Legacies
A Sequel to Crossing
of the Paths
By MMM/AJ
A/N: Alrighty, this chunk is a nice, hefty 15 pages. Now we're neck deep in the rising action part of the story, and the first big unexpected twist will be coming at you near the end of this chunk! Buckle up and enjoy!
Part II - Resurrection
Chapter XXI – T15
Tanis had never really bothered imagining what the Black River might look like up close, he only ever regarded it as an easily forgettable little black stripe in the vast blueness of the sky. As the view screen of his group's gunship darkened into the star-studded blackness of space, he got a very close look at it. Its edges were undefined and hard to see against the equally dark expanses of space. But its center was easy to tell, no light from any stars managed to filter through, and bright blips and balls of red light sped through it at varying velocities.
"So now what? Do we just fly into it?" Tanis asked.
"Are you kidding? It'd rip the gunship in half! We need to infiltrate one of my father's space stations and use one of the designated entry facilities to avoid getting torn up by the forces in the tunnel wall!" Shakara exclaimed.
"And just how are we going to do that with every one of Ares' ships gunning for us?" Ashley asked incredulously, her voice clear from back in the troop cabin.
"Speaking of that!" Tanis shouted, pointing at several red dots that had appeared on the side of the view screen.
Shakara jerked the controls around and they turned around a full 180 degrees. The Black River shrunk far into the distance and converged on one bright, far-off cluster of red lights. The gunship's engines thrummed loudly as Shakara maxed them out, and Tanis winced as the acceleration pressed him against his tail.
"My father doesn't have any security systems in his stations since humanity's been banned from ever building spacecraft again. He hasn't expected one of his ships to be captured either. The doors won't even be closed." Shakara said, trying to sound reassuring.
A bright red beam of light flashed by on the gunship's right, and Tanis knew it was time for him to be the gunner. He found that the control sticks had also been modified to fit humans, and holding them in his paws was awkward at best. When he moved the sticks, a smaller picture appeared on his side of the view screen and followed wherever his turrets pointed that was out of the main front view. Seven other gunships were in pursuit, the closest one charging its laser turrets to fire again. Tanis moved the aiming reticule over it and prepared to fire.
"Wait!" Shakara suddenly shouted. "Don't fire on them or you'll wreck the plan even further than it is already! If I'm to convince my father that I want to join him then my gunship can't have fired on any of his forces!"
Three more beams flashed past and the gunship rattled as its energy shields absorbed the fourth.
"Well, unless you've got another solution!" Tanis shouted.
"Watch." Shakara said confidently.
Shakara slowly steered them down closer and closer to the Black River, and Tanis felt them begin accelerating even more, despite the fact that the engines were already at maximum output.
"Um, I distinctly remember something about being ripped in half!" Tanis said nervously.
"I'm not flying into the Black River, just close to it. The Acolytes won't fire on us when we're this close to it. If any energy beams strike it, they might compromise the stability of the energy sheath encasing the dimensional vortex, and the results could be disastrous.
"I'm guessing that the radiant energy fields from the River are what are causing us to accelerate even further?" Tanis said.
Shakara simply nodded as she held the control sticks steady. The red lights in the distance slowly resolved into a massive station. The enormous width of the Black River passed through the station's bottom, causing the intersecting energy fields to emit a bright red glow.
"We need to start decelerating!" Tanis said, overcome with nervousness again as the station whizzed up towards them.
"I know!" Shakara said, her voice harsh with irritation as she eased the controls upward.
Their speed began dropping away the moment they pulled up and out of the fields surrounding the River. They had left their pursuers far behind, and their momentum carried them up to the station until they were a mere 40 feet or so from its hull, and now all they needed to do was find a door.
"Look out!" Tanis shouted when his screen showed a glowing red charge on one of the station's weapons towers.
Shakara jammed the controls forward and the gunship leapt towards the station's hull. She pulled up just a second before a collision could occur and a loud screeching sound of metal scraping metal raked the air inside the cramped cockpit.
"Cutting it a little close are we?" Tanis remarked, grasping his head painfully.
