As you may already imagine, this chapter will be more serious. Questions, some at least, will be answered and the characters must now prepare for the next morning. I'm sorry if this chapter is a little boring, but I felt the need to explain most of what was happening.
- Enjoy
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Chapter 4: Truth of the Matter
"Rikku . ." I started just as Yuna and Paine walked in, "there's something you need to know . . ." I stopped to take a breath.
"What happened?" Yuna gasped. She knelt down and her hand went to my throat, her fingers brushing against the bruised flesh.
"I was . . attacked."
"Well that's obvious." Paine said quietly.
"Who attacked you?" Rikku asked, fury burning in her spiral eyes.
"A demon." her eyes widened and I took another breath. "As I said . . there's something I need to . . tell you." I looked around the room. "All of you."
"Shoot." Paine said, leaning against the door frame.
I struggled to figure out how to start. These kinds of matters were difficult to handle, I needed to be as cautious as possible. I searched my mind to try and find the right words. I had to let them in carefully.
. . . Oh what the hell!
"I'm not from here." Rikku and Yuna looked confused, Paine seemed fine. "What I mean is I'm not from your planet. I'm from a very old world called Earth." Rikku gaped, but Yuna seemed angry. I sighed, it was to be expected.
"You expect me to believe . . do you think we're stupid?!" I shook my head.
"If I did . . then I wouldn't be telling you this." I reached into one of the inner pockets of my jumpsuit and pulled out a small metal square. "Computer." the square lit up blue and beeped once. Yuna jumped back, but Rikku eyed it with awe. Even Paine seemed a little unsettled by the thing. "Earth."
Another beep and a cone of soft light shot out from the top of the metal, forming a three foot holographic replica of Earth.
"Earth. This world is my home. Were I come from it is the year four-thousand one-hundred fifty. I came here along in a large ship that is now orbiting your world. Computer, show warship." the hologram changed to show a large crescent of iron, the two tips sharp. "This ship is hidden in orbit, invisible to the naked eye. We came here to find something. Something that I've been trying to kill for five years." I turned off the computer and slipped it back into my inner pocket.
Yuna looked at me, eyes wide. She'd never seen this level of technology before. "H . . how can I be sure that you're not lying."
"Depends on which part you're talking about." I smiled. "Rikku, reach under that pillow and bring me that box." she leapt up and snatched the box from under the pillow, then quickly handed it to me. Strangely enough she seemed to be taking this pretty well. I opened the box and removed the sphere, I handed it to Yuna. "Watch it." I said. I shifted, resting my back against the bed and sitting on the floor.
Yuna activated the sphere, Paine and Rikku moved closer to watch it. I had to show them. They needed to believe me, no matter how little the trust was. I told them where I was from, now I had to tell them the rest.
The sphere changed and an image formed. It showed a laboratory. Advanced computer panels and surgical instruments lined the walls. Strapped to the back of the room was the Demon itself. A tube was injected into his arm, feeding a thick liquid into him to keep him sedated. He growled and writhed, but could not free himself.
A man walked up to the Demon and took out a small vial of red liquid. A woman joined him and took the vial. She opened it and dipped a brush into it. The man began to chant and the woman painted a symbol under the creature's right eye.
The Demon twisted and roared, a red light enveloped him. Once the ritual was over the light faded. The vial was discarded and the man brought out another. Just as the woman opened it the monster roared. It was deep, and horrible. Rikku gasped and Yuna flinched.
The Demon's fingers twitched and a large wave of energy slammed into the two humans. They soared back out of view and a massive cloud filled the room. The cloud faded and the creature strained against the straps and the material snapped. It broke free of its bindings and flicked its wrist. Another shockwave hit a number of people beyond the picture, wafts of cloud floated into view. He pulled the tube out of his arm and rolled his sleeve down.
"Shit, get him!" someone yelled. Gunfire filled the room, hitting all but the Demon, who'd vanished. Screams were heard from beyond the picture. Someone ran passed the sphere and a large hand slammed into him, the claws tore him in half as he ran. Blood rained over the image and the sphere was knocked down. It hit the floor and jarred the image.
After a moment of silence it was picked up. The monster's face was directly in front of the sphere now. It grinned and spoke.
"You people are fucking relentless. Maybe this will show you to not try again. I will leave you, but if you dare to follow me then I will hunt all those involved down and kill them the most painful way I can think of." he chuckled. "You will never capture me again!" he snarled.
