The Ghost Of You: A Cherik Fanfic

Truth Be Told, I Never Was Yours

I.

Truth be told, I never was yours.

(This is Gospel)

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[2517-07-20, 21:53 | Hammer Bay, Genosha]

As the King's Guardian, the X, he knew from the very start that it would somehow end like this.

Oh, how he embraced the unwelcome yet unpleasant feeling of the cold, ocean-kissed safety railings of the ship digging on his back. The feeling of being trapped is cripplingly terrifying, especially when there is a porcelain gun being aimed at his head by a man wearing the colours of the Caspartina Bandits.

They came for Erik, on the night that he was supposed to be looking for a future companion.

A companion that's not him—because he could not even be with Erik. For one, he's Erik's X. His protector and his only, until the day one of them dies. He is the Supreme Guardian of Genosha, and Erik is the Supreme Ruler. A ruler can marry anyone but a Guardian. It is written.

Besides that, Erik does not particularly take interest on him. Like he said to Magda, he was barely tolerable.

No, focus, he says to himself as he takes a deep breath.

They came for Erik.

Erik's going to die tonight.

He can't help but feel immense distress that he worries that he could be projecting. The situation wouldn't probably be worrisome, if the bandit was not wearing a mind-control-repelling helmet. Talk about cursed luck!

"Surely, you don't want the King to die?" The aging man with the porcelain gun smirks, and if he could use his eyes, he would see the bandit's eyes were full of impure intentions. He could never see the man's smirk with his own covered eyes behind his Helm, and yet he could feel the murky thoughts oozing through the man's repelling helmet. It makes him feel nauseous. Old, filthy-minded bastard. "Or do you?"

It's always like that. Each and every time he encountered the bandit on his visions, it's always the damned thing that he hears the man ask. Of course, being the one who had calculated every possibility of his replies and reactions, he sticks to the reply that he wanted to say—the only response that felt right.

"No." He speaks softly, despite being threatened. Being calm in the face of peril is expected of a Guardian like him. "I don't wish him any harm."

When the man cackles, the X cannot help but flinch infinitesimally. With a voice that is merely held back by a scorning laughter, the cracked bandit said something that he had never said before on his visions, yet oh-so-familiar. "It's funny, isn't it, Supreme Guardian? Very funny, how you would sacrifice yourself for someone who did not spare a glance your way, not even once. You're just a pawn. He wouldn't give a rat's ass even if he himself finds you dead and floating."

"It's... not true." The X finds his hands gripping on the railings behind him as tightly as he could, trying to stop himself from shaking. He closes his eyes and finds something to focus on, something to anchor himself on.

Ah, there. He focuses on the rhythm of the footsteps of the man.

He continues, "I would do everything in my power to protect him at all costs, even if it means that I have to be wiped away from this very existence. I was born to serve and to protect him, as insignificant as he thinks I might be. It is what I am, as the Supreme Guardian, just a mere pawn of the King."

Footsteps are gradually getting louder, his heart beating faster... The man stops pacing and whispers on his Helm's ear-hole. "It's your seventeenth nameday today, is it not?"

"Yes, indeed." Though how the bandit knew about that, he will never know.

The bandit strokes the X's neck with the cold porcelain muzzle of the gun, and this time the Guardian cannot suppress the shiver of fear that trickled down his spine. "You're seventeen, and he's partying with several omegas inside. He's sipping an expensive champagne from Frostfall, mingling with people, while trying to find a wife... on your own nameday.

You naïve little child. Do you know what the difference is between you and a pawn?" The man cackled. "A pawn can be a Queen in the end. You can't."

Words hurt more than the X would like to admit. He had not seen this on his visions. How could the man know of his desires? Would he end up disgraced and thrown into a dungeon, or stone-cold dead at the end of the night?

The cloak that he's currently wearing, the one that the sixteen-year-old King Erik once owned and fastened on him when he was inaugurated as the new X, billowed in the harsh wind. He feels like he's a seven-year-old child again.

"Stumped, aren't we? You could never protect your King with your silence, nor your petty chit-chat. You're all talk, aren't you?" The man jabs him on the shoulder with the gun as if trying to prove a point with it. "That's what Guardians are, especially Supreme Guardians like you and the ones before you. The X. All talk, no act."

Amidst the chaos that was the cold whip of the wind and the spray of water, there's an audible click, and the X knows his time is running out. The safety of the gun was toggled off. "Though now is probably the time to act wisely. Would you choose to return inside, where you could sit beside the King as I shoot him with bullets that he cannot stop, or... you could be a good little boy and step off the ship, drown yourself, and let him live... for a little longer—without you, of course."

"I fail to see how that does make it any different." The X whispers in the coldest, most dismissive manner possible. If he is going to die in the bandit's hand, then he might as well bargain with the devil. "How can I be sure that a little longer is not just mere minutes? How can I be sure that my sacrifice would not be in vain?"

Humming, the bandit steps away a bit, giving the X the space to breathe. "I like you, child. You're not as naïve as I thought you'd be." He laughs and the footsteps resumed. "I have to admit, you've got some serious backbone, and I admire that. Very well, I'll give him eight years to live, should you choose to step off the ship. He will live for eight years without you, am I correct? After all, Kings are only allowed one X on their entire lifetime... You would die without him knowing why you did it.

If not, then I would give you time to go back inside and find him, then I will kill him instantly. He gets to die in your arms, with him thinking of how you did not protect him at all. He would die thinking what a useless X you are. How... tragic."

It should be a hard choice for him, but the X had nothing to lose. There was no love lost between himself and the King because he had never loved him back, and he will never do. All he is to him is a protector, someone that he had tolerated because of tradition.

He's barely tolerable, Magda. I need him because Genosha needs me.

Genosha would never mourn for only a Supreme Guardian like him. No one would mourn for him. He had never felt so alone his entire life except for this moment, and for a person that was blindfolded from the moment he was born and was isolated from the other children, that's saying something.

Between his life and the King's, it's an easy choice. He taps on the mind that was the strongest one he had ever felt and sent a brief message.

Father, forgive me. I have failed my duty to Genosha and the House of X.

Please take care of the King, in my absence.

Ensure his happiness and his safety, for my heart will be forevermore his.

Farewell.