Digimon Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Tales of the Darke Blade ❯ Prologue

Tales of the Darkeblade
By Archangel Bloodraven

I guess the only place to start is from the top. I'm Archangel Bloodraven, Lord of Bloodraven Keep, Fan Fiction Author of some renown, and most recently, Chosen Wielder of the Darkeblade.

Some resume huh?

Now when I say that I was chosen, you probably think that the last wielder like turned up on my doorstep dead and I got the job. Nope. It started innocently enough. We had just moved into the new keep, and decided to have pizza. Of course finding a place that delivers to an alternate dimension... That gets complicated.

Guess who got nominated for retrieval?

You guessed it.

Me.

Let me contain my boundless joy.

I'm walking back to the alley where I had opened a portal (gotta love dem author powers!) when this blue sedan whips around the corner spraying machine gun fire! I tried to dive for cover but the bullets threw me back through a plate glass window. As the car tore off into the night I gathered up the pizzas and slipped through a portal as the police sirens drew closer.

I made it back to the forest surrounding the Keep and limped back to the main gate. "Dark Raven." I mumbled. The gates recognized me and swung open on their well oiled hinges as the surrounding energy shield powered down. Someone must have sensed something wrong because Van and Hitomi supported me as Cupid took the food.

"Omni! Prima! Arch's been hurt!" She shouted. In a shot the two angels were at my side.

"Looks pretty bad, bro." Prima said glowing with healing energy.

"Looks like someone decided to turn him into Swiss cheese." Omni said laying his hands on my stomach as Prima took my chest. A moment later the healing energy ripped through me leaving me writhing in pain, but on the whole... well, whole.

Then I blacked out.

***

I came to in my master suite. Ken was sitting by my bedside eating a slice of pizza. "I see you're awake."

"How long..."

"A couple of hours. Omni and Prima are so drained they reverted to their zero one forms. They'll probably be out until morning. What's that thing on your arm?" He asked pointing to the silver and onyx band on my wrist.

"That's odd. I wasn't wearing that this morning." I closed my eyes and thought back. "I think the store I crashed into was some kind of antique jewelers. I guess it got attached to me there." I tugged at it but it refused to come off. "Literally."

"It's dark." Osirus whispered from the shadows. "I fear it."

That scared me. Osirus is my persona of darkness, and anything that's dark enough to scare him has to be serious.

"Hold still." Ken said producing a digital camera and snapping a picture. "I'll make some inquiries on the net."

"How?"

"You can take the destined out of the kaizer, but you can't take the kaizer out of the destined." He said smiling. "Now go get some food, or the gang will eat it all."

I went down to the dining hall and glanced around.

"Writer on deck!" Chibi Archangel called.

"At ease." I laughed lightly as the gang started to rise out their chairs. As they relaxed in their chairs I saw more than one of muses look as though they were about to ask about what happened, so I gave an abbreviated telling of how I came to collapse on my own doorstep.

"Brutal." Lita said.

"Did you get a look at the plates?" Hotaru asked.

I shook my head. "No plates to look at, and the more I think about it the less it seems like an accident."

"Why would someone want to off you?" Gohan asked thoughtfully.

"I don't know." I said adjusting my shirt to cover the bracelet that had become a part of me. "But God have mercy on their soul, because I won't." With that I turned and left the hall to check on TK and Kari.

What's come over me? I thought as I mounted the circular stairs. I just implied that I intend to hurt- no kill- no... obliterate whoever did this to me. That isn't like me at all, and it scares me.

It scares me a lot.

I walked into the room that TK and Kari shared since they came to me as my first muses. The pair was practically married long before I gave them their angelic forms of Omni and Prima from Defender's Keep. They were now in their forms from zero one, the perfectly adorable little eight year olds. Little tykes kicked off their sheets again. I smiled as I gently drew the covers toward them. The grin faded as the two sleepers shied away from me. I paused frowning as I pulled the satin sheet up and backed away. They had been fine when I came in but now they were sweating bullets.

"Computer lower the temperature by five degrees." I commanded as I spun and stalked out.

***

Midnight found me sitting in the forest as a full moon flittered from behind the clouds. I was meditating with my sword, trying to balance the conflicting forces within myself. It wasn't working.

A scream echoed through the house. Normally I'd have flown back as fast as I could, but somehow, I knew I couldn't do that.

