L’ynden [city], Genu [planet], Saber [star system]
14 June; 10:41:50 Hours
The sky was a deep, mute green that was quickly transforming into a creepy backdrop as dark grey clouds were rolling in from the east, with thunder that rumbled out in the great distance. An eerie thickness closed in on Theo, Drake, and the others while they slowly walked down the old cobblestone streets that were lined on either side by Victorian-style homes and storefronts which all appeared empty. Sara frantically reached out and grabbed Drake’s robotic hand as she walked beside him, her body as close to his as she could be, and Dax rolled her eyes as she let out a quick scoff at Sara’s scaredness.
“You all know that we’re out on a limb here, right?” Cole said as he pulled up the rear.
“Out on a limb?” Dax asked with her right eye squinting and she looked to Theo. “Are we not at L’ynden? Limb? I, I don’t understand, yai Emoor?”
Theo chuckled. “It’s a saying, Sparky. Like, um, like we’re doing something risky.”
“Oh… Is that why Sara is scared?”
“Scared?” Sara squeaked before she stood up straight, yanked her hand from Drake’s, and folded her arms in front of her pregnant stomach. “Who? Scared? Me, no, um, I’m not scared!”
“Scared… Taeruhtye… Yes, I have the right word,” Dax cheerfully said to herself before she turned her attention to Sara, “You are scared!”
“Stop! I am NOT scared!”
“But you are - Your brow is sweaty, you’ve been glancing around nonstop, you held Midas’ hand quite tightly and were nearly on top of him!”
Drake stopped in his tracks, his head clocked back, eyes squinted, and then turned his head to Dax. “Midas?”
“What? Am I not allowed to give you… what do you Humans call them? Secondary identification tags?” Dax asked and turned so she was facing Drake, Sara, and Cole.
Cole began belly laughing. “Secondary identification tags? Secondary identifa— You mean nicknames?”
“Okay, okay, nicknames!”
“I ain’t gonna lie,” Drake began nodding his head with a smile, saying, “Midas kinda hits, hits hard!”
“But why do you Humans always make things so much more difficult than it has to be? Why?” Dax puckered her lips out to the right before turning to Theo and looking up at him with her big light blue eyes, asking, “Why, yai Emoor?”
“Alright, you know what - Let’s split up,” Theo quickly changed the subject and explained, “Drake, Sara, and Cole can keep heading toward the inner portion of the city, and you and I will push out to the northern edge.”
Sara, who was still cautiously looking around, rubbed the back of her neck as she said, “Um, Theo, uh, I don’t know if that’s a good idea… Like, um, I don’t have a good feeling about this place—”
“SEE! You are scared!” Dax exclaimed as her eyes grew large and she pointed at Sara, causing the three others to begin chuckling and laughing while Sara’s eyes narrowed and she let out a growl.
***
Moments later…
Clump. Clump, clump. Clump. Clump, clump, clump echoed through the dim and musky tunnel-alley that Theo and Dax were walking through. They passed under an old marble arch every thirty feet as they headed toward the stairs at the end. Puddles splashed under their feet which echoed back to the other end in their silence, as neither had said a word since they broke from the others. However, all of a sudden, Dax quickly pulled close to Theo as she grabbed his left hand and looked up at him with big puppy-dog-like eyes.
“Yai Emoor! Yai Emoor! Oh no! Oh no,” she shakily said to Theo who quickly stopped, and turned to her with his eyes growing wide while a heavy pressure consumed the tunnel before Dax’s voice changed into a giggle before a full-blown laugh, “I’m so scared! Yai Emoor, I’m scared! I’m scared, yai Emooooooooooor!”
Theo’s eyes closed as he tilted his head back, he started to chuckle and then looked back to Dax who was smiling at him. “What has gotten into you, Sparky? I’ve never seen this side of you before!”
“What? You don’t like it, yai Emoor?”
“No, I didn’t say that.”
“So?”
“I actually do like this side of you, it’s honestly…” Theo reached out and pushed one of her dreads back behind her left ear, finishing, “… It’s refreshing, Sparky.”
“Is that good? Re-refreshing?”
