The Long Reckoning
Season 9, Episode 1
Velhall Palace
Oitylon [capital city], Ravelous [planet], Despæ [star system]
25 June; 10:48:29 Hours
“<Across an ocean of stars, I’ve scoured for your foul and festering existence,” deep and gravelly, Tavvuk growled as his ire was locked on Theo, who returned his gaze, “and here I’ve found you; after symphonies of horrific whispers, the tragic survival of the mangled, and an event of dark-and-light… hands now tied… with the… Defiler…!>”
Shriiiiink, Drake’s golden armored boot pivoted upon the marble as he positioned himself at a slight angle to Tavvuk. His eyes narrowed in a twisted marriage of intrigue and contempt. The pressure emanating from the Last Titan was oppressive as it continued to flood into the hallway, and slammed like waves against the shore that was Drake. He struggled to even glance over to his friend, Theo, as he could only manage to call to him, who remained unfazed by the exertion of power before them, “Hey? Brother, what the fuck is going on? This, this one of Throx’s guys?”
However, Theo didn’t answer his brother-in-arms.
There then came but only a split second, as Drake finally broke eye contact with Tavvuk and managed a glance to his right at Theo, but within that blink, the Last Titan shot forth. A flash of emerald. A glisten of silver. Tavvuk acted with such power that the ground trembled and sound shrieked, but his buster blade, Baeruk, met Gaerlus in an explosion of embers. Shhh-ink, clink. Boom, a shockwave ripped free while the two’s immense pressure coiled and pushed against the other while they stood blades locked.
Tavvuk grit his teeth while slowly glancing at Theo’s hands, and there he saw Theo’s inky black fingers gripping the hilt tightly. “<So the whispers, they are true…> Beelezika!”
“It has been a while…” Theo growled, and a demonic chuckle layered within his voice, “… that I’ve almost forgotten the screams of your kind!”
“RAAAAHHHH!” Tavvuk erupted as he managed to thrust forward just enough to create a step of space between him and Theo. Then again, he was already there, as he thrust his shoulder into Drake, who had now attempted to make his move on the Titan. Drake had barely perceived him. Almost instantaneously, Drake was launched backward, where he slammed back first into the wall of the hallway. He grimaced while he slowly slumped to his knees with his golden armor, letting out a piercing screech as it scraped the stone.
“Master Theo?” Edmund’s voice cut in over Theo’s commlink, “Um, is this a bad time to ask… What in the bloody hell is going on!?”
“Not now, Edmund!” Theo roared and thrust his left gauntlet-donning-hand at Tavvuk, commanding Shade, which pulled from the ground around Theo before a tentacle shot at the Titan.
Tavvuk, however, twisted Baeruk in front of himself to his right and redirected the tentacle of Shade before he charged Theo again. The gap closed in another blink. Theo now singlehandedly swung Gaerlus forward; the jagged blade met Tavvuk’s buster blade in a shriek of a million screams. However, Theo allowed Tavvuk’s momentum to lead forward, and he rotated his body counterclockwise. Theo twisted in on himself under the momentum in a fluid twirl and sidestepped Tavvuk, where he flanked the Titan and swung his curve blade up to the right - slicing the back of Tavvuk’s left thigh.
Sara, who was curled up on the hovering ottoman in the common room of Talon, quickly sat forward with eyes wide. She gasped. Her pupils dilated. Sweat began to bead upon her brow. Cole instantly looked up to her in that moment, as he was mid-push-up, and narrowed his right eye at her. She was nearly panting now as she struggled to the edge of her seat, and he stood up to help her.
“Wuh-what’s wrong?” he asked. “You’re not going into labor, are you?”
“Nuh-nuh-no—” she was mid-saying when Edmund cut her off.
“We have a bloody problem - Masters Theo and Drake are being engaged by a Titan!”
“What?” Cole yelped as he looked to the ceiling. “That, it, no - That’s not possible!”
“I’m afraid it is, Master Cole.”
“No, no, no,” Cole now anxiously chuckled while he hurried over to the steel table and grabbed his spark-pistols. “It’s, it’s not, Edmund!”
