A New Darkness
Chapter 2
After picking up Young, the man dressed in black, walked in the opposite direction towards the woods. One could tell he was quite handsome with his short, dark hair, slanted onyx eyes, pale ivory skin, and angular face. He wore lose fitted jeans that covered his steel toed industrial boots, a fishnet shirt adorned his upper half, and enlarged silver dragon necklace resides on his broad chest. His stride spoke of pride and confidence.
Soon enough, he reached another clearing but this time there was a small spaceship. He walked to the hatch and punched in a code before it opened with a hiss. He walked in and deposited the girl into a chair before tying her hands and ankles together so she could not escape. The man then sat in the pilot's chair and pressed a series of buttons. The hatch closed with a click and the engine hummed to life. The ship rose steadily up into the air before zipping off into the atmosphere. Reaching higher into the atmosphere the ship flew. Once in the safety of space, the man pressed an auto pilot button and let the ship fly itself. He stood up and walked over to his prize. Caressing her cheek gently, he gazed at the young woman. He then left into the sleeping quarters to get some rest.
When Young woke, she found herself strapped onto a metallic table with thick leather straps. 'What the hell?' She wondered, while looking around at all the nightmarish large and needle sharp machines. She then noticed a single laptop resting on a side table. She also noticed a small, metallic collar around her neck while fully clothed. The man walked out from the shadows and picked up a small needle from a nearby table. "Good. Your awake."
"Where the hell am I?! Who the hell are you, you evil, sadistic bastard!!!" Young hollered angrily. The man didn't answer but simply turned around.
"Quiet!" The crack of the slap across her face left her stunned. The man took a moment to compose himself before continuing. "Right now that neckband disables your magic. If you do not follow every command I give-"
"How dare you do that to me!!!" Another crack was heard and silence followed. He, who is normally a composed young man, was quite irritated at the outburst.
"Shut up I said!"
"Bastard! To hell with you!" The male figure, which is now fed up with Young's hollering, quickly walks over to a table holding various objects. Picking up a needle and a scrap of fabric, he returned to Young's side.
"Shut your trap already wench!"
"Wench?! WENCH?! If I'm a wench then you're an-" Kira was silenced by a piece of fabric shoved roughly into her mouth. The figure tied the fabric into a knot so it could not be removed.
"I am Dymos and that is all your learning for now brat." Dymos then walked around and leaned closer to Young's left ear. "You know. I can be a nice man if you would only listen to me. You have gone far too long without someone to teach you what is right and wrong." Dymos paused for a moment and smiled sinisterly at Young's face that was contorted in anger. "For I am your father and you had better listen." Dymos stood up. "You remind me so much of your mother. Strong willed until her death. She pleaded for me to spare you and your older brother's lives. It was a shame that she died so quickly at the end of my blade. I loved how she screamed in pain. Such music to my ears. How about I show you what happened? Hmm? Oh I bet you would enjoy it!" Dymos put his hands on each side of Young's head and closed his eyes. Young's eyes began to blur until she could see the horrid images this man, who proclaimed to be her father, projected into her mind.
A woman with long brown hair was tied down onto a board with thick rope. The rope ripped into the skin on her wrists as she struggled to move.
"Let me go!" The woman screamed.
"In your dreams woman." An early version of Dymos snickered. "You are mine and I will make you scream. Then your children will follow you into the depths of hell itself." He pulled out a 5-inch dagger and began to slice into the woman's skin agonizingly slow to increase the pain.
"At least let my children go! They have done no wrong! Please let my children go!" The woman cried out in pain as the children watched their father hurting their beloved mother. The youngest boy huddled in a corner with a small, wrapped up bundle that was currently wailing. The oldest brother, who looked to be about 16 years old, huddled over the young children while cringing at the screams and the sight. Blood spewed everywhere as their mother began to die at the hands of her so-called beloved husband. The older brother gathered up his courage and rushed at their father but only managed to get stabbed by the blade right in his chest, a fatal wound. He fell to the floor as the youngest brother, eyes wide, huddled over his sister. "My child" The woman whispered, "Run far and fast. Don't stop and take care of her." The woman said as her life slipped away with the final thrust of the dagger into her heart.
