Catalyst

Chapter 13

"Minister Haile," asked a dirty looking plain faced man. He stood outside the Minister's quarters pleading. "Please, I've prayed for months for my wife's health. She still isn't getting any better. Father I beg you, I know it's late but her fever..." the man choked up dropping to his knees in front of Haile trying desperately not to sob. "I beg you oh please come and bless her. Pray over my wife so that she will receive the humbling healing power of our Light Father." Looking back at the door to his room Haile grinned before turning back to the pleading man. He knelt down and placed his hand on his shoulder,

"Allen, son; of course I'll come pray for her." Haile answered helping the man up.

"Bless you minister, bless you." Allen replied.
.......................................................................................
Meanwhile, Cavan sat in the corner of the pitch black space within the illusion of the room wondering how long he'd been in there. His eyes were shot with red as he stared at the nearly invisible opposite wall. How would siding with this sadistic bastard in any way free him from Seiru's grip?

It wouldn't.

He was trapped between a rock and a bigger rock. In this situation, knowing was absolutely NOT half the battle. He'd been left to ponder his next decision in solitude. The door was nonexistent yet again, so he couldn't leave. Great. If he wanted any more knowledge on what was going on around Aizik and himself he'd have to agree to side with Siel. Of course if he didn't he'd be raped to death. Sure that sounded like a lot of fun.

And just what did Siel mean by this was the only way to save Aizik? Save him from what? Seiru?

Aizik could take care of himself. Right?

I'm sorry I hate you. Please die.

Cavan's body shook with emotion for a moment. What was going to happen to him? His friend, his brother who'd saved him so many times before? The one truly good man Cavan had ever known?

"Siel..." he called. It was time. His decision was made. There was too much they didn't know, and too much at stake. "Siel!" he shouted. How long would he have to wait?
.......................................................................................

"You cannot be weak, Aizik. You can have no vulnerabilities." came that voice again. His own voice. Aizik's eyes watered at the brightness of the creature's visage. The wings glowed with a brilliance not unlike the sun.

"I'm not weak." he answered.

"You were before, and you brought something into this world that should have passed from it. Your weakness nearly caused several horrible tragedies. Your weakness caused a flaw. A flaw that only you can correct, Aizik." said the creature.

Aizik blinked staring into the light harder. The being was still turned away.

"I...was...weak?" Aizik asked softly.

"And without the part you gave up, you always will be."

"Part...I gave up?"

"The part you left behind so that you could-"

Aizik

Aizik blinked again as the angelic presence in front of him blurred and faded. Was he dreaming? Was he really asleep?

Hey, Aizik!

"Eira?"

Eyes fluttering open, the veil of darkness lifted slowly from his vision. His body stiffened with sleep and from past days of effort groaned as he moved to sit up. Eira stood in front of him. The wagon had stopped moving.

"Yeah, we're here." she told him smiling. It was bright outside from the looks of the light pouring in from the curtain. They were the only two still in the wagon.

"Right, thanks for waking me." Aizik replied smiling back as he wound his shoulders around stretching the stiff muscles before he stood.

Outside was a checkpoint fort similar in look to the first. Three men who weren't soldiers stood outside waiting to greet the other two members of the group while Hayen and Lynn stood with Malana and Grieves outside the wagon.

"We heard it was a rough ride." Jin said walking forward. He smiled warmly holding his hand out and shaking both Eira and Aizik's.

"You must Eira, and you must be Aizik. No relation to that mass murdering psychopath I'm guessing." he joked. Aizik just shook his head. "That's good. I'm Jin. The ninja boy over there is Shek, and the guy with the viola is Liron."

Eira looked at both of them and suddenly there was a hint of confusion in her eyes. Aizik just smiled at them.

"Good to meet you all," he said. Liron walked over to them and shook their hands as well. Eira continued staring at them strangely. Shek bowed respectfully.

