Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Blood and Roses ❯ Pain and Training ( Chapter 2 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Author's Note: Heya. Some angst in this chapter, more bad stuff to come in the next. Like I said, this story is /not/ for the faint of heart, that's my warning and if I get any flames, I'll go on the warpath, cuz no one's forcing you to read it. In fact, I'd encourage most of you not to. Also, all ideas/characters/representations yadda yadda belong to /me/. Have fun.



Katy found Aiden leaning against the one tree in the 20' x 20' square. He grinned when he spotted her and pushed himself off of the tree.

“What took you so long?” He asked. She smiled sheepishly.

“I got hung up on something...” She replied, not looking him in the eye, still suffering from the anxiety of the encounter. Aiden stepped forward and lifted her chin up, examining her face with a frown.

“You’re all flushed. What happened?” He questioned, concerned.

“I ran into Rasuo in the hallway outside our storage room.”

“What was he doing there?” Aiden looked puzzled.

“He said father’s considering reconstruction, so he was assessing the damage...” Katy replied, looking back at the ground.

“Are you okay? He didn’t do anything, did he?” Aiden asked with a threatening glare.

“No, not really...I’m okay. He’s just an asshole. I’m fine, really. Why don’t we go ahead with the lesson?” She changed the subject, erasing any evidence of her anxiety. Aiden looked at her sideways for a minute, assessing her, his expression doubtful.

“I told you, I’m fine! Come on, shouldn’t you be kicking my ass by now? Or are you afraid that the time has come for the student to surpass the teacher?” Katy teased him with a grin that showed her canines. Aiden laughed.

“That’ll be the day. Okay, why don’t we work on defensive moves some more today? Oh, by the way...where’s your gi?” Aiden eyed the large patches of skin on her thighs pointedly. Katy shrugged.

“I don’t know, it wasn’t there. There wasn’t anything else, so I just went without.” Aiden frowned and shook his head.

“You know, you’re lucky that Rasuo didn’t actually do anything to you. Thank the shadows you’re the King’s daughter, who knows what he would of done if you weren’t.” Katy bowed her head, ashamed. Aiden sighed. “Well, hopefully with the defensive moves I’m teaching you, you’ll be able to fend him off if he ever does try anything.”

Katy watched him closely as he carried out his pre-battle ritual. He always did it right before they were about to battle. He had taught her once that every demon had a rank. There were five ranks, and each one was determined by the demon’s abilities. Rank 1 demons didn’t have any powers at all - not even wings. Rank 2 demons had wings and could use life power. The more powerful demons, ranks 3-5, had powers. Along with those powers were subtypes, or traits.

Most rank 3 demons didn’t have any power subtypes, so they basically just used energy blasts and pure life power. A few rank 3's had one subtype, most of the rank 4's had one to four and rank 5's could have as many as seven. These subtypes were–obviously–the type of powers that the demon’s had.

Aiden was a rank 4 demon, on the high-end. Like Katy, he was a healer, so any wounds he sustained healed very quickly. He was also a Callous, and he could make it so that his body didn’t feel any pain. To have the subtype Callous was very very rare; it was also quite dangerous, as you’d have to remember to take the effect off of you so that you could know the extent of your injuries in case you have a serious wound. That didn’t really apply to higher Healer subtypes though, so Aiden could leave the Callous effect on until the wounds were healed, and then take it off as though nothing had ever happened, so long as the wounds weren’t immediately fatal.

He did it now, gathering a ball of energy the size of his fist in the palm of his hand. The energy was blood red in color, and glowed in a way that made it look like it had it’s own little atmosphere. In order for it to take effect, Aiden had to ingest it. Katy winced every time that he did it, because it looked like it must burn horribly judging from the grimace he’d give every time he swallowed it. After a minute, he held his arm out to her expectantly, and she reached up and gave it a swift pinch, like they always did. She looked up at him, waiting, and he nodded and grinned.

“Okay, so like I was saying, defensive moves. I wanna see what you would do. So let’s say that tree is the wall...” Aiden turned Katy so that her back was to the tree’s massive trunk, and he was in front of her. “Now, let’s say some man starts to advance on you, and corners you with your back against the wall.” He took slow, deliberate steps forwards, towards her, and she automatically took steps backwards away from him. Her back hit the wall, and he was very, very close. She was hit with deja vu, as it was the almost the same scenario from ten minutes before, only Aiden was closer. Katy looked up at him towering over her, her cheeks bright red and her heart starting to pound really hard once again.

