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Story
+ Angel Hunt ~ Streifen +
Future Effects
Twenty Years brings many changes...
A story collaboration between Angel Hunt and Streifen
Twightlight
[Book 03 : 06]
But Lan… and everything surrounding him, the Eclipsed is not happy for. Jenova knew, and he did nothing. Aki knows there really isn’t anything he could or would have done but it still bothers him and he still feels responsible. Maybe he could have been more discrete with Jenova, laid lower, not aroused the attention of the Angels in the first place to give them cause to seek out his race.
He smirks to himself. No, the Angels seem to think Jenova’s business is their business so it probably would not have been possible. The only way to have avoided any involvement would have been to not be involved with the Demon in the first place. He knows it’s selfish, but he wouldn’t trade his life with Jenova for anything. He couldn’t.
That didn’t mean he wouldn’t be discussing the matter with him and it would be hard, as it was very emotional and Jenova doesn’t take well to emotional discussions. At least the past couple days had given him a chance to calm down from the initial upset.
Aki’s thoughts wander and before he’s really aware of it, they have driven through the village and to the small airport. He’s assuming the Demon will meet him inside the plane since his presence is already in the area; muted, but not hidden from him in the least. The car stops and the driver rushes around the side to open the door for the Eclipsed, Aki too tired and drained to protest as he grabs his bag and slides out into the cold, snow-filled air.
Clear crimson slowly rise up to meet tired blue as the smaller man steps through the opened door to the sleek jet’s cockpit, no traces of a smile painted near pale lips while the attendant takes the bag from the Selestarri’s hand just before he has a chance to drop it. Aki stands in place near the entrance for the space of a few moments, holding the Demon’s unflinching gaze with his own before he finally drops his eyes in the slightest and turns his head away. Moving completely into the cabin as the engines begin to wind up outside, the Eclipsed is careful to keep his eyes off the leather clad man as he finds a seat to his immediate side and sits heavily down.
A single white eyebrow arches only a little as flawless eyes follow Aki’s slender frame, Jenova’s liquid words carrying just above the rapidly growing noise. “Are we …so saddened to part ways with that friend of yours that we can no longer spare words for this One at present…?”
The Eclipsed doesn’t turn his head as he speaks quietly. “You know why I am upset.” Aki stops his words as emotion threatens to rise within him. He isn't even sure he can have this conversation with Jenova civilly afterall. Full lips open to speak but he stops himself, switching to telepathy as a last ditch hope to keep himself in check.
[You knew. You knew this whole time and you never said anything. How many more are there that I don’t know about?] A soft sigh slips free of the Demon’s mouth as he leans back in the plush chair he’s seated in. Crimson eyes shift to the entrance of the plane as the attendant swiftly closes the door, his gaze lingering as the small jet begins its movement on the runway beyond.
“Yes…” Jenova answers finally without bothering to look to his side. “This One knows fully what transpires within the confines of the company I own; no matter the section…” red eyes shift to the side and narrow in the slightest. “There are… many things that they do, some of which I directly control, others I do not and not once in these years we have been coupled have you bothered to ask me of them and not once have I felt inclined to volunteer the information as I did not deem it important enough to speak aloud… ”
Aki shifts uncomfortably, looking out the window and staring at nothing as the jet begins to move down the runway. [I don’t know… maybe I figured you would tell me if something directly involving my people happened. I’m not sure why though. I think every time I have asked you previously about what you do there you have avoided giving me a direct answer so I think over the years I had simply given up since it was obvious you did not want to tell me.]
[He was tortured. Jenova he was tortured for twenty years. The entire time I was happy with you, they were ripping one of my people apart from the inside out. It’s what they would have done to me had I not had you. And it’s because of me they even knew we existed. Please just tell me you weren’t directly involved…]
But even if Jenova never gave the order, he was involved. He knew, it was his money that funded it. The same money that allows the Eclipsed to live the life he does now. Aki begins to feel sick all over again.
“I was not. It was simply something brought to my attention at the time of his taking and nothing I felt the need to bother with in one form or another. Many of the Angels’ own kind, many Demons, many humans, many species are taken in for one reason or another… that fact is beyond my control and has been for many long years. Your people are not exempt to this and it is rather foolish of you to believe that your presence near my person is the sole reason for their gained notice in the first place…” The Demon smirks.
