A/N: I have a reason for not updating in a long time. Distracted by another fic, had work from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., and I did not want to type this chapter. Character death is hard! First time I'm doing it and I'm about to cry for the loss of my character. It is at the very end of this chapter. Okay, I can do this. To make it up to you guys I made this chapter as long as I could make it. Enjoy…err…I should just say read. Sadness at the end of chapter.
Disclaimer: I bought it. I played it. I loved it. But I don't own it.
Chapter 34
"How do I look, boys?" Roxie asked Akki and Daxter while coming out of the dressing room. She had changed from teen to adult by the help of the green eco crystal. She totally changed how she looked on the outside in adult form. Curly blond hair came past her shoulders and she wore a cute spring pink skirt with a baby blue top.
"I kind of miss the pirate hat," Daxter said while looking her over with a smile.
"Are you kidding?" Akki asked Daxter. "She is so hott!"
Roxie gave them a sweet smile then flipped her hair back. She then frowned and said, "I really hate acting prep. It is so annoying!" She gave the two boys a pitiful look.
Daxter rolled his eyes. "I hate to burst your bathtub bubbles, princess, but you have to be this if you want to fool that stupid Krimson Guard." Roxie stuck out her lower lip and it seemed as if she was going to cry. Akki and Daxter shook their heads at her. "Okay, your fake date with egodork starts in only a few minutes," Daxter said while hopping up to her shoulder as they left the store.
"Daxter!" Roxie whined. "Do I really have to do this? I feel like an idiot!" They walked down the sidewalk in the port area and some guy heads were turned in her direction. She did not notice, but Akki was starting to get a bit nervous. For months they had to hide from stares. Now they were getting so much attention it freaked him out.
"Look," Daxter said firmly to her. "You sit down with him. You talk for a few minutes. Akki starts distracting the dude. I pickpocket him. You leave quickly and say that you had to be somewhere. It is that simple. We will always be there to back you up if something goes wrong. Plus, you know how to deal with things yourself."
"Fine," Roxie muttered. "What is his name again?"
Daxter paused to think for a second. "Um…" he said while his ears fell down. "I don't remember."
"Geez!" Akki said. "You're as bad as Roxie! His name is Frank!"
"I knew that," Daxter hissed down to him because Roxie was so tall he had to look down at Akki. "I was just testing you! So this Frank dude should have his security pass for the palace. Once we have that we can get Merlander and the rest of Black Water."
"Easy!" Roxie said while perking up suddenly.
"Wrong!" Akki snapped back.
"Wrong?" Roxie asked him while her shoulders dropped in disappointment.
"What are we going to do once we get into the palace, genius?" Akki asked them.
"We will make it up as we go," Roxie guessed. "I have no idea! Stop asking me all these hard questions!"
"He's right," Daxter said. "I never thought about it."
"We can think about it later," Roxie said. "I have a date right now." Daxter nodded and jumped down to Akki's shoulder as Roxie walked ahead of them. She almost fell as she walked over to the outside café. She was not used to walking on heels. "Oh, ouch!" she muttered while flaring her arms around to keep herself up. "I'm okay!" she said while standing up properly.
"We are so dead," Daxter said to Akki while watching Roxie almost fall.
"No kidding," Akki said while wincing.
"Now go, kid," Daxter said to Akki. "I have more faith in you than her. She scares me too much."
"I have to agree with you there, Dax," Akki said with a small smile. "Sorry I've been acting strange for the past few days," he said with a sigh. "It is just that this is important. It should not be taken lightly."
"Whatever you say, kid," Daxter said with a wink. "Now knock 'em dead!" Akki shook his head with a sigh while walking away from Daxter.
"You must be…Frank," Roxie said while almost forgetting the dude's name. Frank was your typical Krimson Guard. He had short brown hair with dull blue eyes. He was smaller than most Krimson Guards, but was pretty much the same as the others. He swore too much for Roxie's liking and was not the brightest person. Not to mention he was totally in love with himself.
"Yes," Frank said with a crooked smile while spotting Roxie. "You must be Lola."
"No," Roxie said while forgetting that Lola was her codename. She then realized her mistake and said nervously, "I mean, my whole name is Lolamolajola. But you can just call me Lola." She bit her lower lip while sitting across from Frank. The guy gave her a strange look then shrugged it off.
"So where do you work?" Roxie finally asked him with a weak smile. She already knew that he was a Krimson Guard because of all the tattoos he had on his face and arms. She just wanted to break the odd silence.
"I work as Krimson Guard," Frank bragged. "It is a great life. Erol is a bit strict, though. It seems as if he always has a wedgie."
