Chapter Twenty- Five- Revelations

We stood, five on each side. Me and the rest of the squad, against the five strangers; except, they weren't strangers to me. As much as it pained me, i recognized them from a blurred memory of the past.

A five year old girl with chocolate hair and eyes sat playing on the floor. Surrounded by shreds of paper, continuing to shred more with her bare hands. Across the hallway, in a room of darkness; a father was torturing a mother.

The girl was neither angry or sad, instead pretending the floor was her friend. Feeding the bare floorboards the scraps of paper. She was used to being lonely and had developed an imagination far beyond the norm to accompany her in her loneliness. Little did she know, alongside her was a goddess; watching over her with a pained expression. An expression that turned to shock as the air rippled with energy.

The girl stopped her shredding and looked up expectantly, thinking it was just another part of her imagination running amok. If only it was.

The rippling became a swirl, and soon a circle of purple. The air was being sucked inside the portal, and the paper lifted slightly into the air. The girl stood and ran over to the portal joyfully, laughing as she went. The parents in the room beside her oblivious. The goddess watched in horror as the girl placed a finger on the swirling mass of energy, and was violently sucked inside. A bottomless pit of what was to be hell.

The goddess extended her hand helplessly to the now calm air, the portal having disappeared with the girl.

Elsewhere a portal opened in another world, and deposited a small girl onto the ground. A large women laughed gleefully before issuing an order to a beefy guard beside her. The guard nodded and swung the unconscious girl over her shoulders before marching down the bland corridor.

A prison door was opened into a room of no light, a figure hunched up in the corner, trying to avoid the gaze of the guard. The girl was chucked into the room, awakening with a start as her body hit the floor.

The guard laughed maliciously before slamming the door shut, casting the room back into infinite darkness.

"W-where am i?!"

"Shh" a voice whispered, and then there was a snap of a match and a pin-prick of light.

The figure pulled the match to his face, illuminating the orange, furry features and a small portion of wall around him.

"Who..who are you?" the little girl asked, backing away slightly in fear.

"The name's crash, crash bandicoot"

"Lessa, its nice to see you" I looked down at the ground, reeling inside. How could this happen? How could they come back?

"You know these people lessa?" Cherry turned to me, curiosity and confusion pasted on his face.

"You remember us lessa?" Crash pushed for an answer, nine people's attention fully focused on me.

Goodness, how did people deal with performing live in front of millions of people? Just these nine people were making me squirm wildly. How was i going to get out of this one.

"Yes..i do know them" Crash smiled.

"Perhaps we should introduce ourselves to the rest of them?" Crash asked the others behind him. Cortex nodded.

"Yes of course. Well then, i'm Cortex, this is Crash-" he paused to gesture at the furry male. "Coco-" the orange female. "Nina, my wonderful niece" the blue girl glared at cortex. "And last but not least, my assistant, N-gin" the half robot- half human waved.

Cherry, hoss, junior and ragman; all stared in disbelief at the strange assortment of people standing before them.

"Lessa, it's been so long"

"Yes..it has"

"We're not here for this, lessa we have some important news for you; there's a reason why we'd come looking for you"

"Yes cortex?" Cortex looked serious, i wondered what was wrong.

"It's Marissa" My whole world seemed to shatter at her name. I couldn't move. "She's not just out for ruling Egyptica anymore, or your death. She wants to enslave the entire solar system of Egyptica"

"W-what?!" My eyes enlarged massively. The others just looked at the two of us like we'd gone insane.

"Its true. That's why we're here. We currently live on one of those planets in the solar system, and we have no intention of moving. Besides, it is your destiny to stop her, we want to help you. There's no way you can do this on your own. She's controlling the whole army of darkness with her black magick. She's actually become the queen of darkness"

Unbelievable, she just wasn't satisfied with Egyptica anymore; she wanted the entire solar system.

"I see. What do you want me to do?" Cortex jerked his head towards Crash.

"We want you to come with us. On the airship. You can live there with us whilst we come up with a plan to defeat her"

"Ahh" So that was it. I was torn in conflict again. This was what i was supposed to be doing, looking for Marissa; but..the others. What about them, if i went i would never see them again.

'Lessa, you knew it would come to this. They would have had to find out sooner or later. You knew you couldn't stay' no, no, NO! I love him! Why couldn't i just have a normal life!

'But you can't lessa. I'm sorry..it's just the way it is' I knew she was right, but i didn't want to believe it.

How could i leave the only people that loved me.

Wait,

In desperation i turned to the squad behind me.

"Come with me! Please!" i begged. I was almost in tears, i expected them to say no. I wouldn't be able to blame them.

I heard cortex gasp behind me.

Cherry closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

"Very well, i'll come with you-" My breath hitched, could it be true!?

"But-" Oh, "On one condition"

"Y-yes?"

"I want to know the truth. You must tell me what you are"

"I-i-"

"I'm sure i speak for the others too" Cherry continued. The other three nodded. But..

It seemed i had no choice. Melanie was right, they would have had to know sooner or later. I just wasn't expecting it to be like this.

"Very well...cortex?"

"Sure. Welcome abroad"