The image vanished and the three girls stared at the sphere for a minute. Finally Yuna looked up at me, Rikku carefully placed the sphere back in the box and set it on the floor.
"What was that?" Yuna asked.
"It has a lot of names. Wraith, the Demon, but my people call it Stigma." I sighed and shifted again. "It's a long story, but now that I've started I can't stop, so I'll start from the beginning. A little more than two-thousand years ago my ancestors had started exploring space. We developed better and better technology for it, and began to use this technology to better explore our own world, since most of our space explorations had been fruitless.
"My people were exploring the bottom of an ocean. For a long time no one had been able to search this area, but now they had the technology they needed to check it. They found something. A large stone tablet. It was over twenty feet long, and ten feet thick. There was writing carved on it, and a large picture carved in the middle of the tablet. The picture showed the Earth, lightning and ice and many other elements looked poised to strike it, but in between the Earth and the elements was a huge fireball. When they checked the writing they where surprised to find that it was written in Latin, an ancient Earth language. It was quickly translated and discovered that the tablet was not even a tablet at all."
"What was it?" Rikku asked, absolutely entranced, like a child listening to a story book.
"I was like a huge box. They found how to open it and inside were hundreds of scrolls and tablets, all written in Latin. They were deciphered, and those scrolls changed the course of history of our world. These tablets and scrolls revealed parts of our history we had no idea had ever occurred. These had come from a time period that was far older than we could imagine. These scrolls allowed my people to rediscover magic. For a long time it had been dismissed as merely a myth, but these scrolls explained the use of elemental and other spells in a scientific manner.
"What was found the most amazing was an accurate star map that actually showed the locations of planets that we had no idea existed. By using these scrolls we became more advanced and more powerful. We finally decided to go to the nearest planet to Earth, when we arrived, we found something we didn't expect. This world was inhabited by beings called the Fallen. The Fallen are ruled over by leaders called Lords of the Fallen. Most worlds have a Lord on them, this one did. We later found that this planet, and all other's that had Fallen on them, were marked with a small symbol on the map. What scared my people was the fact that these beings had a way of coming to our world. The threat of invasion began."
"Invasion?" Yuna asked.
"Yeah, the Fallen could travel between worlds, almost at will, it just took a lot of energy."
"Why didn't you do that?" Rikku asked.
"No need to, we had star-ships." Rikku nodded, but still seemed confused. "A star-ship is similar to this airship, only they are a lot bigger, they can travel beyond a planet's sky, and most of ours are armed."
The girl made an O with her mouth. I still didn't think she understood it that well. I sighed and decided to continue.
"My people decided that something needed to be done to get rid of the threat of invasion. So we created a military force dedicated to one thing: The total annihilation of the Fallen. I myself am a Major in the modern military, we call it High Command. We utilized our forces and started looking for these creature's weaknesses, and we found them. We began waging outright war against the Fallen and it has been going on now for more than one-thousand years."
"So what about this guy Stigma?" Paine asked.
"That is much more recent." I paused for a moment before continuing. "Four years ago we found a world that we didn't know had any Fallen on it."
"What about the map?" Yuna asked, still skeptical.
"Well that was made thousands of years ago, by now the Fallen had moved on to more planets. This world looked dead. Covered in ruins, but we found no Fallen, although the signs that they had been there were evident. What we did find was an old, beaten up human. Well, we thought it was human. Once we found out that he was Fallen we captured him, unaware of his power."
"Stigma." Rikku said. I nodded slowly.
"He has many powers, but the first one we found out about is what caused us to call him Stigma. He switched bodies. He can spread himself like a disease. He can only inhabit one body at a time, thankfully, but he can switch as many times as he can get a hold of someone. He hid in the body of one of our soldiers and then emerged. Younger, stronger, and with all the knowledge of our people. Ever since then he's been the most dangerous Fallen we've ever encountered. His most frightening power is the ability to make you see things."
"Visions?" Paine asked.
"Yeah, his canine teeth are longer than normal and if he even pricks you it injects a venom that allows him to manipulate what you see for thirty minutes, after that the venom is useless." I pointed to my neck and Rikku leaned closer.
"He . . bit you?" she asked, voice filled with concern.
"Three years ago. It was horrible. He has the most disgusting mind I could ever imagine." I inclined my head and shut my eyes. "He's sick."
"And now he's here." Paine stated. I nodded slowly.
