CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN: The Hunted

Ah, summer, at long last!

Hopefully this will result in more regular updates XD I've come to the decision that I want to finish this story by the end of 2012. I have no guarantee that I'll be able to spend the requisite amount of time during college on these chapters, and I certainly don't want to let the story go on hiatus again. I'm not sure how many chapters are left, but I'll update as fast as possible. Reviews always help, obviously XD

By the way, the story has now surpassed 1000 pages on Word! This is a monumental occasion, and I could never have envisioned it when I began the fic. Seriously, 1000 pages? It wouldn't have been anywhere near possible without my loyal friends and reviewers, most notably Mei1105 (Tash), Metal Overlord 2.0 (Max), and Master of the Library (Craig). Thank you, everyone, very much.

GearfriedTheSynchro: Thanks for the review, man. I used to duel, barely do so anymore for lack of time. Also, I really detest the new ban list (killed my plants stone dead), so if ever, I use traditional.

Clevercookies: Thanks a lot, appreciate the praise man. Credit for the duel goes to Master of the Library. He drew up the blueprint, I just constructed it.

Reaver72: So I am not alone in my world of anime nerdism XD Over 9000 is a classic, can never use it too much.

Sanokal: Yeah, Lilith was getting on my nerves too. I think I made her a little too much like how you would imagine the Devil's wife to be.

Metal Overlord 2.0: Ah, I missed these XD. Hit me up on MSN or Facebook soon man, we should talk.

Zeruge rubbed his eyes and groaned.

"No, no, no… No, Mr. Ishtar. My orders were to escort to where the garrison at Florida and the garrison only."

He just received a blank stare from the youngest Ishtar at these words.

"Mr. Mitsunashi… I do not know the story of your life, but, please, humor this question. If you made one of the biggest mistakes in human history, only to somehow chance upon an opportunity to atone for it, wouldn't you take it, whatever the cost?"

Joey did not enter the conversation. He was no fan of Marik Ishtar at all, and knew that he would be sorely tempted to say something stupid.

Zeruge sighed. He had an obvious answer, but did not want to say it.

"Give me this chance," pressed Marik. "It is the decent thing to do. If you do not want to come, take Ishizu and Odion to Florida, I shall proceed alo-…"

"Stop with such foolish talk," advised Zeruge shortly. "You and I both know that is not an option."

"Then do the right thing, and come with me," pressed Marik.

Silence reigned for a minute. Finally, the demon broke it.

"How do you plan to even get there? Cairo is nine thousand kilometers away. That is an eleven hour journey by plane. I'm not too optimistic that Mr. Wheeler's driving skills would be sufficient to pilot an aircraft capable of travelling that distance, and finding a pilot and even a plane is not going to be easy-…"

Ishizu cut him off cautiously. "There is another way."

All eyes turned to her.

"Elaborate."

She seemed nervous, unwilling to continue.

"Please, sister," uttered Marik softly. "You have done a lot for me over the last twenty-two years, but helping me accomplish this would be the biggest good deed you have ever performed."

She remained silent for another minute.

Finally, she murmured, "Legend has it that there is a network of pathways that exist beyond this plane of existence that allow Tombkeepers to traverse across the world in a fraction of the time."

Marik looked confused.

"What do you mean, sister?"

"I'm not too sure of it myself. It is just a myth, a story that I read about in some very obscure texts. Apparently if a Pharaoh died while he was away in a foreign country, he needed to be embalmed and mummified as soon as possible according to the Egyptian religion. So the patriarch of the Tombkeeper family at the time requested the use of the Millennium Items to create access to another dimension, one which exists on the fringes of ours. The Items were used to generate small rips between the dimensions in a number of places across the world, which could be accessed to enter and leave the alternate dimension and therefore travel across the world very quickly."

"If this actually existed then why would the Pharaohs not use it themselves?" questioned Zeruge.

"The texts say that the Tombkeeper at the time was wary of the potential of such power. He did not reveal it to the Pharaohs, as he felt that unlimited reach across the world would lead to potentially limitless influence for the rulers, who were already quite mad with power. In any case, I'm not even sure this all really exists, it's all just part of a scripture."

"How can you find out?" pressed Marik.

"Well, if I was able to look at a map of the world today, and I had access to some instruments, I might be able to pin-point the co-ordinates of where the portals were supposed to be. If there is one on the Eastern seaboard I suppose we could go there and have a look."

Zeruge groaned inwardly. So another few hours to be invested in figuring out where to go, and then possibly another day getting there, all in what might end being just a wild-goose chase. If it wasn't, they got to travel to the world's most unstable continent with one of his charges ending up in some kind of life-risking ordeal in a hope to redeem himself in his own mind.

