Chapter Text
“...and may the lord protect our broken souls.” The abbess that had been leading the mass finished the group prayer. Her black satin headdress shimmering slightly in the candle light as she bowed, the fabric shifting around her dress as she turned around to the nuns gathered on their knees. Her dress was the same as everyone else’s here. Covered in loose fitting black habit with black slippers to match. A black silk veil covering her head and face, completely obscuring all of her features. In fact it was almost impossible to tell if her vessel was female or male, her voice was the only thing that confirmed her identity. The only thing the flowing fabric couldn’t hide.
There was almost no difference between the abbess and the rest besides a large metal X hanging on a thick chained necklace. The color of the metal was a mystery as it had long turned to the dark almost-brown red color from layer after layer of dried blood. The small vessel swallowed as the dull jewelry seemed to be trying to blend into the clothes under it. A feeling that the small nun could relate to heavily.
The abbess then moved up to the podium to start the mass. It was a strange ritual they did. It wasn’t like anything she had experienced in churches in her past life. That’s right, past life, this was her life now: inhabiting an anthropomorphic vessel and living in fear of the same demons she forced herself to worship.
She was still getting used to this form and the fact that she now had a tail and that her ears were a lot higher than her normal ones on top of her head. She would often sit down on her tail and jump up from the unexpected pain before settling down again. There were a few others who had this issue. It made the fact that they were new to being a vessel painfully obvious. It was something she was going to have to seriously work on, she wanted to blend in as much as she could. Didn’t want anything about her to stand out. She couldn’t afford to give their lord or any of his guardians a reason to pay her more attention.
It was the only true way to be saved.
She leaned back into the pew, no longer flinching at the pain on her back. She had cut off the wings this vessel had fairly quickly after coming to the Church of X that was attached to the Abbey. She knew it might weaken her ability to get away and even made her chores more difficult, but it was worth it to hide her identity as much as she could. Make it difficult for the demons that roamed the hall to follow her or take an interest. Although the strong stench of blood that was on her for days after had landed her in hot water. And the other nuns had purposefully stayed away from her. Protecting themselves until the scent went away and they forgot who was wounded.
The pain of the wings had been more than enough, and even though she thought of docking her large bat ears like other vessels had in this place, every time she remembered the blood, the block of wood in her mouth keeping her from screaming, the fear of being found and killed immediately for the outburst of noise and scent was more than she could take. It haunted her nightmares and the thought of adding to it made her shiver. Instead she would tie the ears down. They were large enough that she could use a ribbon on her neck and wrap it around the ends of her ears to keep them smooth and flatten her head, not giving away the shape her vessel took under the habit. It was common enough to have such modification to the vessels, they might differentiate them if the habits ever came off more than anything else could, but with the clothes on they all blended in together into a blur.
As the sermon continued, she stared up past the abbess, behind her was a large X made out of a dark metal, shining in a way that seemed almost inhumane, as if there was someone looking through it like a mirror into the sanctuary. It looked almost like a christian cross that had fallen over, except it lacked the warmth and comfort of wood, sharp edges glowed dangerously reflecting the candles. She stared at it, and felt like it was staring back, judging her, trying to get in her mind as if looking for something in particular. She couldn’t take it any longer and looked up behind the X. Right behind the X was a dark mural that was difficult to see unless you stared right at it. It depicted X’s greatest “victories” but to the bat vessel, it was just some sort of strange glorification of his murderous rampages. In some of the scenes, there were the guardians present. Within the halls of the boarding room in the abbot were murals of all of the guardian’s stories from when they were young to what they had become at this point as well. The guardians typically stayed working with the Cult of X on Earth.
They were still well feared here however, they came to pick up easy food. They had their preferences and that they might make of cult members or humans, and of course the nuns were easy enough to tell that they were their “type”, or sometimes it was just whoever was close enough would be eaten. Most people stayed far, far, away from them. Only Yokubo would keep a flight of attendants that he would not kill, they stayed in his room and always fled there if anyone else was visiting the abbot. Sigh, she wishes she knew how he picked them, she would love to have that kind of security, but they were picked out so rarely since the only one who ate them was Lord X who would do it to punish or mess with golden hedgehog.
Her eyes wandered even higher, above the mural and high above the X was a stained glass window, one that she had been responsible for cleaning for very often when she still had her wings, she would still clean it occasionally, but it was much, much more difficult. The window depicted Lord X, with his hands open wide, opening his arms to everyone with a warmth to his eyes that was often lacking in real life. She found herself letting out a scoff, that thing being warm, what a laugh. He only pretended so that people would let their guard down enough that he could trick them in order to laugh at them.
