Divinitas

040 - User-Seductive

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Chaos followed as friends of the other candidates hurried to get them to the hospital wing, all suffering severe burns or wounds. Draco, Chima and Ares pushed and shoved their way through the unforgiving crowd to reach Phoenix\'s simulator, afraid to find what would hatch out of the silver egg, yet eager to know all the same.

The younger twin made to follow the group, a silently fuming expression on his face, but a cold hand snatching his wrist pulled him back.

\"I would say nothing if I were you,\" Ari whispered into Gryps\' ear as the younger twin fell back against him, unbalanced by momentum.

\"You are not me!\" Gryps snapped back, struggling to free his wrist from his brother\'s vice-like grip, silver grey eyes flashing with anger and frustration.

Ari laughed. \"If you insist,\" he replied with a smirk, digging his nails into Gryps\' thin wrists and causing his younger brother to wince in pain. \"Tell the Little Bird then. Tell him to leave here if he doesn\'t want his fate sealed as ours have been already. Tell him and let him try to leave.\" The smirk on Ari\'s lips darkened. \"Tell him and let Genesis retain him here by force.\"

Gryps staggered back as Ari suddenly released him, smiling again before turning and leaving the Metamorphosis training hall without a backwards glance.

Ares was pulling open the hatch to Phoenix\'s simulator when Gryps walked up behind the group, face drained of colour. The other three didn\'t noticed though, as Draco reached in the silver egg-shaped simulator and pulled Phoenix out. The flaming red haired boy tumbled forward, eyes glaze, his front splattered with the blood of others. Draco, with the help of Ares, settled Phoenix on the floor and leaned him up against the side of the simulator.

\"I didn\'t want to…\" the dry words whispered from Phoenix\'s lips, dull blood red eyes locked on the gold and silver eye centred in the ceiling above them. \"I didn\'t want to win…\" His bloodied hands were slack beside him, smearing the black marble floor with wet red.

Ares was about to open his mouth and ask why the hell did he defeat all the other player like that if he didn\'t want to win when Draco pulled him away from Phoenix, sapphire eyes for once cold and lacking any kindness.

\"He had no choice,\" Draco said quietly, tone clearly indicating that Ares had better just accept that and ask no further questions.

The current Child of Fire\'s chocolate coloured eyes frowned with confusion. \"Well, he certainly doesn\'t have one now. The rules state that the candidate who wins the Preliminaries must participate in the Final Trails against the current Child,\" Ares replied, sounding a little put off by Draco\'s attitude towards him.

Draco looked disgusted. \"Rules designed to ensnarl the prey and never let go,\" the raven haired boy muttered under his breath.

\"If the said prey is of the nature to obey the rules out of pure pride,\" Gryps commented quietly, staring down at Phoenix who glassy red eyes had shut, sealing out the rest of the worl
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\"Come on. It\'s getting late. We should just take him back to our dorm room. He should calm down witnighnight\'s rest,\" Draco suggested softly after a long pause in which none of the group spoke.

The boy on the floor pushed himself up then, the dried blood covering his skin flaking with his movements. \"I don\'t think a night\'s rest is going to help. Screw the rules, Ares. I will not take your place as the Child of Fire. I never want the blood of another on my hands again, nor to have that putrid fire come forth of my being, even if it\'s just a simulation. I fucking quit.\"

Despite the forcefulness implied by his words, Phoenix\'s voice sounded strained, and his movements unsure as he stepped away from the group, moving like a drunken man towards the nearest exit. Chima, looking worried and concerned, threw a glance back at the other three before dashing after Phoenix.

\"There\'s no need for you to look so shocked, Ares,\" Gryps said coldly, not even bothering to glance at the current Child of Fire, preferring instead to stare at the exit by which Phoenix and Chima had left. \"After all, you said it yourself, didn\'t you? Incendium must participate in the Final Trials… Or perhaps you are simply worried for your own scrawny neck now, after witnessing his massacre of your team mates?\" There was an underlying accusation in Gryps\' tone, as if he subconsciously blamed Ares for the results of the Preliminary Trials. After all, it was Ares who had literally dragged Phoenix into the simulator.

