Divinitas

023 - Blood Stained Butterfly

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The motorbike pulled up in front of the main gates into Genesis, its motor rumbling with impatience to be off again. Phoenix dismounted, pulling the helmet off his head and tossing it back to Ash with a grin.

\"Thanks for giving me a lift back,\" the fiery eyed boy said as he ran a hand through his red and gold locks to return them to their usual messy arrangement. \"And thanks for the advice and letting me crash at your place for the night. I really shouldn\'t drink, should I? It\'s pathetic how little it takes to put me under.\"

Ash laughed. \"Think nothing of it. It was a pleasure to carry you all the way from the bar back to my pad,\" he said with a wink and making Phoenix blush. The sixteen year old quickly shook his head, waving to Ash as the young man swung his bike around and roared down the road upon which he came.

Phoenix remained standing there until the motorcycle disappeared from view, then turned around to face the Castle of Genesis looming above him. \"Show him I love him, huh…\" he whispered as his eyes travelled along the tall towers that gleamed golden in the sunlight.

Images from his recurring dream suddenly flashed in his mind\'s eye. Flying, always flying. Then being caught, crushed, by that giant hand. The hand of a god…? Phoenix shook his head, angered suddenly. Why now? After so many weeks of its absence, did it suddenly rear its ugly head?

Because Destiny is moving again.

\"Who\'s there?!\" Phoenix demanded, turning around frantically. Who had spoken so clearly in his mind… With his voice, yet not his voice…?

\"Phoenix!\"

The red haired boy spun around to the main entrance of the school, letting out a breath he had not realised he\'d been holding when he recognised the angel-faced child running towards him. His lungs were once again abused as the green eyed boy crashed into Phoenix, wrapping his small yet extremely strong arms around him in a bear hug.

\"We missed you! Everyone was worried when you didn\'t come back last night!\" Chima claimed, looking up at the squeezed Phoenix without loosening his grip.

\"Had - to - work - extra - shift!\" Phoenix choked out, trying desperately to inhale a decent breath of air.

\"But, but! Aether went to look for you! And I know he came back alone because Solar Flare was complaining to me just this morning…\"

Instantly Phoenix stiffened. Aether had come looking for him? He would have found Phoenix, there was no doubt of that in Phoenix\'s mind. So… Why did he return without picking Phoenix up?

\"…he said he\'d never been ridden so inconsiderately. I think Aether\'s really mad at something from what Solar Flare was saying. Don\'t know why, but he was pretty concerned when you weren\'t at dinner… He didn\'t even respond when Casi provoked him… Hey, don\'t you think there\'s something between those two?\" Chima giggled suddenly, his serious demeanour disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Phoenix finally snapped out of his little daze and pried the boy off him. His heart was suddenly racing at a hundred miles and hour, pumping his veins full of burning adrenaline. All his mind could mull over was the fact that Aether had left him… Why? What had he seen to make him leave so suddenly without him?

\"Sorry, Chima. I\'ll tell someone next time. Look, I gotta find Aether. Tell Draco I\'m okay, will you?\" The fiery boy was running towards the main entrance before Chima could reply.

Chima blinked, mouth open to say words that were never heard. Finally he just shrugged and started hopping back to the school.



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Why was he so desperate to find that fiend? So what if Aether had come looking for him and then left, even after finding him? Besides, what made him so damn sure Aether had found him? Grrr…

Phoenix suddenly stopped his rebellious body, breathing deeply to calm his raging heart and mind. The only sound that disturbed him were his loud ragged breaths. He was standing in one of the numerous corridors, quite lost. After searching Aether\'s quarters to find them empty, he had simply wandered randomly. Even after all this time, did he know so little about the Child of Soul to not even have a inkling of where he might go to pass time?

The boy slapped himself in the face. \"Stop thinking such thoughts, idiot…\" he seethed, glaring up at the vivid artistic ceiling. They were always smiling. Smiling, smiling, without a care in the world. Their fake painted smiles. Eyes that looked down upon him, so real they might have had souls behind them.