"We're inside the minimum firing spheres for those weapons towers, so they can't fire at us anymore. As long as we stay a foot or two away from the hull we'll be fine." Shakara said.
They flew around the station's hull in a continuous straight line until they eventually came across an open entrance to the docking bays. Shakara flew them in and they passed row after row of darkened, docked gunships. A few of them flickered to life and undocked, providing a whole new set of pursuers.
"Don't worry, they won't fire on us inside the station." Shakara said calmly.
"Humans, this is your last warning! Halt now or we will fire! This escape attempt is futile!" an Acolyte's voice said psychically to the three of them. It sounded angry and slightly disturbed.
Shakara grinned as if to say 'Go figure', and then pushed hard on the controls to accelerate. Laser beams flashed, barely missing them and striking other parts of the station, causing explosions. They rounded a corner and came upon a large open door with a lit-up green check mark on a sign next to it.
"Here we go!" Shakara said tensely. "My father had me experience this several times in a simulator, but he said that it could never duplicate the sensations we're about to feel in real life." Shakara said.
Tanis felt a lump form in his throat as the door slid shut behind them with a loud clang. The words "BR Entry Protocols Initiated" flashed across the gunship's screen. The bottom of the spherical room opened up below their little gunship, revealing a massive black energy storm below them. Large metal coils covering the walls suddenly glowed to life with crackling blue energy. The coils projected this energy together into a glowing blue protective sphere around the gunship. Tanis felt himself become weightless and began to drift out of his seat before the straps came taut and held him.
"Dimensional Multiplicity Shield and Mass/Density Accretion Shield in place" flashed across the screen next.
"Ashley, if you haven't buckled up yet, you really might want to do so now." Shakara urged. Ashley didn't verbally respond, but Tanis heard a pronounced click from the cabin.
"Geez that girl's a maverick!" Shakara commented.
"Understatement of the century." Tanis said, grinning.
The deafening hum of a massive energy buildup filled the gunship as the coils projected a further layer of glowing energy around them, this one colored white.
"Inertial Dampeners in place. Preparing to fire Injection Discharge." Blinked red across the screen.
"Hang on!" Shakara shouted extremely loudly.
With a burbling blast of light, the gunship was ejected into the storm of energy below. Tanis was slammed violently back into his seat, and for a moment was overcome with the most indescribable feeling of multiplicity. He felt like a new version of himself were being created every millisecond, and that they were all trailing behind him in a blurred, infinite line. Another electric jolt pulled him together to cancel the effect, but Shakara's words of warning echoed eerily. Tanis also felt the most powerful acceleration he would ever experience in his life, it made the gunship's normal engines feel like casually strolling around a park. His vision blurred and red began seeping into his peripheral sight range. He tasted copper in his mouth and pain streaked up and down his tail and back as his body slowly crushed his tail under the pressure of the acceleration. The inside of the gunship went dark and red flashes in the Black River's innards lit up the view screen. Tanis squinted to try and clear his vision, but all he could see was darkness and flashes of red.
Then, a deep hum louder than the engines or the sound of the Black River pulsed through the cockpit once and Tanis fell forward in his seat as the force from the acceleration fell away. He gasped for breath and pulled his tail out from behind him, not realizing that he hadn't been able to breathe due to the amount of force that had acted on his body. His vision slowly cleared and the bruises covering his tail throbbed.
"Inertial dampeners have just a tad bit of a delay to them eh?" Tanis snapped.
"How cool was that?" Ashley screeched giddily.
"Let me guess…you're a thrill seeker at heart, aren't you Ashley?" Tanis rasped.
"I've gone on every roller coaster in both Kanto and Johto, and they were never good enough for me. This however, has made my life totally complete!" Ashley exclaimed, and then sighed in satisfaction.
Tanis grabbed his station's controls and spun the view around. The Black River's dark energy swirled all around them, and it seemed to call out to him hypnotically. He was almost mesmerized by it when the view turned to see a cluster of gunships trailing behind them not too far behind. Their laser turrets glowed a deadly red.
