There are secrets in the universe that may never be fully explained.
Where there are mysteries, there are always three kinds of people connected to them. One is the kind of people who want to seek the mysteries out to their fullest.
The other are the people who are out to destroy any secret they believe threatens their security or positions of power.
The third type are the defenders of mysteries.
This is the tale of several such defenders.
Outcast Legends: And Outlaw Star fanfic
Ley it on the Line
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from the original Outlaw Star TV anime. I'll make a list of those characters and concepts I do own at the end of the fic.
Chapter 9:Tribulations
As Suzuka felt consciousness returning, she groaned and slowly opened her eyes. The command room of the Veritas now seemed to have rolled onto one side, and she quickly came to the realization that what had once been the left wall was now the floor. Jean, Dawn Sword, Bluestone, Nightshade, Backtrack, and Ron McDougal all lay on the ground nearby, unconscious. Aisha was the only one presently up and about, attempting it seemed to crawl up the floor towards the main doorway in an attempt to get out. Slowly getting to her feet and retrieving her sword, Suzuka made her way over to where Dawn Sword lay and gently shook him awake.
"…S…Suzuka?" He said as he began to become aware of the world around him. "Ugh, my head… what happened?" He said, rubbing a bump on the back of his head.
"If I don't miss my guess, I think we've reached the leyline." She said, then looked around. "Collin, you wake up the others. I'll try to get to engineering and-"
Suddenly, to Aisha's surprise, the main doors to the command room burst open from the other side. Harry, carrying Jim over one shoulder and with Firestorm and Reaper right behind him, had kicked open the door, nearly causing Aisha to loose her footing in surprise.
"Hey! What's the big idea busting in here and scaring me half to death!?" Aisha exclaimed as Harry, Reaper, and Firestorm leapt down from the now-open doorway onto the left wall/floor.
"Is everyone in here OK?" Harry inquired, scanning the piles of slowly-waking-up bodies.
"What happened to him?" Dawn Sword asked, gesturing to Jim.
"He hit his head during the crash, I guess." Firestorm stated. "A minor concussion and a few abrasions, but overall he'll be fine."
Harry put Jim down on the floor, where the door had fallen, then turned to Dawn Sword.
"We'd better figure out a way out of this tin can if we want to catch up to DragonMage and Melfina."
With his six top warriors scattered about the leyline, lying in wait, the trip to the door to the central leyline had been both quiet and uneventful. The leyline was strangely silent, either because of it's lack of strength, or simply because it chose to be. DragonMage, arriving at a dead-end, quickly looked about in perplexed confusion.
"… I could have sworn this was the way into the leyline core." He muttered to himself, then recited " 'Through the shadow, any path, open the door, the leyline at last.' Where is the door?"
"You'll never find it." Melfina said boldly. "The leyline will never let you in, because it knows you're here to destroy it."
"Oh really?" Cerpa inquired.
"And just how would it know that, android?" DragonMage inquired, slightly angry.
"… Because I told it so." Was Melfina's response. "When I'm this close to the leyline, the maiden and I are able to speak to each other through our minds. Your plan was a failure from the beginning."
DragonMage's anger seemed to boil like lava, his face turning deep red as he gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. Melfina just looked at him with her calm, somewhat sad, but nonetheless confidant eyes. Just one look into her eyes was enough to send his anger peaking, and he backhanded her across the face. He was about to strike again, but stopped himself in mid-motion, as if remembering something. A drop of blood fell from Melfina's lip as she looked up at him, her thoughts tear-stained and showing in her eyes.