Roxie burst out laughing at how he described Erol. "You're funny," she said with a forced girly giggle.
"I know," Frank said. He picked up a spoon and looked himself over in it. Roxie stared at him. The guy was a total ego freak like Erol. She wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.
"Oh my gosh!" Roxie heard someone yell really loud. She turned around and saw Akki down the street. "Someone stool my security pass! NO! I won't be able to go anywhere now!"
"Ha!" Frank laughed. "Stupid boy. You always have to know where you put your pass. Good thing I always put it in my back pocket." He patted his butt to show Roxie where it was.
"Yeah," she said with a smile. "I like always like put it in my cute purse! I was wondering if they would make any passes that came in the color pink because they would be like so cool and cute that way. But the people said no and gave me a gross dark blue one. It is not a spring color!"
As Roxie was ranting on about the color of security passes, Daxter was pick-pocketing Frank. He grabbed the red Krimson Guard pass with ease and smiled wickedly. He then took off to where Akki was waiting for him.
"Score!" Daxter said while handing the pass over to Akki. "Too easy!"
"You know what, Frank, I really have to go," Roxie said while standing up.
"Wait! Don't go, Lola!" he said quickly. "I like the color pink!"
Roxie stared at him for a few seconds. She then flipped her long blond hair back while putting her nose in the air. "You, Frank," she said. "Are a complete waste of time! You're an ego freak that most likely does not know the difference between pink and red even if your life depended on it! And you're not funny. I was just saying that to be nice." She then walked away with a smile on her face and left poor Frank there in a confused mess.
Akki and Daxter stared at her silently as she walked up to them with that sly smile still on her face. She passed them with a wink and the boys quickly followed her with their eyes still wide with surprise of what she had said to get away from Frank.
"Can I change back into normal mode?" she asked Daxter as they rushed to catch up with her. "These heels are KILLING me!" As if one Q, the girl fell and held onto Akki to keep herself from going all the way to her butt. Akki let out a small yell of surprise while leaning back. They all ended up on their butts. Everyone passing by gave them strange looks.
"No more heels for you!" Daxter shouted at her while getting up. He dusted himself off while saying, "You're not the most graceful person."
"What is your problem?" Akki asked Roxie while glaring at her. He got to his feet while rubbing the back of his head that had hit the sidewalk.
"Should she name only one, or do you want all of them?" Daxter asked him. (A/N: Thanks Nate for that awesome quote!) "If you want the later of the two it will take a long time to name all of them."
"I am graceful," Roxie said while still sitting on her butt. The two boys laughed at her.
"You can't even drive a zoomer straight," Daxter said. This only got him a cold glare from the girl. "Sorry," he said while backing up. "I'm just stating the facts."
"Let's just go before you two tear each other apart," Akki said.
Whack!
He had been distracted and had not seen that strong punch from the Krimson Guard he was battling with. He fell onto his back with a small grunt of frustration for his stupidity. His violet eyes looked up just in time to see the Krimson Guard in a flying kick aimed for his head. He quickly rolled to the side and did a few back flips to gather his senses and to steal that glance to the person who had walked into the room and had distracted him in the first place.
Merlander was training. But for what? He did not know why he was forced everyday to defeat another Krimson Guard one on one in combat. They were all the same and easy to beat. Sometimes he did not want to fight, but the new wristband he got when entering the battle room always did something to him. It would give him an urge and a strong desire to hit someone. He hated it.
The hard eyes of the Baron were pinned on him. The feeling was nerve racking to Merlander. He only came into the battle room when Merlander was there when he wanted to lecture while they both went at it with each other. What had he done this time?
It must have been that failed escape plan last night. He had somehow gotten to the kitchen that night and got his hands on a fork. He was in the middle of taking his wristband off piece by piece when his little sister came in for a midnight snack. His family now lived in the palace due to safety reasons. The Underground was getting strong.
Well, you pretty much can guess what happened when Berry came in for a cookie and saw her big brother there on the counter picking at his wristband with a fork in the dead of night. There was a scream loud enough for the whole palace to hear. He could have strangled her for that, but the wristband prevented him from getting too angry. He had to be calm to have everything normal.
"Enough," the Baron shouted to the Krimson Guard. "You can leave." The guy said nothing as he left the room while holding onto his left shoulder where Merlander had hit him hard. The teen stood in the middle of the room breathing hard from the three-hour training. By this time he was worn out, and the Baron knew it all too well.
The Baron walked calmly up to Merlander, and to the prisoner's surprise, he took off the hated wristband. Merlander gave him a strange look as the man walked a few yards away from him. They faced each other in silence. Merlander waited for his uncle to say something first.