“Now...” Aiden brought put his left hand against the tree above her head so that he was leaning over her. “Say the man was being very forward, and not listening to you...” He brought his right hand up in front of him, slowly brushing her shirt as his hand lifted and stopping at her breasts. All of a sudden he grabbed a hold of the front of her shirt and pulled her into him, his eyes locked onto hers. For a second, Katy thought she saw something flicker in his eyes, and it scared her, but as soon as she saw it, it was gone.

“What would you do to fend off that man?” Aiden asked, his eyes still looking intensely into hers. Her mind raced, but couldn’t find an answer. He was so close... “Think, Katy...” He lowered his right hand and brushed a couple fingers against the skin underneath the edge of her shirt. She was trying so hard, but the only thing she could think of was what he might do if she didn’t answer. He tsk’d as he ran his hand up her stomach, giving her shivers, stopping when he’d grabbed a hold of the linen wrapped around her breasts.

‘He’s gonna rip it off, he’s gonna rip it off...’ Katy thought to herself, the only thought in her head. She screwed her eyes shut tight, remembering what he’d once told her that the key to winning a battle was to remain clear-headed. Shutting her thoughts off, she felt a burst of energy course through her body as what to do came to her. She concentrated her energy into her extremities, particularly her force points, which Aiden had once told her were her shins, knees, elbows, hands, and feet.

Snapping her eyes open, Katy launched into a flurry of attacks that first started off with a crunching knee to the groin, followed by a swift side kick to the shoulder which knocked him to the side, away from her. He bounced right back however, and the two began an intense sparring round in which she was on the defensive and he was on the offensive.

~~~~*~~~~

What Katy hadn’t known about her secluded garden space was that her father had set it up at just the right angle to be able to see into it from a window near his office chamber. He and Rasuo stood by the window, watching the young woman as she sparred with her teacher.

“My King..” Rasuo was saying. “Aiden just isn’t suitable to teach the princess. Sure, she’s made some progress, but she hasn’t even begun to tap into her wealth of demonic powers. If he can’t awaken them in her, then perhaps we should find someone else. He’s not even teaching her about the true nature of demons; he’s too soft, and he’ll make her too soft as well. She’s completely unprepared, she’d be eaten alive if she stepped foot outside alone.” He explained. The King looked over at him sideways.

“And who would you have teach her that would do a better job than Aiden? You?” He asked. Rasuo grinned. “You, my second-in-command, who’s already asked to marry my daughter and been turned down? And you have only the purest of intentions?” His voice dripped with sarcasm. Rasuo opened his hands up wide, palms out.

“I just want to prepare our princess for the real world outside of her palace playground. Besides, hasn’t Aiden asked for her hand and been turned down, also? And who are you planning to marry her to, anyway?” The king laughed and left the room without answering Rasuo’s questions. He looked out the window at the two again, and his expression soured. His eyes locked on Aiden, and the sky overhead rapidly began to darken. Waiting for the opportune moment, his eyes flashed white for a second as a huge lightning bold raced down from the sky to the garden.
~~~~*~~~~

Katy felt the bolt before she saw it. The hair on her head stood up nearly completely as she jerked her head upwards and caught sight of the tremendous lightning bolt. It looked like it was heading straight for Aiden on the other side of the clearing. All of a sudden, terrified that he’d be hurt, Katy let her instincts take over and acted without thinking again.

The next thing she knew, she was grasping tightly to Aiden with her eyes shut tight against the violent explosion of light around them. When she opened her eyes again, the two were surrounded by what looked like a translucent red dome, and the garden around them outside of the dome was destroyed, leaving a huge crater in a circle where the dome ended.

“You can let go now.” Aiden’s voice startled her and she released him. “No, not me, you can keep holding on to me.” He said. “I meant the shield.” He was grinning, and Katy realized that it was her who had created the shield. As soon as she came to this realization, the shield flickered and died.

