The Darkest Knight
Part II: the Claws of Talon.
Chapter 22: Ten Years
Three days.
It took three days for their contact to get them what they needed, and then another three days for them to scout out the museum.
She had marked the exits, at least all the ones visible to the public. Marques had scouted the museum and marked the security guards usual routes and vantage points. Claire had located cameras, and Kolden had spent the week subtly breaking into their system, all the while Julian installed the new engine on the car.
Hopefully they wouldn't need it but she had to be prepared for anything.
So a week in total.
And as brown eyes stared back at her, the mirror fogged and her own face red from the heat, she realized…
She was not ready for this.
How could she be?
Pro gamer, pilot, idol, and all around badass she was, but a master thief?
Hana Song was not that.
And she knew it.
If only Genji would have helped. But the Ninja was nowhere to be found after a week, and though she was sorely tempted to try and reach Nate, she didn't.
He wouldn't help. She knew that, probably would've insulted her for even trying. The ass only helped when it suited him and this would've done nothing but paint a target on his back.
So she wouldn't ask for any help. Not from someone like that.
And when it came down to it…
Her team had her back. That's all she needed.
She huffed and stared down at the clothes and paint before her.
It hadn't been hard for them to decide that costumes and disguises were the smartest thing for them to use.
If they were recognized, it would've been an international incident.
Which was why costumes.
But also meant they couldn't be caught.
She grit her teeth.
The plan was easy. Full proof even, but she knew no plan survived contact with the enemy.
So with grace and calculated movements, Hana Song donned her war paint. Blush and foundation made her face far more flush than ever before, green contacts changed her eyes, and blonde hair dye took away the shiny dark hair that was nearly a trademark for her.
Add in purple lipstick, a scarf, legging and a sweater too big for her, and Hana Song looked like a completely different person.
She stared at her own reflection with narrowed eyes.
She hated this.
Hiding herself and having to steal… that… it wasn't her, wasn't something she wanted to do, but she had to.
With a heavy sigh she turned away and pushed the bathroom door open, walking into the hall and to the kitchen of the compound.
Her friends were already there.
Kolden had a hoodie on, but his costume ended there. He wasn't going inside the museum like the rest of them, in fact, his entire role centered around being outside, where he could safely break into their system using one of their lines from outside.
Claire was marked up, her skin paler, opposite of Hana. Her hair was shorter, courtesy of a nice haircut, and was dyed a pitch black. She winked at Hana when she entered.
The gamer eyed the others, Marques dressed up like a rich business man, wrinkles etched into his face and fake glasses covering his eyes plus the gray hair, made him look at least twenty years older.
Julian was similar, though he had a hat and a handkerchief around his neck, meant to cover his face as their getaway driver.
The final piece, Ava, was simply dressed and covered with fake tattoos and now purple hair with red eyes.
They look comical.
She almost laughed at the sight. Almost.
"So, everything ready?" She asked, crossing her arms as she leaned against the counter.
Kolden nodded, his finger furiously typing away at his computer, "the programs ready, just running some diagnostic tests to make sure it'll go off without a hitch."
Marques spoke after him, "cars set to go."
She nodded and spared a glance over to Claire. The blonde simply nodded and relief washed over Hana. At least her best friend had her back, as always.
"You sure about this Hana?"
Her eyes met Marques's.
He huffed and ran a hand through his hair, "cause if we do this, then there's no going back. We're thieves at that point and we gotta commit."
"Please," Claire huffed, "we're not committing treason or killing someone."
"We're stealing something from a museum for goodness sakes! I mean, we've prepared for days for a major robbery!"
"And that's it." Hana snapped, she pushed off the wall and planted herself in front of the taller boy, "we're not becoming criminals or stealing for a living constantly, or anything like that."
Eyes turned to her, a set of green narrowed in irritation as she continued, "we're doing this to figure out who these people are. These people who even Overwatch are wary of. This isn't some stupid joy ride for a few dollars and the thrill Marques."