“Your race may be content to walk through their lives with a veil over their eyes blinding them to their surroundings, but it does not save them notice by the very ones they refuse to see… it would have happened regardless or your status near my side…”
Aki scoffs slightly. [And regardless of my status by your side I still have to go to war should the Angels decide to strike out against my people. The Selestarri are no match and the more information the Angels have, the easier it will be to take us down.] He sighs. [I know you have no reason to care. They aren’t your responsibility, but I’m still part of them. I can’t deny that and I won’t. I can’t simply shut out where I came from. I may not be the entire reason but you can’t deny anything that involves you is going to perk their interest, especially if it’s a race they aren’t familiar with.]
The Eclipsed shakes his head, burying his scalp into his hands, words muffled and strained when he finally speaks aloud. “How am I supposed to feel about all this? Go on as if nothing happened when I could have very well been in his place?”
“How you are to feel is nothing this One can decide, simply know that I would not, nor will I ever again allow you to be touched by their hands…” Flawless red eyes shift over to the side in the slightest, the Demon’s expression near blank and devoid of any emotion as he continues “… I am to wonder though if you are feeling regret for the choices you have made that has brought you to me, knowing now that this place has also affected others of your race...”
The Eclipsed is silent for several long moments with his head down. “I can’t have both…” His voice is quiet. “I can’t have both you and the safety of my people intact. I think what upsets me most is that given the choice, I would still do it all over again... I would still choose you over them. In a heartbeat. That is not how it’s supposed to be and I feel terrible about it. When did I become so selfish?”
Jenova doesn’t answer immediately; instead he simply pulls his hand away from his legs, uncrossing them as he stretches glass tipped fingers out for the other man to take. Cerulean eyes slowly lift to stare at the Demon’s outstretched hand from across the small isle that separates them, unmoving for even longer before he finally pulls his own fingers free of his hair and reaches out to slide his palm against Jenova’s.
Aki rises from the plush anchored chair as the leather clad figure lifts him free and pulls him across to his front. Stepping in between the Demon’s legs, flawless eyes meet and hold the light blue that now stands before him. “It is true that you cannot have it both ways, but I do not feel it is selfish to wish for your life to be truly your own…” the white haired man says quietly. “The choices made by others, the actions taken… these are things you cannot control. Your people would have you sacrifice all that you are for their so-called greater good… but had you chosen that path, would you be satisfied with that life knowing what you know now… what you have seen, heard and done since the time of our meeting…?”
“No.” Aki shakes his head slightly. “But the want of one is not supposed to outweigh the need of many. I am… connected to resources that could potentially stop harm to them so I feel as if I have an even greater responsibility. Who I am, what I was to become only compounds it. I may still have to take that role one day despite not wanting to.”
He sighs, long ginger strands falling over his eyes as he looks away. “However, I won’t use you. I am not with you to save them. The two should never cross but they do. You can’t even imagine the guilt I would feel if the downfall of my race was helped along by those within your company using your resources and your funding. I know what happened would have happened regardless of me being with you or not, but I can’t stop feeling responsible in a way by not doing anything about it. Even though I know there is nothing I could have done.”
“If you are aware you cannot do anything about something you had no knowledge of Akio…” Jenova says as he slides a hand up to touch glass like nails just beneath the Eclipse’s chin, pulling his face back so that he’s once again staring down at the man beneath him. “Then why do you insist on wasting your time with feelings of guilt over it... hm?” Slipping his fingers away, the Demon trails them down to return them to his lap. “And if your people are so weak in structure that they cannot withstand the actions of the Angelic race, then they have been doomed long before they ever came into notice by your presence near my side…”
“We probably are, it’s only a matter of time.” The Eclipsed says blankly before laughing to himself. “I have such faith in my own people apparently. We don’t have the discipline to overcome something like the Angelic race. In that respect they have a far greater advantage. Brute force also helps. I feel like I am waiting on a time bomb, when it goes off… nothing can prepare them for that. We would simply be one more means to an end for them. I don’t even know what they wanted Lan for. They implanted foreign DNA into him. He’s no longer simply a Selestarri, there is Angelic and Elemental. They spent the whole time telling him that they had destroyed the islands, that he was the last Selestarri alive. Why would they say that if they had no intention of ever doing so?”
