Hawk wasn’t making any headway in this fight and he knew it, but neither was Nox. They were several yards apart, catching their breath, glaring at each other as they planned their next move. For hours they’d been at it, attacking with all the ferocity and intensity they had within them. If they had been able to use magic, it would have been even worse for both of them. However, Toji made sure that couldn’t happen. He wiped the blood from his mouth, the sweat dripping from the ends of his hair into his eyes and down his body.
On top of trying to find ways to defeat the bastard, he had also been focused on Hero. While that wasn’t out of the ordinary, their focus could easily be divided between each other and the world around them, it felt like this time it was hindering him somehow. He could feel Hero’s frustration at trying to perform a simple task, his pain whenever the energy whips made contact with his body, his annoyance with the little fae girl with the sunny disposition, and his overwhelming concern for him. Hawk had to distance himself, focus on Nox, focus on defeating the demon within him.
He froze, a sudden dawning realization coming over him. The demon within him…
He had heard that phrase spoken countless times but had never paid any attention to it. After all, he was the demon, more powerful than all the rest. But why? What had made him so different? There was no way his rampages and the amount of magic and power he consumed in Hell and during the Battle was the only factor. Was it because of his soul? Did his soul add something extra to the mix?
He took one step toward Nox, an overwhelming rush of anger flooding his core. “What do you know?” he demanded.
Nox shook his head. “No more than you do.”
“Somehow I don’t believe you,” Hawk said sardonically. “Why would I trust a demon?”
Nox took a few steps closer as well. “Why should I trust you? You’re the one that locked me up.”
“Because you don’t deserve to be free,” Hawk snarled. “You deserve nothing good after all you’ve done.”
“All we’ve done,” Nox corrected. “What, you think we’ve been separate this whole time? I’m me and you’re you? Like you were dormant before we found Hero?”
They both stopped, Hawk’s heart beating in his chest as he shook his head. “You did all of that,” he said, trying to deny the inevitable truths that were bound to come out. “You were the one who committed all those sins, killed all those people, became the Blood King.”
Nox threw back his head and laughed. “Don’t be so naive. You can’t pass all the blame on to me and you know it. You were just as much a part of me as I was of you. That’s how this thing works, Hawk. A soul within a body, a body containing a soul, no different than any other human or angel.”
“And that’s what I don’t understand!” Hawk shouted, his anger turning into frustration. “Why? Why, Nox?! Why did this happen to me?”
“How should I know?” Nox yelled, his own desperate frustrations bubbling to the surface. “You think I wanted this? You think I wanted to feel like I didn’t belong? I had everything before you came along!”
Hawk didn’t respond, he couldn’t.
Nox clenched his jaw, his fists shaking at his sides. “Everything was taken from me, I know it.”
“What do you mean by you ‘know it’?”
“I was fucking dead! Killed by my own King. The next thing I know, I’m leading armies, tearing through Divine, becoming more powerful than ever.”
“If that’s the case then—”
“Because I didn’t want it! I wanted to be with her!” His eyes blazed, the markings beginning to glow hot against his skin. “But no,” he growled. “I got stuck with you and was forced to become something I never wanted to be. This is all your fucking fault!”
They ran at each other, Nox swinging wide above Hawk’s head as the soul ducked, coming back with a punch to the jaw that connected. There was a flurry of fists, hands, and elbows, some connecting, some not. However, Hawk could feel his attacks land harder, his movements becoming faster and more fluid. He was finally gaining ground now that all his attention was where it needed to be; locked on Nox.
Hawk swept out with a low kick, Nox leaping in a backward bend, landing on his hands before jumping back to his feet, landing a punch to Hawk’s gut. Hawk skidded back a few steps, digging his nails into the ground to stop himself before launching forward with another attack.
“You can’t blame me when I never even knew what was happening!” Hawk screamed. “I was happy! I was with Hero! He’s all I wanted. We may have stayed in that pocket I made, but we were together. I didn’t want to be torn out, I didn’t want to be with you!”
“Glad to know we agree on something,” Nox laughed, his fists up near his face before he struck out low, aiming for Hawk’s side. Hawk deflected it, his arm turning to grab Nox by the throat and flipping the demon backward over his shoulder and into the ground hard enough to make a dent.
“I should have been able to live a normal life,” Hawk panted, one fist raised as he held Nox down, Nox holding onto Hawk’s wrist. “I should have been able to live as a human with Hero but I was denied that.”