Katy got the feeling that someone was watching her, and once again using her instincts she turned to the source and saw Rasuo in what must of been the only window that had a view inside the square. He winked and kissed at her, and when she blinked he was gone. Silently fuming, she went to stand by Aiden, who placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Well, doesn’t look like we’ll be training here anymore.” Turning in a circle, Katy knew that he was right. All around them the ground was scorched and burnt; the bold had left a deep crater for ten feet around them. A third of the plant barrier had also been taken out. It would be an ugly scar in the middle of the lush surrounding gardens.

~~~~*~~~~

When Nibori turned three, Katy’s mother became ill. The illness progressed much faster then anyone could have dreamed ,and in only a couple of months the once beautiful and strong Queen had fallen and they were holding the incineration ceremony. In the Nether Realm, Necromancy was a big issue, so all royal bodies were incinerated by a trained but small team of high-end rank 4 Fire subtype demons.

For the incineration of the Queen, five Fire demons stood around the body. At the King’s request, Aiden was taking a part in the ceremony as he was also a Fire subtype. He stood at the Queen’s head while the other four each stood at her arms and legs. Bowing their heads, they uttered in unison an old burial chant which was in a language that Katy didn’t know.

She thought briefly of Nibori, who was inside with Mika. She’d been so confused about why her mother wasn’t around, Mika had to take her away when she wouldn’t stop trying to get to her mother’s body. Mika herself had been her mother’s servant for centuries, and she’d been crying as she took Nibori away. Katy blinked back tears as she took in the last image she’d ever see of her mother. She looked, if nothing else ,peaceful. One would of thought she was sleeping, only she was so pale that she was almost blue.

Katy couldn’t help it as a few tears slipped past her barrier to slide down her cheeks. While it was true that Mika had practically raised her, Katy always knew that her mother was there when she needed her. She was always just around the corner, ready to scoop her up and take her to bed, or just sit around and talk for a while.

And now she was gone.

Just before the incineration began, Aiden caught her gaze and held it. His expression was unreadable, but Katy could feel that hers was not, as her cheeks felt wet and hot and her eyes burned. She knew that he could see her pain, her weakness, but at the moment she didn’t care.

The process started on the inside, in her abdomen, and would burn her from the inside out. Before she came outside, Katy had heard some of the slaves talking about botched ceremonies that they’d seen, where the demons weren’t strong enough and the flesh boiled and bubbled, melting instead of burning. Every demon involved in the process was usually killed as punishment, so it was pretty rare.

It began, starting on the inside and enveloping the outside as well, incinerating both inner and outer flesh. As the fire spread, it devoured every trace of flesh along the way. It was quick, but for a brief moment Katy saw inside of her mother, and had to swallow hard to keep from choking. Gruesome sights normally didn’t have an effect on her, but it was a combination of the fact that it was her mother, the slight sizzle of flesh, the smell of it burning, the fact that she hadn’t eaten all day, and that she hadn’t slept in a week since her mother started to take a turn for the worst.

Katy glanced over at her father to the side. He was standing straight and tall, and his face was hard and blank of emotion. He was so strong, able to hide the immense pain that she knew he felt. She knew because he’d refused to leave her mother’s side for her last month of life. He’d ordered everyone, including Aiden to search for information about the disease, and a cure. They’d leave the realm for days, and if they came back empty-handed they’d get sent back out if he was in a good mood, and killed if he was in a bad one.

When her mother finally did die, it was only Katy and her father that were in the room. She’d been in excruciating pain, and no elixir or spell would work anymore to stop her from hurting. She was so strong in her last moments, comforting her near hysterical husband. He’d been crying and begging her not to go, not to leave him. Katy closed her eyes and saw it all over again.

“Please! Don’t leave me Nimue! Please don’t leave me here, don’t go!”

Katy felt her throat squeeze and her eyes start to burn as she tried to hold it all back.

“What do I do...? What should I do? I don’t know what to do, please tell me how to help you!”

Her blood was pounding in her ears and she refused to let her self breathe, or else her resolve might break.

“Nimue?! Nimue! Open your eyes, damn you!! Don’t go! Don’t go!! Come back to me, please, I can’t live without you...Nimue!!!”

Katy opened her eyes just in time to see the very last parts of her mother’s body disintegrate.

“Katy, honey, what’s wrong?”

That was it, she couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“It’s all going to be all right, you’ll see.”

Her chest squeezed tight, her lungs burned for air and her expression was of a devastated grimace.

“I’ll always love you, Katy, my daughter.”

Katy’s eyes flicked up and her gaze once again met Aiden’s, who had a look of alarm on his face at seeing her. She let out a strangled sob and turned just as the sky became pitch black and opened up on them a tremendous downpour. Katy ran as fast as she could as she sobbed, her vision blurry. After five minutes she flung herself around a random tree and fell to her knees clinging to it’s trunk, crying and sobbing so hard that she didn’t notice how cold the rain was as it soaked her to the bone.