"All right, I suppose we could try and find a portal at the very least."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Haou looked on for another moment. For some reason, he received no pleasure from this magnificent victory. Even the sight of the cloud of smoke enveloping Zerato's field while Armitael began to dematerialize did not give him any gratification in the least. It was odd, considering he had played the role of a decoy to perfection throughout the duel, allowing Lilith and Zerato to hound each other before a victor emerged, whom he promptly took down. Even this sumptuous strategic victory did nothing for him.

These abstract thoughts were dismissed by his mind as the smoke began to clear.

To Haou's eternal surprise, there was a figure in it that was still standing.

He waited for another moment, as it was slowly revealed that the Archangel Zerato was teetering in the middle of the smoke cloud, gasping for breath. His armor was basically gone, and his body was covered with wounds. Yet, he was still alive.

"The Garden…" he gasped, "is based on a very different magic, one that has existed since the dawn of Time. Penalty Games cannot be enforced here."

Haou shrugged nonchalantly. "If the Shadow Game did not kill you, I am quite sure that I can…"

A black sphere began to form in his hand, and he took a threatening step toward Zerato.

Almost immediately, the ground beneath the Archangel began to give way.

"If you want to kill me, your first order of business will be to catch me," thought Zerato.

That was a fair point. He was, after all, an angel, mused Haou. He knew the secrets of the Garden reasonably well, or he would not have made it this far.

Before he could get caught in a mental debate about the merits of chasing the angel all over the place to finish him, he suddenly noticed that Tree again.

A short, bark-like laugh escaped his lips. In the midst of all the raging battles, what he had come for had completely slipped his mind.

Before Zerato could react, the King took a few short strides and made his way over to the Tree of Knowledge.

It was barely recognizable. Its leaves were wilting. Not one of them retained the color that had made them glimmer so. The branches were bending downwards, and apples were rotting and falling out slowly. The tree was dying.

Not a surprise, considering its gardener was long gone.

The two continued to watch on momentarily as the tree literally fell apart before their eyes. It was disarming to watch. After about five minutes, only one lonely branch remained, with one apple hanging off the tip.

If one looked closer, it was certainly not an apple.

Haou allowed a triumphant, scornful smile to grace his dark features as he reached up to pluck the third Seal of Immortality off what had been the Tree of Knowledge.

It looked pretty much like the other two. It was just a tennis-ball sized glass sphere, with a black background inside and wisps of flames. The Necropolis Seal had blue flames, and Mandarin's had crimson ones. This Seal instead had red wisps inside of it.

Zerato froze.

The Seal of Immortality against pure energy. It was sitting right in the hand of a Horseman of Apocalypse and there was nothing, nothing he could do about it, even in the best of circumstances he was a mite compared to Haou in terms of magical combat, right now he had might as well have not existed.

"You lose," hissed Haou, and then the Seal glowed a bright red. With that, he vanished into thin air.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rikuo didn't like flying. He especially didn't like flying when a certified lunatic (in his opinion), like Max, was at the controls.

Thankfully, the MADness agent was nowhere near as reckless a pilot as he was a driver. He seemed to be content to leave the 'big tub', as he called it, on autopilot, and hum through various video game sound tracks playing on his iPod.

The two Demon Lords, Bakura, Sarah, Aaron and David were seated in the main cabin, some on two of the sofas and others on cushy wooden chairs.

No one spoke, because there was nothing to be said.

Rikuo decided to break it.

"Well, I think we need to figure out what the hell is going on," he grunted.

He got no reply. Only Bakura and Deondre seemed to be paying attention.

"So we try and get a Seal of Immortality. One of our agents flips out on us, runs away, and when we find him he kills the guy who's been guiding us all along."

Sarah twitched involuntarily, and Bakura gave the Wolf General a harsh look, which was largely ignored.

"So, I ask myself, there has got to be something going on here that none of us know about. Question is, what?"

He then turned to Aaron and David. "I want some answers."

Aaron largely seemed to speak for MADness. He held up his hands defensively.

"Look, Mr. Amero. We're merely private detectives. We had never even met Mr. Nakamura prior to last night. Avalon used us as freelancers for any business he needed done. Had we known this thing was so messed up…"

He grimly shook his head.

The plane lapsed back into silence, except for Max's enthusiastic humming from the cockpit.

Sarah broke it.

"I think… I think there's something we all need to see."

All eyes turned to her. It was the first time she had uttered a single word since Eizan's death.

"Before he…" she stopped, almost struggling to complete the sentence. "Before he… died, Chairman Nakamura gave me a DVD to watch. When I asked him what is was, and when I should look at it, he told me I'd know when the time was right."

She fished inside the satchel which was hanging off her left shoulder. Her hand brushed against the Seal of Immortality, which was wrapped in a leather cover inside, causing her to flinch. Nonetheless, she finally found the disc that the late Chairman had given it to her, and held it up for everyone to see.

"He did not specify whether or not it was for my eyes only, but to be honest I'm not up to watching it alone even if it is…"

"Play it," suggested Bakura gently.

