Legends: Beginnings
Disclaimer: I do not own anything that is related, remotely related, or is in the game, Illusion of Gaia. It is owned by Enix and all related companies. All Original Characters, Stories, and anything that is not in, related to, or remotely related to the game, was solely created for creative and entertainment purposes. Thank you for your time.
Chapter Thirteen – Between Light And Dark
Kat pushed herself forwards, her eyes moving from looking straight ahead to the forest floor beneath her shoes. She and Crystal let Freedan lead them to the Dark Space they had been in not too long ago, although Kat knew he would not be heading straight there if he could help it. They had left Michael's tattered body no more than fifteen minutes ago, giving them more than enough time to think of something to stall Crystal with other then walking oddly through the island. Kat thought of trying to find her father's part of the group but that would not be possible, Crystal would know that they were making a diversion as soon as they went in that direction. There was the possibility that she already knew that she was being led astray, judging by the scowl she wore and the way her skin was beginning to change although minor.
Freedan knew better than she did to actually to lead them straight towards the Dark Space, instead taking them on a route that was indirect and hopefully taking them further away from it. It was still a ways away if Kat's memory served her well; it had all been a blur to her. All the while they walked, Kat fought with herself to go back to her father and stay there until he took his last breath. Then she reminded herself of the choice she had made, a hard decision that cost her more than the beginnings of tears at the base of her eyes. The ring seemed to urge her to go back, to abandon the right thing to do but she, like she did with her thoughts, ignored them and trudged on. It would do her no good to start down the path Crystal took now.
Even so, it pained her to know that Michael was spending the last minutes of his life alone and on a nearly deserted island miles away from his home. But it was for the best, for a cause more worthy then she could fully understand, and she still felt like her father would have wanted her to forsake his life for the lives of others. That was what she would have wanted if the roles were reversed, but would he have done the same? Would her father have left with Crystal and Freedan knowing that Kat was lying unconscious, bleeding from a head injury, and close to death?
"Stay up with us," Crystal snapped from up ahead. Kat looked up to see both Crystal and Freedan had stopped far from where she was, watching her trudge along slowly. Freedan was watching her the most, knowing that she was fighting an internal battle of which was not fully won yet but said nothing to her when Kat caught up with them. Crystal turned to him, clearly annoyed that Freedan had not yet put them in front of a Dark Space. "Where is the Dark Space? It cannot be far from where we were."
"Paths can change in an instant. Often the return route is different than the route you traveled before," he said cryptically, Crystal narrowing her eyes at him.
"Stop with the old sayings, put us back on the path that takes us to where we need to go," she growled, walking past them. She walked further on ahead of them, her eyes looking around before she stopped and moved her head side to side. Kat moved closer to Freedan, her eyes keeping on Crystal as she came next to the knight.
"Freedan, you aren't serious about bringing her to the Dark Space are you?" She whispered to him, trying to keep her voice low enough so that Crystal would not hear her. "We can't keep her from it forever."
"I know we can't, we can't keep her from doing anything else either. She knows we aren't there or even close to it, she also knows you want to go back to your father." Freedan looked down at her for a moment, putting a hand on the hilt of his sword. "While you have made your decision, it still weighs on you. You need to let it go, it hurts I know. But it is a battle you are close to winning and it needs to come to an end, now."
"I understand." Kat squared her shoulders, forcing her doubts of leaving her father behind away. Freedan was right, now was not the time to think about going back to her father as he would want her to have a clear head. Freedan, again, nodded his approval of her as he turned his head back to Crystal, who had turned around and started to move back towards them. She was not happy, looking as though she was ready to kill something.
"My patience has run dry. Take me to the Dark Space, Freedan, or suffer," she threatened, stopping short being right in front of Freedan.
"Suffer what, death? I can't die, remember?" He told her. "There is nothing you can put on me that would make me suffer any more then I already have."
