The Promise

It was a small thing at first. 

The call was a mere ripple in the stream of time and space, a barely decipherable disturbance. But something about it resonated through the expanse of the Emptiness and Void grew curious. It stretched across the vastness of Nothing, zeroed on a location and, wrapping itself in Shadows, took in its surroundings.

Had it mattered anything to Void, it would’ve noticed the place it ended up in was a remote place far from civilization. But Void didn’t bother with such trivialities. Instead, it leaned forward to take a closer look at the one on its knees in the middle of the clearing. It was a male in his early years, clad in tattered robes and covered in tattoos, with blood spattered across his chest and tears streaming down his cheeks as he cradled a body in his arms. Flickering ribbons of faintly pulsing light traveled from his chest towards East, fragile things that seemed like they would snap at any moment. One such ribbon fluttered uselessly over the body and as Void watched, it slowly withered away into nothing, dissolving in the rain like a wisp of smoke.

Around them, Death lingered like it was reluctant to leave the still form in a flower dress and flame-colored hair even though she was long gone. It sensed Void as they were Brothers, and acknowledged it with a nod. Then Death turned its attention back to the pair before them,  reached out to gently caress the man’s cheek and then it, too, was gone.

The man raised his head and faced the skies, opened his eyes to let amber light shine out, and let out a cry of anguish and loss. It reverberated through the air, calling out for Void itself and, even after the man had no breath left, the cry went on. It was the same call Void had heard through the expanse of Emptiness.

The man was calling Void.

Compelling it.

What a… peculiar thing, Void mused. 

Fascinated, Void shed the Shadows and approached him, recognizing him as its own. The man was a being of power and sadness, cloaked in wisps of rage that licked his arms and hissed around him, unseeing and uncaring of the rain that splattered on him and soaked him to the bone. Without looking up, the man shot a wave of power at Void but it fluttered into nothing in front of it. 

Shocked, the man looked up. ”Who the fuck are you?” he asked, his voice raspy. His eyes were cold and defiant pools of pain and something darker that intrigued Void.

Void ignored his question. ”Who was she?” it asked instead, pointing at the dead woman in the man’s arms.

”She was my queen. My friend, my Lydia,” he answered with raw honesty that gave Void a chance to Look into his very being. ”She saw them coming but it made no difference. They trapped me, slaughtered her, and took my pack.”

”Ah,” Void said. ”A Banshee, then. And you… Mieczysław, are an Emissary.”

The Emissary muttered something under his breath and suddenly, a ring of fire went up around Void. ”How the hell did you know my real name,” the Emissary snarled over the hiss of flames.

Amused, Void smiled and put the flames out. ”Or, would you prefer ’Stiles’?” 

The Emissary stared at it wide-eyed and white. ”Who are you?” he asked again.

”You tell me. After all, you called out for me.”

The Emissary went still and looked straight at Void, a feat only some could accomplish and survive. ”I called out for Darkness,” he said quietly. ”I asked help but only Death came, and for Lydia of all people.” There was a strange, detached quality in his voice, power simmering under the surface.

”But I am here now,” Void said. ”What do you need?”

The Emissary’s mouth split in a feral grin. ”Revenge.”

It was nothing for Void to follow the pulsing ribbons of light and transport them to where the Emissary’s pack was held. To his credit, the Emissary barely blinked at the change of location before starting forward. He only managed a couple of steps before he gasped and swayed on his feet and then fell on his knees.

”No!” he whispered, horrified.

One of the ribbons flared and then snapped. The part still attached to the Emissary’s chest convulsed like a living thing, tugging towards the severed part but it was futile: it was gone.

”No no no no NO!” the Emissary screamed. The air around him shimmered and then burst into flames, but he didn’t seem to notice. 

Void cast a contemplating look at the compound, cataloguing the lives inside the building. One of them had been snuffed out and others’ lives were barely there still. It wouldn’t take much to take care of the situation but it felt oddly protective of the young Emissary. Perhaps it was the raw, untapped power within him or the fact that Void recognized its kin, but it wanted the Emissary to have his revenge.