Sarah nodded weakly and went over to the laptop sitting on a table in the middle of the room. With trembling hands, she slid the disc into the CD drive and then tapped a few keys to activate the projector which sat on the same table. A hanging screen lit up with first the image of the laptop's wallpaper, and then changed to an empty room, which was probably the video on the DVD.

She sat back slowly, and everyone fell silent again.

The picture shook a bit, as someone had probably been adjusting the camera.

Then, the screen was filled with the unmistakable visage of none other than Eizan Nakamura.

He had a somber expression on his face, highlighted by a sad little smile.

"Sarah, hello."

At the sound of his voice, now obviously one she would never hear again in the flesh, Sarah nearly burst into tears right then. Somehow, she kept herself together and forced herself to look into the dead man's gentle eyes.

"I am going to assume that if you are watching this video, I have passed on. Whether it was due to natural causes, or I fell to some… unsavory character or the other, well, that was the will of The One Above Us All. It may seem cruel, but please, Sarah, do not mourn me. Hopefully, I am in a better place right now. My only regret is that I will be unable to help you, Jason and the others see this through."

He fell silent for another minute, and then spoke again.

"Yes, Jason. I assume there is a lot on your mind as well as the others, about him. I will be brief but thorough, and take you through what happened from day one. What I feel is irrelevant will be omitted, but I hope to arm you with all possible knowledge to deal with what I fear is going to be a very dangerous threat."

Rikuo looked up for the first time.

"As you already know, Jason suffered from a dual personality disorder from a very young age. The story everyone has heard is that the second personality, who calls himself 'Quinn', developed due to his grief at the death of his parents. The truth is a bit more morbid, and is one that is only fully known to myself and possibly Reflect."

Sarah shifted uneasily. What did Reflect of all people have to do with this?

"Like I said, I will try and be as brief as possible, but still retain the important facts. Jason's father, Alan Becker, was an old and dear friend of mine. He did help me in the founding of Eagle, that part of the story was true, but his involvement goes back further than that. He was one of the most accomplished chemists in the world, and was in the employ of the DEA. In the year 1984, he was approached by none other than Dartz, who valued the idea of his expertise in the use of Orichalcos stones."

Everyone was taken aback at that.

"Between Alan and Dartz, the rudiments of the organization known today as Paradias was formed. In the beginning, Alan was quite gung-ho about the idea of helping bring a utopia to the planet. However, as the years passed, he became aware of the true intentions of Dartz's vision and was horrified. He secretly came to me, and we established Eagle together to combat Paradias. His cover at Paradias was still maintained, and due to the steady stream of intelligence we had been receiving from him, we began achieving some significant victories. In the beginning it was just the odd thing, an arrest here, a shell corporation shut down there.

"After some time though, it had turned into a full out intelligence war across the United States, and later, the world. By that point, Alan was married to his long-time girlfriend Rose, who had given birth to a healthy young boy named Jason. I was named Jason's godfather."

Eizan quivered slightly at that. He looked more like a child caught in wrongdoing right now than an old man.

"Everything seemed to be running smoothly; Paradias was on the back foot. Then, Alan confessed a terrible truth to me. During his experiments with the Orichalcos stones, he decided he needed a living subject. He made use of the only acceptable human one… himself."

Rikuo swore out loud, and Bakura looked incredulously at the screen, their minds whirring. Sarah drew a hand to her mouth in shock.

"He was faced with a problem that he did not anticipate. While superheating the Orichalcos stone and injecting himself with the liquid afforded him increased strength, speed and intelligence, it was akin to a narcotic drug. He could not do without the stone, and unless he was afforded the requisite fixes, he would soon die. He came to me because Dartz's stockpile was running low, and hence he had restricted the amount of the stones Alan could use for his 'experiments'. He was frank and confessional, and his plan was to steal the entire stockpile of stones, fake his own death, and continue to work in secret with me against Paradias. The only reason he had even founded Eagle was to attempt to kill Dartz so that the entire stockpile of stones could be his.

"Needless to say, I was even more shocked than I'm sure you are right now. You must understand that Alan and I were brothers in everything but blood. It was an unspeakable betrayal, one that I will not be able to accept even on my final day. Still, that bond was not without reason. I decided that if I could help save my friend's life, I would. I went with him to the location of Paradias' stockpile, but Dartz had a welcome committee there waiting for us, led by Reflect. I don't know how he had figured out the betrayal, but he had. Before we reached, Alan made me promise that if things went wrong I would kill him. This was because he didn't want to live a life of slavery and die a death of pain. I did not blame him, and had no choice but to agree.

"When he realized that his betrayal had been gleaned by Dartz, Alan decided there was only one way out. He destroyed the electrical system, and in the process signaled me to shoot him and get out. I did fire, but Reflect did so as well at the same time. It was dark, and I heard a body hit the floor, but-…"

He trailed off, and closed his eyes, a sorrowful look on his face. What he wanted to get across was understood.

