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Zerrex opened his eyes and blinked a few times, then he straightened up, head throbbing. He closed his eyes, then rubbed slowly at his skull before sighing and bowing his head forwards. It was still fairly early in the morning... and yet it felt like he'd slept for days, and not managed one bit of rest. And he could... faintly remember... voices, and at one point, needles and scientists standing around him... and white lights...

Then he shook his head slowly and brought his knees up under the blankets, rubbing idly at one arm and glancing back and forth before looking down quietly, frowning a bit and closing his eyes, before murmuring: "Did I... dream of what they did to me?"

Before he could think any further on it, however, he heard a few quick knocks at the door downstairs, and he sighed before sliding out of bed, trying to brush his hair flat as he snagged his shirt from where it was half-hanging out of his hamper, thankful that he had at least slept in his pants. He slid his shirt on, then slowly began to make his way down the stairs, hobbling and stiff, mumbling about how he wished he could at least believe away the pain before reaching out and grabbing the doorhandle as the impatient visitor knocked again, then stepping into the doorway and blinking a bit. "Hey there."

"Hi, Johnny..." Reia said in a soft voice, looking at him with a hesitant smile... and then Zerrex stepped carefully back and smiled, motioning for her to come in. She was wearing a green, too-big-for-her jacket, and was almost exactly the same height as him, maybe just a tad bit shorter... and a new necklace with some silver ornament jangled a bit around her neck as she stepped inside. Her body was lithe, her eyes were kind but perhaps a bit clouded today, and he got the feeling that she often said things she regretted later on, and that she had too much pride then was good for her... but before he could look at her longer and remember any other details he might be able to dig up as 'Johnny,' his eyes switched passed her and to a black-cloaked figure that was currently raising a machinegun in both hands with a cold grin, his black eyes burning, and Zerrex's own widened as he felt some sudden whirlwind of mixed emotions roll through him, and an instinct that overpowered his own need for self-preservation as he stepped forwards.

"Get down!" he shouted, and then shoved her violently to the side when she only stared, knocking her on her ass as she winced and stared at him with shock that he felt already turn to a bit of a glare... and then Drake opened fire on full automatic with a gun that Zerrex recognized as a lightweight tactical machine pistol with an extended stock set against his shoulder, and the gun more hissed then roared as Drake emptied the clip into him.

Bullets tore into the wall, the doorframe, and the easy target of the Drakkaren standing with his arms and legs almost spread, and the reptile felt at least a good dozen smack into his raised arms and chest, saw spiraling bursts of blood travel in slow motion out from his body even before his cane hit the ground... and then he stagger-stepped backwards with a snarl of agony as more slammed into his leg, his gut, his crotch, trailing a line up his stomach and three bullets ripping along his muzzle - one burying into his cheek and the other hitting his skull, sliding up the slope of hard bone, and ripping a swatch of scale and hair with it. And now Reia was screaming and crawling backwards, and he felt himself wanting to fall as Drake ejected the clip from the automatic weapon, a cold grin on his features as he looked at Zerrex, bleeding sluggishly from at least twenty holes in his body... slumping forwards...

And then he slowly looked up, and Drake reeled back in shock as Zerrex's eyes glowed emerald before the Drakkaren rasped: "Nine millimeters? What a joke. Next time, use something bigger."

With that, he snarled, shifted, and pushed his chest out as his teeth grit, blood burbling out of his wounds... before a few bullets fell out of what were only shallow wounds in his chest, the flexing muscles of the reptile pushing them forcefully outwards with little streamlets of blood, to fall and tink gently on the floor, crushed into unrecognizable scraps of metal. Tiny, but plated, fortified rounds that should have pierced through the Drakkaren and left only a ripped, unrecognizable body rolled slowly along the ground, then Zerrex's eyes faded back to hazel, and Drake hissed before vanishing in a short-lived tornado of dark smoke and motes of energy that quickly dispersed and floated away in the wind.

"J... Johnny... oh god... we need... hospital... Johnny, I..." Reia stared, shocked, babbling incoherently... and then Zerrex stepped forwards and quietly closed the door before smiling faintly as he glanced down and offered his hand. The stunned dragoness took it, and Zerrex easily and gently hauled her to his feet: the flexing and bulging of his muscles from the exertion caused two more bullets to fall free, and she stared after these, wobbling on her feet as if about to faint, before looking up at him with a stunned, stupefied expression.

"Please get me a towel from downstairs, take a moment to wash your face in cold water and just scream if you have to, and then bring me up a glass filled with water as well." Zerrex said gently, then he patted her on the cheek and smiled faintly, trying to ignore the throbbing pain through his body before staggering past her and slowly walking up the stairs.

He waited a few moments, then heard Reia going along the chores he sent her as he stripped off his pants and shirt, and when she came up, she was still pale and trembling, but looked much better, although still shaken. And she had taken his advice and let loose a bit of a scream in the bathroom: he'd only heard the muffled yell into a towel because of the vent system, though.

Then she'd given him the items he'd requested, and Zerrex had softly thanked her before laying out one towel on the bed so he wouldn't bleed so much, kept one nearby to be ready, and flicked open the pocket knife at his bedtable. Reia had stared at him for a few moments as he'd dug it into a would with a grunt, then extracted a bullet into one of his hands and idly dropped it into the cup of water, watching it spiral down to the bottom as the blood floated like liquid smoke to the top, murmuring idly: "It's almost worth the pain to watch that... like a goddamn lava lamp." A pause, then the reptile grabbed the nearest bottle of painkillers, upended the bottle, and threw a handful into his mouth, chewing them with disgust and swallowing. "Frig, but I hope that at least takes the edge off."

"You... you wanna tell me what the hell is going on, Zerrex?" Reia asked in a trembling but sharp voice, and Zerrex glanced up at her with a mild look, and she went from pale to flushed, whispering an apology as she stared down. And for a few moments Zerrex only worked in silence, looking away as well and trying to figure out just what to tell her as she idly played with her hands, and rubbed at her eyes, clenching them shut tight.

"It's not weakness to cry a bit, you know." Zerrex finally said softly, and she looked up at him with surprise and almost embarrassment, before wincing and looking away as he grunted and pried another bullet out of his arm with a bit of blood, and the reptile laughed quietly. "Don't take it the wrong way, but... your pride does get you in trouble a lot. And yeah, I know... it's partially how you protect yourself from me. But Reia, I just stood up to a wall of bullets for you... and I don't want to dance around with you today... so let's just..." A pause, then he laughed a bit as tears rose to his own eyes, as he looked at this wonderful and yet twisted dragoness that likely wasn't real, who he'd probably never see in reality, but felt such a strong, strange attachment to and even bad for speaking so bluntly to... "Let's just drop out acts, okay?"

Reia looked at him, trembled... and then nodded as a tear overspilled her eye, and Zerrex reached up to quietly stroke it away with one finger, before he leaned in and kissed her cheek lightly. And she moved forwards and clutched him around the neck, and he wrapped his own arms tight around her, holding her against his chest and closing his eyes, his blood flowing lightly onto her clothes and one hand clutching a knife with the same stuffs on it behind her back, his body flexing as he held her close... and then she finally said in a nearly-silent voice: "Don't you dare die on me... because I don't know what I'd do, Johnny. And I don't care what you think or say, how things are between us... we're friends, and don't go forgetting that..."

"I won't." Zerrex said softly, and then he closed his eyes, and simply held her against his chest for a little while, aching, and bloody, but again finding a small bit of grey sanctuary between the dark hell of the illusion and the white light of reality... and again something twisted inside of him at the pain he knew he'd have to endure at leaving all this wonderful, terrible prison of his mind behind just to return to a world where all civilization may have already lost a tragic war against a monster that had been born of the Cradle of Life.

Then, after a few minutes of this, she drew back and gave a faint smile, glancing down at herself and whispering: "You know, blood never washes out."

"Sorry." The reptile replied softly, glancing over the blots and splotches of blood that had stained her blouse - when had she taken off her jacket? - and then he glanced up at her with a quiet laugh as he pulled up one leg of his boxers a bit, then pried a bullet out of his leg. "It... looks good on you though, I think."

"You're an ass..." Reia responded with a faint laugh, looking at the reptile quietly, then blushing a bit and looking away as he winced and got the last bullet from his leg, before picking up the other towel and carefully mopping up his bloody chest and leg with it. "God..."

Zerrex glanced to the side, and smiled a bit as he saw the barely-visible white scales on her chest starting to turn a bit red; it was a strange reaction of her body, but he thought she was also aroused as much as horrified. It was alright... Zerrex could understand. He paused for a moment as he wiped the knife clean, then put it gently down on top of his closed laptop before sighing a bit and looking over at her softly. "Sorry about this whole thing... I didn't think... it would happen again today."

"What do you mean, again?" Reia turned to him with a frown, looking shocked, and then she laughed faintly. "And fuck, to think I was coming over here to tell you how stressed I was about having to head back to school..."

