Atrium II
Each breath came in hallow gasps. Unwavering eyes stared at the midnight sky with a fading gleam.
'Oh dear, wheres my mind.'
A grin, growing with a painful slowness, breathetaking in an entirely grotesque form. Disproportioned canines lit up the suffocating darkness. The yellowing fangs glistened with saliva, and a crooked nose used to the stink of blood and rotting flesh flared as it screeched in agony.
"My, it seems like Im running into time."
"Running into time? Dont you mean running out?"
Mikey heard his voice slip out before he recognized it was his. The scenery was unfamiliar, yet the sense of Deja vu' was overwhelming. Dying flora , the absence of stars in this inked skies. Like one of his brothers old drawings.
"Why no, my son. Havent you heard? Were colliding with time."
"That makes no sense. How can you collide with time?" Mikey scanned the horizon, searching for the voice.
"By fighting for your life. Time kills. Havent I taught you that?"
"Adrian?" Surprise mingled with joy. The only father figure Mikey had ever known, even if slightly insane, he loved Adrian and saw him as the father he had never known.
The ragged breathing grew, climaxing to screams. Shivers were running up the boys spine as he saw the body twitch and smile at him. Smiling like there was nowhere else, he would rather be.
"Isnt he gorgeous?" He heard Adrian sigh.
"That?" Mikey crinkled his nose in disgust.
"Yes. My pet. Our pet, I should say."
"You mean..." Horror swarmed his mind," That is mine too?"
"Of course! We are pureblood my darling. Those ignorant half-bred disasters some have the nerve to call human are nothing but pets to us."
The body gave a blood-curdling scream, arching its back high off the ground
'Oh dear, wheres my mind.'
"Isn't it amazing? The thoughts these animals spurt out of their mind at the time of their doom. Im particularly interested to see Gerards pet at the time of his execution."
"Execution? What do you mean by execution?"
An irate sigh. "All those years of classes. Surely they were not wasted?"
Mikey waited in silence.
"That pet of his has run its course. Its time to give it a rest."
"Frank. Its name is Frank Anthony Iero."
"Dear god boy. You are starting to sound like your brother. Lives of the creatures mean nothing. They are gone in a breath. The fact that the thing ages like the rest of us doesn't change a thing. He has the blood of dirt running through his veins.Besides, I see it's rubbing off onto your brother."
"What does that mean? Does that mean your going to kill my brother too?" Mikey spat with venom. His blood was rushing, but underneath the anger was a deep seeded fear of losing that which he loved so much.
"Of course not. He is much too valuable. But don't think for a second that hes not dancing on the line. I know how he has treated that filth. Calling him brother. His lover, he says. Oh, I know all. Gerard Way isnt very easy to replace, but if I must..." Adrian let it trail off, and Mikeys heart skipped a beat.
"I do love you, Michael. As if you were my own son."
He smiled at that. It was very rare when Adrian mentioned anything of heartfelt emotion, besides anger. "I love you too Adrian."
"Good, good. But your brother..."
Another sigh, this one filled with great exaggeration.
"What about him?"
"Oh, dont you see how he looks at you? The disdain that used to be love before that thing came along. Id say youve been replaced."
"W-what? Gerard wouldnt do that. He loves me. He always says so."
"As you wish to believe, my son. However, I know. There will be a time that when it is your life on the line or that pet.And when it come, he will easily choose it over you, his own brother."
"No. I refuse to believe.."
But even now, doubt crept over. Imagining exchanged glances that never really happened, over-exaggerated meaning of words. Paranoia swept through and at this moment he wanted nothing more than to kill Frank Iero.
"I see its gotten through now. Dont you see why it must be executed?"
"Yes Adrian."
"Good, very good. So I understand that you will see to it?"
"Yes Adrian."
"Excellent. Send Atrium One to Vanity Plains, if you please. Or not; you really have no choice."
Mikey raised an eyebrow as a giggle drifted through the air.
"Vanity plains, sir?" Vanity plains was known to be a gray area for the Chambers. No team has ever turned up once sent there. Dead or Alive. "The whole team?"
"Yes. I have gotten an amazing break through. You will find out on arrival. The crows will meet you there."
"Yes sir."
"Very well. Ill send you off now, Gerard is anxious about why haven't woken up yet."
"Yes Adrian. I'll tell the team where to go."
"Good. Make me proud, my boy."
Mikey clenched his fist tightly, his eyes hard and fierce.
"Yes sir."
-x-
"Did you talk to Adrian last night? " Frankie bustled around the Artillery Center, darting from pistol to grenade, then back to pistol.
