Lights and noises, that was the only thing his mind could rationally process at the moment, everything else was slowed and archived for later while his mind did everything it could to figure out exactly how this could have happened to him.
The Traveler was attacked, he lost his Light, the City was falling. All of it was of little consequence, one of the only people he truly cared for was gone.
Even through their near broken link he could feel Stitch and his shattered emotions. The Ghost was reeling and doing exactly what he was doing right now, trying to rationalize and deny what was becoming more and more obvious every passing second.
Io was gone.
A spike of grief nearly overwhelmed him, his eyes blurring with shed tears that traveled all the way down his battered and dirty face as he fell down on all fours as the ruins of his home spun above him. The only thing that kept him from simply giving up then and there was the girl tugging helplessly on his tattered arm plate, trying to take him from the grief that she had no idea he was feeling.
She was scared, and for a damning and dreadful second, Aiden did not care about her.
He had given everything to them, people who never gave a damn about Guardians and what they sacrificed every day. People like her had spent their entire lives living in peace while his kind, his brothers and sisters, died. And now they had taken Io. He growled and raged inside of his mind while he barely held himself back from ripping his knife out of its sheath.
"You don't deserve anything you've been given…" He growled in his head, body spasming not with sadness or pain, but with pure and dark rage.
Stitch must have felt phantom sensations of rage, because he moved out of his hiding spot to push against the downed Guardians head. Aiden nearly brushed him off and turned his anger filled gaze back at the girl, but the message was clear.
It wasn't her fault.
His mind still wanted to blame her, but he knew from experience that pinning the blame on another was a common sign of grief. Shaxx had drilled it into his head when he asked for permission to go on strikes during his first year as a Guardian. People died, and blaming others would only hurt them, it wouldn't bring them back.
That did not make it easier to hide the dark emotions inside his eyes.
Aiden wiped the tears from his face with a shaking hand, standing to his full height and taking one last look at the scared and confused girl before he turned his gaze towards what remained of his friend. Io's bones were dull and brittle now that Aiden truly looked at them, only one piece seemed to contain any semblance of the impervious bones he had once worm into battle, and even then it was not as bright as it used to be. Aiden wanted to grab all of his friends remains and bring it with him, but Stitch was not at his best and asking the Ghost to transmatt such an unstable material would be difficult.
The girl gave one more tug on his cloak, reminding Aiden that she was indeed still there, which dragged him back into the present and cleared his head of memories long gone. He grunted at the child before grabbing the one last solid piece of Io and stuffing it inside one of his ammo pouches, careful to not disturb the wire mesh armor scattered around his body.
"Come on, we have to get going before they find us…" Aiden whispered to the girl, reaching his hand out to her as a sign of peace, she seemed reluctant to take it after what she had just seen, but she took it anyway. Aiden lifted her up as carefully as he could and set her into his makeshift backpack once more, careful to make sure he didn't cut the poor girl on one of the many sharp edges of his tattered armor.
Stitch flew back inside of his hiding space while Aiden went over to the entrance of his tiny apartment, the Guardian gave one last solemn look before he turned and opened his door.
A bright light blinded him, and pain overtook his chest.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
"Aiden, wakey wakey!" A female voice jerked him away from his nightmare, making him leap upwards, and hit his head on the owner of said female voice. With a yelp and a grunt of pain from both Io and Aiden, Rider and Dragon both rolled on the floor while Stitch laughed hysterically from inside the safety of his backpack.
"Ahh jeez, you okay Io?" Aiden asked with concern as he rubbed his head slowly, careful to not put pressure on the bump that was slowly disappearing, Light was a hell of a drug, even in small doses.
The not so small dragon grumbled her reply through the Link, making Aiden wince as the countless times he had bitten his tongue flashed through his mind. It was not a fun experience, even for a battle hardened Guardian.
"Maybe I should get you a padded helmet for that hard head of yours." Stitch laughed out, getting a glare for his trouble, even if Aiden could not see the little flashlight.
"Keep it up, I'll get you one day ya little light bulb." Aiden said darkly, getting up quickly and petting Io on her scaly brow which elicited a small purr of contentment.
"Where's the rest of the gang?" Aiden asked curiously as he stretched himself out from his fitful sleep.
"Murtagh was asking Brom if he was, THE Brom I guess? I don't know, they talked all funny when I was around, they also mentioned a Doormat in Gil'ead!" She chirped happily as her spiny tail started to wag in a way similar to a cat.
Aiden shook his head and finished his bit of stretching, and after checking his gear to make sure nothing was being left behind, he moved out with Io in tow to find out what his friends were discussing.
Without him.
The small forest he had been resting in was easy to traverse, and soon he found himself back in the cleaned up camp site they had all set up before, which meant that the group plus one Shade had decided to get traveling. "Least they could do was wake me up… jeez, not like it would have taken a lot either." Aiden grumbled in fake hurt, not really talking to anyone but himself.
"Quit complaining, the faces around here are too grim for having just decided to pack up" Stitch pointed out to his nearly oblivious Guardian, causing him to actually examine the people around him.
Shade, Brom, Murtagh, and even Saphira did not seem too pleased with whatever had happened while he was out, Shade was the most obvious about it with the way she scowled with pure malice at what must have been a particularly interesting bush. Murtagh himself looked more nervous than anything, and Brom just looked plain tired to the battle hardened Guardian.
Eragon just looked like he had eaten a bad grape.
"So what's the plan gang?" Aiden asked as he dissolved a small bit of the tension in the area, his plan was even more successful when Shade glared at him in response.
"Were going to Gil'ead to find a former associate of mine." Brom stated with obvious ire in his tone, which didn't really make sense to Aiden, but he nodded along as though he understood exactly why they were all so upset about this.
"What the old man means to say is, were going into a heavily patrolled and dangerous area filled with some of the Empires finest soldiers, so we can then go and look for a sleep deprived hallucination that the boy had." With this she gestured at Eragon, who seemed very insulted, and then continued on with her rant "And probably get caught by the numerous soldiers that Galbatorix keeps stationed there at all times of the year, did I miss anything, oh former Rider?" Shade asked with large amounts of venom directed towards Brom.
Aiden's brow furrowed in obvious confusion, but no one in the clearing seemed to notice it in the wake of Saphira's sharp growl.
"Watch your tongue Dead-Thing." Saphira broadcasted to the minds of everyone in the clearing, her lingering threat doing nothing but make Shade's eyes glow redder.
"Stitch...?" Aiden said slowly, the question lingering between the Link they held.
"I heard it too, she called Brom a Rider… suddenly everything he has taught us about dragons is beginning to make sense, he never could have known that, unless he WAS a Rider." Stitch said lowly, possibilities flying through his mind rapidly.
Brom had lost his dragon, his partner and friend when all else failed and everyone else left. Stitch and Aiden had felt a similar pain themselves back in the days of the Red War, but they were both fortunate enough to have been able to abate that mind crushing loneliness between each other, otherwise the weight of losing their friend might well have crushed them.
How had Brom come out of such an event without devolving into a raving lunatic?
With the news that Brom was possibly a Rider, Aiden's face morphed between shock, confusion, regret, and then finally, resolve. All of which were noticed by the more keen eyed Shade and Brom.
"What's the plan for Gil'ead?" Aiden said loudly, drawing everyone else's attention to him. Silence was the outstanding answer while everyone thought on how exactly the plan would go about, but Brom was the one who gave the first reasonable proposal.
