Apocalypse: Shifting Shadows


So Trump's our new President.

Seriously, this is a thing that actually happened.

If you want to know my stance on this, it goes as follows.

This country is in for a rough time. That said, I hope Trump manages to be a good President and doesn't plunge this country into eternal darkness. I hope he is a President that doesn't undo the good that President Obama has done, and allows this country to move forward and not backward.

But this isn't the place to go into this sort of this. This is a fanfic, so let's get this going.

As of this update, chapters 1-15 are completely revised and edited (once I upload those chapters tonight because as I update this, I'm leaving for work), save for chapters 6 and 13, because the "training chapters" are ridiculous and are going to need their own period of time for me to do. So I'll have those done once I tackle chapter 25 from DOTD and have them all done in their own period in between updates.

It hasn't been a really easy month for me writing-wise, since this is November and every single game I remotely wanted this year is coming out within the same 60 day span. I haven't even had time to beat Pokémon Sun yet. Though for my thoughts on the game so far, check out my next chapter of PMD GLD when it gets updated next week for actual semi-review of the game.

Also, on another sidenote, I officially have Revelations beaten, meaning that I have all of the Easter Eggs in Black Ops III have been completed. Mad props go to John, Joe, and CarriedCoin for their assistance. All in all, I can say Black Ops III has been my favorite game out of the series based on how much fun I had on the maps. And while the ending isn't what we all wanted, I can appreciate everything else about the game and can credit it for inspiring me to write this story.

Shoutout to the fantastic people who reviewed last chapter including RandomName3064, as well as a new reviewer, who reviewed twice (cheers!), that goes by the name of Gadget3210. Thanks for the support!

Onto the chapter!

Enjoy!


Chapter 11: I Believe


"We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort."- Jesse Owens.


"Dempsey! James!" Leah yelled out as the two men burst through the corpse-filled doorway, panting heavily. Leah ran over to the two men and offered them a grin before walking over to James and hugging him.

"Are you all alright?" James asked as Leah let go of him, allowing him to step into the motor-pool. He saw Takeo standing guard next to a running truck while Richtofen and Simon were in the back of said vehicle, looking over what supplies they had. Amy was sitting up front, ready to go at a moment's notice.

Dempsey took a moment to walk back over to the door to the motor-pool and noticed a shiny control pad next to the door, showing power levels in the room and that the door was currently set to open. Dempsey promptly kicked in the small control pad as hard as he could, breaking it and causing the door to come crashing down.

"Good thinking, Tank." Simon remarked as he tried to sit up, only to gasp and collapse back into the truck. James hurried over to his friend and saw Richtofen lying next to him, passed out.

"Simon and Richtofen got pretty roughed up. Takeo, me, and Amy are fine. How about you two, what happened?" Leah asked James as she walked the two men over to the truck. James gave Leah a quick rundown of what had happened, promising to go into the events further once they were out of the facility. She was curious about the strange woman who had saved her friend and the weird jester that he had encountered.

"So, where's Nikolai?" Leah asked as she hopped into the truck, snatching up a C275.

"No idea. We have to bail before Gust and his men could catch up. Shit hit the fan and things are looking worse every second, even if we apparently have backup we never knew about." Dempsey replied as he made his way over to the vehicle.

"We can't leave Nikolai behind though!" Amy chimed in as she leaned out of the driver's seat.

"Amy, in order to get to him we'd have to backtrack to where we just came from. And there's way too many soldiers with much better firepower than us. It's just not possible to get him!" James said exasperatedly to Amy, frustrated at the situation.

"Yeah, it's not looking good. I'm all for making sure no one gets left behind, but if Gust and his men catch up to us we're as good as dead." Dempsey growled, annoyed at the situation himself.

"So what then? We just leave and hope Nikolai somehow escapes by himself!?" Leah demanded of the two men. Dempsey opened his mouth to reply when a familiar voice suddenly cut him off.

