Sons of the Exiled

Yami sat at the piano as he let his fingers slide elegantly over the keys, his eyes closed as he played, the all too familiar song flowing out of him. His mother had taught him this song when he was younger, and had been playing piano since he was seven years old. Something about being a Shadowhunter meant that while growing up he learned many different skills from musical to lingual and most especially-killing demons. His parents had once run the very institute he was sitting in now, but their joyful voices no longer filled the halls. They were killed a year ago by a greater demon, one known as Agramon. Greater demons were much more powerful and dangerous than your average one, and this particular demon was quite difficult to kill because of its specialty: fear. Yami’s parents had literally been scared to death when they came upon this demon. How or why they encountered it nobody knows, but they weren’t around to tell the tale. When someone stumbles upon Agramon it can get into their mind and find their deepest fear, and the demon itself would turn into that fear until its victim had ben tortured so much that they die.

Yami’s hands slipped on the keys of the piano as he had become distracted, and he sighed as he tried to start again. Little did he know it was actually Dartz who had demanded such a fate for his parents, for the mad man had been after the previous members of his Circle, way back before the uprising. Yami knew that his parents had been part of the Circle, but they had given themselves up to the Clave after the uprising, and so they did not receive as much of a scolding as Dartz’ closer followers did. Instead, they were exiled from Idris and had to run the Brooklyn institute, no longer a part of any important Clave business, but still part of the Shadowhunter world. They had raised their son there, with their friends Jenny and Steven, who now ran the institute, after Yami’s parents were killed. Jen and Steve had two sons who also grew up with Yami, though they bickered quite a lot, the other could tell they still had a brotherly love hidden deep down somewhere. Their names were Duke and Tristan.

They weren’t the only Shadowhunters in the area, either. There were a few other families from the Circle who had been exiled from Idris, and so they basically all lived around New York now, so that they were all close to each other, should they need to band together. They were seen differently to the Clave from every other Shadowhunter, even if they had redeemed their trust, they were still once a part of Dartz’ Circle. Another family who lived nearby were the Mutou’s, they were quite good friends with Jenny and Steven, and so Yami had recently become friends with their son, Yugi. Although there would be decent spans of time where they wouldn’t see each other, their friendship was still a strong one.

Yami was interrupted from his playing when Duke made his presence known by knocking on the door of the music room, that was sitting wide open. Yami raised his eyebrows as he stopped playing, seeing the expression on his friend’s face-one that meant something was wrong. He dropped his hands from the keys, waiting to hear that they had to go and sort something out. He was hoping it wasn’t another cock up in Downworld; he’d had enough of those for one week.

"We have a situation," Duke stated, "You may want to come out here." Yami silently stood up, and followed Duke as he walked down to the library where he soon found Tristan, Jenny and Steve gathered around the fire place. Before he could ask what was going on, Steve explained how they had just received a distress call from their friends the Mutou’s.

"What’s the problem? Were they attacked?" Yami asked, now on alert as he looked over Steve’s shoulder at the message.

"I’m not sure," the man explained, "It doesn’t say, it must have been quite rushed." He turned to the three teens. "I want you three to go to the house and see what the problem is, if it’s anything serious contact me right away and I’ll send a message to the Clave." Yami, Duke and Tristan nodded and they all swiftly left the library, heading for the weapons room.

"What do you think happened?" Tristan asked as they pushed the door open to the well equipped room.

"The hell if I know," Duke replied, walking in and going straight to the far wall where they kept their seraph blades. The weapons room looked exactly the way something called ‘the weapons room’ sounded like it would look. The walls were lined with every kind of sword, dagger, pike, feather staff, bayonet, mace, hook and bow. The rest of the room was filled with Seraph blades, each of them glowing a dull silver colour, as if waiting to be used. You could find every possible way to kill a demon or any Downworlder in this room, though they hoped that they wouldn’t need to use any of these weapons on Downworlders. Sure, the vampires, warlocks, werewolves and fairies were demon-human hybrids, but they were not as much of a danger to the world as demons were. Besides, the accords forbade the Shadowhunters to slay a Downworlder unless they were breaking the law of the covenant.

The three boys quickly equipped themselves with enough seraph blades and various other weapons, and soon they were leaving the institute, making their way to the Mutou’s. As they headed towards the familiar house, Yami was wishing it had just been a small problem in Downworld.