\"Yes, I\'m a idiot! A stupid, foolish parentless idiot! So quit staring and laughing at me already!\" Phoenix shouted out to the images of deities, floating motionless above him.

And then suddenly, an eye winked at him.

The shock was so sudden and great it sent the boy falling backwards onto his backside. Pearls of laughter rang out at his misfortune, distant as if in another room. He wasn\'t going insane, right…? But the ceiling. Something was moving behind the images. A shadow of light that filtered through the figures, slowly moving away from where Phoenix sat sprawled on the cold stone floor.

Without thinking, his eyes still fixed on the ghostly shadow, the boy scrambled to his feet and gave chase. Damn any lingering ghostly spirit to make him doubt his already troubled mind! Down into the depths of the castle it led him on a wild goose chase, his pounding footsteps echoing eerily along the deserted hallways. Somewhere in the back of his mind a voice made it known that he had not passed another person for ages. These walls were alien to him, and there were no longer any windows to let in the warm comforting sunlight no matter how long an interval he travelled. There was no doubt he was travelling underground now. Beneath the Metamorphosis training hall even.

Here the painted ceilings were darker in content. The beings, though still utterly beautiful and perfect, were no longer angelic, representative of Heaven. Here their wings were coloured black, backed with the night skies and haunting moon. Yet still the ghostly shadow ran through them, an ever changing figure of light that moved in the universe of the paintings. Every now and then the tinkling laughter would made itself heard, voiced by a sweet child.

A set of double doors loomed into view. Made of some dark metal, it bore the symbol of the Child of Soul surrounded by the four elemental signatures. An eye encircled by air, fire, earth and water.

Phoenix stopped short, skidding to a halt in time to see the shadow of light glide through the slit at the top of the doors. There wasn\'t a sound except his tortured lungs desperately sucking and expelling air and the fluttering of his heart to disturb the silence.

Dilated crimson eyes searched the doors, staring at the central eye. It was the same signature his collar bore. Perhaps… Perhaps this was were Aether was? A place he came often…? But why would Aether have a room all the way down here. He was just another student, wasn\'t he? Did the title Child of Soul carry with it so many hidden privileges?

Phoenix growled at himself, shaking his head once again. These thoughts were getting really, really annoying. He had come this far. He might as well open the damned doors and see what laid behind before he went completely insane.

Laying his palms against the solid metal, he leaned his weight into them and pushed. Without the tiniest of sounds, the doors swung inwards, a sign they were both well oiled and used.

What had Phoenix expected, opening these doors? Whatever he had in mind did not prepare him for the burning red eyes that stared back into his own shocked ones. His heart pounded so loudly and with such strength Phoenix wure ure it would break free of its prison within his chest, and only when his brain registered the fact that the eyes belonged to a painting did the rapid rhythm slow.

Sure enough, on the opposite side of the immense circular room was a tall portrait of a young man with vivid crimson eyes. Long locks of gold and red framed his pale face, hanging over his startling eyes and down his back. For long moments Phoenix did nothing but stare at the portrait, something in the depths of his soul stirring, whispering. So drawn into the image was he that minutes passed before he noticed the silent figure standing in front of it, back facing him, eyes also fixed upon the enormous painting.

\"Aether!\"

Perhaps if Phoenix had seen the look of utter contempt with which the figure glared at the painting, the boy would not have called out his name. But the word was spoken, invoking powers that equalled those of an enraged demon.

The golden haired youth turned around slowly, as if sleepwalking, his one amethyst eye focusing on Phoenix. A wide smile spread leisurely across Aether\'s pct lct lips. A smile that was anything but amiable.

\"Why?\" Aether asked pleasantly, taking a step closer to where Phoenix stood just inside of the double metal doors.

\"Why what?\" the younger boy answered, slightly annoyed at such an ambiguous question. \"Where in Hell is this place, Aether? I-\" Phoenix stopped short, feeling the feather light toof cof cobwebs falling over him. He shook the skin tingling sensation away and opened his mouth to repeat his question when Aether\'s searing glare silenced him.

