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CW: This fic, in its entirety, contains certain themes, such as:

-Disturbing / Horror-elements

-References to PTSD + Abuse + Familial Suicide + SA

-Blood + Gore

-Body Horror

-Emotional themes

-The process of healing from traumatic events.

"Our Home" was initially written and posted around January '26 on Furaffinity

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/63781316/

(Will require an account)

I sometimes add visual elements into my fics. These might not show up all that well in here. To see the original source file, check out my FA listed above.

"Our Home" follows Raigengrau SolHart, the doppelganger to Raix SolHart. Raix is a vampiric anthro dragon with a traumatic past and a history of being abused by his family and his former lover, the vampire dragon lord known as Ketzgryf Durantallyn. When Raix had his soul devoured by Ketzgryf, Raix was able to forge a pact with the Chaos God known as Allichia and obtain a new soul. He then went on a centuries long conquest to destroy his vampire clan and to free his soul from Ketzgryf...

...only to fail to merge with his soul, due to the newfound knowledge that he would lose his memories as a vampire, if he took in his soul again.

His original soul, however, refused to fade away, and eventually formed into the being now known as Raigengrau.

Raigengrau hates Raix for abandoning him...but are things as they seem? Or does Raigengrau have deeper feelings towards his other half?

The ending notes will have some reference art of certain characters mentioned here that I have commissioned over the past few years. Feel free to check it out.

Chapter 1

Chapter Summary

The Doppelganger Anthro Dragon, Raigengrau SolHart, returns to the real world, after exploring the parallel-like worlds called "Reflections" and encounters Allichia, a Chaos God in the form of an anthro dragonness. While Raigengrau is a bit of a wild card and claims to not care, he may have more feelings than he lets on regarding his other half, Raix SolHart.

1.

CW: This story contains:

-Disturbing / Horror-elements

-Occasional references to vore + violence

-Substance Abuse

The surface of the mirror warped.

A twist in the fabric of reality, the reflective glass set in the gilded frame of a massive mirror that covered the blackened wood-paneled wall.

The glass swirled like a vortex, pooling up and forming puddles of quicksilver, until-

_ -CRASH- _

The mirror exploded outward, the jagged shards reflecting a myriad of colors that were illuminated by moonlight that poured through the stained glass windows overlooking the scene.

The shards never hit the violet-colored carpet. They floated in the air, as if time had stopped.

And then, he stepped through the mirror.

The anthro dragon’s body was covered in black scales, with red accents that ran along the front of his lithe form. His eyes, wide with manic glee, pierced the darkness with glowing ice-blue colored iris’ that were isolated in pitch-black sclera, with crimson markings underneath his eyes. His hair was styled back over his head like spikes, the snow-white color fading into black at the very tips of each strand.

His bare, clawed feet made no sound as they touched the plush carpet underneath. He wore an amused smile on his broad muzzle, as a substance akin to black ichor leaked from between his sharp fangs.

The mirror’s shards were still floating above the carpet. As he padded forward, he casually brushed aside the floating glass.

Without even turning back, he raised his right hand...

_ -SNAP _ -

The sound of his claws snapping together echoed throughout the empty halls, as the floating shards of glass flew back towards the mirror. Each piece neatly fit into one another, reforming the reflective surface like nothing had ever occurred in the first place.

“Love doin’ that shit.”

His voice was distorted and layered over multiple times, his grin ever-present. Satisfied that his work was complete, he began to pad down the corridor of Leudracyte Academy, a Gothic, occult institution of dark mysteries.

He wore the standard issue uniform that all students of the academy wore; an ivory jacket with matching trousers.

Only, his outfit had been torn to shreds.

The jacket was covered in deep gouges, with tears and cuts all along the surface. The sleeves of the jacket had been completely torn off at the elbows, revealing his black-scaled arms and wavy, crimson markings on his wrists. His trousers were torn below the knee, showing off his toned legs that were built for agility. A red trim ran down the lapels of the jacket, with a similarly colored aiguillette that was dangling from a bronze epaulet on his right shoulder.

Black ichor and dried blood stained the white uniform, the jacket left open to reveal his red-scaled chest and belly. A jagged scar ran down his body, starting at his throat and ending at his abdomen, resembling the shape of the constellation Serpens.

He hummed a tune to himself as he made his way down the empty corridor, snapping his clawed fingers to a beat in his own head. Paintings and portraits of various academy alumni glared down at him.

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks in front of a large portrait.

The sheer size of the painting easily dwarfed the other pictures in the hall. The subject of the portrait appeared to be the very personification of regal authority. An alabaster-scaled anthro dragon, with violet-colored accents, stood tall and proud. His long, blonde hair cascaded down his shoulders, as fuchsia-colored highlights streaked through his mane. His uniform was pristine and untarnished. White, with a violet-trim running down the lapel of the jacket. In his right hand, he carried a sheathed estoc-style longsword, his left balled into a closed fist at his hip. A pair of polished, silver-colored boots covered his feet, with golden cuffs wrapped around his ankles.

A coy, knowing smile was on the subject’s slightly elongated muzzle, his mismatched purple and red eyes gazing down at the anthro dragon.

Below the portrait, was an obsidian nameplate, with text written in white marble:

KETZGRYF DURANTALLYN

The anthro dragon staring at the portrait now held out his right hand and extended his middle finger.

“Fuck you, you pompous piece-of-shit.” He spat.

His eyes then scanned the walls, looking for another portrait.

Taking a few steps forward, the anthro dragon paused, as he had found his quarry.

Compared to Ketzgryf’s massive portrait, this one was certainly less “grand” in its appearance. Yet, it stood apart from the other paintings...

The subject of the painting was covered in black scales and red accents. His long, white hair appeared to be perpetually windswept. His expression was unreadable, save for the intense gaze of his mismatched blue and red eyes. He wore a long, black, fur-collared coat with a golden trim, a doublet and a silken shirt underneath the coat. Black trousers were tucked into knee-high boots. A rapier was sheathed at the hip, his right hand reaching for the hilt that was wrapped in golden rose-like thorns.

The nameplate below read:

RAIX “WILDFIRE” SOLHART

The portrait’s subject bore an almost uncanny resemblance to the anthro dragon grinning below.

But now, his grin softened.

“Baby Bat…” He whispered the nickname to himself, before he let out a rasping chuckle. “You always hated how that bastard fawned over you. Surprised you haven’t burnt this painting down yet.”

He stared at the picture for a moment longer.

“I’ll see you tonight. I’ll see ya’ real soon.” His grin returned. He then jammed his hands into his pockets and continued down the passage.

* * *

The anthro dragon’s pointed ears perked.

“I think it’s time we accept he’s not going to accomplish what he set out to do, Allichia.”

Voices.

“Agh, I know. But I don’t wanna give up on him just yet. He’s...he’s come pretty far, compared to the other Reflections.”

Feminine, with an Irish lilt.

“Allichia...” A pause. “Whatever your feelings are for the SolHart family, the situation has gone out of control.” The second voice, also feminine, lacked the melodic accent the other speaker had. This one’s was to-the-point. Stern. Ice cold.

The black-scaled anthro dragon’s smirk widened. He picked up the pace, making his way to the source of the conversation. Down the hall, an oaken door was ajar. Light flickered from the room inside.

“It shouldn’t have ended up this way!” The Irish speaker raised her voice. “We can see alotta shite! How the hells did we miss this one Reflection? The one that ended up causin’ a fuckin’ Untethered Soul to pop into existence? We’re better than this!”

“While we can detect the possibility of an Untethered Soul in a Reflection, we can’t detect its actual presence or awakening. It was bound to happen one day.”

“But we’re always on the ball with these gobshites! At least, we were, until fuckin’ Raixy-boi dropped the ball through the ground, because he’s too scared to-”

The black-scaled anthro dragon’s claws wrapped around the edge of the door and tore it wide open.

The two green-scaled anthro dragon’s halted their conversation. Both of them were sitting at a large desk across from each other, the gas-powered lanterns that hung from the walls were doing very little to light the entirety of the dark lecture hall.

The pair were almost identical, yet, distinctly different in their own way. Both dragons were covered in green scales, with black accents. However, the one on the right wore a long, brown leather trenchcoat over her body and not much else, save for a pair of tightly-wrapped bandages over her chest and waist. A cigarette dangled from her muzzle that wore a blank, almost bored expression, on her face.

The other was the very image of a diligent office-worker, dressed in apparel from a different time. She wore an immaculately tailored black pantsuit, with similarly-colored flats on her feet. Her red hair was tied into a tight bun, while her counterpart’s hair was let down, the long, crimson-colored locks flowing over her shoulders.

The dragon on the right took a long drag from her cigarette, before she formed a half-smile on her muzzle. “Speaking of Untethered Souls…” Her magenta-colored eyes stared at the intruder.

Her counterpart, meanwhile, glared through a pair of rectangular-framed glasses. “You are interrupting our conversation, _ Raigengrau _…”

The black-scaled dragon, Raigengrau, leaned against the doorframe, his arms crossed. “Don’t care.” He nodded towards the dragonness on the right, his ice-blue iris’ glowing in the dark like pinpricks of light. “What’s up, Chaos Cunt?” His mottled, forked tongue snaked out between his lips momentarily. “Lookin’ to get ate tonight?”

The stern dragonness leaned over the table. “_ Allichia _, you don’t have to answer him. I advise we just leave and head back to-”

“Raiggy-boi…” Allichia started, ignoring her counterpart. “I don’t give a rat’s arse about what you’re gonna do to me. We both know you got bigger obsessions on your mind.” She peered through the haze of her cigarette smoke at Raigengrau’s uniform. “You been fuckin’ around again in the other Reflections, eh?”

“Always, honey.” Raigengrau stepped forward into the lecture hall. “When you’re hungry like me, ya’ gotta keep eating the other Baby Bats.” He brushed a hand over the dried bloodstains on his jacket. “That, and it’s a lotta fun to scare the shit outta’ them. Keeps my hands busy, at least until the main event.”

“Allichia, he’s approaching us-”

“Oh, really?” Allichia rolled her eyes. “Gee, thank you, Smart-Allichia. If you didn’t tell me, I wouldn’t have believed the eyes in my head.” She exhaled smoke, as she reached into her coat to produce a bottle of Irish whiskey, her clawed thumb expertly flicking off the cap.

“Yeah, you big giga-brain’d bitch.” Raigengrau laughed. “You might need to step up your game a little. ‘Else, I’m gonna put you outta work.”

Raigengrau raised his claws towards the chalkboard on his right. “But, if I’m bein’ honest…”

_ -SKREEEEEEEEEEECH- _

His claws raked along the surface of the board.

“... Only thing you’re gonna be workin’ on, is bein’ the fat on my hips.’ ”

Allichia shook her head. “One-track mind you got there, Raiggy-boi.” She raised the bottle of whiskey to her lips and drank directly from the source.

“Oh, of course.” Raigengrau crooned. “Gettin’ a taste of your soul? Knowing what I’m expectin’ to happen in a few million-”

“-Billion.” Smart-Allichia adjusted her glasses. “Statistics proven, from previous Untethered Souls fully consuming Chaos Gods to become one themselves. It will likely take you billions of years to-”

A distorted snarl. The sudden lunge was barely perceived, as Raigengrau was within inches of Smart-Allichia’s muzzle. His breath, sweet with vanilla, mixed with the rot of death, fogged up her glasses.

“ You’ll end up in the same place, regardless of how long it takes.” Raigengrau’s jaws parted in front of Smart-Allichia’s snout…

• CLACK -

He snapped his teeth together, right in front of her unamused face.

“I’d say that sound would be the last thing you’d ever hear, but I like to prolong this shit.” Raigengrau licked his chops, leaving a sheen of saliva on his lips. “Tell ya’ what; I’ll compose a song just for you. Let’s call it ‘Raigengrau’s Stomach Symphony No. 7’. Has a bit of a repetitive melody consisting of gurgles, but the audience has a hard time complainin’ while they’re bein’ digested. Hell, I’m even into that ‘audience participation’ shit. They get a role in the song, ya’ know, around the crescendo. Consists entirely of their screams.”

Smart-Allichia didn’t blink. Didn’t flinch. She turned towards her other self. “Should we sic ‘Accounting’ on him?”

Allichia’s answer was a thick swallow, her throat working the whiskey down into her stomach. She then swung the bottle down towards the table, as if to slam the bottom against the surface.

She paused, holding the bottle above the desk. Her brow furrowed in thought.

“Nah.” She gently set the whiskey down. “In fact, take a break, girl.” She leaned back into her chair. “I’m getting real sick and tired of these idle fuckin’ threats. Shite gets old fast.”

Smart-Allichia stared. “That is highly inadvisable-”

“Nah, she just wants some alone-time with her buddy Raigengrau!” He let out a wicked chuckle. “She wants to know if she’s gonna digest last. Spoiler-alert; she’s the first one takin’ a one-way trip down my gullet.”

