Chapter 16
The sun was finally below the horizon.
Kitnee swam forth with Tara, following the Asterite's call. The orca winced with every fin stroke; the young dolphin at his side very much angered with impatience and worry.
As they approached Dark Water, the water suddenly felt purer. Tara though, much like Ecco, could still sense evil within the twisted times.
When they arrived, they dropped into a battle amongst various creatures. Ancient sharks were killing one another and small normally peaceful fish gathered to overtake larger ones.
"This is very strange...what could be causing such pain in these waters?"
Kitnee didn't answer her, but merely growled with fury. Tara turned to see her friend's eyes were completely black and emotionless, much like the sharks. He lunged at the small dolphin with a sudden strike of teeth.
Tara dodged. "Kitnee, what is wrong with you? Kitnee! It's Tara, remember? Your friend?"
Kitnee seemed to ignore her as he turned his massive bulk to Tara to strike again. She gulped and powered away from him, down into a crevice.
When she was confident the orca wasn't following her anymore, her sonar led her to an opening to a large cavern, where she felt tremendous energy from between the rocks. Squeezing herself through, she finally found herself staring at the great entities before her; the ancient Asterite locked in combat with a giant Vortex larva. The transparent creature was locked betwixt the multicolored globes of the Asterite, tearing at each one with its powerful front tentacles.
Tara suddenly felt an unspeakable rage, which she guessed took the mind of Kitnee; for it wasn't rage she brought from will such as anger...but something else.
Ignoring the rage in her mind, she focused on her own anger. Jaw wide open and killer sonar at the ready, she lunged at the Vortex larva amongst the Asterite's globes. However, she was battling in vain; the Vortex was locked in a field of electricity, courtesy of the Asterite's power.
She recoiled, and suddenly it spoke to her.
Tara. Do not try to fight, for it is pointless.
The singer shook her head out of her trance. "But, I heard a distress call from you. My friend and I heard it."
I know. I sent for both of you. Yet only you found me. Had I known your friend was an orca, I'd not have been so mistaken.
Tara shook her head. "I thought you knew everything..."
I do not, not anymore. My power was taken from me, partially. As you can see, one globe is missing. As a result, I cannot hold the Vortex Queen for long. She is almost to metamorphosis to her true hermaphroditic form. She could repopulate the planet with her evil drones if not contained. Right now, she is sending tremendous waves of energy that signals her metamorphosis. Waves that corrupt any mind hiding the slightest bit of rage, even hidden. It must have tapped into the orca's mind, into the tendencies of a killer, hidden from view. As a result, his mind is lost.
Tara shivered as the Vortex larva squirmed against the wall of globes. The murderous creature repulsed her. "What can I do?"
One of two things. Either find my missing globe, or find Ecco himself.
Tara sighed. "I can't do either...Ecco is in another dimension, and your future self has your globe."
Then I shall send the remainder of my power to the Glyphs, which follow the young Radero. They shall aid in sending you back to your time...50 million years later. Return to me my globe, that then the past shall be saved.
Tara sighed. Now I have Ecco's job?
A final thing. Whilst the Vortex Queen is changing her form, the orca will continue to fight as a shark. You have no choice but to leave him in this time until the force is negated.
Tara gasped. "But...leave him...I cannot! No!"
No choice...no time...go, now!
The dolphin nodded with understanding and quickly fled as the Asterite's power quickly failed. The queen was free for the time being. Tara tried to shut her mind from the forces of brutality.
Radero just shook his head, the crystal behind him glowing. But when they stopped for a brief moment to gaze at the sunset, a hurt cry was heard from their right. Swimming with great speed towards them was Tara!
Radero squeaked with happiness. Trellia gasped with relief.
Tara stopped in front of them and nuzzled both with her beak tip, a small version of a Delphine hug. "Finally, I found you!"
Trellia backed up. "Tara, where is Kitnee? Did you not find him?"
Tara hung her head. "Long story. Look, we have to get out of this era, right now. Do you have all the Glyphs?"
Radero nodded. "Good," Tara sighed. "Trellia. Take us back. I'll explain on the way there."
Trellia froze staunchly. "I am not moving until you tell me what happened with you."
Tara's eyes turned dark. "I can't tell, there is no time! Come on, take us back, use the Glyphs!"
Radero stared Tara straight in the eye. "Kitnee's our friend too. I wanna know what happened to him!"
Tara sighed. "Fine. Have it your way...stubborn singers."
Tara started the short story, from when she left Radero, to the fight with the Basilosaurus and Megalodon, to the Vortex Queen and the weakened Asterite.
Trellia gasped. "The Vortex Queen is changing form? No wonder I feel tremendous energy from these waters. We had better leave."