"You must be wondering why I took it off," the man finally said. He did not expect Merlander to answer and did not wait for one. "I did it because I want to see you fight for yourself. And you have all the basic eco colors in you. I want to see you use these new powers for now on. Most likely you don't know how to use them."
"I already know how to use them," Merlander said while throwing a yellow fireball at the man out of anger. The last meeting like this the Baron had told Merlander how he got these powers. Most egos are gone, so he got it from different people who had it in their bodies somehow. He had been collecting Elves with the ego powers so he could suck it out of them and put it in another body so that new person had amplified power.
Praxis just stepped to the side calmly with a smile on his face. "That one is triggered by anger," he said. "What about the others, Merlander? Know how to use them through different emotions?"
"Red is pride. Blue is fear. Green is happiness," Merlander quickly answered before his uncle could name them off slowly to him as if he was only a child. "I lived with people with ego in their bodies for a few years. I know what emotions make them use more power. You don't have to lecture me."
"Then this will be interesting," Praxis said. "I'm sorry to say that I will not be training with you tonight. I'm letting an old friend of yours take care of that for me."
Merlander's heart sunk because he had already felt the man's presence before he saw him. His new teacher would be Simon. He watched as the man came into the room, and the Baron switched places with him. Now it was only Merlander and Simon in the room.
"Merlander," Simon said calmly with a nod. At the same time he had spoken into the teen's mind.
"Hey! No!" Merlander said while shaking his head angrily. "No more going in there!" His eyes went wide as his hands started to glow yellow as if they were on fire. Without a wristband his emotions could run free and this meant he could use his ego powers easily.
This freaked Merlander out a little and suddenly the yellow ego was gone and blue lightning bolts started to spark around his body. Man, these powers were hard to control! He quickly cleared his mind, and the ego was gone. If he stayed focused he could control them.
"They are hard to control, aren't they?" Simon asked him with his one eyebrow raising slightly.
"Emotions are always hard to control," Merlander said back with his voice just as calm. "Our whole life is wrapped up into them. You can't take revenge without anger. You can't kiss without love. You can't laugh without gladness. You can't cry without sadness."
"True," Simon said with a small nod of agreement. "But I'm going to teach you how to hold all those useless things inside of you until the right time. You will notice that it will be hard to bring up different emotions to use a certain ego power. For example." He quickly took out a knife from behind him and threw it skillfully at Merlander.
With a sharp cry of alarm, Merlander tried to get out of the way. He was too late and had the thing cut into his side. He gave a small yell as pain exploded into his wounded side. Blood ran down his hand that he pressed there. He looked up at Simon and his hands started to glow yellow.
"Wrong emotion, Merlander," Simon said while standing next to him. "I told you this would be hard. Now how are you going to heal yourself when you're using the wrong ego power? Anger will not get you anywhere right now."
Merlander closed his eyes with a wince of another wave of pain. He used his photographic memory to pick out a happy feeling. He smiled slightly when he remembered when Roxie and Daxter tried to bake something for him one day. Of course they pretty much blew up the kitchen when he got to their home, but just seeing their goofy smiling faces covered with flour and junk had made him love them all the same.
This memory seemed to work because when he opened his eyes his whole body was glowing a brilliant green just like he had seen Roxie do sometimes. In only the matter of seconds, the teen was back on his feet again.
"How sweet," Simon said coldly to him. "It makes me want to cry." He had seen the memory as clearly as Merlander had seen it.
Merlander was surprised at how quick he was to come back at him. "I bet you never had a good memory to hang onto, Simon. It would shock me if you did have one." Without the wristband he felt more free with what he felt. When he did have it on he had be calm all the time or depressed. For the first time in months he felt like he could feel something.
There was a sharp pain in Merlander's head and he gave a small wince. "What was that for?" he asked Simon while backing away and holding onto his head.
"Just because you have that wristband off does not mean you are free," Simon said sternly to him.
"I'm close to being free," Merlander said with a sly smile. "I can feel whatever I want."
Simon rolled his eyes with a sigh. "I hate to have all your emotions and happy thoughts spring into my head randomly," he said. "I'm suffering too with this close connection with your mind. You never sleep."
"I do it just for you," Merlander said to him with a smile. He did not know how his insomnia effected Simon, but seeing him suffer somehow made him happy.
"I feel loved," Simon said sarcastically. Being with Merlander so much he picked up on his sarcastic humor and used it sometimes. He never really wanted to go open Merlander's mind to his, but the Baron had wanted it. Now, he had to feel what Merlander felt and heard almost his every thought when they were close by. But for some reason the two had a strange bond. Simon was the only one who knew Merlander. The two could stand each other…to a degree.
