A’tep [town], Kandok [planet], Baultrek [star system]
19 June; 14:21:03 Hours
“Heeh, heeh, heeh,” Ravena dropped to her knees as the shimmering purple soul field dissolved where she slowly looked up to find the smoldering fiend turning to Kyra, and she uttered, “The, the whih-whispers were, were tuh-true…”
Klaus’ gray survival-mail was scorched and smoldering as his eyes burned crimson so much that it was as if flames were flickering free. His face was contorted, a thick brow that was furrowed and fangs brandished as he turned completely to his fiancée who looked up to him with big eyes. Kyra slowly began to reach out to Klaus, her hand started to transform back to its living-steel condition with fingertips first and spreading up toward her arm the closer she got while Klaus, himself, retrospectively was beginning to cool down. The heat emanating from him dissipated and his transformation was reverting with fangs retracting and his thick brow shrinking.
Kyra spoke to him, but barely higher than a whisper, “Kuh-Kluas? Are, are you oh—” though as her hand was about to touch his chest, the two were blindsided and struck with a vicious shoulder strike that sent both tumbling through the rubble.
Baontun had charged and unleashed on them. The Drespin stood for a moment in the wake where he rolled his shoulders forward, his mail was burned away from his chest, shoulders, and left arm completely while steam wafted off his unharmed skin. Baontun’s chest puffed out and quickly retracted, which it did over and over as his eyes scanned around. He saw Kyra lying on her stomach unconscious before he saw Klaus struggle to his knees. He didn’t hesitate as he quickly charged him and hit Klaus with several vicious punches that connected with the right then left and back to the right side of Klaus’s face.
Baontun barked at him in between each strike, “<Indomitable Human will… Heh, hah, ha… Like I told you… You’re weak… You believe in your backwater myths—”
However, Baontun quickly jumped back as the intense, radiating purple energy blade swung down in front of him before Ravena positioned herself between him and Klaus. Baontun’s head tilted slightly to his right as he sized her up, but then cracked a smirk. Ravena, though, engaged him despite his amusement with her and she swung her blade down at him which he caught between the palms of his hands. Her blue eyes grew large and she grabbed her right wrist with her left hand to add more force, but Baontun chuckled and shook his head.
“<What a fool,>” he bellowed before clapping his hands together and shattering the energy blade, which disoriented Ravena long enough for Baontun to deliver a fierce right elbow strike to her jaw.
Ravena struck the ground just to her right with Baontun’s followthrough being so forceful that the ground cratered under her body. He then slowly turned his attention back to Klaus, though he saw one of Klaus’ twin sabers plunged into the ground several feet from him and marched over to it where he freed it from the ground. Baontun twirled it around, he walked toward Klaus, smiling as he looked over the blade before he said, “<Ohhhhh, Bounrdih’Dyr,” and he stood before Klaus where he gripped the hilt tightly with both hands and he raised it high up to his right, “Now you will see… You… all… fall—” and Baontun swung the blade at Klaus, however, it stopped just centimeters from Klaus’ neck.
His lip quivered up to the right as he growled and continued to try to swing the saber through Klaus’ neck, but still, nothing as he then heard a deep voice call off from behind him, “Heeeeh, Klaus… Why are you playing games with this Ripper? Huh?”
Slowly, Baontun looked back over his shoulder to see who had spoken while Klaus chuckled, “Well, I was waiting for my big brother to finally show up!”
Cort now was standing as she looked across the way, and beyond Klaus and Baontun, where she saw Theo and Dax standing side-by-side with Drake, Sara, and Cole just behind them. She shook her head in disbelief as she muttered to herself, “Beelezika!”
“<What an honor!>” Baontun erupted and threw the saber down into the ground to his right as he positioned himself to be able to see both Klaus and Theo. “<I get the pleasure of not only retrieving my tag but of also bringing down the mighty Bounrdih’Dyr AND the feared Beelezika…>”
“Yai Emoor,” Dax sighed as she rolled her eyes at Baontun, “can we please end this, this, this Drespin already?”
Baontun’s eyes grew slightly wider while realization struck him as he looked at Dax, and he chuckled. “<My, my! Is this what I see? The Archangel? The Princess of the Sovereign Kingdom of Wendale… with, WITH Beelezika? Now this, this truly has my attention!”
Tink. Tink, tink, tink, tink sounded as Dax’s trident, Aelysah fully constructed from its hilt-shaft and Shine started pulsating through it while her eyes ignited bright blue.
Drake, though, quickly stepped up beside the two where he raised his left hand and motioned to hold on. “Wait! Wait, wait, wait a minute here!”
“Wait?” Dax snapped.
“Yeah! We need to stay focused!”
“I am very focused,” she hissed and pivoted her feet as she aimed with Aelysah and Baontun continued to smile while he turned in their complete direction.