The false smile had died away, leaving only a bitter line in its place. \"Why didn\'t you come back last night?\" The voice was hard, lacking any tenderness.

\"What does it matter to you?\" It was soft, laced with too many meanings, able to be taken too many ways. But he couldn\'t tell Aether he had gone with Ash to talk about him. That would ruin everything… The way a \'happy birthday\' greeting meant nothing if one had to be reminded to say it.

\"Because you belong to me, Phoenix. You are mine!\"

The younger boy cringed at the forcefulness of the words, taking a step back and feeling more cobwebs brush up against his bare skin. But he would not be shaken by the harsh tone or distracting touches. \"Damn it, it doesn\'t fucking matter, alright? I worked late, happy? Is that a crime? Are you my mother? Must I ask for your permission before I even breath the air around me?\"

\"Where did you go after work…\" the Child of Soul spat out, his amethyst eye burning with violet flames.

Anger flared, firing Phoenix\'s soul, his hatred for Aether licking at his old wounds like the tongue of a flame. \"It\'s none of your fucking business.\" Why. Why the fuck did that fiend have to go and ruin the last few weeks that had been almost bearable despite his inner turmoil? Why did Aether suddenly have to revert back to being that obsessive freak of nature that sought to crush every last drop of freedom from his being?!

\"It was a mistake to trust you… To think for even an instant that you would not stray from me.\" Violet gaze dropped to Phoenix\'s hands, looking on with apathy as the boy fisted them, his nails cutting into the tender flesh of his palms and spilling his crimson blood onto the polished black marble floor below.

\"Fuck you…\"

A sadistic smile stole itself across Aether\'s lips. Without warning, Phoenix\'s body jerked forward to the center of the room. His strangled cry echoed off the curved walls as near invisible threads tightened around the boy\'s limbs, stringing him up until his weight levitated several inches off the ground. Each futile struggle Phoenix made only caused the wire like threads to slice deeper into his flesh. Already trickles of warm blood formed thin red rivulets making their way to the smooth ground.

\"No… Fuck you, my Phoenix,\" Aether whispered into Phoenix\'s ear as he stepped up to the immobile boy. \"The second step, Phoenix. To bind your soul to mine. All it takes is an exchange of blood during the act…\"

Aether\'s smooth palms held Phoenix\'s head still as he kissed the boy\'s parted lips, slack in their owner\'s daze. The warmth and wetness of Aether\'s mouth pressed so tenderly against his own snapped Phoenix out of his stunned shock, and out of reflex, jerked his head away. Instantly a sharp gasp escaped Phoenix\'s lips as the wires around his throat bit into his flesh, forming new lines of liquid red.

\"You asked where was this place… Don\'t you know?\" Aether wondered, taking hold of Phoenix\'s chin and making the boy look directly at him. \"Look above you, my Sacred Phoenix, whilst you still have the strength to look.\" Forcefully the older boy lifted Phoenix\'s chin, letting the wires bit deeper. Phoenix\'s white shirt was already streaked with red, even as his eyes painfully allowed him to glimpse torldorld above him.

Somehow, via a way whose logic escaped the entangled boy just now, the ceiling above was transparent, like cut glass. One could see through its fractured crystal-like structure to the enormous room above with its elaborate painted spherical ceiling staring back down. To see the glowing gold and silver eye gaze so indifferently upon the world below. Indeed, directly above them lay the Metamorphosis training hall with its seemingly solid marble floors.

Aether smirked as he saw the light of comprehension flicker in Phoenix\'s eyes. \"Yes, we\'re under the Metamorphosis training hall. Within the sphere that is the heart of Genesis, Phoenix.\" The golden haired boy paused, releasing Phoenix\'s chin and taking a step backwards. His gaze ran down Phoenix\'s intertwined body, hungrily devouring the sight his blood soaked shirt mapping out his slender upper body. Below the boy a small pool of cooling blood was forming, and slowly, as one watched, the life\'s liquid began to move.