"We would need to stay clear of the road to Dras-Leona, posters will now be circulating the cities with our appearances, and traders can be just as damning as soldiers if we have bounties on our heads, for now we need to keep Saphira and Io in the skies until were far enough from those vile creatures to relax. Furthermore, I will need Eragon and you to help me set wards to prevent scrying, can you do that Shade?" Brom finished, directing his 'request' towards the still scowling Shade. She only nodded once before she went towards Murtagh and began muttering the words for scrying and blocking in the Ancient language.
Brom then turned towards Aiden, the only one who hadn't been given an instruction and simply gestured for the Guardian to follow him outside of the camp. When they got a sufficient distance away, Brom held on to his wound and slowly leaned against a nearby tree.
Several seconds of silence went by, and Aiden began to get a little worried that the old man had passed out since he couldn't see his eyes, so high was this concern, he nearly jumped when the storyteller spoke.
"I see darkness in your eyes my boy" Brom whispered, putting his piercing gaze upon Aiden, who went straight as a rod upon hearing those words.
"You can hide it from everyone else, but I have seen that darkness countless times throughout my life never once has it failed to consume the people that held it. Never." He said with a grimace.
"I don't know wha-"
"Shut up!" Brom said harshly, making Aiden flinch backwards. He sounded so much like Shaxx.
"You hide your true self from us, you barely acknowledge your partner, and when you do it usually leaves her with more hurt than you can possibly see. I see what you try so hard to hide Aiden, you may be broken, but you should not drag the most important person in your life down that same path." Brom finished, his breath coming out in ragged gasps as he held onto his chest.
Aiden's hid his face inside the shadows of his hood, head leaning more towards the ground with each harsh truth that came out of the old man's mouth. The worst part of the experience was that he was right! The old bastard was right, and Aiden couldn't help but grow frustrated with himself for it.
"My true self is not for her to see, it is not for any of you to see." Aiden whispered hoarsely, his voice cracking just a small bit.
"You cannot decide that for us, and especially not for her! She will never become the great dragon she is supposed to be with you constantly hiding yourself from her, she needs YOU, not this person you portray yourself as. Not this happy go lucky BOY that you have created for yourself." Brom bit back, his brow furrowed in anger.
Aiden nodded once, but he couldn't even stand to look in the general direction of the old man, so he silently went back to camp where everyone else was busy looking over a map, drawing out routes and possible places to hide from what he could see.
Aiden perked up a small bit when a small bundle in his pocket started to shake, bringing out the little orb of light revealed once more the soul he had saved in the cave. Whoever it was, they were certainly excited to see the Guardian, as the container they were in began to shake and warm up at his touch. Normally the thought of saving the small spirit would have filled him with elation, but now it just made him feel tired and wary. The upcoming decisions he would have to make involving his life in Alagaësia would be difficult, raving lunatics with untold power, an old former Rider teaching him the complexities of the Ancient Language and magic, it was all very stressful.
He didn't have time to think about how to help the spirit he held so casually in his arms.
So he put it away, and called Io to him as he prepared the last of his belongings for travel. Gil'ead wouldn't wait for an unprepared Guardian after all.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Velandra frowned from her spot in the void, hand flickering through several dozen holograms at a time, moving faster than any normal creature could possibly track. Her mind was restless and while she required none of the thing's mortals did, she still felt herself grow tired from her constant searching. So she flicked a small portion of her power into the Void and summoned one of her Vex 'mouthpieces' as it were.
A small Harpy flickered into existence at her call, its eye pulsating an irregular color of white before it flickered onto its master.
"Go into the land I have designated and search for anything that could prove deadly to our guest, do so thoroughly, I cannot afford to save him again." She spoke softly, yet her voice carried untold power, the Harpy flashed out of existence with naught a chirp, once again leaving the goddess alone with her thoughts and several billion little things she needed to take care of.
She instead flicked her mind towards Aiden, her ever useful, and frustrating, Chosen.
He was riding towards some city called Gil'ead, which peaked her curiosity a small bit, she did not truly think the Guardian was that interested in getting involved with such a large military town.
She looked around at the individuals in his group next, seeing if everything was alright, the only difference from schedule was the female Shade he had with him, but that could easily be written off to any outside observ-
Valandra did a double take, an impressive feat for someone with a thinking capacity millions of times faster than that of a Ghost.
Brom was ALIVE.
An impossibility, she was certain of it, it could not be anything else but that, he was not supposed to be alive and her sensors must have been malfunctioning, they had to be! Sadly, her dread grew to undefinable levels as every scan and search she conducted concluded that somehow, someway, Brom was alive, he was ALIVE!
She searched through her archives, going frantically as waves of energy began to radiate off her because of her small breakdown. She saw the moment with perfect clarity, Brom being nicked with the knife instead of scraping by his heart, a Shade of all things helping her Chosen instead of trying to kill him.
How had this happened? How had she LET this happen?
She couldn't do anything now, Aiden had changed the fundamentals of the entire land just by being in it and erasing her mistake now would only cause the ones who were undoubtably watching her to investigate, she could not resist the power they would bring to bear on her should she refuse to open her realms.
So, she sat bat down, and watched with dejectedness as the boy Eragon began his search of all the towns prisons to find a particular elf maiden.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Almost four weeks had passed since their little meeting with the Ra'zac, and while it hadn't been deadly or dangerous, it had been uneventful except for the small moments where Eragon went into cities to find the girl from his vision. Aiden understood this very well, visions like the one Eragon showed him in his memories were almost exactly the things that saved all of humanity back in the Red War. Even if Aiden found the strange dreams to be just that; dreams, he had to let Eragon search for her.
During this time, Eragon grew to sixteen years of age, Murtagh revealed himself to be a master of the sword, and Brom TRULY began to teach them the wonders of magic and the Ancient Language as a whole.
Aiden was well and truly fascinated now.
Magic could never hold a candle to Light, but what it lacked in power, it more than made up for in utility. Like the MIDA Multi-Tool versus a Gjallarhorn.
From sharpening a blade, to doing mass amounts of lifting or just summoning a small bit of flames, magic could do almost anything that his Light would find trouble doing. Aiden had slowly been practicing with Stitch in the mysterious ways of the Ancient Language, and while the blunt force hammer style of his Light was good for strong and mighty enemies, magic was the scalpel that did things quietly and easily.
Magic was fueled by the body and its energy, that much Aiden knew. What he did not know was that another major component of using it was the ability to imagine things. Stitch thought that the old man was being sarcastic and made his Guardian say as much, but the old storyteller was adamant, knowing what you wanted the magic to do was just as important as knowing the words for it. A spell forged without direction from the casters thoughts and goals for it would simply fizzle out or explode in a catastrophic display of power. Brom said it was exactly what happened when Aiden flung his rock into the stratosphere, he didn't 'inform' the rock where to stop, so it simply flew upwards with a massive burst of magic.
Now that he was proficient enough in magic, Brom had decided to go for something a bit more worth while to the Guardian while on the road. Learning about Dragons.
Aiden knew almost as much as he could about the mythical and ancient beasts, but that knowledge was somewhat tainted by the powerful Ahamkaras. Even if Io was technically a dragon now, he could not get forget where she had truly come from, even though he harbored no ill will towards his partner for her origins.
