He moved from shadow to shadow across the rooftops of the city, crisscrossing over streets, his eyes wary for any sign of trouble while his head twitching this way and that as he muttered and argued with himself. His voice was soft and strained with a sliver of guilt lodged in his heart, for he'd meted out justice of a kind again tonight.
It had been while he was wandering through the run-down slum districts at the outer edge of the city, known as old town. He’d had trouble here before, many times as the scum who inhabited it were little better than animals, and at least animals worked together in a herd instead of ripping each other apart just so that they could gain some perceived upper hand for a moment before another’s blade changed the balance of power once again. Down here he’d given up the notion of fair play or even of given them a chance for redemption, they didn’t deserve it.
He'd found the group down one of the alleys near Old Town, the bodies of three women lay at their feet, used and bloody with their throats cut. The last one was bruised and bleeding, coughing and begging as the gang surrounded her. He could already tell that her wounds were fatal, black blood was gently flowing from her lips. He lowered himself near the end of the alley where a sentry for the gang stood, itching from one foot to the other as he felt disgruntled at being left out of the fun. The taste of those surface emotions had made the Nightlander’s lips curl into a hollow smile as he’d reached out from the darkness and grabbed the man. The shadows around him reached in and muffled the screams of the man as he went in close, eyes glowing brightly. His arms reached out, carefully applying pressure till the mans limbs were broken, shattering the bones at the knees and elbows with jabs and kicks. After letting the mans crumpled body fall he half closed his eyes and focused his thoughts on expanding the darkness around him till it was creeping along the alley, slowly blocking out the light from the sky and lights above. The other four members of this sordid group seemed a little shook up by the sudden change, rumours and stories of Old Town coming swiftly to mind. Their fears were quashed by the large man bearing down on the dying girl, knife in hand who barked at them to quit being babies. He died first. His thin curved blades of midnight hue ripping through his back to burst through his chest before withdrawing as he reversed them to remove his head, his expression of shock still ingrained as it toppled from his crumpling corpse.
The others stared for a moment before turning to run. They barely got a few feet before he was upon them, breaking bones and crushing bodies as he slaughtered them. Their whimpering cries and plea’s for him to spare their lives fell on deaf ears. He often wondered why they begged him, for surely they must know that their actions deserve retribution and that the path they have taken has simply led up to this moment? Once his work was finished and none remained standing he knelt by the body of the girls, carefully closing their eyes.
”You didn’t have to kill them.” A voice had whispered, it was unusually jovial given the scene, but then the pale skinned girl had little to fear. She stood shorter than he did, but to him she seemed to be ten foot tall. Her smile was warm but her eyes seemed to be disappointed.
”Hello, I’d hoped to be gone before you arrived.””You know for a fact that I’m always here, so that is a lie Mal.”He shrugged and walked over to the corpses of the gang-members and began to carefully saw their heads from their bodies. He would leave them as a reminder to the gang that he hunted them now, and that he would make them suffer.
”So what do you want?” He grumbled as he stoed the last of the dripping heads into the Darkness Between, another smile ghosting across his features as he felt more than heard the anguish of the first man as the dead remains of his ‘friends’ joined him in limbo.
”To help. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. I don’t want to see you become the very monster you’re trying to fight.”He looked up and smiled, genuinely and softly towards her, as he stood. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders before speaking.
”I’ll make the world better even if I become the very thing I’m purging from the world, because in the end if I’m all that remains then I can finally rest. I’ve no delusions that I have a place in the future I’m trying to create. You taught me 'If you change the world, the world will change' so that is what I'm trying to do. Goodbye, Mother.”With that he turned and vanished into the night, leaving her staring after him. No matter how much he focused his skills she could never fail to spot him or find him or see right through him. He paused outside the one of the gang’s holdings, ramming the still warm heads of those he’d slain onto the spiked fence around the perimeter.
”Scream, for the Nightlander comes.”Then he was gone, leaving only the flayed skulls with the skin peeling from their bones while the lightly acidic rain scourers the musculature with empty eye sockets staring out at nothing.
An echoing bang and a shockwave burst nearby, shaking him from his haunted reprieve. He looked around to see what had caused the explosive noise, and caught sight of a lithe figure stalking across the rooftops. She was clearly stealthier than any he’d seen, but up here in the darkness there was very little that could hide. He caught sight of a whipping tail extruding from her tail-bone, which intrigued him greatly. He watched her fall down into the alley below and followed to kneel on the edge of the building overlooking the scene below. He wrapped himself in shadows as the blazing light from the large winged figure caused him pain, not as much as when he’d first felt the warm kiss of sunlight (he still remembered the sting of blood running down his cheeks) but enough to make him recoil slightly. He tilted his head and gently twirled his sword between his long fingers as he watched the fight below.