Chapter Twenty One
No Fate
Crash shielded his eyes as he was blinded by white. There was nothing but nothingness about him as he glanced about, faced with nothing but an eternity of white about him.
Your past is connected to one you know as a friend… Though you think your meeting was by chance Crash Bandicoot, you were bound to him by fate. A fate that shall soon come to pass once again…
"Huh?" Crash blinked as he floated in the white void. "Who?"
Before Crash, a young native boy appeared. He was a young man, about Crash's age and wearing the typical native grass skirt and necklaces of beads. In his hands, he held a mask that Crash identified at once… The face of his protector and mentor…
"Aku-Aku!" Crash gasped as the boy stood there, looking at the mask, uncertain.
Indeed, the Oracle's voice once more resounded. Your friend Aku-Aku was once human. A young witch doctor of the tribes that long ago live on this island. He was young and uncertain of his gifts to command healing and protection over the tribe, as the next witch doctor to his tribe. His story of his past is part of your future, and so you will witness what has occurred long before…
Allow me to take you back ten thousand years… To the arrival of the passing of the Crystal Comet…
Crash blinked as he found himself standing in the jungle, the stars and night sky softly shining behind the clouds. He was confused at first, thinking he had been sent back, but then he noticed he could see through his paw. Giving a surprised yelp, Crash was worried, until he realized he was simply watching a vision of the past, much like watching a DVD at home.
Before him, sat the young boy that was Aku-Aku, looking troubled at his mask as he rested upon a cliff-face. The young boy seemed uncertain and afraid. But then, as there were a few squawks and squeaks, Aku-Aku smiled, looking up as a small lizard like creature leapt through Crash's stomach from the fronds behind, towards Aku-Aku, smiling and chitterling as it brushed up against Aku's leg.
"Hello there Chi'tk…" smiled Aku-Aku softly as he still looked perplexed. "It's always good to see a friend whenever I am worried…"
Blinking and attempting to rub his eyes, Crash took a few steps closer to the lizard, blinking in wonder and disbelief at what he was seeing. This Chi'tk looked exactly like Ember, but much, much younger, just a small fledgling. Even the royal Draconite jewel was on her head.
It was impossible… Wasn't it? This dragon was smaller than even Scorch and Spark…
Sighing, Aku-Aku allowed the little lizard curl up in his lap as it began to purr slightly. "I… I just don't know Chi'tk… Were the Ancestors right in selecting me? My brother as a warrior, certainly… But how can I be a leader and prevent disaster befalling our village? I don't think I can do it…"
Chi'tk chirruped, "The Ancestors have faith in you Aku-Aku." Now Crash was certain… It was babyish, but there was no doubt that was Ember's voice. "Else they would have not awarded you with the mask as they have done…"
Holding the mask up, Aku-Aku frowned, throwing it aside. "I don't want it. I can't do it. I can't even stand up to my own twin brother, so how am I to stand up for my tribe?"
Chi'tk leapt up, gathering the mask in her maw, then returning and placed it as Aku-Aku's feet, much like a loyal dog to her master. "Don't be like that. You have much more strength than your brother does. You have strength through your friends and allies, while your brother only ever makes enemies." The little dragon cooed softly as she nuzzled against Aku-Aku's knee. "Remember how you stood up to the tribe to spare my life and won the tribe the friendship of the dragon-kind?"
Aku-Aku nodded, remembering, before picking up the mask again, looking at it.
"Perhaps…" Aku-Aku tilted his head in thought. "Perhaps you are right there Chi'tk…"
Do you begin to understand the past of Aku-Aku? The Oracle's voice boomed as the entire world dissolved like sand around Crash.
"Somewhat…" Crash answered. "He was unsure of himself and was friends with the dragon that I am a friend with… But if this was ten thousand years ago, how can Ember still be alive? Not even a dragon is immortal to such an amount of years…"
The story is of Aku-Aku and Uka-Uka, not of the dragon Chi'tk, which is her true name. To find that answer, you must look elsewhere…
Crash nodded as he was alone in the endless white void again. "But how did Aku-Aku become imprisoned within his own mask? Did he transfer his soul or something into the mask?"
We cannot show all, but we can show what else we know…
Crash now was standing on a cliff, as Chi'tk and Aku-Aku stood watching as well. Both looked to have aged a little, meaning this was a few years later on. Chi'tk was now large enough for Aku-Aku to catch a ride on his back.
"You are sure it's tonight?" Aku-Aku questioned as he stood watching.
"Yes," Chi'tk answered, watching the skies. "The elders have told me that whomever witnesses the glory of the Crystal Comet shall forever be infused with great knowledge and power, and become a leader to their people…" The dragon smiled as she looked up to Aku-Aku, "They have selected me to be the new Matriarch when Tamaiyé's time is up."
"I am glad for you…" Aku-Aku smiled, scratching his dragon companion's scaly head. "I could think of one no greater than your-self to lead the dragon-kind."
Suddenly, there was a glimmer in the sky; one of the stars was shining brighter than the others in the skies far in the distance. Aku and Chi'tk made a step forward, looking to it.
"Is that… it?" Aku-Aku asked in wonder.