The red spread out in lines that possessed a life of its own, creeping outwards and forming a much larger image. Curves and sharp arcs that soon joined with each other until finally the bloody lines began glowing a soft warm red. The image it had painted upon the black marble floor was an exact copy of the eye that looked down upon them, and Phoenix was strung like a butterfly caught in a spider\'s web in between.

Fear was slowly eating away the fierce anger. Pain was nibbling away at the defiance. Softly, growing ever louder, a silent scream from the depths of Phoenix\'s mind. It hurts it hurts it hurts! But underneath the continuous chant were the inevitable questions. How was this happening? Why was this happening? Why was this happening to me?!

It defined logic, it belonged in twisted fairy tales. This could not be real!

\"This is your reality, Phoenix. It\'s destiny,\" Aether whispered in a low seductive voice, smiling darkly. His fingers ran up Phoenix\'s ruined shirt slowly, making the boy shudder at the sensation that set his skin on fire. Unbuttoning Phoenix\'s shirt, Aether let his right hand slid down the boy\'s smooth body, caressing a sensitive nipple in passing, finally coming to rest on his flat stomac
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\"Aether… Please… This hurts…\" The words slipped out, thoughts spoken aloud. The pain made it impossible to control one\'s actions, made it impossible to not beg to be released from it. It was agony, the steel tendrils that wrapped around his limbs and neck. Everywhere they touched they drew blood. So much as a flexing a muscle caused the thin sharp lines to deepen their bite, and already feeling was draining from Phoenix\'s arms stretched above him.

Aether\'s silky laughter taunted the tortured boy. \"No…\" Aether disagreed sweetly, his finger tracing the letters he had previously carved onto Phoenix\'s flesh. \"This hurts.\" The words were no sooner out of his mouth than stabbing pain shot through the multiple scars, and hot red blood spurted out in an angry gush as if a thousand shape blades had knifed into him along the name instantaneously.

Phoenix\'s piercing cry of anguish cut through the silent air, a spasm tearing through his body and causing the wires to strangle his dangling limbs further. Please let it stop, please let it stop, please let it stop! The child inside of him was crying. He wanted to run away from the pain. To hide some place dark and lick his numerous wounds.

There was so much red. How much blood had he lost now? He was becoming light headed, yet the pain was so constant, so intense, that it was impossible to lose consciousness just now. Would he die here? The thought popped out from no where, from some part of him that was separated form the pain. And then it was gone, melted into the continuos question of why. What had he done that had disturbed Aether so. No, no! Whatever he had done he did not deserve this!

And then suddenly, as Phoenix\'s cry was slowly dying away, the threads that held him disappeared, dropping the boy\'s abused body with a wet thud into a shallow pool of his own cooling blood. It was not by coincidence that his body laid within the iris, or that the pool of blood did not cross over the thin boundary.

He could hardly move. Too weary and riddled with pain to struggle. His whole body throbbed with agony from too many wounds to count. His head spun and even at the prospect of opening his eyes his body threatened to be violently sick. How was it possible he was still conscious with this amount of blood loss…? Please, just let it stop, let it be over, Aether…

\"Oh, not yet, my Phoenix. I\'m not done with you yet,\" Aether\'s voice caressed his ears, accompanied by the singing of metal as he unsheathed his katana.

Why was he doing this?! The voice in Phoenix\'s mind screamed so loudly it seemed impossible it existed only in his plane of consciousness. Each of his shallow breaths made him cringe. It hurt to breath… Couldn\'t Aether see this? \'He\'s hurt you before. For no reason. What makes you think he\'ll stop now because you beg him to like some pathetic low life?\' the taunting voice in his mind laughed.

Warmth suddenly dripped onto his once again lacerated stomach, mixing quickly with his own blood that seeped out from the torturous wound. Phoenix\'s red tearing eyes shot open, feeling with his entire soul another\'s blood invading his own being, lacing through his vein and finally winding around his racing heart.