"TK and Kari had a nightmare." Trunks said as he landed behind me.

"Something about a dark monster coming to destroy them." Gohan said. "Pretty strange huh?"

"Now is not the time guys." I snarled gripping my sword tighter.

"Now is the perfect time." Trunks snapped clamping a hand on my shoulder.

Moving with a speed I didn't even guess I had, I brought my sword up hard and fast with my left hand as I shoved Trunks away hard with my right. Lucky I did too. My sword whistled through the spot where his hand had been a heartbeat - no, a reflex before. My sword settled at his neck only to be stopped by his own as Gohan drew his.

"Not now." I hissed quietly. A moment later my energy wings blossomed around me and unfurled as I shot into the air. My wings usually matched my moods and even in my darkest times, they never went farther than a dark gray with pale red streaks, but now as I flew blindly away to some distant corner of my world, I was borne on ebony wings with violently swirling crimson storms.

***

I stood out on a cliff as the sun crept slowly over the horizon. I was changing into something so different I didn't recognize myself and that scared me. I was shocked out of my brooding by the chirp of my communicator.

"Archangel."

"Arch, it's Ken. There's an e-mail from someone who claims to know what that thing on your wrist is. He says he wants to meet you in the Matrix at six thirty."

"I'm on my way." I forced back my elation at finally finding some answers and forced my concentration and consciousness into a single point at the tip of my sword. With deliberate care and patience I drew the blade around in a circle cutting a portal into space time, then stepped through into the great hall, the portal dwindling to a dot behind me. "I'm going to my office. Disturb me at your own peril." With than Ken scurried in behind me as I slammed the door.

"Arch, you're starting to get ..."

"I know Ken. I don't want to be this way. It scares me." I said climbing into the chair. "Log me in." I felt a sharp pain and then a blurring rush. When my eyes cleared I was in a warehouse with a ringing telephone. "I'm in."

"I'm monitoring you from this end." Ken said. "Give me a ring and I'll pull you out."

"Right." I said hanging up. A moment later my cell phone rang. "Hello."

"Hello Blade Wielder. My name is Thanatos, and I'm waiting for you at the cafe on Seventh and Park. Watch for agents." Before I could respond, the line went dead.

"Ken."

"One city map coming up." He said as the knowledge slammed into my brain.

"Thanks." I said. "I'll be in touch."

It took me twenty minutes to reach the restaurant, eternally cautious. As I walked in the door I spoke to the cashier who directed me back to a corner boot where an elderly man with platinum blonde hair sat. I placed one hand on his shoulder as the other held the gun under my coat close to his ribs. "Are you Thanatos?"

"Of course. Sit and I will answer your questions."

"What is this thing?" I snapped pulling my sleeve up to reveal my bracelet.

"The Darke Blade." He said carelessly. Great. As though that explained everything.

"Why me?"

"The Darke Blade is a living author weapon, drawn to the dark Fanfic author of it's choice."

"Whoa, hold the phone." I exclaimed. "This is all wrong. I'm not dark, or at least I wasn't until this thing started screwing with my soul."

"Oh? Then what of Who Will Pray For Me?"

"Depression."

"Fatal Jealousy?"

"Reader request."

"Defender's Keep?"

"Because I felt like it. Look I'm not here to defend my work. I've had dark moments, but that's all they are. Moments. Now what am I supposed to do with this thing?"

Thanatos was about to answer when the approaching waitress changed into an agent and fired three rounds into his chest. With the same mind numbing speed I had exhibited before I drew and emptied a clip into the agent at close range, not an easy task. I turned as the body reverted to that of the waitress, and knelt beside Thanatos.

"Ironic." He wheezed. "Death comes to Death."

"Thanatos, Greek for death. Of course. What else can you tell me?"

"The Blade is testing you. When you triumph, She will protect you until such time as she chooses another." He coughed, fading fast. "The blade is a weapon of image..." With that, he expired.

Damn. Nothing's getting any clearer. I thought as the diner began swarming with agents. I shot out the picture window before jumping to grab the ceiling fan, which then whipped me over the crowd and out the window.

"Ken!"

"Pay phone at the corner. Turn right and haul ass."

Short and to the point. Thank you Ken. I though running full out. In a matter of seconds I cleared the block and almost overshot the ringing phone, which I yanked off the cradle and raised to my ear vanishing as the agents reduced the phone booth to Swiss cheese.

