Cearbhail:

This was a fun time for me. Not quite what I wanted, but I'm glad with what I got. Very glad. So... last three chapters. Excited? Changing Fates, anyone? Huh? Huh? Eh?

=^^= Enjoy...

Dear diary,

Well… what to say?...

…

"Ruby!" Lydia suddenly grabbed my hand, jerking me off to the right with her, taking my attention away from my diary entry. A giant red lancing beam of pure fire fell down around where we were standing, nearly melting the city street to nothing. I could feel the heat from where we were standing. Looking at the spot we just were, I could see a crater filled with burning melted Dwemer metal. Man… if I had been standing there for even one second longer… I would have ended up a puddle.

Ok… I should explain, shouldn't I? I was going to in the diary entry, but… things happened. And now, we're racing through the town to get back to the Guardian Stones, to get out of here. Our massive Numidium friend? Yeah… he's pretty much dead already. Blasted by the other Numidiums. He managed to fight off like three of them, but there are six total (including himself). Gotta say, seeing Esbern and his Mini-Numidiums taking the fight to everyone was amazing. The Cardinals were quick to fleeing with their Teleportation buddy, but as soon as the Numidiums broke Esbern the Giant Robot… we had a whole new problem. All the Numidiums were at our location… and we're in the open. So, we ran into the town to get back to the Guardian Stones without detection. It's working so far, but… well… airships, man… Spotting our locations, firing down on us… Numidiums taking pot shots. Townsfolk are running for their lives, trying to evacuate the town. It's crazy! The Numidiums are trying to form up around the edges of the town, blowing up small sections at a time to get to us. With each section, the Numidiums limit how we can maneuver… and I bet that Antlanthia woman is somehow telling the other Cardinals where we'll be ending up. Like before. Blowing up a whole town… just to kill us. This is what the Dwemer army is willing to do… I hate them so much.

Lydia didn't wait long before she tugged on my arm again, pulling me. It was hard to keep up with her though. It was hard enough already to race through the streets. Every few steps we took, the ground underneath us shook violently from the stomps of the turtle Numidium. Overhead of us, more of those airships had begun to circle the city. Red beams of whatever it was rained down all around the town. Distantly, I could see a beam of lightning magicka… that had to be Ahmbra's magicka attack: the Lightning Ballista. She hit one of the airships head on, but it barely did a scratch. All it did was focus a whole area of fire down onto her position. I hope she was ok. After the ambush… we kind of all split up. We're trying to escape now. We never expected what happened. We thought we were saved by Esbern the Giant Robot. Now he's just a pile of scrap metal. Scratch one Numidium though. Goodbye, Esbern. I hope you can rest in peace now that your Lorkhan has been shattered.

The Mini Numidiums he had been controlling did an emergency shutdown. But, before he went down, all his Mini Numidiums carved a path through the Dwemer army surrounding us. He gave us several openings… and we took it. We all scattered. And that's when the many airships started to converge around us, the other Numidiums popping up out of nowhere, probably thanks to our teleporter Cardinal friend. The Numidiums began firing Oblivion down upon us, so we scattered even further into the town. Buildings blasted down, Dwemer heavies jumping from airships down to the streets, firing their energy weapons at us as we scattered. A few Shadowwraiths took a few bad hits; still not protected by armor that the rest of us had by now. The rest of the Shadow Legion, under Maleek's orders, bugged out. They couldn't do their Shadowporting anyway. Any that tried sent a strong message back to the rest of us… Don't Shadowport. Run. I'm guessing our dimension agent has them. Sorry to hear that.

Ever since, we haven't had any contact. The Cardinals have elected to stay out of the combat, and so have the 10 Master Generals. Ilsonhick still refused to pursue us. I guess we had won our little victory. The other Master Generals were more than ready to let us go too. I just can't wait to get home. But first… we have to get out of here. And… seeing as we just ran into a giant open marketplace filled with automatons and Dwemer sharpshooters standing on rooftops… all of which were now looking at us… I'd say we just entered a combat zone. I could see Zaliika, Pantu, Maleek, and Ksaan all pinned down.