Shade stuck around for the history course, but she never truly joined in or tried to participate. This was fine with Brom of course, who still harbored intense feelings of hatred for Shades and claiming that whenever one showed up, death and destruction were wrought. Aiden decided that hearing second hand reports was useless and went over towards her with a curious disposition.
"Why didn't you try to kill us all that night?" Aiden asked when almost all of the camp had gone to bed, the exception being Eragon, Saphira, and Murtagh, who were trying very badly to hide their interest in the conversation.
Aiden really did think that she would have ignored him purely out of spite, but he found himself surprised when she responded with more than just two words.
"You freed me, as much as it pains me to admit it and I need to be around you to, if not figure out how you did it, then have you do it to me again." She admitted casually, unnatural glowing red eyes starring straight into his soul.
"Freed you?" He asked back, leaning his head forward in a sign of interest.
"Yes, you somehow restrained the other spirits in my body, you freed me from their numbing control and unsteady insanity, and for that I owe you more than I can possibly begin to say." She answered, still staring, still casual.
Aiden did not truly understand her meaning, he knew what Shades were capable of, knew that they held some tainted fragment of souls inside their bodies, but he couldn't quite comprehend what she meant when she said he had freed her from said spirits. Void was certainly not his preferred energy, but he knew for certain it did not sever mental connection, otherwise it would have been banned from usage against other Guardians. What she was saying could not be possible.
"What do you mean, freed you? I thought Shades could not separate any single spirit in their body?" Aiden asked interestedly, not noticing the shifting of the group towards the conversation.
"Normally they cannot, but whatever power you used did. It destroyed the link between us, severed my chains and gave me my freedom. Without your assistance, I might very well have been forced to roam the lands being drowned in the insanity of my other selves." She said, her tone momentarily taking on an annoyed edge.
Aiden nodded once, his thoughts elsewhere as what Shade had said hit him and theories began to be traded between Ghost and Guardian.
"Any idea what she is saying bud?" Aiden asked, distractedly.
"None whatsoever, the Warlock data is very precise on what the Void has been capable of in the past, nothing like this has ever been recorded before. I'm even looking for vague mentions of Link-Severing techniques! Nothing is showing up, Aiden." Stitch finished with a digital chirp of his database being closed.
"I can't tell you what happened, but if that's all it takes to keep you on our side, I'll be more than happy to shoot you with my arrows every once in a while." Aiden said with a badly suppressed grin, watching Shades face turn from thinly veiled annoyance to mystified befuddlement.
She took a moment to respond, but it did eventually come when she got her wits together again. "I… I thank you Aiden, your help is… Appreciated." Shade forced out, her gratitude was sincere enough to Aiden, but it seemed like she had not ever expressed such feelings to someone.
"Good! Now get some sleep, I'm taking first watch." Aiden called as he started to walk towards the light of the campfire where the 'sneaky spies' were all making themselves appear busy, each one doing a terrible job of acting like they weren't listening.
Aiden walked right up to Eragon, who was busy looking at anyplace that was not the approaching Guardian.
"Eragon, I made you something." Aiden said with a small grin that somewhat reached his eyes. Eragon finally decided to look at the approaching Hunter, and when he did, his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.
From somewhere that Eragon could only guess at, Aiden had produced a massively complex and beautiful bow. Carved into it were illustrations and symbols that Eragon could barely decipher in the low light, but the most obvious ones were small beautifully crafted symbols of the Gedwёy ignasia and his own dragon, Saphira.
Eragon reached out his slightly shaking hands as Aiden gave him the masterpiece of a bow, a smile resting on the Guardians face and a gracious bow being performed as Eragon grabbed the very sturdy string of the bow and pulled it back. Eragon marveled at the craftsmanship of the weapon and the strange energy he felt when he pulled on the string, to the young Rider, the weapon almost felt alive.
"Like it?" Aiden asked cheekily as Eragon had to exert tremendous willpower to take his gaze away from the weapon he had been given.
"I-I love it!" Eragon exclaimed as quietly as he could, feeling Saphira perk up a bit as the emotions he was feeling drifted to her as well. Murtagh himself just examined the bow curiously, nodding to himself once he was done examining it.
"Good, happy Dawning kid. It's a little late, but I'm sure that it's gonna more than make up for it."
Eragon spent the rest of his night practicing with the bow a small bit away, releasing arrows with increasing frequency and noticing with a jolt of pleasure that each arrow he shot glowed a deep blue color similar to Saphira's scales and every impact caused a small burst of blue fire to pop into existence on his target for a brief moment.
Aiden simply smiled, and let the new day come to pass as they drifted closer and closer to Gil'ead.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
They were currently camped outside of the aforementioned city, far enough away that Saphira and Io could rest nearby without being seen. Aiden, Eragon, Brom, and a fully covered Shade were sitting quietly around a small fire. Trying to preserve their heat as they had arrived late at night to try and avoid people noticing them. Murtagh was busy in the city trying to find the Dormnad character. Eragon looked like he wanted to pace and storm about the clearing, but he decided against it when he noticed how silent everything was.
"I hate the waiting…" Eragon whispered to himself, but he saw Saphira and Aiden perk up a bit from their side opposite of him. Aiden only nodded to him afterword's, taking on a deep and far-off look as he seemed to gaze through the fire to some distant point.
"The waiting is what decides most battles, you know?" Aiden asked shortly after, causing everyone to look up at him. His form much smaller now that he was completely out of his armor, except for his Iron Banner cloak.
He elaborated soon after at everyone's look. "Waiting. it gives people time to think, to question. Every time I got into a fight with someone that waited, they didn't know what to do, how to fight, where to start. Me? I always try to start the battle first if it's inevitable. If an enemy has time to wait, they don't have time to come up with a plan for you." Aiden finished as he threw a small bit of wood into the fire, watching ash and flame reach up towards the stars before going back down.
Shade nodded with him, she seemed to agree with the Hunter's words.
"Wouldn't it be better to give them a chance to flee, though?" Eragon asked curiously, restarting the conversation.
Aiden's gaze darkened, and Eragon shivered as he saw a small tendril of shadow drop from his fellow Rider's hand. The little blotch was gone the next second though, so Eragon rubbed his eyes and confirmed that nothing had been there. Aiden spoke up as though nothing had happened.
"Giving your enemy the chance to flee only allows them to come back stronger, Eragon. Giving mercy sometimes only leads to death, remember that." He said darkly, covering his head with the cloak he always carried. With his face now covered by shadows, Eragon looked away as he felt two eyes drill into him.
"Mercy is also what makes us human, Aiden." Brom chimed in from next to Eragon, causing Aiden's hood covered head to tilt towards the old storyteller. Brom continued. "Without mercy, were little more than animals masquerading as people."
Aiden's hood tilted low to the ground as Io drifted closer and rubbed against his shoulder, her head much taller than his now that he was sitting.
"What makes us human…" Aiden repeated softly, looking at his naked hand.
Brom narrowed his eyes, before raising them in surprise as though some final puzzle piece finally clinked together inside his mind. Before the old storyteller could speak up however, Saphira alerted them to activity near the gate of Gil'ead.
"Murtagh is coming" She projected into their minds, causing several heads to gaze towards the entrance of the city. And true to her word, a rider was coming towards their camp at rapid speeds, seeming very hurried for someone who was only talking to a Varden spy.