***

"So let me get this straight," Ken said grabbing the scotch bottle from me. "This Thanatos tells you that that thing is some kind of living author weapon, that it chose you and you have to face its test."

"Her." I said grabbing the bottle back and taking a long swig before replacing it in the bar.

"Excuse me?"

"Her, not it." I said. "I also believe that she's been tipping my inner balance of light and darkness."

"I thought I was your darkness." Osirus said plaintively from somewhere in the room.

"You are, 'Si. But even you have some good in there." Ken said. "Even as the Kaizer I had a speck of good in me. An infinitesimally small and impossible to locate speck that was never conclusively proven to exist, but a speck none the less."

"It's all about balance." I said. "My balance was mostly light until this witch's blade got a hold of me." I trailed off with a kind of glassy eyed look as my synapses began firing rapidly.

"Arch, you're scaring me." Ken said as I created a brainstorm- literally!

"Sorry Ken," I sputtered banishing the cloud with a wave of my hand as I shook the water from my hair. "but I just flashed on who might be able to help me."

***

Hey Pez!

"Archangel! What the hell are you doing here?" Detective Sara Pezzini exclaimed.

Shh. I'm not fully in this dimension yet. I have to talk to you though. When's your shift end?

In about twenty minutes. Meet me in the park. I'll find you.

***

I phased into the dimension and stepped from behind a bush to sit on a bench. Despite the six or seven ordinary looking people strolling around, I couldn't shake a deep seated feeling of dread.

"Give us the Darke Blade!" A cold voice barked from my left.

"And you really think I'm just gonna hand it over?" I smirked as the parks occupants became black clad ninjas.

"We want the Darke Blade." One hissed.

Big mistake. "You want it?" I asked standing up and dropping my long leather coat onto the bench. "You got it! " I snarled as something inside me snapped. A ninja lunged towards me only to be met by fist full of black flame as the Blade exploded enveloping my left hand in black flames that solidified into a black claw like gauntlet with the bracelet's onyx set in the back like an evil glowering eye.

"KILL HIM!" The leader roared as the ninjas swarmed me. As one approached me from behind a black serrated sword shot from the back of my wrist which I quickly used to decapitate him. This caused the others to paused which proved to be a fatal mistake. I lunged into the fray slicing through the ninjas, but the mindless killing isn't enough, so I decided to put some art into my work. I spun and slashed and twirled lost in my macabre masterpiece.

Lost that is, until a ninja scored a kick in my back. This of course did three things.

It threw me off balance.

It reminded me I had business before pleasure.

And it really, really pissed me off.

I lashed out and snapped a ninja's neck as I landed harshly on my back. Another tried to pin me from above, but I brought both legs up hard attempting to throw him over me but instead launched him high into the air. I didn't stop to think. In fact I think I stopped thinking when the blade burst into flames. I was operating on instinct and loving it. I swung the blade and hacked off a ninja at the knees before shifting the blade to cleave the falling ninja in half. As I rolled to my knees, I plunged my sword into a charging ninja's gut, disemboweling him with a twist of my wrist. As I extracted the blade I saw that it had changed. Not only were the serrations much more pronounced, but every three inches a smaller bladed prong similar to those on a Klingon battle knife swung out from the sides. I filed that detail away for further introspection later. I lashed out with a kick that had enough speed and power to decapitate a ninja before grasping the neck on the next one and breaking it with a quick flick of my wrist. As I flung the limp body away, I raised my hand, impaling the ninja I had thrown upward earlier as he plummeted to the ground.

"You are skilled, for a child." The leader said scanning his fallen troops. The intended barb slid off me like the ninja off my blade. "My mistress could have use for someone of your obvious skills. Join us, and the Darke Blade will still be yours." I was silent, knowing that whoever sent these guys wouldn't let me walk away from this alive. "Well, what do you say?" He said extending his hand.

"No chance." I said smacking his hand away.

"That was a mistake." With a blur of speed, he drew a sword and brought it around in a tight arc, slicing deeply into the Darke Blade claw, causing a spurt of green and black ooze which I can only assume was blood, and massive shock of pain ripping through my body. I roared like a wounded animal and went on the offensive, lunging and slashing, no longer concerned with the artistry of it all. I wanted this guy dead, and then chopped up into appetizers later and he knew it. He swung wildly and I raised my blade to block, shattering his sword. I retracted the blade and whipped around with a spinning backhand to send the ninja sprawling. This will be so much more enjoyable, doing this with my bare hands.

