The chains rattled as Leto found himself in the dungeon of the Mad Emperor's palace, he heaved a heavy breath, feeling the blood trickle down his temple as he took in his breaths. He tugged on his bindings but to no avail, it only served to irritate the metal digging into his skin.
Leto grunted, pulling at his chains fiercely again, flesh ripped and more blood continued to run down his arms.
"You're only going to die faster if you keep at it," A voice said, a voice he knew all too well.
To think he had been betrayed by his best friend, the man with whom he swore to defeat the Mad Emperor, the uncrowned Prince, Dominic Tavestia.
Dominic stepped out of the shadows, a solemn expression upon his cold face as he looked down at his former best friend.
"It brings me no joy to do this, but it is for the good of the crown, and as an Empyrean Knight, I must faithfully serve my emperor-"
Leto cut him off with a bitter laugh.
"Don't make me laugh Dominic," He spat, the blood landing on the grimy floors of the dungeon. Leto shook his head, holding back the venom he wanted to spew toward his former friend.
"You sound like your father,"
Dominic surged forward, grabbing Leto by the neck and squeezing gloved fingers around his throat.
"Don't you ever dare!" Dominic hissed, the grip around Leto's throat softened. "Don't you ever compare me to that monster,"
"That monster has never placed even one of his friends in this dungeon, but you!" Leto's eyes burned with hatred for his former friend. Yet within the depth of his heart, a spark of fondness refused to die.
"Why Dominic?"
"I require the Void Heart and you refuse to relinquish it," Dominic said, pulling away. He adjusted his gloves and sighed heavily as if dealing with this was his punishment and not Leto's.
"Since I cannot attack your mind, I will attack your heart, your soul," Dominic said. Coldness shone in his hazel eyes, the likes of which Leto had never recognized in all their years of friendship.
"You can't mean…" Leto gasped, tears rose to his eyes, but he held them back. Surely he did not mean who he thought he meant, not one of their closest companions.
Dominic stepped to the side and grabbed something, or rather someone, with a stretch of his hand, he pulled in a beaten and bruised girl, dragging her by her once vibrant hair, now it was caked in dirt and blood.
Her glasses were nowhere to be seen, and her once pristine Aide uniform, a tattered mess. This was Azia, the love of his life, his wife.
"Azia! No! Dominic let her go!" Leto pleaded, "It's Azia! Our Azia! You can't do this!"
Dominic uncaring of his friend's pleas, threw the woman to the ground. Azia gave a weak yelp of pain. She hit the ground hard, scraping her bruised skin as she landed.
"L-Leto?" she called weakly, "Leto is that you,"
Leto watched the shallow rise and fall of her chest as she struggled to heave breaths through the pain. He shook his head.
"Take the Void Heart Dominic, just take it!" Leto screamed. "If it'll stop this madness you can have it. Gods Dominic what have you become? Worse than your own father! Worse than the Mad Emperor,"
"I can only take the Void Heart from your corpse, Leto," Dominic said.
Leto paled, if Dominic had known all that, then why? What reason would he have had to make him suffer, to make Azia suffer…
"Dominic," Leto said softly, hanging his head. "If you knew that then why?"
Dominic shrugged, the stars on his uniform moving as he did. He walked around the room in slow controlled movements then stood over Azia's prone body. Lifting a boot, he rested the sole of his shoe on her head.
"She should have chosen me, I would have kept her safe," Dominic said lowly. "I would have kept all of us safe if you had just given me the Void Heart,"
"Please,"
A sickening crack resounded as Dominic began pressing his boot into Azia's skulls. With curio enhanced strength it only took a moment before Leto's wife's head was nothing but a smear on the dungeon's stone floor.
Leto wept opening, muttering to himself at the sight of the woman he loved. He lifted his head and stared up at Dominic, cold fury in his icy blue eyes.
"Don't worry Leto, your sacrifice shall not be in vain, and neither will Azia's," Dominic said. The man retrieved his sword, lifting it high in the air and bringing it down.
Everything went dark.
----------
Leto jumped out of his bed with a start! He yelped, falling off the bed and hitting the wooden ground with a shout.
"Leto! What the hell is wrong with you?" A voice said from above him. Leto's head shot up, frantically trying to find the source of the voice. It was one he hadn't heard since Dominic began his campaign in the name of the Mad Emperor.
"George?" Leto called tentatively, a chubby cheeked boy with a mop of red hair peaked over the bunk above to check if Leto was alright.
Brown eyes looked down in concern but Leto also noticed the spark of curiosity the other boy possessed.
"It's me, you were seriously thrashing around! Are you alright Leto? You got me worried!" he said.
George Ambry. Leto remembered him as the roommate in his second to the 3rd year at Griswold Academy of the Arts.
The first few instances he had found the boy annoying but as he got to know him later on in life, George ended up being a better man than Dominic.
"I…" Leto paused, he lifted a hand to touch his dark hair and run his hands through it. He brought his hand back into view and observed.
No blood.
He stared around the room, finding the small, plain dorms he shared with George. The room was a small square, with a bunk bed in the corner and two desks. A wardrobe sat at the far end forcing the two to use other means to store their clothing and possessions.
Leto couldn't forget the small cramped room even if he tried. This would be his room until next year, graduation year.
When he would get his wish and share dorms with Dominic. After that he would only see George in passing down the halls of the academy but he would be too focused on trying to become a Chazador to care how the other was doing.
"I'm really back in the past, but was it all a dream?" He asked himself.
George got off the bed and came over to rest a hand on Leto's knee.
"Do you need water or something?'
"No George but thanks for checking up on me, I had a hell of a nightmare!" Leto said, chuckling.
"I'll bet," George said, returning the smile awkwardly. Leto cringed, he had mostly ignored the other boy, wanting to room with Dominic instead, only now could he see befriending the prince was a mistake.
But some bonds were not so easily cut.
He faced George who by now was getting ready to get to his class.
Now maybe he could make some new bonds, help others who had lost their lives in the prince's mad crusade.