Chapter 16: The Fate of The Dragon & The Snake
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Chapter Synapsis: Theo and Garrett are haunted by…something, desiring peculiar outcomes at the cost of their sleep and their sanity. Madison is just being Madison as she prepares for a future she believes she's prepared for…
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Find me.
Theo found himself before the stone statue of a large dragon triple the size of a skyscraper. Its surface was grey and dull but steaming and scalding to the touch.
There was nothing but trees and stone around him — The very earth beneath his feet seemed to solely be stone — A pattern was carved into it too, like hieroglyphics or caveman art — Or something older. Something Theo was sure was important but he couldn't understand any of it.
Find me.
Theo flinched at the all too familiar voice that had been haunting him day and night for weeks now. It was strong, deep and powerful; ancient in a way that only something predating time itself could be.
Find me.
'There it is again, but where——?' Theo's ambers prickled as he looked at the stone dragon, its head still facing ahead in its determination to be stubbornly still. 'Woah. I thought for a second that the sta——'
In a twisted scene of horror, the dragon's head was suddenly right in front of Theo, its maw wide open as if to consume Theo whole. Its teeth was as sharp as razors and in multiple sets and its breath as hot as volcanic winds.
"FIND ME!"
That was all Theo heard before he was consumed——
GASP!
Theo awoke, gasping, in a cold sweat, leaping instinctively off the bed, hand grasping over his racing heart.
He took a moment to re-center himself before he realized that this wasn't his room. Lacrosse jersey on the wall alongside a lacrosse stick and a number of trophies; Theo realized it was Liam's.
'That's right, I spent the night,' Theo realized, watching the beta sleep soundly, an unexpected warmth blooming in his chest.
Theo wasn't worried about his aunt and uncle finding out he didn't stay home the night before. Honestly, he doubted they would care much, if at all. The only one in that family who actually cared about him was Tara — his cousin. And she was away in college.
Theo shook the thoughts from his head. He walked to the bath, grabbed a mini cup of water and returned to bed, climbing in just in time for Liam to spoon into his side, nuzzling Theo's pec like a kid would a teddybear.
And, like that, Theo closed his eyes, intent on getting proper sleep.
He had barely closed his eyes, it felt, when he woke up—— This time deep in the Preserve, shirtless and only in shorts. It was still dark out—— And worse?
The voice seemed to have followed him into the waking world.
"Find Me!"
"Find Me!"
"Find Me!"
Theo ran through the preserve, but the voice only seemed to get louder. There was no escape.
"FIND ME!"
"FIND ME!"
"CLAIM YOUR NAME!"
"FIND ME!"
"FIND ME!"
"UNSHEATH YOUR CLAWS!"
"FIND ME!"
"FIND ME!"
"FIND ME!"
"ROARRR!"
In a moment of overwhelming pressure, Theo roared a roar that was something between a wolf's howl and a draconic roar—— And, throwing a fist at a tree, he watched, horrified, as the tree ignited in golden fire and instantly turned to ash—— And, in its place was a yellow-red rupture—— A wound in the fabric of reality that looked raw, primal and fiery, hovering in the air as if the very atmosphere were wounded.
Theo watched, transfixed, before he realized a hidden, unseen force was pulling him to rupture.
He tried resisting. Clawing at the Earth, running away—— But it was no use. Like gravity or magnetism, he was suddenly lifted and swallowed whole by the rupture, the voice's last words were:
"The fate of the Dragon is the fate of the Serpent and the fate of the Serpent is the fate of the Dragon."
Then there was nothing.
Theo hadn't noticed a black girl dressed in all-black watching the happening in astral form, nor did he hear Madison's words: "So that's how it begins," she sounded intrigued. "How interesting."
And then she, too, vanished.
[Garrett Nightshade]
[Arizona Desert]
Garrett trekked the deserts of Arizona in a daze. His mind, sharp as a spear and clear as the starry night sky above him, failed to notice, somehow, a fracture in the Earth.
CLICK.
