SerapheX

All characters of SerapheX [a novel of the Macabre Prince] are (c) to Kyokukou/MacabrePrince 2005-2006. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or used fictionously. Any resemblance of characters, businesses, establishments, events, or locales in either actuality or by a work of another author is purely coincidental.

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Everything could be seen through crystal and haze, and there was a roaring noise everywhere that it left one blind and deaf. Prince Zexyphrus was caught between realms that combined before him, but since they were not the same, the realms had crashed together inside him, blue into red, porcelain into glass, fire into ice, dream into reality. Chaos. Utter chaos.

Even if one to decipher what was what, it was damn near impossible when the realms had no end, everything changing every second, every minute. The task to repair what was broken was useless. So there were so many new things, a million, a billion more new things to discover in the mind.

Patterns. What was that? Patterns? In chaos, there was no order, therefore no patterns. Small. Big. Small. Larger. Square. Tinier. Red. Sphere. Smaller. Flat. Ash. Three. Changings before the very eyes that could not take its vastness. None were the ever the same as another like the saying about snowflakes, "No two snowflakes were alike."

Liger or not, prince or not, Zexy was still mortal. Mortals die eventually. Mortals live for certain years as different kinds of beings. There was a reason for that. Yes. Mortals were of flesh; there were of blood. The consequence of having flesh and blood was that the mind could not hold all it felt, all it saw, all it tasted, and all it heard. Immortals could for they weren't made like mortals. Perhaps they were all conjured by what the universe thought unconsciously like Dream. Everything had been visited by Dream, and Dream was not of flesh nor blood; it was not a he or she. Dream could look like one wished: a lover, a friend, a pet, or a sibling. Dream was of dreams of the vast universe, no more, no less. That was why Dream was truly immortal. That was why immortals live on for eternity, by the concept of the thoughts of the living.

His mind, no matter if the prince was unconscious, was a torrent of so many thoughts that it left not much room for the body to hold onto its identity. Who was he? He could not remember, not anymore. What was he? He could not say, not at the moment. He? What made him sure he was a he, a male? Maybe he was a she or an it or both a he and she, a hermaphrodite. It was like falling and becoming one with the chaos, being the chaos itself. Arms? Legs? What were those? The memories of what had been was fading away. One couldn't really be apathetic in a place like this. There was so much, so many things that couldn't really bore one like a fun park open twenty-fours hours a day, seven days a week.

And just like it crashed into the boy, it left at the touch of some being that Zexy felt a connection to, but never remembered meetting. It gave his overused, mortal mind a reprieve into a deep slumber devoid of anything. Not even dreams came. That was okay though. The prince was just glad to not feel that of which he could not begin to understand.

Blue and white flames appeared amidst all the chaos. Usually fire was also the essence of chaos, but this fire was unyielding to be devoured into the mindless realm of Pandemonium. This flame was known. It was a legendary envoy of Pandemonium, a favorite because it could play the games of the mindless world up to a certain point, one that constantly fustrated Pandemonium but could do nothing about. Clever. Oh, the flame was utterly famous for its cleverness. It had a mind of its own and did what the chaos asked, only there would be twists to what it did, and it never did anything more, so the chaos could not find a fault with the blue fire when there was no fault to find. It was called the Ice-Fire for its ability to attract being to its alluring flames of white and blue, mostly closely associated with light or heaven. It was more deadly than the norm fires of red, yellow, and orange. Even its cousins of just blue or gree could not compete witn the white fire tinged with blue. All, that is, except Shadow-Fire, its black fire brother, a flame from the Underworld darkness.

"Flame of Ice, this boy is in my arms, and I can feel his heart. It runs into my realm, and that is a good thing considering you are of my realm also. What I do not understand is why you have not brought him truly in this realm so that we could meet at a time before this one." Before the ice-fire, there appeared a being with true black skin, the black of cave darkness that no light could touch. What would've been clothing was just the view of the ever-changing chaos behind him as if his body was not between the ice-fire and chaos. In his arms lay a still, pale form, a serene face with dangling white locks as his head was tipped back, neck outstretched as if offering it to anyone who wanted it. The uniform of the boy's school was in tatters, covering little and revealing more of his perfect, pale marble flesh. The one thing that did not change was the collar around his neck, one the prince wore constantly, no matter the time or season. What lay under its black surface was one of the boy's rare ties to his past, one he would get rid of if he could.