Ares, looking insulted and scandalised, squared his shoulders and excused himself, saying he had to go and check up on his injured players.

\"I once had to listen to your preaching, Lympha. Now you can return the favour and listen to mine,\" Gryps said, not at all put off by Ares\' departure. \"You who have accepted your fate without dilemma, you who want your destiny to be realised… Do something then, to persuade Phoenix to stay and become the Child of Fire by his own will.\"

Draco looked politely confused, sapphire eyes searching Gryps\lverlver ones that gleamed darkly at him.

Gryps smiled thinly. \"You trusted me without reserve and let me use your elemental power through you. You did not even blink an eye when we halted the storm and calmed the river. Nothing ever fazes you much, Lympha, and you always accept everything in the end.

\"You and your story of your past… You have been looking for this destiny since you Mother spoke of it both directly to you and in your dream… Even if you may not have quite realised it. Why else would you have been so keen to find out everything you could about a mere legend, Lympha? Chase after a myth as you have done, if you did not want it to be true?\" The silver haired boy closed the distance between them, never breaking eye contact. \"You are the true Child of Water, just as I am the true Child of Air. Just as Terra is of Earth, and Incendium of Fire. If you want your destiny to be realised, if you insist on becoming the God of Water, then convince Phoenix to fight in the Final Trials… Without even one of us, the Legend of Genesis can not become reality.\"

Silence fell around them as Draco contemplated Gryps\' words. Everyone had left the training hall by then, and the immense cavern seemed to press in on them. The four statues surrounded them, their arms out stretched to receive some unknown gift, the only guardians left in the empty hall.

\"You may be correct in saying I have accepted my destiny, Gryps…\" Draco began slowly, choosing his words carefully. \"Because I am one who accepts the inevitable when logic says it is pointless to resist. Tis sis simply my nature. But do not so easily assume that I would do any of this without knowing what it is exactly I am doing. So answer this: why do you want Phoenix to become the Child of Fire when he is so completely against the notion?\"

Gryps let the corners of his mouth lift in a slight sneer. \"I do not want him to become the Child of Fire. I do not want any of us to become the Children of anything! And most of all, I do not wish to become the God of Air when all is said and done because I will be locked in the same disgusting body with the other half of my filthy soul!\" The feminine boy silenced himself there, annoyed at himself for having let his cool slip.

The silence that followed was pregnant with high strung tension, and was only broken when Gryps had once again composed himself enough to speak in his icy cold voice that befitted his demeanour.

\"I tried to stop him entering the Preliminaries, but since that failed, there is nothing he can do except become the Child of Fire. You saw what happened in Metamorphosis. Somehow his actiare are being controlled, or at least, he is being induced to win despite his own desires. Should he try to do anything else, such as not participate in the Finals, try to lose, or try to leave Genesis, he will regret it.\"

Gryps stopped, still glaring into Draco\'s sapphire eyes. There was clear dislike in his silver gaze. Anyone who wanted to walk the road Aether had paved was a foe.

When Draco said nothing and did nothing to acknowledge the despising glare, Gryps continued. \"I am not that sadistically inclined to simply stand by and watch Incendium break the rules and try to leave Genesis. He does not have any choice right now. None of us have any choice but to become the Child of our element. To fight against Genesis and the Child of Soul now is ludicrous. He\'ll only suffer for his troubles if he does so. Genesis will never let him leave at this point in time.\" Gryps smirked again. \"If we had any choice, I certainly wouldn\'t have lifted a finger to bring the Child of Soul back to Genesis… Our actions are not fully our own. They never were.\"

\"Alright,\" Draco accepted calmly. \"What does the ritual to becoming the God of our element involve? According to the Legend of Genesis, the restoration of our powers will also give the Child of Soul his divinity back as well. So what does the ritual involve? I will not agree to anything if I do not even know that much.\"