Allichia smiled tiredly at Smart-Allichia. “Have a drink, girlfriend. I know you got that shot glass with ya’.” She lazily motioned with her whiskey bottle.

Smart-Allichia opened her muzzle to argue, before she let out a sigh. She reached inside of her pantsuit and produced a small glass, smudged with prints and dust. The rim was stained a dark-brown color from previous indulgements.

“You don’t...like...have a purse or somethin’?” Raigengrau narrowed his eyes.

“No.” Smart-Allichia reached for the bottle of whiskey and poured a shot.

“What happens if you trip? That’s how you get glass in your ass.”

“I don’t.”

Smart-Allichia gulped the shot down, before immediately pouring another.

“You know, you coulda’ just poured a double-”

“Just...shut up and let her drink in peace.” Allichia glanced at Raigengrau. “She’s in a mood.”

-_ Glrk- _

“She’s always in a mood.”

Smart-Allichia poured a third shot.

“You good, girl?” Allichia raised an eyeridge.

“I think she needs a vacation.” Raigengrau commented.

“She’s essential personnel.”

-_ Gulp- _

Smart-Allichia moved to pour a _ fourth _ shot.

“Ugh, you know what? Just take the fuckin’ bottle and get out of here already!” Allichia shoved the whiskey into Smart-Allichia’s hands.

“Ya’ think I’m gonna get an ironclad liver like hers?” Raigengrau waggled his eyebrows. “I mean, I already kinda can’t die, but I can definitely get plastered.”

Smart-Allichia rose to her feet, bottle and shot glass in hand. “Expect my resignation on your desk.”

“Denied.” Allichia waved her off. “You’re essential-

Smart-Allichia stormed off mid-sentence. She stumbled, her left shoe falling off. She paused, considering, before she shrugged and took another drink, reaching the back wall of the lecture hall and disappearing into it.

“You know, this is why I do everything myself.” Raigengrau deadpanned. “No drama.”

“Oh, please.” Allichia leaned back in her chair, as she rubbed her otherworldly eyes, attempting to stave off the headache that was building up. “We all know it’s because you like to cause the drama. You don’t want anyone stealing your spotlight, clown.”

Raigengrau grinned at Allichia. “You know me better than most.”

“I wish I didn’t at all.” She sighed.

“Hah!” Raigengrau barked a laugh, spinning the now-empty chair around to straddle it, his arms resting on the wooden headrest. “Now that’s a real ‘Baby Bat’-level riposte.”

“Yeah, about that…” Allichia started. “What the fuck are you doing, Raigengrau?”

“Sittin’.” His pointed ears perked.

“You damn well know that’s not what I’m talking about.” Allichia reached inside of her coat, looking for the whiskey bottle, before remembering she gave it away. “Fuck’s sake…” She reached for her cigarettes instead.

“I’m talkin’ about the other Reflections.”

-Clk-

Allichia snapped open the lighter that she kept with the pack of cigarettes. “The other Raix’s you constantly fuck with. The ones you visit in Reflections that are either wildly different or just like our own.” She stuck a cigarette in her muzzle, lighting the other end of it.

“How you scare the shite out of our Raix in this Reflection. How you say you wanna kill him, eat him, merge with him and take over his body and all that other fucked-up shite a doppelganger would say.”

Allichia sits up. She crossed her arms, her elbows resting on the table, as she exhales a plume of smoke. “Yet, you never seem to follow through. And, of course, we both know you’re not just any simple old doppelganger.”

Raigengrau’s grin remained on his face. He spread his arms wide in a theatrical gesture. “It’s ‘cuz I hate the emo bastard.” He laughed. “He abandoned me when I needed him most. After centuries of rotting inside Ketzgryf, the first thing he does when he frees his original soul, is to panic, turn tail and run. Hoping that ‘Oh, my original self will just fly off into the heavens and become a ‘wittle angel’, while I continue to be a miserable fuck for the rest of all time.’”

“Which, why aren’t you pissed at him, Chaos Cunt?” Raigengrau narrowed his eyes. “If it wasn’t for his cowardice, you wouldn’t be in the position you’re in right now. Because of him, you got slapped with an expiration date. Sure, I’ll be the one to do you in, but we wouldn’t be having this conversation if Raix just manned the fuck up.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong.” Allichia rested the end of her muzzle on a hand. “I put Raixy-boy on blast. Hells, I was halfway ready to fuck him up real good.” She smirked. “Come on, you know what happens when the hero gets blessed by a god and then doesn’t do what was asked of them. Sometimes it’s lightning, other times it’s some ironic punishment…but…” Allichia paused. She looked off to the side for a moment. “...he reminds me of someone. So, I let him off the hook, even if he did manage to pull the fuck-up of all fuck-ups.”

“Wow~…” Raigengrau’s layered voice was dripping with sarcasm. “Someone’s sentimental.”

Allichia stared at Raigengrau. “Actually, I was thinking of saying the same to you.”

Raigengrau’s grin faded from his face.

A teasing laugh rose from Allichia’s depths. “Whoops. Hope I’m not being too much of a buzzkill, Raiggy-boi.”

Raigengrau lunged. In the blink of an eye, he was already on the table.

He was about to open his jaws, when he realized something unknown had found its way between his lips.

Raigengrau took a breath.

_ -NGGGGHCK, HCK- _

He spat the cigarette out of his muzzle, coughing to clear out the lungful of smoke.

Raigengrau flailed his limbs around, as Allichia merely watched, snout still resting against her clawed hand.

She paid no attention as Raigengrau rolled off the table, his body slamming against the carpeted floor of the lecture hall with a thud.

“Hm…” She glanced at the lit cigarette on the desk, the brown filter laced with the black substance from Raigengrau’s maw. “...Eh, ‘five-second rule.’” Allichia shrugged as she plucked the cigarette up between her fingers and stuck it back into her muzzle.

“Now, you see…” Allichia spoke over Raigengrau’s coughing fit. “I traveled with Raix for more than a century, as he went on his little ‘Vengeance Eurotrip’. And I gotta say…” She inhaled the cigarette smoke deep into her lungs. “..._ you’re both so wonderfully predictable. _”

Below, Raigengrau continued to cough, as hacked up lungfuls of smoke and ash. “Crazy...crazy cunt.”

“Mmmhmmm…” Allichia pulled out another cigarette from her pack and lit the end using the cigarette still in her mouth. “He usually would end up saying something similar too. Loves to spit, scream and hiss at everything, just like a wee lil’ kitten.” She swaps cigarettes, flicking the other across the room, the sparks and embers casting an arc of light that was soon swallowed by the dark. “You good down there, Raiggy-boi? You sure are takin’ this pretty hard. Might need some stronger lungs, boyo. I’ll have to get you in touch with Weed-Allichia.”

“_ You don’t-HCK-” _ Raigengrau spat up a wad of a black, goo-like substance. “_ You don’t know-” _

“-shit about me.” Allichia finished the line. She stood up and turned away from Raigengrau, as she started to pace around the lecture hall, leaving a trail of smoke. “Gods, you’re both dramatic children.” Her hands rested on her hips, shaking her head. “If I had a fuckin’ dollar everytime Raix said that, I’d finally be able to balance out ‘Accounting’s’ checkbook.”

The coughing finally ceased. Raigengrau grabbed the seat of the chair he was in earlier, pulling himself upward to take his previous position. “So what?” He smirked. “No shit we act alike in some ways. We’re two sides of the same coin.”

“Mmm…” Allichia leaned against a wall. There was virtually no light where she stood, leaving only the glow of the cigarette that revealed her face, and her eyes that pierced the darkness. “I’d say you’re both like two jigsaw halves of a jigsaw puzzle. You both got some identical holes and tabs to fit with each other’s pieces, yeah. Used to fit perfectly, but some real shite went down.”

“So…” Allichia continued. “You both throw a tantrum over it. One gets a good look at the completed puzzle and goes ‘Fuck this.” and runs away, tail between his legs. ‘Cuz Raix found out that if he did merge with his original soul again, he’d lose all of his memories. Everything, since he got turned. Just so he can keep up the ruse and hide behind his “Wildfire” self, to keep denying that he’s still a terrified, miserable child and the only thing that’s carried him since ‘day 1’, is the sheer boiling piss he has over Ketzgryf.”

Raigengrau yawned. “Is there a point to all of this? Or are we just fuckin’ around with metaphors?”

“Whereas you…” Allichia ignored Raigengrau’s question. “You already know what the completed puzzle looked like since the beginning. You just had your pieces taken out and rearranged while you were locked away inside Ketzgryf’s heart-shaped box.” She removed the cigarette from between her lips and pointed it at Raigengrau. “And now that you’re back, you find out that not only do the pieces not fit anymore, but the other half of the puzzle wants nothing to do with you. You’re two broken halves that don’t want to fit together.”

Raigengrau’s smile twitched. “You’re sayin’ shit I already know, Chaos Cunt. And it don’t matter what Baby Bat wants, cuz I’m gonna take his shit and-”

“_ I don’t think so _ .” Allichia said.

Raigengrau tilted his head. “Whatever you say, bitchtits. You know you can’t predict or map out the shit I do.”

“Yeah, but I know with a certainty you’re not gonna get anywhere near taking Raix’s body and soul.” Allichia dusted off the ash from the tip of her cigarette. “Maybe when I first met ya’ and when Raix was fightin’ for his life against you, to the point where even fuckin’ Ketzgryf was trying to help, but-”

-SLAM-

The wooden chair sailed through the air, splintering against the wall only a few inches from where Allichia stood.

“ That ancient, creepy, pompous, violating old _ FUCK _ had _ NO _ interest in helping Raix!”

Raigengrau was on his feet. His layered voice twisted together to form a furious chorus of the damned. “Seeing Raix stand side-by-side with Ketzgryf against me that one night was the most sickening shit! All he was gonna do was manipulate Raix again! Turn him against ME! And then rape the fucking life out of him like last time!!”

Raigengrau slammed his hands into the wooden surface of the desk, his claws digging deep gouges. “The only one that can fuck with Raix is me! Not Ketzgryf! I’ll never let that sick bastard anywhere near either of us, ever _ fucking _ _ AGAIN __ !!! _”

The final word echoed along the walls.

Raigengrau pulled his hands away from the desk, wooden splinters caught between his digits.

For a moment, Allichia had no reaction to Raigengrau’s fury. She just stared at him with a blank expression, lit cigarette in her muzzle.

Then, she smiled.

“Well...I had no idea you could call Raixy-boi by his actual name. Thought all you’d ever call him was that ridiculous nickname you spout all the time.”

“Anyway,” Allichia lit another cigarette and flicked away the previous. The lecture hall was beginning to smell like an ashtray. “I had a thought about something.”

Raigengrau growled, furious at himself for losing his usual composure. “Would be a first for you.” He pulled up another chair and sat, leaning against the back-rest.

“I can’t see what you’re doin’ in the other Reflections exactly…” She continued without acknowledging Raigengrau’s insult. “And I dunno if you’re just hanging around in your own little Reflection you carved out for yourself. But there’s two things I have noticed.”

“One:” Allichia holds out a singular index finger. “You love going to the other Reflections and worlds where other Raix’s are and you adore putting them through hell. Killing them in all kinds of fucked up ways. Especially if it means you get to play with your food.”

Allichia’s words made Raigengrau remember the earlier events of the night. His usual manic grin formed on his muzzle again.

“You bet. Near-infinite Reflections...near-infinite Baby Bats...it’s a win for me, honey.” Raigengrau cackled. “You shoulda seen the last one I ate. Caught him with his pants down. Literally. He was jerkin’ it to some artsy-fartsy picture of me, of all fucking things! When I had him on his back, he begged me to let him finish.”

“And I did! Of course, the moment he squirted…”

Raigengrau snapped his jaws, following up with a deep, throaty chuckle.

“’Course, my favorites are the tiny ones. They go down pretty easy. And can you fuckin’ believe there are little fuckers that actually want to get ate? They’ll let you do anything to ‘em.” Raigengrau shrugged. “Sometimes, I’ll just lay on the floor and open up. Some are so eager, they’ve ended up makin’ me gag a little, heh.”

Allichia held her hand to her face. “Gonna give me a fuckin’ migraine, I swear to-” She muttered under her breath.

“Alright, cool.” She rolled her eyes. “Point is, you ain’t made a move on Raixy-boi in a hot minute. OUR Raixy-boi. Yet, you’re so willing to cut the thread on the other Raix’s.” Allichia paused, letting her thought sink in. “You know, if you did really wanna commit, you could very easily go take out our Raix right now even. You’ve seen him. He spends most of his days drunk on wine and miserable that he’s here at the academy again. He’s probably passed out in his fucked-up room.”