"I prefer this over school." Zerrex muttered under his breath, then he shook his head as Reia snorted, giving the faintest of smiles and looking at him with an odd mix of exasperation and softness. "But... yeah. Drake... his name is Drake. He's targeting me for some reason, keeps attacking me... probably trying to kill me. But from what I've seen so far, he's both an idiot and a lot weaker than I am."

"He just shot you up with an assault rifle!" Reia replied with a bit of a twitch, glaring at him, and Zerrex figured it was better not to correct her: there was a rather large difference between a 9mm TMP and an assault rifle. "You need to... to call the police, or..."

And then without warning, she froze, and the world seemed to twist and warp for a few moments, a shooting pain going through Zerrex's skull as he grabbed his head and let out a surprised yell. He winced in pain, then looked up and snarled as he saw Drake standing in the corner of the room, looking at him coldly, arms crossed and... something else strange, but he couldn't put his hand on it...

He just stood there, then said in a deep, icy voice: "Second day in, and you're already causing me umpteen problems. Luckily, I do have one trick up my sleeve, because I can't have you turning this world to your advantage instead of mine... so instead of killing that arrogant, nosy bitch, I'm going to just rearrange things. I'm just here to give you a warning, though. Don't talk to her or anyone else about me, or I'll be forced to kill them. But since you've made yourself such a nuisance, fine, I'll talk to you... after you have a nice sleep."

Then Drake snapped his fingers, and the world dissolved in blackness as Zerrex collapsed forwards, his eyes rolling up in his head as another shooting pain ripped through his mind... but he managed to grin even before he collapsed, as he saw Drake dissolve in to the shadows as well with his own grimace of agony. So whatever this is... it hurts him too...

And then he was simply plunged into darkness... but he did not sleep. His head throbbed in agony for a few moments... and then slowly, ever so slowly, he pushed himself up, looking back and forth as his headache began to subside, along with the pain in his body. He frowned a bit as he looked slowly around, then he caught sight of Drake, collapsed on the ground and slowly melting into the floor, and he watched the strange creature dissolve before shaking his head slowly, then looking up at the strange darkness all around him... before something clicked in his head as he glanced down and saw he was standing on obsidian tile. He concentrated for a moment, and the tile turned to white marble, and suddenly it all made sense.

"And here I was thinking chaos or nothingness would be white." he said softly, then bit his muzzle before deciding to test what he could do. First off, he imagined... just... that he was standing in a plain room. And the first thing that came to him wasn't any part of the Hellabos Estate, or the room he'd just been in, or even a place from home... it was the single room that had given him so many memories he hated, and so many he cherished...

The floor was cold cement, grey, plain... the walls were steel, but carefully overlaid with red wood tiles and a brown bordering around the floor and ceiling. There were two doors leading in and out... one, however, simply led to a circular, stone cell... and the other led to a pair of stairs that would bring the person up to the first floor of the Narrius Estate. But Zerrex's mind had automatically removed the golden plaque that had sat on the wall, and replaced it instead with another symbol he respected far more from his past, despite however it had disgusted him: the simple GL in gold of the Goth Legion.

Then a heavy punching bag that had been sewn, taped, and repaired in many an area, appeared, dangling from the ceiling by a heavy metal chain, and Zerrex smiled a bit as he looked around the large room, which now had other exercise equipment piled in the corners. This room... where so many times, he'd been knocked down, had the crap kicked out of him by Narrius, been taunted and abused and taught that he was worthless... but where Requiem had taught him so many lessons, had given him the tools to survive... and Zerrex had never appreciated his teachings until only so many years ago, when they'd met again, and he'd been forced to kill his uncle in a duel of honor.

He laughed a bit, then looked down at himself and blinked as he realized the pain was gone... and his body had returned to normal. He examined his hands slowly, once more with only the gold ring, arms muscular and strong... body firm and chiseled. He stretched slowly as he glanced up, realizing that his height had increased back to his normal size too... and he laughed a bit before stepping forwards and throwing a few light punches into the bag.

It crunched under his easy blows, twisted, moved... and gods, it felt so real. It all looked so real, felt so real, and yet, he knew it was an illusion. He felt almost like he'd undergone some religious experience now, like he'd found faith - not in a god or God persay, but in that there was some other world, that even his own reality could be nothing but a twisted pile of lies... and even though he was never much for philosophy, he had to admit that it was interesting to him and something he'd enjoy thinking about and contemplating once all this was done... and of course, seeing what he could do and bend in reality, what other rules he could twist to his own ends.

He slammed two more hard punches forwards into the bag, and it twitched away from him before swinging back, and he reached up to steady it gently, then he paused and closed his eyes, seeing what else he could bring forwards and make real: he concentrated, then his emerald irises opened and settled on another figure who had appeared in the room with him, and he couldn't help but smile a bit and bow his head respectfully, feeling a strange thud in his chest. "Hey."

The massive, twelve-foot three-inch Dragokkaren has a body thick with powerful, chiseled muscle, and his features are calm and almost serene, with ice-blue eyes that shine with intelligence and wisdom. His scales are the same crimson as his brothers, turning to a lighter hue over his powerful, broad chest, and although nowhere near as tall, he has a body that is wider and thicker with muscle without looking ridiculous. And although such a lumbering giant would seem to be slow, Zerrex knows that it is quite the opposite: Markus 'Requiem' Narrius is among one of the most graceful fighters ever to step into any field of combat.

He is clad in a pair of plain, comfortable jeans, and with his old heavyweight championship belt tied tight around his waist, the massive, platter-sized gold plaque on the front of the brown rawhide belt inset with two Dragokkaren facing each other, and finally Zerrex recognizes what the symbol there is from: it must be a remnant of a Hez'Ranna championship, and that would be why Requiem had always worn it with such pride. And upon his feet are a pair of leather loafers, and the giant smiles at him, looking somewhat pleased as he says softly: "You're learning better control with every passing moment, Zerrex. I'm proud of you."

The Drakkaren felt absurdly touched by this as he stood with one arm against the punching bag, smiling faintly before he said softly in reply: "But that's just like me being proud of myself, huh? Because you're not really Requiem... just another construct in my head, made of my memories and brought to life by... whatever power Drake has over me and in my mind right now."

"Well, if it's any comfort, then I'd say the real Requiem would be proud of you for this, and for figuring out so quickly where we are." replied the memory-Dragokkaren, and Zerrex laughed quietly before glancing up curiously as the giant crossed his arms, saying softly: "But you've missed one important thing, Zerrex... one extremely important piece of information, although it was presented only subtly. Can you think of what it is?"

Zerrex frowned a bit thoughtfully, then he sat back - and a small chair appeared behind him as he did so, the Drakkaren conjuring it out of his mind without even realizing it and resting in it as he let his hands fall to his lap. He looked down at the ground, thinking hard, knowing that he must have recognized it on some level of his mind if Requiem was able to test him on this... and then he looked up and asked hesitantly, once more feeling like student-to-mentor - but for maybe the first time willing and even happy that he was able to be this with the Dragokkaren who'd spent so long training him: "Something Drake said, right? He said... that... it was important I didn't tell Reia or anyone else about his presence... and... that means..."

And then it clicked, and Zerrex looked at Requiem with something like shock as Requiem smiled slightly and nodded slowly. Suddenly, everything fell into place... and the memory-Requiem voiced what the Drakkaren should have realized from the start: "Drake may be the master of the illusion... but his body and abilities are limited to the physics of this world, which is based off your reality.

"The only reason you've been trapped here is because you, effectively, have been tricked into trapping yourself. Drake can make suggestions, alterations, and interfere with you on a minor level... but otherwise, this world is a world of your creation, and bends to your will. And Drake himself, perhaps, is nothing more than a monster that possesses and incarnates your subconscious... is a mental creation that can only influence you in the same way that a voice in your head or a hallucination can. Through an emotional expression, by triggering certain emotional reactions and making you believe, put faith in something so hard that it becomes real..."

And then he made that easy gesture with one hand towards Zerrex that had used to make him so frustrated as a child, because it meant for him to continue, to finish the thought process himself... but now Zerrex immediately took up the idea with gratefulness, happy that he was being given the chance to work it out on his own instead of letting his memories of Requiem's teachings and subconscious mind do all the work. "The power of the mind... the placebo effect, all that crap... believe in something so hard you make it real... that means... he can only kill me through shocking my system, take me over by forcing me to believe that he's taking me over... and... that's why he's using these scare tactics. The theatrical, horror-movie style tub thing, the monster in the cloak, coming through the ceiling at me, even the submachine gun with Reia nearby...

"Because the last attack... he could have just used a sniper rifle and shot me in the head, and it would have killed me... hell, with his powers, why hasn't he just taken up hiding somewhere if he has access to weaponry, or even slit my throat during the night? But it's because they won't kill me... he tried to use the spray tactic because a normal person would have been ripped apart by such gunfire, and Reia's screams and freaking out when she's apparently the strongest person Johnny knows, that would have made me believe I was dying... and then I would have given in, not broken in spirit, but that belief that I was physically dying so strong it would have let Drake take over completely...