"Heh.. You will not get away Takano." Dymos walked over to the children slowly with a mad gleam in his eyes.
"Father! How could you kill mother! She loved you! We loved you!!" The young boy cried out through his tear-stained face.
"Easy. She was going to die anyway. I have no more use for her. She bore me male children and thus I must destroy them. Since it was prophesied that my son would destroy me." Takano stood up and ran fast towards the door. Dymos, who had not anticipated this, threw his dagger right at him.
Dymos opened his eyes and smiled at the shocked look on his daughter's face as the scenes replayed themselves over again and again in her mind. He watched as her body trembled and tears welded up in her eyes at the pain of seeing her mother and older brother killed. Deciding that enough damage was done for now, Dymos walked over to the table and picked up a syringe before walking back over to Kira.
He injected a liquid into her body. Within a few seconds, Kira was unconscious. Dymos then unstrapped her and took her to an empty cell. He tied her up to a cold, metal chair with thick rope in the center of the cell before he left the room. After the door was shut, he punched in a small series of numbers and the door locked. Smiling to himself, he knew there would be plenty of nightmares that would eventually break her.
Back in Neopia
When it was evening, Kira's four pets walked home happily at all the neopoints they made from the shop. They were curious to know what they were having for dinner since Kira loved to surprise them. When they got back to the house, it was empty.
"Mum! We're back from the shop!" Silver yelled. Upon receiving no reply, both Silver and Black grew concerned. They walked all through the house and no luck in finding their mom.
"Wonder if mum went to see Ms. Falcon and stayed longer than intended." Black wondered out loud.
"Well... Let's go and see then!" Silver exclaimed happily. Both Black and Silver got the other two pets and trudged over to see Ms. Falcon. On the way, they met Kira's other friend, MetalWulf, commonly known as Met.
"Hey Ms. Met! Have you seen our mother? She isn't at home." Serri asked.
A young woman around 5'3", with pale skin, dark red eyes, and long brown hair was walking before she was stopped by these pets. She wore a long, black trench coat, a black shirt, and black pants with black boots. "Err... just Met will do. And no, I'm afraid I have not seen her. Is something wrong?"
"Well she's not home and she usually is at this time. We waited for a little bit but she still didn't come home." Taini sniffled.
"Perhaps something has happened. Where was she before it was time to come home?"
"At Ms. Falcon's house we think. We were just heading over there to see if she's there. If not then we have no idea." Silver replied.
"If you'd like, then, I'll go with you. Something isn't right about this. If she isn't at Falcon's house, a little more searching may be in order."
"Thanks so much Met" the pets all said in unison before beginning to walk towards falcon's house. When they reach the big house, they walk up to the door and knocked. Inside the house loud noises were heard and finally the door was opened by a fire shoyru, who stared hard at all the guests.
"Hey Mom! A whole bunch of your friends are here!" A young woman dressed in green, with bright red hair and green eyes came behind the shoyru.
"Oh, hello Met. And, you're Young's pets, right? Where is she?" MetalWulf offered a slight nod in response to Falc's greeting. She stood a couple of feet behind the pets, arms folded behind her back.
"Yep! We don't know where she is. We were hoping she was here with you." Black said. All of Young's pets were looking scared as well as worried.
"No, I haven't seen her today. Fal, go and ask the others if they've seen her." The shoyru runs off. "If none of my pets have seen her, then I'll come help you look."
"Thanks so much Ms. Falcon." Black replied quietly before sitting down on his haunches and staring at his sisters.
Falcon laughed, "You can drop the miss." Fal the shoyru came back, out of breath, "Nobody has seen her. And Aura and SG are fighting again."