“Yeah, it means that something is different in a good way from something that’s, well, something that’s the status quo.”
Dax leaned forward, her body pressed against Theo’s as she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him. “Well, I’m refreshing then!”
“You are, that you argh—” Theo was whispering to her when a burst of crimson light ignited down the tunnel from them, and he immediately grabbed ahold of Dax before he spun around to shield her.
A bloodcurdling scream cried through the tunnel as the crimson charge shot down at them, and struck Theo on the back of his left shoulder. A majority of the charge dispersed through his blackened mail, though Theo staggered forward with Dax looking up at him with her eyes nearly triple their size. She frantically said to him, “Yai Emoor? Yai Emoor, are you okay? What happened? What’s going on, yai Emoor?”
Thump, thump, thump, thump roared down the tunnel as several more charges shot at the two. Crimson, yellow, purple, and violet streaks followed by screaming shrieks that tentacles of Shade ripped up from the ground and off the walls attempted to intercept, but each charge ripped through them completely unhindered. One after the other they struck Theo in the shoulders, lower back, and tricep as he held Dax close groaning through his teeth.
Dax’s eyes ignited bright blue, shimmering white flames of Shine erupted out from her and around Theo that rushed down the tunnel as she screamed so loud the tunnel shook, “ENOUGH!”
Theo then collapsed in the reverberating silence while the pulsating aura of Shine lingered, and Dax panted while she glared down the alley with her eyes wide and teeth gritted. Though she snapped back to the reality before her as she felt Theo’s forehead rest upon her stomach; her eyes dimmed back to light blue, the Shine slowly sucked back to her, and she gently placed her hands upon his head.
“Yai, yai Emoor?” she shakily whispered, “Yai E-Emoor? Are, are you okay? Yai Emoor… Theo?”
“Spuh-Sparky…” his voice called out lowly as he looked up to her with his right eye nearly closed and blackened blood having run down from his nose before a smirk slowly broke free. “You’re scared?”
***
Simultaneously…
The three turned the corner where an old, slightly rusted street sign read, “Keto Eqiou Tyt,” with the cobblestone streets unfolding like paths of a maze. Cole’s eyes pinged from his left to right and then to the second and third stories of the buildings around them while he still pulled up the rear. Sara was biting her lip as she twirled her hair with her left hand, muttering, “I wasn’t scared… I wasn’t… I don’t, I don’t know what she was talking about! I’m never scared!”
Drake smirked to himself while he looked at his golden left arm. “Midas. Midas. Okay, you know what, I think I’m gonna run with that. I mean, Theo got Beelezika - So, it’s only right, right?”
“Where does she get off calling me scared? She was the one cowering back on Gav—”
“Hey!” Cole snapped as he stopped in the middle of the street, and Drake and Sara quickly spun around to him. “Am I the only one that feels something is extremely off?”
“What?” Drake asked as his left eye narrowed.
“Come on,” Sara folded her arms and turned slightly away from the two as she tried to blow off Cole’s concern, saying, “Just because she said that I was scared doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong!”
Cole’s face contorted with his eyes now squinting, his head clocked back and he threw his arms up. “How don’t either of you feel this?”
“Feel what, Cole?” Drake asked.
“Hello! Edmund ran a quick vital scan on this planet before we entered its atmosphere, and we know there’s PLENTY of life!”
“Okay?”
“Where are they then? Huh? Come on, Drake! No one appears to be here!”
Drake’s composure tensed up as his eyes now scanned their surroundings. He noticed everything was in pristine condition despite there being no sign of life. It was at that moment that his hand moved to the hilt of Namagun, and he said, “Appears to be?”
“Drake - Feel it!”
“What, what are you two talking about?” Sara asked as she took a step toward her husband and she looked at him with large eyes.
Drake closed his eyes, he slowed his breathing, and everything seemed to go quiet to him except for the faint and muffled sound of Sara calling to him. He felt a wave of tingling wash over him as everything pulled out from around him, and Drake started to get glimpses; he saw them arrive in the star system, then everything bloomed out from vivid colors into the moment Edmund ran scans on Genu before again spiraling to their conversations of how Daleeha made countless trips to the planet. Drake couldn’t help himself from hearing Cole’s voice echoing through it all, “Don’t you feel it,” which got louder and louder with each transition until all of a sudden it stopped, and Drake was struck with an explosive flare of white light just as he heard his wife leave out a bloodcurdling scream.