"Even when he stopped time... it hurt him. He exerted all his powers to shut down the illusion he'd created, but it knocked him right out of it and he disappeared off to... wherever he has to hide to regenerate or wherever he goes when he's not around here, out of the nothingness... the nothingness..." And then Zerrex stood, looked back and forth, before throwing his arms wide, and the room dissolve and suddenly they were standing beside a large, cheery water fountain, amidst of crowd of milling people, in the center square of the old Apple Villa that had once been in Baskin's Grove, and Requiem was dressed in a pristine suit and he was in plain jeans and a black shirt.

And then he slowly let his arms fall as Requiem looked at him with a soft smile, his sapphire eyes glinting with happiness as Zerrex looked back at him with a mixture of amazement and something like laughter bubbling up in him. "The nothingness... that I'm the one who creates something from."

"You got it. So what does that mean for you, in simple terms?" Requiem asked, leaning on the fountain and glancing up at the sky above, as Zerrex looked slowly around the city he had conjured without so much of a blink, then down at his hands before he looked slowly back up at Requiem, laughing faintly... but now feeling a mix of horror as well as awe at his own newfound power.

"That I can play god here..." Zerrex paused, then he pointed at the nearest building, and it exploded into a thousand fragments of stone and rock without the hint of fire or any other combustion, chunks of rock flying through the air... before they all suddenly froze in mid-flight, and then Zerrex clenched his fist, and the stones flew in the opposite direction, and the building pieced itself back together before stilling as if it had never simply blown apart.

Requiem nodded, tapping his claws on the fountain, as Zerrex looked around in wonder, feeling a rush as he recognized he could do... absolutely anything he wanted in this world, with no fear of retribution, that he could enjoy and do everything he wanted to do, without ever fighting again unless he felt the urge, kill without needing to worry about the consequences, love, and have everyone worship him, and even a mother and a father that really loved him back... before looking up as the Dragokkaren asked softly: "But why's that a problem?"

Zerrex faltered, then he closed his mouth and looked down silently as he clenched his hands into fists, and a sinking feeling in his gut. He remained silent, eyes locked on the ground as the people milled around them without seeing them, all his creation, his imaginings... and then Requiem cleared his throat and walked forwards, gently settling a hand on his shoulder and looking down at him. Zerrex didn't want to answer... didn't want to face the truth... but even though this Requiem was his own creation and formed from his memories, it was still Requiem to the core... and for some unknown time, they stood there together... before Zerrex finally looked up to meet those compassionate sapphire eyes with his own hurt emerald... and the fact that there was such sadness in them just made the pain for the Drakkaren even worse.

Requiem spared him having to answer the question... but he didn't spare him the answer, as he instead said softly: "Because you have a problem with power... and because this is the second part of the clever trap Drake has set in your mind. Even if he can't kill you, or take control of yourself... you know that all reality may hold for you is your dead friends, a war against your father that you may never be able to win, and awakening in the agony of a body that will likely have been subjected to all manner of torture and experimentation. And knowing my brother, he probably already has all of Hez'Ranna broken to his will and ungodly experiments being done on all the serfs and soldiers being trained to kill without hesitation or mercy.

"But here... this place is almost as real as your own world... except you can control and have, do, anything you want. It's like paradise... but Zerrex... every day you spend here-"

"Will be superficial... and useless... and eventually I will give in to Drake... and I'll be erased and he'll take my place, probably possess my body and... who knows what will happen then. Maybe he wants to use me like a suit, or maybe Narrius just wants me erased but my body left living so that he can use it like raw meat..." Zerrex said quietly... and he looked down with a snarl before turning and slamming both fists down hard enough into the concrete wall of the fountain to crack it... then smiling, eyes filling with tears as he looked back at Requiem, who was gazing at him with both sorrow and pride. "And under the joy will be the guilt and pain of betrayal, of having turned my back on everyone, of being a coward and having dishonored myself... so it looks like I have to play hero and kill Drake."

The Dragokkaren nodded, then walked up and gently rubbed his back with one large hand; and Zerrex felt both comforted and tortured by how real that hand felt, by how real Requiem seemed, even though he too was long dead... his blood on Zerrex's own stained hands. He shuddered violently and dropped his head forwards, clenching his eyes shut and trying not to cry... and then Requiem said softly: "But remember... when you're back in the illusionary world and that other body of yours... it's the same as this world you've created yourself from chaos. The only difference is that Drake is combating with you to try and weave something so realistic you'll believe in it fully, and your own faith will work against you. So start practicing changing and warping that world yourself to suit your own ends and desires... but don't move against Drake until you've got enough control you know you'll be able to overpower any stunts he pulls, and enough faith in yourself that it defeats the lie your senses tell you is true."

Zerrex nodded numbly and slumped, sighing, then he glanced up at Requiem as the tall Dragokkaren nudged him and gave a bit of a smile. "But if I was real... I would be proud of you. You're proving yourself on a battleground of not just physical, but emotional and mental as well now... and that in itself is an amazing thing that few real warriors can do." He paused, then looked down and laughed quietly. "And Zerrex... even the mightiest of soldiers needs to take a break now and then and just enjoy himself. So why don't you exercise your powers... and enjoy yourself here for at least a little while?"

The reptile nodded quietly, then Requiem gently flicked away a tear that rolled down the smaller lizard's cheek before turning and walking off into the crowd, vanishing from his sight... and the reptile sighed before looking up at the sky and leaning back against the fountain. "All the power in the world... and the first thing I do is recreate the site of a civil war..." He smiled faintly, then looked down. "Guess the battlefield really is where I belong... but alright. Since I can do anything... then let's... have some fun."

But even though the Drakkaren at first had ideas of massive orgies, or flying through the air, or being a literal king of the world... all he ended up doing was recreating his favorite memories and playing through them again and again... little sex, but more visiting with family, friends, and those who had died, and being comforted by their memory, gaining strength... until finally his mother, Celestial, came to him, and he approached her and they wrapped their arms around each other, and she gently held him to her bosom, the reptile closing his eyes as they lay down in a field of black roses and cherry trees that sang a secret, holy hymn as he finally descended into much-needed sleep.

I... I don't understand. Drake can't kill him. His body doesn't react to the dark energy the same way as the others... we may have to infuse the other half of the nephilim to increase his ability, but that risks Drake accidentally ripping him apart from the inside as well. And Drake himself suggested that in just a mental form he'd be more capable of possession and mental control... the physical component to his body is really only necessary to add for torture purposes, and it's inside Gorgon right now.

Patriarch Narrius is... displeased. He's told us to expedite our operations, since the takeover isn't going as planned and the rebel raids are hitting closer and closer to base. We have a leak.

Zerrex's data has been removed from the genetics bank, but we're continuing to process his DNA for use in the boost steroids and construction of the General Army. Our experiments on him seem to be affecting him in much different ways than expected, as well... his tolerance to our drugs is improving, and his strength has likely increased as a side-effect of the genetic 'purifying' we've performed. As you can see, so has his body size and mass, although his bones seem to be hollowing out. We extracted a sample of this for analysis.

His body is resisting atrophy... but we should still run a few tests to be sure his tendons haven't shortened and his muscles are still reacting properly. Use chemical 32 and the electric stimulator... but watch yourself. He appears to be having short periods of increased activity every now and then in his frontal lobe. Most likely it means a neurological defect or some mental illness growing in his mind, but he could also be waking up, and Drake's energy signature is also growing unstable. I want you to start him on one hundred milligrams of dratoxin, increase it in increments of fifty until you reach a thousand.

So what if it's ten times the normal dose? Don't question me or I'll report you to the Patriarch! We cannot take any chances of him waking up, and we need to keep him in coma, and the drug interactions could weaken the effect of the paralyzing agent, and he's already showing resistance to everything else we pump in him!

Shit... there's another group of anomalies on his flux chart and neural scan... either Drake is playing around too much or unable to restrain him properly... get the intrasignature communications device, the Patriarch himself wants to talk to Drake and get him moving faster, and to authorize more extreme tactics...

Zerrex awoke in his room, shaking his head slowly and with his arms and legs feeling a bit numb... but there at least wasn't any pain. He glanced back and forth, then frowned a bit as he flexed his legs before smiling faintly as he looked down at himself: his clothes were a bit tighter, which meant he'd put on some bulk, and in this case it looked like muscle. Furthermore, his pants seemed a bit tighter in the crotch region... and when he opened his fly to check - he was wearing the same clothes as he had been before Drake had knocked him out - he saw that at least something looked like it had grown a few inches towards what was normal for him overnight. It was ridiculous how happy and optimistic this made him, as he stood up and stretched slowly... "I'm so goddamn shallow."