"Your life's about to become even more complete Ashley." Tanis remarked as he gripped the triggers with his sweaty paws.
"They wouldn't dare fire on us inside the river!" Shakara explained.
The gunship rattled again as the shields absorbed several laser bolts. The green indicator bar along the top of their screen dropped staggeringly.
"Never say never." Tanis quipped, and repressed his urge to return fire.
"I can't believe this! Are they insane! This is a breach of basic dimensional protocol! My father would be furious!" Shakara ranted.
"Believe it." Tanis said grimly, watching as a bolt flashed past them.
The red beam flickered for a moment as it traveled through the tunnel far ahead of them. It didn't collide with the River's outer walls thankfully, so a catastrophic collapse didn't occur. But three more bolts swept across their gunship's shields and the shield indicator fell quickly into the red. Alarms began beeping all over the control panel.
"We need to take evasive action now, or we're going to be blown to bits!" Tanis said angrily.
"But if we don't hold our course, we might fly into the energy vortex around us, which would mean not only death for us, but a possible dimensional collapse!" Shakara said desperately.
The shield indicator fell to empty and one of the laser beams caught them on the side of the ship. The frame of the clunky gunship swung and shook violently, causing Tanis to be thrown about in the straps of his seat. He looked at the glowing holographic schematics of the gunship and let out a sigh of relief when he saw none of their vital systems had been hit. But a good three inches of armor plating had been melted away.
"The next hit will melt clear through us! Now move!" Tanis shouted.
Shakara reluctantly spun the controls and they did a complete barrel roll inside the energy vortex without touching the walls. As they completed the maneuver however, the other gunships trailing behind them continued to fire, and three of the beams that missed Tanis' ship flew past them and collided with the tunnel wall ahead of them. The red laser beams caused a great, sickening bulge to form in the black energy of the River's Wall, which grew to monstrous proportions before exploding in a cascading cloud of light. The light blinded Tanis and he scrunched his eyes closed to try and block it out. He was tossed painfully in the straps of his seat and he felt the buckles bite into his flesh and cause massive bruising. He was sure he felt bones in his neck crack and muscles get pulled out of place and ripped as the gunship careened and thrashed him around like the inside of a rock tumbler. Several loud explosions deafened him and he said his own final rites just before he believed death would grasp him with its horrible scythe.
But death didn't come, the thrashing slowed and stopped, the sound and light faded, and they suddenly floated gently as if nothing had happened. Tanis opened his eyes to see that instead of a river of black energy, a tunnel of multicolored light filled the gunship's view screen. It was unimaginably beautiful; it filled and transcended every spectrum of wondrous color, as if a wizard had cast a spell on a set of paints. It danced and flowed across the view screen merrily, as if welcoming him and his friends. He found it hypnotic, but had to look away to see the status of their ship. Obviously the fact that he was breathing air was a good sign.
"Well I'll be damned." Shakara whispered.
"No comment!" Ashley quipped from the troop cabin, and Tanis grinned.
Tanis remembered this sight from when his father was showing him his memories back in the tube. This was the original dimensional tunnel that Mewtwo had discovered, not the dark-spirited River that Ares had created. This was a thing of beauty before his eyes, and he was shocked and joyous that they had found it.
"We must have been pushed through the boundaries of dimensional reality to end up here." Shakara said, with the first dumbfounded look Tanis had ever seen on her face. "When the lasers hit the energy holding the Black River in place, it must have created a temporary hole in the walls between dimensions, allowing our ship to escape and find its way here. This…this is astounding!"
Tanis saw that the ship was still in the same state it had been in before their little dimensional jaunt, and wiped some sweat off of his brow. Then he noticed the beeping red lights on the panel, indicating a rear proximity alert. He grabbed the gun controls and swiveled his view around to see that their pursuers were right behind them.
"Looks like our friends came with us! Drive!" Tanis said woefully.
"They're charging their weapons again!" Shakara said, looking at Tanis' screen.
"What now? Where to? What do we do?" Tanis asked.
