Zen-Ya attempted to fight back or at least scream for help, but in her pathetic attempts to do so, Kragok knocked her out completely, and she would find herself awakening much later within the Chaos Chamber once more. Trying to focus on the space around her, she saw that the candles were lit though a majority of the light illuminating the space was from the actual emerald itself. As she attempted to move her bound wrists from where they were against the wall, Zen-Ya realized that she was shackled tightly from neck to ankles upon one of the surrounding pillars about the emerald.
"Zen-Ya…!" a familiar, weary voice beckoned from beside her.
Turning her head quickly, the young echidna noticed Lara-Le to the left of her in the same predicament. "S-Sister, Lara-Le…!" she gasped, wishing she had the energy or the strength to rip her bindings off, but Zen-Ya found herself weaker than normal. "What's…what's going on…?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Lien-Da chuckled darkly from where she stood before the two. "The doctor knew the best way to get the guardians to behave—Spectre and Sabre especially—was to occupy them with a little meeting about this arrangement you both find yourselves within." Keeping her whip secured in her right hand, the pink haired legionnaire echidna started to pace back and forth with a smirk hooked upon her muzzle. "Not that it matters. Dr. Finitevus still has plans for the both of you to meet the fate you managed to dodge out of those many days ago."
Zen-Ya wanted to be snarky in return to Lien-Da's comments, but she stopped herself. She didn't want to act hopeful. If Spectre or any of the other guardians did stop the ritual, she would possibly be forced to endure life without her husband or, worse yet, slowly watch him die.
"No witty remarks? I am surprised—especially at you, Zen-Ya," said Lien-Da as she cracked her whip idly upon the floorboards. "It looks like you're pretty much ready to be reunited with the others that gave their life to the emerald and to Lord Enerjak."
Glaring irritably at Lien-Da, Zen-Ya huffed lowly. "I have my reasons…none of which concerns you."
Lara-Le listened to the exchange, waiting for Lien-Da to occupy herself elsewhere in the room with the other hooded legionnaires watching close by. "You seemed ready to accept your death," she whispered to Zen-Ya with a furrow of her wrinkled brow. "Whatever is the matter with you…? Everything you'll ever need is right here on this plane of existence, but not for me."
"It's a long story, sister," Zen-Ya whispered somberly as the shackles jingled slightly upon her weary movements. "I just…I would rather be burned alive by the Master Emerald than think about Spectre dying in my place."
"I am sure Spectre thinks differently," Lara-Le said softly in return. "I know Locke did…" Closing her eyes tightly to prevent the tears from surfacing, Lara-Le turned her attention from Zen-Ya. "Having to be alive for so long and watching each wife you have be burned alive must be hard for them. I cannot imagine being in their place."
No matter how she juggled the outcomes in her mind, Zen-Ya found either one of them difficult to accept. Her thoughts were brought to a quick close when she heard the front doors to the chamber open rather abruptly. Seeing the dark fog covering the doorway, Zen-Ya shook her head several times, knowing who it was.
The chaos blasts, which shot forth from behind the dark shroud, managed to take out a few legionnaires that were guarding the area. With the guardians finally coming into sight, Spectre glided forth with his teeth bared and his eyes enflamed with fury. Zen-Ya caught her breath at the sight of him looking so enraged.
The sound of a gun charging nearby her and Lara-Le, Zen-Ya panicked at the sudden appearance of Dr. Finitevus who had used a warp ring to get to the chamber at the same time as the guardians. He had taken one of the fallen legionnaire's guns and was ready to use one on either or both of the wives. "Stop this, Guardians!" Finitevus demanded furiously, as he kept the gun aimed behind him where the two wives were.
"You wouldn't…!" Thunderhawk growled, attempting to call the doctor's bluff. "If you just shot them, you'd end up back to square one!"
"The question here is would you be willing to take me up on that offer and be responsible for not only their deaths, but responsible for the madness that will ensue afterwards," Finitevus smirked with that same, demented grin.
"Thunderhawk!" Spectre scolded, seeing the lilac echidna attempt to step forwards. Looking at the other guardians, he nodded at them to release the legionnaires they currently held and to stand down for the time being before gazing furiously back at Finitevus. "If you need a damn sacrifice for this ritual, just take me."
Finitevus stepped closer between the two women as he kept his demented sight upon the current line of guardians. "That's not how this works, Guardian, and you know this," Finitevus hissed as the edge of the gun rested against the side of Zen-Ya's head. "A woman has to be the sacrifice—a woman who is exposed to the Master Emerald's energies. That was what was decided years ago, and that's how it is to continue!"