He yawned a bit, then paused and looked down as he remembered yesterday, frowning slightly and looking around the room, forcing himself to realize again that none of it was real, that it was all in his head, and he should be the one in control... but he thought that his faith in that and his growing power over this illusionary world was illustrated all the more by the way his body had changed. Then he shook his head slowly and glanced at the clock... nine in the morning. Johnny must be a late sleeper... but I get the feeling he wasn't, and it's just that lately whatever is wrong with him kept him bedridden and out of sorts.

The reptile laughed quietly: Johnny, after all, hadn't really ever existed, but here he was, thinking of him like a real person. He smiled a bit, then shook his head slowly and walked out of the room... before pausing. Showing off his abilities and his growing power might not be the best tactic, if Drake was watching... and Zerrex had the feeling that even if he could control this entire world, the only way he would ever get out of this illusion, was through Drake. So he closed his eyes and concentrated, remembering the weakened body of Johnny... and when he opened them and glanced down, he saw that his form had returned to as it had been when he'd first woken up, although the pain at least still wasn't there. Then, feeling a bit vain and mischievous, he concentrated on his crotch before coughing as he felt a certain something in there growing longer and larger without becoming erect. You know, I really am pathetic. Seriously pathetic. But what the hell, right? Gods, but I wish I could do that in person... of course, then Cherry would be all over me even more than usual...

He shook his head slowly, then closed his eyes at the burst of shame and pain that went through him: here he was, having fun inside his own head, when the others were likely being tortured and experimented on. He rubbed slowly at his temple, then held his hand up and caused his cane to appear in it with merely a thought, feeling a slight smile rise to his features despite the throb of despair still in his chest. Then he closed his eyes and shook his head quickly, forcing the self-destructive thoughts away that wanted to rise up; he would be even more useless to them just crying and beating himself up. And taking some enjoyment in this world, learning how to control even mundane and ridiculous things, could be the key to getting out of here and finding the path back into reality... and if he didn't find a bit of enjoyment or take some relaxation for himself every now and then, then he'd end up a broken wreck.

"Maybe I should start masturbating. Or imagine myself up some cute girl." Zerrex murmured to himself, as he walked idly down the stairs, using the cane more as a prop now than anything else, before blinking and looking up at the door as he heard a rapid knocking. "Why in the name of hell does that keep happening? And why the hell does everyone bug me in the morning?" After all, no one had been here to see his mother... she had been eerily absent, in fact.

Zerrex sighed as he walked to the door, then glanced out the top window to see Cherry looking back and forth, rifle slung over her shoulder, before she grinned brightly and waved rapidly at him. He blinked, then opened the door, and she all but tackled him, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek loudly, almost squealing in delight, and Zerrex squawked and grabbed her, then pushed her free and coughed as he looked at her blankly. "What the hell?"

"You were... you were right!" she panted, and he blinked again as he realized she also looked exhausted... and she stared back before adding absently: "Oh, I ran here from downtown, I wanted to see you as soon as I got up."

Ran here? Zerrex continued to stare: he was under the impression that the city, which while by no means a large one, was still sprawled a good distance in every direction. And then Cherry closed the door as she began to kick off her boots and undo her jacket, shuffling back and forth as she continued to almost babble, and still looking at him with awe: "I mean, I thought, you know, that it wouldn't be any fun, or you know, I'd suck! But I... fuck! I mean, hell, I just, damn! I wasn't gonna do it, was just gonna come back here again, lie to you, give it back, but it was such a pain in the ass lugging it around everywhere and hiding it from my mom that I finally just... you know... found myself on the bus and walked to the gravel pit outside of town, and there were... you know, like, beer bottles from old parties and shit, and I just-"

Then she blinked when Zerrex reached up and put a finger to her lips, and he coughed before saying clearly: "Calm down."

Cherry flushed deeply at this, then he smiled a bit and patted her gently on the cheek. "Head on up to my room, I'll follow you up, alright? You want a drink or anything?"

"Sure, anything you got." She said gratefully, then smiled again at him before almost prancing off up the stairs, Zerrex watching her with a soft laugh. A joyful, happy, non-military Cherry who'd just discovered her passion and ability for sniping... this was another piece of sanctuary in the prison that had been built for him, which he was slowly turning into his own bit of twisted Eden. Then he shook his head before walking down into the basement, remembering catching a glimpse of some boxes of cola near the dried foods and shelves.

A few minutes later, he returned to his room, and was unsurprised to see Cherry marveling over the gun, idly polishing the already shining barrel with a rag and looking up at him with adoration and strange, deep respect. Then she put it aside, gently placing it atop the soft bag he'd given her yesterday to carry it in, and thanked him softly as she took a can of Frost cola from him - the same brand as he drank back home. They sat beside each other on the bed for a little while, and then Zerrex realized she didn't even reek of weed today... and her clothes - old, ripped jeans, a torn white tank top and the jeans vest she'd had on before - weren't as unkempt as before. Sure, they didn't look very clean, but they were neater... almost like she'd tried to straighten them out before putting them on.

Then she coughed and rubbed the back of her head, before smiling at him and continuing her story as he nudged her quietly with his shoulder. "Well, like... so I went out. And I put some bottles up on a rock... and then I decided I'd just try taking a few shots." Then she frowned a bit, before smiling brightly again and looking at him with a strange softness. "And when I... aimed, looked through the scope, it was... God... it was the best feeling in the world, you know? I was... in control, and there was just this... knowledge, this thrill that ran through me. Somehow, it was just all there... and fuck, I even know to aim just a bit to the right of the bottle to compensate for a wind that I barely even felt, and I blew the fucking thing to bits!"

She laughed loudly, throwing her head back and smiling warmly at him, then she softened. "And you know what? I realized... that I... I can do something. I won't be just... sitting here, working in burger joints, forever, failing class after class. I don't have to... I don't need the drugs, and I don't have to go down the same path my mom did. Maybe I'll never be as smart as you, Johnny, or do all the shit you can, but... I feel... like I'm worth something now. And I just kept going back and back, and I must've stopped around two hundred feet away, still hitting the bottles I set up dead-on with every shot... and my hands just seemed to know what to do. Like, that shit you say about writing, yeah? You always say your hands do the work for you, and I always thought you were being modest or just a fuckin' ass, not wanting to share some big secret... but that is the secret, isn't it? Because I didn't have to think, and I didn't have to work. My hands just... damn, it was like they were fuckin' alive, and they did their duty reloading the gun even though I've never even touched one of these babies before...

"You... really were right. And it made me feel so... so damn good inside, and... fuck, Johnny, it was... I never thought violence, or shooting, or stuff that's supposed to be guy-stuff like that... could be so beautiful." She dropped her hands in her lap and swallowed a bit, looking at him with shining eyes, before smiling faintly and laughing softly as she glanced down. "But shit... somehow... you know more about me than I do about myself. And I guess... I can't thank you enough."

"Just... call it a feeling. And you don't need to thank me, Cherry." Zerrex replied softly, nudging her gently and laughing a bit, before blinking as Cherry grinned at him, her eyes sparkling slightly, and he leaned back a bit. "Uh... what?"

"Well, I wanna thank you. And I can think of a way I think you'll like..." she replied teasingly, then gently stroked his face and leaned in to kiss his cheek before he felt her other hand working at his pants, and he felt a flush rising to his face before grunting softly as her hand grasped the thick flesh of his member and pulled it up and free, the male blushing as he felt his hard member quickly rising to an erection that was almost-painful.

She laughed a bit, then looked down... and grinned widely as she saw a twenty-inch, black fleshed member before looking up at him with a whistle. "Holy shit! You're a fucking giant... damn, if I knew you were this big, I would've been riding you every day instead of the other fuckheads I hang around with." she paused, then grinned a bit wider and winked. "Too bad I ended up catchin' a nasty STD from one of the boys I ended up fuckin' through a glory hole in one of the bars last night... last time I get drunk and do that, shit."

Then, without another word, she lowered her head and opened her jaws wide, and Zerrex grunted, dropping his cane and automatically grabbing the back of her head with one hand, the other clutching into a blanket on the bed as she took his sensitive flesh into her mouth. At the same time, however, he grinned widely, eyes closing as he mumbled: "Oh, this is me on a bad day... you should see how big I am when I'm having a good one."

Cherry gave a muffled laugh around his cock at this, then she pushed herself down a bit further, taking a bit more than a quarter of his length down, before she coughed a bit as she forced herself down a bit forwards, closing her eyes and grunting as she grasped the base of his black, thick penis and began to stroke it slowly up and down as she started to bob his head slowly up and down, her other hand reaching up to massage along Zerrex's back. She murred at the taste of his flesh as the Drakkaren rocked his hips, lightly thrusting into her maw as he groaned softly in pleasure.