“This One does not doubt that they mean to eventually…” The Demon smirks, his frank words pulling a mix of emotion to Aki’s face. “Just as they mean to destroy the Demonic one when it suits them, or humans when they no longer find them useful… but meaning and doing… these are separate things Aki. They have known of you for nearly twenty years, and to date your people still remain living. There have been no armies to interrupt the obliviousness of their world, no invasions to destroy all that you know so it is obvious that the Angelic race has not, as of yet found your people useless enough to destroy completely…”
Jenova slides his hand away from Aki’s and sits back in the chair, clear red eyes holding light blue as he continues with a soft sigh. “You know as well as I from your past talks with Fuan and even the experiences of your own how that race works. They delight in breaking their targets down piece by piece… both mentally and physically and so I am sure whatever was told to the one they took, was done so with this in mind…”
“The cruelty of Angels knows no bounds. That’s the one thing I learned over the years if nothing else.” Aki sits himself on the short pile carpeted floor of the jet just in front of Jenova, resting his head on the Demon’s leather-clad knee. “But what am I supposed to do now? I know this is going on and I know you know. I can’t simply go along ignoring the fact and living in obliviousness. And if I know, how am I supposed to simply sit back and let it happen?”
Long glass tipped fingers slide over to thread into ginger strands, flawless eyes staring down at his own movements as the Demon idly plays in Aki’s hair. “The choice for it to happen or not to happen is not yours… there are many things in this world, even those I am connected to that are beyond our control…” a soft sigh slips free of pale lips and Jenova’s head falls back against the chair, his fingers never stopping their movements even as his eyes close to their surroundings. “Though if it would ease that mind of yours, this One will look in to whether there are others in the company that have been taken and used the way that one has…”
Aki lifts his head slowly, the Demon’s claws finding their way to the side of his face and he turns against the warmth of Jenova’s hand, pressing full lips to his palm. “And if there are? Would you stop them? Interrupting Angelic business would also bring their attention back to you and in turn even more attention to my race if they suspect you of trying to protect it.” He sighs. “I also don’t want you to go out of your way on a race you care nothing for simply because I do care. I won’t ask you to save the world for me.” He looks up. “You are not a resource; you are the one I love so I don’t know what to do.”
“…Tell me boy…” the Demon starts, twisting his hand around to bring the back of glass like nails to the Selestarri’s cheek, stroking lightly. “If I were to look into it despite your feelings against the usage and found there to be others… “ the movement of his fingers stills and crimson eyes narrow in the slightest. “What… exactly would you do?”
Cerulean eyes close as claws stop on his skin. “Nothing. There is nothing I could do. Which is why I am having such a hard time with this. If I made any attempt to stop it, that brings attention to both you and my race. I am also not powerful enough on my own to do anything. But I can’t just sit back and know it’s going on and let it happen. That makes me no better than the ones doing it.”
“And this, Aki…” Jenova starts as he resumes the movement of his fingers, twisting them around once again and trailing them over to long ginger strands to sweep them carefully free of cerulean blue eyes. “Would be one reason I did not volunteer my knowledge of such events to begin with… there are some things better left unsaid for the reasons you have listed, I believed this to be one of them…”
The Eclipsed smirks, blue eyes reopening and meeting flawless crimson. “Damn you for knowing me so well… Either way, my people get hurt, one just more wide scale than the other. I just wish there was a way I could help them. Informing the Oracle wouldn’t do me any good. I would assume she knows already and has the same dilemma… or just doesn’t care. Even if she did something, it’s not as if they would be accepted back into Eyrie. They would constantly be hunted on Earth. I’m not sure which is worse. My only hope is that they haven’t picked back up. Lan apparently burned the lab when he left and everyone in it.”
A light amused laugh slips free of pale lips. “Perhaps that action will have them thinking twice on future… indiscretions with your race then.” The smile on the Demon’s mouth fades and his voice drops only a little. “Though I doubt it discouraged them even in the slightest as those Angels do not learn hard lessons very quickly… if their experiences in dealings with my person has taught us anything on this matter…”
Aki stands, moving forward and straddling the Demon’s legs as he climbs into his lap. Slender fingers reach up and comb through snow white strands. “No, the harder something fights, the more they want to conquer it. You most of all. Selestarri are a stubborn lot, we would never roll over and just take it, which in turn makes us even more intriguing, I’m sure.”
