Partnership

Raziel stood on the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets, looking up at Khonshu with a somewhat fearful and confused expression on his face. "You're Khonshu, aren't you?" Raziel wasn't sure, since he'd only seen drawings of Khonshu and this matched these drawings nearly perfectly.

"You imbecile. Of course, he is Khonshu!" Kain scolded him, though Raziel ignored him.

"Do you not recognize the man who bestowed upon you such great strength? I saw how you handled those... thugs not too long ago. I must say I was quite impressed. If it weren't for the caped costume, I'd think you were Kain." Khonshu spoke with a deep, menacing voice. "It reminded me of the time Kain first used the power you two share..."

𝙎𝙞𝙭 𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙧...

Raziel, at age sixteen, was standing in front of his school locker with his long, curly air covering his face as he was gathering his books. As he did so, a couple of bullies gathered around to watch him undergo his ritual whenever he closed his locker.

Raziel removed the final book he needed, holding it to the side of his body, before closing the locker. However, despite the locker being locked, Raziel unlocked it with the code, opened it back up, and closed it again. He'd usually repeat this a couple more times before finally starting to walk away from his locker.

As soon as he closed the locker the first time, the bullies started to laugh at him. "Are you seeing this!?" one of the bullies, a massive student who played for the hockey team laughed as he pointed at Raziel.

Raziel was used to this, however, it still angered him to be made fun of. Despite how much it angered him, Raziel didn't do anything about it. He just ignored them.

As Raziel put in the code for his locker once again, he began opening it. However, the jock used his large hand to force it shut. The other bullies started to laugh at him, and as they did, Raziel's expression shifted.

Raziel usually had this wide-eyed, high-eyebrowed look on his face. His lips weren't usually frowning or smiling, just appearing neutral. However, his expression soon began to subtlety shift, as his eyes narrowed and his eyebrows lowered. His mouth no longer appeared neutral, as his jaw seemingly became clenched.

This was a sign that Kain was the one in control of the body. With his Englishman's voice, Kain spoke to his bullies. "Remove your filthy palm from my locker, twit!"

The bullies stared at Kain briefly before finally laughing at him. Of course, they had no idea that Kain was truly a whole personality from within Raziel. They thought this was just some act or a result of Raziel not operating like a typical high school kid. They thought the British accent was hilarious, like something out of a stage play.

"Remove your palm from my locker." the main bully repeated, mocking Kain using a voice meant to mimic people like him.

Kain clenched his fist, he was trembling due to his anger at that point. The bullies continued to laugh as the main bully put his hands on Kain and shoved him backward to display his superiority over him.

However, before the bully could walk away, Kain grabbed him by the wrist and stopped him in his tracks. Though the bully was shocked, he turned around with an unimpressed look on his face as Kain stared him right in the eyes. "Don't you ever touch me again with those vile hands of yours."

The bullies all laughed once again before the main bully took his other hand and slowly poked Kain on the forehead, calling his bluff. However, Kain immediately delivered a full-powered punch to the bully's jaw, completely dislocating it and sending him straight to the ground.

𝘾𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙆!

Everyone in the school halls went dead silent as they watched the boy laying on the ground as if he were lifeless. Kain's eyebrows then raised and his eyes widened. His jaw unclenched and Raziel began to look down at the body with his jaw dropped.

"Oh my god! Are you okay?" he asked before his schoolmates began murmuring about him in the crowd.

"What the hell?"

"What a freak."

"He's acting like he didn't just deck Leo like that."

"He killed him!"

"I knew there was something wrong with him."

"Guys like that need to be locked up."

"Seriously, he's unstable."

"He doesn't belong here."

Hearing all of these voices, and seeing their unapproving gazes, all led to Raziel feeling as if he were having a panic attack. Before anyone else could say anything, he dropped his books to the ground and ran away.

He kept running.

Past the school entrance.

Past the front gate.

And he kept running for miles until he finally felt safe, sitting up against the wall of a random brick building as people stepped over and around him, despite him still breathing heavily and holding his chest as if he were in pain.

No one cared, they all just kept on going along with their business.

Raziel sat in the same spot, wondering what had just happened. In his mind, everything went black after Leo closed his locker. After that, he could just remember standing over the bully's body with his hand in a fist.

This was the first time Kain ever took over Raziel's body and it was also the first time Khonshu's powers were being used by them, though only to a small degree. Kain used to only be a voice in Raziel's head, pushing him to defend himself from those who meant harm to him, but it seemed like Kain wanted to take things into his own hands this time around.

Eventually, a police officer pulled up next to Raziel, looking at him through the window from beneath his sunglasses. He was the first one to notice Raziel. He sort of felt relieved, thinking the cop was going to get out of the car and check up on him. However, the cop immediately flashed his lights and began speaking to Raziel through the speaker of the car.

"Raziel Zabu, do not move. You are being detained." the officer said before getting out of his car with a taser drawn.

'Detained? I'm only sixteen?' Raziel thought to himself.

Before he could think about it for too long, the officer yanked him up off the ground and slammed him against the wall before handcuffing him. "Wh- What? Why?" Raziel asked the officer.

The officer scoffed. "Why? You assaulted a kid. Nearly killed him, that's why. Not another word from you."

Raziel did as he was told. He didn't say another word as he was forced into the squad car.

He didn't say another word as he looked from the window of the police car, staring at everyone roaming free but him.