He felt the ecstasy already growing: this body, obviously, wasn't as sexually experienced as his real one, despite the fact it was in his own mind. And Cherry also was nowhere near as good as the real Cherry... but she was still doing damned well, choking down almost half of his cock as she continued to stroke up and down his shaft, sucking back as she bobbed her head firmly up and down, the head of his huge shaft touching the back of her throat as she grunted and moaned, her other hand squeezing into his shirt as her eyes stayed tightly closed. She moved against the bucking of his hips, trying to take in more and gagging a bit every now and then as his member moved deeper and deeper.

It was only a few minutes before he felt his orgasm hit, and he arched his back with a soft groan of pleasure, his eyes almost rolling up in the back of his head as he fired a thick load of seed into her maw, followed by another quick few volleys that made Cherry cough and almost gag, but also moan in what was definitely pleasure. She slurped and sucked at him sloppily, bobbing her head faster as he leaned forwards over her, fingers clutching into her skull... before he finally slumped back a bit, panting quietly and relaxing as she drew her head up and murred. The load had felt pathetic to him... but the look on her face seemed to say it was the best she'd ever had, before she grinned widely and wrapped his arms around his neck.

She kissed him passionately, sloppily, hungrily, and forced his own seed into his mouth, making him taste the viscous bitterness of his own fluid, sharing his load with him as she squeezed his still-hard but tender member as she stroked up and down it idly, their tongues dancing hungrily and Zerrex finding himself strangely excited by the surprising, aggressive action of the female... before she drew back and grinned widely at him, whistling loudly. "Holy shit, but you're like a fucking unevolved stud-horse." A pause, then a wink and a soft murr as she leaned in against him, glancing down at his still hard cock and keeping her hand tight on it. "And fuck, still hard? You even lasted pretty good, since I know poor Johnny ain't got no action 'cept from the few times that his bitch-boytoy has come to see him." Another pause, then a snort. "Fuck, makes me wonder why I hang around and be the slut for those losers that I gangbang with. And like, you're the only guy who's never gone 'ugh, that shit's for fags,' too, but I guess you've tasted guy-seed before."

"Shush." Zerrex said amusedly, before he leaned forwards, and they shared another deep, passionate kiss, and now she wrapped her arms around his neck as his wrapped tight around her waist, holding her against his side for a few moments, and then they drew back. Then they smiled a bit at each other, nose-to-nose, and Cherry laughed a bit before blushing quietly. Before she could speak, however, Zerrex said softly: "I know. You loved sucking my cock. And you want to hang out more with me."

She twitched, looking surprised, and then gaping a bit and trying to think of something to say or some way to cover herself before simply grinning and shrugging, the blush rising deeper in her cheeks. "Okay, okay, you got me. Bastard."

"I get that a lot." he replied with a slight smile, as he felt himself finally going flaccid, and standing up to tuck himself back into his pants. They bulged ridiculously, and the two glanced down at this before both shared another laugh, and then he sat back down - and was immediately tackled by the female, who snuggled into his chest with a sigh of pleasure as he wrapped his arms around her with surprise.

She looked up at him happily, then paused and winked. "You ever want a girlfriend? I mean, I'd go pretty steady with you, but you'd have to let me fuck around a bit... and it's not like I'd ever expect you to just be straight with me, you could go nail some hot bitches yourself. And hey, maybe we could even haggle out a threesome every now and then, yeah?"

Zerrex snorted and smiled, then he winked and rubbed their muzzles together as he said idly. "Only if I got to call you bitch... bitch." He responded, and she grinned and nuzzled into his chest, blushing deeply. "I take that as a yes."

"Fuckoff." Cherry muttered into his chest, but he could feel her still grinning... and so for the next little while, they merely talked a bit to each other, sharing bits and pieces of information on their lives and how things were going for them... and the female quietly guided one of his hands as they spoke to her stomach, then up under her shirt, and it slowly ascended over her body to play lightly with a breast as she massaged slowly up and down his stomach.

Before she left around noon, he extracted a promise from her that she wouldn't do drugs anymore... and he also handed her the rifle and the case, and she'd looked at him for a few long moments with her mouth agape as he said softly: "It's yours now. Take it... enjoy it... and get better and better. And one day, I'll go out with you, and you can show me just what you're really capable of."

"Johnny, I... I can't... it's too much, and my mom will kill me, and..." she babbled, and Zerrex shook his head firmly. She tried to shove it back into his hands, but then was surprised when he easily shoved it back into her arms with just one arm, leaning on his cane idly with the other.

"I said, take it, bitch." He said softly, but with a low note of command... and Cherry looked at him for a few moments, before smiling a bit and throwing it over her shoulder and nodding firmly, then she turned and walked away. Before she left, however, she glanced back and suddenly threw him a rigid salute, and Zerrex got a glimpse of the future Cherry standing there, tall and ready and strong... but this Cherry not as tainted and twisted by the Goth Legion, but nonetheless the master of arms she would always be, in any reality or world.

Then she was gone, walking quickly off down the sidewalk, and Zerrex laughed quietly, shaking his head slowly before heading back up to his room and sighing as he sat down on the edge of the bed, looking idly back and forth. He figured he could practice a bit more now on manipulating things, or maybe do a bit more research... then he glanced up as something hit the window of his room with a loud double clink. He snorted, wondering if it was Cherry, who would probably flash him or something like that... but when he stood and twitched aside the curtain to look out, he saw not Cherry... but instead Drake standing there, glaring up at him, his shadow black against the snow, clad as always in his long cloak of darkness.

Zerrex snarled, their eyes locking, obsidian and emerald... and then Drake twitched his muzzle, and the reptile snorted before turning. His eyes settled on Johnny's apparent preferred outdoor wear - a heavy leather motorcycle jacket, and an old, beaten-up tan fedora, of all things - and then he threw these on, carrying the cane with him but not bothering to use it. If Drake tried to pull any tricks, however, it would at least make a good bashing-stick... and it would stop anyone who knew Johnny from staring too much at what they'd think would be a miraculous recovery.

He threw on the shoes he guessed were Johnny's - a pair of black, steel toed hikers - and then headed quickly across the hall, through the kitchen, and out the sliding door, closest to the road. He slammed the door behind him, then waded through the snow that had piled up on the deck here before simply hopping the railing and landing in a frozen flowerbed. Then he stepped over the edge of this and onto the side lawn, at last jumping the ditch and landing on the snowy edge of the street and looking down to see Drake still standing there, hands in his pockets.

The reptile's first instinct was to charge him, or attack him... but then he paused and frowned, glancing down and noting that his shadow was pointing towards the house and was fairly short... but Drake's was almost as long as his body, and when he turned to face him, the reptile noticed that it always stayed in front of him. The dark creature noticed Zerrex's look, then he snorted and said mildly: "Fuck you and your observational skills."

Then he turned away, his shadow remaining behind him this time, and began to walk down the street, and Zerrex's eyes noticed that even when his feet left the ground, thick strings of strange black stuff still went down, connecting his feet to the shadow, and the reptile realized that whatever else, the dark creature's shadow itself was a part of its body. And he snorted, then walked quickly along behind him, catching up to the dark entity and then walking side-by-side with him as he glanced up and said idly: "So, you're really just a puddle of goo, aren't you? We must be getting strange looks."

"Other people can't see me in this world." Drake replied easily, looking down at Zerrex mildly, then he paused and drew his eyes idly over his body before his form suddenly became almost liquid, seeming to melt slowly down into slush for a moment before it reformed, and instead of the almost featureless Drakkaren standing there in a cloak, now he was walking beside what looked almost like a copy of his real body, except this one had black scales and black eyes. His shoulder-length white hair seemed to glow unnaturally, as well, twisting back and forth in thick spikes that were obviously some sort of weird energy, and he grinned, revealing those too-bright, too-big teeth locked perfectly together in his maw. "How about this?"

Zerrex glanced over him, then snorted as he realized his clothes had changed as well, turning to a suit as dark as his scales, with light grey pinstripes. Perfect and pristine... and then Drake snorted and held out a hand, and a bowler cap formed out of black energy, which he promptly placed on his head, cursing mildly under his breath. "I hate the sunlight."

"Too bad." Zerrex replied irritably, but he had to agree that all the snow made it almost unbearably bright outside. The fact that Drake was uncomfortable, however, was enough to stop the lizard from attempting to show off and quench out the light to any degree. "So you obviously want to talk to me, asshole. Get to the point quick before I put my cane through your stomach."

Drake rolled his eyes, but Zerrex did notice a minute twitch of what was perhaps fear. However, for a few moments, they only walked along the block in silence before he said finally: "You're not like the others. I don't know if it's genetic, physical, spiritual, or maybe you're just too stubborn, but I can't control you. Despite all the evil in your body I have to feed off of and strengthen myself with... and as the Darkness Nephilim, I gain energy from pain, suffering, and any act that can be considered 'evil...' no matter what I try, you resist, and you repel me. Worst of all, it seems that you've gone and figured out how this world works... just because I'm not there to watch you turn the world upside down, doesn't mean I don't get a report back to find out what's going on."

