Note - If you haven't seen the Castle animation videos, then have a look at the Information Page first, otherwise you could get lost
Prologue
Agony, pain beyond anything he had experienced before. Who was he? What had he been doing? He was on top of a massive stone alter, he couldn't see anything past it, everything had been just so dark. The man was on his hands and knees, what the hell had been going on? He felt a sticky liquid against his skin and across the floor, blood. His blood? What the hell was happening?
A vicious snarl came from somewhere in the darkness. The man bolted up, had that been an animal?
"What the hell!" the man cried.
The animal snarled again, more savagely. Beads of sweat ran down the man's face, what the fuck was going on?! The man backed away from the edge, the animal had climbed the alter.
It was the shape of a human, but it had been feral or something. Mixed blood and saliva drooped down it's jaw, dirty nails were abnormally long and sharp, the eyes were evilly glowing white, and when it opened it's mouth threateningly, it revealed it's sharpened gore stained teeth.
Something was definitely wrong here. It crept up to him on all fours.
"What the hell is happening?!" the man tried to run away, but then it just went all black.
Etrius woke up suddenly in a cold sweat. What had he been dreaming about? He tried to remember but the memories were escaping him. Something to do with blood? Where had it been? It was hopeless.
Civilian life didn't suit Etrius; he lived in a two roomed condo with empty cigarette packets and old clothes lying haphazardly around the floor. A fan was sweeping away smoke out of the window. Etrius stumbled over the junk and looked out the window. Even in the early morning the city was bustling with activity, clean respectable business workers babbling incessantly into their phones.
He started smoking slowly, he could feel calm roll over the rage that had been always so close to the edge. The clean military Etrius had faded away, months of stubble bristled on his jaw, his hair was unkempt and dandruff infested, and the blended scent of smoke and liquor was intensely lingering in the condo. If it weren't for The General he wouldn't be have been there, The General had pushed him to do it, the memory of it was another stain upon his sick history, but it was certainly the most significant.
Etrius shook himself, if The General had kept his damn mouth shut nothing would have happened. It had been The General's fault, Etrius' orders had been to complete the mission regardless of how he did it. But every assault they had laid to the building had resulted in a failure, he had to fight dirty, but when the story was leaked, the press and public demanded to know who was responsible. So the elite team was used as a scapegoat, Etrius had been discharged, what a happy ending.
He threw the butt out of the window and went into the bathroom for a shower. Less trash littered the floor in the bathroom, but a few cigarette packets lay on the sink and a half drained whiskey bottle was on the toilet seat. The bathroom was tiny, barely able to hold a shower cubicle and toilet, but he didn't care so long as they worked. Etrius took a long stare at himself in a mirror, in those days he spent long hours just staring at nothing, just thinking; he looked like mid sixties in the reflection, but he was actually in his early forties, Etrius blamed stress overload for that.
Wrinkles ran deep on his face, white unkempt hair was riddled with dandruff, deep dark bags hung under his green eyes. There wasn't a single thing in the world anyone could say to help him break out of depression, and Etrius didn't want anyone's pity. He tore his gaze away when he heard a loud knock on his door, who had even knew that he had been there? He hadn't even told his old team where he'd be living. Who could possibly know he was here? Etrius ran through all of the possibilities but found none. His brain was working at a fraction that it used to but even then he could put the pieces together. Something was going on.
On his way to the front door Etrius picked up a baseball bat, it was essential to get the jump on them if they had been there to kill him. He slowly peeled back the wooden door so he only showed his face and neck, the rest concealed behind the door along with the bat.
Two men in military uniform stood before him, both of them had the chevron symbol pinned to their left side chest. Underneath that was The General's private unit symbol, an upside down chevron with a silver star on top of it. The General? Etrius involuntarily scowled, he had been discharged and he didn't want anything to do with that bastard, not after Rebirth Island.
"Commander Etrius?" asked the closest one.
If they didn't expect to see the 'legendary' elite leader Etrius, beaten and depressed they didn't show it, in fact they were ignoring Etrius' clearly aggravated face, undeniably a tough thing to do when Etrius' face could give Hitler a run for his money.
