Flash Backs and Nightmares (Yamm)

The sweet smell of the sea rolled up and crashed into Salone like a wave. It had been so long since she had last been on the shores of California. When was the last time she was here? The creature on the beach couldn’t remember.

“One hundred and twenty-four days,” A cool voice responded and Salone’s dark head whipped around, the woman in gold.

“You,” Salone growled. “Stay away from me.”

“Can’t really do that.”

“Then shut it!”

Salone turned her back to the woman in gold and looked back over the ocean, tugging on a dark strand of hair as she did so. The hair color change was because she was being hunted, it was now a dark brown with random strands of her original dirty blonde hair. Why was she here? It felt as if something had been luring her to this spot for the last month or so. Out of habit, Salone rubbed the pendant around her neck and sighed, looking up at the night sky.

The water seemed to be calling her… taking a few steps forward Salone stuck her hand in the water. It was warm on her skin. What harm could a little swim do, it’s not like she was skinny dipping. After kicking off her shoes, socks, and pants (exposing spandex) Salone hit the water.

He slunk throughout the grotto, a roar bellowing from his stomach. He had refused to eat, not a single piece of meat had touched his lips in twenty seven days. He gimped, twitched and crawled over the mounds of gold, smearing black blood with an intoxicating scent across the glittering currency. He reached his blades and forced himself to stand. Unlike his previous form Yamm was now an entirely different entity, standing only about 5'8" or so with tanned skin and ashen black hair. His abdomen was torn, shredded as if one had taken a cheese grater wand lemon juice to it. The tips of his fourth and fifth rib could be seen as an ivory glow from the chunks of dusky and unhealthy looking "meat" that was exposed muscle.
 
  His left arm was still missing, his eye was missing and his tongue was missing. His battle against Sin was hard fought, but in the end...it was not Yamm who prevailed. It was Matthew. His newest incarnation was a brilliant thing to be sure, had it not been for Matthew and Alexander, Yamm would have fallen victim to the same corruption that usurped Shi oh so many centauries ago. Yamm stopped, frozen as he began to think and calm himself.
 
  He was doing it again. Acting as if he and Matthew were different people. They were not. Yamm was simply Matthew with divinity, nothing had changed. Yet somehow...everything had. He looked to the blades he had dug into the horde, and then he looked to the peaceful body upon the majestic stone slabs. The Samurai of Death. Ryurou Shi lay there, his father lay there. Sin had once corrupted Shi and turned him from the Spirit of Rain to the Spirit of Death, and in the end Sin hoped to taunt Shi by taking Matthew... and in order to protect Matthew he sacrificed his own mortal existence. Were that not enough, Sin proceeded to pull the spirit into the Jar of Pandora, trapping the Death spirit Eternally for a fate far worse than a simple fading away.
 
   Matthew was alone. No one could find him, knew where he was. Liekly Alex was looking frantically for him....but the chances of success were low. Even for his apprentice. He dropped onto the gold pile and rolled down it limply as he then rested upon stone within shallow waters of his underwater grotto. He sighed as his eyes closed. Once again...hope I die...for the last time...

Floating on her back, Salone looked at the night sky. Balls of gas lit up the night time sky giving everything an unearthly glow. The Golden Woman swam lazily close by, eyes half closed as well. The Time Collector felt her muscles shift as her body changed to better match her environment. Opening her eyes, Salone discovered she had scales running up her arms, legs, and torso.

“Looks like… I’m turning into a fish,” Salone mused just as the woman in gold sat bolt upright on the water like some biblical figure. “You know… for someone who doesn’t exist. You make a heck of a lot of noise.”

“Shh!” Her eyes flashed gold. “Something is wrong. This way.”

The Golden Woman vanished under the water.
Salone rolled her eyes and followed. The transformation into the gold water dragon was relatively simple and painless. Swimming as a dragon was more of a twisting motion rather than actual paddle swimming movements. After several minutes of swimming they came upon a cave or rather an under water grotto. The gold dragon hauled herself in and looked around before shifting into a human.
“What did- oh my gosh.”

There was a prone figure, lying in a small puddle of water. The person (who was most likely not human) looked mauled, severely tortured, and beaten. Instantly Salone’s mothering and nursing instincts kicked in as she went to investigate. There was no way a person could survive like this, missing a limb, looking like he had been through the meat shredder.

“He’s alive,” The woman in gold whispered as the creature moved.