He stopped for a few moments as they made their way across a cross-street, and then continued on as he looked at Zerrex, who, admittedly, was starting to get more curious than hostile. "My job is to control you. And if I can't control you, Patriarch Narrius... your father... has informed me that I should kill you. Unfortunately, neither of these options are at my command..." then he paused and grinned coldly as he looked down at Zerrex. "But you interest me... because I've never met someone so unabashedly evil and anti-everything that even I couldn't tamper with them."

"I'm not evil." Zerrex replied icily, his hand gripping the handle of his cane so tight that the scales of his knuckles had turned white. "That would be my father."

"Whatever. It's just a nonsense word, anyway... a point of view. And there's only one person I've met with more darkness in him than you... and that would be your father. As I exist by feeding off dark energy, he's the grand prize... but you're a silver medal, so I'm happy with you." A pause, and then Drake stopped and looked at Zerrex squarely, and the reptile turned and faced him as Drake's shadow slid over the ground and lapped at his feet, slowly rolling up his legs... but almost massaging him, instead of holding him in place. The Drakkaren frowned, shivered a bit at the feeling... but not because it was uncomfortable.

Quite the opposite... the dark energy of Drake almost made him... excited, was enticing, felt good, warm, comfortable, and aroused enough that he had to fight against getting a hard-on. Then Zerrex's emerald eyes looked up as Drake spoke again, touching him lightly under the chin and smiling slightly as a bit of that same dark energy flowed from his fingers and over his face as he whispered softly: "And I realize what you want to do when you get out of here... and you know, even though you yourself are a goldmine... I know there is so much energy that could be reaped in the world as well. I, however, have been split into two parts...

"The physical part of me resides in another experimental creation called Gorgon. It allows me to take form in the reality that you so desperately seem to want to get back to, despite how much of a paradise this place is for you... but by itself, it had no function except to bind a creature's powers and act like a toxin, restricting their strength and health. It is not sentient... but combined with my mental half, this part of me that's currently giving this pretty little monologue you're obviously enjoying from that bulge in your pants-" Goddammit! I'm going to crack him with my cane if he keeps this up... "-then I can take physical form and perform physical actions in reality.

"Since you're an idiot, you probably don't understand what I'm saying, though. So to put it simply... I want to make you an offer." And now Drake withdrew with a grin, and Zerrex blinked as they began to walk again, and now curiosity had definitely overwhelmed him... and he could feel himself still stepping in Drake's shadow as they walked along, but the dark creature showed no signs of discomfort: quite the opposite, in fact, and Zerrex got the feeling he was likely feeding on some of those dark thoughts he'd been having. "There are quite a few security measures in place apart from me to keep you in place, which you don't seem to realize, and which I shouldn't tell you about, but I'm going to anyway, because of what I'm interested in negotiating out with you.

"I can help... to a point... in getting you out of here, and if you do the rest, then you get to wake up and go back to reality. But in reality, you might need some help... so I want you to go, find Gorgon, and kill the freak... and from the corpse, you'll be able to take out the physical half of my body, which is kept in a regulation machine that stimulates it and acts sort of like an electronic brain. I'm not going to bother going into all the details because you're an idiot and wouldn't understand-"

Zerrex suddenly stopped and stomped down hard on the creature's shadow, and was amazed at the result that happened: Drake's arms flapped out, his bowler cap fell askew, his eyes bulged, and he jerked back as if Zerrex had just slammed a invisible choker collar around his neck. Then he fell heavily into a snowbank, and the reptile looked down at him mildly for a few moments. "I might not understand, no. And I bet you're made partly from my father's genetic coding, because you have that same really annoying habit of talking, talking, talking, and not shutting up. But I get what you're saying. You'll help me, if I help you. But my question becomes this: what happens when you get your physical body?"

Drake muttered angrily from his position on the ground, then he slowly got up to his feet, and his bowler cap vanished from its position on the ground before reappearing on his head as he brushed himself off. Then the dark nephilim snorted quietly... before smiling slightly and saying softly: "This is where I get to play the devil, and you get to make a deal with me. I'll give you a few days to think about it...

"But like I said before, I grow on darkness, and you yourself are a wellspring of dark energy... but your father is even bigger. I know your goal is to kill your father... and although right now I'm acting as a parasite, with my physical body, I can also serve symbiotically. You saw Hellabos, right, ripped apart inside-out? That was my handiwork..." He grinned slightly and tilted his head with a touch to the brim of his cap and a wink. "Okay, maybe not the best thing I could have said. But even when physically manifested, I function best when resting inside someone else's body and working in tandem with them. And I will give you a whole new world of powers you wouldn't have imagined existed...

"And what do I get in return? For every person you kill... I will grow stronger. Everyone you fight, hurt, and rip apart... I will grow stronger." He laughed softly and looked down, clenching his hands into fists. "And when you kill that goldmine of your father... I'll be like a fat man at a twenty-course, all-you-can-eat buffet. I can't begin to imagine how good his energy will taste or how much power I'll take from him..."

"You think I'm an idiot?" Zerrex asked mildly, tilting his head with a snort, and Drake looked at him with a frown as the reptile rested on his cane and grinned coldly up at the dark creature. "Yeah, I saw what you did to Hellabos. Tore him apart, inside-to-out. I don't think I want to be disemboweled from the inside, thanks... and even if you did pass into me that... strange shapeshifting ability you had, or whatever, by letting you use my body as a goddamned hotel for you... even if you granted me the power to reap through Narrius's army and then fight my father on even ground with my own little pet freak to counter all the obvious genetic modifications he's gone through... how do I know you won't just rip me apart afterwards?"

And Drake smiled coldly at this. "Like any deal with any good devil... it all has to come on trust. But I will tell you this... without my help, you aren't going to escape from this world. So you have no choice but to trust me... then let me help you after that, if you want to have any chance of getting past all the other monstrosities and dealing with the other nephilim that Hellabos created."

Zerrex made a slight face at this... but inwardly, he knew it was true. And either Drake was extremely good at bluffing, or he wasn't afraid because if knew that even if Zerrex did manage to capture or squash him somehow... he'd still be trapped inside his own head for the rest of eternity. He looked down, frowning... then Drake's shadow slid back behind the creature, and the dark entity looked at him with a cold smile. "Looks like you're having a difference of opinion with yourself."

"Looks like you're too retarded to get yourself your own body." Zerrex shot back, and Drake blinked, before the reptile snorted quietly and looked down, shaking his head slowly, deciding to at least get some time to think by asking: "How many of you nephilim are there, anyway?"

Surprisingly, Drake smiled slightly, then he closed his eyes and tilted his head to the side, chanting in a mellow, even voice: "Feel the earth under your feet, glide with your wings into the sky, know that light shines down on your head, feel the burn of the fire in your eyes, taste the water of the rivers on your tongue, the tremble that each stroke of lighting fires through your gut, and clutch always tight the darkness in your heart." Then he cleared his throat and glanced idly at Zerrex. "Hellabos was a literary buff... he... taught all of us nephilim that, a poem by an old poet who wrote plays for the courts of Hez'Ranna to enjoy. That describes the Seven Elemental Angels, or the nephilim, in his words. Hellabos modeled us off them, including our position in the body. We are all symbiotic entities with malleable bodies and fluctuating genetic codes, more energy than physical, and when we combine with someone, the core of our powers lodges into those described body parts, and when we use our abilities in conjunction or by command of whoever's body we're currently taking residence in, they are released from that point of the body."

"So you would take up residence in my heart?" Zerrex said slowly, frowning a bit at the implications: it was a slightly important body part, after all. But Drake merely laughed softly and shook his head.

"You've already noted my affinity with liquids..." a pause, and then he gave him a disgusted look. "And I haven't forgiven you for flushing me down the drain, by the way, when I was merely trying to do my job."

"Well, excuse me all to Hell for stopping you from killing me." Zerrex replied, voice dripping with sarcasm, then he snorted and smacked one leg of the creature lightly, noting the twitch that Drake made and the way his cane connected with solid material, and the wince of the darkness nephilim. "But if you'd completed that task, we'd never be able to have this conversation and get to be such good pals."

Drake's eye twitched a bit as he glared at Zerrex, who looked back flatly. Then the creature snorted and muttered something under his breath before continuing mildly: "I take up residence in the bloodstream. So unlike some others, my abilities can be released from any part of the body. Certain nephilim, however, such as Earth, can only affect things the feet touch or the body they're in itself, since that is where they exist: and if the feet were say, removed, then the body and nephilim would be separated, and forcible separation of the nephilim from the host usually results in the death of both, from shock."

"Sounds more and more like you're a parasite." Zerrex muttered, but he had to admit, it was certainly an interesting concept. Then he sighed and shook his head slowly. "This is getting too sci-fi world for me. Get lost, Drake, and stop trying to kill me... and I'll give you my answer in three days."

