Night's Omen

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“I told him this would happen, I fucking told him.  I didn’t raise a fledgling to be this stupid,” Justinian ranted as they cut a swift pace through the building to the front, Alexander half of a step behind him, but at his shoulder, as was his preference.  Justinian would have had him at his shoulder, but Alexander seemed to take some significance from standing slightly behind him, as though he preferred his place as a shadow at his back over being a direct participant in his business. 

“Not to defend him, but you did drive him completely batshit and then leave him to rage out for a century,” Alexander remarked dryly.  Justinian scoffed.

“I didn’t know that my power would have quite such an extreme effect at the time.” It was only partially true, particularly in that Justinian hadn't cared how much of an effect it would have at the time, and Niall had pissed him off. Niall had once been a rather valiant young warrior of noble blood, and he'd taken issue to the monster in his lands. The problem was that this particular monster was too much for him to handle, and Justinian had left him to be the monster ravaging his own countryside.

“I offered to put him out of his misery,” Alexander pointed out, to which Justinian rolled his eyes. Justinian had found the punishment, as it were, to be fitting, while Alexander had told him he was being childish and tried to talk him into letting him kill the poor fool when it was obvious that he was utterly destroyed.

“It was only fair to give him a chance.”

“I offered again a month ago," he pointed out, giving Justinian a look that actually made the other vampire turn to look at him over his shoulder, pace slowing. Alexander had offered a month ago, and he'd threatened more times than that, particularly when he and Justinian had gotten into a blow-out argument about what had happened to Corinne while he was gone. Justinian, for his part, hadn't actually done anything to harm her himself, and neither had Iloquil, but it had been neglect on their part; they hadn't kept her safe, and they'd trusted Niall and Verity with her, which never should have been allowed. Alexander knew that Justinian's fledgling hated him, and Justinian was no fool himself - he just didn't want to deal with it, and never had to before because Alexander was more than capable of handling his own issues. Corinne, on the other hand, had been brutally abused in his absence, and he'd made clear how he felt about it.

Justinian, being himself, had mostly yelled because he didn't like being told that he'd screwed up, but he'd given in after the initial explosive bits and acknowledged the mistake. He hadn't given in on Alexander's 'offers' to remove Niall from the equation, even if he hadn't outright said that he'd have any issue with it if Niall were to attack him, which Alexander also figured was an eventual thing. He was just more impatient on the issue than usual.

It was Justinian's turn to give him a dry look, apparently not entertained by Alexander's uncharacteristic impatience, but after over two thousand years, he was not only used to his friend's manner, but trusted him implicitly. Justinian didn't have to agree all of the time, but Alexander gave him typically unfiltered advice, and usually with the intent to temper Justinian's own impulses. If Alexander was the one with the impulse this time around, perhaps Justinian was simply not seeing things properly.

"I have everything under control."

"I'd hate to see it out of control, then."

"Alexander, I swear to fuck, if you don't give me a fucking break," he snapped, irritated to see the slightest smile from the corner of his eye. "Listen to me. The unicorn is being freed and her human friend is fetching Gareth. We'll make his entrance a little easier, just to be on the safe side for anyone who doesn't feel inclined to die for this shithole, and Niall can make his own fucking decision. Either he weighs the outcome and abandons this shit, or he's too stupid to live and the monster hunter takes care of the rest."

"Unnecessarily complicated, as usual, but it'll do. I can appreciate letting him make his own bed," Alexander admitted, even if he'd have preferred to just take him out.

"Thank you for your input. As usual, it's both appreciated and not," Justinian shot back, but there was no more to be said. They had the job of clearing the gate, which really just meant that Justin gave instructions while Alexander very deliberately rolled up his sleeves and braced himself for the upcoming fights, and whoever followed them was apparently on their side and told to report to the dungeons and other quarters to assist in evacuation privately. The rest refused, and Justinian shrugged. They'd be the ones that Gareth cut through when he arrived, and Justinian really didn't care enough to discuss it.

