Chapter 6: The Eye of the Storm

Miriallia waited apprehensively for the teams to return to the Main Hall. It was bad enough that ten students had gone missing, and even more so that of the six Beta team had found, only two were alive, but when Tolle had asked about Kuzzey, the shock of not being able to find him, or Sai, or Flay or Simon made waiting about as bad as it could get.

There was only so much the other teams could do, especially with Charlie team under fire and Alpha team on their way to reinforce them. No more transmissions had been received, so all they could do was hope for the best.

After what seemed like an eternity, the comm unit crackled again. "This is Beta team, we're incoming with two rescued."

Le Creuset picked up the transmitter as another voice came up. "This is Delta team, we're incoming with one rescued."

And before the Commander could respond to either, another voice spoke. "This is Alpha and Charlie teams, we are inbound with wounded!"

Presented with an opportunity, Rau finally spoke. "Roger that all teams, I copy. Med teams will be on stand-by." It was fortunate that several of the aides researching the temple also had various degrees of first aid ranging from simple bandages and splits to that of a nearly qualified doctor. The only things in short supply were supplies and the proper equipment.

Even more anxious than before, Milly started to look down the hall, waiting for some sign of movement, or anything really, to show them coming back, especially for any sign of Kira. The shadows started to waver, and soon formed into vaguely humanoid shapes. Her breath caught in her throat as the forms finally sharpened into humans.

"Make a hole! We've got wounded!" Rusty barked, supporting one of the formerly missing students. Right beside him was Olor supporting another student. Some of the students gawking near the entrance moved away as the two Coordinators handed their charges off to the waiting aides.

Right behind them was Matthew supporting Miguel who was holding his hand tightly to the left side of his face. "Medic!" Matthew yelled as Miguel irritably pushed them back. "Get off me!" he growled and walked up to Rau. "Sir, we need to go after them, they have Nichol!"

"You're in no condition to do anything Aiyman, let them tend to your injury first." Rau said calmly. "Sir, time is of the essence here." Miguel tried to counter-argue. "Sit down and let them treat you Miguel! That's an order!" Rau nearly yelled.

Seething, Miguel finally complied, taking his hand off of his face. His left eye was closed and there was blood everywhere, making it difficult for Mir to determine where his wound was.

"Keep that hole clear!" Yzak ordered, coming in just ahead of Kira, supporting Flay. Finally Athrun and Dearka appeared, having kept the rear guard. "Where is she hurt?" one of the medics asked Kira.

He shook his head. "It's not her blood." He replied. Rau stepped forward. "Report, all of you, now."

They all looked at each other. Then Matthew started. "Well sir …"

-

"Goddamnit why won't you die!" Miguel screamed as the beast holding onto Nichol disappeared back into the darkness. He stopped firing for an instant, trying to see where it had gone. His flashlight wasn't strong enough to penetrate the thick darkness. And out of nowhere, a scythe-like arm shot out, cutting deep into the left side of Miguel's face, slicing nearly all the way through his eye socket.

The force of the impact sent the boy to the ground, screaming in pain. As he hit, the bulb in his flashlight shattered, plunging him into darkness. "Miguel!" Matthew called out, raising his rifle and opening fire. The brief flares from the muzzle let Matthew know that he was hitting something other than his injured friend lying on the ground. His clip ran dry so he smoothly switched to his secondary mode and continued firing, driving the beast back further.

It seemed that it had retreated, so he stopped firing and helped Miguel to his feet. "Where's Nichol?" he asked, reloading his rifle completely. Clutching his left eye painfully, Miguel breathed in. "One of those things has him."

"Miguel! Matthew!" Yzak said, running up with Dearka right behind him. "Where's Nichol?" he asked.

The silence that answered him was more than enough. "We have to pull back and report this." Dearka said.

"I'm not going to leave without Nichol." Miguel said, refusing to move. Yzak stepped in. "We're unprepared for this situation. We have to pull back and reassess our objectives and then come back better prepared."

"But Nichol-" Miguel started. Matthew put his hand on his shoulder. "We'll come back for him; we never leave a man behind." Miguel finally complied, turning and took a few steps. He wavered and would have fallen if not for Matthew. "Your depth perception must be off."

"Back to the main hall." Yzak ordered, and took the lead.

-

Having successfully managed to sneak out from underneath Rau's nose, Simon turned triumphantly to Sai and Flay. "What did I tell you, piece of cake."