He pursed his lips and turned his eyes away.
She sighed and looked to the ceiling, a sigh slipping past her lips.
"If anyone wants out, this is your last chance."
Her eyes fell from the ceiling and one by one, met the eyes of her friends.
The only not to meet her gaze was Marques and as all eyes turned on him, he sighed, "we do it. But that's it. Nothing else yeah?"
She nodded.
"Then let's get to it."
With heavy footsteps the largest male of her group grabbed the door and swung it open.
He glanced back at the group, "and if anyone gets caught?"
Hana narrowed her eyes at him.
"We won't."
The museum itself was bright and modern, walls of glass, cameras, and plenty for touch screen displays.
Guards were sporadically placed about, either lazily eyeing the guests of the museum or standing with such rigid posture they looked like they were about to break.
The guests were utterly oblivious.
Rick folk who had not a clue as to what was going to happen, who wore silks and expensive pants and jewelry without a single glance to the workers keeping the place running.
Hana couldn't help but scoff at it.
She'd had her own experience with fame and money, and though she was rich in a sense, she still didn't get the draw to money.
Neither had Dae-Hyun. But that was a long time ago.
Before the accident. Before her team. This team that was.
She shook her head of such thoughts, eager to forget the past that lead to her current team's formation.
As the memory fled she looked up to the cameras, watching as they moved, slow and steady.
She wondered what they would do when Kolden crashed their system.
But first and foremost the first part of their plan had to go off without a hitch, which was the fight.
So with a heavy sigh she trudged her way deeper into the museum.
Firstly she had to get within eyesight of the sword.
With light steps she carefully slipped by people on either side, the dull drum of voices in conversation covering her as she went.
Every now and then she had to stop and ensure she spent at least few minutes admiring some form of art or some ancient artifact, anything really just to ensure the guards didn't suspect her.
Of course, it worked.
She was just a short girl harmlessly admiring the wonders of a museum after all.
It took a bit of work, sliding past Rich folk, and making her way towards her objective.
But there was nothing to stop her, and it took a grand total of maybe ten minutes for her to get there.
The room for the sword.
It was displayed valiantly, on a pedestal surrounded by glass walls.
The issue was how open the room was. It was two stories, glass panes acting as railing on the second floor where guests could look down at the first floor.
Plus guards were stationed at each of the two entrances, two at her end and two others at the other.
Marques had reported maybe one or two, not four just on her floor. Had they been tired?
No. Impossible. Only her team knew of the heist, and they wouldn't betray her like that.
She grit her teeth and headed towards the nearest display, a pot from Japan's Feudal era. It was rusted over, cracks etched through the once fine ceramic.
The story read about it belonging to a noble from the era, surviving a fire and the test of time till the present.
She huffed and let her eyes wander. No sign of Marques and Claire. Great.
She moved on.
The next artifact was a shield, polished and refined.
Her eyes reflected in it and she eyed the story behind it.
An ancient shield used by the last of the samurai back in the 1900's.
How it was still polished she didn't know.
Bzz.
Her leg twitched on instinct, her thoughts suddenly turned to the interruption. It had to be Kolden.
The signal was supposed to be one text from him, but Marques and Claire we're still missing.
What if they'd been caught? What if someone ratted and turned on her?
No they couldn't! The wouldn't! They were her friends!
She pulled her phone out.
It wasn't Kolden. It was Marques.
On our way. Got held up by some guys hitting on Claire.
She sighed and grit her teeth. Of course it would be something stupid. Damn her nerves.
"Babe, check it out!"
A loud voice literally tore through the air, and Hana's eyes shot up.
They met brown and Marques gave her a slight nod before turning back to the blonde at his side.
He fantastically yanked it open and pulled out an open bottle of wine out from his jacket.
She rolled her eyes as the guards suddenly stiffened and their attention drew to her pair of friends. At least it was going according to-
"Que bueno Nina. I didn't know you were a fan of history."
