifted to Cordelia again, gnawing lightly at his lower lip all the while, “I spied on you and that girl’s conversation, I heard he would hurt you and so I decided to keep him from doing that. I didn’t know about that other guy, I just happened to stumble across it when I found that bow. I didn’t mean to steal anything or hurt anyone, but I don’t want to lose you, forgive me?” Bowing his head slightly he would wait to see how she would respond.

((OoC: ewww... -wrinkles nose- I'm not so sure how good this is. buuut you know the drill: I couldn't look at it anymore, said 'screw it', and decided it goes up as it is. hope it's okay.))

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Cordelia straightened once Kaiden began to push to his feet, heaving a sigh and averting her eyes from him. She didn’t know what to say, how to feel, how to act; what he had done was so uncharacteristic that she had been completely caught off guard. Her gaze drifted to where the dust and dirt was now kicked up, snorting softly at the fact that it was Manic who remained standing. And Gharik had thought he even stood a chance against him… it was foolish and he had been proved wrong once again. It was a simple fact that Manic was nearly impossible to beat. It had taken more than a few beatings to get that through her head, but she finally had and she was glad to have him as an ally now instead of an enemy.

Shock coursed though her at the unexpected hug, but a warm smile pulled the corners of her mouth up after a moment and she turned her gaze back to him. There was no way she was going to deny him a hug, no matter how angry she might have been. Kaiden was her son, and she wasn’t so terribly mad at him that she didn’t even want him in her presence. Cordelia lifted her arms and wrapped them around him in return, pulling him closer to her and rubbing his back lightly. Even with just that action she knew in her heart that he was forgiven… Kaiden was too sweet, too loveable, too adorable for her to stay irritated with him for long. “Oh, sweetie,” she said, pressing her head against his until he pulled away from her. At that point she drew her arms back and allowed another smile. Of course she still wanted to know why… but she was at least calm enough now to be able to hear him out.

She nodded at one point as he signed, officially feeling extremely guilty. She reached her arm out and touched his shoulder lightly, pulling herself closer to him in another short hug. “Of course you’re forgiven,” she said, kissing the top of his head before moving away again. “You’re always forgiven. I don’t appreciate being spied on… but it was incredibly brave of you to want to help and save me from whatever might have happened and for that I thank you. It didn’t though, so you don’t have to worry.” She paused for a split second. “Just don’t rush to conclusions next time, promise you’ll say something to me first before you make up your mind so quickly. I’d hate for you to get hurt; surely you knew that was a possibility if you tried to save me. If you had gotten hurt or if I had lost you it would have been entirely my fault and I can’t… I can’t have that happen.” She shook her head for emphasis, hoping he would understand.

With that settled, she turned her attention to Manic, deciding she had to address him now. “He just wanted to help me; he didn’t know any of the complications. He won’t do it again… right, Kaiden?” She glanced at the child and nudged him lightly with her elbow, signaling that that was his cue. When she looked back to Manic, her eyes narrowed somewhat to send him a glare. After everything they had been through, he had to understand why it was reasonable for Kaiden to not just sit back anymore. Every time she got hurt, it wasn’t just her that suffered – it wound up affecting him too. Manic would forgive her baby eventually, if not now then later. “He might have stolen your bow and shot you, but it was for a good reason and really, it’s just a bow. The least you can do is try not to make him feel worse by calling him a thief. And I understand you were angry and that you had to defend yourself, but there was no reason to push him.” Perhaps that was a bit over protective, but he had pushed him onto the ground, when that could have very easily been handled differently. Trying to take sides between these two was more difficult than she ever would have imagined. She should have expected it though, considering how differently they all acted and the fact that she cared about both of them too much to remain objective.

“Now, as for Gharik…” Cordelia squinted and looked around, unable to tell if he was still in the vicinity or not. “You let him go again? You do realize he’ll just keep pulling this crap, don’t you? You’re making the same mistake for… what is this now… the third time? I would have thought that by now it won’t change, not with him; it’ll never be good enough. People like him always want more, no matter what you do. What makes you think he’ll do otherwise this time? That pest clearly no longer serves a purpose if he’s so vehement about bringing you down and getting vengeance, you should just kill him already!” She paused and huffed. “But so be it, this time I won’t question your judgment. But I swear, if he ever crosses my path or Kaiden’s, if I so much as ever even lay eyes on him, I will kill him then with my own bare hands and you won’t stop me. I’m warning you now and I’m not joking either – I’m sick of him doing this and you just letting him get away with it!”

Cordelia glanced to Kaiden for just a moment before her gaze shifted to look at the bow. The sight of it brought a sudden realization to her and she nodded once to herself before quickly turning to Manic, shifting her weight between her feet in contemplation. Was it really a good idea to finish this here, especially in front of Kaiden? She knew her son would find out eventually, but was right now, after thinking that Manic would hurt her, a good idea? Cordelia nibbled on the inside of her lower lip, completely uncertain but at the same time knowing it was necessary. “I can’t look at this place any longer… I think we should all leave,” she said to transition into it. “Unless of course you think you need to stay, just in case Alaina comes back here. She did say she may or may not be back, though, so who knows.”