They were headed back towards the center of the fortress, both considering what would be coming next when both of their expectations and guesses were proven wrong. There was distant yelling, screaming actually, that started with a woman's voice screaming Niall's name, Alexander heard 'silver-eyed bitch', glanced at Justinian and they both broke into a run. Given that they were ancient vampires, that run put them there within only a few seconds, but it was long enough for the scene to have fully taken form.

Verity's corpse was bleeding on the floor, her eyes gory holes and Corinne wearing her blood as she screamed her rage in Niall's face. Niall was also screaming, rage and grief and madness in his voice and his eyes wild, a side of him that Alexander hadn't actually seen since his early days. He'd come around to put on the airs of being quite the gentleman over the years, and usually seemed more bored and dismissive than anything, but this was Verity who was dead on the floor, so exceptions were understandable. It was a scene that actually managed to dumbfound both Justinian and Alexander, who faltered long enough to really take in Corinne obviously having not only bested Verity but outright killed her and the way that she was defiantly facing down Niall. She couldn't win, not when the first thing he did was sweep up the madness and nightmares that he commanded around them, and Justinian huffed.

“Well, old friend.  Looks like you get your chance," he said, sounding tired of the whole mess already as he squared himself off to block the fight off from the rest of the fortress so that nobody else got caught in the backlash of Niall's nightmares. That left Alexander to rush Niall as Corinne's screams turned from fury to fear.

Niall had apparently been so overtaken with his own emotions that he hadn't taken in his surroundings, because Alexander hit him from the side hard enough that they both went rolling away across the floor and away from Corinne. Alexander rolled to a crouch, looking up to ensure that Corinne was still okay and nodding to her to get to Justinian's side, then focusing in on Niall, who screamed once more and charged him, features distorting with his ability, even though Alexander didn't need the visual to know the monster he was facing.

They went at it hand to hand initially, both bloodying the other with instantly healing injuries in an attempt to get a more dangerous blow in. Alexander smashed Niall's entire body into the stone of the fireplace, only irritated that Niall had managed to move enough to avoid the flames themselves, and snatched up one of the wrought iron tools standing alongside it. Niall was no fae, but the weapon was solid and would do the damage he needed, starting with breaking the younger vampire's arm when he threw it up to protect his face. Alexander didn't falter, swinging again, but Niall twisted the very reality around them, darkening the air and twisting away as what seemed like a swarm of twisted, screaming bat-like lizards tore right at his face. He knew it wasn't real, but it felt real enough to his mind to draw blood when he didn't immediately acknowledge them, which forced him to back off enough to protect himself lest they rip his face off. In those precious seconds, Niall had reached for a real weapon, a sword that Alexander didn't actually think was on fire, but he could feel the heat of it even before Niall got into swinging distance. Fantastic. Justinian was hereby banned from creating any more vampires.

The swirling darkness only became thicker with the black smoke coming off of what had become green flames on the sword Niall held, the acrid scent lodging itself into Alexander's sinuses well enough that he wondered idly if he'd still not be able to get rid of it for the next few hours, even after the illusion itself lifted. The bat-lizards circled, unable to spread out to make space for their growing numbers in the area that Justinian was keeping Niall's influence enclosed in, so the roar of their shrieks and wings desperately beating the air was so deafening that it was almost possible to miss the sound of that flaming sword striking Alexander's fire iron, which he braced with one hand on either end to absorb the full blow and the next that swung lower, trying to push Alexander's crude weapon aside.

When brute force didn't work, Niall slid the blade sideways down the iron's length, forcing Alexander to release that side with a hiss as both heat and blade clipped his arm for a long slice that sprayed the floor with blood just before the heat cauterized it. His other arm brought the fire iron around in a quick, sharp strike that took Niall in the back, pitching him forward and bloodying him and the floor when the ancient yanked the hooked part of the iron back out of his flesh with a scream from the younger.