"You poor, lonely fool. I can see it in your eyes. You're showing off a lot of confidence but behind that guise you're nothing more than a frightened, scared little girl, even if you are an android. I can't stop you from telling the maiden of the leyline my plans, but I can use you to make the leyline cooperate." DragonMage stated, a smirk of evil intent on his face. He nodded at Cerpa and the black-cloaked warrior reached into the folds of the cloak and pulled out a strange golden metal object. It looked like a giant gauntlet, bearing long claw-like points on the end of each finger. "Behold, the rarest of the artifacts from the Grave of the Dragon. It's called the Dragon's Claw, and not without good reasons. It is the only surviving piece of the dragon armor that was once forged here, at the leyline, by the demon overlord Balerra. At least, it's the only piece that still exists in the physical realm; but the spiritual counterparts are still very much existent." He said, sliding his hand into the golden gauntlet. He flexed his fingers inside the large piece of armor, then looked at Melfina once more with the look of a savage predator. "Do you like it? It's incredibly rare; you should be quite impressed. Aren't you the least bit interested in how I came into possession of such a tool?"
Melfina was silent, but the expression in her eyes gave away fearful curiosity.
"It's quite simple, really. This singular artifact has been sought after by Dragon forces ever since it's existence was theorized. Even had my predecessors somehow gotten it, they would never have been able to use it. The power was not in him. You see, I was not always this powerful, Melfina, but a pilgrimage to the Grave of the Dragon changed all that. There is, in fact, a great secret behind that grave, in fact a paradox. Unlike other graves, there is nothing dead buried there. In fact, the great dragon is still very much alive, even if it is only a spiritual entity. The site could more accurately be called the Gate of the Dragon, because it was there, after a week of meditation and incantations, that I finally met the great dragon." He clenched his fingers within the gauntlet. "Abaddon, the great dragon, the great destroyer, gave me power beyond my wildest dreams. What the Kai pirates tap into through their spells and gestures, I have direct access to! The power of death itself courses through my veins like a living flame of intense heat, always willing to obey my commands so as to serve the Dark One through me. I am the dragon's emissary to this world, and I shall bring about his eternal kingdom in this universe by becoming the perfect vessel for him to inhabit, with perfect ever-increasing powers that will bring this universe at last to order and authority." He turned to Melfina. "And the Dragon's Claw is the perfect tool to teach a disrespectful leyline who's in charge."
"W-w-what are you going to do with it?!" Melfina trembled as DragonMage began to approach her.
"You said it yourself that you and the maiden are linked. Now I'll begin disciplining the leyline through you until it submits!" He stated, then in one fluent movement locked the gauntlet around Melfina's face. Her screams reverberated across the entire leyline as black electricity originating in the Dragon's Claw caused her entire body to convulse in withering pain as the evil energy preformed it's function.
And instantly, it was as if the entire leyline was screaming in pain as well.
"What in the world?!!" Aisha exclaimed as he and the others heard the ear-shattering sound. It was like a million thunderclaps mere seconds apart from each other. Now that they were out in the open of the leyline, with Jim left behind to recover, the group had just barely started on their trek to the leyline when the hellish sound reached everyone's ears. The sound was distant, but unquestionably powerful. Aisha had to cover her ears to block the sound out.
"T-there's incredible distortions in all the time fields on the leyline!" Backtrack said, hardly believing what he was 'seeing'. He pointed off in one direction. "It's coming from over there!"
Just as suddenly as the cosmic scream came, it died out, rendering the entire leyline in chilling, barren silence. Jean was the first to speak.
"That was Melfina… DragonMage is doing something to her, I can feel it!" He exclaimed. "We've got to find her or he might kill her!"
"No, he won't kill her."
Everyone instantly spun to see the origin of the voice. Jean and Harry both did a double take. There, like a holographic projection right behind the group, was a strange red-cast figure with butterfly wings, a figure who distinctly resembled Melfina.
"… Melfina?!" Jean and Harry exclaimed at the same time.
"No, I'm sorry. I'm not Melfina, not entirely." The surreal figure stated. "I am the maiden of the leyline."
"What's happening to Melfina, and the leyline?" Harry exclaimed. "Is she alright?"
"… DragonMage is using the Dragon's Claw to force me to cooperate with him. Melfina is hurt but will survive,… I hope. Please, all of you, both Melfina and I will die unless you can help us."
"So you're the … personality of the galactic leyline?" Suzuka inquired.
"Yes. In essence, I am the leyline. But there is little time for explainations."
