Dark Legacy

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

[OOC: This is Rem Saverem's second history thread. Kind of short. All chapters thus far have been graded.]



Chapter 1: All Roses Are Black

To say that the young Decima Espada was paranoid would have been an understatement.
While he slumbered, warm and comfortable in his bed, his three Fraccion stood guard at the entrances of his room. Laine was positioned outside of his door in the hallway. Dirge was positioned on the inside of the door, in case someone got past Laine. Lastly, Laam was standing beside the window near Rem's bed, ensuring that no one would come in that way either.
But Rem probably didn't realize that his third Fraccion often spent the nights peeking in on his dreams and spying. Of this he was blissfully unaware. Had he been aware, he would surely have made it so that Laam could never spill his secrets to anyone.
Rem was laying sprawled out in his bed, his pillow and sheets in a mess around him, his own sleeping garments in a state of disarray on his body. He was snoring softly, his chest rising and falling in accordance. It appeared he was sleeping quite soundly.
But a dream was playing behind his closed eyes.

It was a dream that he had had many times before so he knew it almost intimately. He hated it, he could never understand what it was trying to tell him. Still it continued to repeat itself over and over.
Rem was eight years old again, even smaller than he was now, and perhaps far more frail and fragile looking. His eyes were bigger then too. Light shone out from their emerald depths, lending a timid appearance to his face. He was sitting on the cold tile floor of a patient boarding room at the insane asylum, looking up at his roommate.
Said roommate was a much older boy, with black hair and pale blue eyes. His skin was tanned, but he had small scars all over his arms and face. The scars looked as if they had been made from the boy's fingernails constantly picking at his skin. He was staring wide-eyed back at Rem, trembling softly.
Rem was puzzled. “What is it?” he asked, his voice soft and light.
“You... you're a demon... you tried to kill me... tried to kiss me... what the hell is wrong with you?” the other boy said, pointing an accusing finger at the child on the floor.
“I did not!” Rem protested, now wearing a hurt expression.
“You did, you did,” the blue-eyed boy insisted, his trembling intensifying. “I woke up and you were kissing me... and when you saw I was awake, you tried to choke me. Then you used one of your arms to grab the other one and stop yourself... You fell onto the floor, and you've been sitting there like that since then...”
“But I don't remember... doing any of that,” Rem said, shaking his head softly, the longer locks of his dark hair brushing his shoulders gently.
“Just look at your arm... You're bleeding from where you dug your nails in to help tear your hand off my throat.”
“But...” Rem trailed off just as he began. He had suddenly become aware of a sharp stinging pain in his arm.
Ever so slowly, he raised his arm and found that there were four very deep gashes running horizontally across the flesh of his forearm. His eyes widened. His pulse sped and jumped up into his throat. His breathing started to come in rapid panting.
“But I... I don't remember doing that...” he said, a soft whimper of fear escaping him.
“It was like you were trying to fight yourself not to do it,” Blue-Eyes injected. “You must really need some help, kid.”
The real Rem, the current Rem, was screaming at his younger counterpart.
“He's lying! He has to be lying. It could have been him who attacked you and gave you those scratches when you started to struggle. He's the one who really needs the help, damn it!”
But the eight year old couldn't hear a word he said, and he growled softly in agitation.
“Fuck, I don't understand this. Was I myself or not...? If not, then what the hell was going on?”