There was silence after that, Crystal's eyes moving over to Kat and a smile crossed her lips. Kat stared right back at her, knowing that Crystal still wanted her worse than dead as she began to move towards her. Freedan growled something under his breath, stepping in front of Kat as he grabbed Crystal by the arm to keep her from going any further. She glared up at him as he pushed her backwards, keeping the two apart for the time being. While Kat had the Ring of Two Souls, she had no practice with it and Crystal had decades of whatever darkness had tainted her further under her belt. Kat would be killed within seconds, but he was not going to let that happen.
"She is of no concern to you, I am. If you want to be taken to the Dark Space then I'll take you, but only if she stays out of it," Freedan bargained, still staying in front of Kat. If he could have given her directions to the Dark Space he would have done so in an instant, just so he could not have to worry about her while he kept Crystal at bay. Even if he could, Crystal would not hesitate to ignore him and focus her attention and energy on her instead.
"She comes with us, she is more of a use to me then she is to you. She stays or I take her with me to the Underworld," Crystal said. The knight shook his head as she came forwards again, only to be pushed away again but harder this time and with more force. She stumbled backwards at the force she had been pushed, tripping over a root in the process, landing on her backside.
"Even you can understand the importance of how fragile a mortal's life is." Freedan did not look at Kat, keeping his eyes on Crystal the entire time. The area they were in seemed to drop in temperature, Kat shuddering as she took several steps back; now would be a good time to remove herself from the two.
"You shouldn't have done that, Freedan," Crystal said in a horrible voice, Freedan waving at Kat to start running and fast. Kat did not need to be told twice that she was to leave; backing up on the path they had just come from, Kat had every intention of leaving and trying to find the Dark Space on her own. Crystal stood up and brushed whatever dirt had been on her clothing, her back going straight. "Understanding what I have become will come soon enough."
Kat's legs did not seem to want to work on their own; it was as though she was rooted in the spot she was standing in. Even though she tried to force her legs to start moving again, they would not budge; it was as though some force was keeping her there and did not want her to leave. A soft voice entered her mind, coaxing her to tell her secrets to the world, to tell how she managed to force the ring to accept her as a false master, and to tell where the Dark Space was. Squeezing her eyes shut, Kat focused instead on her father, how he had nothing else to tell that voice, and how he was not to be of use to that same voice. It was Crystal's ability to use a person's mind against them, but it would not work on her; it would not work on her!
It took only minutes for her to finally force that voice out of her head; she only knew that she had fully succeeded when she heard an inhuman shriek come from Crystal. As soon as Kat opened her eyes again, they went wide at the sight unfolding in front of her. Crystal's body began to change from the form she once held to what she had ultimately turned into. No longer did her black hair glow in the sunlight, becoming withered and old and her eyes became the pitch of darkness. Her body contorted into a shape that no human could possibly do, her torso and arms lengthening as her skin changed into a leathery, almost scale-like, form. Her legs lengthened, turning into what looked like a snake's tail that went from her now exposed navel to six feet behind her.
Her skin soon turned brown in color, her clothing having been torn away in the transformation and left her entire upper body exposed. Her hands turned into claws, her fingernails into mustard-colored talons, and her face became more snake-like as well. Her teeth were pointed, jagged, and her gums were raw, appearing to be blood soaked and painful. Those dark eyes still had no pupils, dark recesses of pure blackness but in the light they appeared to have a red tint to them, like the color of a darkened blood gem.
Bearing those sharp, shark-like teeth, Crystal hissed at Freedan who, while this transformation took place, had unsheathed his sword and kept his body between Kat and Crystal. She did not need to look around him to see what this woman had become, she had seen enough to know that transformation could not have been caused by her corruption of the ring but something much darker. Fear replaced all other emotions, of what she would become if she let the corruption take a hold of her. This was not what she would become, would it?
"See, girl? See what you will become if you use the ring?" The creature hissed as fork-like tongue jutting out of her mouth just like a snake would. Kat shook her head, tears stinging her eyes as she continued to tell herself, to tell that voice in her head, that she was not how she would be if used the ring. "Oh you are a strong one, aren't you? You're resisting much more than your father did."
"I won't become what you have become," Kat heard herself say, trying to put some kind of force into her words. Crystal laughed at the statement, the sound echoing off of the trees. "I won't use it like that, it wasn't meant to be used like you think it was."
