[I]Excerpt-Descent of the King.[/i]

 "Path-Path." The walls of his room spoke, he didn't understand why the humans were so obsessed with the shiny mirrored surfaces. They were making him sick. In more than one ways. 

  He traced the frigid surface of his blade, refusing to turn around, but he had nothing to worry about really. The walls infront of him were mirrored as well anyway so the [s]specter[/s] apparition of his imagination stood annoyingly concerned infront of him.

 "Path-Path.." The apparition pressed it's hand against the glass, heh, as if it could feel. He placed his blade gently against the cabinet and turned away, ignoring the concerned stare after him. His mind could whine and continue on with the rosé colored glasses all it wanted. Such simple trickery.

 "Path-path," "My king." "What happened to Edge?" He turned away, picking up his sword once more. He couldn't stand to be without it, not anymore. 

   "Path-Path." "How long are you to repeat that, my king?" "How long are you planning to hide away?" "Hide? On the contrary my king, I think you will find that I have long since stopped hiding. Have you not seen my kingdom?" He was talking to his hallucinations now, had he gone as insane as those he infected? 

  It served to reason, that he had always been insane, only that he had managed to spread out his insanity among the lesser beings. This being the first time, his power had been contained within a sole being. As powerful as a dragon was....

   The apparition laughed, lips crooked up in a half smirk typical of that smug bastard. Pretty little dimple on his cheek, it was out of place. "Path...." The mirror spoke softly, always with that silky hurt puppy tone, like he could never do wrong, like he believed he had never done wrong, "I miss you." Liar.

  "A shame then, that he doesn't miss you." "He loves me. He loves our children." Lies. "And he obviously believes it doesn't he? Please, he knows himself, it's not the first time he's lied to himself before, it's not the first time you have either, you know." 

    He turned away from persistent dead kings, he was king now, "Perhaps you are some part that my king wanted to leave behind. A failed fail safe, in which, you haven't seen. You, my king, are dead, truly. The king of hydras has met the end of his reign and his castle lay in ruins. It is my kingdom now."

   "And your army...is contributing wonderfully to mine, if not making wonderful pets as well. I can see why you enjoyed your little harem so much. I-" "And our children?" "Taken care off, I am sure the scientists have found a place for them withi-" "Are they happy?" "How should I know?" "Well fed?" "I would not know nor care to." "Warm?" "Perhaps."

   "Are they-" "Enough, I am speaking to an apparition, less than a ghost even, leave me." He commanded, deciding it was time to end this. Such a memory was getting tiresome, he didn't need this. 

  "One last question?" The specter asked, near sheepishly and that felt...wrong. Edge was never sheepish, not after he became king. Before though, the little human had always been so naive and ignorant. Careless and unsure when he asked questions, his cheeks heated should he be reprimanded for stupid assumptions. He used to never be right about anything after all, then...

  He sighed, still refusing to face the apparition, it wasn't real. "I am entertaining a specter." He muttered to himself, rubbing his temples. Edge-the specter seemed to take that as a 'yes'. "Why are you doing this, Path path?"

 Stupid question, "Is it not obvious? I-" "Why are you doing this, path-path?" "I do not need to explain my reasons t-" "Why? Path?" "He is not here, how many times must I-" "Path-path, why won't you fight?" "Why should he-I-" "Path." The voice was soft, but commanding and wasn't that typical? The white dragon fell silent, not having to look to know that the image in the mirror was gazing over at him, hands doing one thing or another,  [s]Edge could never keep still...[/s]

  "Will you tell me why, Path?" 

    "Why?...You still have to ask?" He murmured sarcastically, then chuckled, "To be honest, I really didn't have a reason to at first. I was tired, I told you. I just finished dying and I wanted to sleep. I didn't care whatever wanted to take over, why should I? But I suppose, it starts earlier than that, eh?"

  He still didn't turn, but he slumped onto the cushion, sword at his side, "I wanted you to love me, Edgey. Nothing more, I didn't ask to be raped, I didn't ask to have children, all I wanted was for you to love me Edgey, but I suppose it all came with the package, huh? That was fine, I had a wonderful mate, and then came my beloved son. Off course you loved him more, so I wondered, what could I change so you would love me again? You said you hated the weak. Fine, I tried to be strong, but you still didn't love me enough, you wanted soft lips and a lover. Fine, I could be that too. And I believed for a while, I succeeded. And then came along Regnum and you wanted someone sexy and passionate, was I not that?" He asked with subtle sarcasm.

  "Fine, that was fine, Edgey. Let me leave, you could have your kingdom and your hydra. You would win, we both knew that, but the dragon didn't want me either. I tried to change, I followed them to your castle and I found you again and silly silly to think I missed you. So I gave you my life. And I thought that that was fine. I tried my best, I gave my best and finally I could rest...."

  "It was beautiful, Edgey....Mother was there. She was singing me back to sleep, but off course, you didn't want a dead corpse. So you had to bring me back." He closed his eyes and he was drowning in the darkness again, pulled away from the warmth into the crystal coldness of life. His lungs were filling up, everything was pushing down on him, stealing his air. Shakily, he sighed and took in a deep shuddering breath when he opened his eyes, continuing on, "Still I wasn't enough then and then I realized it Edgey. I realized what you wanted, what everyone wanted."

  "Power. Off course, how could I be so blind? When I was the sole being in your life, I was the most powerful and you wanted me. When you found something more powerful, naturally you left me for it. The dragons didn't want me because I was weak, it made sense now! And you were oh so happy with your kingdom and your army, your powerful lover framed on the wall. Even the castle you lived in was built upon your power! That was it! You were king!"

  "But off course...you didn't think that there was someone else who wanted to be happy, huh? Now look at me, look! Who has the most powerful armies now?! Who has the tallest kingdom?!" He stood and turned, sword at ready, mirror empty, "I am the most powerful! I deserve to be happy!"

   The mirror remained empty, that bastard, "What's wrong, Edgey?!" He strode towards the mirror, "Can you not stand it? Are you the one who wants me now?! Answer me, my [i]king![/i]" He growled and plunged the sword into mirror, it shattered and showered shards onto him, "What's wrong?! What's wrong?! Am I too good for you now?!" He cried out, throwing down the sword, striking the shattered wall. 

   He panted, pulling away, glaring at the wall, "You think you can make me go insane? You think you can get away with not answering me?!" He growled and then stared down at his hands. Balled up into a fist, he hadn't realized that he had been clutching glass. Letting go, he watched the blue stained shard fall to the ground, the palm of his hand stained a deep blue.

 This was wrong. He was shaking now. He wasn't supposed to bleed, this wasn't right. He stared down, past his trembling fingertips at the fallen glass shards. They twinkled up playfully at him, dipped in red and blue, leaving a mockingly beautiful trail of red and blue petals all the way out to the door. 

   Leaving his precious sword on the floor, he mindlessly followed the trail. Glass crunching underfoot. The door sliding open at his approach, wet at the bottom. It slid with a squelch, tearing red and blue all over the floor.  And suddenly, he was afraid to go through. 

  One step back turned into two, then three and  then he was stumbling back in a coward's run. This wasn't right, wrong, all wrong. He was king now, he had everything he wanted! He was happy, they should adore him! This was horribly wrong, it wasn't supposed to be like that anymore.....

  His hands burned as he pressed them against his eyes. Tears were for the weak. He was king now, he should be happy. He deserved to be happy, didn't he? 

  [I]I'm....[/i]