Chapter 11

Artemis waited calmly. She stood in the desert oasis, bathing in the dawn light with gave her holy fur a pleasing glow. He gaze was set at an angle to the Oasis' pool, so she was looking slightly above an average elf's head height, if they stood on the surface of the water. Her black claws tightened around the rock she had seated herself on, as the sun rose a little higher. How late was it, she wondered idly. The planet didn't have the normal three sun orbit her planet had.

The oasis tensed.

Ever so slightly, the Ottselle eased her eyes downwards. The small ripples in the oasis had frozen in place around the shallows of the pool, and from the near the shore a small black spire appeared, like a black lily bud. The dark eco bloom unfurled, slapping against the water, petals violently rent backwards, covering a large part of water and shore, with black ooze. Then, the black dropped, through the ground and formed (with a hiss of sand, as it tumbled over the edge) a spiral stair case.

The hunter's delicate nose twitched, as old, heavy, possibly corrosive air hit her nose. It seemed to be coming from the portal – she savored the breeze, but resisted the urge to turn her head away.

The second thing to emerge from the portal was a bronze beak, scuffed from some battle. A horrific, melted face followed it into the desert air, with cold, soulless crystalline eyes that out shone her fur. The rest of its body followed at an unnatural pace, like it was moving at double speed without physically moving faster. It crawled up the dust piles, and then curled up out on the bank. An oily-skinned man and his deathly pale companion followed, flanked by rank upon rank of metal heads, of every creed and color. They settled down, lying lethargically on the shingle of the oasis' banks

Artemis smiled at her congregation and raised her hands. Upwards and outwards, beckoning Gol and Maia forward. Metal-head's lumbered out of the way, forming a path in the damp sand for them to follow. Brother and sister walked up the isle, with The Dark beast following at a distance, it's horrible bloated body complaining under it's orange armor.

She watched in amusement as their eyes widened at the sight of her, a little orange rat, with enough power already to control a whole horde of metal heads without even trying properly.

"My Lady." Maia stated with the barest hint of question in her voice. "We have come to serve you, and we bring an army of metal-heads to do your bidding. And within a week, you will have a battalion of elves to aid your divine cause."

"We also bring a monster that we have tamed for your holiness." Added Gol, tugging on the chains that bound the dark beast. It shambled forward, the middle of its belly dragging along the ground.

Artemis smiled, although inside she shuddered in disgust at what she saw – these things were horrific, warped by her eco to the point of breaking. Their bodies weren't designed for eco, and it was destroying them slowly but efficiency, she could see it in their sunken eyes.

"Shut your eyes, and receive my blessings." She demanded suddenly, an idea forming in her mind. The twins in front of her shut their eyes obediently, as did the Dark Goddess. She concentrated hard, finding the the right point inside each person and creature in front of her, where the DNA coiled inside the nuclei in their cells, and twisted it, pressing the molecule until the Double helix was pushed flat.

The monsters in front of her imploded, flesh and skin and cloth and metal folded in on itself, sucked the remains into pink pricks of black, floating on the desert floor.

She had killed them all. In one smooth movement, they were all wiped from the face of the earth.

She threw her hands outwards. The specks expanded once again, regaining their forms they had just lost, but with one vital difference. Their bodies were no longer made of carbon, and blood no longer sang through their veins. They no longer had faces, and their skin wasn't rough or pitted anymore. Each and every one of them had smooth crystalline bodies.

Artemis commanded an army of golems. She nodded in contentment, loving her new, beautiful minions. Jumping to the ground she sent them to do her bidding, to destroy the temples and Oracles her brother Apollo had created, and to destroy the Sages that were sworn to protect them.

In Haven, Light began her story where Ramen's tale ended.

"After Clio's death," she said slowly "her father, Apollo, decided to split the realms of Light and Darkness. There was no reason, but blind, terrible rage at his daughter's death. He gathered his strongest Mages and at his word, they ripped the world apart, separating light, dark and coloured ecos – this world- into their own dimensions, leaving the precursor dimension eco-less, for a time.

However, after many years, Apollo relented and began to merge the dimensions back together, until the 'colour' dimension held light and dark eco and the light and dark dimensions were almost touching.

With their gods blessings, the Econains worked together to ridge the gap between the two dimensions.

At the same time, the Econians, with precursor technology, travelled to the elves dimension, the colour dimension, to observe the new creatures that had evolved without the God's assistance. Evolution was a new and bold concept, and no-one really believed that it could happen. But we began to gather evidence of the complete opposite. Without the God's guidance, matter had been created in the coloured dimensions, and from that matter came life – a simple, single celled organism that was created when a bolt of lighting hit the primordial soup of your planet. Well, that's the soundest theory we've come up with anyway. Anyway, these beings, over thousands of generations, began this single species began to change – they, more able to complete, and so brought competition on other members of their species, which changed themselves to compete. Through trail and error.