"Do you really think that it cares how you use it? Do you think you can resist? No matter how much you try, in the end you will end up like this." Crystal gestured to her body. "A creature like me, a creature of the Underworld. That is, if the Spirits don't get to you first and, if they do, you'll have a fate far worse than I have." She smiled widely, her sharp teeth glistening in the sunlight. "You know you want to use the ring, I can show you how to."
"Leave her out of this, she has already proven that your tricks won't work on her," Freedan barked, moving towards the creature. Crystal turned her eyes towards him, her body slithering back further into the forest. "You are afraid, aren't you? You know that if Michael dies, you won't have another chance."
"Afraid? You know nothing of fear," she said, her tail lashing out towards the knight. It did not come even close to him, only serving as a warning to stay back. "The fear I felt when I went down the path of corruption, of when I made my deal to one of the fractions of the Underworld, is nothing to compare to the fear you will feel when I take control of what should have been mine."
"You wanted the power of the ring to take over; it clouded your memory of what happened. Of your past, of the things you used to cherish," Freedan said slowly and carefully. The creature had backed herself into a tree, her tail now wrapping itself around the base of the trunk. He came closer to her, the blade of his sword moving next to her neck as it pressed against it much like Crystal's knife had been against Kat's. "I ask again, are you afraid?"
"Not as afraid as you will be." With those words, she slashed her claws across his right cheek, claw hitting raw skin. Freedan growled in pain as the claw dug deep into his skin; he hit her arm with his blade to get the claw out of his face as he stumbled back. Pressing the tips of his fingers to the wound for a moment before he brought his arm down he looked at his hand before glaring up at Crystal; blood oozed from the wound and down his neck. That would heal in time but he could not afford another scrape like that, he had walked right into that trap.
The knight raised his blade in time to counter another attack from Crystal's claws, sparks flying from where the claws and sword met. Kat had moved herself far enough away from the two so that she would not be caught up in the fight¸ as sword moved against claw in a struggle to keep their own lives. Keeping to the trees she traced the ring and took in deep breaths to calm herself; the ring had become warm to her touch. It knew she wanted to test it out, could sense her fear in wanting to do so, to help Freedan out. Even with a sudden image of what she could do to help, the ring kept any manifest of power at bay for the moment. It was as though it was waiting for the opportune moment to let her strike.
For ten minutes Freedan and Crystal moved as though they were dancing, claws scrapping against metal armor. Sword hitting scale and fang, moving to block Crystal's teeth sinking into what little exposed skin he had. Kat could barely keep up with their movements; it was apparent that the two knew more of each other's attacks then they realized their movements almost as though they had rehearsed this thousands of times. But even with this familiarity there would be a life-ending blow: her father had not yet passed on and when he did, Crystal would most likely be cut down by Freedan before this so-called 'Underworld' got to her.
Freedan's sword moved in one fluid motion and hit Crystal in her upper left arm. The movement cut deep into the scaly flesh but did not sever it; the blade came close to the bone. The scream that came from deep within her was shrill and high-pitched; Kat dropped to her knees and her hands flew to her ears. The pain of this scream flowed from her ears, then to her eyes and forehead before moving down her spine and into the rest of her body. Even squeezing her eyes shut did nothing. It was a gut-wrenching sound that Kat had to shake her whole body to get rid of, her mind reeling from the painful sound.
Several minutes passed before Kat felt safe enough to let her eyes pen and uncover her ears. Looking up she saw the two were still locked in battle but Freedan was worse off than Crystal was. He was losing blood and was not moving as gracefully has he had been, his sword's movements were more sluggish. Crystal had not come out unscathed either but she had the upper hand and was gaining momentum with each passing second. It would be only a matter of time before Freedan would make a costly mistake and the creature would take advantage of it.
It was as though Freedan knew he wasn't going to win, r he had been commanded by his mistress to stop fighting the creature. He dodged the creature's latest advance before going down to one knee and laying his sword on the ground next to him. Crystal began to laugh, her shoulders shaking with that laughter as she circled around him several times before stopping in front of him. He was open to any attacks Crystal would lay on him; immortal as he was he could not just let himself be that defenseless, that vulnerable.
