Chapter 1: Awakening
"Location: Modesto, California, June 16th 2312"
"Open your eyes, Peter. It's time to wake up." a voice ordered softly.
Peter's eyes slowly opened as he stared at a dull gray ceiling. He laid there waiting for his lethargy to wear off before sitting up, wincing as his neck popped from sleeping without a pillow. He scanned the area he was in and noticed that he was in some sort of cave. Red arterial lines pulsated on the walls and dark purple lights crawled towards the very center of the cave. Dark purple lights twisted around a large structure above a lowered tablet that he was resting on, releasing tiny particles of violet light.
"Where am I? And where's everyone else?" Peter wondered.
He got up off the tablet and noticed a set of stairs leading out of the cave nearby. He ran up the stairs, and when he emerged from the cave, he appeared to be overlooking a massive forest. The trees of the forest were all gray and lifeless, with not a leaf in sight. The ground was dry and cracked, and it appeared gray with the gloom of the sky being cast around. It was one of the most desolate places he had ever seen. Looking for a reason as to why it was so dark, Peter scanned the sky, but he found no source of light, only dark gray clouds. He then suddenly had a flashback.
A reddish twilight sky, with a forest of dark green and brown trees, and green grass. A group of toddlers getting lost in the forest and a group of adults desperately looking for them.
"There's no way this is that same forest. It feels so dead. What happened?" Peter wondered in disbelief.
In the far distance, a certain once sacred blade, now rusted over and cracked across it's brilliant dark red-and-gold blade as it awaited it's master once more, weakly gleamed before falling dull again.