\"I do not know. The only thing I know is that all this has something to do with the Gate Into Eternity, but that is cursed and useless to the Child of Soul,\" Gryps answered truthfully, though it was clear his patience was wearing thin with Draco and his endless logic. \"Look, Lympha. Incendium is more your friend that mine. He would never listen to me. So unless you\'re fine with his suffering a worse fate that what already awaits him, do not let him try to leave Genesis or not participate in the Final Trials.\"

Gryps turned to go, his long silver braid swinging out behind him in a wide arch. He paused at the exit, resting his hand on the carved stone. \"You\'ve trusted me before with your life, handing your powers to me on a silver platter. Granted that Incendium\'s life is not your own, trust in me again on this matter… Even if we are now at oddth oth one another.\"

Draco watched Gryps depart up the stairs of the exit until he disappeared from view. Everything Gryps had said in relation to him were true. Everything. And all this time, he had been thinking that his calm reaction to all of this was due to his logical nature… But rather, he wanted all of this to be true? The way he had missed that so completely was disturbing to say the least.

A pale smile touched Draco\'s lips as he made his way back up to his dorm room alone. He should have been use to it by now though, shouldn\'t he? Of the way something so fundamental as one\'s lifestyle and personal beliefs could be changed in a matter of seconds. He had said it once before… Logic really was his fatal flaw.

So this was how it was going to be then. Perhaps he did not agree with the methods Aether had laid out, that worked even as he laid unconscious in the hospital wing. Bu wou would accept them all the same. Accept them, along with what he really was. A villain playing the role of a friend. To achieve his own ends, to realise the destiny he had always been searching for, he would convince Phoenix to stay. Even if neither he nor Gryps had the smallest desire to do so.

The raven haired boy opened the door to his dorm room to find Chima sitting cross legged outside the bathroom door, staring at the wooden divide and looking unusually withdrawn. Yuki sat beside him, glancing between the closed door and Chima, his tail wagging with soft thumps against the floor.

Without even bothering to ask whether or not Phoenix was in the bathroom, Draco stepped past the younger boy and wolf. Taking a hold of the handle, Draco forced the locked door open with a loud splintering and cracking sound. Sapphire eyes narrowed at the scene that met them, and Draco\'s hand quickly snaked out to catch hold of Phoenix\'s wrist. \"Stop it. The blood\'s gone, Phoenix…\" Draco said in a soft voice, forcing the other boy\'s hand clutching the scrubber away from his already raw skin.

Haunted red eyes drifted to Draco\'s sapphire ones, the soul behind them weary and bitter. \"It wasn\'t me, Draco… It wasn\'t me who wanted so badly to win without reserve. I didn\'t want to hurt my team mates like that. I didn\'t want their blood all over me…!\" There was a hard resolve in Phoenix\'s voice, mixed with the slight shaking and bitterness.

\"But?\" Draco prompted, still holding onto Phoenix\'s clenched shaking hand. The dark blue eyes dipped for a second, surveying the red and broken skin that covered the boy\'s mostly bare body.

\"But… When I saw that flaming landscape… Part of me was screaming to win at any cost. Screaming that if I lost, I would die. That part of me wanted to win above all else… Winning to it was its only concern, and the faster it eliminated the others, the better…\" An uncontrollable shaking had overtaken Phoenix\'s slight frame, not from cold nor fear, but rather from anger. \"I won\'t compete in the Finals, Draco. There is no way in Hell I will ever step into a simulator again. I don\'t care how many stupid rules I am breaking, but I will not fight against Ares in the Final Trials!\"

\"Then perhaps, Mr. Incendium, you should start packing your bags.\"

The two boys whirled around, their opposite coloured eyes locking on the doorway. Filling the frame was their Principal, dressed immaculately in a black suit, his four button blazer done up to reveal the hard lines of his body perfectly.

\"What the fuck are you doing here…\" Phoenix growled feral-like, voice hardening as his body took on a defensive stance. Even at the best of times, Phoenix had never liked the Principal. Hated him for the way he seemed to treat all the students as mere property. Loathed him for his lack of morals and sense of justice.