“Dax, please, we’re not here to cause… to cause, uh, uh, m-muh-m-more de—” Sara said while she stepped up directly beside Dax who looked at her, and more specifically at her pregnant stomach.
“He’s not our concern,” Drake whispered.
Dax’s eyes shifted from Sara to Drake before she slowly looked to Theo, who still stood to her right. “Yai Emoor?”
Theo didn’t say a word though as he kept eyes locked with Baontun, who in his mind, was ready to kill every single one of them.
“YAI EMOOR?”
“Dax, please,” Sara begged, seeing the prongs of Aelysah glowing with Shine.
In a blink, Cort shifted from where she stood to beside Baontun. Drake immediately took a step back where he positioned himself to shield Sara; Cole drew his spark-pistols that he aimed with; Dax grunted and directed her aim at the two, all while Theo still had yet to move. Cort, however, simply grabbed Baontun by the wrist, and in less than a second, the two were static before it was like they were never there.
Though in this moment, Sara panicked and pushed past her husband where she reached out at Dax to stop her, and inadvertently she grabbed the black heart-shaped necklace Dax wore. Sara felt her entirety go cold. Time appeared to slow down around her while the light faded out from Sara and a darkness pulled in. Sara’s eyes were opened wide as she looked around and saw a realm of obsidian, only for her attention to turn onto her hand where she saw that she was still holding the heart-shaped necklace. The hairs on the back of her neck raised and slowly Sara looked back out in front of herself to witness the revelation of the Deep; as a female Being rose out of the ground with Shade crawling all over her before Sara’s attention whipped to her right at six gigantic black wings opening and revealed the winged slender Being, but it was the thunderous pounding of the colossal blackened armored Being who approached that shook Sara, with each of their burning white eyes locked with hers.
“AHHHHHHHHH!” Sara shrieked a mere second before she let the necklace go and collapsed to the ground beside Dax.
Drake gasped, “Sara?”
Quickly, Dax’s eyes opened wide and she lunged for Sara who she managed to catch just before Sara hit the ground. She cradled her in her arms as she looked around while Drake hurried over to his wife and Dax, and for the first moment in the previous moments, Theo moved as he turned to them in confusion. Dax frantically questioned, “Wuh-what, what, what’s wrong with her?”
“What happened?” Drake echoed as he kneeled beside them and gently placed his hand on Sara’s face.
“I, I, I don’t know,” Dax stammered, while Drake carefully took Sara into his arms before pushing her hair out of her face. “She, she just collapsed.”
“Sara? Hey, hey, Sara? Sara, wake up baby?” Drake called to her but she was in deep unconsciousness, and Theo stepped forward and loomed over the three.
“Maybe it’s the stress? She’s got to be close, brother.”
“She’s close, but…”
“Theo?” Klaus cautiously called while Kyra, Farah, Amelia, and he walked up to them. “Is everything okay?”
Theo turned to them and simply nodded.
Klaus then reached out his hand to his brother, saying, “Thank you, Theo.”
“Hey,” Theo softly said before he smirked, “I’m your brother - I got your back.”
“Brother?” Farah nearly yelled as her voice upticked. “That’s your brother, Klaus? That’s Theo?”
“Yeah, Far, that’s my big brother.”
Kyra, though, rolled her eyes at Klaus proudly answering Farah, and Amelia playfully gave her a shove as to say to knock it off.
“Oh my! I’ve heard so much about you! You’re so cool! Oh, man! You’re like the coolest!” Farah gleamed, as Dax stood up and held Theo’s hand.
Klaus quickly turned to her with his left eye narrowed. “Hey, Far! What? Coolest?”
Theo chuckled at Farah, but her eyes grew even larger as she looked right at Dax and Theo’s hands, and then pointed at them as she asked, “Wait! Wait! Is she your girlfriend?”
“Girl-girlfriend?” Dax asked and turned to Theo with her lips slightly puckered. “What is that, yai Emoor?”
“Heeeh, um, Dax, uh, a girlfriend, well a girlfriend is a woman that a man is romantically together with,” Theo explained as he looked at Dax, and immediately her face took a blush red tint and she smiled from ear-to-ear.
“Theo,” Cole butted in, as he seriously said, “Come on, we can’t drag this out any longer.”
“Heh, what? What does that mean?” Kyra scoffed as she stepped up next to Farah and put her arm around her. “Drag what out?”
Theo glanced to his right at Cole who now stood next to him with spark-pistols still drawn. “I know, Cole. I know.”
“Theo?” Klaus called with a slightly loud tone. “What’s up?”
“I’m sorry, little one,” Dax told Farah as her trident deconstructed back down into its hilt-shaft.
“Huh? Why are you sorry, Dax?” Farah asked.
“Because,” Dax softly told her as she kneeled in front of Farah, “we’re here… for you.”
Farah’s eyes grew massive as she stumbled back away from Dax. “Wuh-what? What do, do you mean? ‘Melia? Kyra? Klaus?”