Shakara looked down at the control panel and her face was painted with terror. "The nav system is shorted out! Without it we won't be able to find our way back home! We could be stranded out here for eternity!"
Tanis' mind raced a moment, he looked over at Shakara's control panels and saw it displaying the words "Memory Erased, Please Input New Coordinates" blinking on it. A brainstorm hit him and he grabbed Shakara's shoulder.
"Listen, I've got an idea. But for it to work, we need to make it out alive, and to keep those other gunships from collapsing this dimensional tunnel with their lasers as well. To do that, I need you to fly through the nearest exit into one of the other dimensions, where we can get our bearings and possibly escape pursuit!" He said calmly.
Shakara nodded and steered their ship hard to the side. Their gunship dove towards one of the holes in the tunnel wall, where they saw the image of a shining space station out in the dark depths of the cosmos. As they exited the dimensional tunnel, the pursuing gunships turned to follow them and they were all ejected back into normal space with one unceremonious dimensional cough. Tanis looked in awe at the massive structure hanging in the blackness ahead of them; it must have been the size of the Earth's moon. The harsh light of a nearby stay glinted painfully off of its reflective surface, and round, glinting silver ships flew to and from its massive form.
"Let's go, perhaps we can get help!" Tanis said, and Shakara flew them onward.
The pursuing gunships twirled around and came after them, gaining slowly but surely. Tanis took the moment to put his plan into action. He gripped his electronic controls tightly and began reaching into the machine with his mind. He accessed the gunship's wireless hub and then broadcasted his thoughts electronically to the pursuing gunships. He knew he could access them without drawing attention this way. By proxy he accessed files in the nav databases of the other gunships until he dug up the coordinates he needed. After memorizing the numbers needed to guide them back home, he began initiating self destruct protocols on the other gunships. But security overrides blocked his attempt and he had to withdraw. When he returned to reality, he reached over to the nav panel and typed in the co-ordinates.
"How'd you do that?" Shakara asked, visibly amazed.
"Same way I made those songs. Now if you'll kindly drive us to safety and a dimensional portal then we can start making our way home!" Tanis said.
As they sped towards the alien station, a strange, garbled language suddenly came over the receiver.
"We don't have time to run translation algorithms." Shakara said, reaching for the mute button.
"Besides, I can always get our message across the good old fashioned way!" Tanis said. He then leaned over the microphone on the left side of the panel and screamed into it as loud as he could, trying to send terrified.
Shakara looked frustrated at first, but then that emotion vanished from her face. "Gets the point across." She said calmly.
Shakara steered them in close to the station's hull just as before, and the other gunships caught up guns blazing. What little power that had recharged into the shields on Tanis' gunship was quickly dispersed by glancing blows. Other bolts struck the station's hull and erupted into brilliant red and orange flames. Shakara steered them nimbly in between the explosions, swerving through them and dodging more laser beams. Above, ships docked to the station came loose and flew down to pursue them. Orange gouts of fire filled the space above them and the clang of heavy slugs colliding with the hull filled the cockpit.
"Looks like they're going to shoot at all of us indiscriminately." Tanis said, frowning.
Shakara jammed the engines to maximum again, and their pursuers did the same, the alien ships were left behind, still accelerating and firing their comparatively weak projectile weapons. They turned and sped downwards and came upon a group of undocked ships in an orderly line. Shakara turned them to fly parallel to this line and followed it around the station's curving bulk. When they turned around a blind corner, a glowing circle of energy appeared in their vision. The line of ships was steadily flying into this circle of swirling light, and Tanis recognized it easily as another dimensional portal. He thought that this must be some sort of alien dimensional highway or trade route. They were flying towards it too fast for Shakara to brake or avoid, so they simply passed back out of real space and into the colorful tunnel. The line of ships branched in many places but still continued on into the distance as far as the eye could see.
"I can't activate the autonav system with all these other ships in here! We would crash into them!" Shakara said, now very frustrated.
Another beam of red flew past them, and an explosion shook them as they flew.
"Not to mention we'll take our company with us! We need to lose them!" Tanis said, and swiveled the viewer around. "Looks like law enforcement has taken two of them out at once. I think there are only four left!"