Not wanting to look at anything more she looked back at the abbess. She could tell that it was a woman, and one with big fluffy hair, she wondered who it was under there, what vessel did she have. The vessel sometimes would wonder about the ones around her, some were very obvious with who they were, others weren’t so much and some just must have been vessels she had never seen before, unable to recognize what were obvious defining features, people like the abbess.
In a soft and impassioned voice she continued the sermon “...and the lord’s table is long and wide enough for all to come to. Everyone can have room at his table…”
Pfft, more like on his table, she thought as he listened on trying to not let the message sink in at all, best to ignore it if she wanted to stay sane, stay herself. She found herself looking at the alter, a heavy stone slab covered in long dried blood, strange flowers, and the torn off body parts that the nuns decided to offer up, not knowing what else to do with the body parts they parted with. She passed the rest of the time before finally the service was over after a few songs she never quite knew the words to, and a prayer she never dwelled on even as her voice rang out with the words alongside everyone else. It was just another day in this horrid world, another day of survival. She let out a breath as she stood up from the pew slowly making her way out with the others. This was just her life now, living in hell, but at least she was alive.
That was all about to change though.
It was a day like any other, practically peaceful in fact. The Lord had left and the guardians were not visiting that day. The vessel had her guard down, it would be an easy day. Her chores were easy enough, perhaps she could work on minimizing her reactions, like the abbess. Being uninteresting enough that she was left alone. Maybe one day she could even be the abbess!
The vessel started to feel even a little content with her life. She plotted in her head for her future and enjoyed the rare beauty of the day inside of this strange place, the darkness beyond having a delightful glow that put her at peace. Even the sermon today felt less depressing than usual. It felt like it was going to be a good day. And it was, everything going smoothly up until the gathering for dinner. There suddenly was this sinister presence throughout the whole church. A feeling like a storm was about to come.
The sky felt suddenly hostile looking through the windows, the soup felt tasteless, as though all her senses were preoccupied with finding something lurking in the shadows. It was similar to the feeling when X or a guardian was visiting but were not in the same room. She tried to shrug it off, asking a few other nuns if any of the EXEs had done a surprise visitor, no one else had heard of anything of the sort, but they all felt it. The good mood of the day was suddenly gone by the end of dinner. Whispers and rumors rushed around the room. Everyone knew something was off but no one could pin point it, it was as if the abbot was suddenly all slanted so all the right angles were now off, so the straight halls suddenly felt curved.
The bat tried to shrug it off, there was no point in worrying about it, they were safe inside of the abbot, no one would dare defy Lord X, even the other demons that lurked outside of the building, so with a deep breath she attended to her evening chores.
She was to go up to the rafters to clean the stained glass windows at the top, lots of variations of that void creature that protected and imprisoned them high above the others depicted in glass. She cleaned him often with a bit of spit, like a bartender but with more disrespect she could get away with. Without wings getting up to the rafters was horrid pain, she had to scale the uneven brick wall. There were no ladders in the church, there were enough vessels here that could fly; it was deemed they didn’t need them by one of the guardians. The bat saw it for what it was, a ploy to find certain vessels to mess with, and she refused to play along with it.
Up she went, feeling uncertain, the pit in her stomach dropping with each step up, as though it wasn’t following her up. Making it all the way up she took one look down and suddenly felt dizzy from the height. Her vision blurred and she gripped the wood harshly between her thighs and with her free hand and the other swayed with the bucket. She was fine, it was okay, nothing was even happening. She steadied herself and got one with her work, yet was unable to shake the feeling. The sanctuary felt quieter, more somber than it had any right to be when the nuns would joke around with each other at such a time.
Scrub scrub scrub, no more thoughts were needed, just scrubbing.
Then in the silence there was a crashing noise, it was far off yet loud, obviously made with force. Everyone was completely still for a second, the feeling of being on edge and nerves tingling all night had them all holding their breaths. After a moment there was a scream, once again in the distance, then it was followed by the wailing of another voice, before shouting.
Nobody in the sanctuary moved, only looking at each other wondering what was going on. Then the shouting and screams got louder, and much closer. The sound of feet running soon accompanied them. The fast pace of the pitter patter of shoes against the stone matched the beating of her heart as fear started to move through her veins. Almost no time the sound of feet reached the sanctuary door as nuns raced inside with yelps and cries.
