Author's Note: I didn't know how long this section would be so I separated this one and the last. In hindsight, I should have left them as one section.
When he came to, he was lying on a mound of debris in what was left of a house. Its walls had survived, but there were holes in them, and the roof was gone.
Just beyond the house, in the clearing that the troops had used, was Don. Don was searching for him.
A fire was still lit nearby, making it hard to see Saide, as he was hidden in the shadows.
Saide started to yell back, but suddenly he felt very cold. A shiver tore through him and something blacker than night flitted past him. He stayed quiet.
Don sensed the thing's presence also. A horrible change came over him. His features sharpened, his brows came together in a furious glare and his face darkened. He reached for his lasgun.
The specter became an indistinguishable figure, more air than matter. But with the silhouette of a man, a man that looked similar to Don.
"Why…Hello again… I assume you're glad that you're alive?" The figure said in a voice that chilled Saide to the bones. Its voice was the sound of metal grating on metal, and the sound of a thousand souls crying out before they perished; it was the sound of insanity.
"I owe you nothing!" Don yelled.
"No, No, I never implied that." There was pause. "But I would conclude that you are… apprehensive about having more people to look after."
"What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean. Poor friend, you couldn't have saved him. On an unrelated note…Space marines can be cruel can they not…Who would have thought the great protectors…could torture someone that well?"
"While I resent what they did, I 'm sure that they had their reasons. Plus it was you who killed them and let me escape. I did no harm to them. "
All the while, Saide was listening in on the conversation. He's wanted by the Astartes? Who is this man?
"It's…ironic that you ask about their reasons, especially because those reasons are behind you." The voice said.
Don whirled around, expecting some horrible monster or hideously tainted dark artifact. Instead, a black package sat on the ground. It took Don a few seconds to realize what he was looking at. He recognized the black package that from the crashed ship, back from his home world.
"But…How?" he sputtered
"Don't you remember?" The voice said with glee," You took it before you left. You have had it all this time.
"I have?" Don asked at first as if unsure. "No!" He then shouted" This is your doing, malicious being, you have done this, for what I can only guess to be your insidious ends."
"heh heh heh" The figure chuckled; it was an empty bone chilling sound. "I can not trick you can I?"
"The station was doomed, all efforts would have been futile, plus the equipment failure was completely random…right? He couldn't have known that the air lock was a bout to open…completely random, like I said"
"It was you!" Don yelled. He took his las gun and aimed it at the figure's head, and fired.
In that one horrible second, time seemed to slow down. The silhouette suddenly was no silhouette, it was a man Saide had never seen, but could only assume it so be the man that the figure had talked about earlier.
For a period of time, they were not on Sargos I anymore either, he were on a ship. Inside a cavernous cargo hold one side of it was open to space with only a field keeping the cold death of the vacuum out. Outside of the ship, Saide could see the huge space station. Impossible, this is utterly impossible
Right next to the airlock the other man writhed in space clutching his throat. However, he smiled like a Cheshire cat, revealing all his teeth as he did so.
His head swelled and grew to incredible proportions, his arms burst into ribbons of flesh and blood, his body shriveled like a fruit left out in the sun. His head grew and grew, and the smile grew with it.
Don yelled in horror and slammed on the field. There was only a head now but it had begun to laugh manically, and even with the field in the way, both men could hear the disturbing sound clear as day. Don clutched his ears. The laughter grew louder and louder until at its apex, everything went back to normal. They were back on Sargos I. Did we even leave? Saide wondered.
The lasgun shot that had been aimed at the figure went through air and hit the wall behind where the figure had been. Neither man cared very much or noticed it.
Side realized very quickly that perhaps he shouldn't have seen that. He decided to wait a few seconds before meeting Don.
He had time to see Don's reaction. He covered his face and tears of rage trickled down, probably reinforced by Don's helplessness. The figure was gone
Saide limped, not completely faking, into the clearing.
"Who were you talking to? We've got to get out of here and take everyone we can with us."
"Who was I talking to?" Don repeated, "No… no one, just myself." Don stated distractedly. He helped Saide by throwing an arm around his shoulder in the classic wounded solider style. The made their way back to the ship.