“-ster! Master!” A concerned voice was calling to him. “Master, wake up! You're having a bad dream!”
Rem's emerald-green eyes snapped open as he felt someone shaking his shoulder. A face was hovering just above his own, and it took him a moment to recognize the differently colored eyes of Laam. There was concern for him in those eyes, and he didn't like it.
He slammed the palm of one hand into Laam's face and shoved him away all in one swift movement of his arm. “Get off, whore.”
The blond-haired Fraccion stumbled backward a few steps, holding his face in his hand. “Wh-what? Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed or something!?” he barked, scowling at the child.
“I did warn you that it was a bad idea to wake him up before he wakes up on his own,” this from Dirge, who was still obediently standing guard by the door.
Rem sighed, letting his arm fall back to the bed, closing his eyes as he yawned softly. “Dirge, what time is it?” he asked.
“It's coming up on noon, my Lord.”
“I see...”
“Hey, don't ignore me like I'm not here,” Laam cut in, stomping his foot as his anger escalated. “That earlier comment was uncalled for. I was only seeing if you were okay.”
“Stop your whining,” Rem snapped, sitting upright in his bed to stare down his Fraccion with a heated emerald glare. “Don't even try to play innocent with me. Do you think I haven't noticed? Too many times you've come in with your hair and uniform a mess, a blissful look on your face, and the scent of another person on your skin. Most of the time, it's always a different scent.”
Laam's expression morphed before his eyes. The anger faded from those sea-blue and grass-green eyes, and a smile curled his lips. But it wasn't a pleasant smile. It was the kind of smile a serpent would give a mouse right before it crushed and devoured the pitiful creature.
“Then why do you bother keeping me around?” he asked, voice calm.
“You have your uses,” Rem answered, content to leave it at that. “Now, bring me a uniform from the closet.”
“Hai hai,” Laam said, still smiling as he moved to do so.
'A smiling idiot... He has his uses, but they're few and far between. A guard for the window and a spy for other people's dreams. If it wasn't for that, I'd have done away with him long ago.'
Rem shifted around, pushing off the sheets and blanket as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. He raised his hands, starting to unbutton his night shirt so that he could change when Laam brought him his uniform for the day. If he was uncomfortable undressing in front of his Fraccion, it didn't show. In his mind, and in their mind, they all knew that if they tried anything, he would doubtlessly murder them for even the smallest attempt at what little of his virtue there remained.
“Here you go, Master,” Laam said, placing the clean uniform on the bed beside him.
“Thanks,” Rem said, reaching for the clothes and pulling them on quickly. As he was straightening them on his body, he caught sight of Laam staring at him out of the corner of his eye. The stare was intense, far too intense for his liking and for his paranoia to ignore.
“What?” he inquired, making a conscious effort not to snap and to keep his voice as calm as possible. It came out low, but steady, and he was glad for that.
“It's nothing,” Laam said, smiling as he walked away to take up his position near the window.
'As if I'm really supposed to believe that,' Rem thought silently to himself, his eyes following Laam's back while he moved. 'Seems like... I'll need to be careful around him. I am no one's victim.'


Chapter 1 End

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

Chapter 2: Where the Wild Things Are

“Dirge. Laine. Laam,” Rem said, calling their names in rapid succession.
All three of their heads lifted and turned to look at him with a unison, “Yes, master?”
“I'm leaving for a while. You know the drill. Don't allow anyone inside my room and if the other Espada are calling for me, then one of you come find me,” he said, running his hands through his messy black hair a few times so that it fell into place.
“Yes, master,” Laine said, nodding with a bright smile.
“As you wish,” Dirge complied, remaining stoic near the door.
“Of course,” Laam said, as if he'd known those were going to be their orders for the day.
Rem turned, giving them all the full weight of his emerald glare. “I'm serious. If I catch even the faintest scent of someone who's been in my room without my express permission, then I'm going to punish all of you, no matter who's fault it was.”
Laine squirmed and fidgeted, fighting not to outright cower. Dirge closed his eyes, bowing his head. Laam was the only one of them to give him serious eyes back, as if he understood the most. The Decima was content to leave it at that and turned on his heel to exit the room, leaving his underlings to themselves.