Flay brushed aside his bragging. "Yeah yeah, any three year old kid could've gotten out. Now where's the treasure?"

He smiled again. "That's the adventure. Come on, follow me!" they traveled down winding paths, around corners and up hallways. Flay began to doubt Simon's sincerity since he seemed lost. As they passed another hallway, something looked familiar to Sai. "Hey, isn't this the hallway leading to the Burial chamber?"

"They all look alike, how is it possible to tell them apart?" Simon muttered. Finally Flay stopped Sai, letting Simon go further ahead. "I think he's lost, and there's probably nothing of value in here." She whispered to Sai.

A rumbling noise was heard, and Sai looked up to see a large section of the floor Simon was walking on collapse in. "Simon!" he called out and rushed forward.

"I'm okay … except for my ass." The boy replied, standing up and shaking the dust off. He looked up and figured that he dropped at least twelve feet. More than that, there was a new hallway running parallel right underneath the one he was just walking through. "Hey, check it out, a new passage. This could be it!" he rubbed his hands together anxiously.

Flay joined Sai at the edge of the hole and looked down nervously. "Foolsssssss …" Simon looked around. "What did you call me?" he asked Sai. Sai was perplexed. "I didn't say anything."

A combination of a hiss and a growl caught Simon's attention, so he turned to face the dark hallway again. Everything seemed too quiet as the noise was heard again. A flicking motion registered in his mind, and he sighed in relief. Laughing, he looked up at Sai and Flay. "It's just a fricken cat!"

"What's a cat doing in here?" Sai questioned. Simon kneeled to try and pet the cat, but the feline bared her fangs at him. "What? Do I smell bad?" Simon asked the cat. He let out a strangled yelp as a tentacle shot out of the darkness and wrapped itself tightly around his neck.

"SIMON!" Sai yelled as the boy tried desperately to pull the tentacle off his neck. Whatever it was attached to started pulling him, so Simon did he best to resist, holding onto whatever he could. Whatever it was gave a big tug which pulled him forward and off his feet. No longer resisting, Simon disappeared down the dark hallway.

Flay took a step backwards in fear. "Oh my god, what are we going to do?" she whispered. Sai's eyes widened in horror as something massive stepped into the open hole where Simon was moments ago. It was big; every limb was at least as thick as a human head, if not thicker. There were four claws on the end of each foot, creating a stable platform to walk on.

The left arm ended about midway up the forearm, and instead of a hand or fingers were three long and dexterous-looking tentacles. The right arm ended in a similar manner, but featured a large scythe-like claw at least two feet long. The head looked like part of a helmet, protecting two beady-looking orange eyes from a lot of danger. A barely visible line suggested a place for a mouth.

It was black in color and looked scaly all over except on the claw and tentacles. Frozen in horror, Flay could do nothing as the beast jumped and thrust its right arm at her. Sai pushed her back and stepped in front, his face contorted in pain as the scythe sliced right through his chest. Blood splattered all over Flay's face and shirt.

Landing heavily from its jump, the beast threw Sai off and down the hallway, letting the body roll painfully down the hall. It looked right at her, but Flay couldn't turn away. All she could do was scream. And scream she did.

Athrun looked around. "That came from down there." He said, pointing down the hall they were traveling through. "The other missing students?" Kira theorized.

They both took off, running to find the exact location. Almost to the intersection they were supposed to turn at to go back up Charlie team, they found another adjoining hallway, and down this one was Flay hanging on for her dear life.

"Flay!" Kira yelled, charging down the hallway. He jumped, leaping clear over her and down the hole, right onto the beast holding onto her. The shock and force of the impact made the thing let go Flay, allowing Athrun to safely pull her up. Not wasting a second, Kira aimed his rifle right at the head of the attacker as it fell, firing for all he was worth.

The three tentacles formed something akin to a fist and delivered an uppercut to Kira, sending him crashing against the wall. "Kira! We have to retreat back the Main Hall; we don't have the proper equipment to finish this fight!" Athrun warned him.

The beast started to stand, so Kira closed the gap between them and jumped onto its chest and then using it as a springboard jump again this time over the lip of the hole and rolled away. "You're telling me." Kira said darkly as he took Flay and followed Athrun.

-

"That's preposterous Kira, there are no 'monsters' in this temple, it's been abandoned for centuries." Ron scoffed.

"I know what I saw Mister Manson, it's not something I'm about to forget, it attacked my friends." Kira defended himself.

"Oh, so a ten foot tall monster as thick as a tree is marauding around the temple, snatching up students like the boogeyman?"