Yet, he opened his eyes and continued.

"I never found out who's bullet eventually killed him, and it has gnawed away at me for nineteen long years. Did I keep my promise to my friend, and kill him to prevent a life of misery and a death of suffering? Or did I take away the father of a two year old child?"

He remained silent again, and for the first time, Sarah could tell that his words were piercing the other viewers. Even Rikuo had a confused, irritated look on his face. She guessed that was his way of trying not to express sympathy.

"In any case, I had to tell Rose about it. The grief was too much for her to handle. It killed her, Sarah, leaving Jason two years old and without a parent. It was difficult for a child that age to spend even a few hours apart from his parents. To explain the concept of death to them, well, it's impossible. It slowly ate away at the poor child. However, that was not what caused his multiple personality disorder, at least not completely."

He stopped at this, almost as if the video of Eizan Nakamura knew that this would draw everyone's attention. It did.

"The truth was, Sarah… The truth was that Alan had commenced with the experiments on himself before he and Rose had conceived Jason."

Rikuo's eyes began to widen. "Holy mother of-…"

Even in a screen, the voice of the dead man echoed more pain and regret than it could possibly have in person.

"Jason was born with the properties of the Orichalcos stone in his body. He did not need to have access to a regular fix, like his father did, as the very first cell that composed him was partially composed of the pure Orichalcos energy. Due to this, practically all his blood, and every organ was made up of the very substance that resulted in his father's death. Now, if exposure to a small injection, even on a regular basis, had such an effect on his father, can you imagine what being made of the stuff did to Jason?"

There was a dull thud, causing everyone to start. Sarah had slammed her hand onto the projector, stopping the video.

She had collapsed onto one knee, her other hand obscuring her eyes, from which tears were continually pouring out.

No one knew what to say for a moment. Bakura uneasily got up, and put a gentle arm around her.

"Sarah, don't cry, it's all right-…"

"SHUT UP!" she shrieked. "Do you have any idea what he had been through? ANY IDEA? And you called him a FREAK!"

She collapsed down again, unable to control the tears of anger, disgust and frustration.

Bakura backed off momentarily. There was really nothing any of them could say. He looked accusingly at Rikuo, for it had been him who had been so highly vocal against Jason and Eizan after Quinn had appeared. He held his hands up and grimaced, as if to say, "Now is not the time."

Sarah continued to cry softly for another few minutes, and then the sobs died down into whimpers of denial. Still no one said a word to her.

Wordlessly, she pulled herself up and clicked the video back on.

"I know this must be hard for you to accept, or even understand, and I am very sorry for that," continued Eizan's image gently.

"The unnatural composition of his nervous system, as well as the miserable circumstances of losing both his parents led to the development of the additional personality. The problem, however, did not end there. For some reason, whenever the additional personality was in control, the, uh…. symptoms of the Orichalcos began to surface."

"Wait," said Rikuo slowly. "So that means…"

In the video, it was almost as if Eizan knew what conclusions they would arrive at. "It was a nightmare. The capabilities of Jason's body were far, far above what his father exhibited. If left free, he would very easily have lost control of his powers and killed hundreds of thousands of innocents. Hence, I had no choice but to keep him in a secure facility, heavily medicated to keep Quinn from surfacing as well as to keep the Orichalcos component of his being under control. By the time he turned twelve, it seemed he would be able to live a somewhat normal life."

He pressed his hands against his eyes for a moment.

"However, a few days ago I noticed certain… precipitating events that would possibly lead to the re-opening of a matter that I had pushed to the back of my mind a very long time ago. This was namely the appearance of what everyone has been calling the Jade Star. The truth is that the Star is actually the mother-ship of a highly advanced alien race called the Legion. The Legion was responsible for originally sending the Orichalcos stone to Earth, and causing Dartz's obsession with it.

"The stone has a very curious property. It behaves almost like a living being; at least that is how Alan explained it to me. When an active stone approaches a latent Orichalcos component, it results in the excitement of the latter. It is almost like two animals that attract each other during the mating season. I was unsure of whether or not the Jade Star would actually approach Earth, but by the time I realized that would be the case, which was about a half hour before I put this video together for you, it will be too late. It is almost a guarantee that Jason's Orichalcos traits will manifest, and as a result of the changes in his body, Quinn has a good chance of taking control. Yes, it is impossible to completely eradicate another personality. It can merely be suppressed. Remember, only Quinn can control the body when the Orichalcos component begins getting excited. The truth is Jason might not have had a choice, lest his body be ripped

apart due to his lack of control over the stones."

Rikuo seemed to be seething.