The ninja scrambled to his feet and began chanting in an ancient language before a jet of sickly green flame shot towards me. I dove forward and rolled up into a rolling ball before springing up to plough both feet into his chest slamming him into the ground before I knelt and pummeled his face repeatedly with my gauntlet which had now sprouted sharp bony protrusions.

"Mercy! Mercy!" He cried.

"Mercy?" I asked incredulously, kicking him full force in the ribs as he crawled away. "Have you ever shown mercy to one of your fallen?" I whipped around dropping into a kneeling crouch that shattered both his knees.

"I beg you. Would you kill a defenseless man?"

"Hmm. Kill... nah." The ninja seemed to relax somewhat, before I brought my Blade hand down hard and fast shattering his collarbone. "That would spoil my fun."

"You psycho!"

"I've been called worse." I said kneeling on his good arm and hauling back. "Who sent you?"

"I cannot tell. It would mean my death."

"If you don't tell me," I yanked hard ripping his arm almost off. "I'll let you live."

The ninja's eyes held pure unbridled fear. "I cannot tell you."

I sighed. "This is becoming monotonous. Either you tell me who sent you, or I will make you immortal, wracked with such pain, it'll make what your going through now seem like a bug bite. For all eternity."

"I cannot-" I vaporized the body before he could finish.

"I hate hearing the same thing over and over again." I murmured looking at the Darke Blade. The deep gash was still there but at least the bleeding had stopped.

"You wanna explain what just happened here?" Sara asked. She had her gun drawn in one hand and the Witchblade on the other.

"They caught us at a real bad time." I said distantly as I cradled my blade arm for a long while.

"Us?" Sara said nervously.

"Huh? Oh. Sara, I'd like you to meet the Darke Blade." I said. "We've grown attached to each other you could say."

"Wow. She's almost exactly like the Witchblade." Sara said as she reached out to touch my gauntlet. A moment later she was thrown into the bench I had been sitting on shattering both boards and concrete.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed, Pezzini?" I shouted. "She's wounded, and violent. You're lucky you're alive!" I glanced at my wrist, where the Darke Blade had reverted to it's covert form and clung tightly to my wrist.

"Look, you're the one who came to me." She barked.

"And I thought you'd be able to help." I snarled.

"Well I can't if I can't get close to it now can I?" She snapped

"Fine." I sighed, tired of throwing insults. "I guess I'll just have to figure this out on my own." With a careless wave of my hand I created a portal and returned to my dimension, though I thought I heard Pez mumbling about incompetence, but I had to be wrong.

***

I stood overlooking the ocean as the waves crashed against the rocky cove below. Fore some reason, this place always gave me the best view on life. Feeling spontaneous, I took a running start off the cliff and jumped. I fell, savoring the ride, before I snapped my wings and flying low over the water.

"Very impressive." A voice said. I spun where I hung, hovering in the air to see Prima sitting on a rock with her feet dangling in the water.

"Oh, Prima! I didn't know you were here. I'll leave."

"No. You don't have to." She said quietly. "I wanted to talk to you, but..."

"Well, we're talking now." I said drifting down to sit on a rock. "I can move farther back if you'd like."

"No, you're fine there."

"How long, Prima?"

"Huh?"

"How long until I can't even come in the same dimension with you two? It hurts to see you two cringe and avoid me, and this darkness inside of me just keeps growing. I was attacked and I did things I would never do normally." I shuddered at the memory. "And you know what really scared me? I loved every second of it."

"You've been a little off balance," Prima agreed. "But if you'd just be a little more accepting of it..."

"What did you say?"

"That you're off balance."

"No, after that."

"Just accept what's happened."

"Prima you're a genius." I said kicking off the rock. "Thanks for everything." I wrapped my wings around myself and teleporting away.

I reappeared in the desert sector of the Keep. Usually I could find a Saiyin or two out here, but the place was deserted for now. As I searched through myself, I contemplated what Prima had told me. I had embraced my darkness back in the park and the Darke Blade and I had become nearly unstoppable. I reached inside myself and found the darkness and tapped it once more. Almost immediately the clawed gauntlet reformed, far easier than it had last time and Trunks and Seijita landed with swords drawn.