Spectre was worried about trying to anger the doctor. With the gun Finitevus held so close to his wife's head, he knew the next thing either of them said or did could determine whether she lived or died.
"What do we do?" Sojourner whispered to the others, as he was at a loss when it came to an opening to intervene and stop Finitevus.
Releasing a nasally sigh of defeat, Spectre raised his hands hesitantly in surrender. He knew even his teleportation wouldn't be fast enough to stop the gun from going off should Finitevus fire it.
Seeing the other guardians reluctantly follow in Spectre's actions, Finitevus grinned as the legionnaires that were left alive were quick to get them to their knees with their weapons aimed at them from the sides and the back. "Smart choice," the doctor scoffed, removing the gun from where it rested against Zen-Ya's head. "I am sure your wife and Lara-Le wouldn't want to die so senselessly just for your meaningless heroics."
Zen-Ya's bound hands tightened as she tried to muster what courage she could at the idea of dying a more painful death just for the sake of her husband's life and the sanity of others. "Please…" Zen-Ya begged softly. "If you're going to kill me, just…get it over with already." Lara-Le didn't seem to object to the idea either. If anything, she had given up living ever since Locke had thrown his life on the line for her, but even he was aware it only bought her time at best.
"Normally, I'd like to watch you squirm, but since I don't trust the guardians all that much not to mess shit up again," Finitevus commented, as he worked on unbinding Zen-Ya first, "I'll do as you ask."
Seeing his wife and Lara-Le about to head back to the stand before the chaos emerald, Spectre's body tensed. Threatening to move, he was reminded by the legionnaires nearby why it would be unwise to do so. "Dr. Finitevus," Spectre spoke up quickly, "the least you could do is let me say 'goodbye' to Zen-Ya."
"You've had plenty of time to say your goodbyes," the white echidna grumbled, keeping the gun aimed at the back of Zen-Ya's head incase Spectre became bold enough to try something.
"If you want me to beg, I'll beg, dammit," the elder growled lowly, not desiring to do such a thing, but if that's what it took to at least hold his mate one last time, he'd do so.
Finitevus stared at Spectre for a moment until finally making his decision. Grabbing onto Zen-Ya's arm, he ushered the woman over to her husband with an irritable huff as he pushed her forwards. "You've got sixty seconds, so you better make it count," he insisted, keeping the weapon at ready just in case something was to unfold.
Falling before Spectre, Zen-Ya kept her head lowered, as she didn't have the courage to look him in the eyes. She felt ashamed to have gotten captured so easily and that she was doing the one thing he didn't want her to do. "I'm sorry," she whispered through her tears. "I have to do this…"
Spectre embraced her tightly, feeling his heart ache at the idea of losing her. "No…no, you don't…" His red eyes quickly shifted over towards Thunderhawk, who was closest to him in the line, before going back to focusing on his wife. "I know you're going to hate me for this," he whispered to Zen-Ya as he wrapped her bound and naked form tightly in his tattered attire before teleporting out of the way and towards the exit to the Chaos Chamber.
"STOP HIM!" Finitevus demanded, firing his own weapon at the guardian attempting to escape.
During the commotion, Thunderhawk quickly got to his feet and ran towards Lara-Le while the others were trying to fight off the legionnaires. "Behind you!" Lara-Le screamed, as she saw one of the hooded echidnas approaching the unsuspecting guardian.
Thunderhawk was quick enough to knock out the solider with an elbow to his jaw, but the gun that the Dark Legionnaire held still went off, causing Thunderhawk to take a blast to the side. Hissing from the injury, he quickly covered it with his gloved hand to try and dull the pain as he did his best to escort Lara-Le out of harm's way as well.
"You're bleeding…!" Lara-Le pointed out as she tried to help the guardian out of the Chaos Chamber more so than he himself could do for her.
"It's nothing," Thunderhawk hissed, as his white glove was starting to stain red from trying to conceal his wound. "I've endured worse than this, and I am sure I'll continue to do so…!"
Finitevus watched as his plans started to crumble around him, making his fury slowly rise up within him as he headed towards the Master Emerald. "You all are willing to pull out all the stops…then fine!" His fingers gracing the emerald, Finitevus worked on concentrating his energy. "I will fight right back with Lord Enerjak driving my power!"
"How could you do that!" Zen-Ya exclaimed, pushing against her husband angrily. Tears still blurring her vision, she brought her hands towards her face. "I told you I was willing to accept my fate—my fate for us!"
"What do you mean 'us'!" Spectre retorted right back, grabbing onto her upper arms to shake her slightly. "I told you that I have a plan, and I am not going to let that insane asshole ruin it by causing you or Lady Lara-Le to throw your lives away!" Seeing her still crying, Spectre bent slightly to her level. "Listen to me. You're going to go with Thunderhawk and Lara-Le, and you're going to get the hell out of here even if I have to go so far as to knock you out myself!"