\"Why, Mr. Incendium, I came to congratulate you on your win in the Preliminaries…\" the Principal replied with a sincere smile. \"Most spectacular, the way you defeated the other candidates. And in a record time too, I must point out. You are most worthy to become the next Child of Fire.\" The smile widened, becoming predatory. \"But… If you insist on throwing away the title, Mr. Incendium, thus breaking our school rules, then I will have no choice but to expel you,\" he told the younger boy in a conversational tone.

Phoenix\'s crimson eyes hardened, glaring into the Principal\'s dark ones that smiled so pleasantly back at hihe fhe fury was boiling inside him. Compete in the Finals or be expelled. What kind of screwed up system was this?!

\"I know you\'re a smart young man, Mr. Incendium…\" the Principal continued, moving past Draco and taking hold of Phoenix\'s chin, forcing the defiant scarlet eyes to look up into his almost black ones that seemed devoid of a soul. \"So you would realise that if you were expelled from here, you would have no future… You do remember you are an orphan, do you not? If you do not stay at Genesis, you have no wherse tse to run to… And no means of surviving out in the big wide world…\"

The fiery boy jerked his head angrily away from the Principal\'s touch, a growling emitting from the back of his throat. Phoenix looked ready to attack, to leapt on to the offending man and tear out his throat.

Seeing the state Phoenix was in, Draco quickly stepped forward to lay a calming hand on Phoenix\'s bare shoulder. \"Sir, I will talk to Phoenix. I thank you for coming here to give your congratulations, but my friend has been through an ordeal, so if you would excuse us…\"

The Principal gave an agreeable smile. \"Of course, Mr. Lympha. I will leave your friend in your capable hands then…\"

No sooner had the closing of the outer door signified the departure of their Principal did Phoenix send his fist smashing into the mirror, showering the furious boy with glittering shards that sliced into his tender skin. A great internal battle raged as Phoenix picked up his clothing and pulled it over his cut and bleeding skin.

Stay, and give himself the best chance he had of creating a decent future of himself.

Stay, and let himself be controlled as others saw fit.

Go, and become the unwanted child again, the street rat, the demon child that had no home, no parents, no way to survive.

Go, and retain his freedom, his independence.

Go… And leave the one person he cared about behind.

The last thought halted Phoenix in his tracks, hims dms dropping lifeless to his side. This was the first time… He had even considered Aether…

Only yesterday he had admitted to both himself and Aether that he was the only person he cared about on any deeper level. But now, after the horrors of the Battle Royal in Metamorphosis, where his own morals and beliefs were cruelly slaughtered, he had done nothing but think about his own dreams, his own desires… His own future.

Because… Aether was not part of it.

Caring about someone, loving them even, did not mean you lived for them. One always lived for themselves, and one could never, ever, change their way of life or their beliefs just for another person.

So this was fine. This was acceptable.

\"I will not bow down to this,\" Phoenix whispered through clenched teeth, stripping the out of place thought from his mind. \"The Principal is playing with my future as his trump card. As if this mere game means more than my own morals and beliefs…\" The boy\'s hands clenched tightly into fists as he stalked resolutely across the room to his bed, pulling open the drawers and throwing his belongings into the worn second hand bag he had brought with him from the orphanage. \"Fuck all this. Fuck it! I don\'t care if I have to live on the streets and beg in the gutters to survive, but I\'m leaving!\"

Stepping out of the bathroom, Draco watched Phoenix\'s reckless actions, his sapphire eyes flickering between concern and regret. The older boy walked past their circular study table and picked up a heavy hardcover maths text book, weighing its solid weight in one hand before proceeding to where Phoenix was stuffing his clothes into his tattered rag of a bag.

\"Don\'t try to stop me, Draco,\" Phoenix warned without even looking up from his packing. \"Don\'t say-\"

\"Phoenix, I\'m really sorry,\" Draco interrupted, and slammed the heavy book down over the younger boy\'s head.

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