With that she began a slow walk toward him, glancing back at Kaiden once before finally focusing every last bit of her attention on Manic. “By the way…” she dragged out, making sure the three words lasted until she neared him with still a few moments of silence remaining. A single hand lifted to rest her index finger against her chin, head cocked off to the side somewhat, the other hand resting on her hip. Her face was expressionless until her upper lip twitched somewhat, a smile almost breaking her lips apart. The hand that rested against her face lowered and she took her time extending her arm fully, holding her hand palm-up for him to take, fingers splayed and curling inward just a little bit.

“I wholeheartedly accept your offer,” she said softly, her voice scarcely above a whisper to keep this as private as possible. At that point she couldn’t control her muscles anymore and Cordelia gave him a genuine smile. “Although I’m sure you knew I wouldn’t say no.”

“Don’t feed me that bull Cordelia.” For extra emphasis his arm would swing off to his flank in apparent irritation, “I don’t give a damn if you’re his Mother or whatever. I could have done a LOT worse to him than simply push him, just be glad that’s all I did. Now that we’re on the same page, it doesn’t mean you can try and butt heads with me at any point you want, because I can retract that very thing if pushed. You know I’m a vindictive little devil.” In smooth graceful motions his hand would lift up from his side and drift towards his face, where it would push a couple strands of hair from his features and tuck them behind his ear again. And then…Then she brought up Gharik and all expression left his features.

Staring at her with a stone cold gaze, he would proceed to move forward towards her, only to step inches from her. Bending slightly at the knees, he would bring himself level so she wouldn’t need to look up, nor he down. “You have no grounds to question my actions, not when I recall someone just like him standing in front of me. A woman clad in red, smirk prominent upon her face, sword in hand, and with the hopes that she could bring me to my knees. How many times…How many times Cordelia Brooks, have you tried to bring me to my knees? How many times have I spared your life…? Far too many times if you ask me.” Lifting a single digit, Manic would place the tip of it against the tip of the woman’s nose, “If he touches you, if he touches Kaiden. I will do my duty without remorse and put him in his final resting place. I believe he knows his place now, besides his focus isn’t on you…It’s on me. And after his failure with Alaina, his hopes of beating me blew apart long ago. There are only so many times you can shatter a man’s ego before he finally converges along the same path in defeat.”

Sighing at the finish of his speech, his hand would drop and he would rise only to take a couple steps back. A light frown would trace his lips and his gaze would shift up towards the sky for a moment, “Even I was a dog against my will, but once my spirit broke I gave no fight to my captors. Alaina reignited my hope and brought a new light to my past now and I won’t play dog ever again. Not to you, not to Gharik, and certainly not anyone else. But what I’m saying Cordelia…No matter how strong Gharik thinks he is, he’ll realize his place and I felt it in his voice when he challenged me. He held no confidence, it waned the last time he fought me. But you’re right…I think we should leave for the time being, just in case someone else pops their ugly little out as well.” Glancing around momentarily, he would verify that no one else was around them before shifting his attention to the approaching form of Cordelia.

When she spoke softly, he couldn’t help but to gaze past her and to the child who stood there staring at them. Like it or not, this wasn’t something that needed to be made public, when and if it got out then it would play to their advantage more so than against them. The first that would find out was Fehade…There was a bone that needed to be picked with that man, especially after their last confrontation. Fehade would join their side whether he liked it or not. A sadistic grin brought exposure to his pointed fangs that would gleam in the soft glow of the moonlight, “But of course…It was a matter of time before you saw it my way, deary. No one can resist me for long.” And with that he winked at her, before speaking up louder with his tone, “Kaiden, I’ll forgive your little actions if you gather my things for me and carry them. You must know where they are since you seemed to have dug Gharik up and my Bow without issue. And do bring everything…”

The boy nodded his head at the request as he regarded Cordelia momentarily with his eyes, before turning and wandering off to the distant ruins on the outskirts of the broken city in search of the man’s belongings. It was the least he could do to make up and atone for what he did, even if he felt it was right at the time.

Carefully his eyes studied the boy’s departing back, waiting long enough for him to reach the point just out of earshot, “So, you don’t plan to tell him…? I don’t blame you on your choice, but you do realize you can’t keep it a secret forever. He’ll find out like he found out about tonight, kid’s are naturally curious and any secrets you may think you have from them will be discovered like it or not.” Shifting his attention over to Cordelia briefly, his eyes would continue their sweeping course only to then drop down to the slow healing holes in his flesh near the shoulders. Frowning slightly, he would scoff, “Alaina will come back and if she doesn’t, she’ll be fine. She’s my child, she can handle herself, but for now I think I might need to take a rest. I burnt up whatever energy my body had left that I could spend without giving up any normal functions, but the movements of my arms will be limited until these wounds heal. And being what I am now…It may be wise to eat.” Issuing a slight shrug at the thought, Manic would bring his gaze back up to meet hers, “When he gets back with my things, I’ll figure something out where we can leave him at your place and take care of ourselves. How’s that sound?”