"Freedan! Put your sword up and defend yourself, damn it!" Kat screamed, lowering her hands down as she pounded the ground with her fists. Crystal looked up towards her, a smile compressing her surprise; Kat clamped her hands over her mouth. They had actually forgotten about her and now she had given her position away!
"I think it's time to say goodbye," Crystal said over Freedan's muttering of 'stupid girl'. "Don't worry, we will meet again."
With that, Crystal sunk her claws into Freedan's armor, hoisted him up into the air, and twisted her body to throw him into the air. Time seemed to move in slow motion, Kat scrambling to attempt to move but was not fast enough. Her legs gave out as Freedan crashed into her, Kat's head rolling back as her body – and Freedan's – fell into the ground in a heap. Faintly she could hear something moving away from them, her senses fading into a dizzying spell. The feeling of blacking out was familiar to her, a second time in less than twenty-four hours.
So this is how it feels like to die, was the last thing she remembered thinking before blacking out completely.
XXXX
In what seemed like an eternity, Kat's eyes fluttered open to find herself surrounded by a worn green blanket and the familiar feeling she had done this before. But instead of finding a tent overtop of her, she stared directly up at the treetops; time seemed to have sped up, or she had underestimated how late it was. It took her several minutes for to realize she had not died but only been knocked out by Crystal throwing Freedan at her. It took her even longer to realize that she was alone, that there was no Freedan sitting by a fire this time to explain to her what had happened and to give her a chance to choose what she wanted to do. She did not dare get up, only she moved her head towards the sounds of approaching footsteps.
She was glad to find that those footsteps belong to Freedan, his body sinking to the ground not far from where she lay. His sword fell to the ground beside him, his eyes staring blankly off into the distance; the scratches on his face had scabbed over. Kat saw that while he was still in his armor, he had at least cleaned it but not gotten the dents or claw marks out of it. She also took notice that he was trying not to look directly at her but at some other point in the island; he did not have to tell her, she already knew what words could not even begin to express to her. It took several minutes for that to set in, Kat taking this moment to move slowly and painfully onto her other side so that the knight could not see her begin to cry.
Bursting into tears, she let herself cry everything out as Freedan stood up and walked over to her. Then as he kneeled behind her, Kat felt him pull her up into a standing position as the blanket feel from her body; he did not turn her around to face him. Instead he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and let her cry until the sobs, and the tears, eventually wore themselves out. Her father was gone, killed because of the ring she wore and the obsession of someone that wanted to take their revenge on those who she believed wronged her. Perhaps it was the grief that was making her think less rationally, or it was the whole injustice of it all, yet Kat felt a well of anger start to bubble up inside of her.
Kat was glad that he was standing there to keep her upright, she could not even begin to think that she could stand on her own for very long; she could still feel her legs and feet, even move them, but she had no reason to stand up. Crystal had killed her father and if Freedan had not gone after her to finish her off, she sure hoped that this 'Underworld' had. The last thing Kat wanted to do was give Freedan a reason to think she would be headed down the same path Crystal had.
"Why don't you say something?" Kat asked, pushing herself from Freedan several minutes later. Stumbling to the nearest tree for support, Kat pressed her back onto it as she let it hold her up the best way she could. Lowering his arms to his side, Freedan stared at her and sighed, running a hand through his blonde hair.
"Your father isn't dead," he said in a slow voice, but could not keep his words steady. Kat shook her head, looking up at the tall tree to keep herself from directing any emotion to him. "Crystal took him to wherever dark hiding spot she had been in before. I don't know where she went off to after our fight, but she took his body with her. Had you not shouted at that moment, she would have died."
"Liar," she said coldly, desperately wanting to ignore what he was telling her as a lie. But even if she couldn't believe him, she couldn't believe the thought that Freedan was lying to her. While he had not given her everything he knew, he had not tried to lie to her about anything that he had told her. But he hadn't given you all the information you wanted, a tiny voice in her head told her. Kat shook her head, looking back at Freedan who had not made a move to come towards her. "If he did not die, what happened to him then? Where's Crystal at?"