Sentiment, Void thought wryly. How humane of it.

So it was decided. ”Get up,” Void said. ”I can give him back to you, but you have work to do first.”

”You can do that?” the Emissary asked, eyes feverish. ”Do you promise that?”

Void didn’t bother pointing out that promises meant nothing to an entity like it. Instead, it nodded and said, ”Yes, I promise. Now, get up.”

The Emissary pushed himself to stand up and bowed his head, taking a couple of deep breaths. Then he raised his head and looked straight at Void and, after a short moment of contemplation, opened his arms.

”Do you have any idea of what you are doing?” Void asked, intrigued.

”Actually, yes,” the Emissary said as he stepped forward and muttered a short incantation under his breath. 

Something cool slid over Void and it almost laughed. Bindings. The Emissary had used Bindings on it! Throughout the eons of its existence, no-one had ever dared such a thing and now, this…child had bound himself to Void.

”Well then,” Void said, barely containing its amusement. ”Shall we?” 

With a simple flick of the Emissary’s hand and their combined wills, the door into the building exploded inwards. The firing started a moment later but the bullets dodged them or stopped at the barrier Void had raised around them. 

The Emissary opened his mouth and their voices said, ”You took my pack. Now, I’m gonna take them back.”

In front of them, the humans pointed their puny guns at them and fired and fired, eyes wide with fear and mouths screaming words that meant nothing. Together, they advanced on them, breaking arms and necks as they passed, and enjoying every single snap of bone and groan of pain.

”It doesn’t matter how many of you are there,” they said. ”I’m gonna kill every single one of you until I find them.”

Someone tried to jump them from behind. The knife was struck on the barrier and out of politeness, Void seized the man and waited until the Emissary turned them around. 

”Really?” the Emissary asked. ”A fucking knife in the back? Isn’t that a bit too cliche even for an Argent?”

His feet dangling in the air, the man clawed at the invisible force that held him but to no avail. Their combined will squeezed and twisted him in unnatural angles until he stopped squirming and his head snapped off and his body crumpled with one final, violent twitch. 

Their mouth drew into maniacal grin as they turned around and asked, ”Who’s next?”

The answer was a deafening cacophony of bullets. 

”Don’t you get it?” their voices rang out. ”I’m here to take my pack home. I’ll burn this whole fucking place down if I have to. No matter how hard you try, YOU CAN’T KILL ME!”

Ignoring the firing around them, they started walking forward, following the frantic tugs of the frail ribbons that seemed to almost vibrate. They led from the hallway through a reinforced steel door and down a steep stairway into a dank, dark cellar. With a roar that was more pure fury than actual sound, they leveled the awaiting hunters, slamming them across the room and to the walls with a force that broke most of their bones.

For a moment, everything was silent.

”Stiles?” a rough voice coughed. ”What the hell are you doing here?”

Like dog shakes off water from his fur, the Emissary shook Void off. ”Getting you out, you idiot,” he snapped back, but his focus was on a crumpled, bloody mess on the floor in the middle of the room. He let out a wounded sound and sunk into his knees, cradling the body close like it was something precious and beautiful instead of a mauled body. 

”You promised,” he said in a low, fierce voice and raised his head. ”Now, do it!”

”Yes, I promised,” Void answered with a fond huff, reaching into the Ether and summoning the Emissary’s Mate back into the world of the living. The bond between the Emissary and his Wolf snapped back to place with a force that made him sway and under his watchful eyes, the bloody mess slowly knit itself back into the man it had been. 

And while the men clutched each other like drowning souls, Void snapped the chains holding the other Wolves, allowing them to crowd close to their Emissary. 

”Thank you,” the Emissary said. His voice was soft but it carried such passion that Void paused, considering the man.

”You’re welcome,” it said and nodded.

As it cloaked itself back in Shadows, Void lingered back, watching as the Pack advanced on the helpless old man that had been the leader of the hunter group. It had a feeling it should keep an eye on the Emissary and his Wolf. 

They had…potential.