"Greetings," he said. His voice was light, yet harsh sounding in a slight way womanly somewhat like Cavan. Aizik and Eira bowed as well.

"Good, now we've all met. If you don't mind, we're all quite tired I'm sure," Grieves said looking out at the people he'd just shared a wagon ride and kidnapping with for the better part of the last three days. Each of them nodded.

"I'm about ready to collapse right here. Sleeping on that bumpy ride with all these ass-kick wounds wasn't exactly five-star treatment," Hayen quipped .

"Agreed." Aizik replied. Eira's tension when it came to Hayen had yet to be relieved. How could she trust someone who was so obviously against them? There was obviously something about him that neither she nor Aizik knew, but what could it be? Even more unsettling was the shadows she saw over the new friendly faces in front of her.

Jin chuckled and patted Aizik on the shoulder.

"Alright, no problem. I'll show you two Alium folks to your room." he said. Eira's body stiffened as she nodded in agreement. Aizik noticed, but said nothing. "Hey Grieves he called." the being pretending to be Nigel Grieves looked up at him.

"Yes?"

"How about later we head out to the company bar and see whose side the Lord is on when it comes to whiskey?" he asked.

"Come on now Jin, you know I no longer partake. I am a minister after all."

Jin's eyes took a particularly odd gleam.

"Right, of course."
..............................................................................................

Eregel looked up seeing a faint light glowing. He panted returned to his male form. How long had he been down here suffering Gaies's torment? After every 'playtime' session the lights would fade and Eregel would be left to drip dry from the thick steaming yellowish-white looking ejaculate. The flickering was different and Eregel slowly came to fear the approaching presence. She was here.

"My my! Eregel, it is you!" came a sickeningly sweet voice airy and light yet somehow dragging along the decrepit corpse of sincerity behind it's flowery tone.

"Lilith..." Eregel growled. Suddenly a glowing flame erupted behind a shorter young looking woman maybe somewhere between fourteen and sixteen. She wore a black and red dress with netted stockings and had a long trailing red bow in her hair. The hair of which was bright almost platinum blonde overshadowing her yellow-orange eyes. She smiled coyly floating up to face Eregel. "You little nymphet cunt!"

Lilith's smile disappeared in lieu of a frown. "Now now, Eregel." Lilith said her voice echoing out against the unseen walls. Eregel's body tensed as the demon queen neared him. "Is that any way to speak to your mother?"

Pain. Eregel's mouth filled and erupted with blood spilling up through his throat surging up from the newly developed hole in his stomach. Lilith's hand flexed its fingers within the opened flesh prodding the spine of her insolent child before smiling and pulling the hand out. Blood thick and dark poured from him like a faucet running at full torque.

"You've been far too unruly for far too long my dear child." Lilith berated looking at her hand dripping with blood. She twirled her fingers around in it.

"What are you gonna do?" Grieves asked grinning painfully through his reddened teeth up at his 'mother' "Kill me?"

"Oh wouldn't that be convenient for you?" Lilith asked chuckling. She licked the red mess from her hand all the way down her arm cleaning herself not unlike a cat.

"You're disgusting. You claim motherhood when you're nothing but a spurned bitch with an ego problem." More pain. A slash fiercer than the claws of a lion bolted across Eregel's face slicing his lips and tongue raking ringing cuts across his very gums.

"We will not speak of this now." Lilith said quickly flicking the new blood from her black painted fingernails. Her eyes went back to Eregel, "I have a use for you Eregel. I have an errand to run, so if you're done fucking your brother, I'd like you to accompany me. I'll explain on the way."

Eregel knew it would be tough, but he had no choice if he wanted to have any chance to make a break for it.

Lilith smirked, "Good, now get dressed up and be my daughter again."
.......................................................................................

Hours counted by in his head. How many? Cavan knew it was foolish to try and keep track.

"Haile!" he shouted throwing his head back against the wall behind him and stretching his lungs to capacity with the scream. Suddenly a pair of shining blue eyes appeared in the darkness.