A hand was at his throat, keeping the squirming boy pinned down onto the ground. Dark violet gaze bore into his crimson eyes, only inches from his face. \"My blood with your\'s,\" Aether whispered, his right hand held fisted over the wound on Phoenix\'s stomach, wrist slashed and bleeding heavily.

\"No…!\" Phoenix gasped out, struggling like a half smashed bug on the ground. His eyes pleaded with the older boy kneeling over him. \"You can\'t! My soul is my own!\" The words tore out of his throat with passion. Like… he believed suddenly. That what Aether proposed was possible, that this was the second step, and should another be taken he would no longer be his own self.

Aether didn\'t reply. He only crushed his own mouth onto Phoenix\'s, prying the boy\'s lips open with his tongue and plunging within. The boy\'s eyes widened in shock and revulsion as the metallic taste of blood flooded his mouth from a deep cut on Aether\'s tongue. He wanted to struggle, to push Aether off him, anything but taste Aether\'s being… Why… Because… Because he was swallowing. Aether\'s life\'s liquid. He was taking it into himself. That red damned nectar. Suckling softly, gently, tasting Aether\'s blood as it slid down his throat like the most potent drug, relaxing him, making him all too submissive.

His belt was undone and thrown aside. The zipper and button were just as quickly unfastened and his lower garments discarded. Aether\'s hand slipped underneath Phoenix\'s body, his fingers caressing the blood slick flesh before sliding in between the tight cheeks.

As if suddenly stung, Phoenix arched up off the ground with a sharp gasp as a finger inserted itself into his guarded entrance, moving with deliberate slowness, easing the discomfort and heightening the unusual pleasure. Aether\'s lips moved from Phoenix\'s lips, down to his bloodied neck, sucking at the long thin wounds. His tongue, still bleeding from the wound he had inflicted upon himself, probed the cuts, licking up blood that welled up from them, mingling his blood further with Phoenix\'s.

All of this was hardly acknowledged by Phoenix though, as a second finger joined the first, stretching the tight ring of muscle, pushing deeper, searching, always searching.

Found.

A shot of electricity raced though Phoenix\'s limbs as a shock of pleasure such as he had never experience coursed through him, originating from that magical spot deep within the uncharted region of his being. An unwilling moan escaped the boy\'s lips as a third finger was added, rubbing against that spot again and again.

The Child of Soul smiled against Phoenix\'s neck, his mouth filled with the taste of Phoenix\'s blood. Their exterior appearance may be different, but every little secret to the unconquerable Sacred Bird of Fire was still the same, still there for him to exploit.

Cruelly, knowing exactow Pow Phoenix would sorely miss the presence of being filled by him, Aether withdrew his probing fingers, feeling with relish the groan of disappointment that rippled through the boy as he did so. His own clothing was quickly discarded onto the floor with the boy\'s. It was time to bring this session to its climatic ending.

\"No…\" Phoenix pleaded, squirming, high with the potent blood coursing through his veins and the echoes of pleasure. How his groin ached, throbbed. More, more, more. That was all his body could chant now. The pain had mixed with the pleasure, becoming one and the same, even as his mind screamed curses at both himself and Aether.

It was like a dream, with one\'s sense of touch heightened, yet all others muted. Somehow he was suddenly lying on his stomach, the bleeding name still oozing out too much blood. But what did that matter, the body didn\'t care. Only Aether\'s hands gliding down his back, slick with their mixed blood, massaging his tender muscles, mattered. Lower, lower, until they reached his backside, and drew his cheeks apart to allow entry of something much harder than mere fingers.

Sharp gasps emitted from Phoenix\'s lips as Aether\'s erection pressed into that small opening, making the boy arch upwards, fingers clawing at the bloodied marble floor. Deeper and deeper, forceful yet careful, always insistent and unrelenting even as Phoenix tightened around him.

\"Relax…\" Aether whispered into Phoenix\'s ear from behind, kissing the place just below his earlobe as he did so and causing the boy to shudder with pleasure uncontrollably. The Child of Soul reached forward and slid his fingers around Phoenix\'s throbbing manhood, slowly running his fingers up and down his length as he pushed deeper into the boy from behind.