"Hey! Would you cut down on the chit chat? Some people are trying to sleep!" Everyone in the group blinked in surprise before Dempsey, Takeo, and Leah all ran over to one of the other vehicles in the motor pool and found an unlikely someone slouched over in the driver's seat, carrying a bottle of vodka in his grasp and squinting at them all.

"Seriously, Nikolai has massive headache. Could you perhaps lower the volume?" the Russian soldier asked with a wince, holding his ribs. He looked pretty rough, with dried blood caking his lips and sporting a massive black eye, but he seemed to be alright.

"Nikolai? How the hell did you escape? Or get past the soldiers? Or get here without any of us noticing?" Leah asked, utterly bewildered but smiling at the Russian nevertheless.

"Hehehe…Nikolai seduce female guard with his smooth tongue. They do not call me "Sexy Russian Nikolai" for nothing," the Soviet replied with a perverted grin.

"You…seduced the guard? Weren't you tortured?" Dempsey asked, eyeing the various bruises and half-healed slashes on his body. Nikolai chuckled at that, his face contorting into a grimace as he did so.

"Ahh…Do not make me laugh. Anna cracked three ribs before Nikolai was able to make her see sense. Do not think me as complete idiot, comrades. Nikolai is smarter than you think. She is helping distract guards so that we can make daring escape. She tell me of code to open big door as well." The Russian remarked with a smug grin, but he said it in a way that made Leah and Dempsey realize that he was being completely serious. The Russian had managed to negotiate his way out of a prison cell, as well as gaining a new ally who could assist them in their escape. Despite it being fairly crude, it was pretty damn impressive.

"Nikolai needed a few minutes to rest though, as he does not feel so good." Nikolai added after a moment, grimacing and holding his chest.

"Once we get out of here, we can get everyone's injuries treated. Just keep hanging in there," Leah said to the Russian, who replied with a simple nod.

"You look like crap, so I believe you…You smell like it too." Dempsey remarked with a snicker as Nikolai sniffed himself and shuddered.

"Perhaps Nikolai requires a bath. And more vodka. But perhaps we should escape first, no?" Nikolai said as he hopped out of the vehicle he was hiding in and stumbled towards a console on the other side of the room.

"Make sure everyone's ready to go, you two. I'll make sure Nikolai doesn't make the computer explode." Leah remarked lightly, feeling a bit hopeful. Maybe they could really make it out of here alive. Continue their quest and stop Samantha. And then after that…return home.

Dempsey and Takeo hurried over to the vehicle and double-checked everything in order to make sure they were ready to go. Nikolai limped over to the console on the other side of the room, Leah close behind. However, just as they crossed the halfway point between their car and the console, they received a few unwelcome guests in the form of a squad of Sector 17 soldiers.

Dempsey was the first to notice and was quick to order everyone to take cover while the soldiers opened fire on them. Leah and Nikolai sprinted across the room, catching the duo as they tried to flee.

"Get down!" Leah barked, grabbing the Soviet's shoulder and yanking him down behind a crate as the soldiers opened fire. Nikolai grunted in pain from having to move so quickly and leaned against the metal crate, closing his eyes and taking slow breaths.

"Someone wanna take those chucklefucks out!?" Simon yelled, earning a barrage of gunfire in his general direction.

"Kill them all!" shouted the lead soldier, as the soldiers slowly began to advance further into the room.

"Shit…this isn't good. We can't keep fighting like this!" Leah muttered, preparing herself to open fire.

"No. Wait a moment."

Leah looked at Nikolai in surprise as he opened his eyes, which now seemed a bit more aware and focused. The Russian dug into his pant's pocket and pulled out a small round ball with flowing red veins running through it.