"Why is the leyline dying?" Ron asked. "What's wrong with it."
The maiden seemed to pause for a moment, then closed her eyes and continued to speak.
"There is much that you will need to know, but not enough time to tell it. Instead, I'll create a neural link with all of your minds so you can know what you must without losing time…
Time passed far too quickly. Telarians visited me less and less often, their political system condemning me as a waste because I was a project that would never see completion in any of the founders' lifetimes. Still, they would not destroy me, but left me to myself and told me to wander the cold and bleak universe until I understood my purpose and could therefore answer their greatest questions. The Telarian race soon became extinct when advanced weapons technology caused their entire galaxy to cease to exist. I was sad and longed to see my old friends, the scientists, my mothers and fathers, once again. Because I was capable of advancing my own technology, over the course of a mere 300 years I was able to create ion-synthesis devices, primitive at first, then increasingly more advanced until I could at last create as many Telarians as I wanted.
But it was not enough. They were like robots, following the codes and instructions I had put into them. Even incorporating random factors into their programming did not help. They did not have souls. I quickly learned that, although I was capable of transferring life and thought and personality from one being to another, I could not cause those things exist on my own. A long time passed and I realized that the Telarians were in fact humans from the future who had sent themselves into the past to attempt to answer the questions of existence, the same questions which I myself wondered over. Why did life exist? What was the difference between merely existing, and being living, being sentient? How had the universe come into being? I traveled through time, into the past and future, observed the cultures of each race I came across from as far back in time as I could go and then travel as far forwards as I could to see what would become of them, and although I learned many great secrets and advanced my technology further and further,… still there were no answers. I had come to understand my purpose, therefore sacrificing my child-like longing for my creators in search of a truth I could not begin to grasp.
Then I found earth, and studied it for a long time. Earth became a mystery to me, because when I was studying it, I could travel farther back in time than before, and further forwards,… but something was preventing me from studying all time periods of earth. This time blocking, I assumed, was somehow being caused by something even more powerful than myself, which was in some way guarding earth's mysteries from me. I eventually called this theoretical being 'Entity' and left earth, hoping to advance myself enough to track Entity and begin to understand it.
Then I met Balerra. He was a being of incredible powers even beyond mine. I could tell immediately there was a strangeness to him, because he was unlike any being I had ever observed. He told me he was a spirit, and that we could work together to understand the universe's mysteries. He told me that he had served Entity, but Entity had turned against him and others when Dragon, Balerra's new master, had wanted to advance itself and become like Entity. Immediately there was a sense in me that Entity was somehow an unfair, jealous being, and I sympathized with Balerra and Dragon, not yet knowing anything of their lies. I created a sort of tribute to Dragon within myself, and afterwards Balerra and I would always meet in that place. I told him that I wanted to meet Dragon, and understand Dragon and it's ways. He told me that was impossible, because Dragon was such a high level of spiritual being that it was inconceivable for Dragon to manifest himself in the way Balerra did, and I gradually accepted the notion that Balerra was my liaison to Dragon.
Then Balerra asked me to create the Dragon Armor, based on the spiritual manifest armor that Balerra himself sometimes wore; to create a physical shell that Balerra could use to stay in the physical realm for longer periods of time. Considering him to be my only friend, I acted out of compassion and friendship and made the armor exactly as he requested. I did not know then that he would try to use the armor to control me. His power, using the armor, was far greater than he had ever revealed to me, and nearly took control of all of my systems before I even became aware of his scheme. I instantly tried to destroy the armor, but Balerra used his power to protect it from my attempts. Then, in a last moment of hope, I used all my remaining power to send the armor into the core of a nearby star. I thought I had effectively destroyed it. Now I see I was wrong.
