A/N: This. Is. It. The final chapter is here after so long. At the (*) I would like you all to play this watch?v=I0xUl_VRCmM. Without anymore interruptions, enjoy.
Nikolai's eyes shot open as he looked around to see himself in a prison cell, the other three were also in cells and began to wake up as well.
"Ugh shit," Dempsey groaned, "Hey, is everyone okay?"
"About as much as you can be, given our current situation Dempsey." Richofen said looking around the cell, "now there must be some way out of here."
"Do not even think of it." a voice warned Richtofen, freezing the German in place. The Warden paced back and forth between the cells that had Primis inside them.
"You think that this- is your prison? That you can pay your debt to existence, pah! This is not a matter of debts. Though debts you certainly owe." The Warden raised his hands up to the ain and took a deep breath in, "THIS! Is my life sentence ...The reason I was born, and the destiny of which I have bled, and tortured, and died. Again and again. It is Armageddon."
"You call this flaming garbage heap your magnum opus?" Richtofen scoffed, "I applaud your dedication, Herr Warden, but your 'Armageddon' is locked in here with you." The Warden began to march and loom over Richtofen's cell.
"Until you-brought me the key! I can hear it pounding it through your veins-Na hahaha ha-Faster and faster now."The Warden backed away from Richtofen's cell and stood in the center of all the cells, "So! Your life sentence begins! You will suffer! You will not die! Your hearts will beat everlasting in my machine-holding the gateway open, so that he- THEY will finally be free...Now rest yourselves! Soon, we begin. LIGHTS OUT!" The power of the cell block turned off and the Warden marched away.
"So anyone got any bright ideas?" Dempsey asked with no response, "Ah shit, hey Richtofen, was this another step in the master plan? You lead, we follow. All works out in the end, am I right? This is just the 'locked in the cell in the ninth level of hell' part of Richtofen's grand scheme."
"Aha, Mein grand scheme!? And what if I told you that we were doomed from the start? That every word in that infernal book has come to pass and we have been helpless to stop it? What would you have done Marine? Tell me-please, WHAT WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO!?"
"The fuck are you going on about Richtofen?"
"We are trapped and forced to live the same things for eternity." Dempsey, Takeo and Richtofen faced the Nikolai, who was staring at the wall, "we have been reborn, we have died, and we repeat," Nikolai turned to face Richtofen, "Is that not true Doctor?"
"Ah Nik stop talking crazy!"
"He is right…" Takeo and Dempsey faced Richtofen, "We have ...been in an endless cycle. I am not leading us to a better tomorrow. I am the cause of it all."
"Richtofen…" Takeo muttered, as he struggled to find his voice.
"Well, what the fuck is your cause for all this huh? All this bullshit you been saying to us, the same bullshit that we have eaten up and did your goddamn bidding." Dempsey's voice began to get shaky from the lump that was forming in his throat, "I had to fucking kill myself in the name of your 'better tomorrow'."
Richtofen let out a bitter chuckle, "You saw yourself die once American, what would you do if you read that not matter what you did-good or bad- that it would end in the same outcome of you dying? To add to that, how about seeing the ones who fought by your side for so, so many times, die in front of you? I will let you know something Dempsey; when I died, I felt nothing; when you died, I felt...something; when Takeo died, I knew I had to try and save all of you."
"Perhaps you may bring part up of us killing each other German?" Nikolai added this got the attention of Dempsey and Takeo.
"What do you mean Nikolai?" Takeo asked in shock.
"We have killed each other at some point that we do not remember, this is only one of thousands of different outcomes we have had. We just do not remember."
Silence filled the cell block for an unknown amount of time, neither one wanting to end it. Takeo was sitting on the floor meditating, Dempsey was rested on the bed in his cell, Richtofen paced back and forth in his cell and Nikolai stared at the wall.