"You called?" came the enthralling voice.

"Talk." Cavan demanded. Haile smiled behind the veil of shadows.

"You will aid me?" the creature within the minister asked darkly. Cavan nodded slowly.

"I'm tired of being in the dark on this," his eyes rolled around the room, "no pun intended. Tell me what's going on, and what I have to do to save Aizik."

"There are more questions that that Cavan." Haile said coming out of the dark and sitting in front of him.

"How about a hint?"

"Why? Why are you so willing to protect Aizik? You think he can't take care of himself? He's far more powerful than you could imagine. What makes you think there's anything you can do?"

"I don't think. I just believe. I guess belief in something intangible wouldn't mean much to something like you though would it?" Cavan taunted. Haile chuckled clapping lightly.

"Very funny Cavan. If you're still making jokes, perhaps you 'believe' this to be a game." he grimly jested. Cavan looked up at him.

"Look, I agreed to do you stupid fucking task whatever it is just tell me what I need to do!" snapped an exhausted Cavan. Siel smirked at him standing and turning away.

"You're not ready. Too bad."

"Wait!" Cavan shouted. Siel faded into the dark slowly as the scorned man behind hims scrambled to stand and chase into the dark finding nothing. "Wait a second you SON OF A BITCH! Fuck!" exclaimed Cavan as he looked around angered. What the hell did that cocky bastard want from him?
.........................................................................................................

Eira lay in bed staring at the ceiling. The paint patterns always pulled her in. She found intricate little designs and shapes in them almost painting her own picture in the chaos. Some were as simple as a square and others looked like a hunched man placing a key in a door (it was her favorite because it made her think up stories to tell her future children).

"Did you try taking off your glasses?" came Adam's voice. Eira looked to her left seeing him standing there smiling at her with his usual warm smile. Aizik also lay on his bed thinking whereas she'd been mindlessly playing connect the dots with the ceiling drips. She blushed a little and shook her head. Adam chuckled.

"Well, maybe you should try it next time. You may surprised at what you see."

"You mean, like what I saw on Jin and Liron?" she whisper lightly glancing over at Aizik. His eyes were closed and his body relaxed. She was glad, he needed sleep. There was no way he'd really recovered from what happened when they were captured.

"There's more to it than that, but yes. Try it now, why don't you take a look at Aizik and tell me what you see?" Adam asked. Eira looked up at him for a moment then slowly removed the glasses he'd given her. Her vision was drastically worse. Everything in the room that wasn't Adam became a stagnant blur fuzzed out against a wall of unsight. Eira squinted and turned her gaze to Aizik. There was something over him. Some black smudge. His image waxed and waned like the phases of the moon coming clearer and then more skewed as she looked at him. He didn't look like he belonged in the scene she watched. Perhaps he wasn't truly there at all? His mind was certainly elsewhere. Squinting harder she felt Adam's hand on her shoulder.

"Hey now, don't force it." he instructed. "Seeing these things is as easy as you make it."

Eira was confused, but relaxed her eyes which was impossibly difficult with the abundance of blurred objects. Something was different about the scene now. It wasn't clearer as she relaxed, but it seemed to come together. The darkness over Aizik was isolated looming only over him. It saddened her to look at it. Aizik was trying so hard to be strong, but she could sense his uncertainty. Being away from Cavan was taking its toll on his mind. It worried him.

"Okay...I see a black cloud over him. His image is...well...it's weird." Eira tried to explain.

"Right, now you can focus on him. Look deep." instructed Adam removing his hand from her shoulder. Eira looked closer at Aizik. Suddenly a shift happened. Out of nowhere the image of Kanus dead on the cathedral door came back into her mind. The blood and the mutilation came back to her. The hatred she felt for that evil presence. Suddenly Eira couldn't escape that malice she'd felt towards the two men who'd killed everyone in the cathedral, her holy place where she'd bled and cried so many nights.