I was on the archaeology team. We've found thousands of fossils, in sedimentary rocks which prove evolution exists. We've even managed to date the rocks, to prove that the world is older than we once thought – millions upon millions of years. Millions of years to change and diversify. It was amazing. We'd never seen anything like it – the small population of precursors could never have done anything like that, on such a massive scale.

Of course some of our team were sceptical, scared. We are after all, directly affected by the Precursors, even if you aren't. And we had proved the Precusors had been bettered by time and fate – something that even they struggled to control. Some of the Econians tried to stop us and called our findings blasphemous. They were scared they'd go to hell for looking for the truth. But they never put forward any good explanations why a good and just God would kill off so many of their own creations – why he would kill off millions of species of primitive lizards, birds, mammals and fish, for no foreseeable gains?

And so came the Great Separation. The Econian's who wanted to continue studying this planet, no matter what the consequences, were placed in the earth, the sea, the air and the rocks. We numbered around four hundred in total. The rest left for their homes in the separate dimensions.

Years later, I was called by the Precursors themselves. They said they had a job for me. I am not sure how, but the man you know as Baron Praxis had manage to extract one of us from our self-imposed prisons. This was the one you know as Dark Jak, but his real name is Chainid, or Will in your tongue. I believe he was earth-bound, so the best explanation would be that he was locked in a gem or some other trinket and was passed on to the vile man. Praxis inserted Will into Jak's mind, in the hope that the Will's cunning and 'mystic' power would combine with the young mans channelling abilities, to form the prefect warrior. However. Something fundamental snapped inside Will's mind. So, instead the Baron got a powerful, vengeful youth instead. Needless to say this wasn't what he had in mind. It wasn't what the Precursors had hoped for either evidently, who wanted something to fight the invasion of the Dark Makers. So I was given to Jak, to try and get him through the fight ahead.

The mental carnage was terrible. The two had been constantly fighting for control, raging against the other, in a desperate struggle to survive. You see, Praxis' 'operations' were clumsy and brutal, and only one mind could live – if they attempted co-existence they would both slowly perish. It probably didn't help that both were in possession of violent rages, and ever so slightly unhinged. And while they fought, the violence and madness grew and consumed them both. I managed to save Jak, but only by separating him from his Darker Half. Will was beyond my help. He hates fate, Precursors and Econians for putting him on earth. He hates elf-kind for what it had done to him. He hates metal heads for attacking, thereby prompting the Baron to start his twisted experiments. He is hate.

And now, he is free. A man with Dark skin and white hair has let us both loose, and recently I found Will attacking Torn. He is dangerous."

She looked up at the ceiling, eyes shut. "I've saved as many as I can. Kill him."

Somewhere in the vast, vast desert, sat Trigger. She had stolen a dune buggy, named the Dune Hopper, and made her escape effectively. With her teeth he wrestled out the cork of her water bottle, spiting it down between her feet and watching it roll down the hill. Before it tumbled to the bottom, she trapped it with her foot and pulled it back into her hand with the flat of her heel absently.

"TRIANNA BRIGHTBURN. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING? WHY ARE YOU NOT IN SPARAGUS?" Bellowed the Head Oracle in her mind. This was the Oracle that mastered over all others. This telepathic Precursor super computer was the strongest of the 134 placed on the earth. It was known as The Order. Trianna winced at her title.

"My Lord I-"

"WHY HAVE YOU LEFT THE OTHER ECO WEILDERS TO FACE THEIR TRIALS ALONE?"

"Aint my fight. Besides, Iah've always fought alone, and picked my battles. Why should Iah fight with them, guys I aint got no knowledge or respect for?" she said quickly, defensivly. But there was no hint at any embaressment at what she'd done/

"PERHAPS WE WERE WRONG TO GIVE OUR POWERS TO A MERE WOMAN. WE MISTAKENLY THOUGHT THAT YOU WOULD HAVE THE COMPASSION NEEDED."

"I aint no woman, oracle. Any women die in the desert heat. Ih'm a wastelander. Besides, if you were looking for a womanly sage, ya need to think about you're meathods. Iah got where I was by being like a man – the elders shunned anyone femeine, male or female. Ih fought blade and barrel fer this honour – but ta die for it, without a successor, is stupid.

"YOU BELIVE OUR PLANS FOLLY!" Roared the oracle, enraged.

"Ih think they're risky. Too risky. We dun't even know if that cocky little shi-"

"DO NOT USE SUCH VULGARITIY IN MY PRESENCE, SAGE, AND HAVE SOME REVERENCE FOR THE YOUNG PRINCE!"