Raigengrau leaned forward, his right hand balled into a fist on the desk. “Well, yeah.” His smile faltered again. “I know that.”

“Okay?” Allichia started to pad towards Raigengrau. “So, what’s stopping you right now? Go get him.”

-Clk-Clk-Clk-

Raigengrau’s clawed index finger tapped against the surface of the table.

“Well?” Allichia could see the jaws of her trap closing in.

“It’s not the same, you know.” Raigengrau finally replied. “Killin’ off the other Baby Bats is a good way to vent off the stress. Being stuck as a fucked up spirit within Ketzgryf’s body, after he took his...my-” He stammered. “-our soul. Then seein’ Baby Bat just fuck off. Despite everything we grew up together with in Strasbourg. And…”

Raigengrau shook his head, before he forced a smile onto his face, the side of his muzzle twitching a bit. “It ain’t that fuckin’ complicated. He’s fun. He causes a hell of a lot of chaos wherever he goes. It’s probably why you stuck around with him for so long. Even if he hates being here because of Ketz, Baby Bat loves starting shit. Did ya’ see his last duel? Some asshole from House Durantallyn talked shit to him about bein’ Ketz’s consort. Ended with Baby Bat’s little sword lodged through the guy’s eye socket, hah!”

“You know, that smile is something Raixy-boi does all the time too, right?” Allichia made her way down the row of desks where Raigengrau sat. “Just another one of his masks.”

The rhythm of Raigengrau’s claw against the desk stopped.

“That, and that whole excuse of ‘Oh, he’s too much fun to kill!’ is an old fuckin’ trope. Cliched shit. ” Allichia now stood over Raigengrau, her magenta-eyes boring into him.

Raigengrau glanced up at her eyes before turning away. The muscles on his face twitched again as he tried to maintain his smile. “Sure, think whatever you wanna think. I’m only answering the question, Chaos Cunt.” He scoffs. “It really is as simple as that. The other Reflections all have some piss-baby boring copy of my Baby Bat.”

“They ain’t nothin’ like him! They ain’t fit to even live in his shadow! I wanna see the light leave their eyes, as I drink the fear from my favorite one.”

“And ya’ know? I can keep this shit rollin’.” Raigengrau crossed his legs, his free arm danging over the back of the chair. “It’s already fun as hell keepin’ Baby Bat around. So I’ll keep fuckin’ with him, spookin’ him, doin’ whatever the HELL I want with him.” Raigengrau’s voice rasped as he grew excited. “I wanna fuckin’ tear down every little barrier he’s built up. All of his stupid masks and guards around his heart and soul. I wanna shred ‘em like fuckin’ toilet paper, hehehe!!” A mad giggle escaped his throat.

“And when there’s nothin’ fuckin’ left…” Raigengrau’s eyes widened, almost like he could see it all unfolding right in front of him. “...when he finally sees who I am. When he sees what he is. What we _ REALLY AND TRULY ARE TOGETHER!!!” _

“We’ll laugh as fire burns the world. As I swallow it in shadow. As we tear Ketzgryf apart. ”

Allichia stared wordlessly at Raigengrau.

He suddenly blinked. “...Anyway, it’s all just words.” Raigengrau avoided Allichia’s gaze. “The fuck is your other question?”

“So, the second thought I had…” Allichia dangled the cigarette between her fingertips now, holding her arm at her side. “...You’ve been not only visiting Reflections to fuck with other Raix’s, but also Reflections that are very similar to our own. Same course of events. Same shit happens.”

“What about it?” Raigengrau raised an eyeridge.

“Why bother?” Allichia leaned against the desk. “You’re not gonna meet another you in those Reflections. Untethered Souls are like fuckin’ outliers. You’re not supposed to exist, no matter what happens to Raix with being raised as a vamp or not. The only reason you’re here is ‘cuz Raixy-boi failed to accept you and take his original soul back into his body.”

“Every similar Reflection to this one will end up with either Raix dead in a ditch somewhere, his soul lost within the all-consuming whirlpool that is Ketzgryf’s heart, or something similar. And whose to say what will fuckin’ happen to him in this world?” There was a hint of bitterness in Allichia’s voice.

“You think I don’t know that?” Raigengrau hissed. “You really are havin’ fun rubbin’ this in.”

“Raiggy-boi, if I wanted to rub salt in your wound, there’s more entertainin’ ways to go about it. I’m actually tryin’ to figure something out.” Suddenly, Allichia’s expression softened.

“You can’t change things, if that’s what you’re tryin’. No matter how much chaos we may bring into the world or feast upon, we can’t change the threads of fate for all. Across the most similar Reflections...some hands are just destined to go bust. The only thing that changes is the order the cards are dealt.”

Raigengrau suddenly stood up from his chair.

The anger in his eyes was unlike him.

“...Because he deserved better.”

“Because we deserved better.”

Raigengrau turned away from Allichia and padded towards the door.

“Raigengrau,” Allichia called out after him.

“Really fuckin’ know how to kill the mood, Chaos Cunt.” Raigengrau chuckled bitterly. “Thankfully, I know how to bounce back and-”

“You were there for him during that night. In the other Reflections, weren’t you?”

Raigengrau almost pitched forward. He stumbled briefly, before he recovered.

“The night Ketz tore his throat out. Devoured his soul. Hell, technically, he devoured you.”

“The night Raix was turned.”

Silence. Raigengrau didn’t bother looking back. He just stood there.

Allichia let out a sigh. “...You know...the reason I’m tryin’ to figure this all out-” She presses the lit end of the cigarette against the table, grinding it out.

“I wasn’t there the night Baby Bat got killed.” Raigengrau interrupted her. “I was already forcibly yanked out of him, by Ketz. Already subjected to his sickness.”

“I didn’t know what was going through Raix’s head that moment. As he bled out, gasping for air. Dying. Violated. Hollowed. Resurrecting, all at once. I was already gone by that point.”

“So, I had to see.”

Allichia didn’t reach for another cigarette.

“Does it make you feel better then? Knowing what happened?”

Raigengrau slowly turned towards Allichia. A slight smirk was on his face.

“That’s not what it’s about, Allichia.”

“It’s about makin’ sure Raix ain’t alone that night. Even if it ain’t my Raix.”

“He might not be the right one. But, maybe he won’t turn into such a miserable, angry bastard. Ya’ know...if he has someone there with him. If _ I’m _ there, for him, during those moments...”

Allichia crossed her arms. “...I see.”

The two remained silent.

“Welp…” Raigengrau finally broke the quiet. “I know I’m not like Baby Bat, who’s just one big grump-ass bitch, but I do have some sore spots. Unless you wanna keep pokin’ at him for your own knowledge or whatever the fuck you want, I’m outta here. Gonna go pay a visit to my favorite disaster.”

“Aye.” Allichia nodded. “...You know, you didn’t have to stick around, Raigengrau.”

“No. I didn’t. Don’t expect shit to be like this between us all the time.” Raigengrau gave a half-hearted wave without even looking back. “Toodles, Chaos Cunt.”

And with that, Raigengrau exited the lecture hall.

The scent of vanilla and rot intermingled with the cigarette smoke that filled the classroom.

Allichia remained leaning against the desk. She let out a heavy sigh, before pressing her clawed hand against her face.

“Uggggh…” Allichia groaned. “...This is a lot worse than I thought it would be.” She padded towards the same wall that Smart-Allichia phased through earlier. “I was hoping it was just some weird, random stuff he was up to. Not...this.”

“There ain’t enough booze to deal with this. Ain’t ever gonna be enough smokes either.” She shook her head, a bitter smile on her lips. “But, of course, this shite had to happen.”

“The only person Raiggy-boi could ever fall in love with would be himself, after all…”

(Continued in Part 2)

Chapter 2

Chapter Summary

After getting his buzz killed by Allichia, Raigengrau wanders Leudracyte Academy for a bit. He reminisces when he used to roam these halls, when he was "whole". When he was simply a part of Raix. That is, until he bumps into a familiar and extremely unwelcome face...

2.

CW: This story contains:

-Disturbing / Horror-elements

-References to SA

-Violence/Gore

-Body Horror

The empty halls of Leudracyte Academy stretched onward.

Raigengrau padded down the corridor, the anthro dragon not appearing to be in any rush. He was slightly hunched over, his hands jammed into the pockets of his torn jacket.

“Fucking Chaos Cunt…” He spat, muttering to himself in his multi-layered voice. “Thinks she knows how I feel towards Baby Bat? Don’t give a shit how old she is or what she is. Chaos God or not, she doesn’t get it.”

“She never will.”

The hallway opened up to reveal a massive grand foyer. Raigengrau’s bare footfalls echoed across the stone walls and vaulted ceilings of ebony, indigo and gold. The stained glass windows in the foyer depicted conquests of old. Wars. Bloodshed. Subjugation.

Raigengrau climbed the staircase in the center of the chamber. At the peak of the staircase, a massive window depicted an intricate scene. An artistic rendition, set in glass, of Ketzgryf Durantallyn, embracing his lover. His pet. His consort.

In his arms, was Raix SolHart.

Raigengrau stared at the stained glass for what felt like an eternity. He always did, every time he was around the foyer at night. He had considered smashing it to pieces. Yet, doing so would dispel the mystical wards that shielded the vampires of the academy from the effects of the sun.

The same harmful effects that would set Raix ablaze.

Raigengrau quickly turned away from the window, as he made his way up another flight of stairs to his right, towards the eastern wing of the academy where the dormitories lay.

He knew the way. He always would.

A memory played in his head.

A memory that he could never forget. One that he shared with Raix.

* * *

“_ SOLHART!” _ The voice roared.

Raix, dressed in the white uniform of the academy, turned around at the top of the staircase. A red trim ran down the lapel of his jacket. His outfit was perfectly tailored, the jacket clinging to his lithe form, as he glared with his blue eyes at the anthro bat that was following him.

“Que voulez-vous?” Raix hissed in his home language. “I told you. I don’t care for your nonsense. Leave me be.”

The anthro bat wore a similar uniform, albeit, the jacket and trousers were black with a yellow trim. His right eye was the color of gold, yet his left eye was concealed under a thick, black cloth that was partially wrapped around his skull.

Raix had been unaware at the time, that his instructor and mentor that he had known ever since he was a child, the very same that had brought him here after the fire had claimed his home in Strasbourg, was actually a vampire of House Durantallyn. The mark of a vampire within the clan typically was indicated by one of the eyes turning a shade of crimson.

“What do I want, SolHart? Scheiße!” The bat swore in German. “The same thing I’ve wanted since I brought you here! To help you! Because I promised your-”

“_ Oh .” Raix’s gaze hardened. “So, you merely continue to bother me, because you wish to fulfill your debt to my father? To a _dead man?”

The bat grit his teeth. “...Do not speak of your father in such a way. He always wanted the best for you.”

“Well, I’ve some excellent news for you, mon ami…” Raix scoffed. “My father cannot hear me. He can’t hear much of anything anymore.”

Raix broke into a run, sprinting towards the eastern wing of the academy.

He ignored the continued shouts, demanding him to return. He blinked away the bitter tears, his heart heavy.

“Dad...Why did you-”

He rounded the corner-

_ -WHAM- _

Raix collided with something. An unyielding wall that barely registered the weight of the anthro dragon running into it.

Raix stumbled back, struggling to catch his balance. “- _Hells_!” He collapsed onto his rear, the violet carpet cushioning his fall.

“Errf…” Raix growled. The pain he felt was nothing compared to his wounded ego. He immediately launched a furious, verbal assault.

“Were you dropped on your head at birth? Or do you just enjoy standing around corners and praying that-”

He looked up. And up.

The figure was quite tall. Wearing polished silver boots. The same academy uniform. White, with a violet trim. Blonde and fuchsia-colored hair cascaded down his shoulders.

Raix had expected anger from the tall, alabaster-scaled figure. Yet, an amused smirk was worn on the stranger’s muzzle.

“I pray to no one, draga mea.”

His deep, yet breathy voice shook the bones in Raix’s body. Every single word was spoken like it had been carefully measured.

He extended a clawed hand. Purple-colored pads adorned the palm.

And his violet eyes gazed into Raix’s own…

“However…_ Others have prayed to me.” _

* * *

“Fucking Ketzgryf…” Raigengrau made his way down the passageway. “Right around here was where I met the old bastard. Constantly had a glamour up on his vampiric eye. At least, until he revealed what he truly was. Right when he tore out Baby Bat’s throat...”

“...When he sucked me right out of Raix’s hear __t._ ”_

Raigengrau rounded the corner.

The sight made him freeze in place.

“You gotta be fuckin’ kiddin’ me.”