I caught my brother's eye. He shook his head to me. "Run." He mouthed to me before looking up at the Dwemer surrounding them.

One of the heavy Dwemer tapped his helmet's ear piece. "Qromidium Legion, this is Victor Patrol. We have four contacts." He nodded his head. "Two lizards and two cats." He paused. "Negative. No girl cats. Terminate? Roger." The other Dwemer all brought up their weapons. They pulled their triggers.

I had to watch in horror as the Dwemer started to pull their triggers. And then… well… nothing happened. I listened to them pulling their triggers, hearing the click that should have helped the launching process of whatever it is they're shooting, but the weapons they had just didn't work.

The Dwemer leader looked at his soldiers. "Well? Gun them down."

One of the soldiers shrugged. "Sir… the rifles are jamming. Nothing's coming out!"

"That can't be possible? Have you tried reloading?"

"We're Dwemer sir… we don't make mistakes. Oh… wait…" He released what looked like a spent cartridge. "Yeah... totally fried." He shrugged. "But… all of us at the same time? That's…"

"Extremely unlucky." A voice called from the shadows. It was one of the firedrakes from Ahmbra's Fire Legion. He looked like a cheetah with the black tear lines running from his eyes to his chin, not to mention the short mane and the spots in his fur. "I Suggested you spend all your ammo. And you did. And now… I Suggest you reload." The Dwemer all started reloading their weapons. "And now… point them at your closest friend…" The Dwemer didn't hesitate as they did so. "And now… pull the trigger." One massive consecutive blast later… everyone was gone.

"Idzo!" Pantu waved. "Good to see you, bud!"

Idzo? Wasn't that the guy that… oh. So, that's him, huh?

Just as the group started to get themselves composed, a giant spotlight fell down around them. An airship was hovering right overhead. "You will lay down and surrender!"

Idzo looked up at the airship. "I suggest YOU will go crash into a tower!" I watched as the airship turned and went full speed into a nearby tower. Man… that guy had some serious Suggestion going on. But even so… I could see several more airships all coming in, as well as a giant Numidium that looked just like a massive eagle, all bronze. I don't think he was powerful enough to Suggest them all. Not to mention…I could see the strain in his eyes. He was pretty well spent on what he's done so far.

"We have to keep moving!" Lydia said as she tugged on my arm. With the airships coming down around us, I guess now was the time to get out of here.

"Run!" I screamed to them as Lydia started to pull me away.

"We got this!" Ksaan reported back to me. "You get out of here!"

Somewhere else, I could see another blast from Ahmbra's signature weapon. It slammed into the flying eagle, which hit just hard enough to knock it out of its flap pattern. The eagle turned its attention to Ahmbra's location, opening its beak. A red laser just as big as the turtle's rained down onto her… at least, I think it did. I started to pull Lydia to follow me. She pulled me back just as hard.

I turned to look at her. "Lydia? But… Ahmbra might…"

"Ahmbra's got her friends!" Lydia screamed to me. "We have to keep moving!" We escaped the market place, running down through a stretch of alleyways, heading even further into the maddening undercity of this town. Tall buildings pretty much surrounded us. Civilians running for cover in their homes as airships and Numidium traveled closer to us. A few Dwemer saw us, but refused to yell out our positions. They merely closed their windows, shutting the blinds behind them. I think I get it. If they told the army where we were… those red beams would be firing down on us… and maybe them too.

"Where's Dad?" I hadn't seen him since the whole thing started. We had people all over the city, I knew that much. But… why hadn't we seen anyone? What was our plan of escape? This seemed more like a chaotic run through the town.