When he arrived, Murtagh went over towards the fire and grabbed himself a seat along with some set aside soup, his mouth was full well before anyone could ask him what had happened. Aiden and the rest gave him time to fill himself before they started to question the boy.
"He agreed to meet us tomorrow, on a small hill up the road. Although he was very skeptical of Brom being here, he accepted." Murtagh said while wiping a small bit of soup off his cloak.
"Why were you in such a hurry?" Aiden asked the boy, seeing Brom nod at the question as well.
"Someone I know saw me. Unfortunately, he is not the kind to keep silent. We can only hope he does not jabber to anyone important." Murtagh said bitterly, upset with his perceived failure.
Aiden got up and took his hood off, Eragon squinted a bit as he saw the most peculiar streak of red in one on of his fellow Rider's eye. Eragon consulted Saphira on this and she agreed with him, that red had not been there before.
"You did good Murtagh, why don't you take a rest while we figure things out?" Aiden 'asked', but Eragon got the distinct feeling it was not a mere suggestion. Murtagh nodded either way, so he went over towards his small section of the camp and tucked himself into his bedroll and was soon fast asleep.
Aiden nodded once everything was done and they put the fire out. The young Rider did what he almost always did nowadays and offered to stay on watch for the entire night so everyone got their fair share of sleep. Brom had been suspicious when this first occurred back in the days when Aiden was not a trusted friend, but the old Rider simply nodded and grumbled some goodnights before he too went to his own section of camp.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Almost an hour later, everyone but Shade and Aiden were down and out for the count. Aiden did not really need the sleep and waking up from a recurring nightmare was not appealing to him at the moment. Shade however simply stayed up because her body did not require the amount of sleep that a human body did. Shade stood up once everything was in order and gestured for Aiden to follow her once he had finished making sure Io was sound asleep. The Guardian did, although with extreme reluctance and a concerned glance at the horse sized bundle of blankets covering Io.
Once they were far enough away that Aiden could no longer see the large mound that was Saphira, Shade began to speak.
"You are not human, are you?" She questioned the Guardian simply and without hesitation, although the curiosity was clear in her voice.
Aiden tensed up for a moment, expecting an attack, a defensive stance, some form of mental warfare. All he got was a curious stare and a tapping of Shade's hand on a nearby tree.
"No point lying then huh? I assume you dragged me out here because you know I want this kept a secret, right?" Aiden asked quietly, the threat in his voice was more than obvious enough for Shade, who only had to glance at the small bit of red in the Hunter's eye to realize he was serious.
"You are correct. I have spent much time around humans because of my… former masters bidding, and while you can be strong and foolhardy by nature, you are something far different." She said while examining the Guardian up and down with a critical eye.
"What gave it away?" Aiden asked curiously, stretching out his shoulders as his body started to warm up with prebattle fever.
"Your actions. You never eat, rarely sleep, and the things you do with those dreadful powers of yours are beyond anything a human could do, magically gifted or not, it is not normal." She finished off, noticing the Hunter tensing and preparing for a battle with an amused twinkle in her glowing red eyes.
"Man, I really need to stop dropping the ball, don't I?" Aiden said dejectedly, but Shade saw right through his aloof act. To her trained and sharp eyes, the hunter looked more tired than angry with himself for being caught.
"Indeed." Shade agreed simply.
"What will you do with this information?"
"Keep it to myself hopefully."
"Really now, you have the ultimate bribing tool and you choose to hide it?"
"You forget that I am indebted to you, Aiden. As much as it pains me to admit it, I need you." Shade finished their little argument with a flourish of her cloak, and she started to stalk back to the camp under the cover of dark. The only indication that she was there previously was the small indentation on the grass where her feet had been.
"…She's really gonna start to bug me soon." Aiden quietly said to himself, knowing Stitch would hear him either way.
"You were pretty obvious, to be fair." Stitch replied.
"Nobody asked you Lightbulb." Aiden grumbled back, making his way to the camp to try and keep an eye on Io.
After almost ten minutes of walking, Aiden slowed to a crawl as he found Shade simply laying down on the dirt near the camp, her posture tense and her gaze inquisitive. Aiden grew confused and fearful and he quickly 'knocked' on her mental barrier to request permission to speak with her. She answered immediately.
"What's going on?" Aiden asked seriously, sliding into the patch of leaves next to Shade.
"Urgal's, and something far more powerful, they ambushed them and they knocked Io unconscious while the Rider boy was taken. Saphira flew off with Io, Brom, and Murtagh. But the powerful creature stayed behind. He knows there are more of us." Shade summarized grimly, Aiden only now noticed her eyes were now a duller red than before, and her pupils had shrunken down to near pinpricks.
"She's scared…" Stitch whispered to Aiden, his Hunter only nodding in agreement before he looked across the way at the camp, and the hooded person standing in what was left of it.
"Aiden, whatever that is… it is NOT human." Stitch said urgently, the fact that Io was far away from the camp was the only bit of good news the Ghost could come up with. Aiden nodded to himself, before Shade nearly had a heart attack as the Guardian lifted himself up and started walking towards the hooded figure with an ease that betrayed the serious look in his grey eyes.
"HEY DICKHEAD!" Aiden shouted at the top of his lungs. Shade ducked her head down low to avoid being seen by the creature that held much more power than she could ever fight, her very soul was terrified of confronting whatever it was. She felt scared for the first time in her life, and it was very unpleasant.
Aiden marched right towards the cloaked figure noticing the broader shoulders and taller height, with an angry scowl on his face and a knife in his hand, Aiden flung the Solar-powered throwing knife directly at the supposed man's skull. Despite the speed of the advance and the relative surprise of the attack, the man not only dodged the knife, he grabbed the handle and started to examine the weapon.
"Where did you take the boy?" Aiden asked threateningly, brandishing another knife as he pulled the remnants of Quickfang from storage and pointed it at the man. The man only looked at Aiden while his pale head held a vicious smile upon it. For some reason Aiden could not see the man's eyes.
"He Is where he needs to be, boy. I had hoped to catch at least one Rider tonight, but you have instead given me a chance to gain TWO!" With his last word, the man practically teleported in front of the surprised Guardian, who could do little else but jerk his arm into the path the dagger would have taken. He saved himself the trouble of a bleeding lung and instead gained a burning hole in his arm.
"He broke your shields in one shot!" Stitch added while Aiden flung himself a fair distance away from the stranger, ripping the knife from his cauterized arm as his breath quickened and body began to flood with adrenaline.
"He's fast too, Traveler damn it he's almost as fast as Cayde was…" Aiden stated as Stitch started to heal up the wound in his Guardians arm, catching the attention of the man.
"Healing now? I was told you were strong, but that is very impressive boy." The man finished.
And just like that, the battle was once again started as the man zoomed across the field at speeds Aiden could barely keep up with. The only thing that saved him from being knocked unconscious was Stitch's healing and his honed instincts which allowed him to block the hooded man's strikes. Aiden ducked forward under a blow that would have taken his head off and jerked his head back to avoid a flying knee to the face. With his options limited on ways to attack, Aiden blinked away from the man's next strike. The Guardian made a face when the fist that almost impacted his back instead buried itself in the ground and made a small crater. Aiden was given no time to rest however when another fist impacted his leg, bending it at an awkward angle and releasing a sharp crack into the night. Aiden cried out in pain before he blinked fifteen feet away from his opponent. The man only narrowed his eyes when Aiden refused to falter in the face of his broken bones and the clearing became eerily quiet.