"Yes." Gerard had his arms wrapped tightly around Mikey's shoulders, and the boy enjoyed the warmth and love emitting from his brother.
"I expected more anger. He was smiling and laughing. I'd actually prefer it if he'd scream and throw a fit. I.." He trailed off, eyes distant. "God knows what he has planned."
"So where did you say we were going, Mike?" Settling for a standard rifle, a .9 mm pistol and a grenade, Frank turned his full attention now.
"Adrian didn't say, he just told me to go to the crows and they'll take us from there."
Gerard glanced at his watch, and swung his own machine gun of choice around his shoulder. "We should head out." Taking lead, he pocketed a few more weapons before dissapearing behind the doors.
"Yea, time kills." Mikey muttered, trailing behind.
-x-
"What have you brought me Moro?"
Feathers ruffled in the silence. The beady eyes of a raven gleamed with slight apprehension.
"More blood?"
"More disappearances." From where Moro was, the brilliant lights of tens of colored glass gave his usually crimson feathers a strike of colors, all bouncing together. The room itself was as unique as the windows. With overstuffed seats and portraits differentiating from Van Gogh to modern painting taken off the streets of beggar artists scraping by, the room was colorful and random, always something different for the eye to catch, especially for a bird of the sky.
"Tell me, then." The voice spoke from one of the many overstuffed chairs with an air of authority and curiosity.
"From the Himalayas Mountains, Aorta Two has lost half of its team, only Ray Toro and Bob Bryar returning. Just barely though, with a mass array of head trauma and deep wounds. One almost severed his-"
"And Atrium One?" The chair squeaked as the voices owner shifted.
"Touchy." Moro sniffed.
"What was that?"
"Nothing sir! " The fowl bowed it's head in respect and twittered.
"Adrian has sent Atrium One to Vanity Plains. The mission is unknown, but four of his most loyal crows and ravens have been sent there as well. I know that this flock has been trained especially , gone from usual duties most of the time and mysteriously without punishment."
"And you? I thought you were one of the few."
"Oh I am." The bird puffed out his tiny chest, then gave a sigh. "But I do suppose he suspects something. "
"Until we know for sure, we will not deal with that. As for Vanity Plains: Atrium One is his most beloved team, why would he send them to there death?"
The raven turned out the window, where a vast expanse of fog stared back.
"Perhaps he knows something we don't. "
"Perhaps. And perhaps even better so. Follow them Moro, don't worry about the consequences. I've got a plan."
The bird lifted its blades in a shrug, then set off ,leaving his master to devise the down fall of his foe- and brother.
-x-
"Sonny, please dont leave me."
Stars had not come out in months, and now shone with fever on the battlefield. Mangled bodies, dissembled body parts, all glowed on the bloodied land.
" Im not leaving you baby." But the darkness had already started coming, eating him from the sides and closing in on him. Even now, his lungs rattled as he struggled for air.
Matt Good whimpered, and the boy didn't blame his lover. His legs were shreds, bits of bone and muscle hanging from his pelvis. Scratches tore into his side, and a tangle of intestines had spilled out. Dear God, if anything, he should be screaming now, but neither one had the fight left in them to.
Sonny Moore was not much better, his left arm missing and his heart had been torn out before his eyes. The only way he was living was from his power, which had shape-shifted the surrounding tissue to form a make-shift heart. But now it was falling to pieces, and would soon fail.
They all would.
"I love you Sonny."
He turned and faced the boy he had loved for so many years. Hair was clumped with blood and covered half of Matts face, but a fire sparked inside of him. Even with all the pain and blood, he would rather be here now, then anywhere else in the world.
" I love you too babe."
"I'm going to see you soon, right? In the afterlife?"
Sonny swallowed back a final swarm of tears, his body trembling and his throat scalding with each word he spoke.
"I wont keep you waiting."
"Okay."
Matt Good convulsed only once before his hands went limp and his eyes stared with a dim starry-eyed gaze into the sky.
"Matt?"
Silence.
"Baby?"
Sonny inched over, ignoring the snarling pain. It didnt matter now. Nothing matter. The darkness was winning, and he had given up long ago.
"Damn you Adrian." It was meant as a cry, but came out in a strangled growl. "I'll see you in hell."
And with his famous last words unheard, Sonny Moore joined his lover. Their bodes lay entwined in the night, forever lost.
A crimson raven glanced at the corpses and shuddered before flying off to meet Atrium One, the team only a hundred feet from the sight. The bird didn't slow but quickened his pace, knowing full well that this was the fate that awaited the team in Vanity Plains.