"Tamriel. He was in no shape to come back. Before we popped back, we actually came up with a plan. And then… well… Ahmbra's friend Tzani walked us in here. Walked all of us into our positions. Don't worry, it's all part of the plan. It's time, but first, we need to get into position." So… Dad was fine. All of this meant something after all. My dad was going to be fine… but… if someone else died for this, I don't think I could stand it. It was my choice to come back here for him. I didn't have to. I shouldn't have. I thought it could have been bad, but it would have just been me coming back. Not… Not everyone else too. This is not what I wanted. But still… this is what I got.

"Time for what?" I couldn't keep track of all the stuff going on around me lately. It just seemed like we were winging every second of this, but by how Lydia was talking, you'd think this entire thing had been planned out from the start. "I'm so confused."

I got my answer as Lydia stuck her hand up into the sky. She launched a beam of Snow magicka, which flew up into the sky before blossoming into a massive cloud of snow. "Time for our counter-attack. And… our escape. We had this planned out all along… except for Esbern being a robot… that was never in our plans. I won't lie… it's a pleasant surprise… quite the twist, actually."

"A twist? Who are you? D. Day Shyamalan?"

Lydia cringed at the thought. "Ruby… I think this is a little too coordinated for his bardic nonsense." She shook her head. "But… it was a nice distraction, and it got rid of the Cardinals when he fired his arm cannons at them… so… that was a nice change of pace for us. But now… we have to get back to the real plan."

"And what's the real plan?" I asked Lydia as we slid underneath a building's nearby balcony. She and I pressed ourselves as far against the wall as possible, trying to hide underneath the small hangover roof, as a spotlight fell down in our alleyway, scanning for anything moving. I watched with my breath held as the spotlight slowly snaked through our alleyway, the beam of light just a few inches from touching our toes. I could hear the propellers above; the rhythmic pulsing of whatever device the airships used to stay airborne growing louder as the airship passed by overhead. Once the spotlight vanished, we stayed still for another few seconds while waiting for the airship to keep passing by. The heavy ground-shaking footsteps of the giant turtle Numidium told us that we were within eye-scanning range of the hulking monster. If we were to step out now… any living person would be able to spot us.

There was a sudden silence. A spotlight fell on top of us… well… on top of the pagoda we were hiding under. With my Khajiit ears, I could hear some Dwemer chatting over a comms system… and I could hear Antlanthia speaking back… in her language. Wait… Antlanthia? Oh no… she was reporting our location. "Lydia… we're found out."

"I know." She reassured me. "It's not perfect, but it will do." She looked over at me, smiling in her comforting way. She patted me on the shoulder. "Well… time to go."

"What? Time to go? Time to go where?" I was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a small Bosmer girl. She was pretty short with long brown hair and piercing lilac eyes. Wait… I've seen her before. But… from where? I couldn't remember. Before I could even think about it, she touched my arm, Lydia's as well… and…

Next thing I knew, I was standing up on a deck with Lydia and the Bosmer girl. I felt a little queasy, my stomach turning. Man… dimension hopping, teleporting, Shadowporting… it always just turns my stomach around in circles. "Where are we?" I coughed up as I bent down to vomit.

"On the giant turtle thing." The Bosmer girl said.

I heard that hum of those energy weapons as the Dwemer surrounding us began to take aim. "So…" I started to stand up, looking at the Dwemer soldiers taking aim. "What now?"

The girl smirked. "Now… we fight. And we bring this thing down." She vanished into a Teleportation, reappearing behind a Dwemer. With one touch of his shoulder, he was suddenly gone. He reappeared over the side of the turtle, screaming as he fell to his death. Well, at least he was supposed to. Those flying devices they have on their backs… he had one. And as soon as he appeared and started to fall, he activated his. He jumped right back onto the deck, bringing his weapon up with him. He started shooting at the Bosmer. She vanished into several teleportations as she slowly made her way over to him. I watched as she appeared underneath him, sweeping him off his feet (using Teleportation to make him fly up in the air). Then she appeared above him, doing a dropping spinning axe kick to the guy's face. No flying pack will save you from crashing into the deck like that. He didn't get up.