Chi'tk was about to answer when suddenly somewhere in the jungle, a beam of crimson magic shot towards the star. "What!" Aku-Aku gasped as he watched, the beam striking the star and pulling it closer, altering its course towards the earth. "What is happening? This shouldn't be happening should it Chi'tk?"
"I… I don't know…" Chi'tk panicked, her voice frantic, as they just stood watching.
"Hey! Don't just sit around!" Crash cried, unable to help him-self. "Go see what it is!" Neither Aku-Aku nor Ember gave an answer and Crash tried to get their attention. "Hey! Did you hear me!"
This is but a memory Crash Bandicoot, the Oracle boomed again. They cannot see, hear or feel you, as you are just a visitor to their memories.
As they watched, the comet entered the atmosphere and Crash was stunned, stuck watching as was Aku-Aku and Ember.
Finally, descending from the clouds was the comet's true form; a massive palace made entirely of crystal… Power Crystals even. Crash's jaw dropped as fragments broken off from the entry through the atmosphere was scattered the world over, explaining the birth of the Power Crystals around the world.
"Is… Is this the legendary Crystal Palace?" Ember gasped, looking to the floating shrine in the sky, a massive structure of clear crystal. "The place of the box of..."
Aku-Aku cut Ember off, when something appeared in the sky, a figure riding a dragon, towards the floating citadel from the location where the beam of energy drew the castle into the earth from outer space. "Uka-Uka! He must want the power of the Crystals to himself!"
"No!" Ember gasped in horror. "If he gets there, he will claim the power that is yours, as that dragon will take what is mine!" At once, she offered her back to Aku-Aku, "Get on! We'll have to stop them ourselves before its too late!"
Giving a nod, Aku-Aku leapt onto Ember's back as she launched herself from the cliff, Aku-Aku on her back as they raced towards the citadel.
Then again, the vision faded before Crash.
Uka-Uka used the power of the Power Crystals that had been scattered on the Earth at its creation from the Crystal Comet to draw it towards the Earth, so he could claim ultimate power…
However, he failed and he, Aku-Aku, your friend Ember and her sister and the Ancient Ancestors all were cursed from the power of the Crystal Palace. How each was cursed, is up to you to find out. The Crystal Comet was lost again, and has never been seen since…
But there is more…
"More?" Crash asked, raising an eyebrow as a scene materialized around him.
Giving a scream of fright, Crash could not believe what he was seeing.
The three islands were a smouldering, ash-covered inferno lit under a blood-red sky. The jungles were burnt to the ground, temples completely eradicated and bodies littered the ground. Animals of far and wide lay dead, burnt to ash or crushed or completely torn apart.
As Crash flew over the Castle Island, the Castle was shattered, nothing remaining, but no bodies, or boats or anything. It seems that Cortex and his cronies had evacuated long before. But everything was gone, reduced to rumble and destruction. All the glory that Cortex had build for himself was nothing but an inferno of broken stone, twisted, melting steel and shattered earth.
The Ruins Island was burnt to a crisp, liquid magma flowing down from the peak of the mountain, demolishing the jungle and liquefying the temples. Bodies of animals and dragons were scattered over, giving the reek of death from the rotting corpses.
And finally, N. Sanity Island was too, burnt to the ground. The carcasses of Papu's tribe lay speckled over the landscape, rotting where they fell. And Brio's secret lab was torn apart. Crash gagged slightly as he saw what looked like the decapitated body of the doctor lying on the ground…
And finally, the final horror make Crash want to hurl, if he could have…
His house remained unscathed. Outside, several metal pikes had been driven into the ground, the bodies of Coco, Crunch, Cassie, Tina, Polar, Pura, Scorch, Spark, Gleam, Ember, Spot and Delphi all impaled upon the staffs, looks of horror through their eyes as they were frozen in death, their corpses rotting…
And finally, chained to the ground, begging and whimpering to the gods to just kill him, in the centre of the carnage field, was him-self, asked several years, fur all feral and messed up. Crash gasped in horror as he saw him-self chained to the ground, screaming out, "Just kill me! Get it over with!"
Somewhere, the disembodied voice mixed of both Dr. Neo Cortex and Uka-Uka laughed. "Kill you? Death is a release bandicoot not a punishment. Why else grant you immortality and chain you to watch your friends slowly decompose around you?"
The Crash of this time screamed, bashing his tear soaked face into the ground, begging and pleading, "Kill me! Please… just kill me…"
"Oh my god…" Crash gasped as the scene dissolved about him. "I think I'm going to be sick…"
This, Crash Bandicoot, the Oracle bellowed again. Is what will happen, should you fail.
Then everything faded away and Crash landed in the cold, cold snow. "Huh?" Crash gasped as he realized he had been teleported to the top of the Icy Peak. He glanced about, recognizing this as the scene where he and Cassie had fought not long beforehand.
"Hmm," hummed a voice behind Crash. "So… You've finally come…"
As he turned around, Crash spotted the last cloak of the Femme Fatale lying in the snow, near a tree. Then, standing on the edge of the cliff, her long blonde hair blowing in the wind, standing still, her back to Crash as she snickered away…
Was the leader of the Femme Fatale.