Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Capricious Infection ❯ Act 10: What Child Is This? ( Chapter 10 )

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Capricious Infection
Act 10: What Child Is This?
By: Melissa Norvell/Revamp
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David froze up. This question again? He looked thoughtful, trying to muster up an answer of some sort without making himself look flaming homosexual. “Hmmm…Uh…Well, a brocrush is kind of like…a really close friendship. Sort of like you want to be around them and you’d go out with them if you could.”

Oz arched an eyebrow, “then why don’t you if that’s what you desire?”

This must be a cultural difference. Okay, so he was dealing with this weird bisexual alien now.

He couldn’t help but blush a little in embarrassment at the other’s words. “What are you trying to say?” No, really. What was he trying to say? Was he being asked out by an alien?

The other man’s cheeks turned a slight ashen shade, “I didn’t…I mean…shut the fuck up. You’re the one offering to be my stratos. Make up your mind or what you want,” Oz fumed, losing his cool demeanor as he balled his fists and irritation crossed his face. First, this human acts as if he wants to be in a sector of his, then he plays games with his thinking organ. It was ten different types of frustrating.

David blinked,“dude, I don’t even know what that is…”

“It’s the person closest to you. Kind of like your human “best friend”.” That was as close as he could even get to such a thing. Although, there were differences…very big differences.

“Okay…So, what’s wrong with it?” If it was the equivalent to being best friends on alien terms, then why couldn’t they just agree to be “stratos” or “best friends”? Honestly, this should be as hard as they are both trying to make it.

“Watch what you’re implying,” the warning was colder than even his usual tone of voice. David couldn’t figure out what exactly this guy’s deal was.

“What kind of weird alien friendship do you have?” Maybe that would be a good question to ask. If they wanted to understand each other, it was best that they understood their differences and what they entailed. It seemed as if Oz’s friendship term was something to worry about. That meant it was obviously different than human friendship.

“Dius have two types of lifetime partners: a pyrex and a stratos,” Oz explained. “In our world, there are two types of love. They are both equally important and they are both considered romantic.”

“So, you have two lovers?” This just kept getting weirder and weirder. Questions flooded his head, but the young male decided that he would either ask him about the unspoken subjects later or see if they got brought up in conversation so he could ask him at the most opportune time.

“Sort of, each type of love has its limitations. One lover is sheerly for mating purposes, and one is simply being so close that you would do them sexual favors. It’s like the feeling of having a family member-“

“If you’re incest,” David was quick to cut him off. That was NOT how humans did it. He didn’t even want to think any father on the subject for fear of unwanted mental images.

“Incest?”

“That’s what it’s called if you try to reproduce with your parents or siblings…or anyone else related to you by blood.”

“We never see our “parents” or as we call them, wellbringers,” Oz informed.

“Who raises you?” If seemed they had a very different lifestyle as well. This might be harder than he originally thought it to be.

“We raise ourselves. Unlike your human birth, we hatch from eggs. We are water bound for four years in a pupa-type state before we evolve into a bipedal form.”

“So, you’re like frogs?” At least that sounded close to what frogs did. It was hard to believe that they hatched from eggs and evolved like some sort of frog hybrid. When Oz touched his skin, his hands felt just like human skin. It was truly baffling how human-like the Dius were. Minus having horns, claws and fangs, they almost looked human.

“Unlike your frog creatures, we lose our aquatic abilities after we transform. However, we do retain our ability to swim,” minus Tarvos, but he was a special case.

“Man, we’re so different. This making a world together thing is going to be hard.” Harder than he had first expected it to be. David thought that they had minor differences that they could work out, but that wasn’t even the case here. They were raised differently, had no sense of parenting, two lovers and the teen could only guess what other number of odd qualities that they possessed.

In these aspects, they truly were aliens of their own right.

Oz straightened his glasses, putting two fingers on one of the legs and adjusting them slightly. “I admit it will be a challenge. I know what awaits us and we’ll have to work things out as we go along. I just hope that you’ll be willing to work with us.” More than anything, he needed the help of this particular group of humans. They alone were the soul saviors of their race.