“I’m not bloody speculating - They are, in fact, engaging a Titan as you are pointlessly attempting to argue with me over that fact!”
Clang reverberated through the hall as Gaerlus yet again met Baeruk. An agonizing scream then ripped free with the two blades again locked. High-pitched chirping chattered with sparks igniting from every push Tavvuk and Theo made against the other.
Again, Tavvuk utilized his presence as a weapon, as he now stomped forward with his right foot and managed to just pass Theo’s right leg before sweeping it back. The force was enough. Theo lost his balance, and Tavvuk pushed Baeruk, overpowering him. Theo slammed upon his back, looking up at the Titan and watched the silver streak swinging toward his head. Yet it stopped in an explosion of sparks where it met Namagun, as Drake thrust his tantō blade in between his friend and the possibility of his end.
Tavvuk snarled. His emerald eyes darted to his right, where he saw the Golden Armed Knight. He then grit his teeth, hissing, “<Now you die alongside> Beelezika!”
Theo took the moment of distraction; he kipped up and launched his jagged armored boots into Tavvuk’s chest. The force pushed him back, sliding to a stop just outside his available strike zone, and he slowly looked back up across to the two who stood side by side.
Drake chuckled. He unbuckled his golden knight helm from his belt, raised it up, and lowered it upon his head while saying, “It’s always some bullshit.”
“Hey,” Theo smirked. “It wouldn’t be fun if it wasn’t, right?”
Drake didn’t answer. Instead, he side-eyed Theo before raising Namagun parallel with himself in his right hand, while he slowly positioned his left robotic hand palm forward.
Tavvuk unclasped his cowl.
The air stood static and charged, as if it were in waiting. The cowl now rippled down his shoulders in the moment of uncertainty. It slowly cascaded around him and pooled into a sea of green at his feet. The Titan now stood before Theo and Drake unhindered. His presence was hulking, it was unyielding, and swallowed the space between them.
Then - Clang. Shriiiiink. The Kalber screamed as the three’s blades cross-locked in a violent meeting of survival, challenge… and hate.
“No!” Cole erupted as he stood back to the opening side hatch. “You’re not coming with me, Sara!”
“Yes, I am!” she matched his frustration and put her hands on her hips. “Drake needs me!”
“They’re fighting a damn Titan! You, not eight months pregnant, wouldn’t be able to help them. What do you think that you like this will be able to do? Huh!”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me, Sara…” Cole growled with the hatch doors letting out a loud thump as they finished opening, and there, in the distance, Sara could see the three in the distance within a blur of silver and sparks.
“Drake!” Sara yelped.
Slowly, Cole turned to see what Sara was. His left eye twitched. His grip upon his spark-pistols tightened. Cole watched in a deep silence as Tavvuk blocked a vicious swing from Drake before he pushed forward and then used the break to unleash a powerful front kick that sent Drake sliding back.
There was no breath, as Tavvuk quickly spun Baeruk around before its blade caught Gaerlus just slightly behind his head.
“Edmund…” Cole called.
“Yes, Master Cole?”
“Ready Talon for takeoff.”
Sara grabbed Cole by the forearm as she looked up at him with large eyes.
“Master Cole?”
Cole took a deep breath. He bit his lower lip and briefly scrunched his nose before he pulled away from Sara and marched off.
“<Since the blackening,” Tavvuk growled to Theo, as they stood yet again, blades locked, with their feet pivoting to gain a stronger footing, “I have slain the stained; I have crushed the skulls of betrayers; I have given my blood to ensure this moment!>”
Theo scoffed. “You think as if you were there, that night, that you would have… what? Stopped Him?”
“<YOU!>” Tavvuk roared and overpowered Theo with a ferocious forward push of Baeruk.
