Poison Asura

When does someone die? That's the question that's been on my mind for a while, for some weird reason, I felt like I was gonna die and could barely do things, but now?

It's just...Silent and dark. What's going on? I try to move my body, but I'm stiff as a rock.

*Creak* Hearing the sound of the door open, I begin to panic.

It's the guards! They're gonna think I'm dead and throw me into a furnace! But these footsteps don't come from the doors, but instead from the balcony. Feeling someone stand above me, I hear a man's voice.

"Something wrong boss?"

"No, it's just one of the many faces from my dreams." It's Alice, Got dammit Alice you forgot again! I'm not from a dream! I cursed inside my head. "Let's leave."

Hearing Alice jump away, I yell without making a sound.

Alice! I'm here! Please... don't leave me... Don't give me a false hope of salvation!

"Raven" I hear a single word before what seemed to be hell on earth happened. "So you were real..... Raven"

Getting lifted up, I hear Alice apologize to me for being so incompetent, for letting me die, and for not believing that I'm real. Putting her head to my chest, she begins to sob again.

"If you haven't given me that feather, I would have never realized that this is also real... The Lantern....." Right... The Lantern, what's the chance that Alice will now again fall asleep and forget about me?

*Thud* For some reason, this thought didn't feel right to me.

*Thud* I need to move!

*Thud* Move got dammit! Why is it that you can move when I don't want you to even flinch, yet now you won't even move!

"WHA!" Jumping into a sitting position, Alice looks at me in shock. "You're... Alive?" Holding my chest, I take a deep breath. "I guess I am.... How? I don't know, I remember my body turning sluggish, I could barely move, and I'm sure my heart also stopped."

Trying to stand up, I fall back down and hit my back. "Raven! Are you okay?" Grunting in pain, I say. "I just hit my back, does it look like I'm fine?" Offering me a hand, she smiles.

"Well your sarcasm survived the slip-up, so I think you're fine." Pulling me, she helped me hold my balance. "I think I need my cane, but this time I'm gonna use it like an actual cane."

Calling me and the old man, she throws me the cane that rested on the other side of the chair. Walking over to the balcony, I step over the corpse of a masked man. "I don't even want to know what happened here. Anyways, do you know any good doctors?"

Walking to the edge of the balcony, Alice wraps her hand around my waist and with the help of a large hand we reach the ground. "I do, but you might not like him."

"Damian....." Thinking of a certain eccentric doctor that I never wanted to meet again, I hear Alice say. "You're right, but if there's anyone that can take a look at you and immediately know what happened, it's him."

Scaling the last palace wall, I say. "I don't like the fact that you're talking about him so highly." Smiling, she pokes me. "Why? Are you jealous?" Smirking, I joke. "Jealous? Ha, your old ass makes me cry!" Stabbing her elbow into my side, I fall to my knees. "Who are you calling old?! I'm 21!"

Laughing about it, we enter the streets of Slums under the rising sun.

"Morning newspaper! Morning newspaper!" Reaching into my coat, I throw the kid a coin. "Thank you, sir- I know you! you once bought all my newspaper!"

Nodding my head, I tell the kid that I did, but this time I need only one. Giving it to me, I smile and walk off with Alice. "Did you have to buy that?" Scuffing at her, remark I tell her a great secret.

"Read the first letter for the sports section." Looking at me like I'm crazy, she reads. "U-P-R-A-O-R-I-N-P-A-L-A-C-E... "Uproar in the palace?! How the hell do they know that?"

Telling her that she's seen nothing, I point to the upcoming sports news for tomorrow.

"Raven dead, no Crime lord. I mean they're not wrong, they did scream that I died." Crumbling the papers up, I throw them into the trash. "Look at you you're starting to walk normally again," Alice remarks, Asking her to explain she pints at my legs.

"Well before you were barely standing, now, you're walking and the cane isn't even touching the ground!" Pointing at it, I realize that I instinctively changed my grip on the cane.