Tara glared, but let it go. Radero felt nervous as Trellia harnessed the power of the Glyphs and called down the Song of Transport. Before they left, Tara spotted Kii on the land. "Kii! Our orca friend has to be left here! Please watch the sea!"
The mesyonichid nodded as the three disappeared, leaving Kitnee behind.
Ecco slowly opened his eyes, his vision slightly blurred. He was exhausted in mind and spirit, and there was a tremor of pain through his body as he tried to move. His fluke fluttered in the water slowly.
"Where am I...?" he muttered slowly to himself. As his vision cleared, he began to inspect himself, as he felt he shouldn't look at his surroundings just yet. There was a sharp pain along his side, as if he was just earlier hit by something. He glanced up, but he didn't see any surface...nay, there was just blackness.
Then he braced himself for what he was in. As his ebony eyes surveyed, his memory began to come back to him. He had encountered the Killer Beast...the feel of a hard blow against his flank...it ended there.
Shouldn't I be dead? He wondered as he poked his encasement with his beak. The structure he was in was made almost completely of glass, with the same viscous and dirty water he had been swimming in earlier. Questions raced through his mind as he finally came to. Where was he, and why didn't the Beasts kill him? Did the Vortex know he was here?
Then he felt anger swelling up inside of him again. He remembered seeing his kind, enslaved and exploited by the Vortex. He watched as the drones used them, toyed with them...as if they were nothing. Dolphins had become extinct here.
He began to gather up his fight song, to shatter the glass he was in. But just then, a small shock was sent through the water and made him wince, stopping the song to but a small blast of sonar.
He swerved, wondering what the cause of it was. There in front of him was a Killer Beast.
His eyes were filled with murderous desire, his jaws working as if he anticipated a large meal of Ecco. But instead, he spoke to him. "Ssssinger...you're awake now, I ssssee. Don't try to essscape, it'ss pointlesss."
"Where am I?" Ecco demanded. "Where have you brought me? Let me go!"
The Beast grinned. "Patience...all will be anssswered in a moment..." Then, he lifted his large, dangerous claw and pressed a button. Immediately, the glass lifted from around him, and he was grabbed by two of the beasts, their bladed tails hanging at his throat. "Don't ssstruggle, you'll only be hurt. We need to take you with uss..."
Ecco didn't bother to use his song, but instead he was curious as to where they were taking him. With the utmost false bravado that lay within him, he let them take him to wherever they were to take him.
The trip was actually quite long. It took them about fifteen minutes to travel from one large building to another. In-between, they had passed into a tubeway through the outside. Ecco saw that the sun had set here. It was nightfall, and very few life forms could still be seen wandering below in the waters. He saw no dolphins, but quite a few Vortexes, guards most likely.
He glanced up at the sky, and saw that even that had changed. The ruined atmosphere made the sky greenish instead of the normal pitch-black with stars. Stars could still be seen, but very few. Even the constellation Delphineus was hidden from view, also hiding any hope the dolphins had with them. The moon was crimson red, and had grown many times the normal size, just as seen in Lunar Bay.
Ecco gave a brief whistle of a sigh; he never wanted to admit it, but the Earth had indeed lost its formal beauty. It had become nothing more than a wasted Vortex planet, with the moon looking down with pity upon the sea. Delphineus only knew if the tides were still affected by the orb.
The young dolphin toughened up and braced himself for whatever he was coming to. As they swam ever closer, Ecco noticed other Beasts glancing his way, their eyes either filled with curiosity, hunger, malice, or perhaps...hope?
As they entered the shrine, the Beasts shoved Ecco forward and shut the door behind him. He swerved around defensively, noticing he is surrounded by about five to ten of the merciless creatures, and stared up at two devilishly gleaming eyes in the darkness, far above him. It spoke to him in a low, dangerous voice.
"So, you're the dolphin that claims he will set the singers free?"
Ecco glared at the creature. "Who are you to ask me that?"
Just at that moment, a light shone from above upon the creature. Ecco gasped when he saw its size...twice as large as the Killer Beast that captured him. Muscles rippled along his tail and appendages, his tremendous jaw filled with such teeth that could probably rip through steel. His markings were slightly different from the others, more orca-like than anything else was. The Beast smirked at him and spoke again.
"Still so brave after all these years...those stars lining your brow never fade with you, Ecco, my friend."
Ecco gasped again and backed away. His body shook, horrified. He gulped, as he instantly recognized the voice as it turned slightly gentler. He sung lowly. "Kitnee?"
The creature towered over him. "In a sense, yes, I am Kitnee...my Vortex future version, of course."
Ecco shook his head to clear himself. "But how could you be alive? This is far in the future...you can't be..."