"Good. Feel free to do with this world as you will, then." Drake said dismissively, but he seemed pleased. "At the least, take this one bit of advice. On the day when you plan to answer my agreement, see just what you can do in this world and have all the fun you like... and then I'll come find you. But until then, I suppose..." And with that, the creature rose a hand and tipped his bowler cap to the fellow reptile as he vanished in a torrent of darkness, leaving Zerrex standing alone on the edge of the snowy road, staring into the sky.

Then he finally sighed, shivering once at how cold it was outside before he turned and began to head back towards home, stumping along and leaning on the cane for support - not that his legs hurt, but simply because he hadn't realized how slippery it was. As he walked, he thought about the deal he knew he was going to have to make with this particular devil... but again, of the strange way Drake had acted, and the few bits and pieces he had remembered of the scientists experimenting on him when he'd woken up this morning.

To start with, it was obvious Drake was going to double-cross him... despite the way that the dark creature had shown a grudging respect for him as they'd talked, it was only too obvious that Drake was out for his own ends rather than to save Zerrex's life. And he also got the impression that the nephilim might have a certain weakness that the black-scaled Drakkaren creature didn't want to reveal... and he got the sense that the nephilim might be more of a failed experiment than a properly-working one, otherwise Narrius would certainly have mass-produced such ferocious creatures that could bend so many laws of physics and seem to deny the basic rules of reality itself.

No... from his guess, Drake didn't just want a host body... but he needed one, in order to survive. That, or be inside a sealed environment, like that glass sphere... and as the reptile looked down thoughtfully, he wondered why that could be. Hell, I guess it's even possible that their bodies react with the air or something... but there's no point in speculation. These three days, I have to prepare myself as best I can for what's going to happen, and still pretend to be this 'Johnny' character... it seems Drake's been covering for me for an extent, but who really knows?

He sighed a bit as he reached the end of the street and turned the corner, this time deciding to walk the long way around and down the driveway to the back door instead of hopping the ditch: it would look rather odd if someone who was supposed to be crippled or unable to use his legs properly did that, he thought. After a few minutes, he found himself just pushing through the door, and his mother glanced at him curiously from the kitchen, asking: "Where'd you go?"

"Uh... the mall. Wanted to see if they had a new game in." Zerrex lied glibly; it came automatically, and he figured it was a good one as she nodded and wandered away. Then he sighed a bit and kicked off his shoes before heading up to his room and sitting down on his bed. He felt sore and tired... but he knew this was more mental than anything else, from all the stress he'd been under lately in dealing with this strange pseudo-reality and the hell of not knowing what was going on outside. He closed his eyes and lay back for a few moments, then sighed and turned towards his laptop, deciding to at least try and keep up the role of Johnny, like Drake had suggested, and check his email.

He blinked at the number he had... then muttered as he found most of them from Mahihko, steadily growing more urgent and wondering where he was, what had happened, etcetera. He sighed, then typed a quick reply, at first saying that he had just been tired and hadn't gotten up... before deciding that was pretty pathetic and instead going for a power-outage story. He still felt oddly bad for lying... but at the same time felt a brief wave of amused irritation. If you're so damn worried about me... then why not call? Or are you too cheap to pay for a long-distance call to your so-called 'soulmate?'

He shook his head a bit, then sighed and sent the email off before glancing idly through the others, feeling another wave of amusement: most of the people who Johnny seemed to get along with were in different countries, or on the other side of this one, which he'd finally learned was called Calla. And since it stretched over seven timezones, it meant it was a rather large one... and fairly developed, but apparently also fairly pacifistic. He shrugged a bit though, then sat back from the computer and looked idly around before musing to himself on what he could do.

Finally, his eyes settled on a mug on his table - it had a vixen it a tight leather outfit on it, with long golden hair - and he grinned a bit before closing his eyes and concentrating. He felt a strange rush through him, and then the bed shifted a bit before he heard a bit of a giggle when he opened his eyes... and he smiled slightly as he saw the vixen from the mug sitting beside him. He glanced over her, then back at the mug, and realized he'd missed one detail, but with a quick thought, he fixed that, and a collar appeared out of thin air around her neck.

She smiled at him, then bowed her head towards him, saying warmly: "Hello, Zerrex. What can I do for you?"

He looked at her thoughtfully for a few moments... and then something twitched inside of him, the monster that had for so long been locked up and tightly secured. And he felt a strange, welling rage as it broke free of the rusted shackles that had bound it rise up through his being, and he smiled back at her as she looked at him with adoration, and said in a calm, casual voice: "Get that odachi... and draw it out of its sheath... and then shove it through your vagina and out your mouth. And enjoy it."

She smiled at him warmly, like a waitress that had just been complemented on her serving skills, then she stood up, grabbed the huge, long, single-edged sword that looked like an oversized katana, and Zerrex watched with mixed surprise and cold satisfaction as she easily drew it in a long, extended motion, before gently putting the sheath aside, and sitting on the edge of the blade. She rubbed the blade between her legs, against the tight leather against her crotch, then she gripped it by the blade itself, and Zerrex glanced at it, realizing it was unsharpened. But then that part of him whispered again, and she let out a short, surprised "oh!" as the blade suddenly became razor sharp and bit into her fingers when she squeezed it.

But still, she smiled, even as blood ran down the blade and she spread her legs wide... and with a glance over her, the leather suit she wore ripped apart as if torn by invisible claws, and she blushed as her sumptuous bosom and lithe, wonderful body was revealed: red fur that turned almost gold instead of white over her chest, and a tight vagina with blossoming pink folds that seemed almost excited instead of pained, as she positioned the tip against her sex. Then she looked over at him and said in a warm voice free of pain: "Thank you, master. Please enjoy the show."

Then, suddenly, she shoved down, laying back at the same time as she hand-over-hand shoved the blade into her, her body twisting and bulging as her head fell back, as she jerked it hard into her, inches, then feet, then the entire five-foot blade of the huge sword cutting through her and her head dropping back as more than a foot of bloody, gore-covered steel shoved out her mouth between her jaws, her eyes rolling in her head and her legs bucking as her sexual fluids squirted out as if in ecstasy, rolling down her thighs as if in bliss... her bloody hands grasping the black cloth-wrapped handle, and Zerrex stared at her impassively as she tried to smile despite the blade sticking out of her mouth... and he felt the demon inside him laughing and rising up, then whispering to him softly, so gently, so temptingly...

This is your power... you should stay in this world... or better yet, accept Drake's offer, get to reality... and force people to do this, but then lap up their pain, and you will grow impossibly strong, and feed Drake's strength, who will in turn feed your own with his power... it whispered, and this was not Ravenlight, but a deeper, darker voice. Ravenlight was a sadistic, evil bastard... but even his cruelty had a limit.

No, this was the hell-voice, the demon-Zerrex that lived deep inside his secret heart, his dark, tortured soul... and then Zerrex clenched his eyes shut and turned suddenly away, wishing her gone. And then there was that shift again, and he slowly turned back as a tremble went through his body, and all that was left was a bloody sword laying on the bed. But with a simple wish, that too was gone, and instead the long katana-style sword was once more sheathed and resting in place against the wall.

Another shiver wracked his body, and Zerrex hugged himself, looking down silently. The last time that voice had been so strong had been in the Goth Legion... and true, it gave him power. Immeasurable strength in battle, made him able to perform the cruelest acts of necessity without a twitch, and look upon hells that would turn other people into gibbering, screaming lunatics without blinking... but it was a curse as well. A hunger that he had to feed every now and then so it didn't grow so strong that it would break entirely free of its imprisonment deep inside of him and cause him to create some even more unspeakable act...

But he realized that in this world, he could also commit those sins without hurting anyone... and that gave him cause to wonder if he should stay in this world. Yet again, the truth was he had no real choice; even if everyone was dead, even with the knowledge that Drake was going to betray him at some point, he had to force his way back to reality... because he had to at least try and put a stop to whatever his father was doing, whatever sins he was committing. He had to play hero, even though he was the opposite, and a monster with hungers no creature should ever be cursed with on top of it, already doomed for Hell or worse...

Then he shook his head slowly, and instead smiled faintly as another idea came to him. And he swallowed, then stood up and slowly walked downstairs, heading across the kitchen and into the living room, where his mother was sitting and smoking. She looked at him curiously, then asked: "Your legs feeling-"

Then she stopped and merely stared blankly as Zerrex forced his will forwards in another attempt at control, another wish... and the cigarettes vanished as snow pattered gently at the window, and a faint breeze rustled the trees outside. For a few moments, these were the only sounds... and then Celestial Narrius opened her emerald eyes and smiled at him. "Hello, Zerrex... how are you feeling, son?"

And Zerrex smiled faintly at her, and without even realizing it, his body underwent its own change, and he once more became the child he had once been before his father had killed his mother and corrupted him. He walked towards her, not even noticing that everything was bigger, and that he was nine years old again, and his hair was cropped and his eyes big and round and he was short for his age... and then he stood in front of her and blushed, putting his hands behind his back and looking down.