Falcon sighed and grimaced. She turned to yell back inside, "If anyone is hurt, someone is gonna be PUNISHED!" To the shoyru she said, "I'm leaving you and Merlyn in charge while I'm gone. Make sure nobody destroys anything this time."
The shoyru frowned. "What about food?"
"Oh yeah, dinner. There's lots of omelette in the fridge, and make sure Aura doesn't start another food fight, please."
"Thanks so much Falcon for helping us find her," Silver sighed, "But we have no idea where to even begin."
"Perhaps we should split up and cover a multitude of areas. With a meeting place in mind," Metalwulf added.
"Falcon, can Taini stay here with your pets? She's a bit young to fight." Serri asked
"Sure, no problem. I'm sure she and Gia will get along very well. Fal, could you take her to Gia's room?" The shoyru offered Taini her hand, and they both disappeared into the house.
"Okay.. Where shall we start?" Silver wondered.
"The general area surrounding your home, perhaps?" Met suggested.
"Good idea!" Black exclaimed.
"I agree." Falcon agreed on the course of action. The three pets then turned and began walking back to their house. Metalwulf trailed behind them, still silent. However, she did keep her eyes open for any sign of danger as they progressed onward. Falcon locked her door and followed. Once the three pets and the two humans got to Young's house, it was well into the night.
"Shall we begin inside?" Silver asked the others.
"Alright." Falcon replied. Silver opened the door and entered cautiously into the dark house. Metalwulf watched, still silent, though there is a noted blurring in her eyes, a shifting as the pupils' fade and disappear- she's letting them slip into her mutant form's eyes, with sharper night vision. They entered the house and split up to cover more ground. Met took the downstairs with Black and both Serri and Silver traveled with Falcon on the second floor.
Everything seemed in its place. Suddenly, Black yelled downstairs saying that he had found something amiss. Falcon bounded up the stairs, and into the room where Black was yelling.
"What happened?"
"I found a note on the windowsill!!!" The window was open and on the sill sat a note attached to it by a small nail. The note read:
'I have taken your little friend.
No matter where you look, you will not find her.
Go ahead and try your best but your downfall will come upon you in the end.'
Falcon took the note and examined it. "Humph. Kidnapping." She frowned. "It's not signed, either. Can you think of someone who bears a grudge against her?"
"No idea… Other than Imao and that other dude who said he was her master but their both dead."
"I guess our best bet is to keep looking for more clues then. Most dead folks don't kidnap people."
Black only nods but then pauses in thought. "I thought I saw the kanji of dragon on her neck at breakfast this morning but I'm not fully sure." Falcon put the note down and shrugged.
"It could've been a warning, I suppose."
"It kind of sounds like a riddle if you think hard about it." Silver mentioned after taking the note from Black and reading it herself.
"I think you're on to something there, Silver." Falcon said seeming interested.
"Let's see. The first part is just saying that they took our mother. The part that says 'No matter where you look, you will not find her.' Sounds like that she's in a hard to find place. If we know what that place is, it'll be easier to get her back. And this last part, 'Go ahead and try your best but your downfall will come upon you in the end,' says that if we find her, something bad will happen. Well. I guess this guy is very cheery, ne?"
"Yeah. Hm. A place that's difficult... Well, it wouldn't be close by, I'm guessing."
"No. It'd probably be a hard to get to place." Black said.
"Well. Several places come to mind then like Terror Mountain, Maraqua, Kreludor, and the Space Station. But Maraqua is in ruins, so that rules that out. And Terror Mountain... I don't think she's there either. At least I hope not." Falc said.
"Okay well... uh… what should we check out first?"
"Anything but Terror Mountain is fine by me."
"Okay. Let's go down that list and check out Kreludor first. Sound good?" Silver asked.
"Sure thing." Falcon nodded.
"Alrighty. Let's get Met and Serri and head out." Black nodded at his sister and they all went searching for their teammates in the house. After they found both Met and Serri, the group began the walk to the shuttle pad.