He didn't say a word upon arriving at the station.

He spoke his name and age when asked, then said nothing else for hours until his mother and father arrived to pick him up.

Once he was released from his jail cell, his mother sprinted over toward him and hugged him tightly, grabbing the back of his head and caressing his hair. "My sweet boy. I'm so sorry." his mother was really the only one who cared about him, aside from maybe a few teachers. However, this touching moment would soon be broken up by his father.

Without saying a word, Raziel's father pulled his wife off of his son and slapped Raziel so hard, he fell to the ground. "All you do is cause more trouble. Get up!" his father waited for Raziel to get back up on his feet before grabbing his wrist roughly. He looked up at the officers, who seemed to lack any sympathy for the man who nearly killed a child. "Sorry about my son. He's... you know..."

Raziel's father looked back at him before yanking his arm. "Let's go."

Raziel looked to his mother, hoping she'd do something, or at the very least say something, but she did not. His mother ignored him, despite loving him dearly. She was afraid of her husband. It was sad and selfish, but she'd rather Raziel be beaten than the two of them. It kept her up at night, but it was a choice she decided to make time and time again.

However, Raziel saw it as his mother not giving a damn about him. He viewed her as being on his father's side at all times when in reality, she too was a victim of abuse.

And from that day on, Raziel understood that he had no one but Kain, this voice in his head that somehow manifested itself to take over his body and defend him from those who meant to harm him.

𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙙𝙖𝙮...

"Is that why you've decided to appear now? Because I finally decided to use my powers?" Raziel had this feeling of regret inside of him. If this was the case, he figured that he should have just let Kain save Layla.

Khonshu chuckled. It was a hearty chuckle, one that would be fitting for a greying old man. "No, no. I had already written you off as useless to me. Kain would be more than glad to repay the debt that you both owe me. I was simply waiting for the perfect time to ensure that you would allow him."

"The perfect time?" Raziel parroted, only for Kain to give an explanation inside Raziel's head.

"Layla! You idiot! He was waiting for someone like her to come along!"

Once again, Khonshu chuckled before explaining to Raziel just what he meant. "I was waiting for someone I could use to ensure that you never disobey me. That's the hard part about having a loner like you as my avatar, Raziel Kabu. Threatening your own life wouldn't be good enough. I've seen it hundreds of times." Khonshu jumped from the roof and landed directly in front of Raziel. Despite jumping from such a high height, there was no sort of air displacement, it was as if he weren't truly physically present.

"They'll tell me to just kill them. Which I'd do and then I'd have to wait for another person to become my avatar. It's far too much effort for what it's worth." Khonshu shook his head thinking about all of his previous Fists of Vengeance which he had to erase for being disobedient.

"That is why I waited for you to fall in love." If Khonshu had a face, one that wasn't a bird's skull, he'd have a smile on his face. That fact was evident due to the smugness in his voice.

"I'm not in love with that woman. I've barely known her for-" Raziel tried to lie to both Khonshu and himself, but it was no use. Khonshu was practically a part of him, always watching and always knowing all.

"Do not lie to me. What kind of fool do you take me for? Anyone with eyes would know that you fell in love with her when you first laid eyes on her. I must say, it was as romantic as it was in those romance novels you consume." Khonshu was always watching through Raziel's eyes. He'd sometimes humor himself by looking at what he was reading since he had nothing else better to do besides lounging around in hiding.

"Besides, even if it wasn't for that woman, you also revealed to me what drives you. You want to save people, don't you, Raziel? You want to be a hero like in those fantasies you lose yourself reading. When you saw Layla being attacked, something came over you. I bet even if it wasn't her, just a bystander, you would have helped. You felt as if your body began to move on its own, yes? All that mattered was saving that person. yes?"

Raziel said nothing. What Khonshu was describing was entirely accurate. When he saw Layla being harmed, he felt like it was his duty to save her. Not because he was interested in her, but because it was the right thing to do.

"You can save people, Raziel. You can stop the tormentors from tormenting those who are weak like how you used to be... And your girlfriend will be safe among them."

"What do you want us to do..." Raziel gave up at that point. He already knew where this was going, Khonshu would threaten to harm Layla, maybe even prove that he was serious in some way in case they called his bluff. Raziel chose to skip all of that and get straight to the point.

"There is a crime scene just North of your current location. I want Kain to go there to see what you can learn about what happened there."

"What? Why Kain?" Raziel felt offended by this. He'd gladly let Kain do all the dirty work, but to have it outright said made him feel insignificant.

"Kain is capable of speaking to people, unlike you, fool. Let him handle the streets, besides, you have your own strengths that we will speak about later." Khonshu turned around, fluttering his cape behind him before waving his hand.

"Farewell, Knights. We will be speaking again soon. Good luck. I will be watching." Khonshu's body disappeared behind the cape and the cape fell to the ground as if it were some sort of magic trick.

"Perfect! Now we're Khonshu's pawns, as I predicted! All because someone had to fall in love with some slag!" Kain was quick to begin lecturing Raziel, as he always was when he had the chance.

"She's not a slag..." Raziel muttered. "Just shut up and take the body so we can get this over with."

Kain entered the body and immediately covered himself in Mr. Knight's white suit and tie. "Ah, yes. That's more like it. Fear not, Raziel. I'll make it quick, wherever this quest leads us."