//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Embrace of Light and Dark // by Knight of Crows //------------------------------// Cassiel POV So that happened. I don't know if it's the exhaustion, the pain or the injuries, but I don't feel like I can stand right now. That fight took a bit more out of me than I thought it would, but I was fighting a giant while out numbered so that should have been expected. I'm surprised though I didn't have to remove my mask for the other half of my power though, probably because of that potion, but at least I'll know what to expect if I have to fight one of those things again. My thoughts were interrupted by yelling and Nevermore lifting me up. "C'mon kid, say something. Tell me you're alright!" Nevermore said. "Aside from feeling like I can't move on my own I'm fine." Looking away from her I focused on the princesses nearing us, both of them holding their pole weapons as one would to show they mean no harm. "You're welcome by the way. I just saved the lives of everyone here and now unless you believe what I said or have decided to pardon me for crimes that never happened, you're going to arrest me. Which is it?" Go ahead, prove to me you're just like humans, give me reason to believe genocide is an act of kindness, an act of mercy. "We didn't come here to arrest you, not that our guards and subjects would be very appreciative of us doing so." Luna said. "We will however need to have a talk about this later." Of course we will Celestia. "As long as I'm not in a cell or forced into servitude I don't care." Can we please get a move on? We spent the trip back to the hospital mostly in silence. The pain subsided a little, but I still let Nevermore help me. She's at least proven to me I can trust her, even if she is who I think she is. I heard two voices at the end of the fight, but one I'm not going to use until later, even if I can use it now. "Blizzard." "Cure." I heard these 2 shortly after hitting the ground, if Cure does what I'm expecting it to do then I can be in and out of the hospital in the day. Unless disease is very common here I'm expecting that to heal my injuries, at least then I won't need to rely on that Zebrican poison I had to drink twice. "Cassiel, may I ask you something?" You just did Luna. "Shoot." "You kept saying you released Spoiled's heart instead of killing her. What's really the difference and where did you learn to do so?" "Just because you put two questions in one sentence doesn't mean it's only one question. *sigh* To answer your first question when someone dies they go to the afterlife unless their ties to the realm of the living are strong enough like a desire for revenge or an oath beyond death. Other times the spirit becomes corrupted and stays leading to poltergeists or other dangerous paranormal creatures like it." I don't need to see their faces to know they look unsettled by the idea of such things. "What about 'setting hearts free'?" I was getting to that. "When a heart is set free unless it goes to either destination in the afterlife it's supposed to go the worst they can do is watch, but because they never truly died they are still targets for the Heartless. If someone opens their heart to the other person's heart they can find refuge in theirs. They could sleep, watch, empower, or try to take over the host. As for where I learned this, well whatever Faust, that Goddess of Light didn't tell me I figured out on my own." Turning back for a moment they had a look of shock, but quickly changed that back. History with her maybe? "So that mare in your dreams explained more than just what a keyblade is?" No I didn't just explain that to you. "As well as a few things they can do, the magic I use is apparently part of what it lets wielders do. Now enough questions, I'm too sore to endure another interrogation." She opened her mouth to say something, but Celestia stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. We arrived at the hospital which was left alone in all this and went back to my room to find Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Twilight unconscious still. The princesses immediately went to them to confirm they were fine before turning to me and Nevermore. "Would you two care to explain what happened here?" Celestia asked, obviously not pleased by this. "In no particular order: I said something that caused Fluttershy to faint, Rainbow took a nap and is probably dead asleep right now, and I knocked Twilight out to end her seemingly never ending list of questions." I lied as I got on the bed. I owed Nevermore that much at least. I may not be grateful and I'm certainly not a 'nice' guy, but I at least pay my debts. "You attacked my student??!!" She nearly yelled. "No, I pinched her neck at the right spot to do so. If I want to hurt someone I don't hold back. From cheap shots to sensitive topics I have no problem with using them. From nut shots to targeting broken bones, from insecurities to actual problems, from illness to disability, and from secrets to family. They're all fair game." She clenched her fists. "Alright I want answers. Luna won't tell me so let's hear it! Explain your cruelty, your callous disregard for others and your own life." You asked for it. "Fine, I'll tell you, after they are gone." I gestured to the still unconscious ponies. Nevermore carried them to the lobby as I waited for her to come back. When she did I began to tell them my life story. "I was 7 when a psychopath broke into our home. I hid in the closet as I watched him kill my father, rape my mother, kill her, defile her corpse, and take all our money." I can feel the anger rising, begging for an outlet. Looking to the others I saw pure rage in Nevermore's eyes, Celestia already looked a mix of heartbroken and livid. "The killer and I heard noise outside, it was my grandparents bringing back my 5 year old sister from their home, she liked to play with the animals in that zoo of a home they had. The killer