Theo landed on his back, where he rolled through and onto his knee, and whipped his head up to find Tavvuk’s attention instantly shifting to Drake. The Golden Armed Knight shot at the Titan. The streak of gold met the silver blur of Tavvuk’s buster curve blade, then several flashes of sparks with Namagun and Baeruk clashing in a blitz. Clang. Crack. Clang. Tavvuk met the tantō blade while he now mimicked Theo’s twirling parry, but instead of flanking Drake, Tavvuk used the awkward blade lock and gained a looming presence over Drake.
Alerts flashed on Drake’s HUD, identifying his own heart rate rising, his footing beginning to slowly slip, and an unidentified interfering pressure in their surrounding system.
“Every day I realize why I pulled my ripcord,” Cole growled to himself as he neared the doorway and raised his right spark-pistol.
Blue soul energy spidered from Cole’s chest to his right shoulder. At first, it crawled to his bicep and then, in a blink, it surged through his forearm, and the barrel glowed blue hot. Cole steadied his aim. He slowed his breathing the moment before an energy-nail fired from the tip and shot straight at Tavvuk’s back. A screech, like ten thousand scarlet-tailed eagles cried out, ripped through the hanger and followed the nail on its trajectory.
However, the blue flash diverted. Reality shattered just slightly like a pellet hit a mirror, and the nail repositioned to the right, where it shot through the opening and struck the wall fifteen yards opposite of Tavvuk. Cole’s eyes fluttered. He glanced at his pistol and then back to the two with his nose scrunching slightly and eyes now narrowing. There was a moment of disbelief and uncertainty about his own perception, but his attention soon changed. Much like the round he had fired, he now looked to a young woman who emerged from behind a column to the left of the doorway.
Althya slowly positioned herself between Cole and the others. Her right hand was raised palm forward at Cole. Her head was bowed slightly with her lips curled down, and she looked up at Cole with just her eyes. She softly warned, “<I won’t let you stop him.>”
“Move out of my way, kid!” Cole dismissively barked and now raised his other pistol, but at her.
“<No!>”
“Kid… Don’t make me put you down!”
Althya didn’t budge. Instead, she now raised her other hand and displayed a growingly confident shift from that of defending her master to striking on his behalf.
Cole groaned as he tightened his grip. “Errrr, come on…”
Tavvuk’s attention snapped from Drake to over his shoulder. His emerald eyes burned as they caught sight of Cole ready to fire upon Althya. Drake could feel the overwhelming pressure pulling back in upon Tavvuk, like the ocean retracting from the shore before apocalypse. Then, without warning, the Titan released the blade lock as he spun around with his back to Drake, and a pinch struck the Golden Armed Knight.
Theo’s eyes grew large.
Sara, who watched on, soundlessly gasped.
Drake’s HUD went red. His vitals spiked. An alert highlighted the lower right of his abdomen, reading, “Fatality probability increased to eighty-nine percent!”
“No…” uttered free of Theo.
Again, Tavvuk’s attention was redirected. He had briefly seen Cole unload several nails that shot at Althya, yet they splintered off to her left and right, mere inches from striking her dead. Tavvuk then yanked Baeruk free from Drake, only to find Theo, who had moved faster than he could perceive. The Stark closed forty feet in barely two seconds. Gaerlus hissed as it fazed through the space and sliced Tavvuk clean across the chest. The Titan couldn’t manage to yell as he was thrust to his knee from the pain and force of the slash.
Everything drifted to dark around Tavvuk as he looked to his chest and saw his blue blood and sliced mail, only for him to slowly look up to his right where the light was being pulled. Lord paramount - Theo loomed over the Last Titan with a reigning silhouette of shimmering Shade that radiated him, as it absorbed the soul of sight. The present and the screams lost to generations flickered before Tavvuk like two realities fighting to be perceived.
A deep and reverberating breathing emanated all around as the Last Titan bore witness to his name’s creator, breathily acknowledging, “<Yuh-yuh-yuh-you…”
Pitch-black eyes gazed back into the emerald struggling to burn within the dark. Tavvuk could see the ear-to-ear, razor-sharp, fang-filled grin behind Theo’s helm. The Demon from the Deep peeked free in the second of desperation, and now everyone’s attention was demanded and given; as Cole’s mouth grew agape and his pistols lowered, Althya spun around where she wept, while Sara quickly crossed her arms in front of her pregnant stomach and panicked, “No, no, no, no, no, no!”