"It is the work of the Underworld, an ability that has not reared its ugly head in years. If it has, Crystal has to take your father to the Underworld for it to take effect," Freedan said. "To be blunt, much of the Underworld I know little of. This ability of theirs, to make people who are near death as puppets, I have only heard of offhand."
"Why don't you give me something useful to go by?" Kat snapped at him, her chest moving up and down rapidly. Calm down Kat, don't start out like Crystal had, another small voice told her. This one she did not ignore; although her eyes blazed she forced herself to calm down where she could think better. Everything swirled around her; while she could not think on a level basis, her mind had to think as rational as it could. "Okay, I, um. Oh damn."
Kat moved as fast as her bruised body allowed her to and went into the brush to throw up whatever contents her stomach held. There wasn't much to come back up, Kat dry heaving as she hunched over to empty her stomach out once again even though there was nothing much to empty out. This felt like déjà vu, when she had met Freedan earlier but unlike before there was no blazing fire or roasting boar to greet her. There was only a coldness of the forest jungle and the warm feeling of the Ring of Two Souls on her finger. Kat moved away from the tree, taking small steps towards Freedan as she held a hand to her stomach and leaned up against another tree several feet from the last one.
Her whole body felt like it was on fire, Kat moving down to the ground so that the world wouldn't spin around her and so she could at least try to get her bearings. Freedan sat down next to her, looking not too good himself but at least he looked as bad as she felt. Her emotions were a wreck, the events of earlier and the ring not helping her. It was then that Kat noticed how light the sky looked from above the tree tops, Kat narrowing her eyes up at the sky above them.
"How long as I out?" She asked, keeping her eyes upwards. "What happened between Crystal throwing you at me and twenty minutes ago?"
"Another night has passed since my fight with Crystal. I awoke hours after she had left, it was nearly dark before I managed to get you away from where we battled, and I thought she would come back. She did not." Freedan stood up, leaning against the tree as he watched Kat stare at nothing. "I brought you here, made sure that you were not in any danger of any injuries, and went to gather the things you left behind when we left the Dark Space. I could not bring everything but only what I thought would help you recover some. You have no internal injuries, no broken bones, mostly bruises and soreness, and you should rest more but that is not a luxury you or I can afford right now.
"I stayed up most of the night to keep watch over you, to make sure nothing came near. The only creature that did was Shadow, he knew what happened yesterday." Freedan smiled forcibly. "Gaia told him to go and find out what he could in the Underworld, he is the only one we know that can safely get in and out of the Underworld with ease. He left early this morning; he likely won't be back for several weeks."
"Why did he go there? To find out what happened after….?" Kat looked up at Freedan, who only nodded. "Are you sure she took my father's body?"
"Yes, I went to where we had left him. That's where I had been coming from when you woke up, I had to make sure. There were visible markings where she had come to collect him." Freedan did not go into any more detail than that, Kat grateful for that as she closed her eyes shut to process what she had been told. "I can take you there if you would like to see for yourself."
No matter what happened, no matter if there was no body, Michael was as good as dead wherever Crystal had taken him. Funny how only minutes ago she had called Freedan a 'liar' but now believed him when he had said that his body was gone. Even though a part of her wanted to see, to make sure, she could barely move to empty the contents of her stomach much less walk to where her father once lay. It was not a long walk, she had recognized the area as a point where they had passed when directing Crystal away from the Dark Space.
"No, no I don't think I can," Kat said softly, opening her eyes to look up at him. Freedan did not smile, offering a hand to help her up into a standing position. "What now? What will happen?"
"There is so much that needs to be done in such a short period of time." Freedan could not fully tell Kat what would happen in other planes of existence, Gaia did not yet trust her with the ring quite yet. "But you first need to protect what your father has given you."
