The Crimson Prince： Awakening

Looking down at Leo where he levitated, he could see the calculating glance he was sending toward his fraction of enemy forces. Will could almost see the strategies that must be going through his self declared brothers head as he clutched thoughtfully at his gold embroidered sword.

Will didn"t even have to look at Bianca to see that she was barking orders at her fifty men. Who knew she had such leadership qualities. Will thought as he sighed inward. He also noticed that her aura had changed. When he looked at her usual armour, he noticed dagger sized blades that had grown out of her knuckles. He had to make a note not to mess with her in the future.

Will glanced over at his newest leadership candidate. Jacob, the owner of the first aura he had unlocked in his tragic time within Crystallia was sporting two short swords. Will touched down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder while looking on into the darkness. "Are you ready for this?" he asked silently.

Jacob nodded slowly, his glare never leaving the enemy ahead. "I"ve been waiting for this quite some time." he said with a barely discernable smirk. "It"s time we take back what has been stolen and avenge our families."

Will only looked forward as he retracted his arm. "Remember to keep moving forward Jacob, you have a team that is counting on you now." he said as he took to the air once more.

Will flew straight back to his formation that mirrored Mayas. It seemed she didn"t have any trouble getting them to trust her, even if she did he ensured his formation mirrored hers. He took his position beside her and felt a sense of rightness in the irony that once again he found his way back to her.

Even in her partially ruined midnight black dress and wild long brown hair, her authority leaked out into her dark aura in golden stars.

"Are you ready for this?" Will asked Maya with a half smile on his face. She smiled back at him only for an instance before returning her gaze to the soon to be battlefield.

"I doubt they would wait even if I wasn"t." Maya joked in a mocking tone. "Let"s get this over with so you can buy me this pizza you were praising earlier."

Before Will could say anything witty in response, he heard laughter boom from the other side of the battlefield.

"This is what you could gather to face me?" Will heard a familiar voice call in the distance. "I suppose I should be impressed given the time I gave you." Jake spat. "It doesn"t matter anyway, do you not see the superiority before you? If you stab my men, cleave off an arm as you so brazenly stated earlier, they will continue to fight." he boasted, clearly giving away that Mayas connection to him was not completely severed.

Will steeled himself, he knew that in only a few short moments everything would change. He would no longer be the travelling son of an author, no longer just an eighteen year old, no longer just one of a crowd. He would be a leader, just as he had been groomed to be his whole life.

Nodding to Maya, he took off to the center of the battlefield. His crimson and gold aura leaving a streak behind him as he left. For only a split second, he felt free as he soared through the sky, until he felt the weight of his pendant which lightly tapped against his chest.

Stopping a few hundred feet in front of his small army, he waited. He could barely make out the outline of a man soaring through the air to meet him. As the figure neared, Will couldn"t help his eyes grow wide. What he was looking at in front of him was a man with an average build such as his. He had an ankle length black robe, black jeans and a black skin tight shirt. His black hair was drawn back into a ponytail much like his own was.

Will felt as if he were looking in a mirror when Jake finally met him. "What"s up little bro." he said with a friendly tone as if they were just meeting up for lunch. He had a goofy grin on his face which somewhat lightened his dark complexion. "It"s been a while hasn"t it? How"s Maya?"

Will was taken aback by the friendliness that Jake was showing. If he wasn"t on a battlefield, he would have thought he really was just visiting a brother. He shook his head slightly at the thought. This wasn"t his brother, nor was he really a friend anymore. This was the man who had enslaved Maya and forced her to kill so many families, leaving orphans in her wake.

"Leave now Jake," Will said with resolve. "There doesn"t have to be any bloodshed. I know there must still be a little good left in you. Reach out to it and end this."

Jake laughed as if Will had told him the funniest joke he had ever heard. "Come on little bro, you knew this was going to happen eventually I mean," he said with a c.o.c.ked eyebrow, "I did steal your little girlfriend."

"Maya is no longer under the control of darkness Jake," Will said, trying to get through to his old friend. "All I have to do is figure out how I did it and I can do the same for you." he felt himself almost pleading. No matter how far gone Jake was, he was still Will"s responsibility.

"Your girlfriend is dead Will." Jake said, all the humor left his eyes. "The moment the light left her eyes, I replaced it with infinite darkness. The girl you once knew is gone."

"You couldn"t have Jake," Will realized with a start. "She died before you came to Crystallia. I know it must be confusing for you, but I think the one controlling you is messing with your memories."

Will had met Maya long before he had found Jake on a street corner in New York. She was the first person he had met in the new land he now hovered above, she was also the first person he lost. He didn"t even have to think back to her lifeless smile when the wraiths stabbed her, he had dreamed of it since that day.