“I admit that I never imagined any of this would happen. I feel like I’m living a dream. All of this seems so far out. Too far out to be real,” the bereavement of the students, the continuing death toll, meeting Oz and gaining powers and weapons. It was as if he was playing a real life version of Twisted Land.
Everything was hauntingly surreal. Sometimes, he wondered what he would wake up to, or if he would at all. This was as disturbing as it was exhilarating.

“David…do you have a pyrex?” This was not David’s favorite subject, but he’d tell Oz about it.

“You mean a mate? Well, I used to have one but she dumped me for my best friend,” his voice grew low. Not because he was sad over it, but because the whole situation left him slightly bitter. Not at his friend but at his ex.

“Dumped?” What kind of human term was this?

“Human mates aren’t permanent. If you decide that you don’t like your mate, then you can get rid of them. That’s what she did to me,” He calmly explained.

“What was her name?” Obviously it was someone that he knew. Maybe someone in his group of friends, or someone he played Twisted Land with. Regardless, Oz probably knew who they were.

“It was Ayumi.”

“The Dark Maiden?” The alien was a little shocked by that revelation. The two didn’t really interact, much less talk to each other. Then again, that should have been a clue right there.

“In the game, that’s what she was,” David’s words were simple, before he decided to tell Oz the whole story of how they became to be, and how everything had ended between them. “After my father died, Ayumi and I became close. We knew each other all of our lives, and I thought we had love, but she ended up really liking my friend, Dante. She broke up with me to go out with him, but then she asked Dante, he turned her down so they stayed friends. She kept trying to impress him.”

“Well, she’s gone now. She was one of the unfit ones.”

“Unfit ones?” What was that?

There was no real way such a term could be explained to make it sound good. Oz might as well have been truthful about it. “She kept dying, so she had to be rid of. Clearly she was not chosen to see our new world.”

What was this guy doing? Was he trying to play god? David was trying not to be offended. “I don’t get it. How do you dictate that?”

“No one would live. Only us. It’s our job to repopulate this world.”

“I am not doing it eight million times to pop out babies,” he might as well get straight to the point. If that was how he wanted to repopulate the world then that would not be happening ever. Let the human race go extinct if that was the case.

“You won’t have to.”

“What? Then how are we going to repopulate the world?” This made no sense. Unless they were just going to make a lot of clones of themselves, then he really didn’t see how any of this was going to work. If they were the only humans alive, and he and a couple of others were the only Dius…then wasn’t that the logical deduction as to what would have to be accomplished in order to achieve repopulation?

“You’ll see,” the corners of the alien’s mouth tugged into a slight smile. It wasn’t at all what David thought, although it was amusing to see him rack his thinking organ over such miniscule details. The confusion on his face was priceless.



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A small rock smacked the winged Dius in the back of the head. The sharp pain registered enough to cause Tarvos to stop in his tracks. He blinked lazily and slowly turned around, his hands still in his pockets. There, a few feet away was a very pissed off looking Dante, clad in a black vest with a large, white fur collar, a red shirt and stone washed jeans the boy had his hands on his hips and rested his weight to one side.

“Oh, it’s just you,” Tarvos was nonchalant about the situation. No doubt Dante just came to stir up trouble. He might as well amuse him.

“Fuck you, Tarvos,” as charming and classy as ever. If he had any more manners it would earn him an etiquette award.

“It’s obvious that you have some kind of problem with me.”

“Only the fact that you’re mindfucking everyone around you,” his eyes narrowed. “I know that you did it. I know that you killed everyone at school, so tell me why you did it,” he wanted answers and he wanted them now. Oz didn’t pop in until the school incident happened. Tarvos probably called him in for help on whatever grandiose plan they were trying to pull together. The jig was up for both of them.

“I was with Rezzi the whole time.” That was his story and he was sticking with it. Mostly because it was true. If Dante wanted a confession, he was sadly not going to get any from him.

“Your fake-ass alibis have no effect on me.” Nope. He wasn’t having any of Tarvos’ bullshit. Not today.