I had to turn my attention to the other Dwemer all bringing their weapons up to us. "I'll go get help." The Bosmer girl said right before vanishing, leaving us alone with all the Dwemer aiming at us.

"Just like old times, right, Ruby?" Lydia said as Conjuration portals opened up all around her. She pulled out her Aedric armor, as well as her Aedric Katana named Ice Fang. She slashed with her golden katana at a wave of Dwemer. Ice shot out of her blade, encasing a bunch of the Dwemer before they could even fire at us.

I nodded as I unsheathed my diamond katana. "Yup… just like old times." I got some power from Citrina, feeding into my flash as I flew up to the Dwemer, slashing at several of them. I hit just hard enough to knock a bunch down. As soon as we cleared the small section of the deck we were on, I had a sudden realization. "Wait… we're on a Numidium… aren't we?"

"Yeah." Lydia nodded. "And?"

"Can't we use it?"

She smirked. "And how? Do you know anything about Dwemer engineering?"

"Well, no… but"

"Or how to pilot one of these things?"

"No… but…"

"Can you even pilot a normal galleon?"

I had to stop to think about it. No… I honestly couldn't. "No."

"Ruby… a galleon isn't hard to pilot… but a monster that feeds on the souls of the lost… built from thousands of decompressed bodies, built by the master race of technology that a few centuries ago had technology that even today we don't understand how to replicate… and you think you're just going to pilot what is their top apex military-crafted god killer?"

I shrugged. "Well… maybe? How hard can it be?"

"How hard? How hard?!" I heard an unfamiliar voice from behind me. I jumped as I turned to see yet another Firedrake standing with the Bosmer girl. This girl… she was my age, if not younger. Kind of like the others, now that I think of it. She wasn't dressed in formal robes, but what I've seen firedrake masters wear. The same robes Ksaan wore. And she didn't look like a normal Khajiit. She had yellowish fur, almost golden in appearance. She had elven ears, and elven eyes. Was she an Ohmes breed? She would have to be to look like she did. "You're asking if someone as untrained as you can possibly understand the many-faceted layers of technology present within this hulking beast of a machine?" The girl said as she looked around. "I mean… just look at this design."

She flashed over to a series of steam pipes. "See this? Do you know where this leads?" I had to shake my head. "Neither do I! But… if you pull a lever, we could find out. Want to find out?" I had to shake my head again. Man… this girl. She's… I don't even know. "I do!" She flashed up to a lever, pulling it down. And… I didn't like the result.

"The septic tanks have flooded into the barracks. I repeat… the septic tanks have flooded into the barracks." A voice over an intercom said.

I could hear swarms of Dwemer racing around above and below us. "Oh crap… why did it have to be my room?" Several of them would say as they pounded their feet on the platform above us.

The Khajiit girl looked very pleased. "Well, I'd say that was a rousing success." She said as she practically bounced on her tail. She looked over at me, sticking out her hand. "Name's M'Anurki. I'm the Proctor of Year 3, Class 1."

What? She's a teacher? "How old are you?" I said as I took her hand into a handshake.

"Well… let's see. Um… 15. Yeah, 15." She shrugged. "So, I guess I'm J'Anurki now." She's younger than me… and she's a teacher? How? Wait… I'm a Guildmaster. Nevermind. I suddenly have no position to say anything like that… ever again.

The Bosmer girl shook her head. "Anurki… you're so funny." She looked over at me, scanning me with her lilac eyes. "Hi, Princess Ruby. It's been a while."

I nodded. "Yeah… you… You're looking great, as always." Please don't call my lie… please don't call my lie.

"You don't remember me, do you?" Dammit.

I shook my head. "Sorry. I know I've seen you before… I just can't recall when."

"Well, it was in Rimmen. You were being chased by some evil Redguard guy, and we only talked once. So… I'll let it go this one time." She took my hand in a handshake. "I'm Violet. I'm a sophomore at Aldmeri Magicka Institute. I'm a friend of Ahmbra's."

