Invictus: Part IV - Master of My Fate -

[pristineungift]

Title: Invictus
Author: pristineungift
Beta: meridian_rose - Thank you for the absolutely fabulous job you did!
Rating: Hard R
Warnings:[Spoiler (click to open)]Graphic Depictions of Violence; Sexuality; Dub-Con (Consent by Fraud); Disturbing Psychological Themes; Mentioned Incest; Voyeurism.
Characters/Pairings: Darken/Kahlan, Darken/Cara, Richard/Kahlan, Richard/Cara, Richard/Darken, Cara/Darken/Kahlan, Zedd, The Keeper, Panis Rahl, Jennsen, Denna.
Prompt/Summary: Written for dark_fest prompt “Legend of the Seeker - In 2x07 Darken's spirit is put in Richard's body at the end of the episode instead of Richard's.” A tale of two brothers with unconquerable spirits. A tale of heroes and villains. A tale of trying to be good.
Note: See the end notes for literary references. In Part II I don’t take the time to really explain the plot of 2x07. You may be confused if you aren’t familiar with it. Also, thanks to angstbunny and evilgmbethy, who have heavily influenced certain elements of this story through fic and discussion.


Part IV: Master of My Fate

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

-Invictus

Darken was dreaming of taking Kahlan in their marriage bed, Kahlan’s knuckles white as she grasped the dark wood footboard carved with the symbol of the House of Rahl, when Richard walked through the door, naked, his skin lightly dusted with the black sand of the underworld.

“Richard. How good of you to visit. It’s been so long since we’ve talked,” Darken smiled, not noticing that he smiled wider now than he ever had before he began masquerading as his brother.

He didn’t bother to stop thrusting into Kahlan.

Richard scowled, crossing his arms.

“Am I bothering you, brother?” Darken asked airily, enjoying Richard’s discomfort. His anguish.

His helplessness.

Now he knew how it felt, to see the unrelenting tidal wave of fate sweeping toward you, and being unable to do anything to stop it.

Darken concentrated, and suddenly it was no longer Kahlan but Richard grasping the footboard as Darken slammed into him, hands around the slenderer man’s hips.

The real Richard recoiled. “You’re sick.”

Darken thrust harder in retaliation, ensuring Richard would hear the slapping sound of flesh against flesh.

Richard turned his back.

Darken made sure to moan loudly when he found his release.

“What do you want?” he asked at length, allowing the imagined Richard to fade, sprawling naked on the bed.

“You’re going to seal the veil soon,” Richard answered in a monotone. It was a statement, not a question. “And once the veil is sealed, I won’t be able to reach you anymore. Not if it is the Keeper that binds us.”

“We will arrive at the Pillars of Creation within a few days, if we keep to our current pace,” Darken confirmed, affecting an unconcerned air.

He could taste Richard’s despair.

“And none of them suspect?”

Darken pursed his lips. “There was a time when Zeddicus and Cara accused me of acting odd, but my precious Kahlan defended me. After all, look at what I’ve been through. It would change any man.”

Richard flinched and Darken laughed. “Yes, the irony is rather delicious, isn’t it?”

“Kahlan, I - ” Richard hesitated, then continued. “Please. You have everything you wanted. Just. Tell me about Kahlan.”

“Gladly,” Darken set up, trailing one finger over his lips as he prepared for his final victory. “She loves me,” he began, telling Richard of his nights with her, of the way she arched under him, the way she wanted him, of the plans they made for the future.

“We will be wed after the veil is sealed. I haven’t formerly proposed yet, but there is an understanding.”

Darken watched Richard’s face, waiting for it to crumble. Waiting for the rage, the bitterness, the pain - the realization that it was Darken now who had everything Richard had ever wanted.

They had truly traded places at last.

Richard wept a single tear, and Darken memorized the sight, thinking at last, finally, he would feel content, complete, the void in his spirit filled, the sting of old wounds on the soul drawn by the balm of Richard’s destruction.

But then Richard shook his head. “She doesn’t love you. Don’t you understand? She loves me, and she’ll only love you as long as you keep acting like me.”