Cordelia rolled her eyes. That was bound to happen. He couldn’t just respect what she told him, couldn’t just shut up for a few minutes; he was impossible and she shouldn’t have expected anything else from him. After everything tonight arguing wasn’t something she felt like doing, but something had to at least be said. “Don’t even lay a finger on him again. I’m just as vindictive as you are, you know that.” Her tone was flat, and although there was plenty more she could have said, she decided to keep it simple. Cordelia really doubted that he would ever take back his offer, not when it had taken them this long to come this far. It was an idle threat in her opinion; they both knew how the other acted and just because they were on the same page, as he had put it, she wasn’t going to stop being who she was and she was certain he had to have known that before even getting involved in this.

Her eyes narrowed when he came so close to her, her jaw clenching defiantly. She wasn’t about to shrink back or look away from him; she had no reason to, she wasn’t that weak and she wasn’t afraid of him. Cordelia opened her mouth to speak when he stopped, only to be cut off by the finger that moved to rest against her nose. Her mouth closed and her eyebrows lifted, moving her eyes to get a look at the finger as best she could. It wasn’t that she minded it – by now his touch didn’t bother her – but she had wanted to retaliate and he had cut her off before she could even start. A sigh passed through her nostrils and she moved her eyes to meet his again, about ready to roll her eyes again but refraining from doing so, for the time being at least.

Finally he stopped talking and moved his hand away from her. “First of all, I wasn’t questioning you, I was disagreeing with your actions. There is a difference!” She paused momentarily for emphasis and to let the words sink in. “And thank you so much for sparing my life so many times. You’re just a regular prince charming, aren’t you, saving the damsel in distress? Give me a break. I’ve saved your life too probably more than I should have, and that makes us even. I wasn’t talking about what happened that day anyway, I don’t see why you felt the need to bring it up.” Granted, she had done a bit more than saving him when she had gotten rid of the demon and turning him into a vampire, but she would save the weight of that action for another time when it mattered more.

His speech had calmed her at least somewhat though. More often than not, Manic kept his word and if he said that the next time would be the last then she trusted him to be telling the truth. The only thing that concerned her was the idea of the next time being too late. Even if Gharik had been broken down multiple times now, the future wasn’t entirely predictable. Besides, how many times had they broken each other? Neither one of them were the way Gharik was. “I don’t expect you to play dog to me,” she said gently. “But don’t expect me to either.”

At his words and his wink she rolled her eyes playfully, almost laughing but refraining from doing so. He was far to conceited for his own good, and although she would have said that, there really wasn’t a point since he already knew it. However when he told Kaiden to go get his things she growled lightly, shifting her weight between her feet and poking her lower lip out. “Last time I checked my son wasn’t your slave,” she grumbled almost inaudibly, turning somewhat to watch Kaiden walk away.

A frown crossed her features once Manic spoke. Raking her left hand through her hair, she looked down somewhat before raising her gaze to his again. “I’ll tell him when the time is right. But tonight… tonight would be too much too soon, I can’t do that to him. I can’t have him going from wanting to save me from you and thinking you’ll ruin everything for us to knowing that he doesn’t need to worry about that anymore. He knows how I’ve hated you, how I’ve despised you for what you’ve done to me, and more importantly he knows everything you’ve done; and what’s happened hasn’t only effected me but him as well. It would just confuse him, frustrate him, maybe anger him and make him feel betrayed, I don’t know – I’m all he has and I don’t want him thinking I’m being an idiot for loving you, of all people. And hell, maybe I am,” she paused, chuckling for a few moments, “but he’ll find out in time. I won’t keep it a secret that we are no longer on violent terms, that will be as much as a relief to him as it is to me… but he needn’t know any of the other details. I just want him to be able to adjust and get used to things. He’s been through enough.”

“When he gets back with my things, I’ll figure something out where we can leave him at your place and take care of ourselves. How’s that sound?”

Cordelia nodded at his suggestion, figuring it was a good enough idea. It was probably best for Kaiden to stay home instead of coming along, since she doubted Manic would have as much of a problem with killing as he did, plus the fact that there was really no need for three people to go along. “Sounds lovely,” she said. “But don’t worry about figuring something out. If we devise some sort of lie or scheme it’ll just make things more suspicious, so I’ll just be honest with him and tell him to stay put. I’d rather he not tag along, especially if we’re unaware of it.” She shrugged her shoulders, biting her lip again before speaking. “But talking about Alaina… I have to say, I really am surprised you’re not making a bigger deal out of the fact that she’s your daughter. After everything, I mean… well, I’m sure you know what I mean.” Cordelia clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, unable to articulately express her thoughts. The question was all that really mattered though, not an explanation of herself.