“I didn’t ask you whether or not you believed them or cared,” he knew the answer to those little inquiries anyway.

“Why don’t you fuck off and stop acting like some sort of viral parasite, sucking the life out of Rezzi?” More than anything, he hated the fact that this demon was some kind of leech to his blind friend. He cared about that girl, damn did he ever care about her but he wasn’t about to let Tarvos drain her dry or manipulate her any further.

“It’s not even like that. If your answer was even close to right then I’d be willing to entertain you, but I’m not interested,” he had more important things to do, and didn’t Dante have to train? Time was lives was it not? Someone was falling down on their job.

“What are you?” He could at the very least answer that.

Tarvos smiled darkly, showing off his mouth of horrifying teeth, “your worst nightmare.”

“That’s not funny,” the dark-haired boy crossed his arms over his chest with a huff.

“I wasn’t trying to be. I am a being of many mysteries.” Like hell he was giving this kid a straight answer.

“You are mindfucking us.” That only proved it.

“Don’t be so sore. You’ll eventually find out who I am. More importantly, how can you see me? No human should be able to see through my magical barrier.” It was far more intriguing that this boy could see him than any of those other trite subjects that he brought up. Someone with an equally mystifying presence shouldn’t be so hypocritical about his state of existence. That was how he saw it, anyway.

“Well, isn’t that just unfortunate? Too fucking bad for you that I can see it.” It was for the best that he did. Someone had to see through his disguise before he made everyone pay with whatever foul sins he was committing.

“You interest me. Ever since I saw your face of horror at the day you saw me. I knew that you were different. I’m sure I’ve never met you before and yet I feel like I have.” The feeling of familiarity was what truly intrigued him. Why did he feel as if he had known this boy? Why could he see through his façade? There was something truly fascinating about this situation, despite the underlying promise of the outcome.

Dante arched an eyebrow. “I can’t say that I don’t feel like I know you myself, but I could have never possibly met you. Ever. I don’t fucking get it.” No matter how much he wanted to deny it, and how much he already had denied it, he wouldn’t lie to Tarvos. This demon felt familiar, but how? The two of them felt the exact same way about each other and yet they have never met.

“I feel the same way,” Tarvos agreed before smiling suggestively at him. “It’s strange, really. You hold a certain attraction.” His voice lowered into a sultry tone that gave the dark-haired male shivers of repulsion up his spine.

“Stop it with your creepy shit,” Dante reeled back at him, his expression more angry than it had been before. “Tell me the truth, did you kill my classmates?”

“If you think that you can accuse me of something you have no proof of because you’re going to profile me, think again. I’m not going to give you an answer.” As incriminating as it was, Tarvos wasn’t about to tell him a word of what he knew. It was something that he was going to have to find out on his own, just as everyone else would, minus Rezzi.

“Then I’ll believe you did it.”

“You miss the point. The real Messiah was in the game when I was out here. I was watching Rezzi play. She only has one computer.” There was no way any of his theories were even close to being correct. This little game of his was growing rather annoying, even if he didn’t show it. The repetition was agonizing.

“Then who are you, and who killed Ayumi?” Tarvos was right. He couldn’t deny that there was no way that the Grand High Messiah in the game could ever be Tarvos. Even so, there was something about him. He was different than Oz and all of the humans. There had to be something up with him.

Tarvos arched an eyebrow. “Who’s Ayumi? That black-haired one?” He had faintly recalled the girl being the first to introduce herself out of the group of friends that came to gawk at him, but that was about it. To be honest, Ayumi wasn’t that memorable of a person.

“She was my girlfriend,” Dante stressed.

“What significance is that?” The winged one was apathetic on the matter.

“Do you even know what that is?” More than likely he didn’t.

“No, is it like a pyrex?”

“Maybe. What the fuck is that?”

“A mate you reproduce with,” Tarvos educated him on the Dius mateship.

“It wasn’t anything like that, but I did love her. She asked me out a day before we went to see you and I accepted her offer,” his voice lowered sadly. The two of them never got to spend much of any time together since all of this happened, and now they never would. Ayumi’s soul was eternally trapped in a world of death, and there was nothing he could do about it. Even if he avenged her, Ayumi would not be around to acknowledge his accomplishments.