Standing in the middle of the moonlit hall was a pale figure. A glass of wine was held in the right hand of the anthro dragon, the stem nestled between his middle and ring finger. His violet-and-crimson eyes gazed contemplatively at a stained glass window, depicting an alabaster-scaled dragon rising from a pool of blood, towards the heavens above. His other hand was held behind his back, as he stood proud. Every inch of his body, clad in the typical white and violet uniform he wore, exuded the air of regal, aristocratic authority.

A complete match to the portrait Raigengrau flipped off in the hallway earlier.

A specter that constantly haunts both his own, and Raix’s life.

Ketzgryf Durantallyn.

A wide grin split Raigengrau’s features. Seeing Ketzgryf here again, in their meeting place, only now centuries later…

“Ohhhhhhhh, shit!” Raigengrau waved a hand in the air. “Take a GOOD LOOK at who it is, folks!”

He then took a step forward. “The man…the myth!” Every other word was punctuated with a footfall. “The _ FUCKIN’ _ _ LEGEND HIMSELF! _”

Ketzgryf remained still, paying no heed to Raigengrau’s mockery.

“I’d give ya’ a round of applause, but it’s just me here tonight! Don’t worry, though! I’m _ THRILLED _ to see you, ya’ better believe it!” Raigengrau’s claws popped the torn collar of his uniform. “Ya’ wanna help fund some tees, Ketz? Got a great idea. We’ll plaster ‘em all over with ‘I got my soul stolen by Ketzgryf and all I got was _ THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT! _’ Would be a great hit with all the naive sacks of shit you fuck with!”

Ketzgryf slowly turned his head towards Raigengrau. His expression was unreadable as he stared down at Raigengrau. There was no visible anger from Raigengrau’s insults. No surprise in seeing Raix’s other half. Not even an ounce of contempt in his gaze.

Only the hint of a smile on his lips.

“Ah.”

Unhurriedly, Ketzgryf swirled around his wine, before raising the glass to his snout, taking a slow, drawn out sip. Despite the crimson hue of the liquid, not a drop stained Ketzgryf’s muzzle.

“I see the poltergeist has returned.”

His voice carried the same tone and cadence it always had. A deep, yet breathy baritone that seemed to whisper on the wind. Each and every word he spoke was akin to sweet poison.

“Still prowling about the halls of my academy, like a rat. Still desperate for the crumbs left by your betters.”

• CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-

“Damn, Ketz.” Raigengrau’s mocking applause echoed in the hall. “You sure got me with that one! Were you thinkin’ about it all night? Ya’ got a little book of quips and jokes hidin’ up your ass? Dunno how you fit it in with the rotten stick ya’ got lodged in there too!”

Ketzgryf stared unblinkingly through Raigengrau. “There are far more entertaining opponents that are worthy of a battle of wits with me. You’re not sincerely suggesting that you are worthy?” He shook his head, letting out a deep chuckle. “Forgive me. I fear that if I continue to be subjected to such absurdities, I may truly fall from laughter.”

“Oh, really?” Raigengrau stood only a few paces from Ketzgryf’s position now. “So, if I keep talkin’ bullshit tonight, you’ll fuckin’ _ die _ laughing? Well, why didn’t you say so?”

“And the fuck you mean ‘Ohhhh, my academy’?” His voice dropped to a comically-deep baritone to mock Ketzgryf’s words. “Let’s be real Ketz; This place ain’t no school. It ain’t the seat of power for your clan. It’s not even a respectable castle! More like Castlevania, if it was sold by Temu!”

“Ya’ know what Leudracyte Academy really is, Ketz?” Raigengrau leaned in, ready for the verbal kill. “It’s your own personal little _ whorehouse! _ Where you lure clueless, broken shitheads in, seduce ‘em with sweet words, take nightly fuckin’ walks in the gardens and say’ shit like ‘Oh, I’ll name a star after you…’, while pointing at the sky like a jackass.”

“’Ya then lure them into bed, bite the shit outta them, suck out their souls and rape the fuckin’ leftovers while they’re still warm!” Raigengrau snapped his claws together. “Casanova, you ain’t, and tryin’ to compare you to Jack The Ripper would be too kind! You think you’re a living god, when really, you’re a half-step above a sleazy wino that fucks the brains out of everything that moves; _ LIVING OR DEAD! _”

As soon as he finished his roast, Raigengrau caught notice of something.

Ketzgryf’s left eye twitched slightly. And for a half-second, his cool composure melted…

...replaced with a flash of ancient and terrifying anger.

“Oh!” Raigengrau leered at Ketzgryf. “Ohhhh-ho-ho-ho-hoooo~” He brought up his hand, his index and middle finger pointing at his own eyes, then towards Ketzgryf’s. “Zing! Don’t think I missed that one! I didn’t hurt your feelings now, did I?”

The silence screamed. The tension in the air was stifling.

Then…

“I see you are as foolish as ever.” Ketzgryf took a long pull from his drink. “State your business here, phantom. Then, get out of my sight.”

“Aw, how sad!” Raigengrau cackled. “I thought you’d be happy to see me! It ain’t everyday you get to see the consequences of not being able to keep down your soul-food, Ketz!” He paused for a beat. “Well, unless you have a thing for pokin’ through the bowl after a ‘BM...’”

“But, enough about how you think your shit don’t stink, Ketzgryf!” With a flick of his wrist and a ‘POOF’ of black smoke, a rolled-up piece of parchment materialized in Raigengrau’s hand.

“I’m lookin’ for someone.” Raigengrau unfurled the parchment. “You might know ‘em. I certainly do.” He slaps the poster against the wall, causing it to stick to the ebony-colored stone. “Made this one myself, by the way! Dunno if you got an ‘Art’ department here, but after seein’ this, I think you’ll want me in charge of it!”

Ketzgryf stared at the poster with disdain. The crudely drawn image of Raix appeared as vulgar as Raigengrau’s very being.

“...Quite the resemblance.” Ketzgryf dryly remarked.

“I would have added more pet names, since you always call him ‘Draga Mea’,” Raigengrau mockingly drawled the Romanian endearment. “...but printing’s expensive, you know?”

“Yes, fascinating.” Ketzgryf waved off Raigengrau’s commentary. “You needn’t concern yourself with Raix. If he’s not in his chambers, more than likely, he’s starting some form of trouble.”

Raigengrau raised an eyeridge, before he ripped the poster from the wall. “How domestic.” He rolled the parchment up, the poster disappearing with another ‘POOF’. “Surprised you haven’t tried breaking into his room to fuck him senseless. What’s the matter, Ketz? Age finally catchin’ up to ya’? Prick don’t work no more?”

Ketzgryf’s eye twitched again.

“Your concern for one’s virility is noted, specter.” He turned away from Raigengrau. “See yourself out immediately. I am far beyond the status of throwing the trash out myself.” Ketzgryf’s boots silently began to carry him down the hallway, as he took another pull from his wine.

­-CRRR~CK-

Bones snapped. Cartilage popped and ichor-immersed sinew began to rearrange itself. The black oily substance stained the carpet below, as Raigengrau’s right arm began to change.

The clawed hand’s digits spasmed, the curved edge of the pitch-black arm blade pushing the fingers aside.

“Whoopsie-doodles…” Raigengrau shrugged. “Arm does that sometimes. Especially when a blind dumbass mistakes me for garbage.”

Ketzgryf didn’t bother to respond, as he continued his unhurried walk down the corridor.

“Let’s talk about garbage, Ketz!” Raigengrau followed Ketzgryf down the hall, dragging the pointed edge of his arm blade along the floor. tearing the carpet to shreds, the blackened tip screeching as it raked over the stone underneath the rug. “See, you might think I’m garbage, but you’re the one who still can’t even get Baby Bat into bed properly!”

“Fuckin’ ridiculous, if you ask me.” Raigengrau laughed. “You want him so bad? You gotta take the full package, Ketzgryf! He’s me and I’m him! You don’t get to choose, dipshit!”

“Oh, but here’s the best part of the package deal!” Raigengrau continued. “He thinks he knows you. Thinks you ruined his fuckin’ life and _ un-life _, hah! He wants you dead, yet, he hesitates, because you made him feel something when he was a sad, lonely sack of shit!”

Ketzgryf paused.

“But it’s me who _ REALLY _ knows you, Ketz!” Raigengrau bared his teeth, his expression somewhere between a snarl and a grin. “Baby Bat only caught a glimpse the night he reached into your soul! The same night he abandoned me! He thinks you’re just some empty, ennui-riddled vessel from Hell itself!”

Raigengrau stopped a few paces behind Ketzgryf.

“You wanna call me ‘trash’? ‘Poltergeist’? Treat me like a fuckin’ ghost that you think you can ignore? Go right ahead! But don’t forget this! It wasn’t Raix that was stuck inside of your rotten body for a hundred-plus years! _ IT WAS ME! _” Raigengrau spat. “I’m not just anyone’s trash. I’m _ YOUR _ trash! I’m the shit you can’t flush down! The reason your appendix is gonna burst!” His voice dropped to a hissing growl, thick with distortion. “So, don’t be butthurt that I’m not just here to fuck with Raix!”

“_ I’m also here to be your little godsdamned reminder of what YOU broke!” _

The corridor was silent, save for the lingering echo of Raigengrau’s words, and the pitter-patter of the black ichor that dripped from the arm blade.

For a moment, neither of them said anything.

Then…

Ketzgryf set down his glass of wine on the ledge of a window.

With perfect grace, he placed one foot in front of the other, pivoting the backfoot to spin around and face Raigengrau.

The amused half-smile that usually was on his lips had vanished.

“My apologies. You are indeed correct.” A venomous edge dripped from Ketzgryf’s words. “I was wrong to call you ‘trash’. Trash, at least, has some value to the wretched and dregs of the world.”

He took a single step forward. “_ YOU... _are an illusory memory. The ghost of a nightmare, struggling to stay relevant after having faded long ago.”

Ketzgryf raised a clawed hand. Crimson-colored sparks danced between the digits. “You wish to continue to play the role of a parasite? Were it worth my time, I would treat you as such. You would be excised from the host and swiftly banished to non-existence.” His hand closed into a fist, snuffing out the red lightning that had formed in his hand. “Yet, you play your role poorly. You’re more of a cancer, a tumor that cannot be removed, yet continues to spread unabated. A cosmic joke, that no matter what punishment is visited upon you, your leering visage will continue to plague reality until the end of time itself.”

He loomed over Raigengrau. “Your continuation of wearing another’s face is tiresome, for it belongs to one far more worthy of an opponent. One who continues to shirk his destiny, yet has not fully abandoned it. Unlike when they discarded _ you. ” Ketzgryf stared down the length of his snout at Raigengrau. His voice was _dripping with toxic condescension. “Tell me; what will you do when your precious little ‘Baby Bat’ realizes his fate and finds his place, by my side?”

The two locked eyes, still as statues of the night. Silent as the grave.

And Raigengrau smiled.

“Oh, Ketz…not much changes with ya, huh?”

-SCCCHK-

Raigengrau’s arm blade retracted into his body, the digits of his hand shifting back into their usual place.

“Ya’ know, I’ll be real with ya;’” Raigengrau turned away from Ketzgryf’s stare, before he took a step towards a stained-glass window with an artistic rendition of the constellations in the stars above.

“Ya’ almost got me there.” Raigengrau chuckled. “I absolutely can’t stand your guts. You think Baby Bat hates ya’? Oh, man. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

“But, ya’ know what?” He continued. “I’m not here to see ya’ tonight. Or fight ya’, for that matter. I mean...shit.” Raigengrau shrugged, shaking his head with a laugh. “What’s gonna happen, huh? I stab you, you either blow my ass up with lightning or find your own sword and stab me? Cool. Whatever. Fuck you. See you later then. I’ll just find another mirror to jump on through.”

“Shit gets old.” Raigengrau rolled his eyes. “So, come on. Get the rest of your crap outta your system. That way, I can move on and go find a little ol’ Baby Bat to fuck with. I ain’t got all night.”

Ketzgryf’s contemptuous gaze followed Raigengrau.

“...In terms of activities that are getting ‘old’” Ketzgryf turned towards the window ledge he had left his wineglass on earlier. “On that, we can agree.”

Ketzgryf began to turn towards the darkness of the hallway, before he looked over his shoulder.

“My position, however, has not changed. Nor has my inquiry.” He raised his wineglass to his lips. “What will you do, when the time comes? When Raix finally realizes you are not worth the trouble? He may not be able to find a way to dispose of you properly, but he will grow weary of you and choose to not give the attention you so desperately crave from him…”

Raigengrau nodded his head towards Ketzgryf, a smirk on his lips. “Good question. One I should be asking you, really.”

“And what makes you say that?” Ketzgryf began to draw from his wine.

“Well, part of the reason I think this shit ain’t worth it right now with you, Ketz?” Raigengrau raised an eyeridge. “I think that if Baby Bat was gonna die unless he chose between either you or me, he’d get into bed with me in a fuckin’ heartbeat.”