The Ice-Fire was calm, or at least showed an outward appearance of calm. If it did not keep control of itself, Pandemonium could see through the outside layer of white flame that hid its heart. The fires in its center was its heart, and as of the moment, it was dark blue, near black. Delight usually was a pale blue, almost white. It was not happy right now.

"Pandem," the Ice-Fire acknowledged, making a show of splitting into three fires and then beciming one again. "You did say I could only choose ones who were potential chaos makers." Of course, Pandemonium never said that the Chosen actually had to act on bringing chaos physically or mentally.

The being said nothing, although it did scowl, long hair apread out from invisible wind. "So I did. And should I say I will keep the boy, what will you do?"

"With all due respect, your chaosness, by your law, one who is called by an envoy of your realm cannot be harmed or taken by any other envoy, not even Pandemonium, that is, you, Pandem."

"I do not care to have my own words thrown back to me, but I know it is truth for one cannot lie in my realm. I could change my own law, Bright One, but I set in the laws since the beginning of time." Silence was met, the air in the realm of chaos thickened as each second passed. Pandemonium looked down to the boy-liger in his arms, the tension in the air going away. "This boy . . . he appeals to us of the discord. You knew before you merged with him that he would cause a great stir amongst us. You saw the spark deep in his heart where his soul resides."

Statements. True statements that the Ice-Fire didn't even try to deny or question how the being came to that conclusion. "Yes, I knew," it agreed simply.

"The phoenix is one of mine too, but because of circumstances, I acknowledged the boon asked by the Star-Fire and granted its wish. Now, it is a some-what free thing. You, on the other hand, have never had a boon from me, never tried to gain one because you know that all things given no matter what, there is always a price to be paid."

The Ice-Fire did not like where this was going. Pandemonium was always delighted at what the Ice-Fire could do even if it could've done more, but never did. He respected the flame's wishes a little more that half the time. What his true tragedy was that Pandem could not understand the Ice-Fire, as he could not understand the hearts of a handful of her other subjects. Once upon a time, Pandemonium was more sophisticated that this. That time is long gone, and so were the links to some of his envoys severed.

"He speaks to me sometimes, you know. In his dreams."

"Whom do you speak of, master of discord?"

Pandemonium grinned evilly. "The phoenix of course, Flame of Ice. Arkaron."

Black. The inside of the white flames changed from dark blue to black instantly. It had somehow knew in the back of its mind, but it did not want to know for sure. Pandemonium did things according to its will, and that will was almost always one that wanted entertainment beyond his realm. The situation would only get very, very ugly. The ice-fire resided inside Zexy, was a part of him in a way. The link allowed the white flames to know all about Zexy, inside and out, his heart and soul, his mind and body. Zexy desired one thing. No, not a thing. Zexy desired one being, but the prince's wish conflicted with that desire, that dream. An unselfish wish that made the scars in the boy's heart to bleed continously, never healing over no matter what.

I want Arkaron. I want him because I love him. And its because I love him that I can't risk his life, his freedom just to be with him. It hurts. It hurts so much, but I would make the same choice again if given the chance. Arkaron . . . I ache for you, and even if you hate for leaving you, I'll always remember a time when you wanted me for me. That is what I hold onto every night deep in my heart, so that it would give me enough warmth on nights when the loneliness sets in to try to freeze me.

The echo of the prince's heart always stunned the ice-fire for its burning intensity of emotions. It did not matter that the prince's heart repeated the words every night like a mantra. What mattered was that his dreams and wishes were infernos, had always been infernos since he'd been made. He'd been weak, yes, in body, but his deep will to live overcame thoughts of dying, unlike those others of his project. It's why the boy had been chosen by the white flame. A fire in a liger that was like a match to own.

The ice-fire wanted to protect the boy from what was to come, would protect him with all of itself. If he's hurt enough, he will cease to live. The prince cannot die. The ice-fire refused to let him die.

That will, that wish shocked the ice-fire for its strength. It hadn't had a desire this intense for a long, long time. It realized that in its own way, it too loved Zexyphrus just like the white-haired boy loved the ice-fire freely. 'He told me,' it thought. 'Zexyphrus. I gave him that name. I gave him strength to do what his old body could not. When he was alone, when he was hurt by his makers, I was there for him. It did not deter me that he loved the bird of fire more than me because I was a part of the liger, and through him, I loved the fire bird too. Why? Why didn't I realize this before?'