“Close the doors! Close them now!” The abbess came running in shouting. The nuns by the door that had been polishing the big brass nobs were startled into action by her loud voice and immediately started to draw the doors close without question. The abbess, apparently impatient, grabbed onto the door herself, still yelling “Faster! Come on!”
The door was nearly closed when a small voice squeaked down the hall “Wait, please hold on!” The nuns on the door paused, however the abbess pulled them stanchly shut. The doors clicked closed as the voice squeaked through the cracks, begging to be let in, small fists pounding on the wood. The abbess just directed others to move the pews to in front of the door. The nuns worked without question the fear and confusion enough that they didn’t dare worry about anything else, a few of them crying.
The bat started to move towards a dark corner in the rafters, worried about what was happening and refusing to come down till she was able to learn more. She watched gripping onto the wood, scooting further and further next to the wall, curling up into a corner where she could still see everything.
The pews were up as a blockade and everyone stood back. There seemed to be a sign of relief. The abbess finally turned around to address the group, evidently now willing to explain what was happening, however before then the start of her sentence could get out there was a sudden blast of light. The large heavy doors were forced open, all the pews flung across the room. Some of the heavy wood landed on some nuns who didn’t have any time to make a noise before their brains were splashed across the room and the bodies crushed under the well made furniture. Others started to scream as the doors were slowly pushed open further, finally stopping half way open when a laugh resounded through the room.
Then everything was thrown into chaos. The demon grabbed any nun nearby, crushing them, stomping on them, ripping out their organs, throwing their bodies like dolls into each other at forces that were deadly before he would go up to them and suck out their souls through the bloodied holes. The whole room filled with the screams of the forsaken nuns. When the movement finally slowed down for the bat to see who it was below, the creature had smashed two nuns heads together and was slurping out of their brains at the same time, spilling blood everywhere like a drunkard.
It was a bright, saturated creature, obviously one of those filthy EXEs, except taller, cleaner looking with a large friendly smile and long eyes plastered on his face. There was some desperation to his movements, a hunger that caused him to trip on himself for a while, but it was obvious to her that with each body he mutilated he grew stronger, his movements getting more fluid. She watched it all unfold like a movie that had nothing to do with her.
Finally the demon’s eyes landed on the frozen abbess, she just stood in horror. Once they made eye contact she shivered then turned to the X behind her, taking her eyes off of the enemy and sprinting towards the cold metal. She was just about to reach it with her own hands when she was slammed against it
The abbess’s cheek was pinned up against the X screaming out her lord through the large metallic X before her head was ripped from the jaw up and blood sprayed up and coated the monument. The demon put his mouth over her neck as though it was a straw, drawing out both her blood and soul. The X shook slightly as though alive, as if it was angered. The demon paid it no mind dropping the body with a sigh of satisfaction. He turned back around where one nun sobbing was dragging the corpse of another -the bottom half of her completely gone with her organs spilling out- talking to the torso as though she was still alive. They must have been friends or maybe more… the poor girl refusing to let the other go, even in death. The strange EXE spared not even a moment as he attacked the girl in the doorway, ripping off the arms that were carrying the other with a quick pull downward complete with the sickening sound of joints popping out and the tearing of flesh. Before the girl could even scream The demon was slurping her soul out biting directly over her mouth, stealing the poor girl’s final pleas for himself. The vessel hid more into the rafters, hands pined over her ears to keep the sounds of terror from fruitlessly reaching her, tears escaping her eyes with every new voice added to the horrid choir of damnation.
She tried to drown it out with whispers crying out for help, “Oh lord, please please come save us, come here X, you bastard! Come save us!”
She couldn’t believe that she actually found herself praying to the horrid monster X to show up and save her. He cared about them surely? No other demonic rat had tried to break in before despite the abbot being in the center of the world between worlds, that had to mean something. She dropped down from her place in the rafters once the demon had fled down the hall, evidently looking for the nuns that must have run out in the confusion while he was busy dealing with the feast stockpiled in the one room. He let out a loud laugh as he ran out of the room, just more screams and sounds of gore followed.
It seemed to be no time but so much all at once, she was frozen both in mind and body till like a reboot she suddenly wasn’t . All her thoughts flooded in at once. She realized what was going on, the mess she was in, the hell that was going on.
