Rael’aek [castle]
Daeobet [capital, mega-city], Endul [planet], Dasihik [star system], Sector-0000, Aen’Goor [kingdom]
5 December; 11:11:11 Hours
Unknown point-in-time
Clang, shink, clank, clang, shink, and high-pitched hums and booms roared from the hall leading to the throne room. Each time they grew louder and closer as the eight King’s Guard stepped forward from their positions at the columns lining up to the throne. Their crimson-tattered capes swayed slightly as they positioned themselves ready, their blue t-visors of their silver helms glowing and the front four gripped their Kramat TAK02 rifles tightly. This all while upon the throne platform; a young raven-haired girl turned to Theo who sat on his throne as three small Kalber orbs, Gaundraes, orbited him, and the girl then glanced over at Dax who stood beside him.
“Abahaet? Amaehun?” her bottom lip quivered as she called to them, her peacock blue eyes darting side-to-side, but then there was a thunderous bang as the doors rattled. “<What’s going on? Who’s coming for us? Abahaet? Abahaet? Amaehun… I’m, I, I don’t understand!>”
Theo’s attention remained on the doors though, his eyes narrow, hands clenched tightly as several screams could be heard from just outside before an eerie silence followed and consumed the chaotic uncertainty of moments prior.
“Abah—” the young girl went to call again, but the throne room doors flung open and banged against the walls.
No sooner than they did, an Elite, one of the hundreds of millions of clone soldiers who formed Theo’s powerful and universe-shaking army flew into the throne room. The Elite slammed upon his back and slid across the marble floor to a stop with crimson now covering his sliced chestplate. Smoke soon followed as it wafted in from the hall. The air had become staticky with a tenseness as a silhouette stepped into focus and caused the King’s Guards to take aim.
One glowing gold eye pierced through the fog before a golden robotic left hand raised and signaled to wait, before a voice called, “If I remember correctly, an old friend once told me that if you want to be heard… you need to make sure that you’re heard.”
The man, Drake walked forth with the King’s Guards not breaking their aim on him. His tattered tan cowl flapped behind him as he approached the throne. Though the young girl was quick to hurry behind her father where she peered out from behind one of the four pikes, watching Drake as he stopped forty feet from the platform.
“How dare you!” Dax snapped, stepping up to the edge of the platform where she looked down upon Drake and violently motioned her hands out to her sides. “You siege Rael’aek and then demand an audience?”
“No one has done that better than Theo,” he quipped.
She grit her teeth as her light blue eyes lit up intensely.
“Speaking of whom,” Drake’s attention shifted from her to his old friend who sat with his head slightly bowed, and he said with a deep reverberation, “What are you doing?”
“How dare you! How dare you question his rule!” Dax yelled.
“His rule? We, we vowed to fight against tyrants… Not take their seat!”
“He only took what was his!”
Drake’s eyes narrowed as his left eyebrow raised slightly. “His?”
“His BIRTHRIGHT!” she said loudly with overwhelming pride, but Drake’s eyes now closed and sunk as his gut turned.
Though he then grunted and took a step forward with the four King’s Guards who stood before him each matching Drake’s aggression as they stepped to him. Drake quickly stopped, he raised his golden robotic hand again as he reiterated his position from earlier. His attention then shifted back up to Theo who he quietly pleaded to, “Hey… brother… will you look at me? Please. Please. Are you hearing what she’s espousing? It’s what WE promised to fight against… Come on—”
Theo’s head then slowly rose with the sun shining upon him and the blackened spires that orbited his head - a crown of darkness, and he looked into Drake’s eyes. Drake couldn’t help himself as he gulped and winced at the darkness he saw that now sat dominion in the eyes of the man who he once called a brother.
“The U needs order,” Theo spoke and his voice rumbled through the throne room, “and I could not sit back in good conscience and allow an even worse evil to fill the void that WE created. So I decided—”
“To become that evil?”
“SILENCE, NAEXU!” Dax hissed at Drake.
“No,” Theo’s voice up-ticked before growing even deeper than before, “to become that order that we both believe the U needs.”
“Don’t…” Drake softly warned.
A small grin spawned out the right side of Theo’s mouth. “Don’t what… brother?”
“Heeeeeh… Don’t make me have to stop you.”
“We all do what we must,” Theo sighed, raising his arms out to his sides as he now leisurely sat back on the throne. “And I can see that you came here to do exactly that.”
Drake’s left hand moved behind his back where he grabbed the hilt of Namagun, his tanto blade. Everything, though, appeared to slow down as his perception lagged while his grip tightened; he saw the four King’s Guards who stood at the ready in front of him each draw one of their twin long sabers, Dax’s attention shifted to Theo who Drake could faintly hear her speak to but was too soft for him to understand, and then he looked to the girl who now looked at him with a fury that burned in her eyes. Drake’s eyes narrowed with confusion, but he was forced to act as one of the King’s Guard charged him.
“Ah shit,” he mumbled as he realized what he had allowed himself to be distracted from.