"What's that up ahead?" Ashley asked, poking her head through the door.
Tanis decided not to comment on the fact that Ashley had unbuckled herself and squinted ahead. He could see that the tunnel light was intensifying in the distance, and the line of commuter ships were flying into this light.
"I don't know!" He said, gripping his seat as another explosion shook them. He swiveled back around to see that the alien law enforcers had been destroyed all except for one ship, and that there were only two enemy gunships left. Apparently the dogfighting was getting intense.
Shakara shouted a profanity in surprise as bright white light suddenly washed out her part of the screen. It filled Tanis's screen soon too and he covered his eyes to keep from being blinded. When the light cleared away, what showed through was truly a sight to behold. The dimensional tunnel had opened up into a massive open space that was filled with pulsating energy. At the center of this space was a massive glowing spire of energy, a towering nexus of essences that stretched for miles above, below, and wide. Energy from millions of other tunnels converged at it, and around it flew millions of ships of every shape, size and color. This was the most striking answer to the question of being alone in the universe that any being could comprehend. Here was a convergence between thousands of worlds and their peoples, a cosmic center where everyone and everything converged on their paths throughout the multiverse. Suddenly Tanis felt supremely insignificant, and he wondered if it would make any difference to this vast realm if he lived or died at all.
A jarring explosion rattled the gunship and Tanis returned to self-preservation mode. He didn't realize that they had not stopped moving, since it seemed that everything around them was standing still. It was quite an optical illusion caused by the sheer scale and vastness of the dimensional nexus. He turned his viewscreen around to look at the last two gunships that were chasing them.
A huge, bulky green ship rose up behind the two pursuing gunships and turned to face them. Tanis felt his blood pressure reach new heights when he saw racks upon racks of gunship-sized missiles mounted on the green battleship, and he wondered if the owners of this monstrosity would be just as indiscriminate in their choice of targets. Only two of the missiles cut loose, and they quickly caught up with the pursuing gunships and wiped them out in brilliant showers of green sparks and flame. At that same moment Shakara steered them clear of the lines of commuting ships and into the clear. She punched the activation button on the autonav system, which rocketed them towards another tunnel entrance in the outer walls of the space around the nexus. They dove through and into the empty tunnel beyond, pushing the gunship's engines to the maximum again. After ten minutes of navigating their way through the swirling lights, the autonav turned them through an exit and into real space again. They came out into orbit around a blue planet, and the dimensional door quickly slammed closed behind them. Tanis swiveled his view around to see the Black River above them.
"This is it!" Shakara said happily after a short pause. "We're in orbit directly over my father's HQ! We've arrived at our target destination!"
"See, what did I tell you about optimism?" Ashley said playfully. "You never know until you try!"
Tanis turned around and smiled at her. "So says the girl who risked getting a concussion just for a good view of the screen." He said, and ruffled her hair with his paw.
"Hey, and I had just gotten it untangled too!" She said in playful frustration.
When Tanis could practically hear Shakara's eyes rolling back, he turned to her and spoke. "Well, now's your chance! Get in contact with your father and tell him you're on your way!"
"Done and done, he's already begging for forgiveness for almost killing me. Let's go."
Chapter XXII – A15
Ashley sat back in her seat in the gunship's troop cabin, mentally preparing herself for the ordeal that they were about to endure. A part of her knew that things probably weren't going to go well, and she realized that she needed to come to terms with the possibility that they were flying down to their deaths. She had forgotten that they hadn't yet made it though this planet's atmosphere yet, and found herself rudely interrupted by all the turbulence that such a trip entails. The quaking tossed her out of her seat since she had not bothered to re-buckle herself, and she got even more bruises on top of all her other ones. She swore under her breath when a large box came loose from the ceiling and hit her squarely on the head.
"You'll never learn, will you?" Shakara shouted back at her.
"It's just a little rattling!" Ashley shouted back.