No, no no, NOO! She has worked too hard for this, had sacrificed so much to be here, to survive despite being in the worst of possible circumstances.
She had been a survivor! She had lasted so long! This couldn’t end here! Everything had been so calculated, perfected for the long haul. But everything was in ruins now, but perhaps not beyond repair. If only she could make it out perhaps she could start again, she would even have less competition. The Lord and his children would surely wait to repopulate the abbot before feasting on any of the sacrifices inside. It would give her time to establish herself, to hide amongst all the new people who would not yet know the danger of standing out. She had hope, she could continue another day!
She would survive, this was just another trial!
She crept against the walls, her body shaking as he peaked around the corner, there was nothing but blood and splattered guts on the floor. It looked as if the poor nun had been completely run over by a truck and left nothing by a sordid stain on the stone. The bat could feel bile build up in her throat as she quietly moved through the hall looking at each disfigured body. Some still twitched with nerves that were sending signals to missing brains. Her stomach so twisted with the sight that the world seemed to be tuned out till it was pierced with more sounds of torture, horrid screams echoing through the walls like some sort of sick tracking device. Finally she was able to tell where the other was, and she realized that he wasn’t anywhere near her, she might actually have a chance even if she couldn’t outrun the creature.
The vessel ran through the halls, turning as fast as she could. She could feel the muscles in her back moving as though trying to push her further with wings that were no longer there to support her, she knew this place well, she could make it out. The doors were right around another corner, the demon couldn’t catch her now! She was free, she could hide in the garden until Lord X arrived.
Or so she thought….
She suddenly heard that stupid laughter around the corner, doing her best to suddenly stop. It was impossible that he was here, there was no way he was so fast, and why here? How did he know to come here?
The bat vessel did her best to stop, but ended up slipping in the blood of a nun fallen near the corner and she stumbled, sliding into it and fully slipping into view of the hall that led to the door, the same hall that the thing was standing in. She landed with a thud and instantly those long thin eyes were on her. Fuck. She got up as fast as she could, continuously slipping and stepping on the skirt of her habit as the demon stomped slowly closer and closer, near in time with the rhythm of her heart. She could feel sobs catching in her throat again, letting out a scream of frustration. She finally got up and balanced and started to run again. Not knowing where she was going, just going forward, forward, and away. The thing laughing mockingly as she took off.
Her mind was full of confusion, all her thoughts going a mile per second, what was she supposed to do, what was the plan now? She didn’t have time to think, it felt like a clock was ticking down with every step she took back into the abbott. Without realizing she was back in the sanctuary, where she was when all of this started. No, no, no.
Wait, maybe she could hide? If only she could get back up in the rafters, she had survived there before, maybe she could do it again? What would have happened if she had just stayed up there instead. She turned looking back at the uneven walls she would have to scale if she had time, looking for the best way up her eyes stopped and then locked in on the doors.
He was already here.
That cold unchanging face got closer and closer as she shook her head with the approach. The bat stepped back, one slow step at a time, tears freely flowing down her face now, her voice shaking, catching on itself in her throat practically choking up the words. “Please, hic you don’t wanna hic do this!”
She saw deep into those black eyes, there was no hope in them, only hunger and amusement. That’s when she realized there was no bargaining. She turned as fast as she could towards that large X, just as the abbotess did, she had never touched it but maybe it really could save her, maybe it was a portal, it didn’t matter what it was, it was the only salvation she had. She turned her back to the demon and tried to get her tired body to move again, doing her best to dodge the bodies as she reached out towards the devil she knew. But the hope in her chest suddenly turned to pain, sour vivid pain. She looked down to see what might have caused it, her body numbed.
Her blood splashed across the ground, a hand bursting through her torso, wrapped up around her intestines, pulling and ripping the organs apart as the arm moved through her faster than her running away. The force of the demon’s speed caused the doors that were half closed to shut fully, completely sealing her fate. She stared in horror as she was lifted up and then slid down the slender arm as it raised towards the ceiling.
No, not like this! She screamed internally as blood poured from her mouth and her vision completely blurred the arm that had impaled her twisted around, the hand gripping on her veil and pulling it down, exposing her face. The other hand ripped off the coif that was around her neck from the side.
She was still screaming through the bubbles of blood out of her throat, her eyes catching on the large metallic X in front of her. She didn’t even recognize the face in the cross that was twisted in terror looking back at her. This wasn’t her. This couldn’t be real! But as she felt the demon’s arms moving against her reflected in the mirroring surface she couldn’t deny it was her.