Glass tipped fingers slide up along the Eclipse’s legs, taking time to explore every inch of covered skin as Jenova’s hands mark a pathway towards Aki’s slim waist. “There are many things that make your… race… intriguing to others…” a smile cracks at the corners of his mouth as tapered fingers slowly curl in white plaits, the Selestarri gripping down and pulling the Demon’s back free of the plush chair they sit in as he leans down to touch full lips to pale ones. Before Aki can complete the kiss, the leather clad figure slides his mouth just out of reach, amused red eyes meeting blue soon after. “The inability to simply… roll over as you put it, being one of them…”
Claw tips move around to Aki’s back, slipping just under the fabric of his shirt and trailing upwards, stopping just below the line of scared flesh beneath the crystal and causing the Eclipsed to arch slightly. “We also have the stupidest sense of pride, but we’re not that powerful and our magic is very incompatible with pretty much everything else out there. Lan can barely function with what they implanted in him and it’s a constant struggle. We’re kind of a weak, dead-end race as far as the Angels should be concerned. Humans shouldn’t be much better I suppose, but they don’t have any internal magic to counteract things with.”
“It does not matter to them whether a race is weak or not…” the Demon smirks as the very tips of glass like nails travel around fused flesh, each slight grazing causing Aki’s breath to hitch and his fingers to twist tighter in snow colored strands. “A shell is a shell and they will find a way to use it for their own means…” gold begins to spot light blue eyes as they slip closed before him, bringing a smile to pale lips. “…if they have managed to find a way to make their own genetics compatible with your people’s even in the slightest… then they will continue on the path towards them regardless of their structural integrity…”
“I wouldn’t call it compatible… but Lan is still alive and they kept him for a long time.” Full lips move forward, finding the Demons and they meet for a soft and slow kiss. A muscular arm slides down an around his waist, pulling the Selestarri closer until they are flush and causing a slight whimper to leave Aki’s lips. His words come out slightly breathless. “Why is it I can never manage to stay angry with you for long?”
“Too easily charmed by my modest looks, perhaps…” Jenova grins as his teasing words pull a smirk to the other man’s lips moments before he leans in again to touch his mouth just beneath Aki’s chin. Ginger hair slides free of gold spotted eyes as his head falls back, pale lips skimming down the long line of his neck as long fingers slip free of white strands and trace blinding down the warmed leather that covers the Demon’s toned chest.
Another soft whimper slides free of full lips when sharp fangs graze the outlines of a bite scar running nearly twenty years old, quiet words spoken directly against the Eclipse’s skin even as he grips down and snaps Aki’s body close to his once more. “I have found through my own research that there is very little compatible with these genetics of yours… though it seems they progressed farther during the last ten years than they bothered to let on…”
“The theory is…” Aki is interrupted as fang tips ever so slightly re-pierce his mark, causing a low moan to leave him. His eyes completely wash in gold and the air around them thickens significantly with the Selestarri’s magic. “We aren’t from this plane originally… From what I understand… things residing on Earth have either come from the Earth itself… or were created using this plane’s general laws…” His fingers move to unfasten the Demon’s leather top, fingers gliding over flawless white skin as its revealed. “Like the Valcaeriens… their magic is not compatible either with anything in this world… including us… but to a point everything from Earth is… even in the case of Angels and Demons… the theories are the same since they were made by the same creature… even if they are complete opposites that can’t technically combine…”
Pale lips linger over the bite mark for a moment longer, the Demon’s tongue sliding out to lick lightly at the small traces of red recently left from his fangs before he pulls back a little, the palms of his hands flattening against Aki’s abdomen and glass tipped fingers sliding up to lift the heavy sweater covering the other man’s frame as he moves.
“Technically… you and I should never have been able to… combine…” flawless crimson flash in the slightest as he meets the burning gold gaze above him seconds before Jenova twists his hands around to grip down on warm woven threads and rip the garment free of his body. “Yet we do this on a regular basis…” the Eclipse’s fingers find the sides of the Demon’s structured jaw just as the remnants of his sweater are tossed onto the rug of the cabin floor, yanking the larger man’s face towards him. “Where there is a will… there is always a way…” he manages just as full lips meet his for a fierce and passionate kiss.