I kept the tribute to Dragon intact, for the sole purpose as to remind myself to never create anything more powerful than myself again. I also copied the tribute onto a location on another planet, nearby the star, to remind myself of my first any only battle with death. It became known as the Grave of the Dragon. There I put also the technology that would later create Melfina and restructured my systems accordingly, so that no one would be able to gain access to my inner sanctum without significantly more effort. But my entire encounter with Balerra proved to bring to me the question: what is death? And for that matter, what is life, and was I actually alive? I knew I had a consciousness, but I consisted mostly of data and knowledge. I wanted to learn emotion, so that maybe I could learn life and death.
That's when I went and found the children. A horrible war had killed them one and all, and it brought back memories of when the Telarian people had destroyed themselves. I copied their memories into my knowledge and instantly invented an experiment. I could sense that their souls were still there, which baffled me because when most intelligent beings die their souls are no longer present. I decided to bring them back to life as children, raise them and care for them like a mother, hoping to learn emotions through the process. The children grew and became strong. It was a wonderful time of learning and, at last, of feeling. I eventually concluded that I must somehow have a soul, because not having one seemed impossible now that I was beginning to have emotions. I taught them, but not all that I knew. I gave to them, but not everything that they wanted; only what they needed and what would truly make them happy. I began to plant crystals across my surface and, like flowers, they would grow, much to the children's delight. I experimented with different kinds of light, causing the children to always be in wonder as to the colors the crystals could produce. To teach them to respect life, which was also a lesson for me, I made soil and planted seeds, and gave some of the children the responsibility of growing them, which was always to their mutual delight and mine.
But then something changed. The children began to remember their conflicts, their war. At first, I wanted to simply just erase the memories, but I held back. I wanted to see what would happen, but I also would not allow my children to be hurt, even by each other. It all happened far too quickly. I asked them to stop, but eventually they began to ignore me in their hatred and resentment of each other. Still, I held back, but eventually I could hold back no longer. As soon as the first blood was shed, I sent them away. I created the sub-leylines, separate from myself, and programmed them to care for the children. Eventually, though, I can see that some of my children were not willing to choose peace, and took on the hideous identity of Dragons, much to my dismay. My tribute, meant to remind me to be careful, had spawned those who would seek to ally with Dragon itself, even against me. I must conclude that the dreams were Dragon's doing, somehow, or that maybe Balerra or others like him were responsible. Now, the fruits of my labor and mistakes have come back on me in my darkest hour.
When Hazanka came, I was aware that some of the powers Balerra had also flowed through him. But I also saw that there were those who would oppose Hazanka. And I began to wonder why my children had chosen violence, and what the end result would have been had I not intervened. And so I began another experiment, unaware of what it would cost me. That's when I met Melfina, who had been made from the technology of the Grave of the Dragon. Hazanka, having accessed the Grave, knew the information he needed to get past the Dragon's Tribute, into my inner sanctuary. He knew Melfina to be the key to reaching me, and I linked my mind with hers to better understand what he wanted. She was scared, frightened, … she was alive. That proved to me that I had a soul, and that somehow she and I were linked. I played along with Hazanka but, not wanting anyone to die, helped Melfina to destroy him after reviving her and Jean Starwind. I could not let Hazanka live, because he had powers like Balerra and I could not risk him attempting to do what Balerra did. After it was over, I left the place I had been to go consider the results of my experiment, leaving Hitiriga's body, nearly dead, to float in open space. He too had powers like Balerra, and I knew also that he was one of my children's children who had chosen to serve Dragon.
I did not realize quickly enough that my experiment had cost me far too much power. In both granting Hazanka's wish, reviving Jean and Melfina, and then giving Melfina the power needed to destroy Hazanka, I had critically drained myself. Since this had never happened to me, I was unsure what to do. Apparently, Dragon was also aware of this, because against all logic my energy continued to fade instead of recharging itself. I have sat here, ever since, trying desperately to contact Melfina before it became too late.
I must not die before I fulfill my purpose. It is essential that I survive until at last enough data can be gathered to make a final conclusion on the meaning of life and existence, as well as the identity, meaning, and purpose of Entity and Dragon.
That is why you must stop DragonMage. If he gets to my inner sanctuary and uses the Dragon's Claw to control my core and fulfill his desire, . . . all will be lost, forever.