Empty Spaces

It took Touda two days to finally reach a breaking point.
He had been chewing on his lover's revelation, trying to fight age-old
images of a violated body, a young dragon who had loved him, who he had
loved, who had trusted him, who he had trusted and trained... and who had
walked into the enemy's camp. Keijin had been complete in his trust as
a hostage, that this was just a formality, and while Touda didn't know
what they had done to him before decapitating him, the marks on the slender
form and his own imagination had done it for him,

Rikugo was talking to Byakko when he accidentally walked into the map
room. Nothing unusual there. The tiger pulled out a scroll from the shelf,
rolling it out on the table and bent over it, apparently asking his old
teacher something and Rikugo peered over Byakko's shoulder, his finger
running over the parchment, pointing to a certain paragraph, his body close
to his lover's.

Touda's vision became blurry all of a sudden, and he blinked against
the images his mind seemed to provide him with.

...a small boy with huge red eyes and spiky white hair, staring up at
him trustingly

...a little tiger all covered in caramel sauce

...a contrite child peering at him through bangs of hair falling into
his face while a blue dragon towered over it, cooling one of his whiskers
where little tiger baby teeth had left almost invisible marks

...a large hand buried into the hair and pulling back his head, drawing
an anguished cry from the boy before he was silenced by another hand, tears
welling up in confused and terrified red eyes

...a broken and bloody body, violently abused countless times, dead
blue eyes staring up at him

Touda clutched his head in his hands when the images kept coming, images
he hadn't seen, didn't want to see, screaming voices he didn't want to
hear, had heard too many times in the past, which had accompanied him into
the darkness...

DON'T TOUCH HIM!!!

 ...and the dark void exploded, swallowing him.

°

"Don't touch him!"

Rikugo's head whipped up when he heard the terrified voice scream at
him and he felt ice cold shock set in as he looked into a pair of golden
eyes that showed no sane mind any more.

"Touda?"

For a moment he feared an attack, a strike, a lashing out, maybe even
the black fire of hell. Just for a moment.

The serpent snarled something, eyes burning with madness and whirled
around, black coat flapping behind him like large bat-like wings, aura
flaring dangerously as he fled the study.

"Touda?" Byakko asked confused at his side, and Rikugo stumbled to the
next window, seeing the shape of the large black hell serpent in the sky,
heading south.

Realization set in.

And with it came a centuries old fear.

° ° °

The upsurge of energy floored half of GensouKai's population. Some of
the older shikigami flinched when they recognized the power characteristics
and closed their eyes in dread. In GensouKai center Sohryu's head whipped
around and he stopped in mid-sentence, eyes narrowing and heart sinking
with something close to fear when he, too, realized what he was sensing.
He was up and running within the blink of an eye, only yelling at his confused
lover to head for Meifu immediately and ask questions later. Rushing into
the hallway he almost stumbled over a very determined Rikugo and a very
mystified Byakko.

"Don't tell me...?" Sohryu only asked and the other dragon nodded.

"Touda," he only said and Sohryu winced.

"Let's go."

"What's wrong with Touda, Sohryu?" Byakko asked as he accompanied the
two dragons into the garden, changing into his feline form.

"Hopefully we're wrong, kid," Sohryu growled, "but we felt this before.
Last time he was like this he flattened half of GensouKai."

Sohryu watched with dread as understanding dawned in the young God's
eyes and the tiger sped up. He exchanged a glance with Rikugo, the other
dragon's face showing a mixture of determination and horror and fear he
felt himself. Somewhere another aura joined them – obviously Suzaku had
felt it as well – the fire bird screeching with anger, as they followed
the invisible trail Touda's aura had left behind.

They had done it before, and Sohryu prayed that they would be able to
do it again.

Last time it had cost thousands of lives.

They had to stop the fury of a hell serpent. Again.

° ° °

Tsuzuki was in the middle of a game with Ryu when it happened. He had
begun the day by sleeping in, having Hisoka in his arms as he woke, a leisurely
breakfast, and then accepting the invitation for the board game. Ryu had
been in a playful mood, clearly smiling behind the mask he was forced to
wear around Hisoka. The young empath didn't know his real face and while
it hurt Tsuzuki that he had to look at the mask again, he understood.

And then the emotional tidal wave hit him. It was like getting hit with
a sledge hammer, right between the eyes, with no defenses. A shudder rippled
across his  skin as a sharp pain pierced through his skull, bringing
on the combined sensation of nausea and dizziness.

He screamed, doubling over, grabbing at his head. The screams continued
as the barrage in his mind did the same.

Tsuzuki wasn't aware that he was curled up on the floor. He hadn't felt
his impact with the table the board game had been on. He couldn't hear
the voice trying to get through to him. He saw neither Hisoka, who was
out cold from the emotional shock, nor Ryu, who was frantically trying
to calm him down.

All he was aware of was the pain; the endless pain and despair and
anger and rage and...

A spine-chilling scream of agony.

::TOUDA!::

A plea...

It was like a last surge or power, then even that was drowned.

His mind was awhirl with images he couldn't pin a name to and his body
was tingling with strange emotions. And then a block slid into place, startling
him, freezing his mind for a brief second.

Tsuzuki was out like a light when Touda finally cut off the bond, laying
limp on the floor.

° ° °

They found him at the outskirts of GensouKai. The black hell fire was
like a dark torch on the horizon, the roars of the enraged serpent clearly
audible.

"Thank goodness he's in the desert.  He's burning the land," Suzaku
hissed, "he totally lost it."

"I don't believe that," Byakko snapped back, "he's not..."

"Damn, cat, take a look. What do you think he's doing? Lighting a campfire
to roast some steaks?"

"No. But you're a little too quick with your verdict!"

"Byakko, you've seen him," Rikugo cut in, "he wasn't himself. You were
too young last time, but we were there. I was there, I felt him back then.
This is too close to it for my liking."

"Then we better get him back."

"Byakko. Your father said the same," Sohryu answered levelly, which
only earned him a growl.

"Maybe. But he wasn't the one Touda loves."

Sohryu regarded the tiger at his side silently as they neared the blazing
heat.

You're placing a lot of trust into him, little one, he thought.
I hope you won't be disillusioned.