“’Better the devil you know’ and all that, and I think he knows me a hell of a lot more than-”

Gravity took hold of the dropped wineglass. Ketzgryf’s right hand shot out at blinding speed, as he grasped Raigengrau’s head, his clawed fingertips already digging into his skull.

His expression hadn’t changed. Even as Raigengrau’s grin widened. Even as Ketzgryf listened to him laugh like a maniac.

“His face…”

“Raix’s face...even with such foolish mimicry...”

_ -** CRRRRSH-**_

The wineglass shattered as it hit the floor.

Ketzgryf averted his eyes, as red-tinted electricity coursed through Raigengrau’s head.

Even as Raigengrau’s body spasmed and shook from the sheer force of the lightning, even with his face partially covered by Ketzgryf’s violet-colored pads that made up the palm of his hand, he laughed.

-_ SPLLLLRT- _

Raigengrau’s head transformed into a fine mist of blood and blackened ink.

His body landed with a ‘ THUD ’, in a heap of ichor and gore, soaking with the spilled crimson wine.

Ketzgryf remained, frozen. His hand was covered in charred viscera.

He began to glance towards Raigengrau’s headless body.

“...His face. His face. Always Raix’s. Not his own. I can only ever see Raix’s.”

“Why? Why does he always find a way to defy me?”

“Even when he’s not _ my _ Raix…”

A gutteral snarl erupted from Ketzgryf’s throat, as he swiftly turned towards the corridor, his strides carrying him briskly down the passageway. His once-pristine uniform now soiled with the remnants of Raigengrau’s skull.

“...To have created such a vile shadow.”

“Yet, you still harbor unending rage that threatens to set the sky ablaze…”

Ketzgryf’s hand hovered over his chest.

Over his own heart.

“...What truly lies within you, Raix?”

* * *

The mirror shattered.

A form lunged through, collapsing onto the carpet of the eastern wing of Leudracyte Academy’s second floor.

Before he even hit the floor, Raigengrau was already laughing.

Still laughing, since before his skull was blown apart.

“_ HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA~!!!” _

“Oh, fuck!” Raigengrau rolled over onto his back. He could feel the glass shards of the mirror underneath, a prickling sensation against his scales. “Oh, I gotta-hehehe!” He could barely stop his own laughter. “This...this fuckin’ guy!”

“The look on his face...heh...hehe! He couldn’t even bear to look!” Raigengrau’s body shook with amusement. Despite the gruesome death he had suffered, he was perfectly whole again.

Raigengrau slowly climbed to his feet, dusting the remaining glass off of his jacket. “Whew…” His laughter died down. “What a night, jeez.”

“First, we got Chaos Cunt tryin’ to get into my head…” He brushes his hands through his black-and-white hair. “Ketz bein’ a stupid bitch, and now…”

Raigengrau’s eyes scanned the hallway. The moon shined down onto his form, the illuminating light pouring in through the stained glass window. Painting Raigengrau in the colors of red, yellow and violet.

A wide, wicked grin formed on his muzzle.

“... I got an appointment to keep with my favorite guy.”

(Continued in Part 3)

Chapter 3

Chapter Summary

Raigengrau finds Raix asleep, in their old room, discovering that Raix is already in the throes of a vivid nightmare. Raigengrau lays with Raix, before he slips into Raix's dreams...

3.

CW: This story contains:

-Disturbing / Horror-elements

-References to PTSD + Abuse

-Dub-Con elements

-Violence/Gore

The deep gouges had remained for over a century.

The heavy, oaken door of a private dormitory room lay before Raigengrau. The surface of the door was scarred with a variety of frantic, furious claw marks.

Raigengrau reached out with a hand, his clawed fingers splayed. Gently, as to not wake the occupant sleeping inside the room, he ran his own claws along the markings. He inserted his own digits inside…

They fit perfectly.

This was Raix’s room.

This was Raigengrau’s room.

This was their room.

“I was already gone, Baby Bat…” Raigengrau mused to himself. “...but I’ve seen your nightmares. Seen how you roared with rage. Screamed in despair, after being turned. So empty and dead, inside-and-out. The splinters that got stuck in your claws...they ached for days, didn’t they?”

Raigengrau pressed himself against the door, his smile ever present.

“But hey...you might think this is a cage you’ve locked yourself in, while you try to deal with all your fucked up feelings, right?”

Raigengrau’s corporeal form shifted. For a half-second, every inch of him turned translucent.

“Then, I’m comin’ into your cage, Baby Bat.”

Raigengrau’s body dissolved.

He sank downward to the floor, as Raigengrau’s body became a writhing, viscous pile of shadow, ichor and tar. Towards the small gap underneath the door.

In complete silence, the living puddle of darkness that Raigengrau had become slipped underneath the door and into Raix’s room.

As soon as Raigengrau cleared the gap, the puddle began to rise from the floor, forming a pillar of black liquid. The column spasmed and shuddered, as features surfaced from the depths of the ink. Black scales, the styled-back hair, the glowing, ice-blue eyes steeped in darkness, the torn academy uniform…

Raigengrau was whole, once again.

“’Home sweet’-ah, fuck it, I don’t even know what a home is anymore.” Raigengrau’s eyes scanned the dark room. “He sure don’t.”

The private dormitory was a testament to rage and despair. A confession of a haunted soul.

Even as a heavy drape snuffed out the moonlight from the window, Raigengrau could see every perfect detail of Raix’s room in the dark.

The walls were almost identical in their scarring to the door outside, covered in deep gashes and gouges. A large, wooden desk was shoved into the far corner of the room, away from the entrance, the plush chair in front having fallen over. The desk itself was a littered workstation of chaos. Occult grimoires, ancient texts of history and collections of dark fables were haphazardly strewn about the desk, the open pages filled with yellowed, dog-eared pages.

Adjacent to the texts, lay an arsenal of weapons and tools. Wooden stakes, jars of holy water, daggers inscribed with Latin prayers, an already-loaded crossbow, wards and talismans against evil that had been collected from around the world from a variety of cultures and religions...

Even a clove of garlic, sealed in a jar. Underneath, a piece of parchment, with a hastily-written note;

“DOES NOT WORK ON HOUSE DURANTALLYN VAMPIRES. MUST EXPERIMENT ON ROMANIAN VAMPIRE CLANS”

As Raigengrau took a step forward, he felt something crumple underneath his bare foot.

He looked down and spotted a discarded letter.

The room was littered with them.

Unsent letters. Pieces of manuscript. Some having piled up to form miniature hills. Stained with ink, blood and wine. Empty bottles laid forgotten amongst the letters, miniature nests of spiders thriving within.

“Every time I come in here, it just gets worse.” Raigengrau shook his head, a smile on his muzzle. “So pathetic. So...Raix.”

He crept forward, ignoring the letters beneath, scribbled with words long forgotten.

“ To: Lord Durantallyn

From: ------

You tore my heart out and made me what I am. I will rend the flesh from your bones and feed it to the thralls you keep in the oubliettes below.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“ He raced across rooftops, blade in hand. His pursuers hot on his heels. They thought him prey, when he was the deadliest hunter of them all.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“ To the esteemed management of ‘Le Chardon Noir’:

If you continue to fail to restock the ‘Chateau Lea Monde’ vintage_,_ I will personally return to your ‘hole in the wall’ tavern as you so foolishly claim it is, and I will see to it, that it lives up to the description, once I’m through with you.

They will not find you in a hole. They’d be lucky if they find your remains at all.

Do not risk my wrath, mon cheri.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“ He wears my face. He knows me more than anything and anyone else. Yet, he is not my mistake. Not my regrets, given form.

He is- ”

The rest of the letter had been scratched out, beyond any recognizable legibility.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meaningless, wasted words. Discarded thoughts. Plays and poems that would devolve into pointless melodrama, only to end in furiously scribbled stanzas and lines.

A hundred stories. A thousand words. A million emotions. Frozen in time and left to rot away into obscurity and eventual non-existence. A monument to despair and a wish for triumph, amidst a deadly armory of paranoia and rage.

At the center of it all, a four-poster bed. A tangled weave of drab linens, the colors having long-faded with age.

And the sleeping figure, the heart of all this chaos…

Raigengrau peered over the edge of the bed, smiling wickedly at the sight of his other half.

Even in his sleep, the black scaled vampiric anthro dragon was at war with himself, tossing and turning, locked in conflict. His movements pulled bed sheets up from underneath the mattress. The thrashing of his tail knocked over pillows to the floor below. His long, snow-white hair clung to his scalp.

Identical to the portrait in the hall. Similar to his depiction on the stained-glass that overlooked the academy’s foyer.

Raix SolHart.

“Non...pas encore…” Raix slurred out the words of his homeland. “Arrete..._ stop _!” A growl of pure anguish escaped his throat, like a stifled scream that could barely be kept down.

Resting against the bed, within arm’s reach, was a blade. The rapier’s steel was hidden within the black and silver scabbard, whereas the hilt was a work of art. The golden guard of the rapier resembled a typical ring-guard, yet it was covered in small, metal spikes that resembled the thorns of a rose. And nestled between the blade and the guard, was a steel, black rose. Raix’s rapier and preferred weapon, Rosenthorne.

The sight made Raigengrau roll his eyes. The rapier wasn’t unique in any special manner. Just a family heirloom, dating all the way back to the first recorded SolHart, Thulbain. Knight of the Holy Roman Empire by day, hedonist and pleasure seeker by night. Executed for the mere crime of existing. For his “obscene” nature.

“Damn thing’s a toy.” Raigengrau scoffed. “Yet...always felt funny that Baby Bat would feel at ease, just by holding it. Like he could take on the world.”

He glanced over at Raix. “Is that what you’re doin’ right now? Fighting the world in your head? Or are your dreams getting the better of you, like they always are?”

Raix shuddered in his sleep, as he curled up onto his side. His tail wrapped around his ankle in a tight coil.

With silent steps, Raigengrau circled around the bed. “Oh, Baby Bat…” He purred. “Deep down, you always were scared of everything.” He began to lower himself into the bed, sliding in behind Raix.

Raix didn’t notice. He continued to shudder and whimper in his dreams.

“Always pretendin’ to be the big, bad scary guy yourself.” Raigengrau whispered to the unaware Raix. He slid forward, until his scarred chest pressed against Raix’s back. “But you were always so sad. Always so terrified...all you ever wanted was to live your life.”

He slid one arm underneath Raix’s neck. Raigengrau’s other arm against the ribs.

“_ NNNNGH!” _ Raix’s body violently tensed, a strained growl welling up in his body.

“Shhhh…” Raigengrau breathed. He pulled Raix close, erasing any and all space between the pair. “Don’t fight me, Baby Bat...just relax.”

“Mmmf...nnnggh…” Raix whimpered. Tears began to stream from his eyes. “N-no...non…”

“It’s okay…” Raigengrau caressed Raix’s red chest. “You’re just scared of...stupid shit. The past can’t hurt you anymore. Ketz won’t lay a finger on you.”

Raigengrau felt the tension in Raix’s muscles begin to ease.

“P-please...please…” Raix moaned in his sleep. His tail began to uncoil from around his ankle.

“Ketz took it all…” Raigengrau’s muzzle pressed against Raix’s pointed ear. “He took it all from us...broke you into pieces. Turned you into some...fucked up tragic disaster. He kept us apart…”

“Don’t worry, Baby Bat. I’m not going anywhere now. I’ll never leave your side…”

Raigengrau felt something brush against his leg.

It began to coil around his limb, wrapping around tightly.

Raix’s tail.

Raigengrau’s smile turned into a wide grin, as he gave Raix a gentle squeeze.

“I’m here Baby Bat.” Raigengrau purred. “I’m always here…”

“Mmmmr…” Raix let out a soft purr. “Don’t...don’t go…”

Raigengrau pressed his muzzle against the nape of Raix’s neck and took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the scent. “I got you, Baby Bat. I got you...none of those petty nightmares of yours. Just me.”

Raigengrau lidded his eyes. “Now...what silly little horrors were you thinkin’ about tonight, Baby Bat? Lemme take a look…”

He began to drift off into sleep with Raix. A shared sleep.

“Let me see how I can twist your nightmares...’cuz…”

“_ The only thing you need to be scared of, _ _ is me.” _

_ * * * _

“Sinking…”

Raigengrau’s eyes were closed. His consciousness had joined with Raix’s. “Let me in, Baby Bat…” Raigengrau felt himself drifting downwards, into the pitch black ocean of Raix’s dreamscape. “Let me see what’s in the dark...”

For what felt like hours, he sank further and deeper into the abyss…

Finally, Raigengrau’s feet hit solid ground. The “ocean” that surrounded him in the dreamscape was gone.

He opened his eyes...

...and Raigengrau found himself standing within halls of Leudracyte Academy, once again.

“Now we’re getting somewhere.” Raigengrau smiled, as he started to walk down the corridor.

