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Title: a father and his child (5/6)
Fandom: Soulcalibur
Characters: Raphael, Siegfried
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Raphael, Siegfried, and six meetings: five times they crossed blades, and the one time they did not.
v. fiat iustitia...
(let there be justice...)
The Tower of Remembrance spirals high above the dark clouds, a thin, bloodied dagger thrust through the heart of Ostrheinsburg's tortured lands. Raphael stands at the summit of the dread tower, eyeing the man who has stood in his way for so long. He remembers what he'd heard as he'd travelled - a man made of crystal - and though he'd thought it foolish peasant fancy at first, he concedes now that the description is more than apt. Siegfried is encased in crystal, held together by it; the myriad shards glow from within and refract the rays of the red sun, a sight so radiant the man in the center of it is all but lost.
The fleshy hilt of Soul Edge - the prize he'd long sought, and finally claimed - quivers in Raphael's grasp. Yes. Lost, weak. His mind is incapable of controlling the power that sustains his pitiful life. Accept my power, and you and I shall wipe him from this earth.
Raphael glances at the blade dragging behind him. The sword's sheer ugliness never fails to disgust him; it is more a grotesque collection of corpses wrapped around a hunk of sharpened steel than a proper blade.
"Your time will come," he murmurs, making his way to the center of the arena, Soul Edge leaving a sticky trail of tears in his wake.
Amid the brilliance of his crystalline armor Siegfried seems small, practically an afterthought - an ornament on which the spirit sword hangs. His eyes are more blue than green, lit from within by an inner light. Raphael wonders if there is any trace of a human left there, or if - like Nightmare before him - all he faces now is an empty shell, soul drowned in Soul Calibur's purity. As he approaches the unnatural blue from Siegfried's eyes dims for a moment, and he knows that Siegfried is still alive - if not entirely in control.
Raphael stops a few feet away from Siegfried, just outside the range of his sword. Siegfried shakes his head, as if in confusion, and Raphael's lips part in a smile.
"Not quite the monster you were expecting?"
Something flickers across the surface of those blue, blue eyes - fear? Disappointment? "Does it matter anymore? I will destroy Soul Edge - don't think you can defeat me."
Raphael lifts Soul Edge high. The unblinking eye is a fierce, bright red, the hilt hot and damp in his palms; a clear, viscous fluid oozes down the steel blade, disgustingly reminicent of a panting, starving dog. Wield me, the sword shrieks. Let my strength fill your soul and burn away your human weakness. Guide me, and together we will destroy this boy and this world and shape it anew.
Raphael stares deep into the firey, raging eye. "No."
Soul Edge falls from his hand, the clatter as it hits the ground rolling over the arena like thunder. The eye rolls around wildly in its socket, gazing up at Raphael in fury and - satisfyingly - fear. What foolishness is -
Raphael draws Flambert, the steel flashing crimson in the sun, and jabs it deep into the staring eye.
A scream erupts in Raphael's head. The poison in his blood catches fire, boiling under his skin, as Soul Edge tries to slay him for this betrayal. The pain brings Raphael to his knees, but he only grips Flambert tighter and drives it deeper into the putrid flesh even as he is forced to lean heavily on it for support. Tiny cracks spider across Soul Edge's steel, splintering it as the sword's consciousness claws helplessly at Raphael's soul in an attempt to save itself. The sword gives one last wail, then shatters under the unrelenting press of Raphael's will.
The tower is silent in the wake of Soul Edge's destruction. Raphael rises to his feet slowly, his body still trembling from Soul Edge's power turned against him. His gaze meets Siegfried's own, the shifting blue-green eyes wide.
"Why?" Siegfried finally asks, voice shaking.
Rapahel tilts his head to the side thoughtfully. "Would it surprise you, if I said you were right - that given the chance, you would destroy Soul Edge, that you could not help but win? Soul Edge's power is...was...nearly limitless, but Soul Calibur's is greater still - such is the nature of its existence." He looks down at the bloodied, sticky mess that was once Soul Edge. "Had I tried to use such power, your victory would be all but assured...especially since you have so fully embraced your role as a puppet." A cruel smile graces Raphael's lips. "But I have done away with that weakness, and I will do the same to you now."