"No, just Etrius. I don't work for your boss anymore," Etrius could feel the hatred now. There was no reason for him to go back to The General, The General had used him to defeat an organisation then discarded him as a thing. A tool to be used. No, nothing these two morons would say would convince him to go back to The General and lick his boots.
"Consider yourself reinstated, The General needs your help with a mission critica-" he lost it.
"I DON'T WORK FOR THE GENERAL OR ANYBODY ELSE!" Etrius smashed the bat into the closest couriers' face.
The other soldier caught the victim who was about to fall onto the ground, but Etrius rammed the bat into the uninjured courier's chest, the couriers fell back the most recent victim winded.
"Tell The General that if he tries to come and get me again, I'll break his neck," he slammed the door and locked it, he knew the noise would attract his neighbouring landlord to inspect the commotion.
One - Reinstated ... Commander
Etrius sat in cuffed and blindfolded in a van with no light. He felt like he'd been sitting on the uncomfortable floor for hours, but of course he couldn't tell. Multiple soldiers working for The General had finally brought him down in his apartment, and they had to resort to desperate tactics. Now he had to endure what felt like the driver going out of his way to drive as fast as he could, over every speed bump he could find.
Etrius wanted to butcher every single one of The General's thugs, he wanted to murder every single one of them in cold blood. But first he wanted to talk to The General, oh yes he'd make The General pay. He had crossed the line this time, it took some nerve just to ask him to join after Rebirth, but kidnapping him and throwing him in a van? He was going to tear The General a new hole for him to crap out of.
Etrius sat there for what felt like days, after each hour his temper lessened a little bit, not focusing on what he wanted to do to The General but more or less how to escape. He shifted around the small confine very slowly. His shins were tied back to his thighs so movement was tedious and pestering. He hit his head against the wall sharply making the affected area feel like someone had stuffed a tennis ball between the skull.
The banging and yelping was enough to make the driver to have cried out, "What the hell?" and break the van. But when Etrius was completely quiet for a few minutes (A hard task considering the throbbing pain on the back of his head), the driver resumed doing his job. Etrius then started groaning and gibbering, he hated this position he hated everything.
The Hatred was starting to flood back. Everything was just so irritating, now he had a headache from the impact. Damn it, why was The General doing this to him? Why? His lack of control of the situation made him go ape shit.
"FUCK YOU GENERAL, LET ME OUT OF THE FUCKING CAR," Etrius bashed himself against the rear door of the van, "LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!"
Etrius could feel the van stopping a second time but he kept bashing himself up against the door, he felt his back grow sore from the abuse, the echoes and the movement made his headache pound harder than ever.
"LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!" When Etrius was about to throw himself against the door again, he was surprised as the door burst open while he was in mid throw.
So instead of colliding with a solid door his head collided painfully into the driver's crotch.
Anyone in the vicinity might have thought an explosion had occurred, for the two men were in a fit of angry yelling, swearing mostly. The driver was babbling and hopping around both of his hands holding his gentlemen's region, and Etrius fell head first onto very sharp gravel. The part that hit the ground first was the part of his head the had hit the van wall so he felt immeasurable pain.
Etrius' blind fold had slid off when his face scraped across the jagged gravel. He wasn't taking in his surroundings; he was more focused on the massive pain in his head. But when he did get around to partially taking notice of what he was looking at, he was in a forest, no idea where, he might even be off country and he wouldn't know. Like most forests on Earth in Etrius' time, all of the trees were leave less or their leaves were growing thin and scarce, dead looking too.
Pillars of smoke arose distantly in the forest's background. The trees weren't close together, tree stumps were frequent and nearly everywhere, this forest was dying no doubt about that. But Etrius' concern was escape and the driver was almost recovered from the abuse to his err … his err milk station. Etrius fumbled his legs in a decrepit attempt to untie his leg restraints, but the bond was too tight if he could just untie his arms …
So he compensated by feebly fumbling his arms, the position that they had been for the trip was irritating. Etrius really wanted to break the cuffs, but the last time he tried that his wrists were broken, and if he wanted to escape rendering his hands as useless would not be a good start. He tried forcing his hands through the cuffs, but they were too tight, forcing them to go through was pure agony so he desisted.