Oh… now I remember her. She was in Rimmen! I remember talking to her, but I never got her name. We only ever exchanged a few conversations with each other before we started to party on the beach. Ksaan and Pantu pretty much kept me busy all night, and then Zaliika joined us. I got to dance around a fire by a beach. It was nice. I need to go back down there sometime soon. Maybe to visit Ksaan and Dad. Right after we get the pillar fixed and the dimensional barriers reactivated.

"Well, nice to finally meet you, Violet. I'm sure we have a lot of catching up to do… but…" I waved my hand around the deck that was filled with Dwemer soldiers and turrets taking aim at us. "I think we're going to be busy for a hot second."

The Ohmes girl clapped her hands madly. "Oh! Yes! More studying!" She pulled out a giant shadow journal, writing something down. She turned to look at one of the Dwemer. "Excuse me… would you mind if after we're done killing you, that I could study your brain? Nothing too impersonal, just cutting it up into thousands of little pieces to see how the neurons work? I promise to keep the scarring of the tissue on your skull to a minimum!"

Slowly, very slowly, all the Dwemer started to back away, not even saying a word to us. They just… left. Huh… why? What did one of us say that was so wrong?

Anurki, M'Anurki, J'Anurki… whatever she called herself. She looked like a kid at her birthday party that didn't get any presents… just totally crestfallen. "Wait!" She screamed as she started to chase after them. "I promise to make it quick!"

"Run! The psychopath is chasing us!" A Dwemer screamed. A lot of panicked Dwemer were screaming in horror as they ran away.

"Oh, come now! It's not like I'm going to eat your brain!" She screamed as she continued to chase after them. Well, she's gone now.

Lydia sighed. "Well… now what?"

I shrugged. "We could use this machine to blow up another Numidium, or at least an airship or two."

Violet thought about it. She looked over at Lydia. "We should move onto the next phase of the plan."

Lydia nodded. "Ok then. Get to it."

Violet vanished in one of her teleportations. When she was gone, I looked over to Lydia. "Ok… so this plan of yours?"

"Hijack an airship or six… and then provide cover fire for everyone to escape. But now…" She waved her hand around the Numidium. "We're here. So… let's find a way to use this thing. It has to have a pilot. And if we can find out how to pilot this thing… we can use it to blow up the surrounding airships."

"Incorrect." A voice called over my helmet. It sounded like Noish. "The Numidiums are autonomous. They are programmed with one goal… to listen to the Cardinals and the Master Generals. And to kill any god they run into. You can't control one."

If that was true, and if we couldn't use this Numidium ourselves… then… what are we going to do? I see us being able to just leave this thing standing. "So… we bring it down?"

"With what?" Lydia asked. "How? This thing is easily as big as Whiterun. And… it's all metal. My magicka can't even do anything to this. And I doubt you can just cut through this whole machine."

She was right. I had enough problems just cutting through the usual Dwemer's armor. If I could barely put a scratch in their normal armor plating… how am I going to cut through 6 or more inches of their layered metal? They had to make the metal stronger than normal if this thing is able to support its own weight without crumbling.

I walked over to a railing that overlooked the side of the massive turtle Numidium. I could see the whole town from up here, and we weren't even at the top. Looking up, I could see several more levels leading up to the top of the mobile battle fortress. Looking down, I could see a few lowers below me. Man… this thing was really huge! There is no way I could just cut this thing down. I would die before I could cut through it. How were we going to beat these things anyway? Dang you, Asger. It was lucky that we got one of them defeated already.

"How's the view from up here?" Lydia asked as she walked over to join me.

"Not good." I replied. I could see the Numidiums… four of them, surrounding the town at each cardinal direction. One looked like a giant eagle; one looked like a Dwemer sphere, only 30 feet taller; one looked like a giant snake driller thingy; and one looked like a spider. Great... just great. Six or more airships were flying around the town, still firing beams down at my friends. Some of the Numidiums were blowing up sections of the town. Man… What were we going to do? "Let's say we manage to take an airship. You know what will happen? Antlanthia will call one of the Numidiums to blow it up. She did it before. She killed Urag and his clan."