"Errrr Dammit!" Richtofen yelled smashing the small mirror in his cell with his fist, "there needs to be some way out of this, this is not where we die!" a familiar cry was heard and a small gust of wind was felt by the four as a zap of electricity shot into the Voltmeter on the wall, opening the cell doors.
"Fuck yeah! Thanks a bunch ghost bird."
"Ahaha Guten Tag, little bird! You can have all the Kronoriums you want, when we get back to the lab."
Nikolai walked out his cell and smiled, "thank you comrade bird."
"Now it looks like we're even ey Nikky boy? Look we got a small window of time, you and your boys have got to get to your German friends lab and pronto."
"Comrade bird says we must get to Germans lab."
"Yeah well that will be hard without any weapons Nik."
"That may prove easy to fix Dempsey." Takeo said with a bag in his hand that had all of their weapons inside. The four locked and loaded their weapons and started to sneak their way down to the ground level, The Warden had entered the library and continued to patrol the rest of the cells.
"Everyone approach carefully and quietly," Takeo ordered, following the samurai tradition of using stealth to surprise their enemies. The four did their best to try and sneak their way, going as far as to reach the exit into the Recreation Area, but failed when a hound that appeared behind them let out a howl and alerted the Warden; the Warden stopped and turned to face the four escapees.
"Ahhhh shit," Dempsey groaned unlinging his Acidgat, "this ought to be interesting."
"GET BACK IN YOUR CELLS!" The Warden roared charging at Primis; the seagull charged at the Warden and held him in place.
"We must go, while comrade covers us!" Nikolai yelled as the four sprinted out to the Recreational Area and met with a large pack of dogs.
"Fetch this you undead Schweinhunds!" Richtofen yelled as he threw the Hell's Retriever to chop each dog one by one. Primis entered the catwalk and Takeo unsheathed his Katana, the ethereal razor extending the blade once again, and sliced his way to clear the path.
"Nice one Takeo!" Nikolai commented, "Perhaps you can show Nikolai how to do that with axe, da"
"We shall see Russian," Takeo said with a small smirk on his face. Out of the catwalk, Primis were just at the entrance to the building that housed the lab when the Warden blocked their path.
"Where do you think that you are going?" The Warden taunted, his dogs coming from behind Primis, The Warden let out a roar and was struck by lightning, he grew larger in size and his eyes changed from a blood red to a light blue with blue surrounding parts of his body as well. The ghosts that were going to try and kill the seagull-who joined alongside these ghosts-now leaped to the Warden, holding the large guard in place.
"Pathetic fools," the Warden growled trying to shake them off, "I will not be disobeyed!" The ghosts and seagull grabbed the Warden and dragged in up in the air, as for the dogs, Primis quickly killed them. Richtofen had a small moment to finally connect the dots of the three ghosts and the seagull.
"Sal, Finn, Billy...Al. How did I not see it before!"
"What do you speak of German?" Nikolai asked.
"They were the ones who were previously tormented here, the ghosts of Alcatraz have bought us all the time we need, let us use every moment." Primis walked down the stairs into the lab, Dempey took out the five red orbs that they collected and showed them to the rest. "So what do I do with these?"
"Place them on the map on that wall." Richtofen instructed, Dempsey did it as he was instructed the map burned off revealing a set of wires and the wall opened to showing another cryopod behind.
"Jeez doc, how many man-cicles you got down here?"
"We must go, the thawing sequence has already begun, we must go up and confront our fate above."
"What of the other pods Doctor?" Takeo asked, pointing at the four others that held the unknown people.
"Leave them, if all goes according to plan, they will be safe." the four men made their way up the stairs to meet with a garage door to the other side was unknown.
"Before we-uh go ...I must say something first." everyone stopped and turned to look at Richtofen.
"I just want you all to know that you are all good men, even if I do not show it, there would be no others who I would fight side by side with." There was a moment of silence between the four, before Dempsey chuckled.