Damn James Bond movies, they had always made it look so easy. Etrius again tried to fit his wrists through, he tried to block out the pain but it was more intense than last time because of the renewed vigour. He shrieked as loud as he could again, now that he had tried so hard to get them off the second time the cuffs were stuck in between the widest part of his hand, unable to move backwards or forwards, the outline digging into his skin.
Etrius' writhed from the multiple pain sources. The driver had gotten over his injury, and was trying to help Etrius get his cuffs back into his wrists, Etrius didn't care whether the wrists moved backwards or forwards or whoever helped him, he just wanted the blinding pain to stop. The birds resting in the treetops finally fluttered away from all of the commotion.
It was more pain to get the hand cuffs back into place, but after a lengthy struggle and a record amount of screaming, Etrius was groaning in pain, red and bruised marks were deep in the affected area, the headache was worse than ever from the screaming and his head still hurt from the collision.
"Don't try and escape again," the driver threatened. Eventually, the driver checked all of his restraints, and then dragged him back into the van, a pile of agony.
Etrius could feel the vehicle moving again, but he just lay there taking the driver's advice on not trying to do anything that would result in weeks of being sore. The van resumed bumping all over the place like before, but Etrius was beyond caring, he just lay in a forced fetal position. Nervousness crept up on him like ants, rage wasn't a good anaesthetic anymore and he couldn't block out his anxiety with it.
This was one of the few scenarios in years that would end up with the same shitty ending no matter what he did, what if his days were finally numbered? Somehow that last internal query didn't concern Etrius as much as it would other people, if he died he wouldn't have to serve as The General's play thing, he could end his depression.
In fact if he died he wondered what would await him, choirs of angels or a fiery pit? All he could say about the matter was that he wouldn't be able to stand an afterlife, he had, had enough with the first one he screwed up. No, if he were to die simple oblivion would suit him nicely, he might welcome it in fact. Etrius somehow managed to gently fall asleep in the van, but his dream was corrupted.
The man got down a few steps before he was tackled by the monster, the pair toppled down the stairs in a disarray of limbs. They eventually halted, with the animal on top wrestling to bite the man with it's razor sharp teeth.
"Get, the, fuck, off, me," he grunted.
The duo struggled wildly, the savage bared it's teeth again, "W-w-wait what are you- ARGHH," he wailed, the creature had buried it's teeth into his shoulder. Blood lightly dribbled down his shoulder, but it was also mixed with a bright shiny substance, the freak pulled it's chin away from his flesh, and licked its lips sadistically. The man felt his shoulder, the bright liquid was oozing from his shoulder, the flesh looked mangled beyond recognition. Was he going to die? Was the animal's bite poisonous?
The animal turned its back and fled down the stairs and out of sight before the man could even register what it had done, he stood up and walked down the stairs clutching his shoulder. He could just see the monster fleeing into the darkness surrounding the alter, where the hell was he? How had he last gotten there? Just what the hell was happening? As he stumbled down the stairs, he could feel his own life force ebbing away.
His vision became blurry, his energy was being sucked out of him like a vacuum cleaner, which made walking feel like running a marathon. Progress had become ever so tiring, more than once he had fallen over from the sheer lack of persistence, he couldn't even think straight, his thoughts were muddled up and too difficult to produce. Inevitably, his will gave out, he collapsed down the stairs, rolling right down to the base of the alter.
He lay motionless, with the glowing eyes of thousands glaring right at his lifeless form.
The General scowled as he scanned the mission report came back, after the first failed attempt to take Etrius, he had been forced to send ten additional men a few weeks afterwards to properly subdue him. A long list of horrific injuries spanned across his laptop's screen. The most severe case was being blinded but apart from that, everything else on the list was fully treatable, The General had attempted to change Etrius' personality before, to make him human. But it had never worked, that was Etrius would always be, a killer, efficient and uncontrollable, very tragic.
The General sighed which relinquished the smoke from a cigar he had been smoking, most people would say that smoking at his age was stupid, but it was also stupid to wait for one of the most violent people he had ever met, brought into his office when he was unarmed. It had taken a special sort of crazy to have taken on his job. However, one thing he couldn't deny about Etrius was that his tantrums and excessively aggressive actions made drill sergeants think twice before making Etrius do a 'lap around the obstacle course'.