"I would get down, little lady. Things are, how do you Americans say it…heat up?" Nikolai remarked with a small smirk as he popped out of cover, catching the attention of the soldiers, but not before he chucked the small ball at the soldiers and ducked behind the crate once again. The ball clattered on the ground next to the soldiers, who balked and began running away, but not quickly enough to avoid being hit with a horrific burst of bright red flames that erupted from what Leah realized was a kind of grenade. The group of zombie-slayers watched the flames with horror, even as they watched incinerated several soldiers burn to ashes before their very eyes.

"What the hell was that?!" Simon demanded as he sat up, clutching his stomach.

"Inferno Grenade. Like Incendiary Grenade, but with much more firepower." Nikolai chuckled, amused at his own joke. "I managed to find a few on the soldiers I killed while trying to find this place. Not too bad for a drunk Soviet, da?"

"Nice work, big guy. Now get that door open so we can bail." Leah said to the soldier, who nodded in reply and slowly made his way to the console on the other side of the room. Nikolai punched in a quick number sequence, though he seemed to have trouble reading the numbers and had to make sure with Leah that the combination he put in was what he read it off as. As the door to the outside shuddered open and Leah and Nikolai were hurriedly making their way back to the vehicle, more soldiers burst onto the scene, opening fire on them as they leapt into the back of the transport.

"Amy, let's bail!" Simon barked. The Englishwoman made the car shoot backwards, knocking down several of the soldiers who had gotten too close to the vehicle.

"I'd make a joke about women not being able to drive, but I don't think that's wise with Leah sitting right next to me!" Simon yelled out, earning a glare from the woman in question. The car then shot forward, since Dempsey had apparently seen fit to swap place with Amy and commandeer the truck so that he could drive, and sped out of the motorpool. More soldiers opened fire on them as the transport peeled out of the facility.

"Brace yourselves!" Dempsey yelled as the barrelled towards the fenced in side of the facility. The vehicle smashed through fence with ease, allowing the group of zombie-slayers to leave their captors behind as the drove through the forest. Of course, they ran into the issue of trying to drive their way through the trees, but that problem was resolved when they stumbled onto the road again.

The drive through the forest continued well into the night, with Leah and Takeo eventually taking their turn to guide the truck to hopefully safer territory. They stopped only for the others to relieve themselves and to get fresh water when it was nearby, but aside from that, they continued driving eastwards towards the snowy Motherland…


Sector 17 European Headquarters


Eris had not been idle in the time that she had seen off her new…allies.

Slinking through the shadows, with Yena whispering in her ears, she eavesdropped as much as possible, trying to gather a complete picture of what was going on. Despite her relative unfamiliarity with fighting, spying, and killing…She was quickly picking up on these things. The fact that her teacher and Master was within her mind, guiding her, made things much easier.

And she was quickly finding out that things were not as they seemed.

Yena had explained things to her, going into the gritty details of how this mess had come to be. How Richtofen had come to power, and the tragedy that had forced Richtofen's hand in wanting to destroy the world back in the present. Yena told Eris the story of the zombie slayers and their crusade against Samantha, and of what had happened since then. Of the children Samantha had befriended and guided through the dangers in their way…But…

But this was something new.

Apparently, this was one of many, many timelines. A world running parallel to a nigh infinite amount of others, fractionally different and special at the same time. Once Yena had explained this concept to Eris, she learned that with the powers that he had transferred to her, she could travel in between these worlds through the shadows that connected them all. Space and time were nothing before her, as she slipped in between the cracks of reality's shadows and reappeared in another world in another time in another universe.

Yena had explored quite a bit, before he had been imprisoned by Group 935 for being too much of a wild card. He had experimented with his powers and had spent many many years in other timelines and worlds (but losing mere seconds in his own time), and as a result had figured out how things worked. How Element 115 played into messing things up and how a specific sequence of events tended to happen and result in the same thing happening, more or less.

However…out of all of the timelines and all of the worlds…Not a single one of them were like this one. This world and timeline…his very own, was the one timeline he was too afraid of finding out more about. He just couldn't take the plunge to find out how the world turned out…

But he did know one thing for sure.