Darken stood, red robes appearing around him as he moved. “Words, brother. Nothing but words. I am the one she’s going to marry, I’m the one whose children she’ll bear. I am the hero who will save the world. I am the one they’ll all remember!”

Darken stopped inches from Richard, so close that if spirits breathed he would feel his brother’s breath on his face.

“You’re wrong. One day, she’ll realize that you aren’t me. And she’ll know that it’s all been a lie. And she’ll feel betrayed. She won’t love you.” Richard met Darken’s eyes and laid his hand on Darken’s velvet clad shoulder, and he had the audacity to sound sorry.

As if Darken was the one who lost the war between them, the war that both had been fighting since before they knew the other existed.

Darken slapped Richard’s hand away, his rage building by the second. How dare he! How dare Richard try to take this from him too! This was his vengeance. This was his triumph. He had beaten insurmountable odds, done the impossible, proved that he was master of his fate!

Who else could say they were born a tyrant and died a champion? Who else could say they had escaped the Keeper?

But Richard, his brother, he couldn’t let him have this, couldn’t even do him the courtesy of being cruel.

Cruel words were easily dismissed.

Richard Rahl wept, and somehow Darken felt that the tears weren’t for himself, and he hated him for it.

-l-
The Pillars of Creation were on the edge of the ocean. Darken stood, listening to the sound of the waves crashing on the sand.

Closing his eyes, he promised himself he would be good. He would be good, and one day he would rule D’Hara again, one day he would find his sister, one day he would hold a daughter in his arms, one day he would have a family, and then he would throw all the swords and armies and brothers and fathers and truth and doubts and darkness into the sea.

The veil was sealed.

He was a hero.

Anything was possible now. He had won. He could have a happy ending.

“What are you thinking?” Kahlan asked, coming forward to put her hand on his arm.

“About all of this. Everything that’s happened,” Darken answered in Richard’s voice.

“You’ve been different, lately,” Kahlan stepped in front of him, looking up into his face. He pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear.

“We’ve all been different lately,” was all he said.

Kahlan reached up, tweaking the ends of his goatee as she was wont to do when she was trying to cheer him up. “If there’s something bothering you, you can tell me.”

Meeting her eyes, Darken asked, “Kahlan, do you love me?”

She laughed, bright and loud, and it lifted his spirit. “Of course I love you. I’ll always love you, Richard.”

I’ll always love you, Richard.

Darken grit his teeth, his last conversation with his brother echoing through his head.

Kahlan wrapped her arms around his waist, and he returned the embrace, his victory of the moment before turned to ashes.

What was the point of being good, if no one recognized him for it? If the world ever discovered he was not really the Seeker, would any of his deeds since his return to the realm of the living matter, or would the tarnished brush of his old fate touch him even in this new life?

If Richard was right, saving the world wouldn’t redeem him. Dozens of little moments of happiness with Kahlan, with Zedd, and even with Cara would leave no mark.

He was condemned to be the darkness in the night, trapped in the role assigned him, though he had never sought it.

If they wanted a monster, he could give them one. He could reconquer D’Hara, pick up his old knife. He’d kill and rape and plunder, and save Kahlan for last, let her watch it all and think he was Richard, think it was her precious who became the thing she despised. Let her watch him fuck Cara, and Jennsen, and Walter in their marriage bed. Let her see him slice open Dennee’s throat, knowing that ‘Richard’ was worse than Darken Rahl, because Richard had a choice. Richard had all the choices.

Darken had had none.

Let her watch him bathe in her sister’s blood, since only evil seemed to leave a lasting impression.

Why shouldn’t he play the part he was cast in, and play it to the hilt? Why not start now - go to the nearest D’Haran outpost, and proclaim himself Lord Rahl, slaughtering any who would deny him?

Why not make Richard Rahl as reviled as he was once loved, and twice as vicious as his infamously wicked elder brother?

Zedd’s voice calling them to dinner interrupted Darken’s violent thoughts, punctuated by Kahlan’s laugh as the wizard went on to tease them about their romance.

The romance that wasn’t really his.

