In his nightmares there was always fire, which har robbed his parents, which had caused him to lose himself to Phobos - but the saving hand that emerged, her hand, was new. | cedrube. canon divergence / what-if.

demise is gonna turn around.

It didn't matter how many times he remembered that this wasn't real - not anymore - and that it was all just a dream, it still seemed so real to him every time he felt it. As if he was a young Naga again and the fire turned his entire, previously known, life upside down.

He smelt how the house burned, could see the tongues of fire surrounding it and giving his parents no chance to escape. He felt the heat, this unbearable, terrible heat, and he heard the cries of his parents burning alive. He wanted to scream, plead for help, hoping someone would save them - he was just a kid, he had no chance. Tears ran down his cheeks, he had screamed and he knew what would follow. Immediately Phobos would appear and whisper his words of hatred and revenge and loyalty in his ears. That was his specialty.

So Cedric surrendered to his fate and looked up, because the same thing would happen every time. He would join Phobos, become his right-hand man - he would become the monster he had been told he was.

He grabbed the offered hand and then he stopped. The skin was not as soft as he had expected, the hand was smaller and he followed the arm to the person it belonged to and then his breath caught.

It was not Phobos there.

Orube was there.

Gasping for air, he stared at her. What did she do here? What was she doing in his nightmare-in his memory-if he did not even know her at the time?

Cedric expected her figure to melt into Phobos, as if this all was just a trick of his senses, an illusion he would later become known for, but nothing happened. Instead, she gave him a gentle smile and a soft expression in her golden eyes. He could not help but stare at her in amazement as her fingers stroked his blond curls, not a threatening gesture, but only complete confidence.

"Cedric ..." she murmured cautiously and he was mesmerized by her. "Orube." He raised his hand to touch her, trying to convince himself she was real, and if he could touch her skin with just his fingertips, he needed the evidence-

"Wake up," her voice had taken on a pleading tone. "Wake up, please, wake up."

Why did she grow louder, she was not one who had to raise her voice to be heard-

"Cedric, wake up!" It was shrill and he startled, almost suffocating in... blood? Water? He did not know. So he coughed and then it occurred to him. It was ink that took his breath away. He did not want to die, but he had accepted his death if he could save her, then ... then he gladly accepted that. So why was he wondering what was stifling him?

Cedric spat out a barrage of black liquid, choking until nothing came out of his stomach and then finally he could see clearly. His eyes grew big, did he look right? She held him in her arms and looked worried, overwhelmed, relieved-overjoyed. "You're not going to die, Cedric, not when I say it," she said, her voice breaking and ... he was confused. Why did she care what happened to him?

"I'm not dead?" He rasped, coughing again, the remnants of the ink still sticking to his throat. It was disgusting, as was the cappuccino she offered him. With tears in her eyes, she smiled at him before shaking her head. "No, I'm glad you're alive," she confessed softly, pulling him closer into her arms.

"Girls? Please ... go on without us, "Orube said pleadingly, looking at the guardians, who seemed uncertain before Will touched the blood, the ink he had spat out, writing the next word with her colored fingers. Determined, she looked back at the two adults. "When it's over, we'll come and get you," she promised them, before the girls all disappeared - into the final chapter of Jonathan Ludmoore's book.

He was tired, so he closed his eyes, but ... he still had to speak a truth. "You saved me," he said hoarsely, thinking of her hand that had saved him ... above all, but mostly from his own black heart. "I did not do anything-"