The voice sent instant shivers down her spine and she barely resisted the temptation to slammed her fist into the Latina behind her.
The same woman from before, from the UN attack.
The woman smirked, a soft thing more fit for a predator than an actual person.
Hana's hand curled into a fist, her eyes turning to the woman, her teeth bared and eyes narrowed.
"Ah ah ah," the woman wiggled a finger, and stepped closer, calmly dropping an arm around Hana's shoulder.
"What do you want?"
"Nada, simply observing your talents like a proper scout."
"So you're-"
"Si," the woman smiled, "it's a pleasure to officially meet you Nina. I look forward to seeing your success."
Her eyes went wide, "my success?"
The woman smiled and stepped away from her, "of course. A heist is only as good as it's plan. Tell me Hana Song, how full proof is your plan?"
A second. That's all the time Hana had before the lights shut off, and the alarm started blaring.
And it wasn't by her design.
I landed with a heavy thud, my cloak once more billowing behind me.
Eyes turned to me and I slid my helmet off, a frown on my face. "Nothing."
"Great." Winston sighed, the ape simply tuned in place his attention once more turning to the screens before him.
To his side Mei gave me a sad smile which I returned.
"How long has it been now?" I asked Me.
"Seventy three hours, and not a peep." The mammalian scientist replied, Mei simply nodding in response.
Poor thing felt like it was her fault.
I huffed and shook my head, "well I still checked the whole area out, no tracks no nothing. Aside from that sword that is."
"And the swords composition is nothing found on the periodic table," Winston growled.
A flash and Dig was next to me, "and… well I hate to say it, I have no records of a sword like that in my database. It is infused with light, but… it's like nothing I've ever seen."
"Me either." I sighed, running my free hand through my hair, "the design resembles my sword but… it… feels wrong, not to mention I've never seen that sword and Dig has a registry of basically every Guardian and their equipment."
Which meant this sword was a mystery to everyone.
However, the fact it had fluctuating pulses of darkness coming from it ensured that I was anything but happy over this development. Especially considering the sword had apparently hypnotized Lena and then teleported her God knows where.
"No luck tracing the chronal accelerator?" I asked walking towards Winston my eyes lingering on the screens before him.
One was of the hotel Mercy and I were staying at in Oasis. Which of course Mercy was currently not at as she was looking after the boy of fire and the little girl plus her robot. That was gonna be a fun conversation.
Then another screen was of a house in Japan.
"None, which is odd. The accelerator is one of a kind, I should be able to track it wherever it is." The ape muttered, brow furrowed in obvious frustration.
I crossed my arms after my helmet disappeared, and replied, "maybe it got shut off? Whatever teleported her could've interfered with its power source."
"Possible, but unlikely, otherwise Lena's ghost would be lingering around here or Emily, and we know Emily has yet to see anything either."
I frowned. The poor redhead had been utterly in ruins learning of Lena's disappearance. She was offering her help in any way, though she didn't have much to offer since we were made of the world's best scientists and soldiers.
Plus, nothing Dig accessed had any trace of Lena. No cameras, no satellites, nothing.
Winston grumbled something that escaped my ear, and I glanced back at Mei who was watching a live news feed on a screen to our right.
I huffed.
You know, you could tell them about the darkness in the sword. It's possible Winston's unknown element is directly related the darkness. Maybe Hive material.
A mental frown, then I responded, the design wasn't hive like at all. More smooth like the Vex but even then it lacked…. Uhhh…
The whole creepy robots who can travel time thing?
That. And besides it's not like…
My eyes went wide.
Travel in time.
"Winston, you said how Lena would be ghost without the chronal accelerator right?"
His eyes turned to me, curiosity evident as he replied, "yes, why?"
"Is it possible she can travel through time? Like, large spans of it?"
His eyes went wide, "she can."
I frowned and shook my head, "then I need to tell you about them and… it."
"Who?"
