Ghostly World
Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Victorious now and never will
A/N:
Chapter 53 (Divide and Conquer)
Beck tapped finger on the arm of his throne chair. He watched Rama in the middle of the room, talking to Leila and Vesper. They were now official members of the Royal Guard. Rama had asked for the best fighters in the convoy to come up and see if they had what it took to join the Royal Guard. The great majority of them were indicted into the Guard. Beck was also going to see about giving the Dark Tribe some more technology.
He rolled his head to the side and shifted his gaze to the door, waiting was a very daunting task. They were hoping that Jonah and Phoenix would survive the blast, that they would return, especially since Beck wanted to start heading to the core, so he could cleanse the Elemental Realm of the shadows. He knew that the Shadows did not want the Elemental Realm to gain control, for if they did, then almost all accesses would be shut down. Chances were likely that Nevel and Danny planned to destroy both Jonah and Phoenix, as the shadows wouldn't want a strong General in place of the Royal Guard.
Valerie was sitting at the right table, hunched over and with tears in her eyes. Cat was rubbing her back while Jade stood behind her and stared at Beck with a frown. He didn't know what to do, what to say. Jonah and Phoenix had a difficult task, and chances were, they would fight as bravely as they could. Standing beside him was his grandfather. The old man would offer as much advice as he could before he passed, Beck found this extremely helpful. "Grandfather, what do I say if they don't show up?"
"Believe in them, Beck. If they don't, then comfort Jonah's maiden as well as you can, but don't assume they won't return. Always have the faith that your General or guards will return." The old man's words were like plush for his heart, comforting him and easing his mind. "You have two fathers out there, Beckett. You have one who just got his daughter back, and one who just realized he is to be a father. Both of them have the determination and will to survive."
"Yes sir. I am going down to the core after they return. I am going to cleanse this realm at that point."
"What will you do about the shadow port?" Beck leaned his fingertip against his left temple and brought his right foot to rest on his left. Jade already had it blocked temporarily, so no shadow creatures could come in. He already ordered the royal guard to stand by the port in case any creatures managed to break through. He moved his eyes to his grandfather and slowly exhaled, the old man was trying to make him think. "Think about it, an age old contract was formed with each realm, an incantation was said to make the portal appear." A contract? He sat up and smacked the arms of the chair.
"That's it! Grandfather, can you fetch me the contract with the Shadow Realm?" The elder chuckled and reached down to the chair. Beck watched anxiously as the man lid the top portion of the arm off, revealing a flat surface with many buttons. His eyebrows rose in surprise as the man pressed a button that made a small hole in front of him open in the ground. The others in the room looked to him and watched as a glass tube rose up.
"Everything is voice activated. Now that you are the king, it will understand you."
"I see…" Beck slowly rose from the seat and moved towards the tube. He studied it closely until he saw what appeared to be a speaker. He needed to say what he was looking for out of the archives below the castle? No big deal.
"It's the Shadow Realm Contract of 40 AD." He nodded and cleared his throat, speaking as clearly as possible.
"Shadow Realm Contract 40 AD." He heard a clinching mechanism and listened as the tube generated a whistling sound. Soon, like the banks on earth, a cylinder appeared with a thick scroll inside. With a smirk, Beck grabbed the cylinder out and tore the scroll from the tube. He opened it and proceeded to read it. "This contract grants access rights of…ya-da, ya-da…" He started muttering as he moved along the lengthy document, stopping when he glazed over what he wanted. "Aha! In the event of invasion and take over, the King of the Elemental Realm reserves the right to reject this contract. Upon rejection, the Port to the Shadow Realm will be erased, as will any form of access from or to the Shadow Realm." He read over the incantation that brought the door to the realm and breathed in as his eyes grazed over the reverse incantation. It was so simple.
He moved to a window and gazed out in the direction of the ports. The door flew open and his head snapped to his right. He smiled as Jonah and Phoenix came walking in. Valerie jumped for joy and ran over, hugging Jonah tight. Jade did the same for Phoenix. The two warriors were wounded, but for the most part, they were alive. Jade told them what Beck was doing and everyone quieted, watching closely.
He started to read the reverse incantation. As he did so, a light shot down from the heavens in the distance. He continued to read while everyone watched with wide eyes as the port itself started to rise up in the air. It vanished into particles and evaporated into the light. All across the land, the creatures that remained on the planet uttered a shrill cry, they were trapped! Beck finished the incantation and lowered the scroll, a smirk tugged at his lips and he swiftly returned the scroll to the tube, sending it back down to the archives.
"Shadow Realm broke contract by invading, so we got to revoke it. I'd say we win that part." He turned to Jonah and Phoenix, then smiled. "I'm glad to see you two made it!"