"I am very sorry, Sarah," continued Eizan's voice deadly. "Sorry for not revealing all this to you a long time ago. However, I did not see it fit to burden you with this information if you did not need to know it. It is a lot for you to grasp, and you probably have a lot of questions. I can assume that if I am dead, it was because Quinn surfaced and killed me. I suppose I could have had Jason put under restraints, but that would not have worked out well since once Quinn surfaced, no amount of drugs could prevent him from doing as he pleased. It would only have resulted in the deaths of many innocent doctors and other people. By bringing him out here, I hoped that the damage caused by Quinn could be minimal, at least in the beginning.

"I also have, unfortunately, a warning. Please, ensure that your path does not cross with Quinn's. He is the worst individual I have ever seen in my life, and believe me, I have seen many. Pass this warning on to the others who are working with you. They may not take the word of a dead man seriously, but if you have seen what he is capable of, then you will know what I mean.

"Heed the advice of the Council and continue gathering the Seals of Immortality for their destruction. Remember, at the end of it all, defeating Apocalypse is the primary objective right now. Everyone else is mortal, and their threats will fade in time. One day, our children will wake up to a world free of people such as Reflect and Quinn. Unless Apocalypse is stopped, our children will not wake up at all.

"I entrust you, personally, to carry this out. Yes, Sarah, I am appointing you my successor. If I am dead, you are now the acting Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Eagle. Everything that Eagle does shall now go through you. I hope, no, I know, you will make the right decisions. You are the only person I know with a good enough heart and the necessary experience with these kind of affairs who would only do what is right for humanity as a whole."

Sarah's mouth fell open at this. Out of everything that the video had contained, her being HEAD OF EAGLE, well, it was incomprehensible.

"Finally, if there is anyone else watching this with Sarah, I must implore you to help her do what is right. We may have had differences, but truly, it has been an honor. I hope, that in death, I will be remembered as the foolish old man who tried to do what he felt was right, and not the foolish old man who kept making mistakes."

Finally, the emotion began to show in his voice.

"Good luck, my friends. And good hunting."

With that, the screen went blank.

There was absolute silence. Rikuo looked down at his hand. It was shaking.

He uttered, "Bastards gonna pay. These bloody bastards are gonna pay for this."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Zeruge looked uneasily over his shoulder to see the two younger Ishtar siblings crouched over a map, a caliper in Ishizu's left hand and a pencil in the other.

"How long will you be?" he called. This position was not easily defensible. They were standing practically right in the front of an abandoned book store, a few blocks from the bridge on the New Jersey side.

"And… Just… About… Done!" finished Ishizu emphatically, dropping both instruments and raising the map.

She placed her finger on a point just to the west of New York.

"There is apparently a portal in Newark, New Jersey. It is about a half hour's ride by car from where we are right now."

Zeruge still looked doubtful. "It will be risky. The Legion is everywhere."

"We could stick to the back roads," pleaded Marik. "It'll take a little more time, but we are almost guaranteed safe passage. Even if the Legion has reached New Jersey, they're likely to have encountered at least some resistance. We will be able to reach Newark, if we don't find anything there then I swear, we will go right to the garrison."

Zeruge turned to look at Joey.

The duelist shrugged. His near-death experience had sensitized him enough to the thought of leaving behind things you really felt you had to do.

"I don't mind at least going to check if this portal does exist. Hey, it could be pretty useful at some point or 'nother. Getting across the world like that," he snapped his fingers for effect, "yeah, I could see us needing it."

Zeruge didn't argue any more. He knew that once a guy like Marik decided he wanted to do something, there was no stopping him.

"All right. We need to find a vehicle."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I want my army prepared for battle within the next three days," ordered Apocalypse, staring out blankly from his position seated on his throne, while Blight stood cautiously by his side, hearing him out.

"Certainly, my lord," replied the First Horseman. "Where shall the primary contingent be deployed?"

"Spread the strength of the force across the most important strategic points. The Legion has proven to be an unexpected annoyance that must be dealt with immediately. In time, I will have their so-called Emperor captured, but he is of no great consequence. Until then, his soldiers must be weakened and unable to put up any great resistance."

"My lord, if I may, why bother capturing that fool Belial? Haou, Sylar, Quinn or myself could simply go over to the mother ship and kill him right away-…"

"And so condemn the only individual we know for sure was near the Seal of Immortality against physical force to being unable to reveal its present location to us," finished Apocalypse scornfully.

Blight instantly fell silent, furious with himself for not considering each and every word he had spoken in the presence of his eternal master. He was lucky that Apocalypse was relatively satisfied with how things had proceeded with Quinn's induction as a Horseman. Otherwise, he would have been in for some serious pain. In this case, the student was not even close to the teacher, and never would be.

"Leave me now, Blight."

Without a word, Blight bowed low respectfully and almost hurried his way out of the dark, infinite throne room.