His foot pressed firmly on a button and the next second he found himself falling down into darkness.
A voice, slithery and cold, spoke the words: "The fate of the Serpent is the fate of the Dragon, and the fate of the Dragon is the fate of the Serpent"
The Earth above him also seemed to seal shut, locking him in his fall into perpetual darkness.
He had been falling for 10 minutes.
Garrett Nightshade was many things. An assassin. A reincarnator. A killer of two lives.
But his greatest skill? Perfect memory.
See, Garrett remembers his last life—— One where he died by a giant berserker in his quest to rescue Violet. Scott McCall, he reckon, was where he got wronged — Or, at least, where he went wrong.
He should've known not to get involved with that alpha. Everything seemed to bend for that man. An entire alpha pack went after that man and he was the one left standing. That was what he told Violet when she seemed all too eager to take him out — And, in the end, it was he who got involved in him and, just as well, however indirectly, got taken out by him. It pissed him.
And then he died.
Shocker.
But, instead of seeing the fiery gates, Garrett found himself as a baby again. And it didn't take long to figure out who he was—— Himself, ironically, as if he had a redo.
He wasn't sure if Violet also reincarnated with him. He suspected something of her did, as they weren't assassins in this life, yet her skill and obsession with her garrote was not something normal children would have at their age.
Though she didn't seem to possess all of previous Violet's memories, she possessed enough, it seemed, that she felt drawn to Garrett. Close even. Garrett still wasn't sure what all was reincarnated with her, but he was glad he wasn't alone in his endeavors.
That would've been depressing.
Either way, their bond was always close. The reincarnation merely amplified it.
But Garrett was stumped.
His memory was perfect. He remembered everything—— Including that ghost-like figure of a woman—— a girl, really—— that visited him and Violet as babies—— And the instant pain that had wrung from her touch.
A touch that seemed to alter the trajectory of events—— For instance, strange things occurred around both he and Violet—— Shadows danced sometimes in the corners of his eyes and flowers wilted sometimes in her presence. And, despite the reincarnation, they still ended up at the orphanage, though, strangely enough, weren't handpicked to be trained assassins this time around.
It was all strange.
It made them both very estranged to the other orphans, though, considering Violet's obsessive collection of garrotes — of which Garrett still wasn't sure where she was even able to get them from — it was no surprise there. And Garrett himself probably doesn't help either, with his antisocial personality, but what can one do?
He was glad at his benefactor, whoever they were. Thanks to them, they were the only orphans to receive weekly allowance in the mail. He still wasn't sure who was aiding in that, but he suspected that girl who visited him as a baby was somehow involved. He wasn't sure why she'd aid them, though he reckon it was also why both he and Violet were handpicked for the assassin training — Too much connection with an unknown individual often made them closer to children with parents than orphans who could be exploited and trained into proper assassins with no ties.
So, when Garrett began having strange dreams of ginormous great snakes telling him to find them, he chalked it up to his usual strangeness.
Then he awoke in a desert somewhere in Arizona and he felt stranded, trying to find his way back to Phoenix.
Of course, then he fell into a hole and he hadn't even seen the familiar figure of a black girl with almost orange-brown hair standing to side, watching him trip—— Nor did he hear her words: "Interesting."
"Both at the same time?" Madison noting. "Very interesting."
Then, as he became consumed by darkness, Madison also vanished.
[Madison]:
In the warehouse she calls base, Madison sat meditating, as her two astral projections re-merged into her.
She opened her eyes.
"Looks like the dragon and the snake are both on the rise?" she stood. "I sense the Argents are ready for my visit.... Not that they are aware of it, of course. Time to go."
She walked over to a closet, opened it and pulled out her alias suit.
"Hazel still needs a normal life, and I don't like being recognized," Madison grabbed the Kabuki mask, its blue, red and white colors covering the face perfectly. "Now let us make an entrance as the masked figure, Lady Kabuki… This will be fun…for me, anyways."
A strange grin spread across Madison's face, as if she knew the legends such a figure would hear in the future.