"Yeah, but barely." Jonah replied as he kissed Valerie's forehead. He wiped her tears with his thumb and exhaled as she closed her eyes. "I'm sorry to worry you, Valerie." Phoenix kissed his daughter's head and pat her back, smiling as he moved forward. Beck leaned in as Phoenix whispered in his ear. He grinned and stood erect, moving his gaze to Jonah.
"Jonah!" Jonah shot into attention and glued his arms to his sides. Beck's grandfather and Phoenix stood on either side of him. He took one step forward and cleared his throat. "Phoenix requests retirement to spend his days with his daughter. He is the one to choose his successor, and he feels that you may be best equipped and that you deserve the position as General of the Royal Guard. He says they seem to agree with you and you are a strong, determined warrior." He watched with enthusiasm as Jonah tried to keep the shock from overtaking him. "Do you accept this title? This position?"
"I-I…what do I say?" Valerie wrapped her arms around his and rested her head upon his shoulder. Jonah knew the layout of the Elemental Realm, he understood the process of leading the Royal Guard, and there was nothing that would keep him from the position. "I accept!" No surprise.
"Good, then allow Phoenix to train you for a few weeks on leading the royal guard, let him teach you everything that you need to know."
"Yes sir. I won't fail you."
"I know you won't, I have faith in you. Now for your first task as General, you will accompany me to the core, in which we'll cleanse this realm of the shadows. You have an hour to rest."
"Yes sir!"
"Oh, and Jonah? You don't have to call me sir." Phoenix started to snicker and Jonah shot a glare at him. Beck's eyebrow rose and he began to piece together that the man probably gave him a hard time about professionalism. He chuckled and a slowly shook his head. "Okay we know each other beyond titles, so you're good. Just go and relax with Valerie, I need some time with Jade myself." He turned to his girlfriend and gazed into her eyes with the most subtle smirk he could muster. "I have a proposition for her, and one that I do because I want to, not because I have to." Jade's cheeks burned red as he took her hands in his. He glanced over to Jonah, who took Valerie's hand, and started walking out of the room. This would be a beautiful hour before their work.
After the allotted time passed, Beck met with Jonah and Phoenix in the center of the front room. There would be an elevator much like the one in Robbie's castle, that would take them deep underground to a long tunnel and an enormously large room where the core would be. It was expected that the hostages would be down there as well. Beck eyed the two with him and stared at the door. "Where is Rama? He's supposed to be joining us."
"He will be," Phoenix replied. "He's gathering the other Tribal leaders for help. Jonah's also asked that the Royal Guard remain here to protect the citizens and ward off any surface creatures while we go underground."
"Okay, sounds good." He tapped his now stubbly chin and flicked his eyes to Jonah, Valerie was standing next to him, fixing his collar. She really wanted to help, but Jonah didn't want her risking her life or the baby's life. She was, however, taking an extremely long time saying her goodbyes to Jonah. Beck and Jade already had their farewell, she was now sleeping and trusted Beck to return safely.
After a minute, the two kissed and Valerie hurried off to the castle's kitchen, possibly to find herself something to distract her from Jonah's fight underground. The castle door opened and Rama strolled in with four people behind him. The leaders for the Light, Water, Air, and Earth tribes.
The Light Leader was the first to speak up. He was wearing a silver, reflexive armor with a sun upon his chest. His blonde hair clung to his chin and framed his oval face, bringing out his blue eyes. "I'm Zoran, the interim leader of the Light Tribe. I'm actually in place as of Michael Brown's capture." Beck's eyebrows rose in surprise and Jonah stared off in shock, his father had been the leader of the light tribe? "When he stepped down from his Kingship, he was reinstated as the tribal leader, I was his vice leader. I would be more than willing to help rescue him from the Shadows."
"Underground should be an excellent warzone for me," Spoke Terra, the earth leader. She had light chocolate skin with reddish brown hair that shot out towards her waist. Her armor was made up of leaves and mud that was made strong by her own powers. Her sharp hazel eyes met her confident smirk, forming a perfect image of a warrior ready for battle. Zoran turned to her and folded his arms over.
"Are you certain that armor will hold up?" Terra closed her eyes and smirked as she moved her hand over to Zoran's white cotton cape, she gripped it with her fingers and stretched it down.
"It'll hold up as sure as you are that the cape connected to your armor will. Only Earth's natural armor is strong enough and fitting for me. Although, I'm not sure how well Era will fare down there…" The group turned to the blonde woman with cloudlike armor. She had her hair up in a bun and gazed out with eyes like diamonds. Her posture was confident. She was tall with pink nails and slender, blue tinted armor that looked almost as thin as sheet metal.