“You think you’re the only one denied something they cared about?” Nox responded, raising his head slightly. “My life was gone, ended, all of it. I wanted to go home, I wanted to be with her, to live in the Fifth Realm. You realize that’s the last memory I have before you came along? Before my King murdered me?!”
“I watched Hero’s smile fade when they took me,” Hawk said, his anger fading, both of them realizing how they had been manipulated and used, combined and forced to become what they never wanted to be. “I saw fear in him for the very first time. I felt our connection break when they stole me and I wanted to die! I wanted to fade away like my mother did!”
His eyes widened, his grip on Nox’s throat relaxing but not releasing. Nox made no move to escape. The story Charles had told him of the star and the god rushed back to him and suddenly those drawings weren’t drawings.
They were memories.
His mother was a star, beautiful and radiant, with a core that spun with the brightest magic. His father was a god, kind and loving to them both. They laughed and danced together, his father swinging him around, teaching him to climb trees and how to revitalize the earth when it became damaged from lightning strikes. He remembered his mother cradling him when he was sad or hurt. He remembered their voices…their smells…their eyes…
Hers were blue like the sky, his green like grass. She had long hair that seemed to flow around her face like water. He had a smooth face and was strong, his red hair like fire when the sunlight hit it just right.
Hawk remembered the day his mother was forced to leave them to return to the stars, how they had all cried and begged her not to go. She had promised to come back someday, that she loved him more than all the stars in the heavens. His father, broken and defeated, lost and lonely without his wife, did the best he could to raise Hawk alone, but in the end he couldn’t do it. He loved his wife more than he loved his son. Hawk had found him face down in the river.
He remembered feeling so alone, so detached from the world around him. Everything he knew and loved was gone. His core, the only thing he had left of his parents, was the only thing keeping his translucent body going; he had nothing left to live for. He remembered creating the Veil, creating his cocoon where he would be safe, and falling into a deep sleep, yet still so very well aware of the emptiness around him.
He remembered his mother finding him. She was able to reach in, contrary to the story, stroke his face, run her fingers through his hair. She wanted to take him away from here, away from the Veil, but his core denied her. He would stay; this was his home now.
He remembered her smile, remembered her words: You were never born to be alone. He remembered how she had taken a small bit of his core and blended it with her own, using magic and energy to create Hero.
He remembered feeling happy and complete for the first time in his life. He had a friend, someone to be with and to love and who would love him forever.
Hawk gulped as he remembered how more pockets, more souls were formed. Time passed and a pocket was formed right next to his and Hero’s, touching theirs. An energy he didn’t know he possessed reached out and surrounded the two souls within it.
Brother, Hawk said of one.
Sister, Hero said of the other.
Family, they said together.
Toji came later, caring for them as each soul around them was taken and placed into human bodies, until all that remained was Hawk and Hero.
He remembered a cold hand wrapping around his neck, dragging him from his pocket. He remembered the fear and confusion between himself and Hero. He remembered the searing pain when their connection was severed.
The first memory he had after that, he was in Hell.
Nox swallowed, searching Hawk’s face. “What are you?”
The truth could not be hidden in the Veil. You can’t lie in the Veil. They knew what they were and what they had been created to be.
“The opposite of you,” Hawk said, his voice hoarse. “I’m the First.”
Nox stared, a final memory from before his death resurfacing. He was in a hall full of corpses, all upper ranks like him. They were all dead, killed by their King who had been overcome by the madness.
No…that wasn’t right. His King didn’t kill them…he did. Nox killed them all on the orders of his King. He did it for her…to save her…She was standing behind the throne, pain in her eyes as their King laughed at him, just before he betrayed him. Just before he killed him. It had been planned that way. Nox had been chosen for what came next. He was…
“The Last,” he whispered. “I’m the Last.”
Clap…Clap…Clap…
They looked up to see a figure slowly approaching them, clapping slowly and rhythmically, a smile on his face. Hawk’s heart skipped a beat, Nox’s breath catching in his throat.
“Very good,” said the figure in the smooth voice that haunted their dreams. “Very, very good. I’m so glad you finally figured it all out.”
Hawk let Nox go, the demon falling back onto his elbows. He sat up straighter, trying not to let his growing hatred and resentment show.
“I didn’t think it would ever happen, to be honest,” the High Devil King chuckled. “You were taking such an awfully long time. Sending that boy to you was a stroke of genius on my part if I do say so myself.”
He stopped a few yards away, his hands folded behind his back as he grinned down at the stunned pair.
Hawk gritted his teeth, a fire lighting in his bright blue eyes. “What the hell are you doing here?”
-*-
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