Jake laughed and floated on his back. He was in a fit of laughter for only moments before he righted himself. Will could have sworn he saw a tear in his old friends eye as the laughter subsided into giggles. "You think she died after that tiny stab in the chest?" Jake"s posture fixed in seconds, his dark eyes bore holes into Will"s. "No brother, we kept her alive for a while."

"W-what are you saying?" Will could barely choke the words out through clenched teeth.

"Well," Jake started in an annoyed tone, as if he were growing tired of the conversation. "There are certain steps we have to take in order to allow chaos to take over ones soul." he folded his hands behind his back as he glided in circles around Will.

"The fist is to have a pure dark aura of course," he said as he stopped in front of Will and gave him a mocking formal bow.

"The sacrifice must be pure of course, it can"t have any form of taint." he raised a finger. "The pure dark aura must taint the sacrifice if you know what I mean." he said with a wink. "Though, you can"t be too careful with the pure of heart, so I allowed the men loyal to me have their turns as well." he chuckled to himself.

Will couldn"t speak, all he could do is stare in front of him while Jake resumed his course, pacing around him. "And then when the spirit is broken, the sacrifice must kill another pure of heart, tainting what remains pure inside of itself." he said as if he were talking about a dog instead of a human being. "And then, as the spirit finally turns to chaos, the pure dark aura must make the sacrifice." he said with a wicked smile, his eyes seemed to radiate joy at the thought of what he did. "So as I said before little bro," Jake said with a sincere tone. "Your girlfriend is already dead."

Will stared in horror at what he had just learned. He couldn"t speak. Any reasoning he had over Jake had vanished the moment he started with his explanation. What replaced reason was a void inside of himself. Maya was alive. The thought played over and over in his head as images of what she must have endured pa.s.sed through his head.

Within the silence of his thoughts, something snapped. Tendrils of darkness shot from Will"s pendant as he reached for it. Hate filled his eyes as the familiar snap of the chain filled the air between them.

Instead of the usual red and gold aura, tendrils of darkness from the pendant latched onto Will"s arm. It was as if the darkness was slithering up his body as his breathing became ragged and short.

"I-I," he stuttered under his heaving. "I AM GOING TO KILL YOU FOR THIS!" Will yelled. As the words left his mouth, his voice made the ground below tremble.

"Yes!" Jake yelled against the gale of wind that seemed to be coming from Will"s body. "This might be fun after all!" He said as he snapped something off his neck, suddenly he was holding a pure black blade in his hand. He flew back a few paces and waited patiently with a grin plastered on his face.

More tendrils of darkness poured from Will"s pendant and caught in the wind. The darkness surrounding his arm took a solid form as the rest formed a pure dark aura.

As the wind died down, Jake"s eyes went wide in excitement. What was in front of him was a monstrosity.

His arm bulged with pure black veins, as if darkness itself had lodged itself within Will"s body. Following the veins to his hand, a huge hideous formation of black metal protruded from him like a staff connected to his arm. At the end was a scythe that almost didn"t seem to be completely there. The blade itself shimmered in and out of existence within the darkness the aura emitted.

Will raised his arm slowly, lifting his head, his eyes seemed lifeless. It was as if those eyes had never seen light before.

In the distance, Maya levitated over both her formation and Will"s. From the moment he left, she felt something was off.

She knew he was going to try to appeal to Jake"s humanity to try and call off the battle. She knew it was pointless. What he was trying to save was a bunch of corpses, she should know. Most of those they were about to fight had lost their lives by her hand.

Maya had known for a while that the ones who lost their lives by darkness were reanimated by the chaos that had ended them. Fortunately and unfortunately none of them were like her.

The chaos that entered their bodies only animated them, it moved their limbs in the absence of a soul.

When Maya learned how Jake was ama.s.sing an army, she tried burning the corpses to ash. It was only when she returned to Jake that she realized that was futile. The ones she burned would be restored to fight for him.

She stared out at the crimson and gold aura of her savior with a look of pity. He didn"t know that what he was asking for was pointless. No matter what you do, you can"t return a soul to its body She thought helplessly.

As she looked at will in the distance, she knew something was off. His aura is different.

"Something"s wrong." she heard Leo say as she noticed he was watching just as intently as her. "His aura turned black." he said as he narrowed his eyes. "What the h.e.l.l"s happening over there?"

Without a second thought, Maya started racing over to Will and Jake. "Please don"t let me be right!" She called out to no one as she flew.

Will slashed his scythe-arm in a downward arch lazily. Jake brought his sword up to counter until he noticed Will wasn"t aiming for him. It seemed as if he wasn"t aiming at anyone in particular.