Drake’s eyes immediately shot open just as he saw Cole draw his spark-pistols and spin around where he fired off several charges. The bright blue beams zipped through the air where they struck what for a moment appeared to be nothing before two gigantic men materialized as they collapsed to the ground.
In a blink, several more colossal men, Golifths who all stood at least 6’5”, materialized just beyond where the first two fell dead. They each wielded wands that they then proceeded to thrust at Cole, Drake, and Sara with charges of crimson, purple, and green surging through their respective wand before shooting at the three. Drake quickly drew his tanto saber that he started twirling around and deflected two of the charges, as Sara moved behind him.
“This was a trap!” Cole yelled while he fired off more shots that struck two more of the Golifths, with one taking a shot to the head and instantly collapsing while the other took the hit to the shoulder and staggered back.
Drake reached behind himself, placing his right hand on Sara’s pregnant stomach, and gently pushed her back as he began to step backward. He raised Namagun up to his left, deflecting another charge that shot at him from one of the roofs, and he looked up to see two more Golifths who were now casting charges down upon them. He then barked to Cole who was two lengths in front of them, “We got to take cover, Cole! We got to now!”
“We have to end them!” he refused while firing three more soul-charges that began to push the now five-strong Golifths back. “This is foreign territory! You know we won’t survive if we try bunkering down!”
“I, I can’t jump us, babe!” Sara told Drake who quickly glanced back at her.
“Dammit!” Drake growled but then again yelled, “Cole! We’re taking that shop! We’re taking it, Cole!”
“No!” Cole yelled as he turned around to find Drake rushing his wife toward a store that had a large withered sign with a design of wands and a name reading, “Rytirs.”
Drake allowed Sara to get in front of him, as he continued to twirl Namagun around and deflected more charges with multiple shooting back at their shooters. The Golifths let out bloodcurdling screams as they fell from the rooftops and their bodies thumped off the ground. Cole let out a roar as he now went running after the two, and started returning fire at those down the cobblestone street. Sara reached the door, grabbed the doorknob that she turned, and pushed the door open to her surprise before she turned and yelled for her husband and Cole.
“It’s open! Come on! It’s open! Hurry! Hurry, please! Hurry!”
Instead of waiting for Cole to catch up, Drake deflected one more charge and then sprinted straight for his wife who he rushed in. The door was left wide open behind them as they stormed through into the dingy and dark shop, where the inside was quadruple the size of its outside with thousands of aisles of bookcase-like structures that stood ten stories high and held millions of small shoebox-like boxes. Not even ten seconds later, Cole came in behind them where he slammed the wooden door shut and shrieking screams slammed the door with it shaking.
“Sara! Sara! Sara?” Drake frantically said as he turned her around and looked her up and down, and she looked at him with wide eyes. “You okay? Were you hit? Is the baby okay? Are you okay?”
“Y-yeah…” she answered before looking at him with her head slightly clocking back. “We’re fine, I, I promise.”
“Why’d you scream back there then?”
“Scream?”
“Come on, you two!” Cole barked as he aimed his spark-pistols at the front door and looked over his shoulder at them. “We gotta cover any— Oh… Oh my,” and now Cole’s eyes grew large as he saw what they rushed into.
“Yeah!” Drake nodded and still looked her up and down, saying, “You screamed.”
“I, no, I didn’t scream, Drake.”
He let her go as he took a step back and rubbed his left temple. “I heard you.”
“Babe, I promise you that I didn’t scream. I, I promise.”
“HEY!” Cole now yelled as he lowered his spark-pistols down. “We, we have to make sure that we don’t, oh man, that we don’t get flanked…”
Drake bowed his head as his eyes pinged side to side while he tried to understand what he heard.
“We weren’t ready for this,” Cole whispered to himself as he looked at the shelving and followed them up into the darkness above.