However, no sooner had he taken five steps out into the hallway when a blur of white, blue, and black slammed into him from the side with the force of a truck going at full speed.
Rem didn't even have time to sense the blur's presence, let alone the time to dodge out of the way of the assault. He wound up on his back, his arms pinned to the floor at the elbows by a pair of clawed hands. The wind had been knocked out of him, and he struggled to breathe, all the while waiting for his own blurred vision to clear so that he could see who it was that was leaning over him, holding him down with their body.
He blinked several times. A face was coming into focus above him. Had he had his senses about him, he would have resigned himself to anger and lashed out, but apparently those had been knocked out of him too, at least temporarily.
The face that was grinning down at him was pretty enough, perhaps even bordering on handsome. It was another boy who appeared to be close to Rem's age. He had long black hair that was tied up in a really poorly-done bun so that locks spilled down from it and framed his face quite nicely. His eyes, or rather the one eye that was visible, was a deep blue that could easily have been mistaken for sapphire. The other eye was concealed behind a white clothe eye-patch.
Rem stared at the eye-patch and slowly realized that it was stained through with dark dried blood. This boy was missing one eye entirely.
A matching pair of white crescent-shaped mask fragments rested on the delicate swell of the boy's cheek bones so that they accentuated his cheeks and eyes. He also had two identical rows of horizontal blue stripes going down both sides of his neck. This pattern continued on his arms and ended at his wrists. Behind him, a white tiger tail with blue stripes flicked back and forth in the air.
Whoever this boy was, he was a tiger-arrancar, probably a kitten rather than a mature male.
“Gotcha at last, Rem,” he said, baring his feline fangs in another grin.
'Think you're the only one with fangs, asshole?' Rem thought back. 'He must know my name because of my rank. Fuck, I didn't think it would become that well-known.'
“You have three seconds to tell me who you are and what you want before I shoot a cero through your center, kitty-cat,” was what he said aloud, moving his hand into a position where he could carry out his threat with ease.
Tiger-boy laughed, leaning his head back as he did. “Dear God, you've become such a cold-hearted bastard. Back then, you didn't even want to sleep by yourself and now you're threatening to kill me without even a hint of hesitation,” he exclaimed.
“If you're trying to bluff your way out of this by pretending that you know me, then I really will kill you. Don't make me ask you again,” Rem said, though now he had started to wonder what the tiger was driving at by jumping him and saying such things.
“Right, of course you wouldn't remember me. The last time we were together was over two hundred years ago. My name is Cyprien, Cyprien Dylandy. But I suppose you can call me Cy-cy, if you want to,” the boy said in a mocking tone, smirking.
“I don't know that name, and I have no idea what you're talking about,” Rem said, his eyes narrowing into a heated glare. He flexed his clawed digits, contemplating the cero.
“I know that's not your fault, but I am so insulted,” Cyprien said, gently starting to dig his claws into the young Decima's arms. “Now, now, let me at least finish speaking.”
“Then get on with it, damn it.”

Before their conversation could continue, all three of Rem's Fraccion spilled out of his room and into the hallway, each of them forming a point of a triangle around Rem and the tiger. Rem sighed. “Shit.”
“Friends of yours?” Cyprien inquired, grinning at each of them in turn.
“Get off of him!” Laine shouted, holding an orb of crackling pink energy between his hands.
“Do it slowly,” Dirge added, four kunai knives and four shuriken stars resting between the fingers of his hands.
“If you've hurt him, you're done for,” Laam said, holding his bow with an arrow already aimed right at Cyprien's chest.
“Oh, please,” Cyprien laughed again. “I've been his friend for longer than any of you have known him. Hell, I might as well be his boyfriend compared to you three idiots. Coming in a little late to save your dear master, aren't you?” He flashed a feral grin at them.
“We thought he'd simply handle it himself, but he was taking too long,” Dirge explained.
“Don't fucking talk about me like I'm not here,” Rem snapped, growling. “I could easily have shot his ass and been done with it, but I was waiting to hear what he had to say. Stand down, all of you.”
The Fraccion did as he said, each of them lowering their weapons.
“And you,” Rem fixed another heated glare on the boy above him. “Stop spouting nonsense. I don't know you, and I've never had a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend for that matter. I don't want anyone, never had and never will. So get the fuck off of me and go back to your imaginary world.”
Cyprien's grin transformed into an evil smile. He gently removed his hands from Rem's arms, but instead of getting up, he straddled his hips.
“Don't be mean. I loved you enough that I followed you into death,” he said, raising his arms so that Rem got a good view of both of his wrists.
Rem's eyes widened. On each wrist was a white, cross-shaped scar. The scars looked as if they'd been made by a blade and one that was driven in quite deep to leave such a defined scar.
Something about seeing those scars sent a sudden jolt of pain through Rem's head and he cringed, screwing his eyes shut tight as he raised his hands to cradle his head.
'What the hell is going on...? I shouldn't have felt that... what was that sensation just now? Was that pain...? No, no, it can't be. I can't feel pain.'
“Starting to remember me now?” Cyprien's voice asked from above him.
“Get off of me, damn it!”
Rem sat bolt upright just as he had done earlier, slamming the palm of one hand into Cyprien's face to send him sprawling backward onto the floor. His lower body finally free, he got to his feet and quickly put a fair amount of distance between them, panting softly.
“You... who are you?” he said, staring at Cyprien, his body tensed with the first thread of fear.
Cyprien smiled sinisterly up at him. “You know me. Somewhere deep down inside your being, you know me, Rem.”
“I don't want to...” Rem whispered.