"Bright One."

The voice of Pandemonium intruding in the flame's thoughts made him look to the being of chaos. "Excuse me, Pandem. I was thinking of . . . something."

"Must have been something grave. You did not reply to what I said." The unspoken words that the ice-fire heard was, "And what I had said is very grave for you."

"Your majesty?"

"I'm giving your Chosen a gift."

Dread inserted itself in the white flame. Bad. This was very bad. "I do not believe we, neither he or me, have done anything worthy to deserve a gift from the lord of this realm." That was true. Pandemonium had been unhappy earlier that the prince hadn't done any chaos.

The dark being lowered his head to Zexy, the left side of the white-haired boy's face being the closest. Pandem spoke against the Liger Prince's face, "Ah, yes, but you are my favorite subject, Flame of Ice, and you have a worthy Chosen, which is enough for me to give you a gift." Those lips touched under the boy's left eye, closed at the moment. The closed lashes twitched a few times. When Pandem moved his face away, the boy's eyes fluttered open just as a symbol in black appeared under the eye in which the being of chaos had kissed. Humans would call it a tatoo. The ice-fire knew it for what it really was.

It was the Kiss of Pandemonium, his mark to any being who deserved the usage of Pandem's power. Only one other being held this mark, and that being did not exist in this world. There was another bad thing to that marking. Well, for who it was bad for would be a question better left unanswered for another day.

The Kiss bonded the ice-fire to Zexy and vice-versa. Before, the ice-fire merely had chosen the liger, living within him, tying themselves close. The new bond chained the ice-fire in Zexyphrus. Now, even if he wanted to, the white flame could not leave Zexyphrus, just like the prince could not have the ice-fire leave him. The locked powers that the blue-tinged flame had kept in himself were unlocked now, the liger gaining more power within himself, dangerous powers that the flame had been afraid of handing over freely. And just like the locked powers had been opened, the locked memories became open for the ice-blue eyed boy as well. If the ice-fire could shake a head that it did not have, it would have. The mark of Pandem had made the prince immortal when it tied them together. Their destinies were locked together. Forever.

It was about to speak, but it heart was being pulled. The white flame began to shrink, began to move towards the prince not of his own will. Its flame was going smaller and smaller, becoming as small as the fire on a match people used. 'No! The bond we have together . . . we cannot be parted. It's making us one. No, that's not it. It's chaining me into Zexyphrus. This was Pandem's purpose for his gift. A punishment. He wanted to punish me by caging me within my Chosen. My freedom . . .' It couldn't fight it anymore. Its power had been taken by the white-haired boy through the bond, which was why it had shrunk. No more power, no more strength, no more freedom, and an eternal punishment. It disappeared within the pale boy's chest, making him arch in pain.

Zexy moved out of the dark being's arms, rolling onto all fours, his arms holding onto himself over his stomach. He felt different. It made his body shake, not used to the massive amount of power he had gained.

"Poor kitty. You must grow into your larger paws, you know." Pandemonium stood., walking over to the prince. There was a grin of content on his face.

The boy couldn't even look at the being. "Wh-what did you d-d-do to . . . me?" Zexy looked up at him, slowly, not wanting himself to get more nauteous.

"I gave you a kiss, silly boy. That was a gift for the Ice-Fire, of course." Pandem looked like he was looking right through Zexy, the grin never going away from his face, but the eyes did go cold. Then he looked at Zexy. "I have a gift for you too." That made the liger-boy shiver, dread like a slug down his spine. Pandemonium looked up, over something opposite where he stood. "No need to thank me now." He disappeared into the chaotic background, almost like he had become part of the moving-painting in the back.

Zexy was afraid to turn. His heart rate sped up. He could smell him, taste him as if his lips were on his at the moment. 'No. It . . . it can't be him.' The white-haired boy turned his face, forcing his ice-blue eyes to look in the red-gold ones.

The hate was overwhelming. It hurt Zexy to see the deep abyssmal hate within the bird guardian's eyes. There was only a few flecks of gold in his lava-red eyes, and aura of fire surrounded his tanned skin and long, crimson hair that was caused by the leashed violence inside him. Hate. Hate. Hate. It was like getting stabbed many times, over and over inside Zexy.