"I'm not going—!"
"I'm done playing around, Zen-Ya!" he yelled angrily only to stop for a moment as he felt the ground underneath them shaking.
"Wh-What's going on…?" Zen-Ya asked, trying to stand her ground only to find it difficult as the tremors grew worse.
Thunderhawk and Lara-Le even stopped in their tracks upon realizing that the ground was quaking beneath them. "The hell…?" the old guardian wheezed as he looked down at the ground not far from them to notice it was starting to split apart. "Run…Run!" Thunderhawk demanded to Lara-Le, as he urged her forwards.
As the terrain beneath them continued to divide, dark chaos power lurched forwards from the cracks in the form of hands to grab onto Lara-Le's ankles. "Thunderhawk!" she screamed, trying to dig her nails into the ground as the energy was attempting to pull her towards the broken earth.
Grabbing Lara-Le's hands, the old guardian tried to pull her to safety, but with his injury, it was proving difficult. Powering up his right hand with his own chaos attack, Thunderhawk unleashed it upon the darker version of the chaos energy that had Lara-Le—relieved to see that it did the trick and gave him enough time to escape with her. "Come on!" he encouraged, heading as quickly as he could towards Spectre and Zen-Ya.
"I recognize that energy anywhere," Spectre commented gravely, looking back at the Chaos Chamber to watch in utter horror as the building was demolished completely by Finitevus who was wearing a white and gold armor similar in sorts to the Enerjak picture in the old tombs back at Haven. "You've got to be kidding me…!"
Zen-Ya covered her mouth as Thunderhawk swore in disbelief. "Holy shit…! He converged with the spirit of Enerjak!"
Spectre watched as Sabre and Sojourner were doing their absolute best to continue fighting against the new version of Finitevus to notice something off about the power when Thunderhawk fought it himself just a second ago. "Looks like he's only taken part of Enerjak's power…Look!" Spectre insisted, pointing to the battle back at the former Chaos Chamber building. "Sabre and Sojourner aren't getting a hit in well enough at the close range they're fighting, but when his power came after you and Lara-Le, you were able to one-shot it."
"So, he's bad at multitasking," Thunderhawk joked lightly with a shrug. "In order to stop it completely, we have to destroy the emerald, but he's right in front of it, and Sabre and Sojourner aren't distracting him well enough!"
"It could deal with distance from the emerald, not distraction," Spectre insisted, raising his brow at his son. "I'll mentally link up to Sabre and Sojourner—tell them to move him away from the emerald best they can while you make sure he doesn't get a hold of Zen-Ya and Lara-Le!"
"What about you?" Thunderhawk asked.
"I'm the only one of us strong enough to stop an energized Master Emerald," Spectre commented lowly.
Zen-Ya ran to her husband's side, holding onto him tightly. "No…no, you're not going to do that, are you!" Her fingers digging into his tattered attire, she watched as Sabre and Sojourner apparently got Spectre's mental message as they attempted to lure the empowered scientist out of the former chamber area and into the surrounding woods. "Spectre, please…! I am willing to give my life for you!"
"You shouldn't have to," the hooded guardian commented seriously. "You need to let me go, as we don't have much time for this."
Biting her lower lip, Zen-Ya took in a shaky breath realizing he was right—that this wasn't the best time to fight over who should do what. "Please come back to me," she practically begged to herself as Lara-Le came from behind her to gently pull her off of Spectre.
He knew he couldn't make that promise. Spectre gazed over his shoulder at his son. "Watch over them for me…at least for as long as you are able." Seeing the reassuring nod was enough to allow Spectre to teleport out of the area and hurry quickly to the emerald.
"I will make you all see things may way," Finitevus roared angrily as he continued to use his dark power to try and ward off Sabre and Sojourner. "I don't care if that means brainwashing you all to do so and making you all my personal puppets! I should have done so from the very beginning!"
Staying low to the ground, Spectre came upon the edge of the emerald as Finitevus' back was at least facing it now. With the emerald sparking with dark power, the cries of the dead were nearly maddening for the guardian, but he did his best to ignore it for now as he touched the gem with his left hand. His gloved hand burning slightly from the darkness that engulfed it, he hissed silently to himself in dismay. "Going to have to use my other hand," he muttered to himself.
However, the slight pulse from the guardian touching the Master Emerald was enough to cause Finitevus to stop his assault on Sabre and Sojourner to turn back around and notice Spectre there. "YOU!" he growled angrily, attempting to turn his focus completely on the disobedient elder, but the other two continued to try and divide his attention.