“He is,” Salone breathed moving forward, crouching down. She picked up his wrist, checking for his pulse… it was weak and very faint.

“Hey!” Salone said very loudly, “Stay with me.”
Her dark hair fell forward, framing her face.

How was he to know that someone was coming? He heard whispers form his divinity, but mostly they were in a voice he once knew. A voice he once cherished. The only mortal, human voice that could call out and the Dragon King would heed it as if it were Vocifery in motion. His head moved up, the face was human, though the body itself was mutilated to that of nightmarish variety. Like Lovecraftian horror decided to make love to Resident Evil's Nemesis. He trembled, thinking maybe his wish had been granted by the fate's. He looked and saw a familiar face.

"Sarone..." he whispered, the name coming out slightly clear, though slurred without a tongue to formulate words. He moved his arm in front of him. There was a primal rage within him, a rage at Salone. Where was she? Where had she gone? Where did she take Hanna? His brilliant blue eyes turned red as black blood seeped into the waters. She denied him when he was Sean.... he came to her. HE CAME TO HER and she didn't respond, she threatened. He needed her against Sin, and where was she!?

He cried out for her, he cried over her. Matthew spend nights laying awake thinking of her. His eyes moistened, and trails of black blood trailed down his cheek from his one functioning eye. His heart did not flutter, his fire did not rekindle. He was left cold, abandoned. And though he was here...with Salone and Alenya... he was alone... and now he knew that he always had been. He fought to stand.

His mangled body stood as he glared at her, an unamused expression on his face.

Salone stiffened and looked up at the Woman in Gold.

He said my name… Do I know him? Then at that very moment the medallion grew hot against her skin, glowing wildly and pulsing. Then she knew who it was.

Yamm.

“Oh my… Yamm?” She felt her eyes grow hot with unshed tears as he struggled to his feet, showing the amount of damage done. Salone felt she ought to move forward and help him, but the woman could only stare. “You’re alive?”

Salone knew he was supposed to be coming back… but she had no idea when…

The more she spoke the quieter her voice got. She was suddenly aware of the rage rolling off him and she felt very small. “You’re mad… furious with me… I don’t know what exactly I did. I would ask you to forgive me but I won’t. Just know that I am sorry and we can talk about it later. But first, please let me help you. You are going to die if you stay here and I can’t let you do that, not to Hanna… not again… “

Her voice cracked when she said Hanna’s name hinting that there was a bigger problem than Yamm being mad at her. A problem that had sucked up all of her usual fire otherwise she would have pestered Jake to no end in an attempt to figure out what had happened.

In an even quieter voice, Salone asked, “Please?”

Salone’s recent adventures had left her scarred, a new one on her arm, another one on her back, and the last one ran along her jaw line. She also looked exhausted, bruises under her eyes, and seeming overall worn down.

The woman in gold watched on quietly as the proud dragon glared at the Time Collector.

Hanna? She had the audacity to mention Hanna to him!? The waters rose, the sin (black, addictive blood) from within it floated in the air as if he gravity no longer held effect. His teeth were grinding together as they turned into fangs. He shot forward and placed his hand on the corpse of Shi's mortal vessel. The body illuminated and a bright blue lights began to trail around him, as if he were an atom as the body quickly dematerialized. Matthew opened his mouth and inhaled the energy his father's corpse had become, and with him assimilated all of his memories, tactics and knowledge. His body immediately healed itself. The hunger was unending for the Father of Leviathans, thought the cannibalism of his father's vessel allowing him to reform his own body perfectly. Tongue, eye, arm and all.

"Help me? You're a little late for that sweetheart. ?Besides... what could a GOD be helped with by a creature like you? Oh wait.... the time collector is an atheist. She doesn't believe in the very thing that gave her a child. THEN she has the gull to come to MY lair and say how I can't die on Hanna again. I had truly forgotten how vain humans were, how self-important they are to themselves. Don't think you're out of the clearing either Alenya!" He snapped as he looked directly at the woman in gold, sharpened canines exposed as he smiled and crossed his arms.

The woman couldn’t help but jump as Yamm suddenly exploded, she had been expecting it but the act of cannibalism was a little shocking. Luckily for Salone she was very good at hiding her surprise. However a flicker of emotion crossed her face when he said the Woman’s in Gold actual name… Alenya.