"We followed him here, traced his energy signal. Which is hard to do, especially with him. Even despite his warnings we followed him here to defend this planet from him. Out of all the Fallen, the Lords included, this thing is the most powerful being I have ever encountered. We managed to bind half of his powers, that was what that mark they painted on him was, but he's still strong." I looked up and stared into Yuna's eyes. "And I am going to stop him."
She glared at me, "From doing what?" she asked.
"He's threatened you all and myself. He's going to kill me for revenge and all of you just for the fun of it. I'm not going to let that happen."
"How?" Paine asked. Talk about a woman of few words.
"I have weapons. Those two cases you found with me, I need them." I said, standing slowly. Rikku helped me up. I took a few steps and nodded, I was fine.
"Follow me." Paine said. We left the room and walked to one of the others. Paine told us to wait outside and a few seconds later emerged with the cases. We brought them back into Rikku's room and laid them on the bed. "I figured they were weapons."
In between the two latches on each case was a small pad. I selected the bigger one first and entered the code. The case unlocked and I flipped the latches up, opening the case. Inside was a myriad of weaponry. Guns, knives, ammunition and more. I gripped two loops on the side and lifted, pulling the inside of the box out, revealing a second compartment underneath. A long broadsword took up the whole of this second compartment.
"These are the only weapons that can hurt him or the Fallen. The scrolls spoke of a weakness, 'White gold that burns their flesh like fire,'." Paine lifted the broadsword and unsheathed it. She ran a finger along the flat of the blade and looked at me.
"Silver." she said. I nodded.
"Many legends on Earth speak of silver as being a bane to evil, we never knew how right they were. Luckily we found silver in abundance on many of our colonized worlds." Rikku studied me.
"Colonized . . ?" she looked at me, confused. Wow, being advanced was really hard to explain.
"Uh, yeah, that means that we live on more planets than just Earth now."
"That's possible?" she asked. I nodded.
I turned my attention back to the case, "Take whatever weapon you can use, you'll need it. Silver is like poison to this bastard, one touch and he'll be screaming."
Yuna picked up two of the pistols and hooked the holsters to her belt. She also slipped four magazines into the pouch on her belt. Paine sheathed the broadsword and slung the harness over her back. Rikku picked up the two daggers and sheathed them where her old ones had been.
"And you?" Yuna asked. I moved the first case to the side and unlocked the smaller one. Inside were two swords. Thin blades, and no guards. The handles were wrapped in a soft leather. I hooked the swords on either side of my waist using small hoops of leather on the waist of the jumpsuit. I reached into the first case and grabbed three small, metallic spheres and slipped them into my pocket.
"Do you know when he'll attack?" Paine asked.
"In the morning."
"How do you . ."
"He told me." I looked up at her.
"And you believe him?" she asked, surprised.
"He always keeps his word."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. He doesn't lie. A lot of the Fallen have weird quirks like that. I imagine it irritates the fuck out of them. Now, what about the other three, er, four." damn it, I almost forgot Barkeep.
"Oh!" Yuna's eyes widened. "I forgot."
"Get them, there's two more pistols, and plenty more ammo." Paine turned to walk out the door, but looked back at me.
"Not till morning?"
"I'm sure of it." she nodded and left.
"We need somewhere that we can all be at once, or at least closer together. The bridge is too big, and the lounge is too exposed. The deck is a deathtrap." I paused and looked around me. "Or we could just stay here." I knew to do that we'd need to make some changes. I heard footsteps and turned back to the door. Paine walked in, followed by Brother, Buddy, Shinra, and Barkeep.
"I told them some of it." she said. "Mostly just the fact that we're in danger." I heard no accusation in her voice and was thankful for that.
"She said there's some kind of demon on the ship." Buddy said, shaking his head.
"Not just any demon." I said. I picked up the last two pistols and handed them to Buddy and Brother. I tossed them each another two magazines. "Point and click, you'll be able tell what he looks like, he just seems . . wrong."
"Scary." Rikku whimpered. Uh-oh.
"I told them not to question, just to listen." she glanced at Brother. "At least that was all it took for Buddy." she growled. Brother flinched and took a step back, his head facing the ground.
"Sorry, but I do have one question." Buddy said nervously. "Why don't we just stop somewhere and run? Or try to get some help?"
"Because this thing would follow us no matter where we went, and running would put even more people in danger. Also, none of your weapons can hurt this guy. I've tried using magic on him before, it does little compared to what it can do to other Fallen."
"Like I said," Paine growled, "just shut up and listen."
