And now the continuation of Ryler's past adventures. Well, maybe they're more like events than adventures... experiences seems like a more accurate term. Let's go with that. This is by far the toughest chapter I've written to date. Not because it's long or filled with tons of complicated metaphors or anything like that but because of the style. I'm not used to writing in this style and I think it shows. I did my best to portray the characters in a way that I think works for the emotions they are feeling right now. It might work and it might not, I'll have to wait and see how I feel about it at a later time. Anyway, not much else to say other than hope you enjoy.

WARNING!

This chapter contains graphic depictions of violence and gore which some readers may find highly disturbing. The section will be marked with an asterisk (*) as another warning of the content. Readers discretion is advised.

Chapter 5: Reasons Part 2

Ryler stood under the moonlight in the middle of the wreckage of their downed Falcon. The storm raging off in the distance having drenched the world in a cleansing wave of rain only to be marred by the death of a friend. Captain Andrew Stevens the third. Ryler met him from time to time in the common room. They'd often be seen relaxing on the couch together just talking about what their lives were like before the war broke out. Ryler admired him for the reasons he fought.

"My little girls grew up in a world filled with conflict, hell most of my 20s had some kind of conflict going on in the world. It was always in the background but it never seemed to be our concern. It was always someone else's fight or someone else's border dispute. Then we had to leave our home. We never had a luxurious life but I had done everything I could do to make sure we were comfortable. I gave them anything they wanted, within reason of course and I never spoiled them. I made sure that they were happy then and even now, I do what I can to make them as happy as I can. We were all happy. Then these damned Feds took it away from us. They were never happy with what they had so they took from us, man. Now I got a little boy on the way and I want to make sure he has what he needs too. So I'm gonna fight, so I can protect my family, provide a future worth living and make sure we're all happy."

Ryler admired the fact that he had a reason to fight. He never did. All he did was run away from the people chasing him. He had Sarah at his side but it was still him doing the running. She tried making plans to live off the grid but he didn't want that. He was drunk with power now. What was the point of having the ability to change the world if all you ever did was hide it away. He had enough of it all. He was going to change the world. Looking to his left, he saw Sarah standing there waiting for him to finish paying his respects. She knew they were close so she didn't rush him along. Ryler turned to her fully and held out his hand for her to take. She grabbed on and they began glowing. Both of them flew into the air and started going off in a different direction than when they were in the Falcon.

"Where are we going?" Sarah question him.

"I told you, I'm going to kill every last one of them. They've taken far to much from these people and it needs to stop now." Ryler made them fly faster through the air. Sarah couldn't believe what she heard. He was going to kill people. She had to stop him.

"Are you serious? You can't kill a bunch of people because you feel like it. That's just wrong."

"So I should just sit back and wait for them to kill more innocent people? I'm not letting anyone else die."

"I'm not asking you to let anyone die, I'm asking you to reconsider this decision. You're powers are about maintaining the balance of the world. We don't take sides." She pleaded with him.

Ryler just scoffed, "Then why did we come here? It was your idea to join this fight, remember? We've been taking sides all this time and now that I'm committed to this side you want me to forget about them? About my friends? Our friends?" They stared at each other. Ryler with a look of disbelief and betrayal while Sarah had a look of concern and desperation. It was true, she said to go there and fight but she didn't mean for it to go this far.

"I wanted to teach you about the people you are protecting. I wanted you to fight not with your powers but with your heart. Learn about what it means to protect. This was never about choosing a side in a war, it was about choosing the side of good in the universe. You are meant to help people not kill them. I see now that I made a mistake, I should never have forced you to come here." She saw Ryler bring them to the ground and took his hand away. He turned his back to her and started walking off further into the forest they were now in.

She followed him to make sure he didn't do anything rash. The branches of the shrubs they passed were trampled by Ryler. He used his powers to push them down and apart making an easier path to walk through. Sarah felt uncomfortable by this action. Nature was a fundamental part of his abilities. Being connected to the world, be it natural or man made, was what kept his body strong. He knew this but his mind was clouded by the need for revenge.

"Ryler, please, think about what you're doing. If you do this then I won't help you any longer. You'll be on your own from now on!" She slowed her pace a little but Ryler didn't, he kept on walking as if he was the only one there.

"Fine, then leave, you're just going to be in my way." Sarah, quickly ran in front of him and blocked his path.

"This isn't you Ryler! Your mind is clouded and you need to calm down." She placed a hand on his chest, his heart was beating slowly. He was calm. That realization made a look of fear take over every other emotion she was feeling. She moved aside to let him pass by. He started walking again toward his goal.