“You’re Alenya?” Salone asked quietly, from behind the raging Yamm. Her reaction to the name was all Salone needed before she sighed again, tiredly.
“Yamm.”

He ignored her.

“JAKE!” Salone finally raised her voice, for the first time in a while. After catching his attention her voice lowered down to its usual quiet octave. “We have an actual problem besides you being furious with us.”

She exchanged looks with Alenya.

“It’s Hanna. She has it and she’s dying. Our daughter is dying. “

Pausing for a few seconds Salone continued, “Look, I would like to go see my daughter for the first time in four months. So I’m sorry for whatever I did. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help. I am sorry that I was human and am still flawed. I-I am sorry I am not her.” Salone’s jaw worked furiously for a few seconds before she made up her mind. “I am going to go see Hanna; you can come if you want. Afterwards, maybe you can tell me what happened and we’ll see what we can do from there.”

Salone closed her eyes as the scales began to slide up and over her skin. Opening them again, she was once more the gold sea dragon as she made her way to the opening and vanishing under the water.

"My name...is Matthew..." He said, obviously irritated, interrupting her whole little speech after she called him Jake. His eyes narrowed at her as she went on. [color:edae=#dodgerblue]"I don't think you get it... I. AM. A GOD. I know she's sick, I know she's dying. News flash to you my dear, sweet Salone. I can raise the dead! I can go into the netherealms and retrieve the lost and the damned!" He said before shaking his head at her. She truly didn't understand anymore, did she? Did she ever understand, or did he just want to believe that she did? Was it Yamm who conformed to Salone's people, or Salone that conformed to his?

"This has nothing to do with her Salone..." Matthew said before looking at Alenya and scowling. "This is about you. It's always been about you... I defied death...I broke the natural order... for YOU. And you denied me when I came to you...and you weren't there when Sin claimed my soul." Yamm said he thrust his hand out and the clawed hand, infused with the power of Origin energy. The energy interacted with Alenya, piercing her chest cavity gasping an audible gasp and the struggling to breathe as his hand ripped it from her. Alenya fell, turning to a bright energy just as Shi before had, and she faded away.

"You don't even know who you ARE... I love Hanna, more than the next breath I take. I will throw this world to ruin, before I'd let anything happen to her... but to you?" He asked as he stepped forward, she was beginning to walk away. He rolled his eyes and instantly apported himself to wherever in the world Hanna was. He would appear in her line of sight, likely looking much better than the last time she saw him. He would look and smile sweetly to her, try to put a comforting hand on her head.

"How's my girl?" He'd ask, not a hint of anything to come.

Hanna was sleeping; her arm tucked under her pillow, flopped on her side and her blonde hair a mess. Dragon was snoring at the foot of her bed, sleeping on his back with his feet in the air, nose twitching. Katrina was in the kitchen with William and Penny, leaving Hanna pretty much alone. Every time Hanna flexed her arm in her sleep a thin layer of scales emerged, a silvery blue color, before sinking back below her skin. The appearance of Yamm did not wake her rather the touching did.

“Hmn?” She asked, stretching and booting Dragon off the bed. “Matty, what are you doing here?”

Her question was penetrated by a yawn and a hiss of pain as the little dragon settled back onto her pillows. “Sorry, I forgot you don’t like being called Matty… “

Hanna ran her fingers over her face. Waiting as her eyes adjusted to being awake and the dim light.

“What are you wearing? Is it Halloween already and I forgot again?” Hanna eyed the oriental get up with her unnaturally blue eyes, identical to the color of Yamm’s.

"It's fine. Your mom is coming to talk to you about your sickness. I'm waiting here because she wants to talk to you..." Matt said. She had no recollection of the events with Sin, where he almost killed her. Of course she wouldn't... she wasn't there. She was targeted and would have been killed, and never had known she was in danger. Matt sighed, his eyes glowing in their traditional Yamm format.

"Hanna...just remember that... Yamm loves you. You just need to find him...and he can make you better." Matt said as he smiled and nodded, going to step out of the room. He waved good-bye to her, this was the last he was going to see her. Maybe forever. But the bottom line was that this realm was a realm he resided in. He governed over stronger, and he was stronger. Salone would listen to his words. If she was smart, she would heed them. If not...then what happened was beyond his control.