"The Vex… and the darkness. This sword may be apart of both, and if it is, then Lena is in far more danger than we realized."
Air.
Air that siphoned into her lung's and brought forth the brilliant flare of consciousness to the lone woman.
Her eyes flew open, her body responding to the instinct of flight or fight with the knee jerk reaction of sitting up and scampering backwards.
She gasped, tears leaked from her eyes and her mouth clambered for words and water.
None of that came to her.
She coughed and clutched at her skull. It fleet like it was on fire.
No it was worse than that.
Like molten slag was being poured on her.
She grit her teeth and with shaky legs, put one foot down and tried to push up.
She didn't get far and her knee gave out forcing her to fall to the side on fresh fallen leaves.
Bloody gravity was just being testy.
Once more, with several gulps of fresh air she pushed herself back up against the tree trunk behind her.
Second time was the charm as she managed to get her one foot under her, then a second and slowly push herself up to a crouch.
One hand rubbed her temples, and the other helped pull herself up the tree trunk as she stood.
The world was hazy, and the silence of the woods around her didn't help any.
She blinked a dozen times, each time trying to focus on seeing and after the twentieth time did her vision start to clear.
Gray clouds hung high above the trees and she frowned as distant thunder echoed.
She wondered where she was.
Definitely not Canada, unless the snow had melted already.
But then again, where was the complex? And where was Mei?
She cleared her throat, the feeling doing more harm than good as it felt like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together.
She hacked and coughed, being forced to double over from the sheer force of the motion.
Another deep gasp for air, and this time without choking on her scratchy throat.
A frustrated sigh left her as she licked her lips and swallowed hard again.
This time her body started to work correctly, and her throat flexed before words croaked out from her, "M-me-mei?"
It was barely managed out, and sounded like a dying toad, but it was still a victory.
Of course though, nothing responded.
She frowned, and pushed herself upright. She figured she wasn't at the compound as it was, but whatever had happened…
That sword…
Pain lanced through her mind as she thought about it, but she pushed past it.
She stopped forward, activating her chronal accelerator-
Smack!
She fell face first onto the ground, eating dirt in the most classic of sense.
"Bloody hell?" She spit the dirt from her mouth, gritting her teeth as her chest ached from where her accelerator buried itself deeper.
She stood once more, wondering why she didn't teleport forward.
Then she noticed it.
The light of her accelerator was out.
It wasn't working.
Her heart started to pound, her breath catching in her throat.
No, no, no, no no! This couldn't be happening! Not again!
She panicked.
Hands flailing over the device, instantly hitting the button for restarting the device, and when that failed, then she hit the backup power cycle a feature Winston had installed to use sunlight to briefly power the device so she wouldn't succumb to chronal disassociation once more.
But nothing happened.
Her heart raced faster.
This shouldn't have been happening! Her chronal accelerator was EMP proof, Grenade proof, sturdy enough to take four rounds from a desert eagle, and even survived an Arc punch from Nate at one of their spars!
It was impossible! Winston had assured her!
She held her breath, waiting for her to disassociate once more, for the cold rush of time to grip her and launch her into the abyss once more.
Her breath stayed inside her.
And she waited.
And waited.
Thunder roared above her.
Drip. Drip. Pat, pat pat!
Rain began to fall, but still nothing happened.
Lena blinked in confusion.
Why was nothing happening to her? Why did she feel fine?
She blinked and looked up.
The sword… it had flashed with electricity right? And obviously had teleported her somewhere else…
Was it possible she was cured? Did some miracle finally free her from the bounds of time and space itself?
A smile broke onto her face.
Was it possible? Truly?
She grit her teeth and threw up a fist, "yesss! Finally!"
Snap!
Instinct screamed at her, and Lena looked back to the trees around her, mind racing as to what creature would have made the noise.
Bear. Wolf. Startled deer.
But what her eyes instead found was something else entirely.
No.
It was…
Something far, far different that stalled forward.
It was…
She gulped.