And there was a pure malevolent grin on his beautiful face.

Zexy ran for it. Where, who the hell knew, but all he did know was that if he had stayed there, Arkaron would do something bad to him, something that would make Zexy bleed physically and emotionally. The boy knew that he had hurt Arkaron by running away from him twice, and that hurt turned into rage and hate. The phoenix wanted to make Zexy hurt for what he made the guardian suffer through.

This realm was confusing. The ice-blue eyed boy didn't even know if he was going south or east. Everything around him moved, changed. What made him stop was the thought that probably he was running in a circle, straight back to Arkaron. Zexy looked around. He didn't see any sign of Arakaron nor sensed anything that could be him whether that was smell or hearing. That calmed him a little, put his guard down for a while as he tried to gather himself.

That was a mistake. The ground moved under him. Towers of different shades, different textures rose up from the ground. When a tower was about to rise from under him, Zexy leaped to the side, right shoulder sliding into the ground, and then he slammed into another rising column, hitting his head.

A razor, sharp wire the color of gold wrapped itself around the prince's neck, below his collar. Zexy looked up to see Arakaron ahead of him, holding onto the other end of the wire. He pulled. The white-haired boy fell forward, his hands straining to unwrap the wire around his neck, unable to breath much.

Wings with red plumes that changed into golden-yellow at the tips sprouted from the back of the guardian. The wings lowered down for a moment, then pushed at the ground to give Arkaron a boost to fly up, his hold on the wire dragging Zexy up into the air of the realm of chaos. The celestial-looking being flew over a tower, but his charge was not so lucky. The prince's left side of his body crashed into the tower, one full of spikes on a part of it, the part that Zexy had hit. When the phoenix flew in a different direction, the white-haired boy's left arm and leg were limp and bleeding, blood running down against that pale flesh, some of the remains of his clothing falling away.

One tower hit was not enough for Arkaron, though. He made Zexy hit against a few more, enough to make the prince stop struggling and in full naked glory, to his satisfaction. The white hair in the back of the boy's head was stained with red. The right side of his face was red as if he had half a mask on. The hold the wire had on his neck cut into his flesh, making a crimson ring below his neck and over his shoulders. The left side of his body had holes from the first hit and its flow had stopped a little. There was a deep gash from the prince's stomach that ran to the right, going over into the front of his right thigh, tendons flashing in the light of this realm.

Zexy couldn't get any air, but he still looked up at Arkaron, letting the wire cut more into his neck. He wanted to look into Arkaron's face to see if he was happy that he'd made the liger suffer this much. Arkaron was simply smiling down at him. He let go of the wire, and the boy began to fall, not enough strength to even land on his feet like cats were supposed to do. As he fell, his back towards the ground, he continued to look at the phoenix. 'Why?' his eyes were asking the crimson-haired guardian. 'Why?'

The impact into the ground hurt more than he could've imagined. It burned his back like he'd slept on the little hill of a colony of fire ants. Worse than that. Some of his ribs were broken, and when he moved a bit, it stabbed into his intestines. Zexy was the Macabre Prince, a lover of blood, but his beast was not attracted to the blood when it was caused from his own pain. It stayed quiet in the place it lived inside Zexy, but it was not happy.

The liger-boy sat up, and dragged himself farther away from the one who hurt him. He ignored some of the pain, knowing it would heal itself soon. When the phoenix landed near him, the white-haired boy growled at him, more beast than prince at the moment. Injured animals protected itself against any and everything.

"Does it hurt?" Arkaron asked him, a look of concern on his face, but then it was replaced with malicious laughter. "I hope it hurts." That dark skinned face fell into a melancholous look as it looked down at the injured boy. It changed to cruelty. "It's not enough, though, for what you did."

Ice-blue eyes filled with raging fire looked at the bird guardian. He bared his teeth at the winged being. "Fuck you to hell," he seethed through his lips.

"You have it backwards, Zexyphrus. I will be the one to fuck you to hell. I won't forgive you. I won't forgive you for the betrayal. There will be no mercy as you scream and cry for me to stop. I. Will. Never. Forgive. YOU!" He jumped at the boy, a crimson blur that couldn't be followed by a human's eyes.