Matthew closed his eyes and his telepathy reached out to Salone. You time collectors ARE a slow bunch aren't you? Well I'm already here with Hanna, waiting for you. Now listen to me very carefully. We talk when you get here. Not after you see Hanna. Before. I'm in your mind...don't lie to me. I will know. He warned her. He had never been this cross with her before. It meant that this was important, and failure to see and talk to him before she saw Hanna would not likely end well for her. He would never do anything to hurt Hanna. Salone on the other hand? He wasn't sure. He loved her... but the question now was....is that just past tense, or future tense as well?

“Mom?” Hanna repeated the word as if it where foreign, “My mother has been missing for almost four months. What do you know about her disappearance?”

Then her father’s name got dragged into it and her eyebrows shot up, in danger of vanishing into her hairline. “Mathew… what do you know?”
But he was gone.

Penny was lifting a cup to her lips when she saw Yamm enter the hall. Her eyes darted all over, reading him almost like a book. The woman with a photographic memory smiled slightly and raising a hand in greeting.

“I was wondering when you were going to show up again,” the doctor jerked her head towards the back door. A figure stood there with windswept blonde hair, her face properly illuminated to show the scar on her jaw line and the bruising to her left cheek. She was talking to a larger much more masculine version of herself. William. Her twin was arguing, or trying to; Salone was having none of it.

“William,” She said sternly. “I can’t tell you. The less you know, the safer you will be.”


Katrina sighed and her flat silver eyes landed on the dragon, “We have company.” She said in her smooth tones and she watched as Salone turned around to look at Yamm.

“Yamm,” Salone grin crookedly, hiding the amount of hurt she was feeling at being yelled at earlier. “Hasn’t anyone told you a Time Collector are not slow, we arrive precisely when we mean to.”

Katrina settled down in her chair, disappointed that the argument would not continue. Penny went back to her meal and William looked positively frustrated with his little sister.

“This way,” Salone motioned to the back door. Wings erupted from her shoulder blades as she prepared to meet him on the roof.

"Good to see you too Penny! I'd hug ya, but I've got time collector to put in it's place." He said, his eyes not their serene blue as they normally were, the pupils had become draconian like slits as was customary of an angry dragon in mortal form. He would await her, as he did, his divinity granting him the power to hear those around him, total third person perspective of the world around him. As an Old God, he was superior, he was better... and no half-baked time collector was going to one-up him. It was not a matter of pride...it was a matter of the pecking order.

Yamm teleported himself to the roof, perhaps an attempt to display his omniscience, omnipresence, whatever he was attempting to display. Either way, he was already where she wanted him to be on the roof. She said that cute little thin about time collectors showing up right when they needed to. "That's a Grim reaper...not a time collector. Time collectors are freaks created by chance." He said, stating the fact, not with malice, but with precision. This woman... she was his hope, and she was gone. It was too bad she wasn't there to watch Shi get killed, or his grandson. His heart broke, especially when Sin asked... Where's your precious Salone now? The worst part? He didn't know... she wasn't there. He called out to her with the amulet... he SAVED Hanna, when even she didn't know him.

"I want to establish something..." Yamm said as he sighed as he folded his arms. "I am here for Hanna...because I love our daughter. If you ever...walk away from me, or disrespect me like you did back in the cavern.... I will kill you. By my right as your king... and by my right as an Old God." He said quite clearly. No hatred or animosity in his voice, he had totally and entirely calmed down. "Yeah...I know you must hate me... but I've only said words to you.... imagine if I weren't there for you... Imagine if I didn't try to help you when you were dying....You vanished and I had no one... no friends... just enemies who wanted to kill OUR daughter... I know you don't know who Sin is...but he almost killed Hanna...Artemis hasn't been seen since Sin was here..."

"...I didn't even know where you were. I don't expect you to tell me... But don't play me for a fool... I knew Hanna would have your sickness...before she was even conceived. I don't care if you never see me again or want to. I don't care if you hate me. But don't ever question my love for Hanna, and don't ever walk away from me like you did." Matt said before stepping back, waiting for her to make the next move,

The Salone on the roof watched Yamm do his angry spill of a speech and her eyes shifted color from brown to blue and back, she was trying to give him hints. Hints that he was not getting, Salone sighed and gave him a sad, sad smile.

Slowly, the Salone on the roof moved forward and hugged Yamm tightly, eyes fixed on a spot over his shoulder.

“She wants you to forgive her for not being there,” Salone said quietly, the caramel colored wings hiding them from view. “She is here in Cali but she can’t come home just yet. The only explanation I can offer is the hunter became the hunted. The past became the present. Yamm… I hate to alarm you but we are being watched. But you probably knew that didn’t you? Demons have a very particular stench.”