***
“You do know that if you lot weren’t so bloody impatient I could’ve informed you of the threats you’d face with the Golifths who inhabit Genu?” Edmund’s voice called over Theo and Dax’s earpieces, as Theo raised his silver tattered knight helm over his head before putting it on.
There was a deep suction sound before a high-pitched hiss with the helmet connecting to the spinal mech that lined up the back of Theo’s blackened mail. The helm’s HUD then flickered on with it taking an immediate vital scan of Theo and Dax and the surroundings seconds before numerous stat blocks of buildings and probability readings displayed to him. He couldn’t help himself from rolling his eyes, and said, “Edmund, are you lecturing me… again?”
“Well, sir, if you all wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss my briefings - We wouldn’t be in this scenario, now would we?”
“When have you ever stopped? Huh, Edmund?”
“Sir, you all wouldn’t bloody listen!”
Dax giggled slightly as she listened to Edmund scold Theo, but her demeanor changed in an instant as she heard Theo snap, “Could you have warned us of how they’re attacking? Could you, Edmund? Because we’ve never encountered this before! Never! It’s ripping through Shade, dammit!”
“Yai Emoor…” she called, and Theo turned to her as she stepped up to him and placed her hand on his chest, asking, “You haven’t encountered magic yet?”
Theo’s head tilted slightly to his right as he looked at Dax. “Magic?”
“Yes, yai Emoor - Magic.”
“Like Hex, Sparky?”
“Heeeeh, yes,” she nodded and then looked him deep in the eyes while she explained, “The Golifths are a species who have a very powerful, unique, and natural connection to magic. They’re known across the universe as the sole wand-smiths.”
“The Princess is correct, Master Theo,” Edmund acknowledged. “Perhaps it’s time to retreat?”
Dax’s eyes sunk and her pupils grew large at what she just heard, all while her fists clenched tightly that her knuckles nearly turned crimson.
However, Theo let out a chuckle as he took a step back from her. “Heh, no, no, we’re not retreating,” clink, clink, clink sounded as the Kalber armor pack upon Theo’s back began shifting and constructing around him his chestplate, shoulder, bicep armor, right gauntlet, and armored boots.
A smile then slowly broke free of Dax’s disappointment while she gazed upon Theo, who stood with an immense pressure of Shade emanating him as his crimson tattered cape gently flapped to his right.
***
“Dammit!” Cole exploded as he aggressively pointed at Drake. “You’re not fighting, man! You’re shielding!”
“She’s my wife!”
“You’re mind is clouded!”
“Fuck you, Cole!” Drake yelled before he slightly turned toward Sara and pointed at her stomach. “She’s pregnant, dammit! She’s pregnant! What would you do, huh? HUH?”
“Like I said before we walked into this trap,” Cole’s voice lowered to nearly a whisper, “She should’ve stayed on Talon. She shouldn’t be in the field anymore… Having a partner who you’re romantically involved with, it, it won’t ever end well.”
“Who are you talking about, Cole?” Drake growled as he now stepped up to him and Cole slowly looked him in the eyes.
“Babe…” Sara said in an attempt to stop the escalation but he wouldn’t.
“Who? Sara and I? Or…”
“Babe? Babe, please. Please stop.”
“Or Theo and Dax?”
Cole let out a breathy chuckle as he tilted his head toward Drake, his grip tightened on his spark-pistols, and he bit his bottom lip.
“STOP!” Sara screamed. “You two are bitching while we’re standing here about to die!”
Drake quickly spun around, he looked Sara in the eyes as several tears rolled down her cheeks, and her chest puffed out before retracting and quickly did so again and again. “Hey, hey, come on! We’re, we’re not gonna die, Sara! I prom—”
Before Drake could finish consoling his pregnant wife, a scarlet charge rained down from above with it nearly hitting Sara. Cole, though, instantly aimed up to the levels above where he fired off two soul-charges that whistled into the dark before a loud echoing scream broke out as a body came into view that smashed into the ground forty feet from them. The boom roared through the silence, but that was overcome by the shrieks of more and more charges raining down at the three.