"Please, Ryler... don't do this." Tears fell down her face, the boy she took under he wing was gone. She feared that she would never see him again. All she could do was stand there and watch him

Ryler kept walking until he reached a large clearing. In front of him was a base. A known Federation base. It was discovered recently and there were talks about when to attack it. Ryler was done waiting for deliberations to conclude and he would take care of the problem in his own. He stepped out into the path of one of the searching spot lights. It took a few seconds for it to come back around but when it did he got the exact result he had been hoping for. In one instant the entire base was completely silent with only a few guards on patrol, the next it was definitely awake. Alarms blasted their warning across the PA system and dozens of soldiers came rushing out of the main gate around the corner from the right side of the wall section he was facing. The top of the 12 foot high concrete wall that protected the base was filled with even more troops and there were turrets coming to life all along it's length. Every soldier present had with them a plasma rifle, a side arm that fired the same ammunition and wore black combat fatigues.

The cores of their weapons glowed with a haunting shade of lavender. It was the trademark color of Federation weaponry. This was most certainly his intended target. Slowly the soldiers in the ground began surrounding him. He heard a voice coming from one of their radios. Someone was on site giving orders. Ryler searched the wall for anyone that might have looked like they were of a higher rank. Then he spotted him, surrounded by a few soldiers with slightly different guns. Still the same firm of plasma but with a bulkier design. Ryler smiles and stared directly at him, he would make him an example before killing the rest.

The few soldiers who stood on the ground in front of him saw him smirk. They started to become nervous at his demeanor, no one in their right mind would be smirking while they were surrounded by an entire platoon of soldiers. They refocused themselves and hardened their resolved, they could not afford letting him go, not while their commander was present. One soldier, a private, lowered his rifle and stood there with a blank expression. The person to his left saw this and tried to snap him out of his dazed state. To the others it seemed to work as he once again raised his gun up toward the intruder.

The private began speaking in a monotone voice. It was as if something else was possessing his body. "Is this the best you can do? My revenge is assured." The private turned and aimed at the person to his right. The sharp crack of the weapon being fired stunned everyone. The bright ball of super heated metal was launched out of the guns barrel and sliced through the air. There was no way for anyone to escape from its path. The shot hit the young man directly in the head. His lifeless body dropped to the floor with a sickeningly loud thud. Ryler just continued to stare at the one currently in charge. For a few seconds no one moved, too shocked by what they had just witnessed. Then there was another shot, one of the men behind Ryler's fell in the same way the first guy had fallen. Then there was another shot and another and another and another. The few who were cognizant enough to realize their situation tried to run. They all ran as fast as they could away from the mysterious kid only for them all to stop suddenly in their tracks. The same blank expression could be seen in their faces by the men stop the wall.

"There is no running, you will all die." They all spoke in unison in the same monotone voice from before. They each pulled out their side arms and raised it to their heads and pulled the trigger. The Commander finally seemed to have had enough and ordered everyone to fire upon the intruder. In only a second, hundreds of shots were let loose into a cacophony lights and small explosions. Each soldier took turns covering for one another if they had to let their weapons cool down. The automated turrets released immense amounts of heat from the exhaust ports on the top of each 50 cal. barrel. Rockets were launched, grenades were thrown and cursed were hailed at the once undisturbed piece of forest floor. It was nearly a full minute before the same commander gave the order to cease all fire.

Smoke bellowed up from the freshly formed crater, rocks and patches of dirt were displaced from their original locations. Trees near the area were shredded by stray plasma rounds and hard bits of shrapnel. Everyone waited for some kind of sign telling them that this entire confrontation was finally over. There were no sounds made by the Federation soldiers, only the wind, trees and the distant, fading storm broke the silence of the moment. They waited and waited and waited but nothing changed. There was no movement of any kind from the target area. The Commander spoke to his soldiers, "Men, you have all provided our nation with a great service. An insurrectionist bio-weapon has just been destroyed by you. It's powerful mind controlling abilities would have meant certain destruction for us all. You have saved our union and the countless lives within it, I applaud you all." The Commander began clapping and soon everyone else joined in with cheers and began congratulated the commander for his swift action in stopping the threat.

Eventually the cheering began to die down, but they could all still hear someone clapping. They searched for the person still clapping but no one could see who it was. Then they remembered what had just transpired and looked to the still smoldering crater. The dust and smoke began clearing and soon a figure could be seen within. His white hair was untainted by the various contaminants flying throughout, there were no signs of damage to his clothes and no scratches could be seen on his body. He walked out of the newly formed hole without any struggle being able to continue his mock applause with ease. There he stood, the one who confronted the Federations arsenal and, not only lived but, disregarded their attempts to kill him. The man who evaded death while laughing at his struggle to even touch him. The one person in all of history to shrug off a barrage of weapons that could easily take down even the strongest and most fortified barricades. There he was to bring their lives to an end, Death.