Siegfried narrows his eyes. "You don't understand at all, do you? You haven't destroyed anything - you've only let the darkness corrupt you further!" Soul Calibur flares with a blinding blue-white light, chilling the air around them.
Raphael shrugs. "Believe what you will, then. But know that when you fall, it will be because of my hand, my own power - not some mindless sword, not your dreams made flesh. Me."
Soul Calibur is painful to look at, so brightly does it glow. Siegfried's hands are closed tight around the hilt of the sword, but he does not move, eyes shifting dizzily between green and blue, irresolute. Raphael lowers Flambert.
"My earlier offer still stands," he says, not unkindly; Siegfried's head tilts slightly, questioning. "All you have to do is give me Soul Calibur, and your journey will be finished. I have made a memory of your waking Nightmare. Of what use is the sword to you now?"
Silence.
"As I thought - you haven't even considered that, have you? Perhaps - " and Raphael thinks of the Labyrinth again, and Siegfried's words, if my life were my own to give, " -perhaps you hoped the choice would be taken from you in death." Raphael raises his right hand, holds it out in offering. "Give me the sword, Siegfried. Such power is not suitable for a lost child."
Siegfried shakes his head, the churning ocean of his blue-green eyes growing still, flat. "I vowed - the day you freed me - that I would end this sorry cycle of tragedy, no matter the cost. I have shown you mercy before, and you have only tossed it aside. I will spare you no more; the world cannot afford it."
"The world cannot afford to continue as it is, either," Raphael murmurs. "Very well. Play at being the world's savior, pretend it will cleanse your tarnished soul. When you leave this mortal coil, perhaps the pleasures of being a martyr will comfort you."
The light radiating from Soul Calibur grows brighter, until it is blinding to look at. Raphael narrows his eyes and listens for the signs of movement from his enemy, knowing that amid such a crippling luminance Siegfried is most likely to strike.
He hears the rapid metallic click of footsteps on stone, and the much fainter - much deadlier - swish of air parting for a swift-moving blade. Instinctively he leans back - the sword sounds too close to risk moving wholly out of the way - and Soul Calibur passes mere inches above him, the glittering crystal reflecting his bloodstained, shadowed eyes. Raphael thrusts Flambert forward, into the heart of the brilliant light, not expecting to strike flesh - he merely needs to keep Siegfried off-balance before he has a chance to recover. Flambert clangs harmlessly against Siegfried's armor, brittle crystal shards breaking off and clinking onto the ground.
Raphael slips outside Soul Calibur's reach, careful not to look directly at the shimmering sword. The light from blade is not quite as blinding as it had been only moments ago, but it still distorts Siegfried's image, making it difficult to strike at him cleanly as he ducks and weaves around the glittering blade, Flambert sliding over icy crystal shards as Raphael tries to keep Siegfried from gaining the lethal momentum he needs.
The sword catches the light from the sun, flashing off the myriad crystal facets and momentarily blinding Raphael. He raises his hand to his eyes, only to see the massive sword rushing straight at his chest. Instinctively, Raphael stabs Flambert upwards, the slender steel blade sliding into the thicket of crystal shards and stopping Siegfried's charge.
Siegfried stumbles forward, thrown off-balance from the force of the sudden stop. Raphael pulls back on his rapier, dragging both Siegfried and Soul Calibur closer. Siegfried tightens his grip on the sword's hilt, trying to pull away. The two stand, swords entwined and bodies straining, struggling for dominance - and then Siegfried lowers his shoulder, Soul Calibur dipping slightly in response, and Raphael slips. Siegfried lunges forward, the cold, hard blade of the crystalline sword tearing into Raphael's stomach.
"No," Raphael hisses, as his legs give out beneath him; would fall to the ground were it not for the massive blade holding him up. "I will not be denied again!" He reaches for the glowing orb at the center of the blade - he only needs to wrest Soul Calibur's power from Siegfried for an instant, and he will be able to reshape the world before death claims him. His fingers curl over the orb's smooth, glassy surface, and he feels something stir eagerly under his grasp, a caged beast straining to be unleashed. Raphael closes his eyes, trying to coax that immense strength to his hands, to let it run through him and over the world, washing it clean.