This was all too amusing. Tarvos could barely contain himself. “You’ll have to hold off your silly human procrastination rituals. It seems Oz has a mission in mind for you.”
“You’re a pile of shit,” Dante really, really wanted to smack this guy and wipe that shit-eating smile from his face. Needless to say, that was the least of the pain he was drawing out in the vibrant confines of his mind. In his mind he was literally beating the crap out of this smug asshole.

“That’s one of my better compliments,” compared to the other things he had been referred to, anyway.

“Uh…” Dante growled, “I’m frustrated and I hate you.”

“What a shame, I like you,” Tarvos teased.

“Shut up.”

The winged one stayed quiet as the boy fumed to himself. “What are you and why can I see you?”

“I am a Dius, just like Oz. As to why you can see me, you’re obviously not human.” It was the ultimatum that his thinking organ had reached when trying to compute all possible outcomes. It had to be the reason Dante could see him. There were no others.

“What?” The dark-haired teen’s voice nearly broke its pitch before he unleashed another round of rage. “That’s fuckery! Of course I am a human!”

Tarvos cast him the skeptical eye. “Can you prove that?”

“What?” Anyone with eyes could see that he was a human. There was no proof to it. The facts were merely the facts.

“It’s a fact that humans know their well bringers. Do you know who yours are?” If he failed this test, then there was a possibility that he was not a human after all.

“How can I know that? I was adopted,” Dante shot defensively. Not all humans knew their parents. There were special cases, like adoption, and if their parents died before they were born. A lot of different factors determined on whether or not they knew their parents. This asshole was just being ridiculous.

“By who?”

“Tarvos, fuck off. It’s none of your damned business.” Who the hell did this guy think he was to ask him some personal shit like that? Was he trying to get him back for the fact that he was on to his demon charade?

“Isn’t it?” If his secrets were Dante’s business, wasn’t this his business? An eye for an eye, that’s how it worked.

“Stop implying the stupidest shit possible. This is just another one of your mindfucks. Well, I’m not falling for it or that shit-eating grin of yours,” it was like, plastered to his face. This guy was just the biggest asshole possible. He probably thought all of this was just some giant game. Tarvos was the kind of guy who either slowly picked at someone’s sanity, or was very manipulative. He might have gotten away with that horseshit with Rezzi but he drew the line at himself. Dante wasn’t going to let his guy push him around, no matter how he felt about him.

“There’s no way that you can be human,” he couldn’t even prove and without proof, he had nothing.

“That’s fucking stupid. Of course I’m a human,” the male argued.

“Then explain how you can see me.” It all came back to that one crippling factor. His guise was only unseen by human eyes. Any entity that was not human could see his true form. Rezzi was blind, and therefore she could not truly see him, but Dante didn’t have an excuse and he could see him perfectly.

“How the fuck can I do that? Maybe I’m an exception to the rule? Ever thought about that, you bird-brained dumbfuck?” Even though he argued with the Dius, his mind was in other places, trying to find anything that he could possibly use as proof of his existence as a human being. Searching through his memories, as well as multiple past occurrences rendered no results.

“I’ve never run across that before.” If he truly was an exception, then a lot of technicalities should be explained as it why he can.

‘I’ve been wondering this…the whole fucking time. Why can I see him? When I think about it, I don’t remember ever having any parents. I don’t even remember my childhood. Nothing but going to school one day and meeting Lannad and Rezzi. I’ve tried to remember my childhood, but I can’t and when people talk about their childhood around me, I never say anything. According to my grandfather, Hokusai, he told me that I was found by a priestess who raised me like a normal child after finding me in the middle of a field on a rainy day…but…I don’t even remember her face. I don’t remember the shrine or growing up there.’ Looking as if realization hit him, Dante sighed in defeat. “What’s wrong with me?” He pondered aloud lowly.

“Good question, not even I know that. I just know that the fact that you’re not completely human is the only thing I can think of as a possible answer to the fact that you can see me,” Tarvos walked up to the boy, stopping a couple of inches before him.

