TITAN
AE
III
The Legacy
Chapter 1 -
- 3054A.D.
It was night on New Earth. Not a solitary soul was about the vast landscape. The sky shook with rumblings of thunder. Rain poured out of the sky like a faucet and it saturated the fresh ground with green life. Trees and plants grew out of the ground about the place. Their leaves and branches swayed in the darkness as water dripped down their sides. The heavens were as a sea of black, dark and heavy with precipitation. The Phoenix sat high on the same green hill. Over the years, it had accumulated rust here and there as it wasn't flown too much any more for the people known as the Tuckers were still living in it.
"It's really pourin' out there." Cale said as he sat next to the window. He had Akima in his lap and she was cuddling in his arms. They hadn't changed much: Cale was getting darker, almost brown hair, and had more definition in his arms. Akima was still youthful with a young face and a slender body. She had decided to let her purple bangs grow even longer until they reached a quarter length of her chest.
"I wonder what the kids are up to." Akima stated as she rested her head on Cale's shoulder. He leaned forward and began caressing her arm while resting his face close to hers.
"Ah, they're probably just bored. They don't care about what we missed." Cale whispered. He began to lightly kiss her face and she gave a grin. "They take rain for granted." he added.
Just then, Ruth came down the ladder that came from the cockpit. She was starting to look more and more like her mother every day. She had long, black braided hair and purple bangs emulating Akima's. She was about ten years of age. "Mommy, Joey called me a 'Drej' again!" her high voice wined.
Joseph followed down the gangway and took a hop to the floor at the bottom. He had some resemblance to Cale, mainly his chin. He had short, brown hair and was a little eight year old. "That's because she is one!" he argued.
"I am not!" Ruth stopped and yelled at her brother.
"Are too!" Joseph stood in front of her and reiterated his statement.
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Hold it!" Akima intervened. She sat up on Cale's lap and glared at the two. "Not too long ago, Joseph came down here and said you called him a 'Soil-sucker'." she lectured with a motherly tone.
"That's 'cause she started it!" Joseph argued.
"Did not!" Ruth returned.
"Did too!" Joseph disputed.
"Okay, that's enough!" Cale said, getting a little annoyed, "I don't want any name-calling from either of you. You're acting like four year-olds." At that, the two had downcast faces. They both looked at each other and back at their parents.
"Why don't you two come up here and sit with your dad and I?" Akima suggested. The children jumped up onto the window seat in front of Akima and sat down. They each appeared indifferent to watching the rain.
"You know, your mom and I didn't see rain when we were your age." Cale began.
"Really?" Joseph asked.
"Yeah, I had no clue what rain looked like." Akima added.
"That's why your mom and I care so much about little things like these; we don't take rain for granted because you never know when it might be taken away." Cale explained. The two children looked out the window and tried to imagine what it would be like without a world, let alone rain.
But in a separate part of the world, not too far, some evil had landed on the planet. The Valkyrie sat there in ruins. It had crashed on the earth by the EMP wave and had since then become a landmark. Only the anterior half of the ship remained for, in the crash, the engines exploded. The only things left of them were a few of the pieces which were severely large. One of the parts even jutted out of the ocean and a small coral reef grew around it. The anterior half had the cockpit diagonally protruding out of the ocean of which there was beach nearby. Mossy patches of green began to grow on the relic as it remained untouched for nearly ten years.
A large character approached the massive structure from the mainland. He was quite a sphinx because of his apparel. He was about seven feet tall, but was about four feet wide. The aspect that made him seem large were the silver shoulders that shone in the night. On top of the shoulders was a stone mask of a creature with black, large, marble-like eyes and a long snout. Out of the sides of his mask there was a helmet that had two thick, blunt horns that curved downward. Off of his shoulder grieves was a black cape that hid most of his body structure with the exception of his feet. He stopped in front of the Valkyrie and peered over it for a while.
"What happened to you?" a deep voice echoed from within the mask. He crept closer to the landmark taking in the view of its destruction. His cold, expressionless face took in the awe of its mystery. The sound of the waves crashed in the black of the moonless night. "Korso must have run into some trouble."
"If you came looking for Korso, he's not here!" a woman's voice sternly warned. The character turned to find a woman dressed in a cloak standing about fifty feet behind him. She was young and had long, brown hair. Her cloak was completely brown and had some gold clasps that connected the two sides around her neck. She had stern eyes and a strong chin; she was exceptionally beautiful in a tough-girl sort of way.
"Ah, Zerah, I knew you might be creeping about." The silver figure replied. When he spoke, nothing about him moved. The face didn't budge, but the voice sounded as one speaking into a trash can. The reverberation went all throughout his armor.
Zerah stared over the statuary person that stood before her. She did not know the identity of the man, but the two were long-lasting enemies. "You don't belong here." she warned. She had a displeased appearance on her face and her sapphire eyes narrowed.
"Neither do you," the man replied. He turned to the ship again and looked over it from inside his metal shell. He could be heard exhaling from within his mask. "It's more familiar to me than it is to you." he argued. Zerah took a step forward, ready to harry him with attacks, but she held back.
"Get away from that!" she reiterated.
"You honestly don't know the forces you're dealing with, do you?" the silver statue-like man said.