Drake immediately began twirling around Namagun and deflecting the charges, but they appeared endless. Cole grunted as he turned to his left and then right, still firing upon the upper levels as another body fell to the ground around them before another, and then another. The two were holding the line the best they could while a whooshing sound echoed in the distance above, as Golifths apparated into the wand shop. One of these newly arrived, a young man who was a freshly inscribed, nodded to the others upon the sixteenth level with a few patting him on the shoulders before he then turned his wand upon himself. The young Golifth slowly pressed the tip of his wand into his chest, an emerald surge pulsated through the shaft and into himself. His eyes dilating wide, a burning emerald aura ignited within his veins, and he let out a roar so thunderous all of the shelving shook in unison.
Sara looked to Drake and Cole as she subtly shook her head. “I, I don’t like that, guys!”
“We gotta get out of here, Drake!” Cole barked.
“Yeah,” he agreed and looked over to the front door. “Yeah, on three?”
“Yes! Yes, on three!” Sara agreed before Cole nodded.
“Okay,” Drake yelled as he deflected another charge and began counting down, “Three…” though the young Golifth who was now decaying as he grunted and groaned in agony, dropped his wand with three of the others aiming their wands at him, “… two…” Cole was still firing soul-charges as the Golifths cast an apparate push that sent the young Golifth down to the ground level, where he appeared twenty feet out from the three and Sara instantly saw him, “… one!”
“DRAKE!” Sara screamed as the young Golifth struggled to his feet and started to move toward them. “Drake! Drake, bomber!”
One by one, Drake and then Cole looked to see him walking before he was able to begin running toward them. His body was emanating a green radioactive-like aura, and Cole grabbed Sara who he pushed into Drake and shouted, “GO,” before he opened fire on the young Golifth.
Drake hurried Sara to the door that he kicked open and nudged his wife out as he turned to see Cole hurrying backward toward them while still shooting the Golifth, but each soul-charge did nearly nothing as they struck him.
“COLE!” Drake yelled.
“I’m right behind yous,” he said as he glanced back to Drake, “Go!”
The young Golifth raised his arms out to his sides, screaming as Drake ran out and Cole was no more than ten feet from the doorway, “Te va dou bei haaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
In a blink, a bright green flash erupted from the Golifth and he dissolved within it before the massive explosion of energy followed. Cole was launched out as the intensity of emerald consumed the wand shop, it nearly leveled the building, as he tumbled across the cobblestone street where he landed upon his stomach unconscious. Sara immediately hurried to his aid, though he was unresponsive and she could see that Cole’s mail was scorched with patches of it completely gone.
“Drake!” she screamed and he came running over. “He’s hurt, babe! He’s hurt bad!”
“Okay, um, we, we gotta get him to Talon!” Drake said, but Golifths began apparating at either end of the street where they didn’t hesitate to cast charges at the three.
However, as Drake for the umpteenth time started to deflect the oncoming charges, he witnessed blackened tentacles breach the cobblestone where they shot through the chests and limbs of Golifths and forced the others to push backward. The powerful hum of a steady charge of Shine erupted behind Drake and Sara, causing them to turn their attention to Dax who was releasing a beam from her trident that obliterated one Golifth before cutting through two others. Drake, though, felt something different about the atmosphere as he watched Dax. There was an intense pressure that emanated from her direction, yet he could feel it wasn’t her and soon saw Theo walk up beside Dax donning his silver jagged and tattered armor.
The charges the Golifths now directed at the two, ricocheted off Theo’s chestplate and shoulder armor before he thrust his hand in the directions the charges came from with more tentacles shooting off where they found their targets. Drake was almost mesmerized by what he saw, though Sara tugged on his golden hand and told him, “I have to jump Cole to Talon! I don’t know if he’ll make it otherwise!”
He nodded. “Oh, o-okay!”
Sara then grabbed Cole’s hand with her own before a staticky blue haze materialized around them, and quickly the two folded in upon each other, vanishing from the street and leaving Drake standing alone. He again found himself watching Dax and Theo as they were back-to-back, fighting off the Golifths who now focused solely on the two. However, Drake’s attention was ripped away as a pinhole of light flickered at him before it slowly bloomed outward, growing larger by the second. He quickly became dizzy and collapsed to one knee as that light was now large enough for someone to walk through, and within he could see what looked to be someone.