"Alright, we have until tomorrow morning to set up. I've decided that this room and the one next to it will be the areas to set up in. He fights erratically, so while we'll be in danger at all times starting tomorrow we won't be fighting at every second. In fact fighting will be sparse. We need to use the furniture to block off these last two room from the lounge. We need to get the chairs and couch and drag them onto the balcony."
Paine and I drug the couch while Buddy and Brother grabbed the chairs. We positioned the couch first, it was like a small wall that separated the last two rooms from the rest of the balcony. The two chairs were set side-by-side on top of the couch. Buddy and Brother were forced to climb over the makeshift wall.
All doors in the rooms were opened, preventing the Demon from surprising us that way. I planted small metal spheres like the ones in my pocket on the foot of the railing of the balcony, on the "wall", beyond the "wall", and then wirelessly linked them to my small computer.
None of this took long, we were finished in under an hour. Paine decreed that the four girls should be in Rikku's room and the guys were to stay in the one next to it. I saw a fair amount of logic in the decision. Four in each room and two constantly on guard, one outside each room.
That and it would separate us from Brother. I figured that was a driving force behind her decision. We waited, nervous conversation was started every so often to try and calm everyone down. We tried to all get some rest before it was too dark outside, before we needed guards.
I fell asleep without knowing it and woke up a number of hours later. It was dark outside, seeing as how no light shone through the windows at all, the lamp was off but a soft light drifted through the open door. I had fallen asleep sitting against the wall, I was leaning against the bed, which my swords were just under. Yuna had apparently fallen asleep on the other side of the bed the same way I had. Rikku was curled up on top of the bed. Paine was leaning against the door frame, looking slowly around.
Rikku stirred and muttered something. She lifted her head and opened her eyes, the emeralds drifted around the room and then landed on me. She was scared, and she had every right to be.
And guess who's fault that is? If you had just listened to the warnings . . .
"Hey." she whispered. She looked over at Paine, the stoic woman was standing with her head inclined, but I doubted she was asleep. "Where's . ." she looked over the other side of the bed and smiled. She quietly slipped off the bed and sat down beside me, her head on my shoulder and her eyes closed.
I could feel her shivering, and it wasn't from the cold. I leaned my head down, my mouth brushed her ear.
"It's gonna be alright." I whispered.
"How do you know?" she asked.
"Because I've beaten this guy before, and in fewer numbers." yeah, it was the truth. That one time with Zach and Cassidy had been pretty fucked up, but the truth was the three of us had beaten him, driven him away, many times.
"I hope you're right." she said. I looked up and saw Paine watching me. I gave a silent signal that Rikku was scared and the woman nodded, turning her attention elsewhere.
"I am." I said. Rikku huddled up against me and I slipped an arm over her shoulders.
"Thank-you." she said. I looked down at her.
"Huh? What for?"
"For being here." how ironic is that? If I wasn't here she wouldn't be in this mess. She opened her eyes and looked into mine. There was innocence there, uncertainty, and fear. She buried her face in the crook of my neck and I could feel tears. Her body shuddered and she cried, making no noise in the process.
My mouth hung open. I had no idea what to do. I looked back at the door, Paine had left the frame and was somewhere outside the room. I sighed and wrapped my other arm around Rikku and pulled her into my lap. I held her and she cried, her arms around my neck. A few minutes later she slowly stopped. I held her, rocking slowly. I felt her lips brush my neck and tried not to flinch. I felt her kiss my neck softly, and her tongue brushed my skin. I sucked in a breath.
"Rikku." I breathed. She looked up into my eyes. "I . . uh . ." her eyes were still wet from crying. I swallowed and gently pressed my lips to hers. She looked shocked but slowly closed her eyes, I didn't close mine. We sat like that for a short time before she moved her lips and kissed my cheek, barely brushing it. Her lips moved to my jaw line and then slowly down my neck. I suppressed a shiver. She rested her head on my shoulder and slowly drifted to sleep.
"Thanks." she said, it was barely a whisper. Slowly her breathing turned shallow and she fell asleep, gently nuzzling me. I sighed and held her, glad she was asleep. She needed any comfort I could give her, so I guess I succeeded. I hoped that I did.
Because tomorrow was going to be hard on all of us . . especially me.
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Author's Note: I wrote this a lot faster than I thought I could, and I'm sorry that it's shorter than my other chapters. Ah well, I hope you enjoyed it. Next chapter the real struggle begins. I apologize if the little amount of science fiction was weird, but that's just how the story developed to me. There will be less SciFi in chapters to come, so don't worry. And thank-you all who reviewed the last chapter.
- Thank-you for reading.