“<NOOOOOOOOOOOO!>” Tavvuk erupted, as he shot up with both hands fiercely gripping Baeruk, and he swung up at the twisted Theo before him.
Drake, who had fallen to his back, watched as the buster blade moved from down at Tavvuk’s left side to up at Theo in a mere blink. However, its silver streak was snuffed out as a colossal, blackened gauntlet-donning-hand caught it. The shimmering Shade silhouette that loomed around Theo had reacted faster than even the Last Titan could move, and He left him in awe as Tavvuk’s exertion of power was nothing compared.
Tavvuk hissed through his gritted teeth. His carotid arteries bulged. The whites of his eyes turned bloodshot before soon he bled from his nose. Tavvuk refused to surrender as he continued to pour everything he had into his unbudging swing, only to be tossed aside, tumbling down the hall.
Like a dam giving way, Althya and Cole both rushed forward. Cole stopped beside Drake, whom he quickly helped to his feet, as Drake’s robotic arm hung around Cole’s shoulders and his right hand pressed firmly against his abdomen. He panted and winced, “Wuh-we, we have, heeh, we got to get out, out of here!”
“I know… but,” Cole affirmed before their attention shifted from the other to the dark merely twenty feet from them.
There was what felt like a long moment of nothingness before the two began to inch their way toward the hangar. After several feet, Cole glanced back and barked, “Hey! Theo?”
Still - nothing.
Then, after crossing into the hangar, Drake forced Cole to stop as he now positioned himself to look back at his friend, and Drake said, “Bruh-brother?”
Pressure changed; the dark appeared to relent, and now Theo ever so slowly turned and made his way toward the hangar.
Cole slammed his hand upon the hangar doors’ control panel. A thunderous hiss roared as the massive blaster doors separating the hall from the hangar began to slowly close. Theo now stood just inside. His hulking pressure shimmered like flickering blackened flames of Shade which surrounded him in the ghastly image of the Demon from the Deep, and his attention snapped back over his shoulder as Tavvuk’s voice roared from nearly the other end of the hall.
“BEEELEZIIIKAAAAA!”
He turned slightly, his blackened eyes locked upon Tavvuk, who was on his hands and knees opposite Beelezika. The Titan panted. His blue blood was running from his nose as it had covered his mouth and chin while dripping to the marble beneath him.
“<The stars cannot hide you from me,>” Tavvuk growled, slowly looking up at Theo as the doors inched further closed. “Beelezika…”
“Theo!” Cole called as he and Drake were less than thirty-five feet from Talon, and he glanced back to their friend who still loomed at the entrance.
“… Beelezika…” Tavvuk’s voice grew louder.
“May, muh, maybe we sh-should,” Sara finally chimed in as she stood shaking at the side of Talon, her voice barely louder than a whisper, “Um, luh-leave him…”
Cole’s attention whipped to her with his left eye narrowed in a bit of shock.
Drake groaned as they stopped beside Talon. Sara now hurried to help him, as he wrapped his arm around his wife now, calling again, “Come on, bruh-brother - Let’s get out of here!”
“… Beeeelezika…”
The doors were a foot and a half from one another. They inched closer to each other, like sand racing to fill the other half of the hour. Tavvuk, now upon one knee with Baeruk plunged in the ground beside him, used his buster curve blade as leverage as he slowly rose to his feet. Althya, at his side in a fluster, helped him up fully. She looked over her master, seeing him bruised, sliced, and covered in his own blood.
It was in this moment that Theo’s right armored boot raised slightly from the ball of his foot; the air seemed to suck out of the hanger and hall, signifying the Blackened Knight was ready to storm forth. However, a soft whisper upon the Shade startled Beelezika, “Saehyshea tal duer’eemur mai tae, Æmordriel…” and the tension snapped as the Shade instantaneously retracted to its origin, and the doors closed.