Chapter 2 End

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

Chapter 3: A Flurry of Fangs and Fur

Cyprien laughed, a sharp sound that cut through the silence that had settled in the corridor. Rem's Fraccion started, while their young master merely stared at the laughing tiger arrancar with curious and somewhat frightened emerald eyes.
“You said that the first time as well, but that didn't stop me then and it probably won't stop me now,” he said, chuckling here and there.
“I still have no idea what the hell you're talking about,” Rem stated, watching him carefully in case he decided to try something unexpectedly. “If you don't start making sense soon, I won't hesitate to kill you.”
Cyprien ceased his laughter and settled his blue eyes squarely on the Decima. A serious expression came over his face as he began to flex his clawed fingers at his sides. Each and every crack was clearly audible and could be heard by all those gathered in the area.
“You're no fun anymore,” he lamented, sighing softly to accentuate his point. “Playing with an overly serious tight-ass kid is so boring. I'll kill you, I'll kill you, you just keep repeating the same threat over and over.”
“That threat is no empty threat, believe me,” Rem snapped, a soft growl trickling up from his throat to spill past his fangs and lips.
“Oh, I think is it,” Cyprien countered. “I don't know what exactly, but you felt something when I showed you the scars on my wrists. Your reaction to it, you were so scared you threw me off and scrambled to get away from me. You might have changed from the Rem I knew, but you're still very easy to read. You won't kill me. You can't kill me.”
'Fuck it all... he's right. Who the hell is he?'
Unfortunately, Rem stood silent for so long that Dirge started to worry. The dark-haired Fraccion approached his master, one hand outstretched toward the child's shoulder.
“Don't touch me,” said the Decima sharply, startling both Dirge and himself as he apparently awoke from his own thoughts. “I'll be fine. Go back to the others.”
Dirge said nothing. He simply nodded his head and went to do as he had been ordered.
“What's the matter, Rem? Starting to feel a bit under the weather?” Cyprien chided, grinning across at him, mocking him or perhaps even baiting him into something he didn't quite understand.
“As a matter of fact, I am starting to get sick of you,” Rem replied, his voice resonating with an almost eerie calm.
“Oh?” the tiger inquired further, his tail flicking through the air behind him.
“Tell you what. You're going to fight me, and if you survive, I'll make you one of my Fraccion. If you die, well, then, you were never really worth my time to begin with,” Rem continued, leaning his head from side to side until he felt two very satisfying pops.
“A duel? Sure, what the hell. I've already died once for you, but dying by your hand for once might prove to be an interesting experience. The first time you tried it, you chickened out.”
Cyprien's taunt went unanswered. Rem ignored his words, bringing one hand around to draw his zanpakutou from its sheath. As he pulled it out, droplets of dark blood decorated the floor around his feet. Streams of scarlet ran down the hilt and traversed the pale skin of his hand, staining him. The familiar feeling sent a shiver of excitement through him. He gasped softly, before fixing a feral grin on the white tiger who was to be his opponent.
'You're even starting to freak me out now,' his zan-spirit's small voice ghosted through his mind.
'Shut up.'
“What the hell? Is your sword bleeding?” Cyprien blinked, staring dumbstruck at Sangure's bloody black blade. “A period maybe?”
It was Rem's turn to laugh. Despite the situation, he found that joke to be genuinely funny.
Laine, Dirge, and Laam swiveled their gazes from their master to the tiger cub and back again, unsure of the outcome of the challenge that had been issued. Though they had every confidence that Rem could wipe the floor with Cyprien, it was never a good idea to prejudge the other warrior as the underdog. Such mistakes often ended badly.