"I've been training. I'm ready for you, Macabre!" Zerah expounded, showing the tip of a curved sword out from behind her cloak. Macabre turned to her again.
"Must I defeat you time and time again? When will your fervor be extinguished?" the deep voice asked. Zerah froze for he was right: she had never defeated him before, but tonight, she felt differently.
"I believe I could be the victor. I'm ready, Macabre!" she said. Macabre stood still, as if he were thinking to himself for a while. Then, this motionless being raised one fist out of his cape.
"If you are prepared to slay me," he began. Suddenly, his cape flew upward and shortly revealed his chest, arms, and legs armored in gold. He tore an Egyptian khopis, a sword with a sickle-shaped blade that bent forward directly after the haft, from his belt. The back end of the sword had ridges on it and was darker than the sharp half. "then give me your best." he said as the cape fell around him again. His hand and the khopis protruded out from his cape.
Zerah grabbed the metal clasps on her neck and tore them off. With one swift movement, she threw the brown coat sharply aside. Now she wore a tight, red, leather outfit that didn't have sleeves and black legs. On her arms she wore red, leather gloves and boots that came slightly over her elbows and knees. There was a circular opening on the top of the chest of the suit that showed the swell of her overly-full bosoms.
Zerah held a Greek falchion, a sword whose back curved forward, came to a sharp point, and had a convex cutting edge in an ambiguous S-like fashion until it reached the haft of the blade. She held it forward with her right hand as she stood in an offensive position. "Let's do this!" she said.
Zerah leaped forward and brought her sword down upon Macabre. He blocked it by simply swinging perpendicular to hers. The blow from his swing sent her back. Zerah's falchion shivered in her hand from the block. She regained her composure and landed on her feet. Zerah stood in repose, ready to leap back at him with more fury. "So, I can't take you by force!" she said as she looked him over.
With that, Zerah took another leap at him, holding her falchoin above her head. The two swords clashed in a ringing fury. Zerah took quicker swings at his sides, but he was too skilled in fencing. It was as if Macabre's massive figure stood still. Only his arms moved out from his long, encompassing cape.
Just then, it seemed as if Macabre took the offensive. He began walking toward her, swinging from left to right and right to left. Zerah did her best to parry each blow with an inverse vertical swing. The metal flew with blinding speed. It flashed in the night as it reflected various stars in the sky.
Zerah became more and more uncomfortable as Macabre pushed her back with his thick sword. She gnashed her teeth as she tried to keep from being killed. In a last-ditch effort, Zerah performed a complete spin as she lashed out her falchion followed by a heel-kick straight to his chest. Macabre intercepted her foot with his hand and threw it upward. This caused Zerah to do a back flip before him. He sent his sickle-sword forward, hoping to spear her in the chest when a clang could be heard. Zerah had swatted it off while she landed. "Not so fast." she taunted.
Once again, she took the offensive, having several ax-like hacks at him and a couple of jabs. Macabre swung at her head and she quickly ducked. The khopis swooshed over her head and she came back up after it'd passed. He gave her a single, potent kick, straight to the stomach which sent her speedily back until she landed on her chest. Zerah let out a grunt when she hit the dirt. She realized that her falchion was no longer in her hand, but was about twenty feet away. Macabre walked forward with his blade whetted for Zerah's blood. She put one arm underneath and hastily pushed herself off of the ground while reaching for a plasma pistol in her belt with the other. No later than when she grabbed it, she shot straight for Macabre's anomaly of a head. He quickly batted it away in one swing and the blue sparks that came from it lit the night.
"You must resort to projectile weapons? Zerah, you disappoint me!" his voice stormed from inside. He never lost pace. He steadily and casually walked toward her. Each step left prints in the ground about an inch deep. She fired a second time and he caught it with the khopis. She fired a third and a fourth, but he swatted those away like annoying flies. "I'm sensing fear, Zerah." Macabre taunted from his mobile tomb, "Are you afraid!"
Zerah performed a single cartwheel toward her falchion and with her deft hands, she retained it before her feet finished the acrobatic stunt. "No more than I fear death!" she said in a fighting stance, "And I'm not afraid to die!" She leapt toward him with the sword leading. It clanged as it dug into the polished plating on his shoulder. Macabre grabbed her by her neck with his left hand and put the sword to her back with her right. She winced as she realized she was powerless as he held her above the ground.
"I'm worse than death!" he proclaimed into her ear. He let go of her neck and launched her from him with the sword. The blade tore open her skin and sent her through the air from his powerful strength. She collided with the ground and lay motionless for a bit. Zerah moaned as she beheld her wounds: a deep gash into her right arm and a long trench of a cut on her back. Blood was eager to flow from both and dripped like a leaky faucet into the dirt. She reeled in pain on the ground, holding her injuries before the large, metallic man.
"I'm the Dance of Death!" he professed to her. He stood there, in complete stillness. Not a muscle twitched. "I have others to deal with. You can live," he said like a judge, "for now." With that, he turned and began walking off until he disappeared into the darkness. Not a glimpse of reflected light was seen. He simply wasn't there any longer. Zerah still laid on the ground in pain and breathing heavily, trying to suppress her bodily torment.
"I'll be ready for you!" she spoke into the night, "I promise you on my father's grave I'll win next time!"