Chapter 15 The Nightmare Lived
"So, Xero, they did choose you. As I thought they would." Matt pressed his fingertips together and rested his chin on his thumbs as he processed all the information that Xero and Tyre were feeding him.
"Yeah, they said something about how I needed to face my destiny and about how my parents had once used the weapons and how Cataclysma killed them because they were good ravens." Xero's mind dipped back into the memory of the conversation, but only for a second. "So yeah, now I have a pair of diamond katanas and diamond wings on my AC."
Even now, Revolution sat back in the garage being admired and awed at. The swords and wings were almost completely transparent and refracted every light and glimmer that passed by them, they were quite a sight to behold.
"So, what do you plan to do now?" Matt asked as he lifted his head from his fingertips and picked up his coffee.
Xero pondered for a quick second, "I honestly have no idea what to do now… I mean, am I supposed to go after this all-powerful 'Cataclysma' now?"
"That is certainly part of your destiny, wouldn't you say?" Matt put his coffee back on the table.
"Well, I am positive of that, but I don't know how I would go about these things, how would I find it? Would it just come to me?"
The nest was dark, but busy as ever. People sat at other tables, conversing about their missions or arena fights. Some even asked a question or two about the AC down in the garage with the swords and wings; 'whose are those?' 'What are those?' The list went on. People sat at the bar, eating a sandwich or enjoying a hard earned drink, people at the computers, researching new missions or arena opponents. The large room was darker and a little muskier than usual but still held that 'homey' feeling to the ravens that traveled from area to area.
The door opened and Dash came in. he quickly crossed the room to Xero's table and jerkily tossed a slip of paper onto the table in Xero's general direction, then he turned and excited the room, as quickly and quietly before.
Xero sat silent, his mouth hanging open as if to say 'hey' or 'hello' but Dash came and went far to quickly to say anything. Xero closed his mouth and looked at the paper sitting in front of him, he looked up at Matt and over to Tyre before picking it up and opening it.
"They're coordinates…" Xero noted out loud, he looked a little further down the page, "Bring everyone."
"That's all it says…" he noted aloud again. Xero stood.
"where are you going?" Matt inquired as he took another sip of coffee.
"where am I going?" Xero looked surprised, "didn't you see Dash, there is obviously something wrong, I'm going to help."
Xero turned from the table and set off quickly toward the door.
"should I go too?" Tyre asked Matt, who was still drinking the coffee with his eyes closed.
"this may be the chance we need, go with him, help him if you can. His unit isn't ready yet, but I'm sure Cataclysma knows about his attaining the weapons and undoubtedly will do everything in its power to prevent them from being used effectively against itself."
Tyre stood from the table and started toward the door, Matt stopped him, "Keep him alive, don't let all of them fall if you can, but keep him alive. That is your top priority. His friends are not as important as his total mission."
Tyre looked to the floor quickly before looking to Matt, "alright." He turned back toward the door and opened it. Matt heard him holler to Xero as the door swung shut, "Hey, Xero! That note said 'everybody' right?" the door closed.
Matt walked to the bar and placed his cup on the counter before opening the door himself. The door shut behind him, "well, I better get back to work then…"
Two hours later, the open plains were slammed with the roaring sound of overboosts and upgraded boosters. Tyre, Morrow, Blaze, and Angel were each powering their way across the clear plain, desperately trying to budget their energy gauges in order to prevent being left behind by Xero; who was flying five-hundred meters above the ground with the help of the wings.
"Xero, slow up a little bit, your dragging us!" Morrow managed to pant into the comm.
"Every second may count here, we have to get to there as fast as possible, Dash's life may depend on it." Xero flapped the wings again to boost himself forward a little more.
Your own lives depend on not getting there. Tyre thought to himself.
Back up in Xero's head, the weapons continued to tell him of how he shouldn't be participating in this mission.
It's too risky; it must be Cataclysma trying to lure you out to destroy you! You must understand this! Kirel spoke to Xero's def ears. He refused to listen to anything they had to say.
"I will help my friend. And I don't see how Dash could be associating with Cataclysma. He knows good from evil." Xero assumed his logic was correct and continued on his journey; which was quickly approaching its end.