Reaching his boiling point, the scientist turned quickly to use his corrupted chaos powers to shackle down Sabre and Sojourner before turning completely onto Spectre. "I would really enjoy ripping you apart…piece by piece," Finitevus snarled, showing his fangs from underneath the white and gold Anubis shaped helm. "However, since that woman seems to mean the world to you, I may just let you stay alive long enough to watch as she burns alive and let you live out the rest of your life suffering from the loss!"
Rearing back his right hand empowered by his own chaos energy, Spectre stared down the false guardian. "Don't think I am not afraid to smash this thing!"
"Would you really be that selfish!" Finitevus yelled irritably, lowering himself slowly to the ground. "You guardians may have crunched the numbers, but you don't have the slightest idea what will happen in the end! You would really put your wife through such hell as to slowly watch you die right before her eyes as you have with your own wives?" Seeing the guardian hesitate for a moment, Finitevus smirked gleefully at Spectre apparently losing his nerve to do such a thing. "In the end, it's either you or her, so tell me—which do you choose?"
Spectre looked from his bound grandchildren to his son and wife. He also couldn't help but think of the people around him who had to suffer through this constant insanity of Enerjak's ongoing rage of the ritual being disrupted. Looking back at Finitevus, he took in a deep breath before reaching his decision.
TWO MONTHS LATER
With the sun steadily peeking over the horizon, Remington moved the branches out of his line of sight to get a better view of the coming dawn. "Everything looks clear to me, Guardian," the constable called back at the mouth of the cave not far from where he stood.
Spectre made his way out of the cave's entrance slowly with a slight grunt at his body feeling out of sorts. "Glad to know that the Moon of Madness only comes out at night now. That I can deal with…" his voice trailed off a bit, as he still felt burdened by it still existing.
"I think those that turned into insane monsters would disagree," Remington pointed out, feeling a bit in between on what happened that night two months ago. Knowing that Spectre wouldn't come back at him with logic or even anger, he sighed while crossing his arms upon his chest. "So, where to now? What does that tracking device of yours tell you?"
Shaking his head at Remington's comments, he rid the thought from his mind as he dug into his attire to pull out a handheld device Sabre had been tampering with a month ago to locate the shattered pieces of the Master Emerald. "Continue to head north. There are at least two pieces nearby that we might come across."
"I'll go on ahead," Remington insisted with a wave of his hand. "Make sure none of those things are in our path as you're in no condition to fight them as you are, Guardian."
Since the Master Emerald had been shattered, the guardians were slowly losing their power and immortality. While still able to fight, Spectre wasn't as strong as he once was, and he knew the others weren't either. "I sure hope the others found a piece to draw energy from by now," the old guardian commented mostly to himself.
As he sat down upon a nearby rock formation, he felt someone's hands creep up upon his shoulders. It startled him for a second, but he relaxed upon realizing who it must have been. Sighing with a shake of his head, he rubbed his wife's knuckles. "Don't do that," Spectre insisted to Zen-Ya. "I am not as alert as I once was."
She could hear the exhaustion in his voice as he spoke. Her heart squeezed with pain, but it quickly went away when she realized the outcome of that night could have been far worse. "I'm sorry," Zen-Ya apologized, kissing his cheek. As she looked about the area, she noticed that the constable was nowhere to be found. "Where is Remington?"
Spectre motioned down the rocky hillside path before them before bringing his fingers to his forehead. "He went on ahead to check and make sure everything is clear—that there are no insane creatures in our way."
"We're going to find the pieces, Spectre," Zen-Ya encouraged, trying to keep her mate in high spirits. "We're going to find them, and we'll put them back together. Everything will go back to the way it was again; you'll see."
With the constable coming back into view, Remington motioned for them to follow. "Everything looks alright. I could hear wails and what have you about midway, but it seemed pretty distant, so I don't think we have to worry about any trouble for the time being."
"I'll take your word for it," Spectre grunted, as he got to his mechanical feet with the help of Zen-Ya. "I can handle a pack of them, anyways." Nodding towards the constable, Spectre got Zen-Ya to head to the center of the line. He wanted to take up the rear and watch their back in case anything came from behind them. Steadily making his way down the hilly path, his mind often wandered back to that night, as he had hoped he did the right thing.
THE END
Author's Notes: I did decide to make the family tree go Spectre, Thunderhawk, Sojourner, even if by canon standards, it's not. XD Back in yee older years...they couldn't get it right, and I grew weirdly accustomed to that line of the guardian tree-not the other. Not that it matters. :) I'll probably swap the line back and forth as I go along on other stories!