All the soldiers present remained frozen in place, quaking with pure fear. Even the commander, who everyone looked to as a beacon of hope, strength and courage visibly shook. Every sound of the man's clapping elicited even more feelings of dread in the mind of the commander. It was like hearing the very steps of his own demise approaching him at an agonizingly slow pace. It tortured his very soul. What made his situation even worse was the fact that the people present were giving him a pleading look, begging him to take command once again and lead them out of their hopeless situation. The steps grew louder with each passing second.

step

step

STEP

STEP

STEP

STEP!

Silence... The sound of clapping was gone. The Commander opened his eyes, he didn't even know when he had shut them but now he looked around trying to find out what was happening. He was facing the wall now, he wondered how he got down from the top. He noticed that it was the inside of the wall because of its cleaner state. The outside had been riddle with tons of holes from the many attacks that were carried out by their enemies. The inside, however, was completely void of any kind of hole. This small fact only puzzled the man even more than he already was; he was leading a platoon of soldiers against an intruder, so why was he now inside the base. He looked up higher and saw that very group of soldiers standing where he had once been. They all had their weapons trained on him, as if he were the one they had been fighting all along. He tried walking toward the entrance that would take him back to the top of the wall but felt a hand on his shoulder force him down to his knees. He looked up at the hands owned and realized who it was that had him hostage. Fierce, blood red eyes webbed with black stared ahead at his enemies.

*"You have taken the lives of my friends and their families for far too long!" The man's voice boomed out at an impossible volume. Everyone winced in pain when they heard him speak. The hand that gripped the commander's shoulder began squeezing harder causing him to scream out in pain. Once again he feared for his life and began shaking uncontrollably. He kept screaming even as he heard the sickening crunch of his shoulder being shattered. The Commander nearly passed out from the pain but was brought back to consciousness when his captor tossed him aside to the ground.

Ryler began pacing back and forth, challenging them all to attack him again. Ryler could hear screams of pain coming from everywhere at once. It was as if the very world itself was in pain. He didn't care, he would get revenge even if he had to kill every last human alive to get it. He knew that none of them had the courage to face him again so he turned his attention back to the crawling commander. He would show the m all what would happen to those who opposed him. He lifted the man by his throat up to the level. Using his free hand he began digging his thumb into the eye of his victim. The agonizing wails of the commander brought many of the soldiers to a near weeping mess. Some even vomited from the sounds of the screams and the sight of blood oozing down the face of their leader.

"This is the price of your defiance! Drop you weapons and surrender or be next to feel my wrath!" Ryler held the man higher than before but still by the throat. The screaming had stopped but that was only due to the fact that the only sounds the commander could now make were choking sounds. His body was in so much pain, he was constantly fading in and out of consciousness. He thrashed around as best as he could but there was nothing he could do to free himself. He was sure that this were his last moments of life.

A loud bang cut through the air as a hot plasma shot flew into and through Ryler's raised arm. The commander was released and dropped to the ground. He coughed and sneezed as he tried to breathe normally once again. Ryler just looked off to his right at the wall of troops. One of them had fired a shot from their sniper rifle. The shot was powerful enough to tear a hole clean through his bicep. This didn't gaze him one bit, in an instant the damage was repaired and there was no sign that it had even been scratched. With a devilish smirk he stared at he took dumb enough to attack him in that moment.

The man began screaming as he held his head in pain. Blood started pouring from his eyes, ears and nose and his skin turned a ghostly white. He clawed at his face ripping of huge chunks of flesh in the process. Giant gashes appeared along both of his arms as if some invisible force was drawing a blade across his entire body. The pain within his head grew to be so intense that he began smashing his head against the railing of the wall to get it to stop. All his attempts at bashing away the pain failed until he finally succeeded in stopping the pain by taking his combat knife and driving it through his right eye into his skull. Blood looked around his lifeless corpse as he lie there still twitching.

Ryler turned his attention back to the crawling man at his feet and decided to end his game. He took the man and lifted him by the neck once again. Once he had him in the same position as before he squeezed until there was a gruesome snap. The commander's body fell limp and Ryler tossed him against the wall he once led his army from. The body impacted and splattered his blood everywhere. His twisted and mangled corpse fell to the ground and landed in a pile of gore. Ryler then flew into the air using the same ability he used to come to this place. "Now die and let your sins be washed away from this earth!"*

All across the base, hundreds of men and women cried out in agony as they all experienced the same thing the sniper had. He wanted them to know nothing but suffering in their last moments. He wanted fear and pain to fill their final thoughts before he ended their miserable lives. As the screams reached their apex he did just that. He held out his hand creating a ball of pure energy and let it float down to the ground below. The entire base was engulfed in a massive explosion. It lasted for only a few seconds before it vanished and there was nothing left. Where there was once a base full of well trained soldiers, now rested a mass grave for all those he had killed.