Sector 17 was something new. An anomaly that he had never encountered before.

And it made Yena wary. Which made Eris wary

"I wonder if Edward ever knew about this organization." Yena murmured as Eris slipped out of another shadow and stepped into a room filled with computer terminals. The shadowy young woman looked over the machines with an appraising eye before she slowly made her way over to them.

"So much for state of the art tech. The software on this is ancient." Eris thought as she sat down at one of the computers.

"So, little one, what are you trying to do now?" Yena asked her.

"Well, some of these computers are bound to have some information on these people. Sector 17 doesn't exist in our time, does it? And you seem completely in the dark, literally, on what to do about them. So…Why not take a peek through their systems and see what's up?" Eris asked Yena.

"Tread lightly. There is something here…that is off. Something that should not be." Yena hissed as Eris began going through the computer, using the mouse to click through several windows. Eris remained silent for a time, with Yena making quiet remarks here and there and using her eyes to take in as much information on this new organization as they could. Eris and Yena quickly learned the origins of the group, and how they were founded in the shadow of Group 935 and funded heavily by the Russians. Their leader was a kind and enigmatic man named Marvin Rapt, who Yena had never heard of.

Sector 17 had a large private army at their disposal, along with several testing facilities and bases throughout the world. On top of their funding from Russian, they were able to generate income due to clever investments in stocks and with the backing by several private corporations hoping to capitalize on the technology they were developing. They easily recruited personnel from all walks of life, thanks to a surprisingly well crafted healthcare plan with dental and paid vacation days.

Yet, despite the group essentially being a more funded and more militant version of Group 935…They still wanted more.

Eris quickly scrolled through a series of images, all of them faded to the point where she could barely make them out, but she eventually came across a picture of a small sphere decorated in arcane symbols. The very sight of which hurt her eyes, making her look elsewhere. Yena simply hummed in response, which made Eris curious.

"I don't know why, but that sphere looks familiar. Does this file say what it is?" Yena asked Eris.

"Can you not read it yourself?"

"Using your eyes is something I can only do in short bursts, little one. I am only a figment, a fragment of who I was before…It's beyond me, at the moment, to push myself beyond my limits or I may fade away completely. The only part of me that exists anymore is the part that I put inside you." Yena answered quietly, his presence fading away.

"Hey, you didn't make a sex joke that time!" Eris pointed out cheerfully.

"I could always smack your ass from the shadows. I know you like that kind of thing," Yena said with a snicker as Eris blushed furiously. Having someone inside of her mind seemed like such a good thing a few minutes ago…so much for that.

"God, you're such a pervert!"

"As if. It's not like I can get aroused at the moment anyway. I don't even understand how I'm even like this. Seriously, this shit doesn't make a lick of sense." Yena complained as Eris widened the image of the strange orb on the screen. She put a hand on her head, feeling a headache coming on, but she felt Yena's presence within her make the pain go away.

"Thank you…" Eris said quietly, examining the strange markings on the sphere. She grabbed a nearby piece of paper and a pen and quickly began sketching out the symbols that adorned the sphere, taking her time to just get them correctly.

"Good call." Yena remarked as Eris folded the paper and put it into her coat pocket.

"The file says that this objected is known as the Summoning Key. But that's all the information on the subject. Just the name of it and the fact that it's Sector 17's first priority to find it." Eris said to Yena, who hummed in response.

"It must be something quite powerful. But what would they want with it? To what end are they trying to achieve by chasing this artifact…We need more information." Yena muttered. Eris opened her mouth to reply when the door to the room suddenly opened and the light turned on, blinding Eris for a moment and making her flinch harshly. Her eyes adjusted to the brightness and within seconds, she took in th sight before her. It was an old man, dressed in a suit adorned with strange symbols. Behind him was the soldier who had been attacking James and Dempsey. Gust, she believed his name was.

