CH 8: HOME AT LAST
It's been two years since that day in the tower when I ended the lives of those I once held dear. Since that day I have lived a very lavish life. I am the queen's captain of the guard. This job is pretty routine, but I do find enjoyment in torturing the prisoners. Today, however, was different. I felt something that just wasn't right. I didn't know what it was, but nonetheless it was there. Since I couldn't sleep, I made my rounds earlier then usual, throwing some of the men off balance. This also made me harder to keep up with, which is something the queen already has a hard time with.
"Tell me servant have you seen Lord Shadow?" she asked in a rather annoyed tone.
"No, madam, I have not seen the lord this morning," he replied in a low tone.
In over hearing them talking, I used my powers to enter the room without being noticed.
"I hear that you are looking for me my lady," I said startling both her and the servant.
"Shadow, you know I don't like it when you do that," she said even more annoyed than before.
"Forgive me my lady, but I couldn't resist a chance to scare you," I said with a light laugh.
"You've changed your routine, that means that something is not right in my kingdom. What troubles you my lord?" She asked.
"I don't know, but it could be a massive rebel attack," I replied with great concern.
"Should I fortify the castle, alert the guard, Lord Shadow what should I do?" She asked with an anxious look in her eye. I saw something white swoop past the window out of the corner of my eye, but chose to ignore it.
"Leave every thing to me, my lady, I can handle this on my own. Servant, alert my elite riders and have them await me at the gate," I said and left to make ready for this monumental fight… but still something in the air is different, I haven't felt this since… no it couldn't be, I finished them off a long time ago. This will be just like any other fight. Or so I thought……….
It was pouring rain and visibility was at a minimum. The battle had been going on for several hours now and no end was in sight. I was having no trouble devastating several platoons of rebel men at a time with my powers. Then, out of nowhere I was hit with a blast of flame.
"So did you miss me you demonic son of a bitch!" I heard an all too familiar voice yell.
"No, it can't be… Mina! But I watched you die! I saw you fall from the window…" I said and was cut short.
"Yes you saw me fall but you didn't see me land, and by the way, I'm not alone. You have several friends with a rather large problem," she said coldly.
"And what's that?" I asked stupidly.
"The problem is that you're alive," she said with a laugh.
And right about now the first thing I notice is this hot sensation on my face. I reach up and realize I'm crying. The second thing is that the others are alive and really don't like me right now. OH SHIT! Then, the attacks start. First comes Raiden with a Gia spike storm. I've got sharp rocks coming at me from all directions. Easy enough to dodge with a shadow dive, but I come up into a blizzard assault from Julia. I end up frozen solid and unable to move. "Where are your manners, Lord Shadow?" Julia asked sarcastically, fury evident in her blue eyes. "Aren't you going to welcome us back?" She flew up towards the sky and I found myself wondering what she was doing, when I realized that she had been eavesdropping on the entire conversation Ebony and I had.
Then comes Mina's dragon fire blast, which needless to say left several marks. It was starting to hail now and it finally struck me what Julia did: she froze all the rain. I could feel the ice leaving cuts on my skin and it made visibility even worse. At this point I had to run just to survive, so that's what I did. I ran as fast as I could to the castle. The one place I thought that I was safe… then, things started to change, I could feel Riku fighting to get back to the surface. I tried to suppress him, but he was getting stronger by the second. I could feel his consciousness returning. I stumbled through the castle trying to find a safe place. I found myself in the ceremony room, when Mina and the others burst in and Riku made a desperate cry for help.
"Riku, is that you?' She said in shock. Both (Shadow and Riku) of us noticed that she was the only one in shock. Julia had to be restrained by both Raiden and Aveon, who were only holding her tight enough so she couldn't escape. All three of them looked livid.
"M-Mina h-help me, I cant get free, p-please help," I stuttered trying my best to fight off Shadow's suppression.
"Why the hell would we help you, you bastard?" Shouted Julia. "You tried to kill us! Some of us barely made it because of you, but I bet you were aiming towards that in the first place. Mina and Aveon were the only ones that didn't get hurt critically. Raiden here, was bleeding so bad you probably could have filled a pond with the blood he shed, but that's only what I heard. Luckily Mina had some knowledge in healing, but she couldn't do anything about me! For two months, I couldn't speak, move, anything! That's right, I was in a coma!" I looked on in shock, no wonder she was trying so hard to escape Raiden and Aveon's grasp; she really wanted to kill me. "You wanna know what hurt the most? Being unable to answer my fiancée's pleas for me to wake up. We were going to tell you that we were engaged when we lit the last beacon, but you kinda tried to kill us!" The whole time she said all this, tears were streaming down her cheeks and that gave me the motive to fight even harder against Shadow's hold over me.