At first glance, nothing appeared to be off within the academy. Yet, the further Raigengrau made his way down the hall, the stranger the environment became. The moonlight shining through the windows would turn a hue of crimson every few steps, painting the walls with a blood-like color, then return to normal, almost like someone was flipping a light-switch. The figures in the stained glass windows were animated, with some staring unnervingly at Raigengrau as he made his way past.

Raigengrau paid no mind to the eyes that followed him, even as the world changed in front of his very eyes. The vaulted ceiling above stretched into infinity. The portraits of the academy alumni began to melt like wax.

A shrill, panicked scream echoed along the walls.

From the right, a wooden door slammed open, as Ketzgryf stormed out.

Raigengrau glared. Yet, Ketzgryf continued on, like he had never noticed Raigengrau. The tall vampire lord walked at a brisk pace, holding his right arm back as he dragged something along the floor.

As he dragged Raix behind him.

“_ PLEASE! KETZ! I’M SORRY!!” _

Raix cried, his voice hoarse from screaming, as Ketzgryf dragged him by the tail.

Raigengrau looked down into Raix’s tear-soaked eyes. He was wearing a violet-colored coat with a golden trim, his white hair tied back into a messy ponytail.

“Sssshh…” Raigengrau hushed Raix. “See? He never loved you. Ketz only whispered those sweet little words, because he wanted a pet. Something to own. To abuse.”

Raix couldn’t hear Raigengrau’s words, as he continued to scream. “_ NO!! _ _ DON’T THROW ME IN THERE! I’LL BE GOOD, KETZ! DON’T THROW ME IN THE HOLE WITH THE OTHERS!!” _ He twisted himself around, clawing into the rug with his fingers.

Ketzgryf continued to pull Raix down the hallway, as Raix’s screams faded into hysterical sobs. Raigengrau watched as the pair disappeared into the shadows.

“Take me deeper. I want to see what’s in your heart…”

He blinked…

...and Raigengrau saw Raix, standing at the bottom of the staircase of the grand foyer.

“_ KETZGRYF!!! _”

Raix furiously screamed, as Ketzgryf stood with his back turned towards Raix at the top of the stairs.

“Don’t you dare walk away from me, Ketzgryf!” Raix was holding his rapier, dressed in his usual black and gold coat. “After everything you’ve done, you think you can just ignore me?!”

Ketzgryf turned to ascend the staircase to the western wing of the academy, towards his own chambers.

“LOOK AT ME, KETZGRYF! DON’T YOU DARE IGNORE ME!!” Raix howled in rage. He wanted to pursue Ketz. He wanted to run the bastard through with his blade.

Raigengrau watched as Raix fell to his knees in frustration.

“Deep down, even you know it, Baby Bat.” Raigengrau crouched next to Raix. “’Else, you’d get up and go after him. But even here, inside your own head, you know Ketz ain’t worth it.”

“You wanna be scared of something?” Raigengrau tilted his head. “You should be scared of me.” A smirk formed on his muzzle. “Even when trapped inside that bastard, I screamed with you. I wanted to be there with you again. And I’ll do anything to make that happen.”

Raix grit his teeth. He couldn’t hear Raigengrau’s words, but his anger towards Ketzgryf coursed through his body like venom.

Raix screamed.

“LOOK. AT. _ ME!! _”

His rapier slipped from his grasp.

As soon as the blade hit the floor, the foyer vanished, as Raigengrau was plunged further into the nightmare.

Images, feelings, emotions...every deep-seated thought of Raix’s crashed into Raigengrau, as he descended into the depths of his mind.

“Deeper...I want to see it…”

The sensation of Ketzgryf’s hands tearing off Raix’s clothes.

“I want to see the heart of it all…”

The sick pleasure that coursed through Raix, as he held a dagger against the throat of an anthro vampiric fox. A member of House Durantallyn. “You are such easy prey, mon ami…”

As the steel edge bit into the vampire’s throat, Raigengrau fell further into the abyss.

“To see what really terrifies you…”

Raix’s hollow emptiness, after having his soul devoured by Ketzgryf. The agony, from the gaping would at what was his neck, his throat having nearly been torn out.

Raigengrau stared at the dying Raix.

He wore the same torn and tattered uniform that Raigengrau now wears.

As he slouched against the marble pillar of the moonlit terrace where Ketzgryf had ravaged him, Raix’s vision blurred and began to fade. His mortal life was coming to a close.

Yet, the blood that he was forced to choke down his torn throat, Ketzgryf’s blood, was already beginning to infect him. Beginning to turn him…

Raigengrau padded towards Raix and lowered himself to his knees.

“Baby Bat…”

The dream-Raix stared right through him with his blue eyes.

“...We didn’t deserve this.” Raigengrau began to reach out with a hand.

“_ Cck...nnngh…” _

A wheezing, gurgling sound came from Raix’s throat. He shuddered, as blood pumped freely from the wound.

His right arm twitched, as he slowly began to raise the limb.

His gaze shifted.

Towards Raigengrau.

Raigengrau froze.

He pulled his arm back and stood up.

“Do you really see me, Baby Bat?” Raigengrau smiled. “Even now...do you see me? Do you know what I’m trying to do for you? For us? ”

Raix didn’t respond. He only held his arm out towards Raigengrau. A desperate plea for salvation.

Raigengrau stared into those piercing, blue eyes that Raix used to have. Even as pinpricks of crimson started to appear in the pigmentation of the azure-colored sclera of Raix’s left eye.

“My beautiful, broken Baby Bat…”

“...Take me deeper.”

Even as the world dropped out from beneath his feet, Raigengrau stared at Raix for as long as he could, before he disappeared further into Raix’s nightmare.

Before Raigengrau could watch himself die again...

(Concluded in Part 4)

Chapter 4

Chapter Summary

Raigengrau reaches the heart of Raix's nightmare and discovers the reason for Raix's despair, while also realizing his feelings for his other half...

4.

CW: This story contains:

-Disturbing / Horror-elements

-References to PTSD + Abuse + Familial Suicide + SA

-Body Horror

-Healing From Trauma

“I’ve come pretty far this time, heh.”

Raigengrau sank further into the dreamscape, his glowing ice-blue eyes like pinpricks of light within the infinite darkness of the void that was Raix’s mind. “I’ve messed with Baby Bat’s head before in his sleep, but never to this extent…gotta admit, even I’m kinda curious what lies in the center of his nightmares.”

He drifted further and further down…

Down…

Down…

The flickering light of a candle illuminated the abyss, as Raigengrau’s feet touched the floor, the wooden boards creaking with effort.

Insects scurried away into the cracks of the stone walls that made up the old home. Barely visible termites gnawed and skittered about the wooden load-bearing beams that held up the ceiling. Raigengrau’s pointed ears perked, as a mouse squeaked underneath the floorboards.

“...Huh.”

Moonlight filtered in through the moth-eaten holes of rags that were covering the windows. Flies buzzed in the air, the scent of rot all around.

“I haven’t seen this place in...gods knows how long.” A bitter chuckle escaped Raigengrau. “At least the slums ain’t burnt down yet…”

He padded forward. A room opened up to the right, the sound of hushed whispers coming from the room.

“Worthless child.”

“You should have been the one to die.”

“You always say things will get better. They’re only getting worse.”

Raigengrau ignored the voices, as he walked towards the wooden door at the end of the room.

“We never called the academy ‘Home’, Baby Bat.”

His clawed hand wrapped around the iron rung attached to the door.

“And we sure as hell didn’t call this place ‘Home’ either.”

Dust shuddered from the hinges as the door was pulled open, revealing a spaceless void.

“We never really got to find out what ‘Home’ meant.”

Raigengrau stepped forward, and pushed the door shut, leaving him in darkness once again.

Until the lantern that hung from the hook nearby suddenly came to life. Multiple lanterns.

“This...”

A wooden beam hung above Raigengrau.

“...this is the shed. Outside our home.”

He stared at the beam for a few moments, in silence, before turning his attention to the mirror that hung from the wall.

“You probably don’t remember this, do you, Baby Bat?” Raigengrau began to approach the mirror. “Or, if you do, you only remember how you burnt this place down, after finally being fed up, heh.”

Something appeared within the reflection of the mirror.

“Not that I blame you.” He had a wry smirk on his face. “We went through some awful shit here.”

“But...if there’s one good thing about our time here…”

“_ It’s where I first met you.” _

In the reflection, a young black-scaled anthro dragon approached the mirror as Raigengrau loomed in front of it. His white hair was unevenly cut close to his skull, with some locks hanging loosely from his head. The red underbelly was covered by an ill-fitting sack-like shirt, his threadbare slacks tied around his waist with a piece of rope. His weary blue eyes blinked away tears, as he looked in the mirror.

Raigengrau leaned forward, as he grinned at the drake. “Hey there, Baby Bat.”

The younger Raix’s lips twitched briefly, before he formed a gentle smile.

“There ya’ go. That’s what I like to see!” Raigengrau laughed. “You don’t smile all that much these days, but it’s good to see you like this. Even if it’s all just a-”

Raigengrau paused, as he glanced over the shoulder of Raix on the other side of the mirror.

The lantern light violently flickered, before it was completely snuffed out, plunging the other side into darkness.

Raix vanished.

“Baby Bat?” Raigengrau pressed a palm against the mirror. “Raix?”

He tried to push against the mirror.

“What the fuck?” Raigengrau grit his teeth. “Let me in.”

Light illuminated the world again. Only, this time, everything was different.

He saw Raix leaning against the mirror. Older now, maybe in his late teens. The pitiful flames from the barely visible hearth illuminated the small, stone-walled room that contained nothing more than a thin mattress that was barely stuffed with feathers. The inexpensive room at the inn provided a roof over one’s head, and not much else.

Raix was dressed in a black, sleeveless jerkin, his arms wrapped in a variety of scarves and threads. A belt around his waist. A dull-looking rapier hung from the hip, a barely visible dagger that was tucked into his slacks. He carelessly gripped a bottle of red wine in his right hand, the crimson liquid dripping from the opening.

“Gods…” Raix groaned, his voice hoarse. “What am I going to do? No home. No family. They’re all dead. And now...told to choose between staying here with nothing or be spirited away to some land I’ve never even heard of.”

Raix lifted the bottle to his lips. He chugged the wine, his red-scaled throat working with each gulp.

“Uggh…” He rasped. “I don’t even know where this ‘Leudraceia’ is.”

He turned towards the mirror. “What should I do, Raigengrau?”

Raigengrau stared wordlessly into the unfocused blue eyes of Raix.

As he parted his jaws to speak, the other side was, once again, plunged into darkness.

“No!” Raigengrau snarled. “Get back here, you little shit! Stop fucking with me! That’s _ MY _ job!”

The world came into view again. It was Raix’s room within Leudracyte Academy.

The room was...normal. Before he smashed the mirror and threw it out. Before the claw markings, the letters, the weapons.

Raix kneeled in front of the mirror. He was wearing the academy uniform. The same one Raigengrau wore.

Before it was torn apart by Ketzgryf that night.

“I...I’m sorry I haven’t been around as much lately.” Raix’s blue eyes stared. “I’ve been with Ketzgryf lately. It’s been uh…” An awkward smile came to his lips. “...It’s been nice.”

Raigengrau looked down at Raix. Silent.

“He...makes me feel safe. Like I actually matter. After all these years of suffering, I finally feel like things are...going to be okay.”

“Oh, Baby Bat…” Raigengrau lowered himself to his knees.

“We really didn’t know...”

Darkness. Another time, within the dream. And then-

_ -KRSSSH!- _

The mirror fractured as Raix’s room came into view.

Raigengrau leapt to his feet. He growled, his right arm swiftly changing, forming his blackened arm blade.

Raix’s fist was lodged into the mirror. Shards of glass had become embedded between the knuckles.

His right eye, the color of a sapphire amidst an ocean, glared. His left eye, however, had completely changed.

The color of crimson. A ruby, lost within a sea of blood.

The uniform he wore was torn apart. A complete mess.

Just like the night he died.

Just like Raigengrau’s.

“ WHERE ARE YOU?!” Raix howled. “I...I can’t see you anymore!”

“He...he took EVERYTHING!” Raix reached up towards his neck, shuddering as he felt the red scales that had healed perfectly after his throat had been torn out. “I watched as he kissed me...and he devoured my soul...my heart.”

“I…” Raix could barely choke out the words. “I’ve been...turned into this THING! Ketz...he’s been this way for...for so long. Everyone here has been like this! They all lied to me!!”

Tears freely flowed down his cheeks, as Raix removed his hand from the mirror. Bloodied shards of glass fell from his hand, the cuts already beginning to close.

“I feel so hollow inside...”

He collapsed to his knees again.

“But even worse? Sometimes...I feel something.”

Raix pressed his body up against the fractured glass.