"I'll be just fine. Remember that the air is everywhere, even underground. Should I get caught in a situation I cannot handle, I can simply remove the oxygen around my opponent. My armor is light for the very reason that it is easier to move around. Now I just want to ask…Ren…" The three leaders turned to the fourth, the water tribe leader, Ren, with an inquisitive gaze. "Just how well do you think you'll do down there?"
The woman had not said much at all, nor did she appear to have much to say. She just gazed out at her comrades and carefully lifted her hand up. Her chocolate eyes bore past her brown bangs and into the three, as if she were reading their very souls. "The body is made up of more than sixty percent water. Blood is ninety-two percent water, the brain and muscles contain seventy five percent water, while the bones are just twenty two percent water. Without water, a human can survive only a week. Now ask me how can I control water underground?"
The three gasped as water started seeping out of their pores, if she wanted, she could take all the water in their body and use it to her own will. Thinking fast, she shot the water back inside of them, taking them by surprise. "Water is pure, it can also be deadly. There's no question that I can use my ability underground."
Beck lifted his eyebrows as the leaders continued to talk amongst themselves, they were all plenty strong, it seemed. He cleared his throat and the leaders quickly ran over to him. "Now, if we're all ready, we'll begin our descent. I need you all to focus. This is serious and can mean winning or losing the war against darkness." The leaders nodded and Jonah tapped a button on his belt. The group stilled as the elevator descended. Beck turned his gaze to the three women and scrunched his face with curiosity. Women elementals were storm controllers, so how did they manage to become tribal leaders without being able to use their claws? "If you don't mind me asking…Terra, Era, and Ren…how did you manage to become tribal leaders?"
Terra's eyes shifted to him. She sucked in some air and exhaled sharply. "Because we're the strongest of our tribes." The others looked to her, all eager to hear her answer. "Because we are women, we are storm controllers, a trait that male elementals cannot do, but all elementals, male and female, do have the claws inside them. However, female elementals never truly learn how to use their claws, but there are the rare cases where the female can mentally, emotionally, and physically deal with the painful process of learning. Usually, it is so painful that most women don't endure it, it is more painful of a process than any man could possibly endure. We three have endured that process and proven ourselves to be exceptional warriors, so much so, that we've earned our place as leaders within the tribes."
"That is fantastic." He was proud to hear that, while at the same time, he had a little trouble imagining the ordeal that these women must have gone through with all that practice and training.
When they made it to the tunnels, the women stepped off first, all of them were poised and ready. The men followed and Beck's brow furrowed as they entered a network of tunnels. Terra stood before one tunnel, rubbing her chin as she gazed down. "I'm not too sure this would be the proper way…" There were eight tunnels total, one for each of them. "We may have to split up. Divide and conquer. I'm sure all the tunnels lead out to the room we're headed for, but we'll want to clean out all the tunnels before dealing with the one that's in the core room."
"Right." It made sense to him. If they all took one tunnel, they could clear that one of the shadow demons, but it left seven other tunnels that could be filled with demons that would empty out into the core. "Not only that, but the hostages could be in any one of the tunnels. So, Terra's right, our best tactic is to divide and conquer."
"Sounds good to me," Zoran replied with a grin. He could light the entire tunnel if he had to. Terra stepped towards the tunnel before her and heard a swift rushing noise. The others clearly heard it as well, so Zoran moved ahead and lit his claws up. "Allow me…" The tunnel became bright, revealing a giant black worm rushing at them. "Whoa!"
Terra growled and threw her hands up in the air. "I got this." The tunnel started to quake and break apart. The group watched as smoke started to fill the tunnel until the entire thing collapsed, killing the worm inside. Dirt flew out and landed on her. She chuckled and turned her head towards the others. "Now there's seven tunnels."
"That does help a bit," Beck added almost sarcastically. He hummed a tune and started counting off each tunnel with his finger. "Okay Zoran, you take that tunnel on the far left. Era, take the neighboring tunnel. Terra, you've got the tunnel on the far right, and Ren, you take the tunnel between hers and the one that just collapsed." They nodded and quickly moved to the tunnels they were tasked with. Rama, Phoenix, and Jonah still stood with no task. There were three tunnels left, the three in the middle. "Rama, take the one on the left. Phoenix and Jonah, you two take the one on the right. I'll take the middle one, should be fine on my own."
With a collective agreement, everyone took off, preparing themselves for whatever lay ahead.
Nice to see all the tribal leaders in action, right? Let me know what you think. Looks like we've learned a few things too.