Lydia sighed. "Did she? Man… Tuva will not be happy to hear that."

"Tuva?" I glanced over at Lydia.

"Voluung, Atua, and Tuva all stayed behind in Winterhold in case the Thalmor attacked while we were gone." Lydia said. "So… they're gone. I'm guessing the bloody pile of Orcs we saw when we popped in were…"

I nodded. "What remained of the other Strongholds. They're all gone, Lydia. They're all dead."

"Not entirely true." I heard yet another voice in my helmet's ear piece. It was Urag's this time. "We're broadcasting on open channels. This is Defiance… and we're coming to pick you up. We're charging out of here." Urag was alive? How? More importantly… how did he acquire another airship? It didn't matter, I could see it flying towards us now. And… I saw four beams of red energy from the Numidiums slam into the thing, making it explode like the last one. Again? Jeez. Nice try, Dwemer witch. You missed. That was one of yours. Try again. All the airships started heading towards us. All of them? What was going on?

The Numidiums started going crazy, blasting all the airships out of the sky. I watched as every airship turned into a fiery ball that fell into the city. "Oops. Did I forget to mention… we're not on an airship? Sorry 'bout that."

Lydia grabbed my arm. "Time to go, Ruby. This time… for good."

Time to go? How? "Lydia, ready?" Asger's voice called over the comms.

"Yes. Let's do this." Lydia held my hand tightly. Asger suddenly popped up in front of me, Ashana and Violet with him. Violet took my hand, and suddenly, all five of us were teleported to somewhere else. The world spun around me, but that didn't matter. We were standing next to the Guardian Stones. Everyone was here. This was it! We made it!

I looked at the city, and just how defeated it looked. Every airship was blown down… one of the Numidiums destroyed, as well as the Mini Numidiums. The whole town was burning. Asger looked quite pleased. "Well, that went pretty well, I think."

Urag, covered in armor scarred with ash, nodded as he pulled off his helmet. "I think we tricked them pretty well. Having that Khajiit boy and girl implant false futures into that time reader's head worked wonderfully. And while teleporting our troops around to make it look like we were staging a fight in the town to draw in those Numidium… clever."

Asger nodded. "They expected us to be incapable of fighting them, of making them run around in circles. And here they are… destroying their own army for us. I think we've dealt them a blow they'll never forget." He turned to the Guardian Stones. "Now, let's go home." Yes…

Let's go home. Once and for all. I'm so ready for my nice hot bath, and to enjoy a nice day with my dad and brother. Hell! The whole city! We're going to live it up while we still can. I looked back to make sure my whole guild was here. I could see Ashana standing next to me, as well as Samantha, Nexi… Jack didn't look too well, but she was handling it as well as I could think she was capable of, clutching her side as she looked back at the town. I half expected the Cardinals to pop up again… to try to stop us. I wouldn't put it past them. Why weren't they here?

I looked over at the Guardian Stones. Urag was already activating the Warrior, Solomon activating the Mage, and Asger activating the Rogue. As soon as they did so, I felt a light explode from the Guardian Stones. Next thing I knew, I was standing outside the Guardian Stones outside of Riverwood. Was this for real? Were we really back?

I looked up at the sky… the beautiful blue sky filled with light gray snow clouds. Not the purple sky of the Soul Cairn. I could hear water trickling in the river down the hill from us. I could see the fortified walls of Riverwood, the new big town. I looked around, making sure we were all here. And we were! We made it back this time! This was real! We're home!

…

Time to get started on that pillar. And keep those bastards from following us here.

Cearbhail:

So... Esbern's dead, again. Or... maybe not? Hmm? (nudge, nudge, hint, hint). But seriously... just imagine what Changing Fates will be like. I had to seriously down play how powerful the Dwemer are, but that's only because they didn't want to hurt their own people. If this had been in any other town... the Numidium wouldn't have stopped shooting for anything, except prisoners. Think on that.