The large black door slammed behind him, and he walked fast through the barely lit corridors. At every hallway, he heard dull, low hisses and moans.

He was quite used to them now, and ignored it. Still, he could not suppress the feeling of awe he got every time he realized exactly what was going on.

The entirety of Apocalypse's army was being birthed right before his eyes. This was not some literal ant hill like the Legion, where each and every organism that was born was simply trained and inducted into the army. No, each and every being that was going to fight for Apocalypse was unbreakably linked to him. In a way, he was each and every one of these dark spirits that were slowly taking every possible form and shape in the fortress.

He continued to think on it as he proceeded to the dungeon. All these random demons that had existed in limbo for eons, having served Apocalypse before, were automatically getting a fresh lease by his re-appearance. In the very beginning, during the first war, they were just ordinary life forms, but upon being imparted a minute part of Apocalypse's own darkness, developed into unrestrained killing machines, almost as fanatical as the Horsemen. The difference was that the Horsemen could still think for themselves. The rest of the dark spirits in the army were mindless, and once set lose could not be stopped until eradicated.

It was not the most stylish way of waging war, but damn it, it was efficient, thought Blight. Nothing got the job done like an uncountable wave of shrieking, bloodthirsty undead demons that you could not stop unless you put a thrust through their hearts or loped off their heads.

He continued to hum quietly to himself, white electricity crackling around his hands in boredom, as he arrived.

The two guards at the door had already taken some measure of complete form. They were both red-skinned, and dressed in heavy black armor. Long horns were visible coming out of each helmet. They did not even acknowledge Blight, for their expressions and eyes were about as blank as blank could be. The Horseman knew that if problems arose, that would change. After all, when one had spent thousands of years floating all over the place, one conserved one's energy.

He walked along the line of cells. Almost all of them had no occupants.

Of course, one of them did. He arrived at the largest cell in the dungeon, and peered through the bars.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he froze.

The cell was empty.

It took him a good moment to process this, and then he whirled around, ready to sound the alarm.

He was stopped in his tracks, for standing in front of him, his rag-like prison garments replaced by a long flowing white robe, was the prisoner.

"Horseman," whispered Dartz's mouth. To Blight, it was Dartz's mouth, and definitely not Dartz. For the being in front of him was definitely not Dartz. His eyes were glowing a very brilliant shade of emerald. It was almost as if someone had extracted them and replaced them with a solid stone.

His right hand had not five, but six fingers. The extra one was grotesquely popped out of the side, right next to the little finger. Set in the chest was a heavy emerald rock, which seemed to be sucking the light of the entire environment toward itself.

His hair had changed from its former aqua-blue color to a stark white. The pale green color, however, was starting to show up on his skin. He barely looked human anymore.

"Who… Who are you?" managed Blight, half-stuttering, half-snarling.

He had never gotten this feeling around anyone. Barring Apocalypse or another Council member, Blight was used to being the most powerful person in the room by a country mile. People were simply not comfortable around him. Even Haou, for example, while definitely not afraid of him, would never be at ease when in the First Horseman's presence.

This… thing, seemed sure of itself to a degree Blight had never seen before.

He smiled. "I am God."

With that, the green stone in his chest began to vibrate, and give off pulses of energy.

The air around him began to move into currents. A normal person would have taken several uneasy steps back, but Blight was anything but, obviously. He let out a snarl, and began to dip into his own gargantuan reserves of power.

The white and green auras began to clash, and the Horseman dug his heel into the ground, drawing a fist back.

Without warning, he rocketed forward and unleashed a wave of pure destructive energy. 'Dartz' smiled, and closed his eyes. As he did this, his entire body turned transparent, and the energy passed right through him. Blight's eyes widened in shock as the white flames collided with the bars of the prisoner's former cell, leaving only ash in its places.

The superior smile remained as he slowly began to rematerialize. Blight whirled around and fired off another blast with an angry snarl. Before the energy had fully left his hand, Dartz's body had gone translucent again. This time the energy continued on down the corridor, and vaporized one of the demons that had noticed the disturbance and was making its way toward the 'battle'. It was really just a one way firing show.

Before Blight was ready to fire off another blast, his opponent surprised him by speaking of.

"I would love to continue this little bout, but I have a number of things to be done. Please extend my well wishes to your master, I expect to see him very soon. On the battlefield."

With that, he smiled his patronizing smile again and then vanished into thin air.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Joey had been to Newark a number of times, but it was eerie to see the roads so completely deserted. It seemed even the local law enforcement had given up hope. Every citizen had either run for it toward the interior of the country, hoping the army would provide protective support, or barricaded themselves within their houses.

Joey was fairly confident that against the Legion, nothing short of a panic room would suffice.

Ishizu held up her Millennium Necklace. It glowed slightly.

"Yes, we are certainly on the right track."