"Don"t tell me you"ve finally lost it-" he was cut off abruptly by a sharp wind that flew past him. He quickly turned to his army to see a slash of pure wind tethered in darkness heading straight for them.

Before Jake could think a single thought to save them, a third of his army was reduced to nothing. In their place was a large crater which sparked with darkness.

"You"ve got to be kidding me." he said as he turned back to Will. Before Jake could react, Will"s arm had begun to morph.

The scythe blade had bent straight forward while the pole retracted down his arm. Within seconds will was holding a dark sword and closing the distance between them.

Jake barely had time to raise his own sword before a shockwave shook the ground as the blades met. "That"s what I"m talking about little bro, keep it coming!" Jake said as Will slashed blow after blow at him.

Maya finally closed the distance when she saw the dark veins protruding from Will"s arm. Looking at the blade, she saw something under a tendril of darkness. I"m not too late, she thought with a sigh of relief. Under the tendril was a ruby tainted in darkness.

"Will come back!" She screamed at him. "He"s been expecting this from the beginning!"

"Shut up slave!" Jake snarled at Maya. "Why don"t you be a good little girl and go kill those kids like I ordered you to do!" his voice was feral as he met each one of Will"s blows.

Maya didn"t move as she watch Will for only a moment before she launched herself into battle, just not the one Jake had wanted.

Grabbing Will from behind, Maya clung to his back. "Will please come back, everyone needs you!" She screamed in his ear, he didn"t show any signs of slowing. "Please Will," she whimpered while he readied himself for another attack. His sword raised once more to meet Jake. "I need you." she said as a tear rolled from her eyes.

Will shrugged her off and went once more to Jake, their blades met once, twice, the shockwaves sent shudders below.

"Please Will I need you." Maya said even though she knew he couldn"t hear her. "Come back Will." she choked through her tears.

The kind hearted man that had saved her from those who would have raped her and sold her. The one who stayed with her and trained for the sake of protecting her. The man who had spent endless hours telling her of his world. The man who she gave her life for was slowly slipping away into chaos. The same chaos she had endured. A pitch black void of which had no exit. Her William was about to disappear forever.

"Please Will, don"t do this to me, I just got you back." she sobbed as she continued watching him.

"Will." his bright hazel eyes flashed in her mind.

"Will." his half smile that charmed her so many times before came to her."

"Will." the inferno of crimson flame the moment she met him came to her.

She was going to lose everything that was special about this one important person in her life. The last person she held dear to her. Please no, she thought frantically. I would rather die! Her last frantic thought before she launched herself between them as Will raised his sword.

"WILLIAM!" The sword met her and would have cleaved her in half had she not poured every last emotion she felt for him into that one word she screamed. All of her love poured from her as the gold stars from her aura cast towards him like a net. "COME BACK TO ME!" She cried out, her tears joined the gold specks and traveled to him. His sword stopped half way.

Maya wasted no time and flung herself into him. "Please come back to me." she whimpered as she held him in her arms. "I can"t do this without you, I absolutely refuse."

The half raised sword dropped to Will"s side. The once dead eyes now light with tears pouring into them. "I-I don"t know if I can do this Maya." tears fell from his eyes as he allowed her to hold him. "What he did to you I-" Maya cut him off with a finger on his lips.

She dug her face into his chest and tried hard to stifle the sobs coming freely from her. "I don"t care about that Will, I would go through it again before allowing you to go through the same thing."

Will"s arm slowly returned to normal as some of the gold specks covered it like a blanket. Maya placed a hand gently on the black veined now weaponless hand.

"What he did to you was my fault." Will said before she could say anything else. "If I had only fought harder, if I had broken you from those chains, you wouldn"t have had to go through that."

"Will look at me." she put a finger under his chin to make his eyes meet hers. "I"m here right now, I"m with you and I"m not going anywhere."

Will looked at her for a good moment before the last black vein disappeared. The moment it was gone, his black aura disappeared.

Maya began to relax slightly until Will closed his eyes. The look of relief she felt was replaced with a frantic fear as his body fell to the earth.

"Good job slave!" Maya heard Jake say, only it felt as though she were hearing his voice through a tunnel. It felt as if her senses were falling with the man she had grown to love. She barely felt the the hand that struck her. Before she blacked out, she heard a bone chilling laugh.

"You just did all the work for me!" Jake said between laughs as the two lead bodies of the main attack squad fell to the ground.

As Maya lay unconscious on the ground opposite Will, Jake dropped from the sky near his old friend and knelt next to him. "This may hurt a little." he said with a look of sadness and revulsion to what he had to do. "I really am sorry about this bro, but I really have no choice." he returned his sword to his own cross shaped pendant and with a quick thrust jammed it into Will"s chest.