The roaring sound of the flames against the hull quieted and the violent shaking finally ceased. Ashley climbed up off of the floor and peeked into the cockpit. The screen showed that they were still at an extreme altitude, but descending rapidly. A green continent splattered with orange deserts and grey mountains rushed up at them and filled the screen. They essentially plummeted out of the sky like this for several minutes before passing through a layer of clouds. Shakara gently slowed their descent as the details of the land below them came into focus. Ashley stared down at the green beauty of the land as it opened up below them, at least how it showed up on the screen. A stone castle and a steel fortress stood in the north, presiding over a vast green grassland covered with a patchwork of farms. The sun was just setting here, and the fading light glinted radiantly off of the steel faces of the fortress in the north.
"That's my father's HQ, he's going to open the main dome to let us in." Shakara said, pointing at the fortress.
They descended slowly towards the massive structure, and its top painfully slid open. Ashley caught a glimpse of a huge mountain to the northeast, covered in a huge city and wreathed in smog.
"Quick, start masking you and Ashley's energy signature now Tanis! You might be too late already!" Shakara said urgently.
Tanis unbuckled his seat belt and slid into the troop cabin with Ashley. He pressed himself against the wall and Ashley climbed up and did the same.
"Be very quiet now!" Tanis whispered, pressing himself into the shadows as best he could.
There was a muffled clang as the gunship touched down, and after a low moment the low hum from the engines faded away, followed by a loud hiss from the cooling system. Ashley heard the gunship's outer door swish open and swift footsteps entered the cockpit. Her heart tightened with nervousness and she had to hold her breath in order not to breathe loudly. The prospect of facing Ares again was a lot more frightening than being destroyed by a dimensional singularity for her at this point. She found Tanis' paw in the dark and gripped it tightly.
"Shakara!" Ares' voice called loudly, and there was a moment when Ashley's heart began pumping again, this time at triple capacity.
"Can you ever forgive me for abandoning you like that? For my Acolytes trying to kill you?"
"Yes dad. You know how much you mean to me, even if I don't say it." Shakara's voice said. It occurred to Ashley that she was sounding too sincere.
"Don't worry about me right now anyway, I've brought you something I'm sure will please you!"
Ashley felt her heart stop again when Shakara lead Ares directly into the troop cabin where she and Tanis were hiding. She fell to her knees and stared into Ares' ruthless eyes.
"You traitor!" Tanis bellowed, and began charging an orange sphere of energy.
Shakara's tail blades flashed through the still air and red blood splashed out of a wide gash on Tanis' arm. The energy orb he had been charging faded away and he grasped his arm and gasped in pain.
Ashley found her strength again and leapt through the air, targeting Shakara's necks with her foot. A bubble of red energy encased and stopped her before her kick could connect, and a paralyzing wave of energy washed over her body excruciatingly. Ares stepped forward, grinning maliciously.
"Well, if it isn't my old, old friends! My, neither of you have aged a day, and I thought you were both long dead!" Ares said, his gloating tone unbelievably thick.
"I see you're still spouting your usual clichés too." Ashley spat, trying to contain her fright.
"I remember your sharp tongue well Ashley. Tell me, what happened to you and Tanis over the years? Directing the human rebels perhaps?" Ares asked.
"Father, can you question them some other time? Right now I want to spend some time with you." Shakara insisted.
A glimmer of annoyance touched Ares' eyes, but it faded quickly and he smiled again. He gestured towards Tanis and Ashley, carrying them out of the gunship and placing them under the control of a squad of Acolytes.
"Take them to the special imprisonment chamber." Ares said with that same evil grin.
"I'll kill you for this!" Ashley screamed as the Acolytes carried her and Tanis off, Shakara simply swished her tail through the air as she walked with Ares.
It took a group of at least three Acolytes to hold Tanis in check, and one to hold Ashley. They passed through lonely hallways and through a double door into a circular room filled with energy bubbles serving as cages. In the center of the room were four flat steel tables with thick plastic straps, one of which was occupied by a young woman with red, pony-tailed hair. An Acolyte was standing over her, holding a large blood covered knife. He turned to face them and grinned.