He huffed another mouthful of smoke, he was getting too old and melodramatic to force Etrius to do missions, and even worse, on this one Etrius was had been taken to a secret facility, and Etrius hated deceit. But he was out of options, years ago when Etrius had proved to be ruthless, The General had convinced himself that his top soldier was necessary, a necessary evil.
But then? With no fewer than seventeen of his men having to be medically discharged because of Etrius' antics. And that wasn't including all of the 'unofficial' happenings, like Barclay, The General would never forget what Etrius had mentally done to that poor sap. He had doubted his decision to make Etrius his 'favourite,' as some of the Etrius' jealous associates assumed. The General speculated whether they had been correct, thinking back, Etrius had gotten special treatment.
He was always willing to let Etrius bend the rules a bit, nothing serious, but if he hadn't had an almost perfect mission success rate, then he would be treated very differently. In fact The General had stepped in once or twice to stop Etrius being sentenced with a dishonourable discharge and possible jail time, he had truly committed some heinous crimes. But Vozrozhdeniya had been the final straw, Etrius' discharge had been the result of the biggest of his crimes, and that was where The General drew the line, just before chaos.
Yes, he dearly regretted everything he had done to Etrius, and he was sure that a lot more regret and guilt was going to follow the last assignment. The General was certain of this. But he had tried all of his usual tricks for this one, all complete failures, he couldn't risk sending in any more of his troops to face certain death. Oh, too much depressive talk, even for him. The General had many liver spots on his face and wrinkles, and every time he ran for too long he felt like he'd aged thirty years.
A green beret rested upon his bald head, the beret had his General emblem pinned to it. The General was clean cut and could remember the regulations and protocol word for word, The General tore himself away from his laptop to view his office, a small wooden room with a nice desk with matching wood for the walls and door, a water bubbler stood next to the door, a ridiculously expensive carpet supported everything and a fan swinging lazily was the only thing sweeping away the smoke.
Apart from The General's laptop the only source of light were two horizontal windows on the left with the blinds half closed. Along with his computer, the General's desk contained a couple of folders with a custom designed, 'C' the logo for the castle project and there was also an ashtray for the General. The General himself was in his late sixties, not much older than Etrius when he thought about it mentally at least, but Etrius undeniably looked as old as him now.
The missions, the deaths had actually made an impact on him; stress gives a bad outcome for your life. This was one of the few things that surprised The General concerning Etrius. He had always assumed that Etrius was cold and heartless, but evidently there was still some good in him. The General could hear heavy footsteps approaching, better brace himself.
A livid Etrius stepped in with his shoulders hunched and hand cuffs attached to his wrists, The General slipped his laptop in a filing cabinet connected to the desk, he didn't want to give Etrius anything to throw at him or break. Etrius had shaved and didn't smell of liquor or smoke anymore, in fact it Etrius reminded The General a little bit of himself, that was until he opened his mouth.
"Ah, long time no see," The General always started off politely diplomacy was the key here.
"Do you realise I could break these damn things as easy as your neck," Etrius threatened completely disregarding The General's civilised manner, Etrius had given his warning in the elevator and he planned to do it.
Etrius wasn't going to forget Rebirth anytime soon, but he wouldn't bring it up, The General was well aware of his blunder but he had benefited from it, in fact Etrius had always doubted whether it had been a blunder at all. Etrius' sore throat and other health troubles had been dealt with, all except his depression; his main physical problems were the most recent ones in the van, some of which were still tender.
"Yes but it was to see if you'd cooperate or not, retirement made you soft or something?" Damn! He had slipped he'd have to be more careful with the diplomatic speech.
"What do you want?" Etrius wanted to make it clear that The General's persuasion was not welcome.
And he thought he'd been doing quite a good job of it, but Etrius knew The General, he wasn't going to give up that easily, whatever bullshit that The General thought was important, meant that he'd press the matter.
"Same old Etrius straight to business, eh? Ok I'll level, The General may as well get it over and done with, "I'm having some problems Etrius, ever since you left I haven't had a single reliable man for, those kinds of missions you're notorious of. You are the only man in this one."
Etrius had known from the beginning this was the case and he wouldn't stand for it.
"You know I'm retired, I don't do this anymore," Etrius liked to believe that he had willingly retired; it saved his touchy feely nonsense that he felt.