Kitnee just laughed. "But I am, Ecco. And feel free to sing anything you want to me. You are in the enclosure where the Killer Beasts are kept. The Vortex doesn't line this place with devices for spying.
Now, calm yourself and listen to me, Ecco, and I shall explain everything to you."
Then, Kitnee waved his arm and the rest of the Beasts immediately backed up. Ecco watched, still surprised at all the happenings. He turned back to his once-friend. The large orca-beast turned back to him. "Listen carefully to me, Ecco, and I shall tell you what had happened to me...it started long ago, during our mission to gather Glyphs from the Earth's past."
Ecco listened intently, as that's the era where Tara and Radero were. He was also very worried about what might have happened to Trellia.
Kitnee started his story, a grave expression shining within his eyes. "I shall tell you what I can remember. Back in the prehistoric era, things were going as normal. Radero had succeeded in collecting the Glyphs. But later, we were separated. Tara and I searched long and hard for Radero, but instead we found the dwelling of the Asterite.
Just then, I had lost my mind...some terrible force had caused me to revert to a more ancient side, filled with nothing but ferocity and hatred. I lunged for Tara, but it was lucky enough she dodged into the rock. I overheard some of what they were saying to one another...about the Vortex queen, starting her metamorphosis and taking her rage upon the planet one last time.
As that happened, the creatures in the area lost their minds as well. Sharks challenged and ate anything in sight, including their brothers and sisters. Fish gathered in large schools to war against one another. The trilobites crawled along the bottom and fought with the sand-dwelling fish.
Tara then made the decision to go back into the present and recover the missing globe from the Asterite...and leave me behind.
"Just as they left, the Vortex queen had completed her metamorphosis, into a full-bodied drone. She commanded each creature brought under her control to attack the bay and others along with it.
"Later, the Vortex armada came, to begin their scouting of the planet. The queen quickly took over, and they attacked in vast numbers, destroying land and sea alike.
"And I was the first they had captured and held within their terrible grasp. They didn't devour me, nay...instead, I just watched the Earth disappear as they took me back to their planet.
My body didn't live forever, of course. I was an experiment to them. They adored the species of 'orca', for being the ruthless, cunning hunters they had so reputed. Throughout the ages, genetic modifications were made with my DNA, along with the Vortex Queen's. She was allowed to live forever with these constant changes, as was I.
"My body started changing. With evolution, my brain was saved from death many times, with new genes evolved into my body to keep it from aging. With these mutations, I became the strongest of their forces, the Killer Beast. As well, my spirit started to change...I watched as more of my kind were enslaved and put through these same mutations, with their hungers becoming more intensified.
"I watched the attack on Atlantis. I watched as the Glyph Caller himself fell back into near oblivion...and I saw you, Ecco, spiraling into the sky towards a new dimension, this one. I saw Trellia disappear, perhaps back to the present.
"And now, because you have disappeared, you aren't there to save the Earth as expected...the Vortex were free to alter this planet as they so desired, made it their own, and enslaved all last traces of sentience...except for humans, for they had fled long ago.
"And that's what caused this that you see before you," Kitnee finished.
Ecco just stared ahead; his teeth gritted with anger and sadness, more so than he had ever felt in his entire life. The Beasts surrounding him uttered low songs of hope and longing. Even the creature that captured him sank his head within shame.
Kitnee sighed as well. "What do you make of this, my friend?"
Ecco silently gathered himself, his gaze cast to the ground. After a moment, he glanced up again, and uttered lowly. "I can't allow this to go on any longer...no matter what, I vow to return to the dolphins of this future that which they lost...and end this horrible timeline once and for all!"
The orca smiled. "I'm glad you still think that way, Ecco. I may know just how to do that."
Ecco looked at him curiously. "How?"
Kitnee chuckled lightly. "You need to know the social structure of the Vortex, first. Much like insects, the Vortex is a hive. In a hive, only the queen is able to give orders. The other drones are like cells, incomplete without a master. Their queen is their brain, and the drones are her machines, a symbiotic relationship.
"Here's the good part. If we can kill the queen, once and for all, then the Vortex will die as well. The Vortex half of us will die, leaving only the orca. After that, the future's course will be changed forever."
Ecco felt like doing a tail walk of joy, hearing the glimmer of hope. But he remembered that's all it was...a glimmer. He remembered Kone, and his request to him about his mate, who was still enslaved.
He nodded to Kitnee. "How do we do that, then?"
Kitnee smiled again. "The first thing we need to do is to get rid of the queen as she is now. After that, the Vortex drones will disappear, as well as the Vortex mind within us. But to get to the queen, we need to get to her source of energy..."