Covered in fur and mutilated, but it was still her.
Until it wasn’t.
Snap.
…………….
With a sickening snap the screaming suddenly stopped. Lord X has rushed over to his church sensing that some creature that was not his little collection of cattle entered his sanctuary. There were bloodcurdling screams coming from the property when he arrived, however as he started to push the doors to the sanctuary open, pure silence rushed over the whole building, a sign of lifelessness that this building had never known. The gore pouring out of the nuns he had passed in the halls might have been, but not this soulless void.
Just who dared to come to his church and abbot and slaughter what is rightfully his to torture and kill?
When he opened the door just milliseconds after the screaming stopped he saw one of his nuns, neck snapped and blood spraying up even to the stained glass windows before the blood was engulfed in what Lord X guessed was a mouth. The candles were blown out, darkness creeped in every corner and only the shimmering glow of the moon filtered in the windows and made large teeth glimmer for a second. They disappeared again in the flesh as though they had readjusted themselves. Lord X stepped forward, with a near stomp, and yet the other creature didn’t even blink or budge. Instead, it’s full focus was on draining on his nuns. The corpse had lifeless eyes, face twisted in regret and agony, oh what a delicious meal that would have made- watching the hope and struggle fade away from such fiery eyes. Yet it was stolen from him, right in front of him.
Lord X stood there for a second, in near disbelief that someone had broken into what was his and taken all of his souls and still had the audacity to not run upon seeing him. He was just ignoring him. Lord X felt a rage inside of him that was rarely let out, not since he had gone under a different name had he gotten so worked up.
He flew at the other creature, and as he zoomed in the air across the room it was once again lit up with a purplish glow caused by his power filling the room, the house knew its master was home. With the influx of light he was finally able to see who it was that defiled the place. It was another Sonic! This one was very long, towering over the vessel in its grasp. Its fur and skin was very saturated, it was surprising that it had appeared dark at all and that X was not able to see his bright ass earlier. X’s claw reached out as finally those long big eyes looked up at him, simple black lines in a vast expanse of white.
The creature ripped his victim from his mouth, not bothering to open his jaw as the flesh was torn from between his teeth, throwing the corpse at him before it leapt up. X quickly swatted the bat away, vaguely hearing the wet thud noise it made against the wall it crashed into. The void creature looked around for the other before he noticed the movement of blood dripping as his eyes landed on top of the large X behind the altar. The other Sonic poised on it like a large spider, his fangs still out and dripping red, looking down on him with eyes still blown wide. X jumped up, this time the other didn't have anything to use to get in his way and was forced to confront him.
The creature reached out with his own hand, his long slender fingers managing to make their way through his open clawed hand. The hand gripped in between his own, intertwining the fingers as he ducked and flung X forward, past him and crashing into the mural behind the altar. He spun quickly, able to land on the mural with his feet and push back off of them in a spin dash. He gripped the other’s hand tightly, claws digging into the other as he spun hoping to give the other whiplash; however, when he landed he noticed that there was no extra weight carried within that should have slammed into the ground under him. He looked at where his claw was clenched to notice that it was indeed still holding the other, but the arm was completely detached. It wiggled in his grip as he stared at it in confusion.
He then sensed the demonic presence behind him, making to grab at him, lord X turned to see large fangs poised to bite into him. He quickly phased into the world, moving through the space in between matter, the darkness between atoms like a glitch, flashing in and out for a second before disappearing and flying up to the roof.
The blue demon leapt at the space where he was, not realizing that as he went invisible he also moved out of range. The tall EXE looked around when his arms had not felt anything, distracted. X took this opportunity to push off of the ceiling, spinning and coming down in a harsh kick that would break the ground at the speed he would land on. The Bright creature noticed at the last second. His body defying physics as it beant like water to avoid the hit, the church flood taking the full attack and shook. It went to grab at him again. It was as though he was trying to consume X himself and taking his power and vessel for himself. As if X would let him.