But strong, cold fingers clasp over his own, shutting off the conduit. "Stop this," Siegfried snarls, icy hands nearly crushing Raphael's. "I won't let you use this power to harm anything else!"
"Harm," Raphael spits out, his blood splattering onto the clear crystal of Siegfried's armor. "Let me tell you what you've saved from harm - nothing. This world is awash in misery and pain and always has been, always will be. Humanity will make new nightmares to replace the one you've woken from, Siegfried, and they will not need a bloodthirsty sword to awaken them."
Siegfried's hands tremble under their crystal casing. "That...that may be so. But it's their own choice to make - not yours, or mine."
"Why bother, when you know the world will always choose annihilation?" Raphael snaps bitterly. "Enjoy your salvation while you can, Siegfried. Enjoy watching men start wars over nothing and less than nothing, enjoy the dying wails of the innocents they trample in their rush for destruction, enjoy listening to the world cry out for your sword arm - not to protect, but to join in the slaughter! Watch the world drown in its own blood, knowing all the while you once held the power to end it all, but did not. That will be your redemption."
The faintest tremor runs through Siegfried's hands at those words; but when Raphael looks up the man's eyes are as hard and unyielding as the sword impaling him, and they are set on the far horizon, not the man dying at his feet. Siegfried's lips are moving, whispering; but the cold in Raphael's gut creeps through his veins, freezing blood and bone and flesh, setting icy bands around his hot and angry heart, and he cannot hear the words. He lowers his gaze, watching his blood turn Soul Calibur red. The shame of his failure makes his eyes burn and clogs his throat. Amy will never see the bright future he'd promised her; worse, he is abandoning her, leaving her alone in a world that - in its cruel indifference, in its endemic misery - will devour her soul as surely as Soul Edge would have.
A chill, white fog begins to creep across the ground slowly, with a sound like glass shattering. The cold squeezes around Raphael's heart, stilling it, and
the world turns white.
---
chapter 6: ...et pereat mundus
Fandom: Soulcalibur
Characters: Raphael, Siegfried
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Raphael, Siegfried, and six meetings: five times they crossed blades, and the one time they did not.
v. fiat iustitia...
(let there be justice...)
The Tower of Remembrance spirals high above the dark clouds, a thin, bloodied dagger thrust through the heart of Ostrheinsburg's tortured lands. Raphael stands at the summit of the dread tower, eyeing the man who has stood in his way for so long. He remembers what he'd heard as he'd travelled - a man made of crystal - and though he'd thought it foolish peasant fancy at first, he concedes now that the description is more than apt. Siegfried is encased in crystal, held together by it; the myriad shards glow from within and refract the rays of the red sun, a sight so radiant the man in the center of it is all but lost.
The fleshy hilt of Soul Edge - the prize he'd long sought, and finally claimed - quivers in Raphael's grasp. Yes. Lost, weak. His mind is incapable of controlling the power that sustains his pitiful life. Accept my power, and you and I shall wipe him from this earth.
Raphael glances at the blade dragging behind him. The sword's sheer ugliness never fails to disgust him; it is more a grotesque collection of corpses wrapped around a hunk of sharpened steel than a proper blade.
"Your time will come," he murmurs, making his way to the center of the arena, Soul Edge leaving a sticky trail of tears in his wake.
Amid the brilliance of his crystalline armor Siegfried seems small, practically an afterthought - an ornament on which the spirit sword hangs. His eyes are more blue than green, lit from within by an inner light. Raphael wonders if there is any trace of a human left there, or if - like Nightmare before him - all he faces now is an empty shell, soul drowned in Soul Calibur's purity. As he approaches the unnatural blue from Siegfried's eyes dims for a moment, and he knows that Siegfried is still alive - if not entirely in control.
Raphael stops a few feet away from Siegfried, just outside the range of his sword. Siegfried shakes his head, as if in confusion, and Raphael's lips part in a smile.
"Not quite the monster you were expecting?"