…

"Hurry up, Duke,” Yami hissed as his friend drew an open rune on the wooden door with his stele. The house seemed eerily quiet, even from the outside. Duke voiced his annoyance at Yami’s impatience, when Tristan butted in.

"I could have drawn 5 runes by now," he said, prodding his brother’s back with his own stele.

"Yeah but I can also kill twice as many demons as you, dingus," Duke retorted, as he finished the rune. It burned into the door, before bursting open, revealing the entryway of the house. The three men gasped when their eyes caught sight of the hall before them; even from the front steps they could tell this was not good. The rug that lay on the wooden floor was in shreds, and the many photo frames that once lined the ivory coloured walls were on the ground, shattered. Yami swallowed through a tight throat as he walked in first, carefully pulling out a seraph blade as he did so, his eyes bright and alert. His weapon quickly burned up like white fire, and the two brothers followed suit as they silently walked into the house. Tristan pushed the door closed behind him, and glanced over his shoulder.

"Hey guys," he spoke quietly, gaining Yami and Duke’s attention. The two men turned around, to see the deep slashes in the back of the door, along with a seraph blade that was sticking out from the wood. There had obviously been some sort of fight very recently, between Nephilim and Demon. Yami then saw the insignia on the hilt of the blade.

"That’s Yugi’s," he murmured, staring at the seraph blade. Tristan pulled the blade out of the door with a grunt, before adding it to his collection. Yami then looked down at the ground, and saw that the torn rug was covered in blood and Demon ichor.

"Demons…" he murmured in disgust, before turning back to look at the door. "That would have been a Shax," he pointed out, noting the slashes in the door, most likely caused by the long talons that particular demon held.

Duke spoke up then, pushing the group forwards, “Then we better hurry, there may be more demons in this house and we don’t even know if anyone is here yet,” he said, pushing past Yami to go explore the house. Tristan quickly followed his brother, leaving Yami standing in the entryway. He sighed and shook his head, before walking out towards the main part of the house. It opened up in two directions; one through the living area and kitchen, and the other down a narrow hallway that most likely lead to the bedrooms. Since Duke and Tristan had gone down the hallway, Yami decided to scope out the living area.

As he walked through the house, there was a sinking feeling in his gut, it seemed the further into the house he went the more damage there was. His chest tightened in fear for his friend. Things were strewn everywhere, destroyed and torn up. The coffee table was overturned and sitting just beside the entrance to the kitchen, probably after being thrown. There was more blood on the floor, too. This wasn’t good. Yami then made his way through the kitchen, stepping over the many smashed plates and various other things, and he passed the kitchen window that looked out over the backyard. The yard had a gate situated right at the back, probably to escape in situations such as this, and the gate was wide open. Perhaps they managed to get away from whoever attacked them, Yami thought as he stared out the window. He was then brought to the attention of a sickening noise from the next room. He gripped his seraph blade tight in his hand as he carefully walked into the dining room, where the table was overturned, hiding the source of the noise, it sounded like slicing flesh.

Yami’s eyes went wide when he noticed something protruding out from behind the table: an arm. He darted forwards, his eyes wide with fear and determination, there was no doubt who the person was, for there was a distinctive band wrapped around their wrist. Yugi. Yami threw the table aside to see a Shax demon on top of his friend, slashing the flesh on his chest with its sharp talons, leaving deep crimson lacerations behind. Yami lunged forwards and kicked the monstrosity off of Yugi, before raising his seraph blade in his hand, ready to strike as he stood over the boy in a protective stance. The Shax had shrieked when Yami kicked it away, and it pulled itself back up, a snarl bubbling from its throat as it turned back to Yami.