With a flash of silver, a scratched sword appeared in the man's hand to match the Guardians broken sword. Aiden tensed himself as he steadied his sword arm and his broken leg bone stitched itself together with a dull snap. They both waited in the almost oppressive silence with grave looks exchanged.
Aiden took the initiative, blinking behind the pale man and stabbing Quickfang into his side. The strike itself was minimal, but the counter strike the man made sent Aiden reeling as he was blasted backwards by an unseen force. The blow that seemed to have come from nowhere tore Aiden's shirt to dust and turned his chest into a bruised network of cracks as Stitch tried desperately to heal his Guardian from a blow that turned his organs to mush. When Aiden landed, blood flew from his mouth and he only had a second to lift Quickfang in order to block the one-handed blow from the man's sword.
"Fucking magic." Aiden spat, literally shooting a glob of life fluids from his mouth. He blinked far behind the opponent and steadied himself as he felt his stomach knit together inside of himself, it was not a pleasant feeling. Aiden waited as his shields silently returned to full and his body began to stabilize with Stitch's impressive attempt to heal it, but Aiden got a distinct feeling it would not help him against the monster before him.
"It is a most impressive tool, is it not?" The man asked with a cocky attitude, twirling his cracked sword around like it was a paperweight. Aiden found the fact he was being steadily pushed back less annoying than the fact that he could not pull off the same acrobatic stunts with his Bolt-Caster.
"Yea, yea, pull a rabbit out of your ass and maybe well talk about impressive you emo dick." Aiden spit back, literally spewing spittle at the man in an attempt to insult him. It worked.
"Well you are a strange one, aren't you?" it's a shame really, you would be an interesting pet to break." The man snarled out, his voice wavering between several different tones and accents. Aiden narrowed his eyes at the man but had to widen them again as he suddenly appeared right in front of him.
"I'm so sorry to cut this short, but I have places to be and you are putting up far too much of a fight to let live. Goodbye." The surprised Guardian did his best to blink out of the way, maybe try and shadestep away from the strike he could feel but not see, but he could not avoid the blade that pierced his chest. it slid through his body, severing his spinal cord in one slick movement and causing his head to hang limp. Aiden gasped as a bit of blood managed to leak into his throat and flow out of his mouth, staining the hood of his assailant and causing the man to smile in grim satisfaction.
"Y-you said… you needed, t-two Rider's." Aiden coughed, sending blood once again flickering on to the demon before him. He only nodded once and removed the bloody blade from the Guardians chest.
"I did. But I'm positive the King won't mind losing you. You're not like the boy after all, much more powerful, but as long as your dragon lives than there is no need to keep you alive. You're better off dead." With that final remark, he let the dangling body of the Aiden fall to the floor, blood dripping from him in waves.
The man walked away into the darkness as Aiden lay there panting and struggling to breathe. His lungs were filling with blood, and black spots were appearing all around his vision as he felt himself lose control of what remained of his upper body.
"Stitch… I think I messed up here…" Aiden shakily thought as his head began to tremble.
"It's okay Aiden, It's okay! I'm gonna heal you soon buddy, just stay calm until then, okay?!" Stitch franticly said as he started the slow process of reattaching his Guardians spine. It was slow going and the fact that Aiden was in agonizing pain did nothing to calm him, but Stitch went as fast as he could.
"Fuck it…" Aiden whispered as his shaking hand reached down towards Quickfang. He grabbed the blade with a shaky grip and before Stitch could protest, he stabbed the broken blade through his heart. Aiden slumped to the ground as a corpse, leaving the world behind in silence. The only sound a crinkling of a bush as Shade silently shook in her hiding spot, starring in horror towards the dead body of Aiden.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
After almost an hour of the world passing by and silence ruling eternal in the resting place of Aiden, Shade walked out of the forested area she had been hiding in. getting a close look at the body of the person she had been traveling with for almost two months.
"…." Shade starred at the man in distraught confusion, her mind running blank as she saw the corpse before her, unable to comprehend the sight.
"…How could you die?" She whispered to herself, doubt creeping into her voice for the first time in her entire life. "You were so strong, so damn strong… how the hell could someone so strong be so damned stupid!" She screamed into the night, angry at herself, angry at Aiden, angry at whatever had killed the broken body before her. She fell to the floor with a hot wetness traveling down her face, causing her to rub at her eyes furiously as she looked away from the body of the person who had inadvertently saved her from madness.
"He does that a lot." A voice said beside her, startingly close to her head. She whipped around, searching her line of sight for a person of some kind but the only thing she saw was the shadows of the night and a few low hanging trees.
"Over here." The voice said, right behind her this time.
She jerked around while raising a dagger to stab a person, only to find something far, far different.
"Hey, I'm Stitch." The floating shape said, a small light flickering in its center, almost like an eye if Shade looked at it funny.
"What are you?!" She growled out. Her tone brokering no doubt to the threat in her words, the daggers she held also helped to reaffirm her violent outburst.
"I'm a Ghost, and I'm with knucklehead over there." The 'Ghost' said, gesturing with one of its shoulder plates at the still bleeding corpse of Aiden. Shade only glared at him angrily at his insult. Despite her not being close to the Guardian, his death hit her hard. He was the one who set her free, who gave her a chance at life, and despite her cynical nature and angry outlook, seeing him die felt like an actual loss to her.
That is why she would not tolerate him being disrespected by a floating ball.
"Watch your tongue, creature! Before I rip it ou-"
"Ghost's don't have tongues actually, but if you keep quiet for a minute I can let you yell at knucklehead instead." The daring little thing interrupted her, and it was spouting such nonsense that her mouth opened and closed for several seconds trying to come up with something to say back. It beat her to the punch however when it flew over towards Aiden's corpse and began to glow brighter than the sun.
Shade shielded her eyes as the glow overpowered her night vision and rendered her blind for a few moments. In that time she squared her shoulders and prepared herself for an attack from all directions, straining her hearing to its limit and grinding her teeth against each other as she prepared for a fight.
She waited as the light died down for some form of attack of retaliation, but all she heard was footsteps walking calmly towards her, to which she immediately swung her dagger at the sound. Instead of finding the blood of an enemy on her blade, she felt a hand calmly grab her weapons and lower them.
"You can put those down now Slim Shady."
Her eyes jerked open and her mouth took on the shape of an 'O' as she saw an impossibility standing before her.
Aiden smiled at her in the dark, his normally grey eyes shining with a radiance of blue, red, and purple. His body was no longer naked and ruined, now he was in shining armor that looked as if it was made that very day. His torn and tattered cloak was now repaired and looked as though it had been polished a few moments ago, and the bruises he sported on his hands and head were gone, replaced with a dirt free and clean body.
She was speechless, and for a time she simply sat there and starred at the reborn man before her.
"Guess who's back?" the 'Ghost' said, floating over Aiden's shoulder like a falcon would sit on its master's. Aiden's face soured, and he turned his baleful gaze onto the floating ball next to him. His next words flooring Shade in pure confusion.
"You little shit, that was my joke!"
"Well I said it first."
"Only because I told you I was going to say it!"
