Suikoden Fan Fiction ❯ Scream ❯ One-Shot

Scream

Albert looked out over the water, lost in thought. The initial stages of his plan had proven successful, now he had only to return to Harmonia to further them.

His long, heavy, white coat barely moved in the cool wind blowing over the side of the cliff he stood on. His deep red hair burned in the hard sunlight shining down on him. Turning on his heel, Albert made to move away from the cliff - and stopped.

Yuber was standing a few feet behind him, watching the strategist as intently as Albert had been watching the sea. "Did you want something? I am surprised you are still here."

"I'm finished. I merely wait for my next opportunity to spill blood."

Albert looked at him, "Why wait for others to direct you? Clearly you are at the mercy of no one."

The blonde haired man laughed, his mismatched eyes glittering, "Where is the fun in destruction so mindless as that?"

"You didn't strike me as the type to care."

"Ah, but I do. Bloodshed is sweeter for the pain it causes others. A mindless frenzy is not half so much fun as decimating those who fight for a so-called noble purpose. That is where the pleasure lay."

"Is that why one so powerful as you chooses to follow lesser individuals around?"

"In part."

Albert tensed as Yuber stepped closer, moving in the lazy, cat-like manner that Albert has always found vaguely annoying. It was as if the man had all the time in the world, and refused to move at any speed but his own. "I do not follow you."

"Do you enjoy manipulating others, Silverberg?"

"It is not a matter of enjoyment. The strong dominate and lead the weak, that is all there is to it. My family has always played a strong role in shaping history. That is what we do."

"Your lineage has never suffered from lack of confidence."

"Come to your point. I must leave soon and I tire of bandying words with a demon like you."

"Demon?" Yuber laughed softly, "I am ever amused by the constant desire in your family to dominate and manipulate others. Even that charming younger brother of yours shares the trait. It is your downfall every time."

"I fail to see why you even care, never mind that you're sorely mistaken. Our lineage continues as strong as ever - I would not consider that a downfall."

"Ah, but you never move up in the world, do you? Ever the strategists of great people, but never truly great yourselves."

Albert's hands clenched into fists for a second, before his careful calm restored itself, "That will change."

"Indeed."

Albert stared coldly at the mismatched eyes looking straight at him, "Still you have not come to your point. I do not see where this conversation is leading."

"Oh? That is a flaw - should not a strategist of your caliber be able to predict everything?"

The red head made no reply.

"Your entire life, Silverberg, has been about learning to manipulate and control others. Do you know what it's like to let others control you? To let yourself be manipulated?"

"The foundation of our world is based on people manipulating one another. People use me all the time, just as I use them. It is simply that I am better at it."

"So still you remain ultimately in control."

"Of course. That is what my family does, do you not listen?"

Yuber laughed again, Albert hated the sound. It had been years since anyone had made him feel this way - inferior.

"You asked why I choose to let "lesser individuals" lead me around. Part of it is simply that there is no one equal to me, save one. I follow those who offer the greatest promise of blood for me to shed, but there is also a thrill is letting others control me. You, I think, do not understand this."

"What pleasure could possibly be derived from that? It leads only to weakness and failure. If you are not in control, you are ultimately the loser."

"Ah, but don't you ever get tired of the top? Always watching, observing, controlling?" Yuber dropped his lazy manner, abruptly moving to capture Albert's arms, pinning them to his side and holding the man tightly in place against him. He brought his face close to Albert's ear, his smooth voice low, "Don't you wonder, from time to time, what it would be like to let someone control you? Dominate you? Being always in control gets awfully boring."

Albert struggled in Yuber's grip, unsurprised to find he could not break free. He was a strategist, not a combatant - and Yuber was entirely out of his league. He did not enjoy the knowledge. "It's too time consuming to be boring. Let me go." His voice was flat, and he stared out past Yuber's shoulder, as the man's face was still angled toward his neck.

Yuber laughed against his throat, and Albert shivered at the feel of it vibrating through even his heavy coat. "Are you hoping to teach me then, demon? I always had the distinct impression you held no interest in such things. "Blood and screams" is what you profess to have a taste for."

"Sometimes one scream can be infinitely sweeter than a hundred. There hasn't been a Silverberg such as you for generations. Your family tree is soaked in blood, and you show great promise in drenching it further."

"Did you want to follow me and participate in the spilling of that blood, demon?"

Yuber laughed again, "I will join whichever side calls me first. Losing and winning mean nothing to me. But you would do better to have me as an ally rather than an enemy, I think."

"I'm aware of that. I just wonder now what your catch is. You seemed to ask nothing of Luc, but I can see I won't be so fortunate."

"He paid a price, but that is none of your concern. Ah, but your price. It can be fun to let the weaker use me, but I still have a taste for control every now and then. If you want to avoid making me your enemy, I would hear your screams."

"You are an enemy to everything living."

Yuber smirked, "But scream for me and I would cease to be your enemy for quite some time. I have long had a taste for the Silverberg family, they come so close to equaling me. Give me your screams and you can control me all you like."

He loosened his grip, and Albert broke away, stepping hastily back. "I don't do the bidding of demons." He moved forward, passing quickly by the smirking Yuber and his strange mismatched eyes.

Yuber turned, grabbing him around the waist and again pulling the strategist flush against him. He smirked at the fury dancing in Albert's eyes, "Your family hasn't changed in all the years it's existed. You're as ruthless and bloodthirsty as I. Eventually you will need me, because I am the only one that can do what you will require. You will call me, and you will scream for me." He leaned forward, closing what little space lay between them.

One hand buried itself in dark red hair, keeping the furious strategist from jerking his head away as Yuber's mouth covered his own. Albert fought against the painful kiss, helpless as the blonde-haired man deepened it, bruising Albert's lips and dizzying him with the taste of blood and darkness, the taste of Yuber.

Yuber pulled back, that smirk Albert hated again forming on his lips. "If it makes you feel any better, you won't be the first Silverberg to scream for me. Though I do think you will be the sweetest." He laughed as he released the strategist, pulling his hat further down over his face as he turned and walked away, his moves as graceful and lazy as they had been before.

Albert pressed the back of his hand against his sore lips, a hundred plans and ideas shifting and reshaping in his mind as he searched for a way to wipe the beautiful, sadistic shadow from his plans. But the absence of the man in his own plans meant he was an unpredictable part of Albert's eventual enemies. Which he couldn't - wouldn't - tolerate. He glared out over the sea, the hand pressed against his mouth falling to his side.