Despite their armor, the King’s Guards’ speed seemed unreal to Drake. His right eye opened wide at the Guard who closed the twelve-foot gap between them in a near blink, and Drake immediately raised Namagun to meet the Guard’s long saber which let out a thunderous clang. He grimaced for a moment as they tried overpowering one another, but then Drake managed to push up before delivering a vicious front kick to the Guard that sent him sliding back several feet.
Drake then spun and swung his tanto blade up to his left where it now met the downward swing of another Guard. He used the force and momentum of the two blades meeting along with his explosive follow-through in order to spin back around where he met the third King’s Guard. This Guard had unleashed all of his force in an overhead downward swing upon Drake. Clang, boom erupted as a shockwave released and pushed out from the two. Drake dropped to his knee where he struggled to keep his tanto blade steady as he blocked the long saber.
But Drake’s attention shifted yet again, he glanced to his left and then right where he saw the other three moving on him.
“Dammit,” he growled, reached into a pouch on his belt where he pulled a small plasma charge that he squeezed just seconds before he tossed it toward the two Guards marching at him from his left.
A loud high-pitched beeping chirped out, growing faster and faster as the charge flew through the air toward its targets but also at the throne platform. Dax’s eyes now grew large as she realized the charge was mere seconds from detonating in the air, and she quickly glanced at their daughter before looking at Theo who she screamed for.
“THEO!”
“Amaehun?” their adoptive daughter, Cortana looked to Dax and saw the uncertainty in her mother’s eyes that caused her to grab her father’s shoulder as she panicked, “Abahaet? Abahaet? Abahaet!”
Yet he didn’t move an inch even as the charge now detonated, it let out a thunderous roar with a bright purple light that flashed before the plasma energy exploded in all directions.
A high-pitched ringing consumed the throne room as Drake’s vision slowly returned, the purple glow dimmed, leaving him in disbelief as he found his effort had failed. The Gaundraes that loomed around Theo and his family had broken his orbit and intercepted the charge, through generating a forcefield that contained and neutralized the explosion. Each orb then absorbed the energy, with the purple glow fading within them, only for each to return to the sides of Theo, Dax, and Cortana.
Drake’s eyes immediately sank as he saw a small grin creep over Theo’s face, but Drake then flew backward onto the marble floor where he grimaced. He glanced up to see one of the King’s Guards standing several feet in front of him before looking at himself where he found a cut across the chest. Drake panted, blood began to cover the chest of his gray survival-mail, and he slowly looked back up to the Guard as he let out a thunderous yell and jumped up to his feet.
“RAAAH-AHHHHHHHHH!”
Drake twirled Namagun around before swinging it down on the Guard who had sliced him. There was so much force behind him that when his blade met the other it unleashed a shockwave so powerful that it slightly cracked the marble floor. The King’s Guard was now dropped to his left knee and Drake quickly raised Namagun above his head to unleash upon the Guard, but before he could, he stumbled back several steps as he was struck twice by bright blue charges in the upper left pec and the bicep from one of the other four King’s Guards.
Before Drake knew it, he was sliced on the left thigh by one of the first three Guards. He grimaced and twirled his tanto saber around in an attempt to put distance between himself and them but was met with another swing of a Guard’s long saber. This time, sparks exploded and Drake tried to block and dodge the third’s thrust, yet the blade of the Guard’s long saber cut him on the side of his head.
“Er-AHHH!” he groaned, then collapsed to his knee when two of the King’s Guards kicked them out from behind him.
Everything went hollow to Drake as his knees hit the marble. He felt his body shake from within, he could hear his heart pounding and his heavy panting before the high-pitched clang of Namagun hitting the ground beside him. Drake’s vision was blurred again, but this time as he was trying to realize what went wrong. It wasn’t until he heard the deep hum which ended with a high beep that he came to, he looked down in front of himself where he saw neutra-restraints had been strapped onto his forearms and locked in place.
“I want you to realize, brother,” Theo’s voice called and Drake looked up to him as he rose from his throne and subtly shook his head. “After what had happened… heeeh, this, it, it didn’t have to be a nightmare - No, you chose this. You decided this fate… and now—”
“WHAT?” Drake barked, struggling as two of the King’s Guards held him upon his knees. “What now? What now, huh? You going to have me killed TOO? Huh?”
Theo sighed before he turned his back to his old friend, folded his arms in front of his chest, and ordered, “Take him away.”
The Guards yanked Drake to his feet before they began to drag him backward toward the throne room doors, all while he struggled with them to break free. Yanking and pulling with his arms locked in front of him, Drake grit his teeth as he saw Cortana run over to her father who she hugged so tightly, though the fury within him ignited brighter as he caught sight of Dax who grinned at him before she stepped beside Theo who she wrapped her arm around his waist and rested her head upon his chest.
“This isn’t over, Theo! This isn’t,” he exclaimed as the doors slowly closed before him, “This won’t be my nightmare! It won’t! I swear it, dammit! This won’t be my nightmare, THEEEOOOOOOO!”