"If this rock is taken I'll go play with my toys somewhere else."

"No way Arch." Seiji said. "We want to spar with you."

"Holding nothing back." Trunks added.

"Be careful what you ask for." I said smiling as the blade extended from the back of the gauntlet. I snapped my fingers and the opening strands of Queen's "Princes of the Universe" began to pour like thunder. "The mother of all sound systems."

"Showoff." Seiji grinned lunging at me. I blocked her sword and pushed her away spinning in time to block Trunks' attack, force an opening in his defense, and plant a solid roundhouse kick to the Saiyan's midsection. I sensed Seiji's attack before I heard it and effortlessly blocked before I flipped over her.

"I expected better from Vegeta's daughter." I laughed.

"Well, I know you don't have the same physical prowess as us Saiyins." She grinned.

"Physical prowess, huh?" In a burst of unholy speed I charged and launched a blinding attack that stripped her of her sword, sending it high into the air as I ran forward and hit her chest with a corkscrew kick. While her Saiyin armor took most of the impact, it did have the desired effect of knocking her flat on her back as he caught her sword before leveling it to her throat. A quick flick of wrist sent Trunks' sword skittering to his feet as his throat met the business end of the Darke Blade and "Who Wants To Live Forever?" began to play as a light rain fell. "Do you yield?"

"This time." Trunks growled.

"Rematch." Seiji grinned as I pulled my blades away.

I was about to agree when a massive explosion shook the ground and a large flaming cloud rose over the horizon. "Back to the Keep! Now!" I roared returning weapons and vanishing in a plume of black flame.

***

If I live to be ten thousand, I doubt that anything will chill my soul more than the blackened burning shell of my home did that day.

"Goddess mother, what happened here?"

"Arch." I knelt by Oracle's inert form as I felt the life force fade from her. "Listen carefully, for my time is nigh. Someone sent a bomb to the Keep. Everyone is..."

"Everyone?"

"The Saiyins and the angels may have survived, but ninjas clad in black took Prima. Save her, and end my pain."

"As you wish, Neko chan." I murmured whispering a death spell over her taking her life. A cold ball of hatred formed in my stomach. Whoever did this was playing for keeps, but they made one mistake.

They took away everything, so I had nothing left to lose.

"Arch." Seiji touched my shoulder briefly.

"You're in charge." I choked out averting my eyes from Chibi Arch's broken body. "Take the survivors and go to Robster's place. Try to fit in there, or set out on your own, but I wish you good fortune in whatever you do."

"What about you, Archangel?"

"Archangel Bloodraven died in the explosion."

***

I wanted so much to let the pain tear me apart and be done with it, but I had a promise to keep. I followed Prima's energy to a barren dimension whose only feature was a large foreboding fortress, so that was where I was headed. Several ninjas charged me as I approached the castle, but they were dispatched with a quick twist of the neck. Very few were determined enough to try stop me, and the few who did died instantly. There was no artistry, no games, just death, swift and simple.

"Open the gate." I said to the ninja on duty at the gate. He paused for moment before a long serrated pike shot from the blade. "NOW."

The gate opened and I killed the ninja as an example. Leaping up to the highest pillar with the dead body I shouted in an unholy voice that penetrated every crevice of the castle. "I AM IN A REALLY FOUL MOOD, SO IF YOU DON'T WANT TO END UP LIKE YOUR COMRADE, LEAVE. NOW!"

The rats couldn't get off the ship fast enough.

"Come out Sara." I called in more normal register.

"How did you know it was me?" She asked emerging from the shadows.

"Little things that all fell into place. The car that tried to run me down was your unmarked cruiser. You altered the Matrix so my only line information was destroyed before I could learn anything, forcing me to come to you. You were in no way surprised when I showed up in your dimension, and the ninjas knew exactly where to find me, after you sent me to the park. The longing in your voice when said it was just like the Witchblade, and your last comment as I slipped through the portal wasn't incompetence, but incompetents."

"So you've got it all figured out?"

"Not quite. Thanatos' message about the blade being a weapon of Image still has me at a loss. So why do you want the Darke Blade?"

"I said it earlier. It's almost exactly like the Witchblade, one of three magical blades that when united gives the wielder unlimited power. I can be a force for justice the like of which has never been seen in any world."