"Let's try red and blue ego now," Simon said while going back into teacher mode. "You know how to use yellow and green. You must pull up memories to get these emotions right. Some would have trouble doing this, but you have a lot of passion. A memory is enough to trigger the right emotions."
Merlander thought of a time when he had kicked Erol's butt in a zoomer race when they were kids. He smiled when his body burst into a red glow. He guessed he was too happy because the color changed to green. He frowned and had to hold onto a pride feeling to change back.
Simon chuckled at him. Merlander gave him a dirty glare. So he was not the greatest at controlling his new powers. He did not care. Then Merlander realized that Simon had been chuckling a little because he had seen that memory.
"I'm eager to see what memory of fear you use," Simon then said with a wicked smile.
Merlander paused for a few seconds. "You've already seen all of them," he finally said with confusion.
"I saw a few of the ones when you were young," he said. "But not all of them."
Merlander shrugged then thought of darkness. Yes, he was scared of the dark. But this was a different kind of darkness. When he was a kid, a Wasteland Metal Head had attacked him. (The really big ones!) He had been riding one of the dun buggies and had been knocked off course by one of the Metal Heads and had gone into a coma for a few days. One of the most scariest things.
Blue sparks flew up around the teen. Simon nodded with a small smile on his face. The kid was learning fast with these new powers. Of course, the man had expected it from Merlander. He was quick. He might not be as smart as some, but he knew how to react with stunning speed.
Suddenly an alarm went off. A red light flashed around the room as the sound blasted into their ears so loud it made both cringe. This had only happened once when the Underground had tried to get into the palace. But they were in the prison. A surge of hope came upon Merlander's heart.
"You are foolish to think it is them," Simon snapped at him with his eyes narrowing at the teen. Once again, he had heard all the teen's thoughts as clearly as his own. It was driving Merlander out of his mind. Simon grabbed Merlander's shoulder and swiftly moved him toward the door to the room. At the door, a quick guard snapped Merlander's normal wristband on him. The Elf did not look all too pleased to be a captive once again.
The two walked down the different hallways of the prison. Simon had the usual calm and relaxed air around him while Merlander looked nervous. He kept looking down the hallways they past with little hope that he would spot his friends. Simon glanced back at him with a cold glare.
Calm down, Merlander, the Mind Speaker thought to the teen. "You might be used to the pain of the wristband, but I'm not."
Merlander raised an eyebrow at him and thought to himself, knowing Simon would hear it, "So you can feel what I feel? Cool!"
"Don't be so childish," Simon's harsh voice echoed around in Merlander's head. The teen smiled and earned himself another cold glare from the man ahead of him.
They both had to pull on the brakes when a small object came bouncing down the hallway next to them. Simon and Merlander leaned over a little to see what the thing was. Merlander recognized it right away and ran for cover while shouting, "Hit the deck!"
Boom! The dice exploded and Simon was thrown into a wall while Merlander rolled down the hall with a wince as a wave of heat blew over him. She must have updated those things. Smoke filled the small hallway, and both Elves started to cough as the stuff filled their lungs.
"All right, people!" a voice shouted loudly to Merlander and Simon. "I want to see some I.D.!"
"Shut up, Dax!" another voice shouted to the first. "We don't want to see their freaking I.D."
"I just had to say it," Daxter said, and this was followed by the sound of Akki giving a small chuckle. Merlander could not help but do the same. Leave it to Daxter to screw the serious act up.
"I guess my stupid hopes were right," Merlander said to Simon with a sly smile planted on his face.
"Shut up," Simon snapped at him. "They still don't know where we are through all this smoke. Keep quiet and follow me." There was a pause as Simon read Merlander's mind. There was a quick "Don't you dare!" from Simon's mind and mouth as he frowned at him.
"ROXIE!" Merlander shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Mer!" all three somewhere in the cloud of thick smoke said at once.
Simon was gone. For a second he was there, and in a flash he had vanished in the smoke. Merlander looked around and could not see a sign of him. Suddenly there was a scream and a thump as if someone had dropped to the floor.
"What the heck did you do to her?" Daxter yelled angrily at someone.
"Roxie?" Merlander said more quietly this time. "What is going on?"
A little too late, the smoke alarm went off and sent a giant spray of water onto the people there trying to figure out what was going on. In seconds, the small party was drenched from head to foot. Merlander's spiky blonde hair hung into his wide eyes of worry. What had happened to Roxie?
The smoke cleared quickly because of the water. Merlander saw Akki kneeling next to the limp body of Roxie. Daxter spotted Merlander right away and looked a bit freaked. "Look out!" he shouted while pointing behind him.