“THEO!” Amelia yelled as she quickly pulled Farah behind her. “What are you thinking?”
“Heeeeh, ‘Melia—” Theo went to explain, but Kyra stepped toward him with fists clenched and screamed.
“You AREN’T taking her!”
Dax jumped to her feet and went to go face-to-face with Kyra, though Theo placed his hand upon her stomach and halted her, yet she snarled at her, “You can’t stop us…”
“Hey,” Drake breathily said as he helped Sara up to her feet, “We, we don’t want to do this, believe me!”
“Believe you? HAH!” Kyra snapped.
“We don’t,” Sara groaned while she held her stomach.
Klaus now stepped toward his brother who he looked at with narrow eyes. “Theo… Are you here for her? For Far?”
“We had come here for her…” Theo answered, but Dax spun toward him and placed her hand on his chest as she gasped.
“We had? Yai Emoor?”
“Sparky, I wouldn’t be the Union’s weapon, you know this,” he looked her deep in her eyes as he softly told her, “and, and I’m not going to be HIS.”
“Yai Emoor!” Dax now grabbed him by the sides of his face as she returned his look deep into his eyes, pleading, “We need her!”
“Hey brother,” Drake called while standing with Sara who rested her head on his shoulder, “Dax, she’s right!”
“Theo,” Cole asked as he scanned from Kyra to Amelia and then to Farah whose eyes were glowing scarlet, “What’s the plan here?”
“I’m sorry, Sparky,” he whispered to her, and then looked to his little brother and told him, “We’re not taking her.”
Dax let go of Theo’s face as she stepped away from him, mumbling to herself, “<It’s not supposed to go this way!>”
Farah was elated as she jumped up and down with a giant smile on her face. She even ran over to Theo who she gave a big hug around his waist, saying over and over again, “Thank you, Theo! Thank you! Thank you so much!”
Theo closed his eyes and took in a deep breath as Farah let go of him and started to back away. It was at that moment, that Amelia’s attention perked with her head subtly shaking as she went went to lunge for Farah. However, Theo was much faster as he drew Gaerlus from his back, and in one swift swing, he cut Farah’s left forearm off.
“Noooo!” Amelia shrieked.
Everything instantly went silent, as Amelia reached Farah and grabbed her by the shoulders while one by one realization slowly hit the six others. Faces contorted with Kyra’s eyes and mouth opening wide; Sara quickly turned her back in disbelief; Drake bit down on his lip; Cole remained silent, and Klaus’ eyes ignited with a burning crimson. The silence shattered as Farah now looked down in front of herself and saw her severed arm lying on the ground and she let out a bloodcurdling scream that could’ve shaken the planet. However, it didn’t last as Farah was overcome by the shock and pain which caused her to succumb to unconsciousness.
“THEEEEO!” Klaus roared and stormed toward his brother, though Dax immediately spun around with her trident reconstructed and aimed at Klaus as it surged with Shine. “What the fuck did you just do?”
“We all do what we must,” Theo admitted while he reached into a pouch on his belt, and then proceeded to walk over to Farah who Amelia held on the ground.
“Don’t you touch her!” Kyra hissed.
Theo ignored her warning and instead kneeled beside the girl where he poured the Kalber grained upon the open wound. Farah started to twitch and grimace in pain, but before either Klaus or Kyra could say a word, Theo motioned his right hand over her arm and extended it out with the Kalber constructing itself into a robotic form of her now missing arm.
“Maybe three years ago,” Theo whispered before standing up and turning to his brother. “I could’ve killed her then, but, no, I couldn’t bring myself to do it now.”
“I don’t understand, Theo,” Klaus said as his eyes dimmed back to normal.
“Let me just say, we needed her but you three need her more.”
“So what now?”
“Like I said,” Theo chuckled and nodded over to Cole who was wrapping the severed arm up, “We all do what we must…”
***
About one hour later…
Thud. Crunch, crunch, crunch echoed through the ruin as a unit of soldiers armored from head to toe combed the area. Their augmented gargled communication with one another was haunting as several soldiers escorted a man toward the opening. This man, wearing all white with a long stretching sapphire cape following behind him stopped before a pool of blood where Farah’s arm once laid. He, Count Eryndor kneeled with a vial in his left hand that he then used to take a sample of the blood before looking up to one of the soldiers and nodded at.
The Count arose as he sealed the vial while the soldier laid out a holo-disc before him that the soldier then tapped. There was a brief pause before a staticky flicker that projected from the disc with it constructing a hooded figure whose face was completely shrouded in darkness. Eryndor, without hesitation, bowed his head to this hooded figure, only for him to bellow, “<Speak.>”
“<My Lord,” Count Eryndor addressed the hooded figure, his voice was crackly and high-pitched, and he raised the vial in front of himself, “we have retrieved the contents.>”
The hooded figure slightly raised his head, only enough that his mouth came into view from under the shadows where a smirk broke free.