Second Encounters || McD/Ms AU

You're Not Acting Like Yourself

Standing in the middle of a thick mass of trees, right outside the outskirts of Phoenix Drop, a guard was in awe.

It was like nothing he had ever seen before.

Before Garroth was a swirling mass, a frame against a blinding light that forced his eyes to squint against the haze, lavender crystals hovering in midair. He would have been entranced by it's sheer massiveness and beauty and unmistakable power if he didn't know his life was very likely on the line.

Taking a few stumbling steps back, the guard unsheathed his weapon and assumed a defensive stance against the unknown entity that stood - no, hovered - fifteen feet away from him.

He wondered if there were more. If the others were encountering this exact same thing.

He had no way of knowing, but... it was a feeling. A strange one.

The eldest Ro'Meave took another daring step forward, bracing himself against the force pushing and pulling from the inner mechanisms of the mass, curling and contradicting as if it was warping time and space itself. A portal. A portal? Was it possible?

Even if he wanted to, Garroth no longer had time to think about it.

The next thing he knew, there was a figure stumbling out of the hovering door of manifested magicks, causing the mass to cave in on itself in one final burst of mystical light before folding out of existence, as if it were never there in the first place. The guard kept his gaze intently fixed onto the figure, taking in his dark head of hair, pale skin, and an icy blue eye as they now lifted their face into view.

A flame surged inside Garroth, giving a newfound resolve to his limbs as he now marched forward towards the stumbling body.

Zane.

The elder brother spat out his name faster than he could think it, quickly closing the distance between them. As he approached the other male, who had jumped and yelped at the bark of his name - extremely uncharacteristic of his brother, - Garroth in a split second noticed his attire. It was loose and unarmored, unlike the permanent uniform of the Shadow Knights. There was a twinge of uncertainty that sparked in him, but it was quickly snuffed out by the familiar wave of rage that decided to take front and center towards the knight.

While he was unarmored - and unarmed, too, Garroth noticed with a jolt, - he would be easy to take down. All he needed was the right moment, the right motives, and precision.

Did - Zane just call out his name? The angry blood roaring in his ears could have deceived him.

Now inches apart, he thrust his palm onto the other male's shoulder with resolve, throwing it out in front of him to slam Zane into the base of a tree. The younger cried out, and when he opened his eye, it looked taken aback - but most importantly, absolutely wild and terrified.

The hell? He'd taken much worse hits than that before, and would come back with nothing more than a hitch in his breath. Yet the Zane in front of him remained pinned by his hand, body trembling against his palm. He could have easily escaped this by now, adding a snide or slimy remark, that icy eye full with nothing more but the desire for destruction.

"Gar-Garroth?" Zane stammered, his voice sounding much higher and panicked than he had ever heard it. His grip on the younger's shoulder tightened in his frustration, and Zane let out a stuttering groan in response before he could continue. "What was that for? The hell's gotten into you?"

Zane looked like he could escape his grip at any moment, but his face looked too confused and terror struck to have the mental capacity to do so. Garroth narrowed his eyes cruelly, prepared for any hidden tricks or sudden changes. When he couldn't find one, the male still breathing heavily as if he was panicking , he only got angrier.

"What are you planning??" Garroth screamed, yanking his brother's shoulder forward and shoving again, pinning him again to a different tree. The action was sloppy and mercilessly rough, but the guard's mind was fogged with so much rage, so much confusion. What kind of stunt was he trying to pull here? Why did it look so real? So genuine?

Zane cried out again as he felt the resounding thud of bone meeting the base of the tree, and his breathing became more hitched and frantic.

"Garroth, please! Are you- snap out of it!"

Tears now streamed down the pale male's cheeks, the blow causing his bangs to uncover the right side of his face. His right eye, dimmer than the other, stared him full in the face with pure, raw fear.

"Please. . . snap out of it. . ."

His face startled Garroth, so like his brother but not like him at all. This Zane was in actual terror, no hint of maliciousness written on him anywhere, as if he had never seen him angry before. No matter how many scenarios he could come up with in his head, it didn't. Make. Sense.

"Brother, please," Zane continued to beg, both hands now tightly gripping the arm that kept him pinned. Teary eyes wide, his voice was hoarse and terrified, breaking as if the whole world was coming unraveled around him. "Not again, come back. . . Come back. . ."

With that, a mountain of confused anger came rushing down to him, nearly as intense as other terrible encounters with his brother, only this time feeling so much more wrong, so concerning and rage inducingly off.

It made his chest seize with a feeling he didn't like one bit, and that surge alone of doubt was enough to fuel his next decision.

With a loud yell, Garroth swung his sword out of his sheath with his other hand, rapidly using the large, brass handle of his weapon to strike against Zane's head, instantly knocking him out.

The younger's wild eyes unfocused and he went quiet as consciousness left him, his body falling limp to the ground with a thud.

Garroth stared at the unconscious form of his brother, the soft movements of breathing the only sign of life.

After what seemed like an eternity of staring down, his mind now slower and processing, the guard bent down and slung Zane messily over his shoulder, preparing to head back to the village and to the guard post.

Maybe Garroth would actually have time to think about this with his younger brother in custody.