The two played a dangerous game of tag as they kept attempting to hit the other and missing at the last minute, the other always just one step away. It was like a dance, two partners intertwined in careful steps around each other but never actually meeting. Chasing each other, near equal in strength. There was one momemnt when the world felt still, like they had both stopped moving for a split second. The demon's hand reaching out, he look at Lord X curiously, something else sparking in his eyes, clearly now fully back to himself and not the beast of hunger that had originally desecrated this place. The tall blue hedgehog carefully reached out he bloodied hands. X was entranced looking at the other glowing from the rings on his wrists and ankles like an angel and not a demon. He simply let the other get closer than he meant to, t was such a gentle moment, a caressed that never really met. With a jolt of rationality, Lord X lept back, worried it was all a plot to try and strangle him, the other looked confused for a second but the chase once again was afoot.
They ran around the whole abbot for what seemed like hours, the only thing they succeeded in doing was destroying the various statues, murals and glass inside of the building. Changing who was chasing the other with every failed attempt by the other, as thought dictated by some sort of rules the two communicated completely wordlessly, as though already well used to being playmates.
Eventually they ended up back at the sanctuary. X wanted to finally catch the other, despite the fact he loved playing games, he also needed to punish the other, the tour through the structures only confirming that indeed all the souls that he had collected were gone, adding a tinge of anger that dampened his mood. The demon’s body floated completely apart as X swiped at his chest, the ball pointlessly bouncing down as it suddenly lost support and decided gravity was real for just one second.
Now by the rules it would be the tall saturated hedgehog’s turn to make a grab at the smaller grayer one. X decided instead of dodging this time he would risk it and prepared to attack instead, pulling back his fist subtly enough that the other might not notice what he was plotting. Right at the last second as the other came at him, laughing at X’s lack of movement, X released his fist at full power aiming for that smug face. Finally X was able to get in a good solid hit, his fist colliding with the long tooth of the other, and bending the fang into the other’s mouth as his fist continued and pushed it into the other’s cheek and sending the demon flying through the sanctuary, impaling him on his own tooth. It wasn’t much but it was an obvious sign on how the fight would continue. The feeling of the small victory coursing through the void creature, his excitement growing.
The demon whipped the blood from his lips, the tooth bending right back into its original sharp shape. He looked him up and down, the large open grin seemed to grow wider, and X could feel his own, blood seeping from his eyes betraying the fun he was having with the fight, he could feel the other ever so slightly weakening. It was amazing the other had lasted this long against him anyhow. Even with the help of all the souls that he devoured from the nuns, it was obvious that he was quite strong originally. The tall EXE must have also realized that he was going to lose the fight if it went on long enough, his eyes darting around looking for an exit before he suddenly braced himself, as if for a race.
“See you next time!” came a much cuter voice than he was expecting, it sounded much more digital and higher than many of the EXEs he had come across, a distinct sound that made his ears prick up to listen to, a sound that he would not soon forget. The demon turned around, checked him for a second, X wasn’t quite yet ready to let the other go. He made to grab at the other, zooming across the room causing the pews that were left to be thrown against the walls and broken with the force he ran at the other. Yet, he was still not fast enough. The other narrowed his eyes teasingly as he ran away from Lord X.
The demon let out a loud laugh as he crashed through the window, evidently more amused by their meeting than in fear or anger. The laugh resounded off of the haunted walls, hitting Lord X’s ears several times over and over. A sound he thought he might feel some sort of frustration over, a hatred perhaps of the bastards that got away with breaking into his property. Instead there was a strange beat to his heart, a humor rose inside of him and he laughed back as the sound faded into the darkness and the presence of the creature was long gone.
It wasn’t much of a wait till he called upon his children. Needing to come up with a game plan on how to move forward. He would have to find this other EXE, find a way to beat him. A warm shiver crawled up his spine at the thought of seeing the other again. His own laugh bubbled up, looking at the broken bodies surrounding him, looking at him like the mutts they were searching for a master who had abandoned them. His laughter a mockery of their struggles and with an amusement that was worth much more then.
The guardians showed up quickly, cleaning up the bodies that littered the property. Yokubo would stay until the sanctuary could be refilled with their little pets again. Perhaps he might even take some of his loyal followers from the other side of the screen over to this side to help return things to normal. It would be an annoyance, but it was worth it. As the guardians moved around, complying with his orders, he stood on the stand where the large X still stood, strong and forever staring into the hall. Turning, he stared at the blood that was slowly dripping down the window, staining the white glass a deep and mesmerizing red. He felt a twinge in his heart. It wasn’t the burning hatred of revenge he was used to when dealing with another that was more like him than them. It was something hot, something that made him want to find the other, but reasons beyond fighting. He was entranced and he wanted to know what kind of games that blue blur was good for.
Just who was that EXE?