Another day, another TTC chapter... Welcome back!
This time we're looking at Four Swords Adventures, which I have fond memories of playing with my brother. I was always Red, and one time I won the hero rankings. Once. One glorious moment.
Anyways, where were we? This story is set in an AU-ish 4SA... Enjoy!
"Corporal Green, what is your status?" Sarge barked over the radio, and Green ducked behind a boulder as shrapnel tore into the stone. Dirt exploded into the air with a deafening thrum that made Green's teeth chatter against each other. The shouts of soldiers and clatter of gunfire formed an eerie cacophony that pressed against his ears, and the Sarge's words were barely audible above the roar.
"Privates Red, Blue and Vio are still fighting, sir!" Green bellowed back over the din.
"It sounds like it's hot in there. What about Private…"
"Gone, sir. It's just us four." Green replied bitterly, then stood and leveled his rifle against the top of the boulder, searching the dusty smoke for movement. A short burst of gunfire screamed his way and he dropped to the dirt as bullets ricocheted off of the rock.
"We need reinforcements, sir!" Green yelled into the radio, but a burst of static alerted him that either the Sarge wasn't in the mood to talk or the device had broken. Swearing, he kicked the radio aside and rolled to the side in time to see Private Vio dragging something to the side of the battlefield.
A body.
No, not a body, Green repeated to himself as he sprinted to Vio's side, keeping his head low to avoid hostile gunfire. The grass kicked up by his feet but he ignored it, diving down next to Vio, whose head jerked up when he saw Green approaching. The Private's eyes were stormy and his expression was grim as he tugged the figure further from the fight. Green looked down into the pained face of Private Blue, wounded but alive.
"What happened, Private?" Green demanded, grabbing one of Blue's arms and dragging him to the side, ignoring his hiss of pain.
"Blue took a slug to the leg, sir. It was too hot in there, I had to get him out." Vio panted. Dirt streaked his face, smeared across his determined expression.
"This was supposed to be peaceful envoy mission. Who's firing on us?" Green insisted, and Private Vio suddenly quieted, eyes dropping to the ground.
"Answer me, Private, and that's an order!" Green barked, and Vio looked into his eyes intensely.
"It's Private Dark, sir."
The words fell from Vio's tongue and stabbed into Green like knives. He stumbled away from Blue and pointed an accusatory finger at Vio, whose expression was as impenetrable as a brick wall.
"This is not the time for jokes, Private. Who is firing on us?" Green echoed, blood rushing to his head. If it was Dark…
"The Private isn't lying, sir!" Blue choked out, gasping on the ground. "I saw him with my own eyes, sir! Standing in the middle there, just as you please…" The Private's voice lowered to a groan and he hunched over on the ground.
"He's got a bomb!" A shout echoed from the firefight and Green's veins spiked with panic.
"Take Blue to the bomb shelter!" He yelled at Private Vio, then sprinted for the fight, cloaked in a haze of dust and dirt. Before he could get a step closer, though, a hand grabbed the back of his uniform and dragged him back. Vio's grip was firm as he pulled him away and shoved him towards the hastily built bomb shelter.
"Go! You're our commanding officer - if anyone should make it, it's you. Blue and I aren't going anywhere. Go!" The desperation in his voice hurt more than a bullet wound, but Green knew he was right. A clock was ticking in his head, a clock when the bomb would go off. Blue and Vio wouldn't make it.
Cursing his luck, Green turned and dove into the bomb shelter just as the bomb shook the earth to its foundation. The packed dirt around his head trembled violently and a shower of earth dusted Green's shoulders. He knew with certainty Blue and Vio couldn't have survived the blast. And if Private Red was still in the fight, he surely was gone, too.
How could Dark do this? The last time Green had seen his soldier before he went AWOL was weeks ago. Before he had deserted. Before he was branded as a coward. In the war against Vaati, cowardice was treated as a capital offense. The other soldiers had denied they had even known their friend, whom they had talked amicably with only days before he fled. Private Dark was erased from existence.
Until today.
Mustering his courage, Green pulled himself from the bomb shelter to see a wasteland before him. Huge chunks of earth and rock were thrown across the battlefield, scarred and blackened by the blast. Green's eyes instantly darted to the spot where Blue and Vio had stood, and gasped when he saw two figures lying ten feet away, collapsed and still against the scarred earth.
Blue was turning Red when Green approached him, his uniform stained a deep crimson, eyes wide in horror and shock. As Green watched the fight slowly drained from him and his rasping breaths stilled.
Green's vision washed with red and he wheeled on the place where the bomb had exploded, unslinging his rifle from his back and holding it before him, preparing to send a bullet into the first thing that moved. Into whoever killed Blue.
But he couldn't have foreseen when Dark stepped up from the ashes, smiling.
His face was different than how Green remembered him, thin and long, only barely holding onto the essence that made him recognizable as Dark. The sly, sarcastic smile was replaced with a sadistic one, and the eyes that were once proud and bright had darkened to pits. Green sucked in a breath when he saw him, still in a tattered army uniform, smiling that gaping smile, despite the fact that he had wiped out almost all of Green's squad.
"Dark." The word escaped Green's lips before he could stop it, and Dark tilted his head to the side, measuring his words.
"That's what they called me once. Dark." He said the last word with relish, as if trying it out for the first time.
"What do they call you now?" Green's grip tightened on his rifle, but he couldn't bring himself to point it at Dark. At Private Dark, his comrade, his friend.
"I am no one now. I am whatever Vaati commands me to be." Dark replied simply, and Green released a barking laugh.
"You work for Vaati now?" He laughed incredulously, although Dark's face was serious and impassive. "I don't believe it. Dark, what happened to you?" Green took a step forward and Dark's hand twitched towards his gun, but he too seemed unwilling to draw.
"I was lost and Lord Vaati showed me the way." Swaying slightly on his feet, Dark smiled again, a wide smile that chilled Green to the bone. "He can show you the way, too. You were always the most courageous out of all of us. My Lord could use that. Join me, Green." And he held out his hands, like they were old friends again, like nothing had changed.
"What if I don't?" Green bristled, and Dark shrugged fluidly. Faster than he could blink the pistol was in his hand, pointing to the side. Green's eyes darted to the target and let out a strangled cry when he saw the person kneeling, staring into the barrel of the pistol.
Red.
"I'll kill your friend." Dark cocked the pistol and Green was frozen, boots rooted to the dirt, unmoving. "It's your choice, you know. Join me, and I'll let your friends live. If you don't," Dark clicked his tongue against his teeth, "Say goodbye to Private Red."
Dark's eyes were trained on Red, on his target. Carefully Green raised his rifle and pointed it at Dark's head.
"Lower the weapon, Private Dark, or I'll be forced to shoot you."
Dark hissed like the use of his old name burned him. "There is no Dark anymore, Corporal Green." He spoke the last two words like they were an insult. "The man you knew is dead, and now I live. Join me."
"Go to hell." Green whispered, then leveled the rifle at the head of Private Dark, at the head of his friend.
And he pulled the trigger.
(You're probably like: I recognize the author has made an author's note, but given that it's a long-ass author's note, I've elected to ignore it.)
If you remember the all-caps THANK YOU thing from last chapter, I'll reiterate - thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well (because for some reason I really like this chapter!) If you'd like you can vote for Team TTC on my profile. So far Remnants is winning with a whopping one vote. I know, right? Staggering.
Thank you again for reading! I don't thank the readers enough. Without you this would amount to nothing :)
Until next time!