Having Aether in him, all of him, it was so filling. Painful, yes, but that was nothing compared to the absolute bliss. \"Just. Fuck. Me.\" The words fell from Phoenix\'s lips. Filled with anger, yet… It was almost a plead. Filled with unspoken prompts. \'Now. Fuck me now. Hard. Don\'t care about the pain. Do it. Do it!\'

Aether laughed softly, tauntingly, unmoving, simply enjoying the feeling of Phoenix\'s tight flesh encasing his own pulsing organ. Only his hand wrapped around Phoenix\'s member continued its torturous little game, rubbing a thumb over the head and then running fingertips along its length. \"So eagre now, my Phoenix? None of these steps are reversible. There\'s no going back. Your vessel is already mine. Complete this, and so will your blood.\"

\"Did I ever have a choice?\" Phoenix whispered back bitterly, breathing heavily, almost unable to keep his body from squirming, unable to fight the rhythm it beat out. More, more, more!

\"No,\" the fiend smiled, and pulled out of Phoenix until only the tip remained inside before pushing back in slowly, nudging up against Phoenix\'s prostate and sending the boy into a near swoon.

Slowly at first, building up a rhythm. Push in, pull out, his hand around Phoenix\'s organ in time with his movements. Each stroke sent Phoenix closer to the edge, his body wriggling on the cold blood drenched floor. How his body betrayed his mind, moving with its own will with each of Aether\'s thrusts.

Each breath for both boys became a gasp of pleasure as the speed of their synchronised movements increased, feeding each other through another sense exactly how much their bodies enjoyed this, even if one of their forever logical minds did not. Faster, harder! It was what both wanted on the primal level. Their bodies that whispered \'unite with me\' until it had become a chanted scream.

It had become almost unbearable, the pleasure that was pain and vice versa. Yet they were moving faster still, making Phoenix\'s blood burn, Aether\'s laced with his own invading every cell. His breath caught in his throat as Aether thrust one last time within him, his hand tightening around Phoenix\'s member as he poured his seed into the virgin body. With a shuddering gasp, the boy was over taken by his own orgasm as the pleasure ripped through him, fusing the poison called Aether\'s blood with his own forever.

The chamber that was the Middle Heart of Genesis became quiet, disturbed only with the slowing breaths of the two boys who laid entangled at its centre. Phoenix\'s body laid prone, unmoving, even as Aether slowing withdrew himself and laid down on the blood slick floor beside him, pulling Phoenix\'s smaller form close. All fight had abandoned the boy. All will to struggle.

\"Why…?\" The dry whisper seeped out through Phoenix\'s bruised lips. Lips that were stained with their mingled blood.

Aether\'s embrace tightened around Phoenix, nuzzling his face into Phoenix\'s collar bound neck. A contented smile graced his lips, one that a person would wear if all was right in the world. \"I enjoy hurting you. Wounding you, my Sacred Bird of Fire. And then to heal those wounds… To make you dependant, always dependant… So you may never fly away again.\"

\"I… hate… you…\"

For an instant, Aether\'s body stiffened, Phoenix\'s near silent words knifing through him. And then a soft chuckle rippled through his body as he released Phoenix and stood up. \"Yes, you hate me. However… What you feel matters not. You\'re just a bird locked in a cage, Phoenix. There to be pretty and to play with. Whether you love me or not makes no difference.

\"However… You hurt me. So it\'s only justified I take my revenged.\" As soon as those words left his mouth, the symbol inscribed iood ood glowed brighter, and the sound of cracking crystals flittered down from above them.

Phoenix only had time to widen his crimson eyes in terror before long thin shards of crystal rained down on him. In quick succession, the sharp splitters pierced his limbs, pinning him down onto the ground. The silent scream of pain that tore through his body only made Aether smile darkly.

It was a butterfly\'s fate, after all. To be pinned and displayed for all to see.

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