He saw someone emerge from the edge of the forest into the newly formed clearing. He flew down to them and saw that it was Sarah. She had a look of disbelief on her face but he didn't care. He decided that he was done following her around.

"What... What have you done. All these people. You killed them all, how could you do something like this?" Tears streamed steadily from her eyes. She was distraught by his actions.

"I did what I had to do", Ryler's voice was soft but was anything but gentle. He was now a monster masquerading as a human. He just didn't know it yet. But Sarah knew, he was gone and there was nothing that could be done to bring him back. Nothing except purge the darkness within his heart.

"This is wrong, you've been corrupted by this place and I know what I have to do to save you." Sarah then started glowing a soft amber color. Ryler felt it give off the same warm feeling she often had when in the presence of his own powers. She used a simple technique to keep Ryler from moving. She had not taught him this ability yet so she knew he had no way of countering it. Once frozen in place she began conjuring hundreds of mystical looking orbs. They dance through the air like golden-amber fireflies. Hundreds became thousands and tens of thousands, soon hundreds of thousands of lights danced across the sky. It was as if the stars themselves had descended from the heavens to play amongst the trees that remained. All the lights coalesced into a single point just above Sarah and

"I'm sorry kid, there's too much riding on you for me to just let you fall to the darkness. I know that there's no other way to save you. Once this much blood has been shed by your hands the effects are irreversible. But if I bind my soul with yours then I can at least reset it back to the way it was before." Sarah made the lights create a stream connecting her soul to his. The very touch of something so pure and good causes Ryler pain. He growled and roared in pain as their two souls merged.

Ryler felt his head becoming clearer by the second and for the first time since the crash he was again thinking straight. "It's working Sarah, whatever you're doing is clearing away the darkness." Ryler still felt intense pain so he had to strain just to make his voice clear enough to be heard. He then noticed that Sarah was becoming weak and started to look like she hasn't slept for weeks. "Okay, Sarah, I think that should be enough. Don't push yourself too hard."

"Sorry kid... this... is a... one way... trip for me." By now Sarah could hardly stand up straight and continue to use her magic simultaneously. The lights began to die more and more as her power left her body. It continued this way until she finally collapsed.

"NO! Sarah!" Ryler felt the spell keeping him in place break and he took that opportunity to rush over to his fallen friend. He knelt to the ground beside her and turned her over onto her back and cradled her in his arms. By now another storm had arrived and was pouring rain down on them. Ryler cried as he looked at his dying mentor and thought about the time they had spent together.

He thought about the day he had received his powers and how she had taken him in when he had no one left to go home to.

Ryler thought about his first day of training and learning how to do basic things like manifest his powers as simple lights.

Ryler remembered the day he learned his light shields technique.

He remembered how he insisted on being taught only the combat abilities so he could fight better. He thought learning healing and support magic was a waste of time because his body was practically indestructible and healed itself anyway.

He remembered how he would often have shouting matches with Sarah on things he didn't agree with or how he thought she was purposefully keeping certain techniques from him. That was the real reason why they were in that time period to begin with. He told her that spending time on philosophy was a waste of time and they should just find the bad guys and defeated them. She had only wanted to show him that good and evil were not always black and white with humans. He hated himself for not realizing that sooner. Now she was dying and he didn't known how to save her. He held her weak form against his own and began sobbing into her shoulder. He felt her cold hand reach up and cup his cheek.

"Don't cry, you have to move one now. There's nothing more you can do for me... " Sarah's voice was just above a whisper and could barely be heard over the sound of the storm.

"I can't let you die, there's no way I can keep going without your help. I still haven't finished my training, I swear I let you lecture me about every philosopher in the world. Just, please, don't leave me." Ryler begged and pleaded but nothing happened. Sarah took one last look at the "stars" she had created still faintly visible in the air above them. She smiled before she closed her eyes and died in the arms of the one person she trusted most. Ryler screamed at the top of his lungs. Unlike the ones before, this one was caused by the pain of loss. The pain of failure, defeat and utter hopelessness. His only friend left in a world that needed his protection. The one person he could always go to if he needed help was dead. Through it all, one truth became clearer and clearer by the second as he held his former mentor in his arms.

The last of his family was dead and it was all his fault.