“Why don't you come a little closer and find out?” Rem exclaimed, grinning across at his prey.
“Feeling cocky, are we? I guess I'll just have to teach you to respect me again,” Cyprien retorted, suddenly raising one arm.
In the blink of an eye, the tiger was gone, but not missed. Rem felt the air shift behind him and was just barely able to avoid a swipe from Cyprien's sharp claws as they raked through the air where his head had been only a second before. He turned his body during the dodge, swinging his blade in a horizontal arc near Cyprien's head, slinging a decent amount of blood into the other boy's eyes.
Cyprien roared, throwing his head back as he desperately tried to wipe the offensive liquid away. Rem seized his opportunity to distance them from each other once more and adjust his position into a more offensive one. Rather than allowing his foe to recover, he went for an attack of his own, lunging toward the blinded arrancar, his sword poised to strike. He grinned, hoping to disembowel him. But at the last second, Cyprien's leg came up in a round-house kick that caught Rem on the side of his head and sent him flying off to the side.
The Decima skidded along the slick floor and hit the adjacent wall with a sharp cry. Startled, he quickly sought to right himself. He ignored the pulsing pain in his head and got to his feet, tightening his grip on his sword in case a follow-up attack was coming. The world tilted a little, testing his sense of balance. He fell to the floor again.
“Fuck...” he cursed under his breath, attempting to sit up without the world and his vision spinning.
“You won't beat me by using cheap tricks like that, Rem,” Cyprien said.
The tiger didn't appear to have managed to clear the blood from his eyes very well, but he also didn't seem to be overly dependent on his sight either. Though his eyes were closed, blood trailing down his cheeks, he was facing Rem as if he had pinpointed exactly where the boy was.
Something cool trickled down the side of Rem's forehead. He knew without checking that it was his own blood. The kick had injured him more than he had first thought it had. Yet, some part of his wasn't all that surprised. If anything, it unleashed a flood of adrenaline into his small body. He laughed.
“I never said this was a fair fight,” he said, laughing all the while. “But not bad. That kick was strong. Although, more head trauma isn't what I needed.”
“That's true. You were already pretty fucked up,” Cyprien grinned, flashing his own fangs. “So, you still want to continue with this stupid test?”
“Don't ask stupid questions,” came the answer. Rem was sitting on the floor, bleeding from his head, the blood from his zanpakutou pooling on the floor around him, and then, he was gone, vanished into a sonido.
Cyprien turned his head from side to side as if listening. He moved his hands a little, waiting to feel a sudden shift in the air. He waited for any little sign that Rem was near. But his senses failed him.
The raven-haired child materialized in front of him, unleashing a horrible wailing screech. His Fraccion covered their ears, cringing visibly as the noise grated against their eardrums. Cyprien let out his own piteous wail of torment as he tried desperately to cover his ears against the assault of sound. But it was too late. He sank to his knees, crying as the screech continued inside of his skull for several moments.
Rem stood above him, a smirk gracing his lips as he contemplated his next action. His thoughts weren't of slaughtering the poor tiger. Nor of torturing him further. Seeing the other boy crying in pain had already assuaged his bruised pride. Not that he really cared for such things.
'I suppose it would be a waste not to keep him with us. He's not half bad in a fight, and he is a live wire. Besides, there is some connection between us and I do want to know what it is.'
“Sorry about that,” he said, his tone of voice betraying the fact that he didn't actually mean it. “I do hope you aren't deaf now, too.”
“God... what the hell was that...?” Cyprien groaned out, still covering his ears even after the screeching had stopped.
“That's not important right now,” Rem answered, sheathing his sword with a click. “I still don't know who you are or how you know me, but I've decided that I can tolerate you long enough to find out. Be honored, Cyprien Dylandy, as of this day, you are now a Fraccion in my service.”
A pair of red, blood-shot, quite literally with blood, sapphire eyes finally glanced upward at him, their blue depths shining with an emotion that he couldn't figure out.
“Shove it, Rem,” he snarled. “You don't deserve to be lording over me when you're bleeding from a three inch gash in your forehead.”
The young Decima laughed softly before stepping over his fallen Fraccion. He spared a whimsical glance back at Cyprien and the others.
“Help him get situated,” he left them with an order and turned around to depart.
“Wait a second, Master!” Lained called out after him. “Where are you going?”
Rem stopped, looking back once more. “I did say earlier that I was going somewhere. I'll be back later, so just take care of him for now.”
He flashed a dark smile before disappearing around a corner.
'Aren't you even going to heal that wound in your head? You're losing blood.'
'Like I care. It's not enough to threaten my life. I'll heal it as soon as I get where I'm going.'
'Where is that exactly?'
'You'll see, not that it's any of your business.'


Chapter 3 End