"Well maybe if you were quicker then I wou-"
"WHAT IS GOING ON?!"
Aiden and Stitch both turned to a now fuming Shade, who was grasping her daggers with a white knuckled grip and eyeing the two of them like they were completely insane for having an argument after one of them had just died.
"You died!" She screamed harshly, eyes glowing a harsh blood red as her body trembled in anger.
Aiden nodded once, before he grabbed Shade by the shoulder and looked her in the eye. His eyes had started to adopt their normal grey appearance as the rainbow of colors left him. Once she had relatively calmed down, he moved over towards the former battlefield.
"That's the thing about me. Death and I have an agreement, I don't kick his ass and he stay's far away from me." Aiden said as sarcastically as he could while gathering up the fallen knives he had dropped and having Stitch transmatt Quickfang back into his inventory.
"That doesn't make sense! Nobody can come back to life! Only Shades can…." She trailed off as a realization hit her hard. She looked at Aiden with a cautious and guarded look. "Are you a Shade…?" She whispered.
Aiden laughed at her question, but he didn't leave her in the dark on the matter.
"I'm more than a Shade can be, but also less at the same time. Your ability to grow stronger after you 'die' is rather interesting, but where your death allows you to manifest back after a month or two, mine allows me to come back instantly, at any time I wish." Aiden explained to Shade while he finished up checking the area for anything of value, only managing to find the dark blood that he had spilled when he died. He turned to the still fuming Shade.
"Shade, I promise to tell you everything I can. But first, we need to rescue Eragon. Are you up for that?" Aiden said, his gaze tearing through her logical and reasonable defenses and causing her nod her head angrily, her emotions now slightly calmer.
"Fine. Fine! But you will tell me everything about what happened here, or so help me…" She threatened, pointing a pale finger into the amused Guardians face.
Aiden grinned one of his hollow grins and grabbed her hand in a firm shake.
"I swear. Now, let's get ready for war, eh?" Aiden asked mischievously as a large and menacing sword flickered into existence in his hand, he let her hand go to steady the very large blade with a two handed grip. A large blue crystal dominated its shape and Shade noticed the similarities to the thunder she had seen Aiden wield before hiding inside the gems shape.
Shade nodded and gripped her two daggers closer as she looked at the distant shape of Gil'ead. Shade was not a religious person by default, her life had been far too unholy for any God to look down upon her with kindness. For the first time in her life, she believed that there was some kind of deity out there, and the man standing next to her would make a lot of people meet them on this night.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
"Your insane." Shade said simply as Aiden trudged ahead of her while trying to find his lost dragon.
"I'm not insane, I'm an adapter." Aiden shot back to her from over his shoulder, not giving her a second glance.
"The plan is absolutely insane. No one would survive it." She bit back with little venom in her voice.
"Good thing I don't need to survive it huh?" He asked cheekily. Shade could practically feel the sass in his voice.
Shade grit her teeth instead of responding to the man in front of her. She had spent weeks traveling with him and she still could not get over his personality. Someone with that much darkness inside him could not be so 'happy' all the time, Shade secretly wondered how he was able to keep up the façade for so long. She pondered all this as they were trying to find their companions.
Aiden Arcstrider. A strange name for someone who held even stranger powers, if she didn't know any better, she would say he was some kind of Grey Folk descendent for how strong he could be at times. When she first felt the awesome thunder he had summoned, she had believed herself to be the strongest person in that cursed sea city after she was 'assigned' there, but when she saw soldiers be disintegrated as though the sun itself had come down upon them… it made her feel small. He had never used the power since however, even though it made him become something close to a God. She didn't know why he hadn't used it again, maybe it took too much energy for him to use often? She could only guess at this point.
"You've been quiet back there." Aiden commented, apparently noticing her silent brooding.
"I have been thinking on many things. It is too time consuming to humor your machinations." She said back with some hostility. Aiden only raised his hands and continued on with their trek.
Before long Shade saw a small light flicker inside the cover of a glen of trees, the light would have been completely impossible to see had Aiden not stuck to the path he had pointed out a few minutes ago. They both snuck up on the small campsite to try and determine who was currently camping out, and Shade was satisfied to see all of the group aside from Eragon sitting around the fire making harsh gestures and noises to each other.
Aiden walked into the camp strangely calm for a man who had just died, the only fun reaction that Shade could see was when Murtagh and Brom both gripped their respective weapons upon hearing the Guardians entrance.
Murtagh and Brom ran over towards the two lost group members in a hurry, Murtagh with subdued joy in his eyes and Brom with wary relief and suspicion. Even though they were now back in a somewhat safe environment, Brom definitely picked up on the fact that Aiden had acquired a shining new set of armor that the old man had never seen before. Aiden had simply told Shade that it was some kind of "Dawning Armor" and left it at that.
"What happened to you two?" Brom asked inquisitively, gesturing to the massive sword upon Aiden's back and the aforementioned armor.
"We got in a fight with something powerful, I managed to fight it off, but they got away with Eragon." Aiden lied casually as he walked past both Murtagh and Brom toward his unconscious dragon. Shade could see a flash of anger in his eyes as a small strip of red appeared in them.
"Interesting…" Shade thought with a frown upon her face.
Aiden sat down next to Io and started to glide his hand across her, she distinctly saw him muttering spells to check her wounds. Shade let the worried Hunter check over his partner and instead sat down next to the fire as Brom and Murtagh reluctantly did the same. After several minutes of Aiden checking on his dragon with magic, the Guardian got up and walked over to Saphira and started talking with her about his 'plan'.
Saphira widened her eyes as the sheer stupidity of the plan hit her, the dragon then broadcasted the general theme of it to their camping companions and they also jerked back in outrage. It was a common reaction when someone says that they were going to raid a military town by themselves.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Aiden gripped the saddle on Saphira tighter as they reached the highest altitude the poor dragon could survive. With Aiden's pressurized armor he could survive in the cold harsh environment of space, but Saphira was still a creature of flesh and bone. She needed oxygen to fly and breath, so they were only high enough up to be but a speck of blue if someone were to look up in the daytime. The height they were at was perfect for Aiden's plan anyway.
It had been almost two days since Eragon was taken, and now it was time to get him back.
The cold night air was whistling by them as Aiden unstrapped himself from the saddle. Saphira was not okay with the plan at all, but she trusted Aiden more than enough to understand that the Guardian on her back would get her Rider back, no matter what.
"Aiden, are you sure you will be okay?" But that didn't mean she wouldn't check to see if he was okay with it.
The Guardian grinned at her from behind his helmet and simply rubbed a small space between her back spikes reassuringly.
"Saphira, I'm going to get your Rider back. Just try to make sure the others get into position in time okay?" He asked her with a self-assured tone, not at all fearful as he hung at the very edge of her saddle prepared to fall for hundreds of feet.
"Fine… just be careful." She said lowly.
Aiden nodded to her, and then he jumped.
The Guardian dove towards the ground as biting wind started to tear at his cloak with a vengeance, the military town was directly under him and he was approaching it very fast. Not nearly as fast as he needed to be, however.
"Stitch, we good?" Aiden asked his Ghost with a serious frown on his face. They were passing through the clouds at this point.
"Almost." Stitch said with conviction as he hurriedly moved through the inventory space and reconfigured a few dozen rockets from their hundreds in storage. He also grabbed a few spare Sparrow booster engines to use.