"There's more than one of them out there." Miguel countered. "Whatever took Nichol and injured me couldn't have gotten to them so fast."

"Kira," Carl interrupted, holding up the book. "Did it look like this?" he asked, pointing to a picture. Kira nodded, confirming it. "Just like that."

"Then we are dealing with the Forsaken." Carl announced.

Questions poured from everyone, wanting to know who or what they were, how they could have survived this long, why it took them so long to start attacking, what they want and so forth. Rau quieted them all down. "Rest for now, recuperate and re-equip yourselves for the next sortie. I want all weapons loaded with armor-piercing rounds and shells, and snoopers for you all. In the meantime I will confer with Doctor Ryan as to what exactly we are dealing with."

It was clear that the Coordinators were all anxious to do something, especially rescue Nichol and the other students, but orders were orders. Rusty and Dearka opened two crates filled with spare ammunition and started to hand them out. All of them swapped their regular rounds with the new more powerful ones and replaced any expended clips or shells as well.

Kira unbuckled his combat vest and slung it over his shoulder, still holding his rifle in the other hand. "What about those snoopers Commander Le Creuset mentioned?" he asked. Rusty tossed him a pair of goggles. "Infrared or night vision, they'll be useful."

A wave of weariness overcame Kira, so he managed to stumble to his blanket and slid down the wall. Screams of pain and fear ran through his head as his imagination started up on overdrive. Then he thought he heard Sai's voice.

"Kira … why didn't you save me? Why couldn't you save me? You save that pink-haired Coordinator easily enough, so what made it so hard to help me? Or maybe it's because I'm a Natural …"

He pulled his hair as he tried to argue. "No … it's not that, I just wasn't fast enough …"

"Kira … I always knew you had something against Naturals …" Simon's voice spoke. "But to go this far and let your friends be killed … or maybe they weren't your friends after all. You're nothing but Coordinator scum."

"That's not true …" he said feebly, falling onto his side and curling up into a fetal position. By this time Miriallia had made her way from the impromptu checkpoint Rau had set up to Kira now curled up in a ball on the floor. She immediately dropped to her knees right by Kira.

"Kira!" she said fearfully, stroking his cheek. He didn't hear her voice, and only barely felt her soft touch and when he opened his eyes; he didn't see the main hall around him, but rather another darkened room with several creatures in it. It was arranged in a circular fashion, with steps in the center leading to a throne-like chair, flanked by four very large humanoids.

Sitting on the throne was a creature that looked vaguely familiar, but Kira couldn't remember where or why for the life of him. "You … have done well…" it spoke.

That didn't have a positive reaction on Kira. "perhaps … you'll enjoy knowing this …" Kira tensed, and as it spoke again, he could only make out one word. Miriallia. His vision wavered, and suddenly he saw the Main Hall again, with Miriallia over him looking worried.

"Are you okay?" she asked. He started to stand up, and about halfway there, he stumbled and started to fall. Miriallia was unfortunately caught underneath him and they fell together, onto their blankets. It fortunately wasn't a hard landing, but as Kira stared into her beautiful eyes, the words he previously failed to understand suddenly made sense.

"it's about her … Miriallia, she wants you …"

"Mir, I want you, I need you." He said quietly and started kissing the nape of her neck gently. Miriallia was shocked; Kira was rarely this forward with his feelings. "Kira, I-" she inhaled at the feeling of his soft touch, caressing her body.

He continued, showing her a world of bliss, but deep down inside, she knew it wasn't completely right, it wasn't the Kira she knew doing this. "Kira … wait." She finally managed to halt his advances. "I don't want to ruin our friendship, not over something like this, not here, not now."

The utter sincerity in her voice penetrated through the haze in his brain, and he had a regretful look on his face, not from having to stop, but from what he had almost done. "I'm sorry; I don't know what came over me." Milly hugged him, reassuring him. "It's okay Kira, don't worry about it."

Watching them from his own little corner, Dearka stood there with something akin to an angry expression on his face. "you see … she doesn't want him, she wants someone better … someone like you …" it spoke to him.

His anger faded as a feral grin settled in.

Well, there we have another chapter. I've received a lot of reviews for Icess and that makes me very happy. I will do my best to continue writing to the best of my abilities, so long as you all continue to read and review.

I do apologize to those who are a little creeped out by the detail in my story, this is my first attempt at a horror, and seeing those words tells me that I'm getting the right atmosphere. Until next update,

Prayer