It was… decayed? Almost zombie like. It's flesh was rotten, it lacked eyes and a nose, and it's mouth was simply razor sharp teeth with no lips to accompany them.
And the way it moved towards her.
Slow and deliberate, with the height of a large man.
Ambling forward without making hardly a sound. It had been a miracle she heard it at all.
As if it-
It lunged!
Lena telepor- she couldn't! She simply slipped and fell to the side, low enough that the creature sailed over head.
She reached for her weapons- to find nothing on her thighs.
"Shite!"
This was bad.
The creature, spun on it's heel and somehow lunged back at her once more, hands proliferated with razor sharp class aimed at her face.
She rolled under it, using her size to her advantage as the creature see over her once more and this time ran into a tree.
It's claws slammed into the tree but instead of recoiling it dug into the tree and raised its head.
It opened its mouth-
And nothing came out.
Odd.
But then it moved once more, claws ripping the tree it half with strength that should've been impossible for a creature of it's size, before turning to face her.
The tree fell with a mighty crash, and she frowned as the creature snarled.
She lowered herself as it charged again, ducking as it swipped at her before pushing off its side and creating distance.
The beast pivoted and swiped at her.
There was power behind it no doubt, but it was a wasted movement, not like a true Apex predator like a bear or big.
What was this thing?
Surely someone would have reported seeing something like this!
She back peddled quickly, careful to watch for the creatures next move.
But it didn't come after her.
It waited.
She raised an eyebrow, but in the blink of an eye it spun around and roared at the trees behind it-
Only for a blade to fly out from the trees and slam into its skull.
The creature yelped, and twitched violently before falling back and hitting the ground with a heavy thud.
But Lena didn't relax.
Whoever it was that had that kind and accuracy couldn't be written off as an ally.
For a she knew they could be-
"Lena?"
She blinked as a man stepped past the trees and towards her, an all too familiar hand canon in hand.
She smiled, "Nate, you git! A bit of bloody warning next time would be nice!"
But the man didn't respond as she expected.
Instead of rolling his eyes he stumbled forward, his eyes wide and his breath shuddering.
He wasnt wearing his helmet.
His hands immediately wrapped around her, strong arms pulling her into a deep embrace.
She froze in uncertainty.
Since when had he been a hugger?
"O-okay stranger, what have you done with Nate?" She chuckled nervously.
Nate laughed at her reply and stepped back, his breath still shuddering as he completely ignored the rain running down his head now.
"Lena… do you remember anything?"
She narrowed her eyes at him, then sighed.
"Just that bloody sword and a flash of light. Next thing I know I'm in this forest and whada ya know I'm attacked by that… thing."
"By a Ghoul."
She blinked.
"A what?"
Nate sighed and closed his eyes, "a Ghoul, Lena. Things… things have changed lot since we last talked."
The way his voice dipped and the way his shoulders fell.
Was that gray hair on his head now?
"Nate, what're you talking about? It's been like.. a couple days you git."
"Lena… it's been over ten years. You've been gone for ten years."
A/N short chapter I know. But I figured you guys were owed something. So I'ma start doing shorter chapters but more frequent updates. The whole… ten-twelve thousand words chapters take to long to write and edit.
Aside from that, after some more plot editing a few arcs here will actually be shorter than expected, so we only have about ten-twelve chapters left for this Part. But that at the new length, so no worries. Old length would've been like six chapters, but more chapters I can probably do more words overall and it'll give better pacing plus let me flesh out a few plot points. Don't worry I haven't forgotten the kid with fire, just that's taken a back seat to Tracers sudden disappearance.
Sorry for taking so long.
Anyway, Sombra is messing with , Nate is talking to Winston about the darkness, and Lena… well, things will be explained.
Yes we'll have two timelines running around once. The present with Nate and Hana, and well…. The future with Lena.
Hope you enjoyed. Good Bless. Bless out my newest story if your a fan of League of Legends and Destiny. It's similar to this.
-metal4k