Why shouldn’t he take his dagger and cut out Kahlan’s heart and leave it gushing blood on the steps of the Pillars of Creation?

After all, it was the only way he could really, truly, have her heart.

He rested his hand on his knife. If he did it quickly, she would be too shocked to struggle. Too shocked to fight back. It would be done before Zedd and Cara could intervene, and then he’d kill them too. His magic was greater, his swordsmanship enhanced by the power of the Sword of Truth.

But he was tired.

Tired of being a monster, tired of paying for his sins. Tired of the flames of the underworld licking over his skin.

Tired of the weight dragging at his soul.

Darken followed Kahlan to the campfire where Zedd cooked while Cara gathered driftwood to feed the flames.

He hoped the wizard had made rabbit stew.



Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | End Notes
_______________________________________________________________________________
Thank you for reading! I may write more in this universe if there is interest. This particular incarnation of Darken Rahl has a lot more to say in my head. Feel free to comment, con-crit (as in give me examples of how to improve what’s wrong, not simply tell me you don’t like it) welcome.


ENDNOTES

Literary and Pop Culture References
1. The poem Invictus is an old Victorian poem without an attributable author. ‘Invictus’ is Latin for ‘Unconquerable’.

2. “Having spent time in hell, he longed for heaven” is a reference to Paradise Lost. I’m drawing a parallel between Darken Rahl and Lucifer.

3. “Darken was born beneath a red star” is another reference to Lucifer. The anti-christ will supposedly be born beneath a red star. A red star is also generally considered an ill omen in many cultures/religions.

4. Darken being fed cherries is a reference to the character of Azula in Avatar: The Last Airbender. They’re very similar characters, so it amused me to connect them in some small way.

Interpretation of Canon
1. Kahlan being unable to read Darken-in-Richard's-Body: In ‘Extinction’ the reason they send for Renn is because Darken’s spirit is immune to Confessor magic. It’s also part of my head canon that Darken would be unreadable, or at least difficult to read because he would have undergone the same training as the Mord’Sith up until the point of the final transformative magic that would make him capable of the breath of life. At the very least, we never see a Confessor obviously read him on screen.

2. Darken is the Seeker because he's in Richard's Body: In 2x07 and again in 2x19, we are told about the blood/body v. spirit dichotomy when it comes to power. Confessor magic  (and consequently, the potion that makes DR immune to Confessor magic since it is made of Confessor han) is a magic attached to the spirit. So a Confessor who dies and is brought back in another body, like Dennee, is still a Confessor. (And someone who has taken the immunity potion like Darken is still immune if they come back.)

But Rahl magic is a magic vested in the blood/body. So a Rahl that dies and is brought back in another body, like DR coming back in Walter’s body, no longer has their Rahl magic. On the other hand, whatever spirit is occupying the Rahl’s original body has the Rahl magic - it doesn’t matter who the ‘tenant’ is so to speak, so long as the body is alive and occupied by -any- spirit, the Rahl magic is intact. Thus, Denna’s plan to put the soldier she trained in Richard’s body.

So, I knew that DR being in Richard’s body meant he would have the Rahl magic and the war wizard han, because Rahl magic is attached to the body. But I then had to think - what makes the Seeker the Seeker? And I knew that this story wouldn’t work if it was obvious off the bat that Darken wasn’t really Richard, like not being able to use the compass or read The Book of Counted Shadows.

And then I got to thinking - Leo says that they knew someone in his -bloodline- would be the Seeker, they just didn’t know which generation etc. So what if being the Seeker is also a matter of bloodlines? That would explain why Zedd could name himself Seeker in ‘Wizard’, and why Leo’s family knew one of their bloodline would be Seeker one day. So maybe Seekerness is also attached to the blood, and it happens to flow in the Zorander part of Richard’s heritage, and probably Leo is a distant cousin or something and they’re both descended from the Seeker from three thousand years ago in that one flashback episode.

So that would mean that Richard’s Seekerness is also vested in his body, and that Darken (or whatever other spirit that got the body) would also get the Seekerness - which neatly fixed my story problem of them figuring out he’s not Richard because of not being able to do Seekery things.