"Well hello there." Marvin Apt smiled, his teeth sharp and needle-like as his grin slowly grew wider and wider. Eris fell back out of the chair and stumbled to her feet, feeling horror shoot through her at the sight of the mind. Yena even recoiled mentally at the sight of the man, who seemed to radiate an aura of inherent wrongness.

"How on earth did you get here, my dear? And…so far out of your time, as well." Mister Apt said quietly, stepping into the room with Gust close behind, grip tight on his pistol.

"That's the one who was fighting with that jester. I saw it on one of the cameras before she slipped away." Gust said quietly, raising his weapon and keeping it trained on Eris.

"Slip directly into your shadow. Leave this time behind. I will guide you…" Yena growled, fear entering his voice for the first time ever. Eris felt abject horror grip her for the first time since the monster from the forest had captured her. Harvey Yena was never scared of anything.

"I sense something very dark within you, little girl. Something not quite like me, but with quite evil intentions." Apt purred slowly walking towards her. Eris grabbed a nearby flower pot and hurled it at the man, but the pot disintegrated into nothingness as the man's eyes flashed, but it was enough time for Eris to drop into the floor, vanishing into her own shadow and slipping away from both.

The Shadowman's smiled curled inward as he glanced over at Gust, who had walked ahead of him and was kneeling on the floor, inspecting the spot where the woman had vanished.

"Gust…Go through our security footage and see if you can spot our little rat sneaking around. I want to know how much she knows." The Shadowman said to the soldier, who nodded in reply before getting to his feet and exiting the room. The Apothicon Harbinger glanced over at the nearest monitor and saw the image of the Summoning Key on the screen, causing his smile to vanish.

"No matter…Soon enough it will be mine. She is no throat to me…" the monster murmured, waving a hand and shutting down the monitor before brushing out of the room, making the lights flicker as he departed.


Darkness all around her. Suffocating at first, but comforting as time wore on.

Eris swam through the darkness, using her mind and the sensations around her to guide her way to safety. She then held out a hand and a small rift appeared, allowing her to exit the shadowy world. She stumbled out of the portal and pressed herself against a brick wall. She appeared to be in an alleyway now, with falling snow coating the ground as the moon gleamed overhead, illuminating the city around her. She was back in New York. Back in her time.

"Master Yena?" Eris whispered, coldness seeping into her. Her only response was her shadow reaching up and enveloping her, cutting off the coldness. Eris sighed as the shadows held her, though within moments they faded away, her energy vanishing with them.

"I…What was that?" Yena whispered, sounding absolutely confused.

"I don't know. You've never seen anything like that…ever?" Eris asked Yena. The former Group 935 scientist remained silent at that, but his silence was more than enough of a response for Eris. She willed began walking into the streets, where she blended in seamlessly into the crowd. The people all around her were battered and rugged, looking as if they had just been in the biggest fight of their lives. Most of them had, though. She recalled the fight against the ice zombie, and how the children had bravely fought against it. She remembered how Yena had joined the fray, and helped subdue the monster using the power of darkness that clung to his very soul. Eris recalled the fight her master had been in. The one against the children who were supposed to save this world. With that burning child and Samantha guiding them, she felt like that maybe they could accomplish their goal.

"Unlikely…" Yena hissed, sensing Eris's thoughts on the matter

"What makes you think that, Master?"

"Because I remember what we lost. I remember becoming a twisted abomination that despised everything…Do you want to know why I want to destroy this world, little one?" Yena asked Eris.

"…Yes. Tell me."

"Because this world is broken. So, so broken. The evil reign supreme while the good lie in the dirt. I've seen it all throughout my life, even before hell broke loose after the Group 935 coup. I hated this world long before Edward did…When I became a monster, I wanted nothing more than to smother it in darkness. Snuff out everyone's lives and end it all, because this world deserves to die. With all of the horror that happens every single day, humanity deserves to be wiped out…And now Richtofen will be doing exactly what I could have wanted him to do, in the present. Right now." Yena explained, an odd hint of something in his voice. Eris couldn't tell what it was, but Yena continued speaking.