took everything of value he could which was around 5 digits, my family probably live more luxurious lives than most nobles in Equestria. He ran outside, killed my grandparents with my family's weapon we've inherited for almost 100 years, kidnapped my sister, and stole their car." This is one of many reasons why I want to kill off my emotions. "Before he could get in the car though I worked up the courage to try to save my sister, I grabbed every knife I could since a better ranged weapon was unavailable, and threw everything I had at him. I hit him a few times, but not in fatal areas. He turned around and shot me twice before driving off. Had 1 shot been a few centimeters to the left I would have died." I showed them the scars on my torso, I wish I did die that day. Celestia tried to hug me, but one summon and desummon of Nightfall got her to back off. "I barely survived, 4 days later he and my sister were found. I couldn't even recognize her, that's just part of what he did to her, I don't to say the rest of it. Apparently money could buy you anything, and blackmail is an incredibly useful thing as he was found innocent of all charges despite DNA evidence, video evidence, eye witness a.k.a me and others that should have guaranteed him the death sentence." Their faces are all now filled with the rage I saw in Nevermore's eyes. "I was adopted by my piece of shit uncle and crack whore aunt who both hated my parents. Cigar burns, black eyes, broken appendages, days starved, the fun stuff. The enrolled me into a new school less than a week after they took me in without my knowledge or consent and the students and staff are REAL pieces of work." Disbelief among other emotions on the anger and sadness parts of the spectrum. "Not a day went by that I didn't hear 'nigger' or other incredibly racist things, I only knew 2 of the dozens I'd hear a day. Not a day went by that I didn't have someone mocking my dead family or me for crying about it which got me beat by them, suspended, and beat once more at home. Not a day went by I wasn't mugged by other students, sometimes with the staff watching. This was somehow unnoticed or ignored by the law and school system." I'm now seeing flames in Celestia's mane, Luna's eyes shifted back to Nightmare's, and Nevermore's arms are now bleeding a lot from how deep she's digging her nails into them. "Three years of that hell went by and I managed to get myself ahead of others my age when I proved I was at a high school level at only 10. That other school was eventually shut down and demolished when I was able to tell the right people. Life at home was still absolute hell, but this new school was better than the other in every way possible. I had already killed off most of my emotions and kept the ones that would get me through life, I'm sure you can figure out which ones those were." "In that same year I found the killer. It took everything I had to not kill him right there. No, I waited until night, followed him home, and after stealing money from my aunt and uncle I bought anything and everything to help cover myself. I picked the lock, spiked his $500+ wine with a paralytic drug I stole from my aunt, and waited a few hours for it to kick in. I made sure he wasn't even able to scream as I spent the next 4 hours killing him. I didn't let him lose consciousness as I broke every bone in his body, slashed his eyes, and castrated him with a rusted carving knife just to name a few." They now had fear in their eyes. Perfect. "I dismembered him after finally killing him to make disposing of the body easier. I burned his home down while making it look like a kitchen fire combined with all his alcohol and threw his body into a pre-dug hole a few miles away. I set that ablaze as well before burying him. I disposed of other evidence like my clothes and shoes I wore to the scene. I made sure I had a solid alibi with me being in bed at midnight and the only thing linking me to him was the case with my family. I did everything right, body not found, home destroyed, the case wasn't even considered to be murder. Just he went missing at the same time his home was destroyed." Now I can't read those expressions on everyone's faces. "You know what? After everything that happened, nothing changed." I'm now crying myself again. "The abuse, the neglect, the pain, nothing changed, and worst of all the damn nightmares.THE NIGHTMARES DIDN'T END BECAUSE I WOULD KEEP WAKING UP TO ONE!!!" I quickly suppressed these emotions to make getting on with the story easier. "That was when I truly made progress to killing my emotions, I realized that the secret of pain isn't knowing how to properly inflict it, but knowing how not to feel it. I learned lucid dreaming, and only made progress to who you see now. A True Death would've been, and would still be an act of kindness even now because this isn't living, it's waiting for a miracle that will never happen." I resummoned Nightfall because I knew at least one of them would try to comfort me. They both left the room leaving me and Nevermore alone. I used Nightfall to lock the door. "Sound proof the room if you can." I said to her. "You don't get to order me around kid." She said defiantly. "Will you please sound proof the room if you can Raven." She didn't look too surprised to hear me say her name as she did so. Her horn glowed as the room flashed. "There, now if you'll wait a moment." Her horn glowed again as she changed her appearance. Wings spread out with an inky black substance hanging from them, but not dropping. Her pupils are now slitted, the whites in her eyes changed to black and are seeping black smoke. Her armor was replaced with a black dress with some armor plating, her mane now looked like an ever changing shadow that stayed at or past shoulder length, and she now had fangs. "So Cassiel, what would you like to talk about?" Raven asked smiling as she sat down. So this is the Goddess of Darkness hm? She's off to a good start at least.