"Prince? Oracle, he aint no prince. He's jus'ta kid, and I'll be damned if I give him mah powers without him proving himself."

"HE SAVED THE WORLD."

"But he's never foug't Heaven an' Hell. Yeht."

"SO YOU ADMIT THAT HE IS UP TO FIGHTING INTHIS WAR?"

"Sure. Just not that he's up to winning."

"BLASHPEMY!"

"If it's blasphemy ta speak my mind, then 'Ih'm guilty." She retorted sharply, glaring at the statue. "Give me a task, my lord, n Ih'll do it, but tell me what ya want from me."

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS AT STAKE?"

"Tha whole world, Oracle. That's why Ih want to be sure whut Ih'ma doin."

"YOU MUST LEAVE FOR HAVEN IMMEADIATLY!" The bronze monstrosity yelled.

"Ih'ma not doin' nothin' 'till you tell me whut's goin' on." She replied calmly.

"I CANNOT BREAK THE RULES THE PRECURSORS LAID DOWN FOR ME, TRIANNA, YOU AND I BOTH KNOW THAT. I AM A MACHINE, BOUND BY THEIR LAWS. ALL I CAN TELL YOU IS THAT YOU MUST LEAVE."

It was then that a whole mountain of sand cascaded over her face. Hawking and spitting, she pawed the sand out of her eyes, looking upwards. The sun hovered high in the sky, behind the figure that had appeared at the top of the dune. The sun was behind it, a purplish, blocky, humanoid figure, and in front of it, bouncing off the thing and directly into her eyes. Trigger struggled upright, flicking out her gun. The safety was off, and its barrel was loaded, ready to fire.

"RUN!" Commanded the machine.

Trigger wrenched back the gun's trigger, sending sniper shots into the dune above her, running backwards as she did. Sand spouted from the holes, and then the dune-face gave way, causing the thing to fall, whacking into the ground chest-first. The sand followed, swallowing it up in mounds of suffocating sand. A pyramid raised tself from the below, causing sand to waterfall off it until it was revealed as a face. A face made from crystal, an encasement of a blackened skull inside. It raised its head to see the Yellow Sage bolting for her truck. It gave chase, rising from a sprinters crouch smoothly, fanning puffs of sand into the air as it skimmed towards its prey. Trigger was finding it harder. Her body was designed for the desert, being of Maurderer decent, but she couldn't stop her feet sinking into the sand, or feeling exhausted as she tried to find solid footing on the ground. She was almost within reaching distance of her getaway car when the being landed on the bonnet, crushing it effectively. Trigger noticed the balls and chains, fixed onto it's waist, making significant dents in the metalwork.

She looked into the featureless face, and saw how angular it was. How familiar it was. It was the guy who had been preaching to the Fanatics, back in Sparagus. Her fingers yanked on the trigger, but the bullets merely hit its shiny chest and was absorbed. She looked at his face, starting as she saw right through it, to a purple skull beneath.

Growling, she flung her hand forward in a diagonal motion. It glowed, and the monster in front of her was caught in an inferno of heat, that whipped up the sand as the hot air streamed upwards.

When the flames died back, the preacher was in a sorry state. Blackened by fire, it was glued to the ground by congealed sand that had formed a half glass, half grit substance. The macabre parody of life ripped his foot free, giving Trianna time to notice that it was a simple cone-shape, not foot like at all. Not human at all, either. The other foot was ripped forth, causing the glass grit to crack away, like ice.

It wasn't giving up easily. A point proved when the creature twisted sharply, causing one of the balls attached to his waist to fly off. Not missing a beat, she blasted it away, sending it thudding into a sand-dune, carbon scoring where her freshly drawn Morning Glory had hit it. Another three came flying at her, and she took it all in her stride, batting them away easily with buck-shot, some of it pelting there owner too.

The Preacher was just getting started. The bowling-balls that she had blasted away suddenly leapt up and charged at her, humming round her like hornets around honey. She reloaded and fired rapidly, but they were travelling faster than she was, or ever could. Near misses began to get nearer. Ball number three bowled forwards again, aiming at her face and she felt the wind ruffle her hair as it zoomed past. Desperately, she ducked under them and began running towards The Preacher. He summoned dark eco and cast to in front of him. She let it get so close she could see the swirl of oily colours reflected in the midday sun before falling flat on her face. Rolling to one side, two of the balls pounded where she had been lying previously. But ball number three was hit by Gol's blast, and shattered - but the shards flew into her gut like a hail of arrows. Even with the weapon broken into pieces, the Preacher was still in total control of it.

"I'M SORRY, TRIANNA. I TRIED." The Oracle boomed sadly. But she was already dead.