"Those children…The ones traveling with Samantha and Sieger on that train, will find nothing but an early grave. Little One…Wouldn't you want the same thing? To just end it all…No more pain for the innocent? No more suffering for the weak? And a just end to those who corrupted this world in the first place?" Yena asked Eris, only to get a shake of the head in reply.

"Of course there's bad…There's a lot of bad. But there's good too…So much good, Master. I can't believe that destroyed everything is the only way. Maybe it's me being naïve…But part of me, deep down, knows that there's a happy ending in all of this. I just know it!" Eris said with a smile as she leaned against a lamp post, watching a few children walk by. One of them, holding a staff of sorts in his hand, waved to Eris, who cheerily waved back.

"You are far too chipper…"

"Someone has to be. Maybe you're just being a downer. How do you know those kids and Samantha can't stop Richtofen?" Eris asked Yena softly, speeding up her pace down the street, eyeing the massive columns of ice in the road with unease.

"Richtofen is too far gone…He's too powerful. Too full of hatred…He's too absorbed in what he's lost. I think, even now, all of us are…Even me." Yena whispered, his presence slowly slipping away from Eris. After a few seconds, Yena was nothing more than a faint presence in the back of the young woman's mind. She sighed and zipped up her coat, feeling the chill of the night upon her. She'd have to spend a bit of time here to recover before jumping back into the past.

Because something was very wrong. That much was certain. Sector 17 was up to something, something that was twisted enough to warrant investigation. And Yena had mentioned that it could even do something to the other worlds…did he mean the other universes and timelines? Were they too, in danger of Sector 17 and their search for the Summoning Key.

Eris's smile widened as a shiver rolled down her spine. Despite the chill and despite the fear of what awaited her back in the past, she wanted to return there and confront it. She had power now. She had an ally in the form of the man who had saved her from a monster. No more was she helpless, unable to protect herself.

"I'm strong now…And I'll get even stronger. Someday I'll be even stronger than you, Master Yena…And maybe then, I can help you regain your sense of hope. Until then…My hope for a better tomorrow will be strong enough for the both of us.!" Eris whispered with a grin on her face, gazing skyward at the shimmering overhead, shining down in approval of the shadowy maiden returning home.


End of Chapter:


Alright, so I'm gonna address one quick thing that may have caught people off guards this chapter, and that's how I made Nikolai a bit of badass in this chapter.

See, there's a reason for that. These characters may have had their minds addled with due to their exposure to Element 115, but at their core they are still intelligent and very capable soldiers. So my reasoning was that despite his mind being messed with the most, in my opinion, Nikolai is still capable of manipulating others and outmaneuvering enemies when he has too. Look to Gorod Krovi to see that just because he's a drunk Russian, doesn't mean he can't get things done when he wants to.

So I hope that reasoning works for you all. Onto the Q and A!

Q and A:

y no W W weapons though?

the idea of 115 and the mystery box was that it can pull guns from ALL dimensions and time periods. why not have the WaW weapons too? :(

That was a mistake on my part, and I fixed that flub because I am a twat. All weapons from Zombies will be up for grabs in the Mystery Box, regardless of the map or location. I may even throw in a few weapons that weren't in zombies as well, just because I can.

That's all for now. With the next update, I'll have chapters 16-20 up as well as get the next chapter up, hopefully before the halfway point of next month. After that, I'll do chapters 20-25, and then be focusing on the four training chapters I haven't look over yet.

And then I'll officially be halfway done with the hard edits for DOTD. Meaning the rest of the story will be revised even quicker.

So that's all for now, folks. Be sure to favorite, follow, and review and show your support.

Until next time, FlygonNick out!