We went back and forth from one personality to another, fighting for control, each time expending even more energy. Before Shadow tried to end it by using a chaos blast attack to fill the room with dark energy and black me out but as he was powering up Mina did something I never expected. She kissed me, I mean she actually kissed me and the flow of power through my body went back to normal. Then, when I looked around I realized that this was a beacon room and that Julia was shouting again (big surprise there): "Why the hell did you kiss him?" This meant that with everyone now present that… oh shit, the beacon is going to go off. And it did, but when I came to I was in a stark white room in a white bed with white sheets. Ok, what's with all the white, damn it.
"Ah, so you have awakened keeper of the light. I am Veritas, Advent of justice and truth welcome to the Sol Sanctum, my home," he said " These are my brothers and sisters, Chrono of time, Omega of chaos, and Serenity of peace, and our master Envoy of creation," he said, pointing to them in turn.
" So what happened? Is everyone all right? Did I do anything that I might regret?" I said looking anxiously around for the others.
"Don't worry, we're all fine Riku, you got control back before the beacon went off. No one got hurt, and you and Shadow have separated again. He is being detained for the moment until the effects of Ebony's spell wears off," said Mina who was sitting next to my bed for what I was told to be four days before I regained consciousness. When I was finally allowed to get up and move around I found the others either relaxing by a spring or sparing in the courtyard. Then I saw something that I still believe to be impossible, but oh well. There he was, standing in the courtyard watching Julia and Aveon spar, Kaine.
"Kaine, but how i thought that... but you...and i and the... How in the hell did you come back from the dead?" I said extremely confused.
" We brought him back, young keeper. You needed him to complete the beacon ceremony even if he was not there his power could be transferred to the sight of the activation long enough to complete the energy circuit." said Omega.
"That, and it would look kinda weird if he was missing from our world, don't you think?" Julia added, coming up to us and wiping sweat from her brow.
"Speaking of the beacons, I thought that when we lit them all we would end up back home," I said, a little curious.
"You will return home, but you still your job is far from done. There are three new elements in your world. Nature, metal, and water, elements thought to be hidden from this world by the first keepers. They have been awakened some where in your world. We need you to find the others and bring them here. We can then go from there," Said Chrono, while Kaine caught up with the others.
"So, we will get to go home, just not for very long, right?" I asked already knowing the answer.
"You will be allowed back to your world long enough to find the three new keepers, then you will return to the sanctum and help to train them, and once you are all ready then we will bring an end to Ebony and her demented ideals," said Veritas as the others got ready to go, but a commotion broke out between the happy couple, Julia and Aveon.
"You want to call the engagement off?" Julia cried.
"Yes, I do," said Aveon calmly. Julia looked devastated.
"Did you even love me at all?" She whispered, but it carried around the courtyard anyway.
"I don't think I ever loved you," Aveon said coldly. "By the way, you're a great kisser." He then stalked away.
"What are you all staring at?" She shouted as we all gawked; we all thought they were totally in love. "Come on, start packing, we don't have all day!" We did what she told us to do, not wanting her release her wrath on us.
Once ready to leave, we were told that time moves differently between our worlds and that little time would have passed since we left our world. Then Chrono gave us each a pendant that would allow us to contact them and each other. Then I was given the three new keepers pendants. They would light up when I was near their owners. Then came the real fun, Omega gave us the weapons that our predecessors used.
I got the dual fang of light Lumos and the dual fang of darkness Umbra, Mina got the claws of Bolmeteus: a set of katanas that amplify her flames, Julia got the bow of Eien Kori that allowed her to fire an unlimited amount of ice arrows, Raiden got the Grandmarg halberd, a giant sword capable of cleaving even the hardest stone, Kaine got the talon of Quezatcoatle, a spear that amplifies thunder attacks ten fold, then Aveon got the staff of Atmos which will allow him to create hurricane force winds. Then, without another word Chrono just opened an inter-dimensional gate and next thing we knew we were back in the woods near my house. (Aveon went back to where he lived.)
"So, we're finally home. Well, what now?" I asked kinda dumbly.