Merlander was too late. He spun around with dread and came face to face with the barrel of Simon's gun that he had kept hidden for protection. Merlander's heart was now beating too fast, and the pain in his wristband was making him wince. "Oh…crap," he muttered while backing up a little.
"What did you do to Roxie?" Akki yelled at Simon. His yellow eyes started to glow along with his hands. "And no more lies, Simon. I'm sick of them!"
"Well, my dear boy," Simon said calmly with a look of wicked amusement on his face. A sly smile played at the corner of his lips as he rested the barrel of the pistol to Merlander's forehead. He gave a small wince as he felt some of Merlander's pain. That shock band was creating trouble here.
"No more of that talk, traitor!" Akki spat out. He thoroughly showed his disgust for the man. This was the guy who made him betray his beloved team. "Give me the truth and all of it!"
"Let's not make him mad," Daxter spoke up with a weak smile. He was in the middle of Akki with Roxie and Merlander being held at gunpoint by Simon. "We did come here for Merlander. Blasting his brains out is not part of the plan."
"Good plan," Merlander muttered to him. "How 'bout you stick with it."
"But back to the question," Simon said. "I only knocked her out. Mind Speakers can do that to each other. But with normal people, like Merlander here, I have to improvise."
"Shooting me won't do anything," Merlander said through clenched teeth. Boy, did he despise the man. He would never shoot Merlander. The Baron would have his head. Merlander knew he was worth a lot at this point for something unknown to him. A whole bunch of tricks was what Simon was.
"Then I guess I'm aiming at the wrong person," Simon said with a hellish smile.
"No!" Merlander yelled at him, but it was too late to erase that mistake or change Simon's mind. He winced while he heard a bang ring out from the gun and then echo around the metal walls. He spun around with dread.
Akki was leaning up against the wall with a stunned expression on his face that turned into pain. A small red dot was in the middle of his stomach and was growing quickly. Akki still did not say anything. Daxter was breathing hard and was in disbelief of what had just happened.
"No, Akki!" Merlander yelled while running over to his friend with tears filling his eyes. "Stay with me, Akki." Akki made a gagging sound while lying down on the floor. Daxter ran up to his side with Merlander. He was still shock. This was too much for his brain to compute.
"Mer," Akki finally spoke while reaching out for his friend.
"No, Akki," Merlander said while shacking his head and crying freely now. "Don't die! Hang on! I'll get help." Akki smiling weakly through the pain. A pool of blood was forming under him and staining Merlander's pants but he did not even notice.
"I…I did not mean to betray Black Water," Akki said in barely a whisper.
"Of course you didn't," Merlander said. "Now stop talking. I'll get some help. Hang in there."
"No, Mer," Akki said. "I need to tell you this."
"No," Merlander said quietly with tears streaming down his face. Not Akki! Not the boy who was so brave and selfless! Not one of his good friends! How could this happen? Stop, rewind, redo! He did not want it to happen like this!
"Akki," Daxter finally spoke up in what seemed like forever. "Don't go."
"You can't help me, Dax," Akki said with a chuckle. "But, Mer, I want you to know that I'm sorry for everything. For all the pain I caused you. If wasn't for me…"
"I forgive you," Merlander cut him off.
"You do?"
"Akki, you're like the little brother I never had. We might bicker, but I still love you," Merlander said with a smile. "I don't blame you."
"I love you too, Mer," Akki said slowly. He was fading quickly. "And you too, Dax. If you ever see the rest of the team tell them that I love all of them too. I wish I could tell Roxie personally."
"I'll tell her," Daxter said quietly to him.
"Thanks," Akki said after a deep gasp for breath.
"Please, Akki," Merlander said sadly. "Don't leave."
"Have a bit of hope," were Akki's last and final words before he left the world behind. Merlander bowed his head and weeped for the boy's life quietly. Daxter pushed a tear away while staring at Akki's dead body with a deep sadness pressing on his heart. It was at this moment that he noticed Simon standing right behind Merlander and watching him closely. A few Krimson Guards were carrying off Roxie. The orange animal realized that he was the next to go.
"Pity," Simon said with his voice emotionless. "I guess you're not the revenge type, Merlander. You're a mourning type. The Baron's first test did not work out too well."
A/N: I was seriously on the brink of tears while typing this. I killed off poor Akki because I don't need him later on and I needed the subject of his death to come up later on to get some emotion in you readers. Please don't kill me for this! I had planned it from first creating him and had been dreading the chapter because I was a bit attached. So tell me what you think. I'm sure I'll get something out of you guys with this chapter. I hate to leave you here.