"Ugh!" she exclaimed grabbing her head and burying her face in her pillow. Screams bellowed in her mind. That screaming rage she felt that day came crashing back to her mind. It pushed on the back of her eyes and filled her chest with held in roars. Eyes giving way to tears she barely whimpered. "Stop it..." She didn't want to feel this. She didn't want to think that about them.

"Eira are you-"
Aizik

Eira swung a closed fist out at him striking his hand away from her as he tried to help her.
"No!" she screamed looking up at him with glistening eyes and a red face. "Don't! I don't want to be touched right now. Just go away." she snarled.

"Eira, you can't hold back forever you know. As much as you like this man, you hate this man. He did something you can't forgive after all, right?" Adam asked sitting down next to her.

"Eira...I'm sorry..." Aizik answered going back to lie down. Eira buried her face again leaving her mouth exposed as she tried to catch her breath.

"No..." she answered. "He...I forgive him. If I could forgive Kanus then..." she choked blinking back the rest of the tears. Did she really still feel that way about him. "Then I can forgive someone like him." Adam smiled clapping his hands a few times.

"I see. Good. Then I don't have to tell you than no matter what you see, no matter how true it seems, you should always follow your heart. That will become far more powerful than your eyes."

Silence. Adam had left. Eira lay sniffling for several minutes trying to determine whether she really still did hate Aizik or not. She knew that even though she might have felt something for him for a short while that was gone. Even so, she did like him. He was different, and he was good. A truly good person, whatever was going on in his mind was trying to ruin him, and he was fighting it with all he had. If she still hated a man like that...

As determined as he was not to die so he could accomplish something he and Cavan strived for, he still almost gave his life to protect someone else he barely knew. Hayen was such a bastard if he still didn't trust Aizik after that. Eira wiped her eyes.

"Aizik?" she called. He was still. It seemed he'd fallen asleep pretty hard. She'd apologize tomorrow then. No sense in waking him. Eira only hoped he didn't feel bad or anything because to him she'd seemingly freaked out over nothing at all.
....................................................................................................

Aizik lay on the ground blood pouring from several wounds on his body. Everything around him had faded. Eyes seeing nothing, he was gone. Still, somewhere there he was standing before the closing gates of eternal life. A figure standing before him surrounded in light and celestial feathers. The scene was frozen in his mind as Aizik approached the image of himself and winged figure.

"Is this..." he whispered. His own hardened voice came from behind him.

"It is, Aizik. When you came back from death. After your fight with Ralus. You don't remember do you? Who I am?" asked the angelic man. Aizik turned to him and shook his head slowly.

"I am Michael." said the winged Aizik. He walked in front of the frozen image of Aizik and pointed to its face. "Stare into these eyes." Aizik walked over and gazed into his own eyes. A shiver went up his spine. They were...living. A fiery passion burned within those eyes. Even though they couldn't see him it seemed they burned their way deep into him. In an instant Aizik knew.

"That's...not me." he gasped. Michael shook his head.

"This part of you was left behind when you brought something else back with you." he answered. "This Aizik is your true strength. This is the part of you that rebelled against Ralus, this is the part of you that refused to submit to murder in the name of a greater good any longer. This is the you that overcame your weakness. This is the part of you, that you no longer possess."

"But...why? What did I bring back?" Aizik asked. Michael looked at him solemnly.

"You abused the power I gave you. Until now you haven't truly possessed the strength for me to communicate with you. Now I can tell you. You are a weapon I created to combat the evils of the world. Mankind's greatest defense against demons. There was no reason you had to be but a weapon, yet it's all that remained after you left the rest of yourself behind. Without this part of yourself, you are merely a compassionate base filled with God's wrath. Did you ever wonder why your 'hate' was so powerful? So powerful in fact that you've never been able to use it fully aside from the fight with Ralus?"