Dante shook and nausea built up in his form from thinking about all of this. The scenery spun and he had to keep himself from blacking out. His swimming vision stopped when Tarvos’ hand was sat on his shoulder, “I feel sick.”

Suddenly, he felt a cold face touching his cheek, giving it a compassionate nuzzle. “You’re just like me,” the demon purred into his ear.

“I will puke on your face. I’m nothing like you. I’m not a Dius,” his thoughts contradicted his words. ‘That I know of…but this is stupid. I can’t be. Please, tell me that I’m just a special case. There has got to be some legit reason I can see this guy, and I’m going to find out what it is.’



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Rezzi flung open the sliding doors of the shrine as the strong stench of death wafted out from the open area. Commenting on how it smelled of death, the blind girl stepped inside, followed by Ringo, who explained to her that everyone was dead and the rooms had already been checked on his last visit. She turned to him, choking on the air a little.

“Do you think that the Grand High Messiah did this?” She asked.

“What else could it be?” It was his only guess.

“We were trying to find out the place that Chaos has been resting,” Mae explained their unfruitful adventure.

“What would you do if you found Chaos and he was awake?” Did they even have a plan of action? What they were doing was highly dangerous. Rezzi wondered if they even knew just how much. The very thought of it worried her beyond definition.

“I would try to reseal him,” Lannad said from her position in the doorway.

“And if it didn’t work?” Rezzi persisted.

“Not sure,” Ringo looked at the blood splattered floor. That really was their only plan of action.

“I know it was dangerous, but we had to find this out. If Chaos is running around as well as the Grand High Messiah, then it makes out battle twice as hard,” Mae really hoped that her friend could at least see the good intentions in their methods. Sure, it wasn’t the best way to go about the situation, but they worked with what they would at the moment.

“It should have been something that we all did. We need to regather and get things straightened out. I think that everyone should be entitled to have common knowledge of certain things.” If they did not keep well-informed, then they didn’t have a chance, especially against anything like chaos and death double teaming them at any opportunity. Oz, David and Tony all needed to know about Chaos and Dante as well.

After going to the shrine, Rezzi gathered everyone. It wasn’t hard to find them all and once they came back from their respective training sessions, they gathered in her living room, assembled into a loose circle with a few stragglers like Tarvos and Dante hanging around the outside, disfiguring it a bit. Lannad explained all that she had told Rezzi, and what was supposed to happen to Chaos, as well as her grim findings at the shrine. She hated being the bearer of bad news, but there was no other way to bring the information to light.

“That’s all I can think of,” the blind girl finished, closing her eyes and frowning.

“Fucking great, so now we have to deal with two bastards instead of one,” Dante was the first to express his distaste of the unfortunate turn of events. It only added to his fret about his past and worry over his own identity.

“Which one do we go after?” David inquired. It was more of a question for Oz than anyone else.

“Chaos will be where the Grand High Messiah is. It doesn’t matter which one you go after because you will run into both if that’s the case.” Oz replied. It was simple when everyone thought about it, death and destruction when hand in hand.

“Since the Chaos case is pretty much leaving us cold, we should continue to pursue the Grand High Messiah,” Dante recommended that they stuck to their original goal. Adding anything more to their plate was just going to create more confusion. If they’ll meet both of them, then they should just go after one for the moment.

“I agree. We can’t be confusing things or no one will know what the hell we’re doing.” It made things simpler for David as well.

“Where should the Messiah be? Somewhere in town, right?” Tony inquired.

“More than likely,” Oz answered.

Lannad pulled out the black feather, gazing at it as she remembered finding it in one of the destroyed classrooms of the school.

“Then we should look for him there,” Tony settled.

“There will be a memorial service for those who died in the school massacre. I just hope nothing goes wrong. Those people have already lost so much,” Mae’s voice dropped into one of sorrow. She sincerely hoped that the Grand High Messiah would not target those mourners. More than anything, she would make sure to be at the school early, before any of them ended up dead.

She wanted her classmates to rest in peace.



…To Be Continued