Something flickers across the surface of those blue, blue eyes - fear? Disappointment? "Does it matter anymore? I will destroy Soul Edge - don't think you can defeat me."
Raphael lifts Soul Edge high. The unblinking eye is a fierce, bright red, the hilt hot and damp in his palms; a clear, viscous fluid oozes down the steel blade, disgustingly reminicent of a panting, starving dog. Wield me, the sword shrieks. Let my strength fill your soul and burn away your human weakness. Guide me, and together we will destroy this boy and this world and shape it anew.
Raphael stares deep into the firey, raging eye. "No."
Soul Edge falls from his hand, the clatter as it hits the ground rolling over the arena like thunder. The eye rolls around wildly in its socket, gazing up at Raphael in fury and - satisfyingly - fear. What foolishness is -
Raphael draws Flambert, the steel flashing crimson in the sun, and jabs it deep into the staring eye.
A scream erupts in Raphael's head. The poison in his blood catches fire, boiling under his skin, as Soul Edge tries to slay him for this betrayal. The pain brings Raphael to his knees, but he only grips Flambert tighter and drives it deeper into the putrid flesh even as he is forced to lean heavily on it for support. Tiny cracks spider across Soul Edge's steel, splintering it as the sword's consciousness claws helplessly at Raphael's soul in an attempt to save itself. The sword gives one last wail, then shatters under the unrelenting press of Raphael's will.
The tower is silent in the wake of Soul Edge's destruction. Raphael rises to his feet slowly, his body still trembling from Soul Edge's power turned against him. His gaze meets Siegfried's own, the shifting blue-green eyes wide.
"Why?" Siegfried finally asks, voice shaking.
Rapahel tilts his head to the side thoughtfully. "Would it surprise you, if I said you were right - that given the chance, you would destroy Soul Edge, that you could not help but win? Soul Edge's power is...was...nearly limitless, but Soul Calibur's is greater still - such is the nature of its existence." He looks down at the bloodied, sticky mess that was once Soul Edge. "Had I tried to use such power, your victory would be all but assured...especially since you have so fully embraced your role as a puppet." A cruel smile graces Raphael's lips. "But I have done away with that weakness, and I will do the same to you now."
Siegfried narrows his eyes. "You don't understand at all, do you? You haven't destroyed anything - you've only let the darkness corrupt you further!" Soul Calibur flares with a blinding blue-white light, chilling the air around them.
Raphael shrugs. "Believe what you will, then. But know that when you fall, it will be because of my hand, my own power - not some mindless sword, not your dreams made flesh. Me."
Soul Calibur is painful to look at, so brightly does it glow. Siegfried's hands are closed tight around the hilt of the sword, but he does not move, eyes shifting dizzily between green and blue, irresolute. Raphael lowers Flambert.
"My earlier offer still stands," he says, not unkindly; Siegfried's head tilts slightly, questioning. "All you have to do is give me Soul Calibur, and your journey will be finished. I have made a memory of your waking Nightmare. Of what use is the sword to you now?"
Silence.
"As I thought - you haven't even considered that, have you? Perhaps - " and Raphael thinks of the Labyrinth again, and Siegfried's words, if my life were my own to give, " -perhaps you hoped the choice would be taken from you in death." Raphael raises his right hand, holds it out in offering. "Give me the sword, Siegfried. Such power is not suitable for a lost child."
Siegfried shakes his head, the churning ocean of his blue-green eyes growing still, flat. "I vowed - the day you freed me - that I would end this sorry cycle of tragedy, no matter the cost. I have shown you mercy before, and you have only tossed it aside. I will spare you no more; the world cannot afford it."
"The world cannot afford to continue as it is, either," Raphael murmurs. "Very well. Play at being the world's savior, pretend it will cleanse your tarnished soul. When you leave this mortal coil, perhaps the pleasures of being a martyr will comfort you."
The light radiating from Soul Calibur grows brighter, until it is blinding to look at. Raphael narrows his eyes and listens for the signs of movement from his enemy, knowing that amid such a crippling luminance Siegfried is most likely to strike.