"Stitch, I need more speed please." Aiden said as they passed through the clouds and began to grow close enough for the zoom function on his helmet to see individual details of the building they were aiming for. The dining rooms.
According to Brom, the room for eating was the most prominent area in a building like the one Aiden was aiming for. It was large, capable of housing many individuals, and it also had some of the weakest walls and ceilings because it was in the middle of the fort like building. Nobody expected an attack to focus on the middle of a fort, their mistake.
"Got it! Let's do this!" Stitch exclaimed as two pairs of Sparrow boosters appeared on his Guardians back, lighting up and causing blasts of flame to shoot from them, it also allowed the Hunter to increase his speed exponentially. Stitch then transmatted the three dozen Gjallarhorn rockets into his Guardians hand.
Aiden laughed like a demon as he crashed head first through the ceiling of the building, causing a man or two to fall off the wall as his body crashed into a table and interrupted the eating of a tired soldier. The dead body of Aiden laid on the remains of a table with a massive indentation in the stone beneath him. The soldier who had been eating looked at the dead Guardian with a fearful and curious look as multiple long tubes rolled across the floor, each one beeping with a strange noise.
The man only had one moment to be confused before the scaled down explosive munitions released their payloads, turning the dining room into a hellish inferno as several walls and floors simply stopped existing.
A minute after the Gjallarhorn rockets exploded, Stitch appeared and resurrected his Guardian, who fell to the floor clutching his head as the remnants of his headfirst collision hit him.
"Oooooh hell that hurt." Aiden said as he clutched the helmet concealing his head.
"I mean, you did turn your brain into mush. Are you really surprised that it hurt?" Stitch asked humorously as he transmatted into his Guardians inventory when the shouts of concerned soldiers reached his sensors.
"Eragon still in the cells?" Aiden asked as Fatebringer appeared in his hand and he began to run in the general direction of the aforementioned cells, the Guardian wisely decided to ignore the massive crater he had created in the dining room.
"No, he got out somehow as soon as the rockets exploded. The blast might have blown the doors open, or the kid is a lot more resourceful than I originally thought." Stitch said as he broadcasted Eragon's position onto the HUD in his Guardians helmet.
Aiden grunted an affirmative as he passed by a room Stitch had determined to be the barracks where the Hunter could distinctly hear the hurried clanking of armor and swords as people frantically questioned what had happened to their fortress. Aiden only sighed in a grim manner before he had Stitch give him another rocket, he threw it into the room and quickly sprinted off as a massive explosion signaled the ending of a few dozen innocent lives.
"It needed to be done Aiden." Stitch said dejectedly as his Guardians negative emotions washed over him. With those soldiers alive they could pose a threat to the group later on in their jailbreak. As much as Stitch hated to admit it, Uldren had prepared them for a slaughter on such a scale.
"I know." Aiden said as he passed into a long hallway, where a group of four soldiers were rushing towards the area the prison should have been. Aiden only grunted and lifted his hand cannon towards the men, ending their lives with four trigger pulls.
"So damn easy…" He said simply. Stitch agreed.
After several more minutes and almost a dozen guards fell to Aiden's aptly named hand cannon, the Guardian came into the prison section to a very confusing sight.
Eragon was currently holding on to a girl with pointed ears who was covered in so many bruises and cuts that she might as well have been a pin cushion. Surrounding him were four soldiers who were very cautious as the Rider before them had apparently taken out two highly trained soldiers with but a spoon.
Aiden did a double take as he saw his fellow Rider literally fight off half a dozen soldiers with a spoon, and he had Stitch record it silently as he quickly joined in the fight with magic.
"Letta!" The Guardian exclaimed loudly as he focused his attention on the hearts of each soldier, he was grimly satisfied to see each one fall to the ground clutching their chests in terror before their lives ended right in front of him.
Eragon looked at Aiden in relief and slight terror, but he got his wits together when the Guardian grabbed the woman from his shaky grip and simply gestured down the way he had originally came from. Eragon kept pace with him as the elder Rider carried the elf bridal style down the halls of the fort, he shivered somewhat when he came upon the remnants of several soldiers, each one had a massive hole in their heads.
"Where could he get such a weapon?" Eragon thought to himself as he glanced at his fellow Rider.
Whenever he saw the man fight, he was reminded of just how inexperienced he was. Aiden went into battle with such vicious weapons and dreadful efficiency that Eragon was always reminded of how small he really was to the man before him, what use was he as a Rider when Aiden outshined him in nearly every way? His thoughts inevitably made it to Saphira, who had made contact with him shortly before he had killed the soldiers. Her words almost caused him to pause before he remembered he was currently in a warzone.
"Aiden is a grand fighter, but where he excels in combat, he lacks true skill in personality. He hides himself behind masks upon masks. You will gain his experience my Rider, and you shall remain true to yourself through all this. I swear to you." She said to him with a love and care that made Eragon wipe his eyes of tears.
"Thank you Saphira… I shall be with you soon." Eragon promised her in the Ancient Language, feeling the binding words flow through his core. Her amusement and worry faded away as she let his thoughts become his own, although her presence was still there, watching over him in calm protectiveness.
"Shit!" Aiden exclaimed as he stopped suddenly, causing Eragon to crash into the armored back of his fellow Rider with a shout of pain. Eragon got up blearily as his nose dripped blood, he peeked out from behind Aiden to see what had caused him to stop, and his breath left him in a frantic gasp.
Standing before them with a cracked sword of glimmering silver, a man whose skin was pale as snow, hair red as blood, and eyes flaring with the intensity of dragon fire, was the Shade that had captured Eragon and tortured the elf in Aiden's arms.
"You are still alive…" He rasped out, focused solely on Aiden. Eragon was thankful for such a thing even as he glanced at his fellow Rider in confusion.
"I'm hard to kill." Aiden said simply as he gave Eragon the elf girl, he accepted her with a shaky grip as the Guardian pulled a massive sword from his back that Eragon had not noticed until now. The blade was shimmering with blue arcs of thunder, and Eragon could practically feel the power radiating off of the blade.
"Magic only heals so quickly… someone of immense power must have saved your life… but who?" The man inquired silently as he gazed at Aiden with an intense look. Eragon looked at his fellow Rider with confusion. Aiden silently reached out and put his strange metal weapon into Eragon's hand without breaking his staring contest with the Shade.
"Eragon, get out of here and find Saphira. I need to take care of this guy alone, okay?" Aiden asked with a borderline neutral tone, his voice brokering no argument. Not that Eragon would want to fight the Shade, but leaving his friend alone to fight him was not appealing either. In the end he simply nodded and trusted that his fellow Rider had a plan, he then took off back the way he came, contacting Saphira with a mental shout.
"Alone again, I see." The now identified Shade whispered venomously as he twirled his cracked blade in a circular motion, eyeing the Guardian and his thunder blade all the while.
"Not even been on a first date and you've already impaled me once." Aiden calmly replied with a smirk as Stitch mentally facepalmed. The Shade seemed to have understood the implied meaning behind the Guardians words as his expression shifted from cold annoyance to flaming rage.
"Very well, let us do this dance once more, I can promise you that I won't make the mistake of leaving you alive again." And with those final words, Aiden felt a massive mental presence blast into his defenses. The mental battle was nowhere near the level that he had to deal with while facing Oryx, but he still flinched back when he felt the needle-sharp mental probes stabbing into his projected defenses.