"You don't really have much of a choice in this one Etrius," The General definitely understated that.
"Believe me I do," Etrius could feel the hatred flowing through his veins, he contorted his face and bit his lip to stop him leaping at The General.
"You're the only man on Earth who could possible accomplish this kind of task," now that was perfectly true.
"This shit again?" Etrius rolled his eyes, he had, had people crawling up to him, admiring him, but he was far used to this and it wouldn't persuade him at all.
"I'm serious as always," The General was going to tell Etrius as much as he could, trust had to be earned.
Etrius sneered disbelievingly, why did he have to put up with this stuff? Why? Damn it, why did his life suck so badly?
"Do you believe in different dimensions?"
Etrius sighed but didn't say anything, good The General thought.
"For a long time theories of parallel universes have existed," The General puffed his cigar while fumbling with the folders, "Places where the laws of nature don't necessarily have to be the same as here."
Etrius couldn't dismiss what he was hearing, The General had gone senile, but he still let him talk, admittedly partially interested.
Behind the desk, he opened one of the folders with the 'C' on it, revealing photos of a muddy grey landscape with tall mountains and a barren landscape.
"These so called parallel universes are connected to us, no further away than the width of a shadow without us being able to see them or go into them," it would sound ludicrous now, but Etrius had no idea what he was stepping into, it obviously showed now.
"Someone's been to crazy town," he rolled his eyes again, what a nut.
"Four months ago a research team managed, for the first time, to open a link between two universes. Ours and one never seen by us," this sparked his interest.
Etrius now looked more curious than angry, but Etrius' normal glare was still intact. Taking advantage, The General ploughed on.
"This newly discovered universe is a dark deserted world. After four months of exploring a lonely vast, a helicopter pilot spotted what, uh, seems to be a, uh, castle," The General scrolled to a photo from the folder showing a large, grey, brick castle. Five fat turrets spouted up from the structure, the tallest one being in the middle, it was the widest.
The main structure contained walls lined with cracks like it was frequently hit by earthquakes, the turrets had much less damage. The castle stood atop a massive grey mountain, with no way to walk up to the construction. Etrius looked started to look angry again and The General couldn't put his finger on why. Therefore he thought the best action he could do was to continue.
"A team of scientists were sent in for investigation, none of them were found again. There is something in that castle, something … evil," The General thought this might seal the deal.
"I'm not some God damn archaeologist, stop wasting my time," Etrius shrugged his shoulders and huffed menacingly.
"Etrius, someone must have built that castle, an ancient culture. We believe they used some sort of a-" The General smoked his cigar again, careful not to blow any smoke to Etrius, pissing him off, "-power. Using it as a world resource."
Etrius stared right into The General's eyes, wanting to hurt him, to make him suffer. But another part of his mind was doubtful, nearly agreeing that The General might be making a good call here.
"Imagine yourself what would happen if mankind got its hands on that," The General's eyes widened a bit when he said this, this conversation could very well determine the fate of-
His thoughts were cut short as Etrius gave a positive sign of acceptance by sighing lightly, and looking at the ground and back up, obviously in deep thought.
"We don't need to fight about Earth's last resources. No one's struck oil for decades, the rainforests are nearly gone, and the oceans are flooding cities. Earth is dying. This power resource is our, last hope," the melodramatic part of him kicked in, but it paid off.
Etrius only looked hesitant, that was all he needed from him.
"All of your old team members have already been sent in. They're waiting for you, consider yourself reinstated … Commander."
After The General's persuasion, he had given Etrius the key to his cuffs, a few directions and saluted him out. Etrius hunched out of the office and back into the bare, white walled corridor. Etrius wished that for once he could just sit back and watch this play out on the news. And he couldn't shake off the feeling that Etrius was walking blind on this one, normally Etrius spent hours talking to The General of what he was going to do in a mission, but with this time he had spent about ten minutes.
What was going on? Where was he? What happened to the science team? Why had his old team agreed to this? Why couldn't his team handle the mission without him? He hunched down the hall way with the questions buzzing in his head, The General's directions brought him to a single door which lead to a garage. The surrounding background was a muddy grey landscape with soaring mountain peaks … wait, these matched the pictures in The General's folder!