"Why I remember you! You're that girl who I captured for Lord Ares at the beginning of the conquest!" The Acolyte said, a glint of greed in his eyes.
"Agryn." Ashley spat.
"Good! You finally pronounced my name correctly!" Agryn said, grinning. He paused for a moment, and then turned to face the woman occupying the table. "New plans from the boss. You get a reprieve." He said to the woman.
The straps holding the redhead loosed of their own accord, and Agryn raised her up off of it with his power. He then gestured his paw and a door to one of the bubble prisons opened. The redhead then careened helter-skelter into the energy prison, striking the ground with bone-breaking force and tumbling limply.
"Jenna! Are you okay?" One of the call mates wailed.
"Silence! No talking!" Agryn growled, and everyone in that cage cried out in pain as their floor electrified. The blood from the redhead's wound began to sizzle.
Agryn turned back to Tanis and Ashley. "Tanis, Ashley, you are both to submit to the collars. Tanis, you're getting yours first. Come." Agryn said, and then lifted Tanis's paralyzed form onto the table so that Tanis was lying on his stomach.
"I'll never submit!" Tanis shouted.
Another Acolyte came forth, bearing the shell-like steel appendage that they were about to attach to Tanis. Surgical tools from a rack on the opposite wall floated into Agryn's hand as he telekinetically willed them to do so. The plastic straps tightened around Tanis and Ashley could only stand paralyzed and watch.
"Let him go goddamn it!" Ashley yelled, futilely trying to fight the paralysis.
All the Acolytes in the room smirked as Ashley twitched to no avail, and Agryn made an incision on Tanis' back at the base of his spine, just above his tail. A spasm of pain rocked his body and he grunted as the paralysis gripped his windpipes and kept him from screaming. Blood ran down his sides in a miniature river, but all he could feel was the knife agonizingly cutting through his flesh. He would have went into full on seizures from the pain as Agryn opened the incision with a spreader, but all his muscles were locked tight, and even his tail was strapped down. The Acolytes that held his power in check laughed.
"This device is a classic," Agryn said as he exposed Tanis' lower vertebrae, "Lord Ares said he took the design from the records of Darkest's Wars in the Time Medallion. Simple and yet highly effective, this time with a quintupled energy drain capacity. You're not going to break free from it as easily as your father did!"
Tanis couldn't even hear Agryn's words at this point, since he was beginning to pass out from shock. Agryn wouldn't let him fall unconscious however, he intruded on Tanis' mind and pried him awake. At the same time, he pulled out a large bone drill and began drilling a hole in the lowest vertebra until the spinal cord was exposed. He then attached the integration plug to the bone and used the nervous system integrator to fuse the electronics of the plug to Tanis' spinal cord. He added a few titanium screws for good measure, making sure it would never come loose. When finished, he removed the spreaders and used his own recover ability to close the incision around the plug and further aid in integration. To finish the procedure off, he clamped the steel shell over Tanis's head and torso, then clicked its input plug into the implant in Tanis' back, and the whole mechanism beeped three times to signal activation.
"You're done Tanis! Now, tell me, how does it feel to be robbed of your status as one of our race?" Agryn cackled.
Tanis fell off of the table onto his knees, panting as his body throbbed in pain. "I…never was a part…of your race." He gasped. "You…Ares, and all those who followed him…you gave up your rights to live as a member of my father's race…the moment you began conquering and killing. You disgrace his name as an individual…and you disgrace the name…of the Mewtwo race."
"How nice, I just finished carving you up, and you still have the strength and gall to preach to me. Let me make one thing clear to you before I put you in one of those bubbles. The survival of a species is dependant on the survival of the strongest. We are the strongest species this planet or any other planet will ever see, and if you are willing to give up your own glorious destiny of power, then we will be glad to take it and leave you behind. If you think that our species name is only honored by the love of peace, then indeed, you can no longer call us members of the 'Mewtwo' race. Call us what you will, but Time and glory march on Tanis, and if you won't follow them with us, you'll be left behind."