"Hey don't be going soft on us Richtofen, we're almost out of here" Dempsey lightly hit Richtofen in the side of his right arm, "besides, like Tak said, we all get out of here or we don't get out at all." The four men looked at each other with no words between them, Dempsey placed his hand in the center, Takeo placed his next, then Richtofen and finally Nikolai. The four walked over to the door and opened it to face the last obstacle in their way to freedom. The Warden was still being held by the four mobsters, but managed to shake them off and noticed the four in front of him and a smirk grew on his face.
"LET US BEING!" The Warden teleported away; the four took up defensive positions as dogs began to come for them. The machine that was in the center of the small arena began to power on with a small white orb hovering above it.
"We cannot let him activate the mechanism!" Richtofen yelled, the Warden appeared and hovered above the ground and three red balls of energy surrounded him.
"Nethurgast lorozzo! Arburgneth! Arburgeth! Arburgeth!" The Warden chanted as the orbs gave him energy.
"Arburger-eth this you fuck!" Dempsey taunted as he shot the bust of the Acidgat into the orbs, destroying each one. The Warden stumbled back, as Richtofen blasted his shield blast into the orb above the machine.
"We must do that again!"
"More hell dogs coming!" Nikolai yelled shooting his OMG Right Hook so fast, it seemed to be full auto. The process of waiting for the Warden to repeat the chant and to blast the orb above went on until the white orb glowed blue.
"What do we do now!?" Dempsey asked shooting acid at a group of dogs.
"Now gentlemen, I do the right thing,"Richtofen marched towards the mechanism, "stand back you imbeciles-You want mein blood? TAKE MEIN BLOOD!" the machine activated and began to inject the needles into Richofen's arms and neck, while holding him in place, Richtofen's blood began to go through the tubes and into the vats on the machine.
"Richtofen no!" Takeo yelled.
"You crazy son of a-Some one get him out of there!" Dempsey ran towards Richtofen, but the Warden blocked their way.
"Wait your turn prisoner!" the Warden then forced the three away from the mechanism and teleported them away.
"Ugh, where the hell are we!?" Dempsey grunted between his teeth; the area was a concrete platform that had construction equipment on it and two large red suspenders on each side, "Great, we're on the fucking Golden Gate, how the hell do we get back!?" a cry was heard and the seagull appeared in front of the three.
"Comrade Bird!" Nikolai cheered.
"No time Nik, you got to get back to the island ASAP!"
"But how do we get back?" a light bulb popped in his head, "Comrade Bird, could you make a bridge back for us?"
"It's crazy, but it may just work, the people on the island are with you guys, oh and call me Al Nikolai." Al disappeared a rumble was felt and large chunks of the ground rose from the seafloor.
"Ura ghosts!" Dempsey cheered, "Let's go save that German."
Back at the mechanism, Richtofen's blood began to fill the vats up to the halfway mark. The Warden grinned as it was almost time to free his masters, just a bit more blood was needed to open the gateway.
"You best give make your peace with the time you have left Edward." The Warden taunted as Richtofen struggled in the mechanism, seeing the chunks of ground in the sky. The Warden saw this as well and shot a blast of lightning towards it.
The secret cryopod completed its thawing sequence and open wide with smoke emitting from it. The figure stepped out of it and stumbled to the ground; he wore crusader armor with a tunic with a circular cross symbol that was present back on the Keeper in the castle.
"Ach, mein head.."The man groaned in a german accent, "Where am I ...When am I?" he looked around and smiled, "The lab-Alcatraz. Ha! This is Wunderbar!" the man-another Richtofen- looked in his hands to see a red crystal, "Ah gut, I have the secret weapon, let's investigate shall we?"
Takeo, Dempsey and Nikolai were now over the island and almost reaching the arena.
"Come on, we're almost there!" Dempsey yelled picking up the pace. A loud shock was heard and something hit the ground; which began to shake and crumble, "Shit watch out!"
"Hold on, we will help you three!" a set of ghosts entered the bodies of the three and helped them to slow down the speed of their fall.