The crushing weight of Arkaron on his hurt body made the white-haired prince scream in agony. Zexy couldn't fight the bird as he bit down on the blood stained flesh of the boy's shoulder, taking off a piece of his flesh in the process. Fingers with sharp nails dug into the deep wound in Zexy's stomach and right thigh. Touching the tendons not meant to see the light of day made the blood flow faster, joining the blood already below them. "Arkaron! ARKARON!" His screams were pleas to stop, the pain blinding his vision to black, but he couldn't fall unconscious when he was already unconscious in reality to begin with.

The cries fell deaf to the guardian's ears. He drank at the blood flow from the wound he caused at Zexy's shoulder. He laughed a little, enjoying the taste. Arkaron's free hand, the left one, grabbed Zexy's chin. He moved up, crimson hair falling from his back to Zexy's body, and locked the boy's open lips to his own.

The blood, his own blood entering his mouth by Arkaron's sickened him. Zexy tried to pull away, only the force of Arkaron's kiss pushed his head back firmly into the ground while his left hand kept his face from turning right or left. He had to choke down his own blood, just as he had to choke back the tears that sprang. The phoenix moved his face away from the prince's, letting the grip on his chin free. Zexy turned his face quickly away. The blooded lips began to speak to the bird of fire with a detached voice, no quiver of emotion to be found, "That last time you came to see me, I warned you not to see me anymore. I said, 'No, Arkaron, no, they'll catch you.' You did not heed my words. So, I took it upon myself to be the one to save you. Both times."

The words, no matter if Arkaron didn't want to hear them, didn't want Zexy to make an excuse, stopped his angry assault on the body of the white-haired boy.

His voice broken when he confessed, "It hurt, Arkaron. Oh gawd, how much it hurt to have to do it. You were the fucking guardian. You were supposed to be stronger than me." He was silent for a moment, taking a couple of deep breaths that only made him cough. In his cool voice, with no emotion, he continued, "The first time, I can't remember those first few weeks. It got better once I met Blayre, someone who's love could fill my heart, but not as much as you could. You found me still, and so did they.

"They killed her and got me. They wanted you, wanted you so badly, and they fucked me up pretty badly. Still, I managed to escape, from you and from them. I had to look for Sapphur, but Dementes had found me first. He said he'd give me a place for refuge as was a guardian's duty. I asked if he could lock the memories of you and her away because I had known I wouldn't survive much longer with my loss. Dementes agreed with such sadness like he knew how it felt, but then he warned me it would be eventual and I'd be likely to repeat what I sought to run from. I didn't care."

The prince laughed. "I didn't care. He was right. I did repeat my mistake, but its not like I was looking for it. They got to me. Five people on the first day. They got to me." Zexy went quiet.

"Zexyphrus," Arkaron whispered.

The boy turned to look at him. Five talons pierced into his stomach, the tips of each talon potruding from his back. His lips that were covered in dry blood, became fresh at the corners as blood poured out of his mouth. Ice-blue eyes became huge from anguish.

The crimson-haired being moved his lips near the other's ear. "A parting gift from me to you for this meeting. We shall meet again, Zexyphrus. For now, you must leave this realm. My little one is calling you."

Zexy's hand was shaky as it reached to touch Arkaron's face, but he was already fading from the realm of Pandemonium. Arkaron . . .

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End Chapter. Next Chapter: The Diamondback

AN: Doesn't the wonderful, sadistic yaoi love just make you feel all warm inside? lol. Yes, yes, the beginning is just a bit...eh....but it does lead to a more interesting part later. I can't just make Arkaron appear out of nowhere when Zexy was running from him in the first place.

Okay, if you read ANY mistakes, tell meh, so I can fix it. I scanned through this chapter when completed, but I didn't do a complete editing of it. I just wanted to put this chapter up quickly and move on to get on with the, mwaha, violence.

BTW, Arkaron did come to Zexy before, but he couldn't do anything to him. A Guardian cannot be seen by any being on the grounds of the Palazzo del Ceres. Hence, why Arkaron disappered before Zexy awoke to see him. Guardians only send their charges to the palace, and that's that. Their charges are under the protection of the headmaster, who is not what you think he is. XD

Enjoy! <3 <3 <3