"So it's all right for you destroy my life and everything in it, as long as you get your blade?" I said as the Darke Blade reverted to covert mode. "Fine. Take it from me." I took a fighting stance. "If you're able."

Sara charged me and I grabbed her blade hand and flung her physically into the nearest wall ramming into her with all the speed and mass I could muster. She recovered quickly and threw me over her shoulder to the floor before lunging at me with the blade. In a flash I vanished only to reappear ten feet above her and slam into the stone floor. Sara whipped around and slashed stripping the bracelet from my wrist sending it tumbling through the air. In a flash she picked me up and threw me bodily through a stone wall as she scrambled for the Darke Blade.

"Don't give up Arch." Prima whispered to me. "Sara can't be allowed to win."

"Elemental of rock, block her path. Elemental of earth, bind her evil." I summoned my magic as the rocks became a wall between Sara and the Blade and tendril of vines entwined her strongly as I crawled over to Prima, who grimaced in my dark presence.

"Arch, just because Sara wants the blade, doesn't mean it's hers to take. The Darke Blade chose you. Now do you choose it?"

"How can you be so wise?" I asked conjuring a hearts desire spell that would take her to Omni.

She gave me a rare smile, the first since I received the Darke Blade. "She has no claim on the blade, Archangel Bloodraven. That is your and yours alone." She whispered as my spell carried her away.

"I accept you, my lady. I accept your blessing and powers until such time as you choose another. Return to me my lady and let us become one." I murmured.

I got my wish as the band flew through the air to latch onto my wrist touching Sara's outstretched fingers in the process. I was vaguely aware of Sara's horrified scream as the world exploded into blinding whiteness.

***

Archangel Bloodraven, we are one.

Who are you?

Katana Darke, the consciousness of the blade.

So what becomes of us now?

I will not fight my sister. You and Sara must end this, alone.

Your sister? Of course, the Witchblade. So no blades?

No. We will not interfere.

Then let's do this.

***

I returned to my senses as Sara slammed into me full force. "You bastard. You die." She growled transforming into a large red dragon.

"Not yet." I said casting a spell to lock her in her dragon form before matching her in black. "Neither of us has any magic in this form, Sara, and you can't escape your form until one of us is dead."

Before the battle begins in earnest, I must tell you about dragons. They are armored from nose to tail, and their fangs, claws, and in some cases, even their tails are deadly razor sharp, diamond edged weapons. The only weapon, in fact, that is capable of harming another dragon. While a common misconception is that dragons can not drink water, the truth is dragons must drink water to fuel their flame. Now a lesser known fact is that hydrated dragon's blood burns, and that is exactly what keeps dragons burning, a sort of controlled internal hemorrhaging. Dragons are also fairly close to immortal. I say fairly close, because they can be killed. There's just a trick to it, as you'll see. The worst part is, while dragons know more magic than any other being, they cannot use magic themselves. But enough of that. Time for Round One.

"You bastard!" She lunged.

"I don't know about that. I never knew my parents so who's to say." I replied catching her and slamming her into the remains of the castle as I raked my claws deeply into her chest. In desperation, she lashed out with her tail slashing deeply into my face. As I staggered back she regained her footing and spewed a jet of flame at me. I blocked easily enough but in my preoccupation she vanished. She'd taken round one and it was up to me to figure out how before round two began.

My options were fairly limited. I could smell her blood on my claws, but my snout was so drenched in my own blood, that was of little use to me. Her slash had destroyed one of my eyes, leaving me half blind. I listened but could hear nothing which narrowed my options down thusly.

One, I could take to the sky and try to find her. No good.

Two, I could wait until she lost too much blood and then attack. Too time consuming.

Three, I could revert to my human form and try a tracker spell. That left me too vulnerable.

Four, I could wait for her to attack again. I didn't like that one at all, but...

The choice was taken out of my hands as she plummeted from the sky, spewing flames. Round two had begun and I took the offensive by shooting from the ground to rip deeply into her wing with my fangs. I didn't quite tear it off, but I did enough damage to ground her. I soared into a high arc before tucking in my wings and plummeting like a stone on top of her to slam her deeply into the ground leaving a mile and a half wide crater.