He hears the rapid metallic click of footsteps on stone, and the much fainter - much deadlier - swish of air parting for a swift-moving blade. Instinctively he leans back - the sword sounds too close to risk moving wholly out of the way - and Soul Calibur passes mere inches above him, the glittering crystal reflecting his bloodstained, shadowed eyes. Raphael thrusts Flambert forward, into the heart of the brilliant light, not expecting to strike flesh - he merely needs to keep Siegfried off-balance before he has a chance to recover. Flambert clangs harmlessly against Siegfried's armor, brittle crystal shards breaking off and clinking onto the ground.
Raphael slips outside Soul Calibur's reach, careful not to look directly at the shimmering sword. The light from blade is not quite as blinding as it had been only moments ago, but it still distorts Siegfried's image, making it difficult to strike at him cleanly as he ducks and weaves around the glittering blade, Flambert sliding over icy crystal shards as Raphael tries to keep Siegfried from gaining the lethal momentum he needs.
The sword catches the light from the sun, flashing off the myriad crystal facets and momentarily blinding Raphael. He raises his hand to his eyes, only to see the massive sword rushing straight at his chest. Instinctively, Raphael stabs Flambert upwards, the slender steel blade sliding into the thicket of crystal shards and stopping Siegfried's charge.
Siegfried stumbles forward, thrown off-balance from the force of the sudden stop. Raphael pulls back on his rapier, dragging both Siegfried and Soul Calibur closer. Siegfried tightens his grip on the sword's hilt, trying to pull away. The two stand, swords entwined and bodies straining, struggling for dominance - and then Siegfried lowers his shoulder, Soul Calibur dipping slightly in response, and Raphael slips. Siegfried lunges forward, the cold, hard blade of the crystalline sword tearing into Raphael's stomach.
"No," Raphael hisses, as his legs give out beneath him; would fall to the ground were it not for the massive blade holding him up. "I will not be denied again!" He reaches for the glowing orb at the center of the blade - he only needs to wrest Soul Calibur's power from Siegfried for an instant, and he will be able to reshape the world before death claims him. His fingers curl over the orb's smooth, glassy surface, and he feels something stir eagerly under his grasp, a caged beast straining to be unleashed. Raphael closes his eyes, trying to coax that immense strength to his hands, to let it run through him and over the world, washing it clean.
But strong, cold fingers clasp over his own, shutting off the conduit. "Stop this," Siegfried snarls, icy hands nearly crushing Raphael's. "I won't let you use this power to harm anything else!"
"Harm," Raphael spits out, his blood splattering onto the clear crystal of Siegfried's armor. "Let me tell you what you've saved from harm - nothing. This world is awash in misery and pain and always has been, always will be. Humanity will make new nightmares to replace the one you've woken from, Siegfried, and they will not need a bloodthirsty sword to awaken them."
Siegfried's hands tremble under their crystal casing. "That...that may be so. But it's their own choice to make - not yours, or mine."
"Why bother, when you know the world will always choose annihilation?" Raphael snaps bitterly. "Enjoy your salvation while you can, Siegfried. Enjoy watching men start wars over nothing and less than nothing, enjoy the dying wails of the innocents they trample in their rush for destruction, enjoy listening to the world cry out for your sword arm - not to protect, but to join in the slaughter! Watch the world drown in its own blood, knowing all the while you once held the power to end it all, but did not. That will be your redemption."
The faintest tremor runs through Siegfried's hands at those words; but when Raphael looks up the man's eyes are as hard and unyielding as the sword impaling him, and they are set on the far horizon, not the man dying at his feet. Siegfried's lips are moving, whispering; but the cold in Raphael's gut creeps through his veins, freezing blood and bone and flesh, setting icy bands around his hot and angry heart, and he cannot hear the words. He lowers his gaze, watching his blood turn Soul Calibur red. The shame of his failure makes his eyes burn and clogs his throat. Amy will never see the bright future he'd promised her; worse, he is abandoning her, leaving her alone in a world that - in its cruel indifference, in its endemic misery - will devour her soul as surely as Soul Edge would have.
A chill, white fog begins to creep across the ground slowly, with a sound like glass shattering. The cold squeezes around Raphael's heart, stilling it, and
the world turns white.
---
chapter 6: ...et pereat mundus