The quintet of Marik, Odion, Ishizu, Joey and Zeruge moved forward as a unit. Odion and Joey walked in the front, covering as much space between them as possible. Ishizu and Marik were shuffling behind them, while Zeruge's gargantuan frame more or less covered them as he took quick, suspicious steps forward.

From within the empty check in hall, they made their way down a flight of stairs to the lowest level. As they surveyed the long line of gates, with deserted runways on either side, Joey was distracted by a pained gasp coming from his right.

He quickly turned to see a man lying on his back behind a table. He had sustained a grievous wound to the shoulder, and was writhing in pain. He was dressed in a pilot's suit.

The duelist immediately abandoned his position at the head of the group and tore off toward the injured man, despite Zeruge's protests.

Joey knelt down in front of him and tried to get a look at the injury.

"What-… What happened to you, man?"

The man gasped in terror.

"Get… Get of here!" he managed.

Joey blinked in confusion. "Hey, calm the hell down. I'm going to see if I can fix you up." As he said this, he tore off a part of the man's shirt, and began making a makeshift bandage out of it.

"Joseph, we don't have time-…" began Ishizu, but the Brooklyn duelist roughly cut her off.

"All of us aren't like your dear brother," he snapped. "We care about the lives of others."

Marik stopped short at this blow far below the belt, and his face went pale. Ishizu looked to retaliate in anger, but Zeruge put a hand up to silence her as the injured man began to speak again.

"It's over… They're…."

A green bolt slammed into his chest.

His eyes widened for a brief second. "…. Here."

They closed.

Joey looked up in shock to see a trio of Legion Shocktroopers standing at the top of the staircase, each one wielding a laser gun about three feet long.

The Brooklyn man allowed himself a brief grin.

It was time to kick some ass. At very last.

He rolled to avoid another bolt from the middle trooper. As he did, he noticed a security guard lying dead a few feet away. Left in his hand was his service weapon, a Heckler and Koch UMP submachine gun. He had seen a lot of criminals use it during his younger, more notorious days on the mean streets of his city. It was a very deadly weapon, capable of firing 650 rounds in a minute. Joey was no marksman at all, so he would need each and every last one of those rounds.

He snatched it up, praying the safety was off. It was; the Customs officer who had held it had probably gone down fighting.

He let out a burst of bullets, spraying the entire top of the staircase. He had no idea how many bullets had found their mark, if any, for he immediately rolled into a sitting position behind a pillar as a counter-attack ensued, green bursts scorching the ground that he had been kneeling on three seconds ago.

He glanced over at his four companions. The Ishtar siblings had frozen. Only Zeruge had gotten to his feet, and was attempting to get them to do the same.

"What are you waiting for?" he hollered, before taking a second to peek out of his defensive position and let out another burst.

"I'll hold 'em off, find the damn portal!"

Zeruge grabbed Ishizu and Marik by the shoulders in each hand, and dragged them to their feet. Odion quickly followed suit, and the quartet began running in the opposite direction, desperately trying to think where a portal could be hidden in an airport.

"The scripture," Ishizu gasped. "It had said-… It had said the portal has to be behind a door."

Zeruge ducked behind a green bolt. Joey took the opportunity to unleash some suppressing fire, which allowed the demon to shove his three charges behind a boarding counter, and tore across the wide corridor to a line of doors, some of which led to the offices of various officials, others to restrooms, and the remaining to storage rooms for lost luggage.

Joey risked a glance back, and nearly took a shot in the neck for his troubles. He was able to look back for just enough time to affirm that Zeruge was about halfway down the corridor, pulling doors open one by one, not seeing what he wanted, and then moving onto the next one, with ridiculous speed.

The three Shocktroopers were making their way down the stairs every time Joey ceased firing.

They were about five steps down out of fourteen. Zeruge had opened seven out of seventeen doors.

It was a race now.

Joey bit his lip, knowing he needed to buy the demon more time to find the portal. He noticed a tear gas grenade on the dead officer's waist, and smiled briefly. Letting out an unusually long burst, he dived out of cover and ripped the grenade off, then pulling the pin out and flinging it toward their aggressors in one smooth motion. Seemed like years of baseball in his backyard had finally come to use.

There was an explosion of smoke, and Joey immediately recoiled back, knowing that even slight contact with the gas would result in incapacitation. He knew that the Legion, however, would probably only find it a minor inconvenience.

To rectify that, he dropped the spent magazine and reloaded from the officer's pocket. Keeping his left hand on the stock to absorb some of the recoil, he then unleashed fire with complete unrestraint. Tens of rounds were spat out into the center of the smoke. It was enough ammunition to overwhelm a small army.

Meanwhile, Zeruge had reached the end of the corridor. The last door led into a meek office, leading the servant of Eagle to slam it shut in frustration, which made it come off its hinges.