Round two was mine, but Sara was determined to claim round three and the match as she shot from the ground and slammed into my chest, hard. Had I been human I would have been killed instantly and even in this form, it knocked the wind out of me and I heard something crack, probably a couple of ribs. I was only dazed for a moment, but that was enough as Sara slammed her claws into my chest and began to rip. I braced my feet beneath her and kicked up as hard as I could, throwing her a short distance from me. "Well, Sara." I gasped. "I hope you enjoyed that, because it's the only chance you'll get."

"You're finished." She snarled as the sky grew dark. "You have no magic and your injuries are worse than mine."

"Yeah they are." I said as the storm cloud rolled in over top of us. "That means I'm bleeding more than you. A lot more."

Sara suddenly realized what I was about to do and paled in fear as the first rumble of thunder brought the rain.

You still don't understand? Go back up and reread what I told you about Dragon's blood and water. Got it now? I thought you would.

Seconds later Sara was hit by a living ball of flames and claws.

I spun and twirled throwing myself into Sara's defense and opening wider gashes in my flesh which burst into flame instantly, all the while looking for the one opening I needed to end all this.

And then I saw it. Sara left her chest wide open. Time slowed to a crawl as I whipped first my claws and then my tail through and plunged my flaming claw into her chest.

Now pay close attention, because I'm going to tell you how to kill a dragon. The trick is in the hearts. Yes plural. We have two. To destroy a dragon, one bust be destroyed by steel and the other by fire. But you have to destroy the right heart the right way. Otherwise the entire body will just heal in about a year and then you have a pissed off dragon.

That however was not going to happen. I ripped out both hearts before blasting one to withered ash and devouring the other. I would have rather washed it down with a nice Chianti and some fava beans, but hey, a guy can't have everything.

***

Okay. I know you're supposed to pass out before you come to, but apparently someone had decided to speed up the script. Anyway I came to in a grassy bower tended to by a young Asian girl in a green silk kimono. "Well done, Archangel san."

"Katana, we may be Blade and Wielder, but I also wanna be your friend. So let's start by you calling me Arch."

"A friend." Katana said softly. "I've never had a friend before, Arch chan. You can call me, Kata."

"Arigato Kata chan." I said sitting up. "You healed me?"

"What I could of your body yes." Kata said as I looked at myself. There were three deep scars in my chest and my right eye was gone, but otherwise I was whole. "I can do nothing for your soul."

"Kata, my soul was destroyed with my home and my friends."

"I know. Oracle was your tamashi neko, your soul cat. She meant the most out of all those who you lost."

"I lost everything, Kata. My family, my friends. Hell, I'm even losing the color out of my hair." I said tugging on a white bang that had appeared sometime in the course of my adventure. "All I've got left is my life," I reached over and gently caressed her face, causing her to blush. "and you."

"Then let's start over." She said excitedly. "You and I, together."

"Do you think we could?"

"Well rebuilding the keep and restoring the stories is easy. Bringing the muses and avatars back..." She bit her lip with a pensive frown. "That may take a miracle."

I gave a slow smile. "Then I may know just the people to ask."

Kata arched an eyebrow. "I'll trust you on that. But there is one final matter to attend to." She said gesturing to an oaken pedestal.

"The Witchblade." I said bouncing it briefly in my hand. "I must ask myself if I am any better than Sara." I turned it over slowly, before drawing my arm back and hurling it into the dimensional void.

"I don't understand." Kata said.

"Power corrupts, Kata chan." I said looking to where the blade had vanished. "And absolute power..."

"Corrupts absolutely." Kata said understandingly. "And the Witchblade?"

"Will find another. She always does. Come, let's go visit a friend of mine." I said creating a new outfit of black slacks, black silk shirt with silver dragon and black leather vest.

"There's something missing..." Kata said tapping her chin, before creating a black eye patch with a silver dragon on it. "Now you look even more mysterious." She said fitting it over my injury.

"Of course." I said swirling my short leather coat on. "I am the Dark Angel."

***

"Arch." Robster said greeting me with a hug. "I heard about the Keep."

"Yeah, but I got the bitch who did it." I said quietly. "Katana Darke, meet Robster80, Overlord of Dimension 80. Robster, this is Kata, the consciousness of the Darke Blade."

"A pleasure." Robster said kissing Kata's hand.

"I hope you don't think you're going to sweep every pretty girl off her feet, Rob chan." A crisp voice barked.