"I have an idea!" Takeo said as he went towards a piece of the floating ground and wall ran on it.
"Great, it is castle all over again." Nikolai groaned as he ran piece by piece until they reached the arena.
"Ah good to see you mien friends." a voice said behind them, turning it was the Richtofen in the crusader armour.
"Edward?" Takeo asked puzzled, "how did you escape?"
"What? Oh no I am a different one. Uh where is my other self?"
"He's currently getting his blood sucked out of him." Dempsey awkwardly said.
"Oh scheisse! Let's get moving then!" the four ran up to the arena to see the Richtofen still in the machine and the Warden facing them.
"What!? How did you-"
"I would love to chat with you Herr Warden, but you have been denounce of you duty." Richtofen rose the red crystal in the air, "STAND BACK EVERYONE!" the crystal shot a red beam, hitting the Warden directly in the chest.
"No…." The Warden said as his hand began to fade away, he began to march toward the four, each step he began to fade away more, "This cannot be, IMPOSSIBLE!" The Warden finally fell to the ground, his lower half gone, he looked up at Primis, before he faded completely away. With the Warden dead, a force of energy blasted and spread throughout the island, all the undead began to die and the souls of the people trapped were set free and floated away, the dogs exploded and disappeared. Nikolai, Takeo, Dempsey and Crusader Richtofen began to get up from the ground.
"Listen to how the spirits sing." Takeo said smiling at the dancing spirits, "They are free from this realm."
"Ain't that swell." Dempsey grunted, "Does that mean we win?"
"I would be greatly relieved if that were so," Nikolai said, seeing Al fly away to freedom, "I am in no hurry to ensnare my mortal soul."
"That will not be necessary Nikolai," Crusader Richtofen said handing something to Nikolai, "the future has changed."
"The Kronorium?" Nikolai said as he opened to the book.
"Read it, learn of your true calling. You must keep your soul, it will be needed to defeat Dr. Monty." Nikolai looked at Crusader Richtofen confused, "Who?" portals began to open up as Richtofen was still in the machine, the vats being nearly full.
(*)
"Hello? Hello! I-I am still here, wait!" Richtofen began to feel light headed as he realized what he did, "Mei-mein gott…. What have-what have I done." Crusader Richtofen walked up to his other self.
"I honestly thought, you were going- going to let me bleed to death," Richtofen said with a smile forming, "it was so sad…"
"The cycle is broken Herr Doctor," Crusader Richtofen said, reaching for Richtofen's blood vials, "As such, insurance policies are- No longer needed. I wish I could tell you that I was sorry Edward." He grabbed the Summoning Key from Primis Richtofen and smiled, "but I'm not."
"No… no, you could help me, you're a doctor." Richtofen pleaded, shuffling in the mechanism-now little blood was coming out from the tubes, "wait...don't you know who I am? I have been witnessed to miracles and calamities! Dimensions born and collapsed! I walk a path no other can take!" Crusader Richtofen shook his head and threw the blood vials to the ground, shattering them, "NO!" Dempsey tried to go over to the German, but was stopped by Nikolai.
"Let me go Nik, we gotta get him out of there! We aren't going to let him die!"
"Yes we agreed that we will all leave." Takeo added.
"Comrades, this is his destiny- He has avoided it for long enough. Now we must go and confront ours- It is the only way." Dempsey and Takeo looked over to Richtofen, hurt in their eyes, but they turned away and handed their blood vials over to the Crusader Richtofen who destroyed them as well.
"It should have been me...THE ONE WHO DID ALL THE HARD WORK!" the four entered the portals and left Richtofen alone, his blood now filling the vats completely and his vision beginning to fade. "I wanted to keep going ...this me," tears began to stream down his face as it started to get harder to breath, "I was the nicest one…" the portals closed as Richtofen took his last breath, "and you won't even remember…" Richtofen's body slumped as the dimension grew dark; the last light of the island, was finally put out.