"If you mean this ring, then I don't want it." Bringing her hands together as best as she could, she clasped her fingers around the ring she wore. She tugged at it for a few minutes, feeling angry at her father, Crystal, and everything that had happened in the last forty-eight hours. It took her time but she eventually got the ring off of her finger and into the palm of her right hand. She then drew back her arm so that she could throw the ring out into the open forest but Freedan grabbed her wrist before she could.
"Don't, Kat, don't throw it away," he instructed carefully, holding onto her wrist tightly. Kat tried to get her arm free but even with the lack of sleep and the fight the day before, Freedan kept a firm grasp on her arm. "I'll let you go if you promise not to throw the ring away. It still considers you its master and you have not abandoned it."
"I don't want to become what Crystal is," she said through clenched teeth. She held her hand around the ring, their eyes staring into the others before Freedan eventually let go of her wrist. He smiled as Kat lowered her arm and proceeded to rub her wrist.
"You won't become her; you've already chosen what path you are headed down. I told you that yesterday, didn't I?" Freedan tilted his head to the side as he watched her. "Put the ring back on, it won't turn you into the creature Crystal has become. That was more of a process of the Underworld then a side-effect of the ring itself."
"How can I not become her?" She asked, opening her hand and stared down at the ring. It had not lost its brilliance and was warm to the touch, telling her that it considered her to be her master still. "It caused so much to happen in such a short amount of time."
"It is not the ring that causes what to happen but the person who wears it," Freedan said, slowly taking the ring and placing it back on the finger it once was on. "By not wanting to become the creature you saw, by not wanting to use the darker power like Crystal did, the ring understands that you don't want to use it like it had been. You must continually prove to it that you won't abuse the power it gives to it, that is the hard part."
"How can I not abuse the power if I don't know what the power is?" Kat asked, looking down at the ring on her finger. Freedan's smile faltered with that question.
"It depends on the person. With some focus and some training, you could harness it in a way that is most comfortable to you," he told her, his smile fading completely. Kat looked up at him, seeing the dark look on his face.
"You can't give me the training, can you?" She asked taking in a sharp breath as Freedan shook his head. "Who can?"
"There are those that wore the ring previously, they now serve Gaia and others who help keep everything in balance once their time on the Living plane ended." Freedan looked around them, into the forest, then back at Kat again. "Your training will have to take place elsewhere; you can't stay on this island. Crystal knows you are still here; it is not safe for you to remain here in such a confined space. It's too great a risk for you to remain. Do you have any other family?"
"I do, but they can't be dragged into this! I already lost my father; I will not put my brother or my mother in jeopardy!" Kat said, shaking her head as she put a hand up to keep Freedan from moving closer to her. "No, I won't allow it."
"By now whatever Underworld fraction Crystal is currently serving already knows about what happened, she already knows about your family." Kat opened her mouth to protest then her eyes went wide, a hand moving over her mouth.
"Her ring-given abilities," she whispered through her fingers. She had been so caught up in everything that had happened since the day before that she had not thought of what Crystal knew by going into Michael's mind. If she was this scatterbrained then she wouldn't be fully able to focus on anything else. "Damn it, this was not how everything was supposed to go!"
"Things don't always go as planned. However, your family will be safe. There are Spirits watching them now and there will be Spirits in contact with you to help you in the process of learning how to use the ring." Freedan glanced up at the sky for a split second. "Your group had been looking for you and whoever else survived; there is a boat just off the coast of this island. I'll take you to where the closest group is at."
Kat dropped her arm to her side, looking at Freedan as though he had just spoken in a language she could not understand. She could not stay on this island and attempt to use the ring that she had to come to terms with along with everything else that had happened in the last couple of days. She had to also tell her mother and brother that her father was no longer alive but she could not tell them the truth, not even a fraction of what had transpired on this island. How could she keep her training of her newest piece of jewelry a secret from them? How could she do any of this?
"I trust you know what you are doing," she said, taking several wobbly steps forwards. Freedan did not say anything else, looking over at her; she honestly did not expect any more answers from him as he gently put her back upon his back for the last time. She clung tightly to him as best as she could, the knight moving forwards as they left behind everything that had happened in the last two days. They could only move forwards now and hope, and trust, everything would mend itself.
Until Next Time