Etrius' eyes widened, he had been in a different dimension for almost a day and he hadn't noticed. Hastily, he searched his body checking for anything that was different, pockets were uprooted, hair was ruffled and his reflection was viewed. When he was satisfied that he was unchanged, Etrius scanned the garage with wide eyes, still stunned. He was in quite a large garage filled with armed humvees, armour plated trucks, and a scarce amount of tanks.
A young Warrant Officer waved him over by one of the humvees, unlike the other humvees, this one was unarmed, that was odd. If the scientists had gone missing, why was he getting no firepower along with being blind? The mission had made nos sense.
"Sir," the officer beside the humvee saluted.
"Why isn't this vehicle armed?" Etrius didn't return the salute.
"I was told this is a recon mission sir," the officer replied without a breath of untruthfulness.
"What? Recon, but-" Etrius sighed and gave up, he remembered that this was something The General would do.
Evaluation, to know if Etrius had gone stale from his near perfect reputation, the best way to test this would be to put him in the worst possible situation, that was how The General thought anyway.
"What weapons are we getting?" Etrius wanted to know exactly how bad it was.
Now the officer recognised Etrius' tone of exasperation.
"I will give you support outside the construction, you will be getting a saber sir," the officer tried to not to share Etrius' concern.
Lloyd had been better had using the saber swords, but it didn't mean that he'd had no experience, what bugged him was that he'd have to rely on someone not in his elite team. The General had made a tall order there, he detested depending on other people, Etrius felt that with him not being in shape, the mission was doomed to fail.
"Let's go, you drive" he just had to accept the inevitable.
Etrius hopped into the back seat, not wanting to encourage conversation by sitting in the passenger seat. The sword and the officer's assault rifle were already stacked on the floor in the back. The interior was like any typical humvee, dark, well protected and not many structural weaknesses. Gizmos and gadgets sprung up on the dashboard, most of which Etrius hadn't know what their function was, he knew how to drive it that was where his vehicle expertise ended.
It took considerable will to not pull rank on the officer and steal the rifle for himself, but if he did The General wouldn't see this as 'passing.' Etrius would have to undergo a similar test, perhaps even harder. Etrius couldn't help but ponder on what wasdisconcerting. He had the unwelcome feeling of dread, Etrius wasn't as much in shape has he had been a few months before, his combat skills would be rusty and the blind feeling left him very much in doubt.
Somewhere along the mission to the castle, Etrius was sure either he or the officer was going to be killed. And he was quite sure that the officer had a better chance, he didn't have to come in the castle, was better equipped and he had been in training this morning. Etrius however had to climb a mountain to get to the castle, collect anything in the castle worth acquiring, kill whatever had murdered the science team, and he hadn't had any sort of mental or physical training in months.
Everything about the mission reeked of intrigue and confidentiality, the lingering questions popped back into Etrius' head it had been then when he'd finally gotten a chance to ponder them. How was something this big, kept a secret? Why was The General risking Etrius' life on this mission so he could evaluate his combat skills? And the biggest ones popped into his head, who built the castles? Why did the creators make the castles hostile? How did scientists manage to make a portal to a different dimension? What wasn't The General telling him?
The thoughts buzzed in his head like angry wasps, each getting angrier when it didn't get what it wanted, wasps wanted a sting on the thing that had annoyed it, a question desired and answer. Etrius couldn't bet on anyone thinking about it as much as he had though, he could only hope that this mission went without a hitch, a tall order but nothing was impossible.
Tires spun over concrete, a garage door somehow opened by itself and the humvee started the arduous journey. Etrius started to wish that the engine wasn't as loud, so that he could chew over the question, but then again that had seemed pointless because even if he guessed the answer to them, he had no way of telling whether the answer was correct. The officer obviously wouldn't know anything more than he did, grunts were just told to point and shoot, any questions and you cleaned toilets with your tongue, simple.
As you rose through the ranks you encountered varying amounts of red tape, a higher pay grade, but you'd need a fuck ton of patience. As the vehicle sped out of the facility, Etrius tried to get a clear look through the rear windscreen, but the humvee's tiny windows and 'safety first' design rendered Etrius to see barely any of the facility he had exited. Sighing he wondered how he could pass the time, it would certainly be a long journey.