Indeed, strange creatures were lurking below. Each with a different look some had many arms, legs, heads, and several different sets of fangs. The only thing keeping them from attacking the house was Yamm and Salone… or rather Zoe.

“I think we’ve got 30 seconds till they realize we have fooled them,” Zoe backed up carefully, running her tongue over her teeth. “I suggest you make the most of it.”

Fangs dropped from the roof of her mouth, quite similar to those of a snake. The Arae flexed and her disguise melted away, showing gingery hair and bright blue eyes. Zoe jumped off the building and into the tall grass, her eyes narrowing as she looked at the farm land around them. Bad place to be hunting a Demon hunter, mostly grass and not enough hiding spots. Zoe trusted Yamm could handle himself; he was much older and much more powerful than she was. Even if this was her area of expertise, Yamm would still trounce all over the scouts… He would probably have half a mind to rip her limb from limb when they were done here. But Zoe was to focus on the task at hand.

With that, she moved forward to dispatch one of the demon scouts. Cleanly tearing into its flesh.

"Why are your eyes?" He asked, then in his rage he forced himself into "Salones" mind, reading every detail he could find. Last time he checked Salone wasn't a demon. He rolled his eyes. "Oh you've got to be F(@#!ing kidding." He groaned as he rolled his eyes. She would tell him what he already knew. Sure he knew that demons were around, but not exactly that they were watching them. She said about having 30 seconds to make the most of it. "30 seconds? Daaaaayum their stupid." He said as he was beside Zoe, and then suddenly...he wasn't.

He apported himself between two demons a hand reaching out, and just as he did with his father's vessel, he would devour this demon whole, gaining all the knowledge and information regarding the situation that was transpiring, such as who these demons were, who commanded them or sent them, and why they were here. He also infus3ed his hands with the power of Origin, and as his hand touched the other demon the demon's eyes, ears, mouth and just about any other orifice would exude a bright flashing quintessence light before dropping, dead, hollowed and it's essence totally erased form existence.

Anything else was icing on the cake, as anything he got his hands on, the same thing would happen, and to make matters even BETTER with his quintessence conjuration he summoned forth his sword and was ready to slice and dice. Nothing here was of a particular issue, but when he was done stomping this maggots you can bet he had a few questions for the lovely miss Zoe.

Salone was watching Yamm and Zoe handle the creatures, circling overhead. Her eyes were watching the battle below while her senses where straining and watching the demons. There was one demon not like the other demons that was bearing down on Zoe. It was like watching a slow motion as the double barbed tail sank into the other demon’s flesh.
That was it, a sharp streaking whistle filled the air and just as Zoe hit the ground, Salone came smashing into the scorpion like creature and sinking both of her knives down into the soft underbelly of Zoe’s killer. Retching them out of the squirming and dying creature, Salone threw a knife with superb accuracy and nailed the demon that was about to come against Yamm in between the eyes. She wondered for a fraction of a second what she looked like to him. The scarring on the left side of her face was worse than the dark cave had let on; it traveled up to her hairline and down to her chin like she had been clawed by some beast, freezing most of the muscle on her face. Her wings had multiple streaks of color, silver, gold, white, grey, and a few dark red feathers.

She tried to smile but it only came out a grimace as only half of her face worked. Then Salone turned away from Yamm and stepped off of the dead scorpion creature and moved over to Zoe. Squatting down, she checked her friend’s pulse. Nothing.

“Ah,” Salone made a gasp like pain filled noise as she rocked back onto her heels. Zoe was dead.”Goodbye my friend, thank you so much.”

Slowly, she stood, stowing her knives away in her boot before turning to Yamm.

“Hello-“

“Mom?!”

Salone turned just in time to have Hanna collide with her, engulfing her in a hug. Salone rested her cheek on her daughter’s head before holding a hand out to Yamm and hauling him into the hug, even if he didn’t want to participate. He had no option unless he wanted to be starved of cupcakes.

“What happened to your face?” Hanna asked, backing up to get a proper look at her.

“Right for the throat,” Salone sighed, chuckling darkly. Hanna noticed Zoe’s body lying in the grass and she covered her mouth. Salone moved quickly, pulling her daughter into another hug to hide her face.

“Let’s go inside, I’ll explain as much as I can.”