Laughing at it, I take a step only for my hand to start acting up. "You good?" Pinching my hand, I look at Alice. "I don't feel my left hand."

Falling limp to my side with the cane still in hand, Alice quickly pinches me on the other hand. "Auch! No, I've felt that, let's get to the doctor." Nodding her head, we quicken our tempo and arrive at a green cross clinic.

Pushing the door open, we see a smoking man cutting up some herbs, "Welcome, how can I help you?" Lifting his head, to look at us. He recognizes me and spits his cigarette onto the floor.

"What do you want Raven? I made myself a cupcake to celebrate your death. But I guess the news were fake." Spotting a half-eaten cupcake, I ask. "Do really hate me that much?"

Raising his eyebrow, he says. "You're the reason I lost my medical license and had to move my shop 3 times." Shurugin my shoulders, I tell him, just maybe, just maybe, if he was a little bit more of a decent human being he wouldn't be so hated.

Ignoring me, he points his knife at my shoulder. "That, What happened to it?" Sitting down on a patient's chair, I tell him I got shot. "That can't be all, a mere bullet wound wouldn't bring you to me."

Telling him, I've been bleeding nonstop for the past few hours, he finally looks at me from his herbs. "Show me" Taking off my cot, I pull out my hand from underneath the bloodied shirt.

"Hmm, and what is she doing here?" Pointing to Alice, he begins to look at my shoulder with his monocle. "I'm here just as an escort, I found him in a death state, I don't know what caused him to come back."

"Fascinating," Grabbing some piece of my meat, he throws it onto a tray.

"Damian, what is that?" Pointing at the piece of meat just to make sure we're talking about the same thing he starts to put on some gloves. "This? you shoulder muscles, I do have to say that you've gained some weight and fat since we last saw each other, though truth be told you were just skin and bones, back then."

Looking at my piece of meat closely, he wipes it off and stabs the cotton swap into a vial. "Purple? So you've been struck by a poisoned bullet, case closed." Grabbing a syringe he stabs it into my shoulder and walks back to his herbs.

"That's it?" Nodding his head, he explains. "Though the one that shot you wanted you to die, really die. This type of poison can only be harvested in the southern dunes, that's really far away."

Smiling, he says that if he wanted to kill me he would use the opposite flower.

"Do we at least know why he died for a second only to come back?"

"You were poisoned by the hot-blooded Asura, it's a rare carnivore plant that lives in the desert. They're extremely rare and a very effective poison for us humans."

*Chomp* biting on a carrot, he continues.

"They like hot places where they can grow, like in a human body, but you Raven, are a cold blood. Since you're an ice mage your normal body temperature lies in the 27, but the plant needs at least 35 to grow, my guess is that you didn't feel anything after being shot for a long while, a cold night combined with your cold blood prevented it from sprouting, but then you got somewhere where it was hot, your body temperature rose. And the poison awoken, it spread trough out your body taking roots. Your body temperature rose in an attempt to fight the intruder, you started to sweat and feel disoriented and sleepy, and before you knew it your body was paralyzed. But why it stopped I don't know."

Turning to Alice, I whisper. "The balcony, the cold wind managed to cool my body suppressing the poison!" Trying to move my left arm. I drop the cane onto the ground.

"You said that such a flower grows only in the south right?" Getting a nod from Damian, he points to a jar. "I got only one here for my collection of herbs, but to produce even a bullet, one would need at least, 2 whole flowers."

"So someone powerful tried to kill me, that's great, what's worse is the fact that I have a feeling that it's your boss, Alice." Nodding her head, she points out that the assassin did have the tattoo.

*Chomp* Are you sure you guys want to be talking about things like this in front of me? You do know that I have no problem selling you out to the next guy that asks about you."

Forgetting that we're still in his shot I get up to leave, only for him to throw the knife at me. Barely stoping in time, I pull it out of the door frame and aks him what's this supposed to mean.

"It means to pay! Do yo think I ran a charity or something?"