He was distracted however when he heard Yugi make a sort of choking noise below him, and Yami looked down and stared. He hadn’t gained a very good look at the boy yet, but now he could see the pain on his face very clearly, as the deep slashes in his chest welled with blood. Yami could feel his heart thumping in his chest already, and he was suddenly alerted to the presence of another demon when he heard a whistling noise from behind him. Before he had the time to react however, something slammed into the back of his head with enough force to knock him over. With a loud cry, Yami hit the ground, his legs now on top of Yugi’s as he had been standing over the boy. It took a second for Yami’s head to stop spinning, though now it was throbbing painfully from the unexpected attack from behind. He could hear the Ravenor make it’s own pathetic excuse for a laugh as it stood on top of him, before he let out an aggravated noise and ripped the demon off of the back of his head, throwing it across the room. It hit the far wall and fell to the ground with a smack, but Yami knew that it would be back on its feet soon. Ravenors would never give up that easy. With his head now pounding in pain, Yami moved to get up, but the Shax wasn’t keen on that idea. Soon the monstrosity was on top of him, and it tore at his chest with its talons. Yami let out a pained cry before he drove his seraph blade deep into the Shax’s chest, and twisting it for good measure. The demon made a gurgling noise as it started convulsing on top of him, and with one last screech, it folded in on itself and disappeared to whatever dimension it came from.

Yami sat up with a grunt, almost forgetting there was still the Ravenor to deal with. He only just had enough time to look down and see blood staining his shirt from the torn flesh beneath, before he saw the Ravenor heading straight for Yugi, licking its lips deviously as it grinned, showing it’s hundreds of sharp teeth. Yami quickly lunged at the beast, knocking it away from the boy, and after receiving a painful bite on the arm, Yami managed to swing his blade in the right direction to slice at the Ravenor until it too, screeched and spasmed until it disappeared. With a heavy sigh, Yami leaned back against the wall, dropping his blade to the ground that was now covered in demon blood and ichor. His head felt heavier than a boulder, and his chest was burning with pain, but he had to keep moving. Yami could only just make out the sound of his friends calling out in another part of the house; they must have found some demons also.

Yami then shook his head and crawled over to the boy, who was barely conscious, and losing blood fast. He had several deep slashes in his chest, basically rendering his shirt useless as it was torn to shreds, and there was also an angry deep cut down the side of his face. His blond bangs were stuck to his forehead with sweat and blood, and his eyes were fighting to stay open, though they were small slits as it was. Yami could feel his own chest burning from the slashes he had received, and his arm ached and stung from the Ravenor sinking its teeth into him, but his primary concern was Yugi.

"Shit, those talons are sharp," Yami muttered, as he gently put his hand over one of the cuts in Yugi’s chest that matched his own.

Yugi was clearly still slightly conscious, as he winced in pain when Yami touched his wound. Yami quickly drew his hand back as the boy just managed to look up him, his eyes dazed and confused. The many runes on the boy’s chest had been ruined by the slashed flesh, which meant that the Shax had decreased Yugi’s strength and agility by the looks of the marks there. Yami placed his hands on the boy’s shoulders, partly to keep himself steady and partly to try and get Yugi’s attention.

"Yugi, can you hear me?" he asked, looking down at the boy, his eyes filled with worry.

Yugi made another choking noise, and Yami took this as a bad sign. Not that the slashes in his chest weren’t anything to go by. Yami clumsily pulled out his stele as he felt the affect of the Ravenor’s attack sinking into his head even more. With much effort, he drew a very sloppy iratze on Yugi’s chest, beside the wounds.

Amidst hearing the choking noises Yugi was making, Yami realised it was his attempt at trying to breathe. He needed to move fast. Yami was then surprised when Yugi was able to force out one word. “Y…Yami…” he choked weakly, staring up at the man drawing on his chest with a stele. Yugi wasn’t very aware of what was going on, but the man above him looked incredibly pale. Before he was able to say anything more though, he blacked out.

"Yugi?" Yami dropped the stele in alarm, staring down at the boy, who’s eyes had just closed. "Yugi!" he shook the boy’s shoulders, but there was no response, his body had gone completely limp. I have to get him back to the institute, Yami thought, before fumbling for his stele so that he could put it back in his pocket. With his head spinning and chest aching, Yami clumsily lifted the boy into his arms, and let out a grunt of pain when the weight was put against him, where his own blood was soaking his torn shirt from the slashes in his chest. He could still faintly hear his comrades down the hall, along with smashing noises and the slithering of another Ravenor or two. No, Yami had to get Yugi to the institute now. So, choosing to leave his friends to deal with the demons, Yami quickly moved out of the house and stumbled down the street back to the institute, Yugi’s limp body tight in his arms.