“ Fury _ . _”

“ Pure HATRED towards the ones that lied to me! Towards Ketzgryf! _ Ce putain de salaud! _ I could tear him apart!!!”

He slumped, hanging his head.

“All I feel now...is this constant push and pull between emptiness and anger.” His voice softened, drained of his rage, yet filled with exhaustion.

“My body’s been violated.”

“My heart has been swallowed whole.”

“And now...I’ve lost you too.”

Raix picked his head up, as he stared into the mirror. His eyes were wide. Haunted.

“Please...come back, Raigengrau…”

Raigengrau remained frozen as he watched Raix fall apart in front of his very eyes.

“...Raix” Raigengrau whispered the name under his breath, his left hand over his chest.

“You always were there for him. Even when he abandoned you.”

As soon as he heard the voice, Raigengrau spun around and held his arm-blade out towards the intruder.

Underneath the wooden beam stood an anthro dragon. Black scales. Red accents. White hair. Tired blue eyes stared through a pair of golden spectacles that sat atop his snout. His hair reached his shoulders, the threads in loose clumps. He wore a black vest over a dark green shirt, with brown slacks that clung to his waist.

His breathing was strained with effort. A dark, bruise marred his red-scaled neck.

Raigengrau stood at the ready, as neither spoke.

Then, he lowered his arm blade.

“Well…” A grin started to form on Raigengrau’s muzzle. “Well, well, _ FUCKIN’ _ well! Just who I wanted to see! A dead guy!”

“I understand...” The other anthro dragon wheezed. “I understand you’re probably mad-”

“Probably?” Raigengrau raised an eyeridge, as he stepped forward to the right, circling the other dragon. “You think I’m probably mad? I come all the way down here, see what the fuck makes Baby Bat tick, expectin’ the worst of it to be when he got pinched by Ketz! But no.” He turns his head to the side and spits out a wad of black ichor. “Instead, I get to have a chat with dear ol’ _ DEAD _ dad!”

He pointed towards the wooden beam above. “You know where I last saw you, Gruhaem? Right fuckin’ there."

Gruhaem looked up at the wooden beam. “...I know. I never meant for it to end up this way. I thought-”

“Ohhhh, nonono!” Raigengrau wagged his left finger. “The dead don’t fuckin’ think. Worms ate your brain a long time ago, daddy-o!”

“Does Raix remember me this way?” Gruhaem took a deep, agonizing breath.

Suddenly, Raigengrau lunged forward, his muzzle inches from Gruhaem’s snout. “We ain’t talkin’ about Baby Bat right now!” He snarled. “Hell, the reason you’re probably the center of his fuckin’ nightmares, is because he still thinks of when he found you here! Danglin’ from a fuckin’ rope!” He pressed the tip of his arm blade against Gruhaem’s chest. “Lonesome Baby Bat! Never had a damn friend growin’ up! All he ever had were the books he stole from the school! The lil’ stories he wrote!”

Raigengrau’s eyes narrowed. “But _ you? _ You fucked off into a grave.”

Gruhaem was wordless, unflinching and unblinking as the tip of Raigengrau’s blade drew blood.

“You’re lucky he had me.” Raigengrau bared his fangs. “You never were able to be there for him, so you come up with a cute story about imaginary friends and mirrors..” He formed a cruel smirk on his muzzle. “He knew you were bullshittin’ him. He was sad, not stupid.”

“But he believed you.” Raigengrau lowered his voice to a hiss. “He believed in ME! Every damn time he spoke to me...every time he spoke to what was really within his heart...his soul…I always heard him.”

“And ya’ know why, DAD?” The mockery was dripping from Raigengrau’s voice. “Because both me and Raix are the fuckin’ same.”

Raigengrau stared into Gruhaem’s eyes, before his lips contorted with disgust. “He loved you. And even with a completely new soul inside of him, one that feeds on his own urge to destroy everything, he still loves you, for some reason! Still wants to make you proud, even when he ain’t proud of himself.”

The arm blade retracted from Gruhaem’s chest, as Raigengrau tore his gaze away.

“It’s been centuries.” He glanced at the empty mirror. “But I could never forget how upset he was when he found you.” He grit his teeth. “How terrified he is of becoming just like you. Even to this day.”

“But me?” Raigengrau snapped his gaze back towards Gruhaem. “I was furious. That you abandoned me when I was barely even ten. Shit, even fuckin’ Baby Bat did the same thing to me after freein’ me from Ketz’s bowels. Turned his back on me and thought that everything would be just fine.”

“But I refuse to just fade away! Not after the crap you and Elysette put us through! Not after all that time stuck rotting away inside Ketz! I came back, and I made it my number one fuckin’ mission to never let Raix get away with it. I was gonna hunt down Baby Bat and take his body! Slip it back on like a glove, heh.” Raigengrau let out a bitter laugh.

“Why didn’t you?” Gruhaem held his hands behind his back.

“’Cuz Baby Bat just wants to exist.” Raigengrau’s gaze hardened, the glowing, ice-blue eyes staring through Gruhaem. “I want to exist. But we both got holes in each other’s heart. Holes that we can’t patch up so easily. Holes that can only be fixed if either one of us merges with the other half.”

“But you know what?” Raigengrau continued. “He’s the only fuckin’ thing that provides any kinda real entertainment. He makes me feel alive just by bein’ around him.” He leaned forward, a leering grin on his face now. “And I know he feels the very same. He hasn’t had someone truly see him, actually understand who and what he is, inside-and-out...until me.”

“And sure! He’d rather die before he ever admits that he has a thing for me.” Raigengrau shrugged. “Loves to pretend he doesn’t give a damn.”

He approaches the mirror. Beyond the reflection, there was nothing, save for the illumination of Raigengrau’s own eyes.

“Hell, Raix won’t let anyone into his heart anymore. Not after what happened with Ketz.” Raigengrau spun back around towards Gruhaem, giving him a venomous glare. “Not after what happened with mother. Not after what happened with you.”

“He’s only got me left. And he’s the only one I have left.”

No words were exchanged, save for the dripping ink of the arm blade and Gruhaem’s agonal breathing.

“...I see.” Gruhaem finally broke the silence.

“Don’t pretend you ever did.” Raigengrau spat. “Raix may believe your shit. But not me. You don’t get to fool me.”

“...I still love you, as my own son-”

“_ I AM YOUR SON!!!” _

The distortion in Raigengrau’s voice thickened, his multi-layered voice crying out.

“I’m not just a ghost or a figment of the imagination! I AM your son, Gruhaem! And so is Raix! WE both are!” Raigengrau snapped, shaking with fury. “You think your love can fix this? Your pity?! _ YOU’RE DEAD! _ You let us down! Both you, Elysette, and especially fucking _ Ketzgryf! _”

“ I LOVED HIM MORE THAN ANY OF YOU EVER DID!!!”

Black ichor leaked from between Raigengrau’s scales, staining his torn jacket.

He opened his muzzle to continue. But-

Raigengrau stared at the purple-black bruise around Gruhaem’s neck.

“H-heh….”

“Heh…”

“Haha...heh…”

“H-hahaha...HAH!”

“_ HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA~!!!” _

The dream-version of Gruhaem didn’t answer, only watching as Raigengrau broke down in a fit of laughter.

“_ H-Hhaaha...fuck…” _ Raigengrau breathed. “You know what, daddy-o? He...hehehe!” He could barely suppress the giggle inside of him. “I’m actually _ glad _ we talked! It’s been a fun little heart-to-heart!”

Raigengrau stepped forward, holding his arm blade to the side. “As much as I wanna dismiss all this as bullshit, as just a fuckin’ dream...it ain’t. It’s worse than that.” His typical manic grin returned to his face.

“It’s a fuckin’ sham. A godsdamned joke.” With his free hand, Raigengrau performed a mockingly grandiose wave. “All of this? It means _ NOTHING _ now_ ! ” He pointed his clawed finger at Gruhaem. “Hundreds and _hundreds of years of misery! Despair and _ FUCKING SELF-PITY! _ And for WHAT?” Raigengrau shrugged. “Just so Baby Bat can have a little nap and be haunted by a dead guy? Just so he can relive every single horrible moment with Ketz?”

“Nah, _ HELL NO!! _” Raigengrau walked past Gruhaem, advancing towards the door. “The hell are we doing here in this fuckin’ shed? We hated this place! This was a prison, not a home!”

Raigengrau raised the arm blade up towards the door. “I’m sick of seein’ this crap and I’ve had enough!”

“_ I’m bustin’ Baby Bat on outta this shithole FOR GOOD!!”_

Raigengrau swung...

...and reality tore itself asunder.

The edge of the blade cut through the door, the wall, through space itself. A dazzling display of light erupted from the gash, as the walls of the shed peeled away.

A deafening shriek pierced the air, as the Dream-Gruhaem seized up in agony, the being letting loose a horrific wail.

Raigengrau laughed with pure, wicked joy in his heart. “That’s right! SCREAM!” He took a step forward upon seeing the ruined home that he used to live in. “You think you can hold us back anymore?”

Another cut. The rag-covered windows, the flies that swarmed the air, the rotting wood…

All of it shattered like glass.

“I’ll tear the shackles of the past apart!” Raigengrau roared, bringing the blade down in another slash. The moonlit terrace where Raix was turned by Ketzgryf exploded into ribbons of light.

“I’ll cut through this crap, so we can finally look ahead!”

Swipe. The staircase in the center of Leudracyte Academy’s foyer crumbled apart.

“I’ll force a path wide open, for the both of us!”

The screaming intensified, as the vision of Gruhaem contorted, twisting itself into an abomination of flesh, bone and decay. Multiple orifices formed in his body, a cacophony of voices erupting from within.

“**yOu havE No ONe.”

“ONlY a sHADow TO A Ghost.”

“THe OnLy PosSEsSIoN you WIll EvER owN Is a toMbStoNe.”**

“ yOuR onlY HOMe, a grAve.”

Raigengrau laughed maniacally over the chaos, as he slashed his way through the nightmare, layer-by-layer, memory-by-memory.

“None of this shit matters to me anymore! Only our future together!”

As he reached the disaster that was Raix’s room within the dream, Raigengrau’s arm shifted back to normal.

“I’ll tear it ALL down!”

He plunged his hands into the wall, feeling the seams that held the nightmare together.

“Baby Bat’s gonna burn the leftovers!”

Raigengrau began to pull at the seams. Threads of light twisted together, forming a vortex of collapsing reality.

“And from the ashes, _ we’ll create OUR _ _ VERY OWN WORLD TOGETHER!!!” _

The walls, the sky, the perceivable world itself all fell away, collapsing and swirling into the vortex, leaving them both atop the surface of the dreamscape’s abyssal ocean.

The Dream-Gruhaem’s bones snapped, twisted, formed impossible angles, as he fell forward, splashing into the liquid.

Raigengrau stood on the surface of the black water, as he turned towards the sinking creature that was Gruhaem, the last few shimmering threads of the dream slipping between his fingers to now fade away into the ocean forever.

“I’ll be there for him.” He walked across the water’s surface towards Gruhaem. “You gave up that right centuries ago.”

“Even if it means tearing down every little defense in his heart, even if I gotta rip away every mask he wants to wear on his face...even if I gotta break apart every little thing that’s eating away at him…”

Raigengrau glared into the rapidly spasming and blinking eyes of the abomination.

“I’ll be there. And I know, that one day, no matter how long it takes for him to come around…”

“_ I know he’ll be there _ _ when he’s ready. __ ” _

He walked by the pathetic thing, not even bothering to look back at what was the nightmare of Gruhaem SolHart’s despair within Raix, as it sank below the surface of the dreamscape and into the void...

* * *

In the real world, Raigengrau’s eyes slammed wide open.

“Mmmph…” He groaned, blinking away the deep sleep in his eyes.

He felt Raix’s body against his own. The tail still curled around his ankle.

“You didn’t move at all, did ya’, Baby Bat?” Raigengrau smirked. “...Gonna be hell to get up though with you around me like this.”

Raigengrau dissolved into the black puddle again, slipping away from Raix’s grasp. As Raigengrau reformed next to Raix, now on his side of the bed, he looked for any possible sign of Raix being roused from his slumber.

Raix was curled up, much like before. But he lay still. He wasn’t thrashing about or whimpering in fear anymore.

He could see the hint of a smile on Raix’s muzzle.

Raigengrau stared with reverence at the rare sight.

“...You’re beautiful when you smile, Baby Bat.”

* * *

Raigengrau made his way down the eastern wing’s corridor.

His head was down, hands in the pockets of his ruined jacket.

He hadn’t said a word since he left Raix’s room. Since he left Raix alone to sleep in peace.

His feet carried him downstairs, into the foyer. Through the hall of the first floor’s west wing.

And out the door, to the academy’s moonlit courtyard.