"I'm simply extending my hospitality, Ami chan." He said as the blue haired senshi came up behind him.

"Oh Arch, I heard... I mean I felt..."

"Confusing isn't it?" I asked. "You felt her die. All the Ami's did."

"It hurt." She said quietly clinging to Robster.

"I know how you feel. How are the survivors taking it?"

"Listen." Robster said pointing upwards.

"Thunder?" I frowned. "On a cloudless day?"

"Try hurting Saiyins." Robster said. " Your Vegeta and Goku Versus my Vegeta and Goku."

"Wow. They're not pulling any punches." Kata said shielding her eyes.

"What about the others?"

"Trunks, Seijita, and Gohan are triple teaming SSH 2 TK but he seems to be holding his own."

"Seiji and Gohan, how did they look?" I said suddenly panicked.

"Gohan was normal, but Seiji's hair was white and her eyes were silver. Why?"

"Oh crud. Robster Seiji has black hair and hazel eyes."

Then TK came flying through the wall.

"I guess you should have let them play outside."

"Kata, they were outside." Robster said in shock.

"Seiji!" I bellowed, "Front and center."

"Aw Arch I was just- Arch!" She tackled me to the ground. "I can't believe your alive."

"And I can't believe you didn't tell anyone you were going Omega Saiyin."

"That doesn't matter. What are we gonna do now?"

"Well, I suppose we're going to start over, but first I need your help. Where are the Angels?"

"Omni and Prima are still in shock, I don't know where the others are."

"They're the ones I need to see first anyway. Robster, may I?"

"Of course they're-"

I vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Or I can do it that way."

***

I appeared outside the door and knocked softly. "Guys, are you in there?" A silly question since I could feel their energy but I hoped for some response. I reached out and slowly adjusted their inner balance, adding just the right touch of darkness to make their life interesting and my presence bearable. I knocked again and slid the door open. "Hi guys."

"Arch." Prima said quietly. "You did it." Her voice was devoid of emotion.

"How you two holding up?"

"We could feel everyone you know." Omni said in the same dead quiet voice. "We would lay on the roof for hours just listening to the others. But now all the voices are gone. We can't even hear the survivors."

"We're going to bring the voices back, but we need the angels." Kata said, "all of them. We need a miracle."

"Will it bring the voices back?" Prima said a slight tremor of hope in her voice.

"I can't promise you anything, but I made a promise to myself never to lie to you two. It's my best chance."

"Then let's do it."

***

"It looks bad Arch." Raven said gazing over the rubble.

I clenched my hands into fists at my side. "This is my world. I did not create just to watch it burn."

"Arch, look." Prima said. In my hurt and anger one of the support pillars stood back up, the marble clean and shining as though nothing had happened. "You can rebuild it. You have the power. Just concentrate."

"You know where my backups are?" I asked referring to the back up fics I had scattered about my world.

"Every one of them." The girl angel grinned. "Let's fly." In moments the angels and Saiyins vanished into the growing dawn.

I closed my eyes and saw the mansion rebuilding itself from the inside out, my right clenched in concentration as my left hand was gripped by Kata with equal ferocity.

"Easy Arch." Prima said. "You built it back better than before."

"I don't believe it." I sighed. "It's fantastic." I gave a little flick of my hand as the Bloodraven colors rose from the main turret.

"Then it's time we did our part." Angelique said, rising from the ground. "Stay here."

I was about to argue when a thunderbolt seared the ground in front of me. Angelique doesn't miss often so I took that as a warning shot. I turned and stormed back inside my new home.

***

I was pacing back and forth as the sun set only to be tackled by a black flash. "Arch chan!"

"Oracle?"

"You look good for someone who's been dead, Ora- neko."

"Why thank you, Kata chan."

"Is everyone-" I asked nuzzling the black cat.

"Everyone's back but it took a lot out of the angels. They'll need to rest for a few days."

"But first we're going to have a party and that means no work clothes!" Seiji said.

I went to room changing my black shirt for gold before heading back downstairs. Seiji met me at the bottom of the stairs wearing a red silk dress to die for. Gohan took one look at her and retreated to his room with a nosebleed.

"Seijita, where did you did you get that?" Kata asked suddenly

"Oh this?" Seiji fingered the silver and ruby bracelet. "I found it in my room. I don't usually wear jewelry but this kind of called to me.

Seijita now wore the Witchblade.