Minutes later they were at the designated coordinates, the terrain consisted of steep grassy hills, with a few scattered conglomerations of large rock formations. But other than that, the area was plain. The sky was dark; the sun had set about twenty minutes earlier, leaving an eerie dark light to fill the hillsides. Dark clouds gathered overhead, hinting at the approaching struggle with the promise of rain and thunder.
"Xero, there's nothing here, why don't we just head home?" Angel asked behind him, her AC's head darting back and forth as if looking for an invisible enemy. And that was the exact thought that passed through her mind at that moment. The fear of fighting something she couldn't see was what drove her to ask permission to leave.
If only they knew how accurate that fear was.
Lightning struck in the distance and in the split second of cross twilight, hundreds of drones were visible in-between and surrounding the friends.
And one hover AC appeared before Xero as the drones faded from sight. Everyone's weapons rose to ready but Xero held out an arm to stop them.
"I'm glad you could make it Xero. I was expecting you." The orange hover glided towards Xero and circled him once. "I'm so very glad you could make it. I have a friend that would love to meet you…" He glided back in front of Xero and retreated backwards a bit. He stopped as lighting struck again, visible behind Dash was undoubtedly Cataclysma. The drones came into view again and stayed in view this time.
The head, body, arms, and legs all coursed with energy. The chest had what seemed to be a rib cage which visibly surged outward, then back in, it was breathing…. The eyes glowed red; the veins running from the feet up to the spikes that protruded from the top of the core were glowing red. It was completely black, except for the red veins and eyes.
Xero remembered it from his dream, everything flooded back from that dream, the landscape, the drones, his friends, and the stench of death.
Cataclysma stepped forward and unfolded its arms, letting them rest at its sides. The hands were little more than large claws, but the claw was fully articulating.
The weapons began screaming into Xero's head with words such as RUN! and get away quickly! This is not the time!
Xero heard none of it; he was def with fear, his brow was drenched with the same cold sweat, and his heart felt as if it had stopped, or did it just beat so quickly that there was no way to tell when it expanded and compressed….
"Xero! We finally meet!" A female voice rang through his cockpit. "I'm happy you made it. We would have been good friends, too bad you had the parents you had, to bad they will pass their fate unto you."
Xero remembered to inhale and gasped, "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?" he screamed out of fear as the wings opened up and erupted with blue-white energy lances. They arced up and down, onto the surrounding drones and Cataclysma. The drones hit with the energy burst into dust and swirled into nothing, the energy that fell to Cataclysma was redirected out in random directions.
"You may have heard of me before, I am called Nydem."
Xero's eyes widened as lightning struck again. The rain began falling, the ACs scattered, all but Xero, who stood frozen in place. The drones sprung into action and Dash boosted out of sight. Xero stood staring at Cataclysma, into those glowing red eyes. A large claw raised above Revolution. It dropped as a sniper shot hit Cataclysma's head, doing little more than get Cataclysma's attention.
"Xero! MOVE!" It was Tyre.
Xero felt his legs move and he took a step back, the wings flapped and he was in the air, he glared down at the monstrosity with the greatest of all ravens piloting it.
He looked to the left, behind him and saw Morrow put up his left arm to block the impaling blade; he lifted the unit off the ground with his arm and fired the KARASAWA directly into the core at point-blank-range. Xero looked a little behind Morrow and saw Angel boosting backwards with two drones chasing her, one came up behind her and stabbed its blade through her head, the two chasing her flew up and stabbed both of their blades through her core, blood tipping the ends as they stuck out of the opposite side.
"ANGEL!" Morrow bellowed as he hit his overboost and sliced the three units in half as he passed. The drones turned to dust and swirled around Angels AC as it fell lifelessly to the ground.
Blaze froze, looking at Angel's AC lying on the ground. Another drone flew up behind her and beheaded her AC; she fell to the ground and stayed there.
"Xero! Behind you!" Tyre shouted.
Xero turned to see Cataclysma hovering in the air in front of him. Two large claws rushed together in a clapping motion. They were held together for a few seconds, when they were pulled apart a white sphere was formed between them. As the claws were pulled further apart, the orb grew larger, until it was about fifteen meters wide. Then Nydem spoke, "This is where I END IT! SON OF MY ENDERS!"
"Son of what?" Xero gasped as the light from the orb exploded outwards and engulfed the entire hillside. Xero saw feathers in front of him shortly before he blacked out.