Aiden grit his teeth and charged at the Shade while shaking off all the probes at once and launching his own counter attack, surprising the man long enough for Aiden to blink forward, sliding Bolt-Caster across the Shade's stomach. The blow should have ended the fight then and there, but Aiden was further reminded how supernaturally resilient Shades were when he felt the silver sword slice across his Vex leg, cutting a vital support rod.
"Fuck!" Aiden shouted out harshly as he fell to the floor unceremoniously with a harsh clatter. "You need to cut that shit out!" Aiden spit at the smirking Shade while he saw the pale mans stomach knit itself back together with a few words in the Ancient Language. Aiden did not even want to guess at what words would heal his leg, so he simply let Stitch fix the broken rod. The mental attack returned with a vengeance during the time Aiden was being healed.
Aiden leaped into the air with a boost from his jumps, he soared over the man and muttered some words in the Ancient Language and sent dozens of shards of stone at the back of the Shade. The Guardian laughed to himself when the supernatural creature he was above was impaled by almost all of the stones and the mental battle took a sharp turn in the flying Hunters favor.
Aiden stabbed at the Shade's otherworldly mind with his own mental spikes as he landed behind the somewhat distracted man. The gleaming edge of Bolt-Caster managed to nick the man's arm before the silver blade intercepted a follow up strike aimed at its owners' leg, Aiden wisely backed up a bit as the Shade swung his sword in an attempt to behead the Hunter.
The Shade burst towards the Hunter with pure killing intent leaking from his crooked smile, Aiden gave his own dark grin and swung Bolt-Caster up to intercept the Shade's blade. Sparks flew from both blades as supernatural strength fought against Light enhanced power, and while the pale man was stronger than any human could hope to be, Aiden was a Guardian. Bolt-Caster lit up with pure Arc energy, sending electrical power directly into the spirit filled Shade. The Arc energy flowing through the Shade caused his muscles to tense and become unresponsive, which allowed Aiden to lift his foot up and send it crashing into his opponent, sending him crashing down the hallway and into the massive hole the Guardian's entrance had caused.
"Welcome to Sparta, bitch." Aiden bit out as he caught his breath, resting the tip of Bolt-Caster onto the floor with a smirk.
"You… you simple minded BOY!" The Shade roared out, his voice fragmenting and taking on multiple dark and rage filled tones. "I have killed many of your kind, and I will continue to do so long after your decrepit body turns to dust in my hands!" With his last declaration of rage, the Shade flung his body at Aiden with a magic infused strike, his silver blade aimed directly at the Guardians heart.
"NOW DIE!"
Aiden did not flinch when the Shade appeared before him in a burst of speed, he was prepared for the supernatural speed of his opponent and had a spell ready by the time the Shade attempted to stab his dark sword into the Guardians heart
"Sverd Reisa!" Aiden exclaimed as Bolt-Caster jerked upwards in a burst of magic, impaling the wide-eyed Shade in the gut and causing him to shout out in rage filled pain.
"You… damned foo-" Aiden silenced the Shade with a flare of Arc, causing the man to jerk as he lost control of his body. The Guardian had Stitch transmatt one of his daggers into his free hand, and he stared at the Shade menacingly.
"You've annoyed me enough, have fun where your going buddy." Aiden said darkly as he began to plunge his dagger into the dark heart of the Shade. The supernatural man was watching his impending doom with wide and fearful eyes, and Aiden was grimly satisfied when he felt the skin give purchase.
Whether by fate or by the Shade's design, his death did not come that night. With a massive boom and the falling of dust, Aiden was tripped up by some unseen force and his aim veered to the left, cutting into the Shade's throat. Aiden cursed and went to correct his aim, but the man pushed past the electricity and gripped the dagger stuck in his throat. Before anymore words could be said, the dagger was ripped from Aiden's hand by the evil man and shoved into the Shade's brain, causing his body to explode into a black mist.
Aiden sat there holding onto the wisps of Darkness that the corpse had produced, and he hurled Bolt-Caster into a nearby wall with a shout of pure rage.
"FUCK!"
"Aiden, calm dow-."
"I will not calm down!" Aiden's voice came out dark and distorted, and Stitch had to take a metaphorical step back as his Guardian's rage reached new heights. "I had him TRAVELER DAMNIT!"
"He tried to kill us! He dared to fight me! And for that he NEEDS TO FUCKING DIE!" The roar Aiden sent out was more beast then human, and Stitch began to feel genuinely unsettled as his Guardian's vitals began to spike into the red.
"Aiden! Well get him next time, but right now you need to CALM DOWN!" Stitch shouted out the last bit as his Guardians eyes turned a bright shade of blood red. To make matters worse, his vitals were skyrocketing in a very bad way, indicating a heart attack or some form of stroke.
"Aiden, your body is crashing right now. I need you to calm down before something bad happens… Aiden!" Stitch shouted the last part when it seemed as though his Guardian was dead to the world, he was simply standing in the hallway growling as his body started to shut down from whatever was affecting him.
Stitch shook his shell plates and decided his method wasn't going to work, so he took a risk and tranmatted himself right in front of his animalistic Guardian. Aiden jerked towards the Ghost with a dark look in his blood red eyes, and Stitch flinched back when his Hunter grabbed a knife in preparation to stab him.
"Aiden… it's me bud." Stitch said with as little fear in his voice as he could. His Guardian didn't need fear, he needed his friend.
"Nghhh…" Aiden grunted out in a struggle, his knife wielding hand clearly struggling with itself as it dipped towards and away from the Ghost shakily.
"Aiden, remember when we first met? Remember what I said to you?" Stitch asked, floating closer towards his Guardian slowly. Aiden only growled at him lowly.
"You had just come back to the land of the living. I could feel your confusion and your fear, you had no idea what was happening…" Stitch reminisced lowly, going closer to his Guardian's head as his vitals began to lower.
"My first words to you were…"
"eyes up, guardian…" Aiden choked out as reached out slowly and shakily held onto his Ghost like a lifeline, dropping his dagger with a clatter. Stitch nodded his shell up and down as Aiden's mind seemed to clear from its animalistic rage, leaving him more drained than either of them had ever remembered being. The Ghost soon noticed small drops of water impacting the floor below him, and he did his best to give comfort when his Guardian started to sob uncontrollably.
Stitch had never seen his Guardian like this before, but he would be damned if he did not help him through it.
They sat like that for what felt like hours, Ghost and Guardian simply standing and trying to calm themselves. Eventually Aiden let go of his lifelong friend and grabbed the dagger he had dropped, sheathing it with a dull clink. Stitch transmatted Bolt-Caster back into the inventory silently.
"let's go home, stitch." Aiden whispered coarsely as he nodded to his friend. The Ghost gave a nod back and reached out through the network he had created earlier, and they both disappeared from the ruined hallway with a flash of light.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Authors notes.
Been a while, hasn't it?
Been working on this chapter for a long time, several scenes and moments were the most difficult things I have ever written just for the reasons of I had no idea how to start or finish them.
Along with this chapter being the longest one I have ever written, it will also be the point where I begin to go back and fix some later chapters that I find to be rather dull or unfulfilling. Chapter 8 will be my first fix and I hope I can get rid of that terrible rushed vibe I unintentionally gave it.