"I'm... I'm okay." He said finally, with a shy glance up at her, then he smiled a bit. "What's for supper, mom?"

"I'll make us hamburgers... would you like that, Light?" Celestial tilted her head, and it was almost enough to make Zerrex break down into tears, at mention of the old nickname. His father had always called him Raves, which he hated... but his mother had always called him Light, and said it was because... he was like an angel from Heaven, that shone the sun's light onto the world. Tears rose in his eyes at the memory, and then she reached forwards with concern, gently touching his head as she asked softly: "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah... yeah, I'm... I'm just great." Zerrex whispered, then he stepped forwards and wrapped his arms tight around her neck, clenching his eyes shut and jumping up on the couch to curl against her, tears streaming down his face. She didn't ask any questions, but merely held him, looking at him with a loving softness and affection that had been stolen too early from the Drakkaren's life... and for a while he really did feel everything was okay. It didn't matter that it was an illusion, or that in reality, she was long dead... philosophically interesting, but thoughts like that just brought pain and sadness. Letting go and letting himself rest in the illusion, on the other hand... that was okay. He could play pretend for a little while... because even life was just so many games and so many moments of playing pretend, in a world that might not even be real or just some cruel game of the gods...

The rest of the day, he dedicated to his mother... he went out with her grocery shopping, and pushed the cart for her with a smile, closing his eyes at the compliments about how he was already a big boy, getting so strong... picking up boxes of frost cola, and a box of cookies, and she bought some raw hamburger... and he didn't care about the looks he was getting from people, shaping reality more towards his old life than the illusion Drake had designed. He didn't care what paradoxes it would cause, as they walked through the shopping mall, and he even felt a strange sort of pride at the whispers... his beautiful mother, who had been a porn star for so many years before she'd met his father, almost seeming to glow with her inner light... her pure, inner light. Just because she had sold her body for money - and a hell of a lot in it, since Celestial Bodies had been one of the top porn stars of her day before she'd left the business - didn't mean she was immoral, and that she wasn't smart. She could have done a thousand other things... but she had always been a physical person, and had always been passionate, and simply enjoyed sex. But she had also been the one to teach him to read, and about the old authors, and prayer and religion... and he remembered that she and Requiem used to have such wonderful discussions whenever Requiem picked him up to take him to his fathers, or brought him back, the Dragokkaren always finding the time to stop in for a few hours, no matter how much it infuriated his older brother.

When they'd returned home, it hadn't been the same house... instead, it had been the home that Zerrex had grown up in as a child, his mother's house. He helped her put away the groceries, and then she'd taken his hand and smiled, saying it was time for him to have a bath and that she could use one too... and she'd lovingly led him to the second floor, and to the bathroom with the tiled floor and oversized Jacuzzi tub.

She had undressed... her body beautiful, breasts large, stomach taunt, and arms and legs both with a good bit of muscle - and Zerrex had never really realized until now much he was attracted to females who looked like his mother. Then she'd gently stripped him naked... and as she'd taken off his clothes, his body had grown, until he was taller than her, and he was looking down at her lovingly as the adult she'd never get to see, and they hugged tightly. Their naked bodies pressed together, but it wasn't sexual in the slightest... instead, it was only loving and comfortable, wonderful... so wonderful. And then they'd both climbed into the tub that Zerrex didn't remember filling, and the water was like liquid bliss, hot and comforting... and he remembered again that this was all his reality, his dream, and he was god here. Enjoying for these last three days the things he'd never experience when he returned back to reality... and it filled him with a mix of pain and despair.

"Then just enjoy it now... real or not... and remember that we're built from your memories..." his mother said softly, as she slid close to him in the water, then gently pushed his head back to soak it in the water. He smiled a bit up at her, unsurprised she'd somehow read his thoughts, and then she gently guided him back up as she took a bottle of shampoo from nearby and squirted some of the stuff into her hand, before gently beginning to lather up his hair and firmly knead through it. "And that your mother would have gladly done this for you... and that you know how much she loved you... and that she would be proud of you. So enjoy this... think of me as her spirit, giving to you the hope she can... before you go back to face down Narrius. And that is the best proof above all that you are her son... that despite all the pain, the hell of leaving this false reality where everything bows to you... you will. Not for good... but because it is right..."

"Thank you..." Zerrex whispered, his voice hitching, and tears rolled down his cheeks to mix with the water already on them as both pain and happiness rolled through him. His mother continued to wash his hair... and for an hour, they would wash each other's bodies, and he would drink in every detail of hers before they finally climbed out, gently drying each other off.

Then came supper... and Zerrex sat at the table and smiled quietly, watching her working, clad in a tight black dress, a string of diamonds around her neck, as she made the patties from the raw hamburger by hand, then grilled these. Zerrex himself was dressed in his usual black clothes, but he also had a suit jacket on... and then he said softly: "Come on, mom, sit down. Someone else can do that."

"No... that'd be lazy. And I promised my son some burgers tonight made by me, not someone else." She said firmly, and he laughed a bit as she continued to cook and work. Finally, she came and sat down, serving them both, and he ate his with relish, loving the taste, the texture, and the fact they were sitting alone in the little kitchen together, both dressed up, eating by the light of a few candles, on a romantic date in their own home between mother and son.

When they were done, she brought out a tub of ice cream, and they went into the spacious living room with the big screen television and the couch and love seat, and they sat together on the latter, the ice cream between them, and put on a movie, both of them eating from the tub... laughing together, Celestial jumping sometimes, and teasingly rubbing up her son's thigh at the sex scene, making Zerrex flush darkly. Then, at the end of it, they'd turned off the television, tossed the spoons and empty container of ice cream in the sink, and gone upstairs.

Zerrex had thought about having sex with her... but instead, as they lay in the bed together, he only shared a loving, passionate kiss with her before letting her curl him against her bosom comfortingly... and slowly fell into sleep, comforted, in the arms of the person who meant more than he could ever say, who had given him more than he could ever ask for, and who had been lost too early in his life... and they lay naked, comfortable, and protecting each other, and outside the large picture window, a building away, Drake stood on a rooftop.

And unlike what was expected, he watched with envy... and tears of pain streaming down his cheeks as he shuddered and rubbed at his eyes, the darkness around him burning, his white hair flowing in the wind. He was still in the copied body of Zerrex that he'd taken such a liking to... but it wasn't copied emotions that was wrenching so hard at his own dark heart or night-colored soul. Because sure, he was evil, and he was the darkness... but that only meant the parallel of good and light, the balancing force of the universe, and as necessary for life and order as the sun, the stars, and love. And evil, cruel, and monstrous or not... he wasn't without his own feelings... and even the most hateful of monsters could cry tears of bitter pain as they reflected on their own spiral of agony and loss, and could feel respect for another person... and even the most hated demon was never truly devoid of the double-edged sword of love...

We can't reverse the effects of the immortalization process... in other words, he's rejecting all attempts on our part to age him. And with his natural vitality... who knows how long he'll live for? He's just like our soldiers now, and Patriarch Narrius... ageless... maybe infinite until he's killed by malicious means, an accident, or the end of times...

Drake is suppressing his energy to an extent... but he doesn't seem to be doing much else. I'm worried that he's not telling us something... and that maybe there's another reason he's the only nephilim with the ability to split in a mental half and a physical half.

We have reports that the other nephilim have all been set into appropriate hosts, and that they're also experimenting further on gene splicing and that Gorgon is actually running with two nephilim in her now... half of Drake, and light. We should introduce it to Subject 0 if he ever wakes up... she'd probably fuck him right the hell up.

Oh shit. Did you hear the news? The Patriarch revived an old scientist who was killed in a raid on an old Nazi bunker. Frozen, actually... they found his body in almost perfect condition, but the Patriarch ordered him placed into a Dragokkaren body to give him extra incentive to work for us... yeah, apparently he was a member of the Standard Rule Pack, you know, the canid superiority movement sixty years back... yeah, the guys who wiped out most of the cetaceans and rare species. They never started in on Hez'Ranna, though... too scared of retaliation. Their first goal was apparently just to take over the 'civilized world...'

Mengele Tstegi is running the department now... fucking bastard, but he's a genius. Crazy, though... and does he ever rant a lot. But he's scared enough of Narrius to obey... just like the rest of us...

The results of the latest tests are amazing... and Tstegi's genetic enhancement protocol seems to be doing... what we thought were impossible wonders. Run the new prototype on Subject 0 and Queen-1. And oh, pass on the news to the higher ups that the new batch of eggs has been prepared and are ready for fertilization.

I don't understand it. We still can't extract his soul... and we actually broke one of the machines trying to run a Quarem series on him to test his energy levels...

The Patriarch has ordered us to start building a new weapon... he wants it ready and fully-operational within the next five years... it's a massive battle fortress...