“Babe!” Sara yelled as she apparated back just off behind him, and she saw not only her husband on his knee but the sustaining rip before them. “Wuh-what?”
“No, no, we, we have to get out of here!” he stammered as Sara hurried over to him and grabbed his arm.
“Who, who is that?”
“Yai Emoor…” Dax’s voice called, and Theo quickly turned to her.
“Sparky? Sparky, you okay?”
“We have to get out of here, now!” Drake yelled to his wife as he stood up, yet he still looked into the rip where it became clear of the young woman on the other side who had shoulder-length white dreadlocks that had blackened ends.
“I don’t understand… What’s going on? Who is she, babe?”
“Sparky,” Theo said with a growing look of uncertainty on his face while charges continued to ricocheted off his armor, “are you seeing this?”
Dax looked at Theo with large eyes. “Why do I feel like I know her, yai Emoor?”
The young woman, took three steps forward toward the opening as Drake looked to Sara and snapped, “SARA! We have to get out of here now!”
Like a star collapsing in on itself, the rip sucked closed and a shockwave of Shine and Shade exploded out. Drake and Sara were thrown to the ground where they slowly looked around to see the ground cratered beneath where the rip was moments ago, and then they heard Dax yell, “Wuh-what? Where did she go, yai Emoor?”
“Sara…” Drake whispered.
Theo’s voice followed as he roared, “They took her from us!”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Dax screamed as intense shimmering white flames ignited off her and her eyes burned bright blue.
The pressure that emanated from Theo grew threefold as Shade pulled toward Dax and him, nearly blacking out everything around the two. Dax still scream wept as her head was thrown back and the Shine shimmering off of her was continuously being pulled to the growing darkness and haloed it - Event horizon. Sara’s voice trembled as she witnessed what the two had become in this moment of induced mania, with her eyes growing larger than ever before as she could see the flaming Shine blaze off of Dax while a silhouette blacker than black towered and loomed behind Theo.
Sara flinched as she felt Drake grab her hand, only to look at him with tears streaming down her face and he softly told her, “Jump now.”
Bloodcurdling screams filled the void left as the darkness and light consumed everything around into ruin, and Sara hugged Drake as tightly as she could just before the two folded in on each other. However, Golifths who attempted to apparate were snagged. Their faces drew pale at the realization of death swept over them after Shade tentacles shot from the darkness around Theo and Dax so fast that they were caught mid jump, and then pulled them back with the halo of Shine obliterating them into nothingness. One by one, Golifths failed to escape and each met the same fate until only the sound of Dax weeping could be heard.
The staticky blue haze materialized within Talon’s common room with Sara and Drake folding out of it, where they dropped to the floor. Sara landed on her husband who let out a groan, but she quickly shot up and started to run toward the cockpit when Drake called to her.
“Sara! Wait! Sara, what are you doing?”
“We got to go back!”
“No,” he denied his wife as he walked up to her, and grabbed her hands, “not yet… Not yet.”
Silence was Lord of L’ynden while death and ruin reigned King and Queen of what was left. Shade and Shine receded and left Dax and Theo standing center of it all, with Shine still shimmering off her as she slowly began to come to and turn to Theo. Dax whimpered as she wiped the tears from her face, “I’m, I’m sorry, yai Emoor. I’m, I’m so—” but she stopped as she found him twisted before her.
His hands were completely blackened now, while the monstrous hazy blackened silhouette loomed around him with an all too familiar ear-to-ear grin of razor-sharp teeth screamed for attention beneath his helmet. The pressure that radiated Theo was nearly unbearable, with Dax almost unable to take a step toward him. Though she did, Shade fought against her growing any closer to him with Shine protecting her.
“Yai Emoor?” her voice trembled. “Yai Emoor, please come back to me! Please! Please, please don’t do this again! Don’t let Him win!”
Dax inched forward with Shade and Shine pushing and twisting the other as her heart-shaped necklace Theo had given her subtly levitated out in between the two. Her eyes swelled with the horrifying idea of what stood before her, but then she whispered one final time while reaching through the blackened aura and placed her hand upon his chest, “I can’t lose you…”