"What?" Aizik asked turning to face Michael.

"Your free will can contort any power within yourself Aizik, and that even includes our Father's wrath against evil. This power...you used it to bring someone back with you when you returned to life."

"What do you mean? Who did I bring back?" Aizik urged.

"As my weapon, the Catalyst, you can harbor untold amounts of power and even the life and will of human souls. The reason the souls of those you've killed weighs so heavily on you is because they're desire to live is within you. Their very lifeforce fuels a deeper power within you. When you were told that bringing back that person required an equivalent amount of power, instead of giving up the souls of those you'd killed, you gave up the part of your own. Had you kept it, it's doubtful that you'd have had to kill so many people."

Aizik's heart nearly stopped.

"What are you saying?" he rasped barely able to even continue speaking.

"You felt that in order to make up for the innocent lives you took you'd have to carry their life around with you for the rest of yours. A noble gesture, but all it did was further distance you to your compassion allowing you to easier take life by giving in to hatred of your enemy. Still..." Michael trailed.

"Michael, who did I bring back!?" Aizik shouted. Michael met his eyes.

"Two people. Aizik, did you know that Cavan has a regret not unlike yours? One that would bar him from heaven if he didn't let it go?"

"Why are you telling me this?"

"It has to do with his parents deaths. Something you may ask him about one day. During that fight with Ralus...what do you remember happening? Do you remember the end?"

"No. I was pretty banged up. I died for a little while don't you remember?" Aizik said aggressively. His impatience was showing completely, but Michael didn't seem to pay it any mind.

"Ralus would have beaten you. You were down on the ground after he used Cavan to shield himself from one of your attacks. You stopped and gave him a blow he needed to floor you. Before he could strike you to you death, Cavan grabbed him and called for you to attack. Unable to see clearly you struck killing them both."

Aizik's eyes widened as the scene played behind Michael.

Aizik was just about to cut off Ralus's head, he was so open, but in that moment his eyes shot to his opponent's blade. It was just above Cavan's head. He was too mesmerized to even notice. Aizik staid his sword and Ralus struck.

First a cut glanced his left arm. Aizik knew it had been intended for the other, but he turned just in time. Sadly the attack turned him further and he exposed his back. Whirling to face his attacker he failed to block a strike to his chest. It was glancing, but precise cutting a gash in his muscles. Aizik nearly fell from that alone, but instead raised his blade to block an attack at his throat. There was no impact. It was a feint!

Too late.

The sword cut through his guts spattering blood across the wall to his left. Legs giving out fell to his knees.

Watching from afar, Aizik saw himself nearly faint in that moment. His eyes were glossed over, it was clear now. He never saw what happened, he'd only heard Cavan cry out his name and struck to try and save his friend. Instead...

"No..." Aizik whispered as the scene faded into a bloody emptiness before disappearing.

"Ralus held tightly to that boy, and since the part of your soul you gave up was so powerful, there was some wiggle room when Cavan was torn from the gates of the abyss. Ralus escaped as well thanks to some 'help' unfortunately." Michael explained. Aizik dropped to his hands and knees.

"I couldn't..."

"It was not intentional Aizik, besides it's nothing compared with what you have to do now." Michael said closing his eyes.

"What do you mean?" Aizik asked with his voice full of uncertainty. Mind reeling even in this dream, it was all coming back to him. "What do I have to do now?"

Michael knelt in front of him putting his hand on his shoulder.
"If you want to regain what you gave up, if you want to save anyone.." he began as Aizik looked up at him, "You have to kill Ralus..."

There was a long pause. Aizik's eyes widened again,

"And...Cavan..." Michael nodded.

"Again."

Awake. Aizik's eyes were wide open again. His stomach soured and suddenly all the terrible feelings he'd have several days ago about something changing made sense. He wasn't sure what happened that day, but he knew only that he still knew absolutely nothing. What had they gotten themselves into?