Even that sound was distorted, as though every new injury, every spot of blood and spike of pain was just compounding the grief, rage and agony that was already consuming the mad vampire. Some of the bat lizards spinning and diving above them, streaking towards Alexander or Justinian where he was focusing on keeping them trapped there, began to scream those distorted screams in an echo of their master, except that those were the ones that jerked around in midair, ripping and popping as they changed into new nightmares with long, hairless legs erupting around their mouths, like a squid's tentacles, if only they were sharp and jagged looking. The fresh beasts dove at Justinian, who swatted one out of midair before it reached him with the kind of disgust he'd have reserved for no more than a fly while Corinne took out another, but there were a lot of them and Justinian wasn't inclined to break his focus.

Alexander threw the fire iron like a javelin and skewered two of them, but in the breath that it had taken him, Niall had apparently lost touch with his own reality enough that he'd just gone and sprouted bat wings of his own, and he was going for Corinne and Justinian right along with his creations, because of course he had.  The ancient darted forward, grabbing him by one of those wings and whipping him backwards in what would have been an impressive arc if Niall hadn't suddenly shot spikes that were up to an inch and a half thick in a wild spray.  Justinian moved slightly towards Corinne and grunted as one embedded itself in his ribs and one in his thigh, Corinne ducked and Alexander could only hope that Justinian took the brunt of it, though he couldn't see anything with the way Niall's flying creatures descended on him right after the harsh impact to his chest that flung him backwards, and then he woke up in his bed with a gasp. 

"That fucker," he hissed, wanting to rub at his chest where he still hurt, but dropping right back into a projection into Midnight's hall.  He was just in time to see that Niall was approaching Justinian and Corinne again, albeit slower and working against Justinian's own power.  Alexander wasn't quite prepared to walk into that wave of insanity, but he blinked rapidly, reining in his two millenia of iron-gripped control, and stalked forward himself.

“Tsk, tsk.  You’ve gotten slow, Justinian,” Niall sneered, and really, Alexander thought that Justinian losing his own grip on his power was not helping matters.  He came up silently in what Samantha had once described as his 'murder strut', all fury waiting to be unleashed, and grabbed him by the back of the neck.

“And you were never smart, asshole,” Alexander snapped, plunging his fist through Niall's ribs, though he had to be honest in that he wasn't really expecting quite the show out of the other.  Justinian's bloodline seemed to all bend reality in some way, such as Alexander's own ability to project a perfectly solid and real version of himself into the world that could die without harm to himself and Corinne's drugging capabilities, but Niall's power seemed to have been heavily formed by the insanity that Justinian inflicted upon him during his transition.  A blow that should have been deadly on any other vampire had Niall shrieking and writhing around, slamming Alexander with those wings as his body twisted and became something that it wasn't.  For all of Alexander's strength and calm, he couldn't actually keep a grip on him, and though he wrenched a piece of Niall out when the younger vampire tore himself free, Niall kept moving around, obviously in intense pain and still changing and distorting as he went. 

It wasn't just Niall twisting himself up, however; the creatures that had been flying around and that had contributed to Alexander's death just moments before were in a frenzy above them, the floor felt like it was throbbing with a heartbeat beneath his feet, and even the walls were writhing with shapes that seemed to be trying to rip through some boundary keeping them confined.  Alexander went after Niall, but it was only in time to see him throw himself literally off of the balcony into the courtyard, and then he sighed, only barely refraining from pressing at the bridge of his nose to ward off the very mortal threat of an expected headache. 

He glanced back at Justinian, who had recovered his hold on the location with only a small leak of Niall's influence that hopefully hadn't done any harm, and was pulling in the power over sanity that he held.  Iloquil and Deja had arrived in the last moment or so, probably drawn by Justinian's lapse in control, and there was a lot of fuss over in that direction.  Alexander ignored it in favor of approaching the balcony to look over.  What he saw just made him want to scream in frustration.

"Fucking really?"

An enormous, black goddamn dragon beat its wings as it shot up towards the balcony, landing with crushing weight that utterly destroyed the railing and a lot of the balcony itself.  Alexander shot backward to safety with a quick movement, but he sighed and shot a nasty glare at Justinian.  "If you ever make another vampire, I'm stabbing it and you."

He didn't think he was ever as happy in his life as when Gareth and Nicolas fucking Santos swung the doors open.