"Time…glory, what do you or your lord know of either of these things? Your definitions of them are pitiful." Tanis said as he began to regain strength.
"Enough, I tire of your preaching. It's time your friend had a turn on the table!" Agryn said, and lifted Ashley's now terrified form up onto the table.
"Don't you dare hurt her!" Tanis yelled, his collar humming to life as it blocked his abilities.
"What are you going to do, kick me? Why, my dear friend, you're no more powerful than her or any other filthy human now! It would only take just one of my brothers to paralyze you, and with almost no psychic energy spent in the process!" Agryn said.
Tanis looked to see that all of the other Acolytes had stepped back, having no more need to contribute energy to hold him still. They all looked even more amused then before.
Ashley's heart pounded and her blood raced in terror as she was lifted through the air and onto the table. The straps tightened around her limbs and body, and Agryn stared down into her eyes.
"Don't worry kid, you have the brightest future of all the prisoners in this room. No physical torture for you, and as soon as you get your collar you'll get to life a glorious and rich life serving Ares!" Agryn said.
"No! I'd rather be tortured and die!" Ashley screamed, having found use of her vocal cords suddenly.
"It's not like you have any choice in this matter!" Agryn said, and lowered a small circular ring of steel over her head.
With a click and a beep the mind control device activated, and Ashley felt its presence barge into her mind. She was nearly overwhelmed with a sudden and intense love and loyalty to Ares. She now greatly looked forward to doing his bidding and earning his praise. The shadow of a large machine fell over her head and a great pressure smashed into her forehead in a sudden and intense blast of pain. But the pain didn't last long, and only a small trickle of blood ran down Ashley's cheek like a little tear. The machine receded as quickly as it had come, and the straps loosened allowing Ashley to sit up. She reached up and felt Ares' symbol, which had been stamped into her skull.
"Who do you serve?" Agryn asked
"Ares of course you dumb git!" Ashley snapped.
Tanis suddenly cried out in a hollow anguish, falling to his knees in despair as the paralysis lifted.
"No! Ashley! Don't fall to them! Please! If you can hear me, fight it!" Tanis sobbed.
The sight of a friend crying in anguish suddenly brought forth a flaming anger in Ashley's changed mind, and her original self suddenly raged forth inside the collar's influence. Her right hand suddenly reached upward, slowly a shakily, and grabbed the collar around her neck.
"Ares…" she said, gnashing her teeth and sweating profusely, "You've…picked…the wrong girl to mess with!"
Sparks burst out of Ashley's collar and she leapt up into the air. She connected a tornado kick with Agryn's skull and knocked him totally out cold. She pulled out her pocket knife and brought it down on Agryn's second neck, severing it in one stroke. She yanked it back and was about to sever his other neck when the other Acolytes in the room paralyzed her again, causing her to drop the knife and fall over. One of the Acolytes walked over and restored Agryn's second neck and revived him, and he grinned wryly as he climbed to his feet.
"What a strong person you are, both of mind and body! You defied the collar and nearly killed me! "Agryn said, almost in admiration. "Only one other person has ever attained that feat, and she is in the left side of that cell over there with her sister."
Agryn pointed to a different energy prison that harbored a tanned woman in tribal clothes with orange hair.
"Kalana!" Tanis suddenly shouted, and tried to get up to run over to her. "You were my father's best friend! He told me about you! Are you alright?"
"The first time we placed a collar on her the same thing happened, and we had to turn the new one up to triple capacity before we could reliably control her." Agryn said.
Another collar was brought in, and Agryn tinkered with it for a few second before raising it over Ashley's head.
"Now be a good girl and accept it!" Agryn said, and pulled the steel ring over Ashley's head.
This time Ashley's mind didn't even get a chance to fight back, her consciousness was simply shoved to the wayside like a piece of scrap the moment the collar was activated, and she tumbled into darkness.
A/N: Stunning development huh? Well before you get all jived about the story ending like this, remember that I promised more than one twist before the end! The next chunk will be the last, so this will be the last cliffhanger in Legacies that you'll hafta endure. Until then, I'm off to write the finale!