"Goddamnit…"

He whirled around to notice that Ishizu was standing right behind him, a determined look in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I forgot, when opened for the first time, the portal will only show itself to a Millennium Item holder!"

The demon backed off immediately as the former priestess began to repeat the procedure that he had followed, but with a little less vigor.

Joey's weapon was clicking on empty. Nonetheless, he still held it, hoping that the mere sight of it might be enough to intimidate a wounded aggressor to continue the fight another day.

But then, he had very little knowledge of the Legion.

As the smoke cleared, it became clear that Joey's onslaught had managed to fell two of his opponents. Normally, he would have taken time out to congratulate himself on this. It had been a smart move to use the tear gas. While not as effective as one would find it on human beings, the gas at least caused the Shocktroopers sensory disorientation. That meant, of course, that they were unable to avoid his bullets. Most bounced off their body armor, but a good amount had found their way into their uncovered faces, causing their heads to erupt in an explosion of green matter.

Of course, it was not a time to congratulate oneself when an eight foot tall giant alien was bearing down on you. It had thrown its weapon aside, and seemed determined to avenge its comrades by throttling Joey with its bear hands… or, fins, he thought grimly as he abandoned his gun and crouched backward, fists hanging loosely by his side, in a boxing stance.

He avoided the first charge, and crashed an elbow into its neck.

He then fell to the ground, howling in pain and clutching the elbow. It had been like slamming it into solid rock.

"Damn it…!" he gasped, glancing up to see the trooper bearing down on him, its foot raised, about to squash his head like a melon…

Then, there was a flash of black, which slammed into the creature.

Joey pulled himself up to see Zeruge grappling with the trooper on the floor, primal snarls escaping his throat.

He then glanced to the other side to see Ishizu wrenching open a door somewhere in the middle of the line. Her Necklace began to glow, as golden motes of light issued forth from the entrance.

"I've found it!" she screamed.

Joey turned to see Zeruge snapping the trooper's neck with a satisfying crack. There were shrieks heard from the floor above them; apparently the troopers had called in reinforcements before confronting them.

Joey had already begun tearing toward the door. Marik and Odion were with him.

All three disappeared into it, while Ishizu remained at the entrance.

"Come on, Zeruge!" she shrieked in his direction.

The demon was running full tilt toward them. The first green burst had slammed into the ground not five feet behind him.

By the time he had arrived, more Shocktroopers were at the foot of the staircase. Ishizu was mumbling words in Egyptian, holding her Necklace, before the demon grabbed her arm and dragged her through the doorway.

He just had time to slam the door shut before they both blacked out.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When the five woke up, it was as if they had risen from a light nap.

Ishizu was the first to do so, her big brown eyes fluttering open, and then blinking a few times as she hauled herself up.

The four men were lying on the ground beside her in various positions, all slowly stirring and opening their eyes.

She looked around her, waiting for her senses to slowly come back to her.

They were, surprisingly, in the same warehouse in which Zeruge had rescued the Ishtars from the Paradias strike team.

Ishizu immediately cursed herself mentally. How foolish of her to not know that the portal in Egypt was barely a mile or two from her own residence.

Marik and Odion were both fully awake, looking grimly around them. This place certainly did not hold any enjoyable memories.

"Come, now," echoed Zeruge's deep voice. He was not one for distractions. Time was always a valuable commodity.

"How far is our destination?" growled Joey. He was sitting up against a crate.

Ishizu consulted her watch.

"We will need to procure a desert vehicle. Across the sand, the location of the tomb of our father (Odion flinched at this, Marik remained firm), is about two hours away."

Zeruge nodded, and slowly, the five began to make their way to the back exit.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sylar waited quietly in the darkest shadows atop a dune.

He was quite a distance from the warehouse, but his enhanced vision could easily make out the five figures piling into a jeep.

A slithering form curled itself around his foot.

"Patience, my pets," he whispered. "Soon, you will be able to feast on the flesh of the traitor again. This time, you'll have every last ounce."

Also, he would be able to deal with those pitiful Tombkeepers and that oaf of a demon, fulfilling his master's orders.

It was a good day to be on the hunt.

Meanwhile, however….

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was all the other figure could do to contain a bout of snide laughter as he switched his gaze from Zeruge and his cohorts to the trench-coated figure, who stood alone in the middle of the desert.

The fool had no clue.

But then, that was where master spies were made: stealth and reconnaissance.

A Horseman, a servant of the Infinity Council, a Chosen Duelist, and a bunch of Tombkeepers, all in one night.

Sigma changed his gaze to the towering green sphere in the sky. There were a number of them, at least one of which was visible on every part of the Earth. However, it only meant something tangible to a select few… A select few that included him.

As he felt his body tremble with the power that was building up every second that he stood under the remnants of the Jade Star, he shifted his line of vision back to Sylar.

The hunter was now being hunted.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

There you have it. Please review, I will do my utmost to update once more before the end of April.