The full moon hung over the green gardens. A gentle wind began to blow, as a colorful variety of flowers and other assorted plants danced in the wind. Vines entangled marble sculptures, as Raigengrau trod upon the stone path that lead deeper into the gardens.

“...What a night.” He mused to himself.

Raigengrau glances to the side. At you.

“Yeah, bet you thought I was gonna forget to say ‘hi’, huh?” He gives a tired smile, followed by a half-hearted shrug. “Been a lot to process this evening, while also havin’ to keep up with that whole ‘Meta-aware/Fourth-wall-breaking’ shit that Chaos Cunt and I got. So, my bad for not giving my dear audience the love like I usually do.”

He paused momentarily, before he repeated the word.

“...Love.”

“You know...’love’ is a funny fuckin’ thing.” Raigengrau grinned at you as he continued. “All these motherfuckers sayin’ they ‘love’ Baby Bat, right? Yet, they ain’t done nothin’ but hurt him. Gruhaem. Elysette. Ketzgryf. Fucking hells...” He laughed and shook his head. “Meanwhile, Baby Bat’s just sits around bein’ an emotional rollercoaster about how he allowed himself to get used and abused, endin’ up with his heart torn to shreds. And now, he’s got his true feelings locked up in a vault tighter than Fort fuckin’ Knox!”

“And you know what? I get it!” He began to pace around on the path. “Even ended up rejecting me, his very own soul that he lost all those centuries ago to Ketz! And when I got back, boy, I was PISSED!”

Raigengrau stopped.

“I’m still pissed off.”

“But…” He turns towards the academy.

“Raix just ain’t running from me. He’s running from everything.”

Raigengrau scoffed. “Fuckin’ abandoning his drive to just mope around here in this school, when he should be getting up and shankin’ Ketz to death. Sad that his life sucked growing up. Miserable because he feels like he’s not allowed to just live, and he’s empty because he doesn’t have me with him!”

Raigengrau grinned at you, his jaws splitting apart with pure manic joy. “He’s afraid? He thinks he’s some kinda emo mess that just wants to drink his weight in wine? _ Pffft _ ! Oh, fuckin’ please! Only thing Baby Bat’s gotta be scared of is me! Because I’m the one who’s gonna tear down those defenses and I’m gonna find my way into _ his HEART! _”

“Ketz thinks I’m trash!?” Raigengrau leapt over the side of the path, his clawed feet landing in a bed of flowers, trampling them underfoot. “Chaos Cunt wants to play head games with me? ‘Twenty Godsdamned Questions’ with her and her ‘Clone Girl Squad’? _ Nah, no way _!”

He reared his leg back, only to bring it forward in a ridiculous punt. Flower petals and dirt sailed through the air.

“Yeah. If I really wanted to, I could have fucked up Raix real bad. I could’ve easily ate him and shat out his other soul down the toilet!”

Raigengrau crouched down and grabbed a bundle of roses by their stems. The thorns dug into his scales.

“I wanted to make him suffer for abandoning me. But he was abandoned so many times himself...we _ BOTH _ were!”

With a growl, he pulled the roses up by the roots. Blackened blood and ichor trickled down his arms.

“We’re gonna fuckin’ come together and this time? We’re gonna make Ketz feel like he’s the abandoned one!” Raigengrau flung the roses into the air. “Throw HIS ass out like trash and compact that shit into a cube and toss it down the river! We’re gonna fuckin’ tell Allichia to leave us alone! And if she don’t, she’s gonna find her way onto my plate REAL FAST!”

“Because there’s so much in our lives that me and Baby Bat didn’t fuckin’ deserve!” He dropped to his hands and knees. “So we’re gonna take ourselves away! They don’t deserve us anymore! We’re beyond their _ BULLSHIT! _”

Raigengrau gaped his jaws, before he snapped at what little was left of the roses. He snarled like a feral animal, tearing up the roots with nothing, but his his fangs. He tossed his head back, flinging the roots up and away.

Suddenly, he rolled back on his heels and collapsed onto his back. His arms and legs spread out, as he gazed up into the night sky, at the countless stars above.

“...This whole time.” Raigengrau spoke softly. “I never realized how much Baby Bat had changed. How he’s grown to both be a part of myself and his own unique person.”

“If I merged with him like I wanted to, he’d be...gone.”

Raigengrau breathed in the air. He could still smell the floral scent of the roses he had torn up.

“I’ve been trying to destroy a part of myself.”

“Hells...We both tried to destroy ourselves. Like how Gruhaem ended up doin’ himself in. Or how Ketz hollowed Raix out and left me to rot away. And even after he freed himself, Raix was always dying inside, but he refused to ever show it. Until now...where he’s on this fast track here towards...nothing.”

Raigengrau held his hand up to his face. “All we are…”

The terrible-looking cuts on his palms were already beginning to heal, but his black and blue eyes stared intently at the closing wounds.

“All we are, are roses, Baby Bat.” Raigengrau smiled. “Because underneath all your little snarky smiles and witty barbs, is pure hatred. A perfect hatred, that takes the form of a raging firestorm, against all those who fucked you up so badly.”

“And I gotta say, Baby Bat...just like you, that hatred you got buried deep down? It’s fuckin’ magnificent.”

“_ And I ’M magnificent _ _ too !" _ Raigengrau laughed. “Because unlike you, I don’t need to hide a damn thing, Baby Bat! I don’t need to lie to anyone about what I really am! I’m you, just without the mask! Always have, always will be!”

His laughter abruptly ceased.

“But...there is one thing I lied about.”

“I lied to myself. I kept ignorin’ the obvious. What was in front of me this entire time.”

In the ruins of the garden, Raigengrau laid in the grass, silent.

“You love to think you’re some kinda bard or playwright, or whatever.” He stared at the cosmos above. “You want to turn your tragedies into songs, into art. You want everyone to see ‘em and for a moment, forget how broken you truly feel inside. Yet, as hard as you try to scribble away, you worry that that none of it is really gonna matter.”

“Even as you try to turn your pain into somethin’ beautiful...even as you try to forcibly take control of what hurt you so bad, you’re terrified that it will all amount to just..._ ink and paper . Nothin’ else.” Raigengrau’s claws curled, pulling up soil from below. “That you’ll die. _Forgotten. That all the pain you suffered will have been worth nothin’. Like you never existed at all.”

The world remained still, as Raigengrau let his own words sink in.

“But hey...I got some good news, Baby Bat.” He continued, his voice gentle. “You’ve already made your masterpiece. You don’t need to worry about writing or anything like that anymore.”

A smile formed on his muzzle.

“I’m your masterpiece, Raix. You made me your magnum opus.”

“Just like you’re my masterpiece. My beautiful, broken little Baby Bat.”

His eyes began to widen with excitement. “We’re the grand, terrible love story you’ve always wanted to write your entire life. The one you always secretly wanted to live. I’m the one you’ve always wanted. Someone to understand you wholly and completely. A romance where two monsters, broken apart by the world, come together…“

“The world...that broke us…”

As Raigengrau whispered the words to himself, the smile on his face only grew wider. A face of manic, lovestruck euphoria.

“That’s what we truly need, Baby Bat!!” Raigengrau laughed. “We’ve been usin’ these pretty metaphors for so long, that I forgot I can make this shit _ happen!” _

“_ I know how to plug the holes for good! I know how we can snuff out the misery and the fear, together! _

“A reflection...an entire world! I can make one for ourselves!” His teeth shone brightly in the moonlight as he grinned. “Our own sanctuary! A place away from Ketz’s bullshit! Sure, that Chaos Cunt might try to pay a visit, but I’ll deal with her eventually.”

He suddenly leapt to his feet, as Raigengrau held his arms out towards the night sky. Like he was ready to inherit the universe itself. “We’ll close the door on the endless fucked up bullshit that keeps happening to us, forever!”

A strange sensation welled up in the corners of his eyes.

“We’ll forge our very own kingdom, where we belong and no one else! We’ll be gods, in charge of our own destiny! We’ll cut the fuckin’ threads of fate and weave a new path! We’ll finally..._ FINALLY _…”

Blackened tears leaked from his eyes.

But not out of sorrow.

“...We’ll finally be safe.”

Raigengrau stared upwards through the night sky, as he held an unnaturally wide smile of pure joy.

“I found a path for us. One that we never thought would ever exist.”

“And I can picture it now, Baby Bat! It’s as clear as day for me, hehe!” An ecstatic giggle rose up from within Raigengrau’s depths.

“We’ll build the world up from our favorite memories. The sky will forever be a shade of twilight! And I’ll make sure the light won’t fuckin’ burn you alive! You can finally just walk with me, in the light. Hand-in-hand, heh..._ hahahaha _!” Raigengrau laughed. “That bullshit Ketz always talked about? How he would say he’d name a star after us? We’ll fuckin’ PULL the very stars from the heavens and bring them to our world!”

“You wanna write so bad?” He pointed towards the sky with a claw. “I’ll have a library in it just for you. Endless! _ Infinite _! It’ll have every book you’ve ever wanted to read. Every song you’ve ever wanted to sing! Every composition you’ve ever wanted to play on your little violin! And I’ll be there! I’ll be your audience! We don’t need anyone else for it!”

He spun around, with his arms outward. “Our bed will be for us and us only! No more fuckin’ nightmares. Nothing from the past to haunt us. Nothing will ever be able to fuck with us ever again!”

Every single one of Raigengrau’s layered voices within his throat cracked.

“We’re gonna tear apart the gilded cage that we’ve been kept in all our lives. This fuckin’ academy is _ DONE! _ Ain’t gonna be a single bar on this cage, Baby Bat! Only…”

He held his hands over his heart.

He could feel himself shaking with excitement for the days to come.

“...Only love. Pure...unconditional...love.”

The smile on his face softened. His eyes lidded, as he felt the beat of his own heart.

A heart that he shared with Raix SolHart.

“We’ll finally have a world...a life, where we never will have to endure the pain that made us this way, _ EVER AGAIN _!” His claws gripped his chest, drawing blood.

“We’ll crack open the tomb, Baby Bat. The tomb that’s got all of our dreams. Filled with everything we’ve ever believed in. Everything we’ve ever wanted to do, but never were able to.”

“It’ll be our museum of wishes. Our place where we finally will be able to have all the time in the world, to do whatever the hells we wanted to do…”

“It’ll be our home , that we always deserved…”

Raigengrau’s heart was pounding away. He silently stood there, as he felt the trickle of dark blood run down his fingers.

The peaceful smile on his face was foreign to him. Something he hadn’t quite really ever experienced.

But it felt right.

Finally, Raigengrau lowered his hands and stepped back up onto the path.

His usual grin returned. But his eyes were lit with a dangerous, hopeful fire that had never been seen before in his gaze.

Raigengrau took a moment to glance back towards you.

“He’s gonna fuckin’ hate this. I mean, at least for a while, you know.” Raigengrau chuckled. “He’s gonna flail around. Bitch and moan. Fight it tooth and claw.”

“You could never force that brat into anything. Not my Baby Bat.” He laughed, as he padded towards the academy doors. “He’s sometimes just way too fuckin’ stubborn for his own good.”

He looked back out towards the remnants of the garden, his cheeks stained with black ichor.

“...He’s too...beautifully broken.”

Raigengrau turned his attention back towards you.

“He’s a tough nut to crack, but I think when he sees what I got planned...when he sees the sanctuary I have to offer? He’ll come runnin’.”

“And then? We’ll finally be back together. Forever.”

He winks at you. “See you next time, my favorite audience. It’s always fun.”

Raigengrau pushed open the doors, slipping through and disappearing into the dark halls of Leudracyte Academy.

“I’m gonna do the one thing no one’s ever done for you, Baby Bat. Somethin’ no one’s ever done for us.”

“I’m gonna save you.”

“Both from the world…”

“_ ...and from yourself.” _

(END)

Afterword

End Notes

As mentioned in the beginning notes, I have included some art of the characters mentioned in this fic that I have commissioned.

Raigengrau SolHart (Done by https://bsky.app/profile/mrjimmydafloof.bsky.social )

Allichia: (Done by https://bsky.app/profile/vexwyn.bsky.social )

Ketzgryf Durantallyn (Done by https://bsky.app/profile/vexwyn.bsky.social )

Raix SolHart (Done by https://bsky.app/profile/mrjimmydafloof.bsky.social )

And that wraps up this fic!

I don't have as much to add here as I did when I finished up "Shadows Cast By Flames", but I did really want to say, if you've made it this far, -THANK YOU- It is always truly appreciated and I hope you enjoyed it.

This definitely was something I wanted to write and get out of my mind, so yeah.

I got more planned! I usually talk and share more of the creative process on my Bsky, so if you're not following that, uhhh...you should!

But yeah, thanks for reaching the end of another journey with me. Currently going through a few life changes rn, but I'm hoping to share more soon. ^^